Linfel didn't waste time there. "Alright, you two can go to sleep. I want to take a look at the missions. I saw there were a few missions that could only be performed at night. Since I'm not really your Familiar, I don't need to go into suspended animation while Alvin sleeps."
Alvin explained to Linfel back in his father's home during the first night. Felia was his Familiar and connected to his soul. Because of that, if she stayed awake, Alvin would still feel that connection, which was quite similar to when you use Master Familiar Connection, although to a much lesser degree. Simply put, his soul and brain wouldn't be able to properly rest with Felia active, so she and all other Familiars whose masters were alive had to go into suspended animation to allow them to rest.
Of course, there were ways to cut this connection. An independent Familiar can get it done if he wishes to. But cutting that connection was not a good thing if you and your Familiar still planned to use Master Familiar Connection in the future. They would truly become separate individuals.
Alvin sighed and nodded, knowing that there was no stop the wisp. "Alright, but try to not cause trouble." Alvin was indeed tired after today, so he went straight to bed while Felia deactivated herself.
Linfel, on the other hand, left the Dormitory, going to the Missions Hall. It was already close to midnight, so the number of maguses and familiars around was very low. No one paid attention to him, though. He looked just like any other Familiar.
In the Missions Hall, Linfel jumped in front of one of the terminals and used his Magic Energy on the receptor. Finally, the list of missions appeared.
'I will only get the introduction to Magic Energy integration next week, so I might as well start accumulating Magic Stones. At the moment, I'm not really sure how to increase my level. It's too different from back when Primordial Energy existed,' Linfel thought.
Linfel scrolled through the list, and sure enough, he found the few that had nighttime schedules.
-Trash disposer: 33 Academy Credits, work schedule 12AM to 6AM.- [One Star]
-Janitorial Services: 33 Academy Credits, work schedule 11PM to 7AM.- [One Star]
-Restocking Magical Diagram Equipment: 44 Academy Credits, work schedule 1AM to 5AM. General Knowledge of Diagrams is needed.- [One Star]
-General Cleaning of Facilities: 33 Academy Credits, work schedule 12AM to 6AM.- [One Star]
'Alvin wasn't kidding,' Linfel looked at the options. All of them were obviously a single star, being the lowest rank available. As for the good missions, they were gone, most with mentions of higher-ranked class students on them. 'There are a lot of menial tasks that no one wants to take. Truth be told, the academy doesn't even need the students to do these things. They definitely have the resources to employ specialized companies for such things.'
Linfel then looked at a corner of the building, and there he saw a person starting the cleaning. 'Definitely not a Magus. Can't feel any Magic Energy in his body whatsoever. Well, the Academy needs them. After all, if the students don't take the cleaning tasks, there has to be someone else to carry them out when that happens. This is all so the students could at least earn some credits for their own training.'
'Still,' Linfel thought about all the technology he had seen so far. 'It is surprising they haven't used some kind of automated process instead. Maybe some robots or whatever. They definitely have the knowledge for such things... I wonder why they would have normal humans like that guy doing it.'
Linfel then shook his head and ignored it. He continued to scroll through the list when a certain task caught his attention. 'Hum?'
-Stars Magic Energy Receptor: 33 Academy Credits, work schedule 1AM to 4AM. Some degree of Magic Energy Sensibility is required.- [One Star]
'Stars Magic Energy Receptor?' Linfel wondered what it was about. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information regarding the specifics. Nonetheless, Linfel definitely had a high sensibility to Magic Energy, and the work schedule was the shortest one he had seen so far. 'Might as well give it a try.'
Linfel quickly selected the mission on the list, which changed its status to 'taken' straight away. Linfel still hasn't acquired an MCOM, so he read the location before coming out of the terminal.
Using one of the transportations, Linfel arrived at the place around 30 minutes later, located on the northwest side of the academy. A giant building with many arrow-shaped pillars stretched from its top, going tens of meters high, could be seen.
