"WHAT?!" WREN COULDN'T help but yell in surprise.
"Oh, I know, it was a high amount for you, Wren. But I wasn't asking for all the amount. I only wish for your help in completing all the two million dungeon coins. I know that you are still unawak—"
"Wait." Wren didn't mean to be rude but he couldn't focus on the other now that the two new notifications were still flashing before his eyes. "I'm sorry, Mama, but I suddenly had an emergency. As for the money, I will definitely help you earn that so don't let the loan shark—I mean, the lending company—take the orphanage. I will call you again after I'm done with this so I'll go ahead first. Bye, Mama, bye Lina. Be sure to say hello to the other kids for me."
Wren didn't wait for the other two to respond and he quickly cut off the call. To make sure of having no interruptions, he turned off his phone as he put all his focus on the system notification after setting himself back on the sofa that he still hadn't pushed back to its original position.
"A mission and a task, huh?" Wren asked himself.
This wasn't the first time he had a task so it didn't give him any excitement. But the other had shocked him. It was his new mission after all, as what the system said.
So he ignored the task and clicked on the mission notification first and foremost.
——
Mission Information
Title: Enemy of Loan Sharks
Type: Triggered Mission
Level: Medium
Description: You're lucky to trigger a mission! It's because of the host's current adversity that the system wanted to help; that's why you trigger this mission—become an enemy of loan sharks! Not literally becoming an enemy but make those despicable loan sharks become wary of you! A 2,000,000 dungeon coins? That's easy-pizzie to the host. Help the priestess pay the amount and prevent the orphanage from being taken by the thugs.
Reward: Undecided [It's a triggered mission so the host must expect that the system couldn't prepare a reward immediately.]
Allotted Time: 21 days
Time Left: 20 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes, 45 seconds
——
A suppressed laugh escaped Wren's lips when he read the system introduction to the mission. He's now sure of it; his system may really be a sentient system. Maybe because he was still low in level or he needed to upgrade the system to awaken the system.
Just read the reward description. It seems that the system had been aware of his character that it decided to put that funny explanation why the reward was still undecided. Instead of getting mad for it, Wren felt relief knowing that he may not remain lonely in the long run and on this journey of his to be a hero.
This was enough to put him in a good mood and so he also opened the task notification.
——
Task Information
Title: Earning While Training
Type: Chain Task
Level: Difficult
Description: You have successfully triggered a chain task! This was related to the triggered mission so as long as you complete the mission, you will also naturally complete this chain task. Another task will be announced the moment you complete one until completion.
Task Reward(s): [Reward will be based on the task given.]
Allotted Time: 21 Days
Time Left: 20 days, 23 hours, 34 minutes, 55 seconds
——
"A chain task? I actually triggered one?"
He wasn't allowed to linger on his shock when another notification popped out before him again.
——
Chain Task
First Task (Easy)
How can you collect your first sum of dungeon coins when you don't even know how it works? Go to the dungeon tower and come to the eastern area to have a tower admin explain what these dungeon coins are and how you can earn them.
Time Limit: 4 hours
Caution: Not completing this task will naturally affect the chain task. Please complete it before the given deadline.
Task Reward/s: +1 All Stats, 5 AP, 10 XP
——
"And it just made everything more exciting. At least with this, doing the mission won't be boring."
With all this set, Wren stood up from where he was sitting and went to the bathroom to take a shower. It was the system now who was telling him that it was time for his daily training by sending out those missions and tasks.
Naturally, Wren would take the challenge without question. He likes challenges after all.
Before Wren left the dungeon tower, he did not forget to call back to the orphanage again to hear the complete details of the lending. He didn't know if the same deadline provided by the system on his mission was also the same deadline that those thugs had given to the orphanage.
"Wren! I thought you wouldn't call again. Are you really fine? Why did you suddenly end the call? Lina was really worried, you know." Priestess Carmela started the moment she answered the call.
Obviously, with how it didn't take the first ring to finish completely, the priestess had already answered the call because she was really worried. To the point that she wasn't being shown on the camera yet and she already started her questions.
