Shades of the New World

Chapter 104: The Mission Pillar

A Channeling artifact with identical specs to Evin's own was comfortably sitting at 3500 gold coins, almost double what Evin paid for.

There were also a variety of magical artifacts, with unique and special effects. Most of them could be summarized in two words: Hotter flames, Deeper darkness, Brighter Lights, Stronger Winds, More Tenacity and Vitality, etc These were relatively cheap, costing only 5-10 gold each.

Evin bought one for the Dark World and tested its effects, but he couldn't quite feel the difference. He inquired about it from the World Sprites and the Blood's will, and they expressed that they feel very slightly stronger than before. Practically negligible.

Evin didn't feel disheartened. Bad purchases were an inseparable part of life.

He browsed through the rest of the list and found some interesting items, but either Evin was unwilling to buy them, or were simply banned from purchasing with gold.

The banned items were mostly Spell Scrolls with a bit of Thought energy attached to it. They were similar to the Scroll that Evin bought in the City of Nevernight, ones which were used to teach whoever reads it the contents of the scroll forever.

Evin couldn't see the exact type of the spells inside the scrolls, as some mages could replicate the effects of the spell through luck or talent. The list of items only showed the type of spell and a very general description of its usage. For example, most of the list would consist of names like: "World of Fire, area control", "Luminous World, Wide Attack", "World of Water, Defense", "Dark World, Support/buff", etc. And next to them, their prices would be put.

There was one item from this list that Evin really wished to buy, and that was a scroll named: "Dark World, Single Target Attack", price: 10000 contribution points. It was one of the more expensive scrolls in the list. Evin was having some trouble attacking an enemy with the Dark World (without ripping them to shreds), so this new Spell was very, very interesting to him.

As for the less cost-effective items in the list, they were mostly Alchemy potions. Most of the potions were healing potions and they were disgustingly expensive in Evin's eyes. There was one blood-clotting potion that cost 60 gold coins. There was also a potion that would close a would on its own, and that one cost 70 gold. A potion that would mend a broken bone was priced at 400 gold.

But thinking about it for a bit more, Evin could see why. Not many people were geniuses in the World of Life like Arza here, and they couldn't just reattach their arms or close up gaping wounds in a matter of seconds like the Easterners. So, a potion that could do that for them was a godsend for most mages.

Evin wouldn't buy these items, since he had an item that could basically do all the above but better. Although there was a weekly time limit and a single day ban on the World of Life, the wooden statue of a heart that Evin received from Helain would be able to completely heal Evin's wounds.

Not to mention that Evin himself wasn't that bad at the World of Life, thanks to the revelation he received from the Serpent type Beast Lord.

'Speaking of that Serpent, I should bring Arza to see the thing at some point, huh? Evin pondered.

Getting back to the topic at hand, Evin looked at the final list of items. These were items that were not related to magic. These were mostly quality-of-life changes. Better dorm rooms, a built-in training area, room service, and even a private butler of the sorts.

Evin didn't mind spending a little money on convenience and rented the better dorm room and the training area for a month. It all costed only 4 gold coins, anyway. It was potatoes to Evin.

Obviously, things that only served to further someone's luxury were not valued similarly to something that could strengthen someone permanently.

Evin, Arza and Rith left the shop and decided to take a peek at the Mission List in the Great Hall. Evin wanted that Dark World Spell, and the only way to get it was through contribution points.

A group of boys and girls, mostly only three or four, had gathered outside the shop's door and approached Evin, asking if they could pet Rith. The pleading eyes of the kids got to Evin's heart, and he left the reluctant Rith at the hands of the children.

Evin himself walked towards the Mission Pillar.

Some older children had already gathered around the big pillar that was littered with posts that described various missions on it.

As Evin squinted his eyes to see the details on each paper, some other kid near the area pointed towards Evin and Arza with their chin, and spoke something in Northern. The boy said two sentences, one filled with spite and another filled with mockery.

Evin couldn't understand what they said, but tried to guess at what they said.

' "Western rich boy Do they even know that the Horn Ceremony isn't for 8-year-olds?"... or something'

On the big pillar. The pillar itself had a rectangular shape, with its four different sides listed missions with different levels of difficulty.

But sadly, he wasn't allowed to focus on the missions, as the child from before felt ignored, and mocked again.

"Western Scum. You sure you're seven years old?" the boy said in Imperial this time, addressing Evin and Arza. A group of children who seemed to be the boy's entourage, gathered behind him. Two blonde haired boys and a sassy looking girl with a ponytail.

'Aw, he didn't call me a rich boy,' Evin commented inside his head.

Arza looked at the boy with a questioning gaze and answered.

"I'm actually fo- six. Did you just call us scum?" the boy said, forgetting briefly that he had become six in a single day.

"You're supposed to be the same age as us? Who did your parents pay to let you inside the Tribe Grounds?" the boy spat out spitefully.

"If you have problems with our legitimacy, please inquire Tribe Leader Zorrik about it," Evin said with a shrug.

The Tribe Leader's name seemed to invoke some sort of fear in the children, as a trace of fear flashed though their eyes.

'Does Zorrik eat children? Why does everyone seem so scared of him?' Evin thought. The male receptionist from before looked at Evin like he was some sort of brave hero, when the boy started talking to the Tribe Leader in a casual way.

As Evin was thinking of random stuff, the group of 6-year-olds started talking to each other in Northern, and then eventually decided to leave the two be.

'Finally,' Evin thought and glanced at the Pillar.

The easiest missions were put in one side, and they usually had something simple, like helping with the searching of some objects, cleaning up some areas, helping with the preparation of food etc. and the rewards varied from 1 to 5 contribution points.

The slightly difficult missions were stuff like helping with the construction of buildings in the non-mage part of the city, repairs of certain items, delivery of goods stuff like that. The rewards varied from 5 to 25 contribution points, with construction jobs rating the highest.

The third side of the wall now required a certain amount of knowledge in Alchemy, Scroll-making, World Formations, or any other magic related subject. Most of the missions included something like:

[Assist instructor X with the creation of a scroll/potion. Requirements: adept in Scroll-making, Alchemy, etc.]

These mission's rewards were up to the instructor to give, and the minimum was 30 points. Technically, the instructor could give a million points, but that seemed unlikely.

And the fourth side of the wall included fighting, hunting and other such battle related things and the rewards varied from 50 to 1000 contribution points. There was even a mission that tasked the child to survive against an instructor for five minutes for 100 points.

All these missions required the child to perform under the supervision of an adult, since no one wanted their future mages to die a premature death.

From what Evin could see, every instructor posted a mission and set a base requirement for the children. For example: the instructor could specify that the mission takes must be an above average quarter-core and that there must be a total of at least 10 people taking a guest.

So, there would be ten dots under the mission details, representing ten children who could take the mission. Some of the dots would be lit up, indicating that someone else had taken the mission, and that they were only waiting for other people to fill in the gaps.

As for solo missions, they were much rarer compared to the ones that required many people, but the amount of solo or duo missions increased as the rewards went up.

'It's a system that encourages teamwork and adaptability, conforming to the Paradra's policy. But, they make sure to reward the individual geniuses as much as they can,' Evin noted in his head and looked at the missions with interest.

Evin could even see Losha's mission:

[Participants must be peak quarter-cores and the number of participants must be 15. Every student must fight against instructor Losha in an enclosed environment for 20 minutes and stay conscious. Even if only one of the students survived, everyone would get 500 points]

Out of the 15 dots that were located underneath, only 3 of them were lit, showing how unwilling the students were to fight this certain instructor.