Yet, when he got inside, the place was pretty much empty. There were several pieces of Diagram Rune Devices running some programs, but there were no teachers, workers, or students around. 'Could it be I read the task wrong? It is almost 1AM, but there is no one here.'
*Crash!*
It was then that he heard the sound of something falling to the ground not far away. He looked in that direction, and there he found a person lying. He quickly approached to check. "Hey! Are you dead yet?"
The person sat up slowly while rubbing the head. "Do you think dead people would tell you they were dead?" Asked a woman with messed hair and a terrible expression. Well, it looked particularly bad because she had enormous bags under her eyes, showing her deprivation of sleep. "This is truly a mess. Why can't I get a little bit more funding? The equipment here is pretty much Jurassic already."
Finally, she got up and looked at Linfel. "A Familiar, uh? What do you want?"
Linfel quickly explained. "I accepted the task for Stars Magic Energy Receptor, so I came."
"Oh!" The woman's expression immediately improved. "Finally, someone is willing to work for that pity amount of Academy Credits. You must truly hate the other menial tasks if you selected this one."
Too bad, though. Linfel was lost. "To be honest, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do," Linfel told her the truth.
"Wait, really?" The woman looked at Linfel with doubt for a moment before sighing. "Well, I guess it was too good to be true. However, you already accepted it, so you must perform it this night."
She continued. "By the way, I'm Aelua Thevalur, the main and pretty much the only researcher in this facility. Now, let me see..." She took out her MCOM and accessed the task she had posted. "So you are Linfel, a new Familiar. No wonder you didn't know about this place. Well, come with me."
Further inside, Linfel saw several cylinders, each of which seemed to be connected to one of the Arrowhead-like Pillars outside. On their extremes, they all had those receptors you would see in the terminals in various places of the academy. Palm-sized spheres with many diagrams runes. Of course, Linfel could easily see that these were different from the small spheres he used on the terminals to show his Magic Signature. Their purpose was different.
Aelua pointed at one of them. "Can you see that they are brimming with Yellow Magic Energy?" Linfel nodded and waited for Aelua to continue. "Well then, your job is to disperse most of the Magic Energy in the Receptors. This is the part where I mentioned that some degree of Magic Sensibility is necessary."
She then gave a demonstration, touching her hand on one of the receptors. Magic Energy then began to disperse in the air. However, Linfel could also see a little bit of a different Magic Energy with all that Yellow. It looked almost transparent, but it was truly just a tiny bit, hardly perceptible.
"Is it also Magic Energy?" Linfel couldn't help to ask.
"Oh! So you noticed it?" Aelue was surprised. "I thought I would need to accumulate a lot more of it before you finally noticed. In any case, yes, this is also Yellow Magic Energy. However, it suffered a little bit of mutation in space and is very hard to capture. There isn't much use for it since it is contaminated and not proper for use in training or even equipment. Nonetheless, this is exactly what I need."
Aelua then pulled that almost transparent Magic Energy and fused it into a Magic Energy Container near the cylinder. The Magic Energy in the receptor barely changed, so she had to continue this process. It wasn't before 40 minutes that she got it all, and the receptor became empty. "This is basically everything you need to do. The Pillars outside spend the day collecting the Magic Energy and are ready for harvesting during the night. You need to get rid of the common Yellow Magic Energy and store this other type."
Linfel then noticed that the receptor that was empty a moment ago began to shine again with more Yellow Energy. "I thought this one was empty, but it seems like that's not the case."
"The Pillars accumulate a lot of Magic Energy. It's just that the receptors we use to capture this Magic Energy can't hold it all, so most of it stays in the Pillars. You will need to perform the same task a few times before a pillar is completely emptied. Then, obviously, you move to the next receptor."
Linfel understood the principle, but he was still confused. "It doesn't look like something that hard to do; the payment is pretty much similar to the other menial tasks. Yet, the amount of time you need to work is definitely much less. That said, why no one likes to take this task?"
Aelua pointed at the receptor, which was now full of Magic Energy again. "Give it a try, and you will understand."
