Abe the Wizard

As Abel chewed on his breakfast, he started thinking to himself. He wondered if he should continue to do his missions. Right now, his tag had only a total of 23.4 points. That was very far from his 200 goal. Besides, he needed more than 200. He wanted to make extra, so he could use it to buy skeleton gemstones and bone-made portal items.

Still, that last mission he did felt like a scam. He spent one month cleaning up death qi at the Miracle City wall, and for what? He got 10 points of war glory for that, and if he wasn’t in need for a great amount of death qi, he would have wasted too much time.

Abel murmured to himself, “Alright if I’m going to do a mission, I’ll have to know what exactly it is I am doing.”

After breakfast, he used the short-distance teleportal circle to travel to the mission hall. When he arrived, he realized that it was too early for anyone to be around.

On the left side of the mission, Abel found a few missions that he could take.

“Hunting quest in the Orc Empire. Duration: one month. No. of people required: 20. Reward: 10 outstanding points of war glory.”

“Patrolling around Miracle City. Duration: one month. No. of people required: 10. Reward: 10 outstanding points of war glory.”

“Crafting rune cards. Duration: one month. No. of people required: 10. Reward: 10 outstanding points of war glory.”

“Weapon forging and maintenance. Duration: one month. No. of people required: 10. Reward: 10 outstanding points of war glory .”

These were the missions that Abel could take. He wasn’t going to jump in and take any of them, however. He had enough with his last mission.

When he tried to contact K3305 with his military tag, a notification popped up, “The person you’re trying to contact is not available. Please make a call again after 15 days.”

So, K3305 was on a mission of his own. Actually, maybe he was on shut-off training. Since he just got promoted lately, it was probably the latter. What a hard-working man he was.

“K3308, then? Actually, forget it.”

As soon as Abel thought about making a call to K3308, he immediately gave up on the idea. K3308 was probably too busy anyway. Because, well, he was probably still trying to show off his mount wolf to anyone that he saw.

Speaking of which, K3308 happened to be right next to him.

“Wow, what a coincidence!” K3308 greeted Abel.

“Good morning there, K3308,” Abel nodded his head in reply.

K3308 immediately noticed, “What is it? Are you looking for another mission?”

“Yeah, about that…”

“From what I remembered, you just finished a lot of them lately. It’s best if you take some rest, you know. I always take at least a month off before I continue my work. You know, so I can always continue without getting a burnout.”

Abel shook his head, “It’s fine. I don’t have a lot to do lately. Really, I just want to do something easy to kill time.”

“Oh, alright then. You know, it’s best if you ask me about the missions here. I happen to do a lot of research on them.”

Something’s been bugging Abel this whole time. Just how did K3308 become an official wizard with that attitude? He’s nowhere as hard-working as the other wizards, but unlike a lot of them, he wasn’t stuck being a level five novice wizard. He was also a lot younger than the average wizard, which might or might not have said something about how talented he was.

Also, that word he used–he didn’t use the word “done” or “applied” when he talked about the missions that were put up here. The word he used was “research.”

Abel decided to ask before doubting him, “Okay. So, I was hoping to get some points as quickly as I can. What do you say? Should I do the ones that the Miracle City assigned, or should I find a private job from somewhere else?”

K3308 had this interesting smile on his face, “Oh, is this about trying to have 200 points as quickly as possible? And after that, you want to be done with your service.”

Abel said with certainty, “Absolutely. I want to finish my service as quickly as possible and leave Miracle City.”

K3308 responded with a pitiful look on his face, “That’s where you are wrong, friend. You do get points for doing private missions, but they won’t be counted towards the total 200 points you need to finish your service. You know, they’ve designed the system in a way that nobody would be able to cheat it.”

Abel didn’t think of K3308 as a particularly bad person, but he suspected him to be the one who tried the same method.

Abel asked again, “Well, how about that hunting quest up there? Do you think I should take it?”

K3308’s voice got a whole much louder suddenly, “A hunting quest at the Orc Empire? Do you know a lot of people that you find trustworthy? Have you told them that you’re going to do something like this?”

“Why? Does it have to be someone trustworthy?”

K3308 shook his head and explained, “What, of course! It’s a very risky job! Why wouldn’t you bring someone that you find trustworthy?”

“Look, this is the kind of mission that friends go on together. You see the 20 people limit up there? It’s meant for just one small squad. When everyone gets ready, they all leave Miracle City at once.”

That wouldn’t do for Abel. He didn’t know a lot of people in Miracle City. Also, the people he knew didn’t seem like they would be interested in doing a job like this.

Abel said to K3308, “If someone’s interested in this, make sure that I know about it.”

K3308 responded with a smirk, “Yeah, no problem. I’ll ask a few friends to see if they are free. If they are, great! Just imagine the amount of reward we’ll get with you!”

Abel continued to ask, “What do you think of this patrol mission, K3308?”

K3308 scratched his head, “What, you want to be a guard at the gate?”

Abel asked, “The gate? You mean the only gate that protects the Miracle City?”

K3308 didn’t seem particularly happy when he was talking about, “Well, duh. If you take this, you’ll be the guard during the day, and the patrol officer during the time. It’d be a 24/7 job, and you’ll have almost time to practice meditation.”

“It’s a job that’ll offend a lot of people, so I wouldn’t think about it if I were you. If it wasn’t so safe, I don’t think anyone would ever be interested.”

Abel was glad that he had asked K3308. As a grandmaster blacksmith, it’d be really embarrassing if he decided to become a patrol guard at the gate.

Abel continued to ask, “What about rune making? I’m talking about that mission there.”

K3308 stood still and asked, “You are very talented, aren’t you? You do sword-swinging, archery, and wizard training, and you’d think that you can take a job such as this one. How are you at rune-making?”

“Okay, I guess,” Abel said humbly.

K3308 had thought that Abel was just earnest, “With this job, you’re supposed to make ten beginner’s runes every day. All the materials are offered by the city itself. You are expected to make one rune sign out of every three ingredients. If you exceed that number, you’ll have to pay out of your own pocket. If you aren’t confident enough, I don’t think you should consider it.”

For Abel, ten beginner’s signs would take him about ten-something minutes a day. That’s 10 points of war glory in just one month. He actually liked this job. It’s something that he could do continuously.

“How about that one? The one about weapon forging and maintenance.”

K3308 was almost speechless, “Just how many side classes do you have?”

Instead of waiting for a response, K3308 started to explain, “This job is divided into two parts. For the forging, you are supposed to make five designated weapons at the end of each month. Remember, you can only do this if you’re at least an advanced blacksmith.”

“The other part is maintenance. Basically, you repair the damaged weapons that are left in the Miracle City warehouse. It’s something that even the beginner blacksmiths can do. You’ll need to repair at least 15 weapons a month, though, so I suggest you organize your time well if you’re thinking about doing this.”

After listening to K3308’s explanation, Abel’s finally made up his mind on the mission that he was going to do. He was very thankful for it. As eccentric as K3308 could be, sometimes. He was really informed about these kinds of things.