Of course, Wren wouldn't find it annoying or anything. He knew that the old woman as well as the kid Lina were genuinely worried of him for the suddenness of his action. Honestly speaking, it was the first time again that Wren had felt that kind of care since his parents had abandoned him.
Yes, he has many friends and colleagues who always take care of and are worried for him but the care that the priestess had shown was not the same as that of his friends. It was the care that he only felt before from his parents when they were still alive and now he could feel them again through Priestess Carmela.
"I'm really sorry, Mama, for making you all worry like that. To be honest, I received a message from the hunter association and I thought it was some kind of emergency so I abruptly ended the call. But it was only a group summon and nothing important," Wren lied without remorse.
"The association? Why would they—"
Only when Wren heard the other's surprised gasp as Priestess Carmela looked at him with her eyes wide in shock and a little bit teary that he remembered having not told them about his 'late' awakening.
"You've become a hunter now, Wren? You succeeded in awakening?" Priestess Carmela asked in between her sobbing.
Wren can only helplessly nod at the elder with a cheeky smile that the original would usually flash to the priestess when he knows he will be scolded.
But instead of getting scolded for hiding the fact of his awakening, Priestess Carmela erupted a loud cry when she saw his head nodding, approving her obvious guess as correct.
"Oh, thank the heavens! You really made it, my boy, Wren."
Priestess Carmela was really glad and happy that finally there was an awakened hunter that came from her orphanage. Aside from that glory, what she genuinely felt at that moment was relief that she would no longer have to watch the young man suffer alone.
Apart from Wren, it was only Priestess Carmela who knew the burden that the original had been enduring since the latter was announced as an ordinary human on his eighteenth birthday.
She also knew how the original had been dreaming and kept on persevering in the hope that he would awaken a system, not giving up on it because that's just how he is. This also became her worry when suddenly the original stopped going and visiting them at the orphanage.
She anxiously waited for the original to visit or even just give her a call—anything to contact her to show that her worries were not happening and that the original hadn't still lost hope.
That's why she was really happy and relieved when Wren contacted her again after so many months of hearing nothing from him. If the other hadn't contacted them today, she might have come to the capital and looked for Wren on her own.
And now, hearing that he finally got what he was dreaming of, Carmela is really happy for Wren.
"Come on now, Mama. Are you really happy for me? Why are you crying then?" Wren tried to ease the depressing aura by asking playfully.
Carmela laughed lightly as she helped herself wipe her tears away. "I am really happy for you. It's tears of joy, okay?"
"Still. Just laugh if you're really happy. You must be proud of me, right? You have a hunter child now, Mama. You can no longer be looked down upon by the orphanage in the next city."
Carmela's smile turned into a grin. "That's right! That old hag. All those hunters she was proud of were not even under her custody when they awakened. So what is she getting proud of? Hmp!"
Wren was now relieved that the old priestess had calmed down. Now he could ask the other about the details of the loan and the money they needed to pay. He let the priestess calm completely by answering her questions regarding his becoming a registered hunter.
Only when he knew that the other was fine that he asked about it. "Since I am now awakened and a registered hunter, you know that I can manage to get the total amount, right Mama? So tell me now, what are the other requirements that those thugs had asked you for?"
"Well, they didn't ask anything aside from the corresponding amount. They said that if we don't manage to pay before this month ends, then they will force their way to get the ownership of the orphanage."
"I'm surprised they are a little lenient than I expect them to be. Is that really all the catch? They didn't ask for you to sign some documents yet, right?"
Carmela shook her head. "None yet. They only reminded me that if we didn't pay, I have no other choice but to sign the transfer of ownership."
Wren is still a little bit skeptical of it. He didn't know that thugs here are a bit more proper than what he knew in his former world. He thought that they would threaten the priestess using the lives of the children in the orphanage.
He might have sounded too ruthless, but that was really what he expected those thugs would do. He guessed that in this world, thugs were a lot more law-abiding to the point of being lenient and professional.
"Then it'll be easy, Mama. Let me handle it, okay? Later!"
Is what he said, but that he regretted it when he knew how 'easy' it really was.