Linfel quickly touched the Receptor with his core and began to take away the Yellow Magic Energy. Yet, as soon as the Magic Energy passed through his core, he instantly noticed the problem. "No wonder. This Magic Energy is so impure that it makes the Low-Grade Magic Stones look like a gift from god."
Aelua couldn't agree more. "That's the problem. You see, the Magic Energy captured here comes from space, which is filled with space radiation and who knows what other kinds of impurities. Even if you don't absorb this Yellow Magic Energy, just the fact it goes through you affects your body, or your core, in the Familiar's case. 33 Academy Credits is truly not worth the bother. After all, you will have to spend almost all of it to clean your body and core later."
She couldn't help but sigh. "If the Academy gave me some extra funding, I could offer a better payment. It would compensate for the trouble of dealing with this Magic Energy. Alas, I'm struggling to simply continue my research. Don't take it to the personal side. Also, there are nine pillars, which is way too much, so you will only have to separate the Magic Energy from three of them. More than that, and it could truly affect your core permanently."
Linfel then gave it a try, absorbing all the Magic Energy inside the Receptor in one go! The impure Magic Energy filled the surroundings while he pulled the container and put the semi-transparent Magic Energy inside. "Seems quite simple."
"HOLY SHIT!" Yet, Aelua was scared out of his mind. "Are you okay?! Check your core! You took too much of this impure magic energy at once! How are you still even alive?!"
Linfel looked at her, puzzled. "What are you talking about? I just separated the energies; the impurities inside don't bother me at all."
"They... don't bother you?" She found it hard to believe. "Did you check it? Is your core and soul really okay?"
Linfel nodded. "At the very least, I can't feel anything out of place."
Aelua truly didn't know what to do. 'I can't even imagine how much his master spent to create his body. His tolerance is incredible! Still... if he has such a great background, why would he come here to take such a terrible task?'
However, Aelua quickly noticed the opportunity. "Ahem! Can you do it with the other receptors?"
Linfel nodded and repeated the process in the next receptor. Even more Yellow Magic Energy spread in the surroundings before Linfel put the Semi-Transparent Magic Energy inside another container. "Still fairly easy."
Aelua's shock changed into ecstasy! Who cares what his background is? She absolutely can't lose him! "I-Is that so? then-"
Linfel cut in. "You said I only had to do it for three receptors, right? What if I finish all nine of them? Will I get three times the payment?"
Aelua was taken aback. "Really? Do you want to do it all, even with this terrible Magic Energy passing through your core?"
"Only if you allow me to do so," Linfel answered. Impurities? He could get rid of them easily. He could come every night and get a guaranteed 33 Academy Credits quite fast. Why wouldn't he do so? In fact, he could get 99 every night! There are nine pillars, after all.
Aelua didn't waste time to confirm. She would gain quite a lot more herself, so it was absolutely worth it. "Definitely! Finish all nine pillars, and I will give you the 99 Academy Credits. Actually, I'll round it up to 100. How about that?"
"Alright, I'll finish these nine today, and I'll come back for more tomorrow," said Linfel. Suddenly, the next receptor completely emptied again as Linfel transferred the little bit of semi-transparent Yellow Magic into the container.
"I'm warning you, and you should warn your master, too," Aelua was happy with Linfel's capabilities, but she wasn't an idiot. She had to tell him about the repercussions. "I am not taking responsibility for whatever happens to you if you really do this. If you are truly fine, then great! Come back every night. If not, you should reconsider and have a good chat with your master." A master that can make a Familiar like Linfel shouldn't be offended, either.
Linfel faintly smiled. "I'm independent. I don't need anyone's permission, so there is no need to worry."
Aelua didn't know, but Linfel was happier than he looked. Others might not have use for that extremely impure Yellow Magic Energy, but that was definitely not the case for him. 'I only need to learn how to do integration later. Then, I will have a lot of free Magic Energy. Hahaha!' Linfel couldn't wait to learn how to level up.