After a lot of effort Gloria calmed down, but still blamed me for having to embarrass herself among the students by turning down the invitation she had basically accepted earlier. She doesn't blame me for putting our group in Liam Vastri's crosshairs, but because he had to go back on his word to a nobleman who has a lower rank than she is, that's quite humiliating and frustrating for a proud noblewoman like Gloria, even though this is the wisest and safest decision for her to make.
I didn't even make the point about her accepting the mission before discussing it with the group because she's already annoyed with herself and the bad situation she had to go through. But the reason she needs to apologize and take this public humiliation is because she acted without thinking, even when you get a really good offer you should never commit to her when you don't have the authority to do so, the chances are scary when you put yourself in that kind of situation and it's always pretty big.
After having confirmed our plans, I went to register our group in the missions that are still available, few groups have already picked up a mission, this is natural because having some impulsive attitude now could mean your team will have a weak start in the competition and points.
And as the gate will only open tomorrow morning so teams can travel across the realm so it's pointless to rush today. After accepting the quests and receiving a small wooden box with four scrolls inside, it should have all the information available about the quests and something about the region we are traveling to.
I found this format of scrolls quite unusual, I thought I would receive a kind of booklet, but it seems that some of the examiners prefer scrolls, but I must admit that in this format it is easy to put both written information like maps and color images and as far as I can tell of the material of the parchment, I can throw it into a river and its contents will not be damaged.
In scroll form with its locks activated it seems to activate a rune arrangement that strengthens its pages, probably a level two fighter doesn't have enough strength to break the defense of this scroll when its runes are activated.
This type of scroll must be the more basic version or it wouldn't be being used by the students, I wonder what the runes are like on a high-level scroll, it's a shame I don't stand a chance of getting a higher-level scroll.
When I checked into Hilda's tent I sat on her bed since she wasn't here and started to study the scrolls in the common wooden box. Only after reading them and analyzing her information will I take them to others.
The first one I sinned at random turned out to be the scroll about storm owls, it contains a basic map of the region where they live and a very complete description of them and the method that should be used to collect the material extracted from their cup, it seems that I'm going to have to go get two magic tools in the form of a box to preserve the materials.
But the good news is that I only need to go to the camp's logistics center to be able to borrow them without having to pay anything, it seems that their rent is already worth the mission, but I don't doubt that in case I damaged them I will have to pay out of my own pocket to repair them.
Apart from the mission instructions I only found one thing interesting, in the description about the storm owls and two very unusual pieces of information that make this magical beast special and very profitable. The first one seems that it is extremely difficult to get the eggs of this species because the scum are very protective of them to the point that they kill themselves in suicidal attacks, the owls can reach the limit of common sense and destroy their eggs to avoid falling into the hands of strangers
But if you get one of these eggs you can't try to raise one of these owls because they are considered an indomitable magical beast the true purpose of getting one of these eggs and because they are one of the ingredients of a high-level ritual that only red core mages have the power to do.
The reason the number of owls has not decreased is because the eggs cannot be kept after a long time, so they are only hunted as ingredients when a high-level mage interested in performing the ritual. The second interesting piece of information is that I noticed something special on the parchment, there was a hidden text on it that I could only see because of my eyes, the ink used to write this message was made with ingredients with elemental properties of the shadow element.
The message said that the great wizard Milus who is a wizard of the royal court and is interested in getting one or two eggs from the storm owls, but for reasons unique to this it cannot be known elsewhere and so this message is hidden in the parchment. There's even a special method to discreetly dispatch the eggs to the great mage, and he'll give off rewards to team members who do this mission for him.
Of course, this is very good news, but I found it a bit strange about the situation. Such an important wizard need not hide his interest in using a resource that is not taboo, eggs are at best a rare ingredient that has inconvenient restrictions on their use.
This is likely a hidden test opportunity so that competent or very lucky students can earn more points and better rewards for doing a special task during their missions. I wonder if the many more missions with these hidden tasks, it's a shame that these scrolls are only given to teams that commit to doing a mission otherwise I could research the scrolls to do more missions like this.
I took the other two scrolls to see if some of them I could get a side quest, but unfortunately my luck isn't so good. It sends a hidden message, but it wasn't a strange mission, in the investigation mission parchment it sends a hidden warning, be careful at night and not always what you can see is reality.
This should be a hint about the possible dangers of facing the magical beast that is keeping the villagers in that region. From the test I think the magic beast might have the illusion element, as the parchment warned that what you see at night may not be reality, magic beasts with the illusion element are always described as troublesome beasts.
The danger of facing this type of enemy is that he usually doesn't have great combat power, but if you can't avoid or break their tricks you could end up dead before you know it. It seems that during the mission I will have to observe my surroundings for the illusory element which can be tricky, its irritating properties transfer like fickle colors when I glimpse it with my eyes.
Before coming here, I looked for some magic brews that used the illusion element in the market at auction houses to see how the illusion element works, even the very simple magic tools that were made simply to be a cute toy for children, the illusory element can go unnoticed when it looks like a simple color distortion of the environment.
It's great when the elemental energy shines like a rainbow like the magic tools I saw during the maze, but unfortunately this is not so common among magic tools, but I've only seen low level simple tools, maybe the high-level ones release more colors or more intense colors.
The last parchment was the same kind of information as the first without even a hidden message, a map of the regions where the herbs could grow, an image of it, traces of how to extract them and where to keep them to send their properties to be lost with the passage of time.
My reading was interrupted when Hilda entered the tent with a happy smile.
"Did something good happen?"
"Yes, I won!"
"Against who?"
"Alice and Gloria, we were training for us to get used to each other's styles as the three of us will be the front lines of the team, but it didn't take long to turn into a contest to see who was the strongest."
"It's you won in the end. Congratulations."
"Try not to be so excited about my success. Your excitement is so great it's making me embarrassed."
How much sarcasm.
"Why are you reading scrolls? And where did you get them?"
"It's mission information, it seems that some of the examiners like to be a little theatrical. These are basic scrolls, but they are quite tough and expensive to even have a rune arrangement on them to protect them. I just read the mission information and we were very lucky."
"What good was in them?"
"A strange quest and a clue about the magical beast that is killing the villagers in that region. It seems that there are people interested in owl eggs and the magical beast that is keeping the villagers probably is a nocturnal beast with the element of illusion."
"How nice, especially the part of the magical beast of the illusion element loses a lot of its strength when you know it's going to try to affect you."
"Yes, but we'd better go find our teammates to pass this information on to them, and I also have to go to the logistics aria to get some boxes to hold the resources."
"It's a shame because I was going to clean up and I'd love your company, but as you're just leaving you won't be able to help me."
"I think I can stay."
But unfortunately, when I tried to get back to the tent Hilda pushed me out of the tent with a smile on her face.
"Work first, fun later. If you go really quick maybe, you can come back while I'm still undressed."