Mixed Blessing System

As he held the paper of one of those missions in his hands, Lothur decided that this seemed the best alternative for him.

None of those missions seemed to require dangerous things from the students willing to try to complete them. However, some basically involved more technical skills, and others depended on some more physical activity.

But in general, most of the missions in this sector took place within Peters City itself, while a few involved short trips to some forest or village nearby.

Thinking about how he was not so interested in technical missions at this time when he still had a lot to learn, Lothur decided on something simple.

He took a medicinal gathering mission, which required him to gather 10 kilograms of Tooth Grass, a spice found in a forest 15 kilometers north, 20 kilometers west of this academy.

Such a mission had a deadline of one week to complete and paid 300 bronze coins and 30 merit points for the competition.

At the end of the mission, the student or group that took it had to take the Tooth Grass to an establishment in the center of Peters City, a place called the Root Cave.

Being decided on this mission, Lothur promptly made his way to the student service zone in the Mission Hall, ready to take on such a task.

"Hello, this is my first time taking a mission here..." He explained to the middle-aged woman standing on the other side of a large counter that many other people were doing the same as him at the moment.

"Oh?" That woman smiled in surprise but soon gave Lothur some instructions. "If that is the case, I must tell you to be careful when choosing a mission."

"Missions may give you benefits at the academy, but risks are always involved."

"For example, it is not uncommon for outsiders to try to pay for missions at our institution and, because of the price, lie about certain information."

"We do what we can to avoid manipulated information in the missions available here, but it is impossible to stop such cases completely."

"A desperate person takes desperate measures at the cost of other people's lives." She looked carefully at Lothur, passing on a bit from her experiences to this newcomer that she had liked the look.

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"With that said, never take the information provided by the contractor for granted and use your best judgment to make your own decisions."

After hearing that, Lothur felt surprised but also grateful to hear such wise words.

She then continued. "On the other hand, even if the information left by the contractor is true, that doesn't mean everything will go according to plan."

"Many students fail at this, and when they least expect it, they lose points for not fulfilling their missions."

"They lose points?" Lothur asked this in doubt.

"Yes, when you fail a mission, you indirectly damage the image of Morning Star Academy. Hence, when you fail a certain mission, you lose 50% of the merit points promised as a prize for that mission."

She looked at the paper Lothur had placed in front of her and continued. "In the case of this mission, if you fail, you will lose 15 merit points."

"Since this is your first time doing a mission, you would be left with a negative balance of 15 points in such a situation."

"That..."

"Finally, if you want to upgrade your sector in the future, one of the academy's requirements is merit points."

"You need to use them to pay to take the ascension exam, so if your points are negative or too low, you may never get that advancement."

'Wow!'

'This academy truly stimulates its students!' Lothur was impressed, but he did not lose his will to climb the rankings of this place.

The opposite of that, knowing how difficult the journey was, he had only felt an even greater desire to win in this place!

"Hmm, that's okay, I understand."

"Well, since you are aware, I just need your ID item to register this mission in your name." She commented with a smile on her face as she took the item that was in Lothur's hands.

"All done, Lothur. This mission is now registered in your name. You have until one week or one business day after the last day of the deadline to bring back its results."

"After that, we will consider that you have failed."

"Hmm, okay. Thank you very much for the information." He smiled and said goodbye to that woman, satisfied that he had taken his first assignment.

"Sigh..."

'Well, that doesn't sound as exciting as I had originally imagined, but I will at least be able to start my way towards the top of that ranking.' He looked to the side where the obelisk in Sector-1 was.

'On the other hand, I can do missions in the Cultivation House whenever I want.'

"Very well!"

'I'll complete this mission this weekend!' He made up his mind just before going towards the library, where he still had stacks of books to read.

...

After a while, it was already lunchtime in Peters City when Lothur left the library in Sector-1 to find a place to eat.

However, as he walked toward one of the local cafeterias, he met up with a woman who was already looking for him.

"Lothur, come with me!" Elke said this in an agitated tone as she took one of his wrists and directed him away from the busy area he was in.

"Elke, I know our relationship is excellent, but can you at least give me a hello before you take me away like this?" He teased her, smiling at seeing this woman acting so determinedly.

Upon hearing this, Elke blushed but said nothing about his flirtation. Instead, she went straight to the point regarding what she had heard the night before.

"Lothur..." She looked at him and realized they were no longer in a bustling place. "Alric was beaten the night before until he was..."

Gulp!

"Until he was crippled!" She said in a whispery voice after looking both ways, confirming that no one else would hear her.

"Oh? Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

"Lothur..." She looked at him with a complicated expression on her face. "Did you do that?"

He was silent, looking at her in a way that she could not doubt what his answer would be.

"Why did you do that? I heard that the Baier patriarch wants to kill you! Because of that, you don't know the danger you are in now!"

But Lothur was not bothered by this and brought her closer to him. "Only you and I know about this, so I doubt they will find out that someone without cultivation did that..."

"On the other hand, even if they suspect something, they won't act openly against me since they can't prove that I'm responsible for anything."

She frowned her eyebrows and said. "Noble families are not known for acting openly, but rather under the covers!"

"They won't care about evidence. They will go after you when they think you are the only reasonable variable!"

Seeing the concern in her eyes, Lothur eased his natural confidence and gave her a good reason for his actions. "I had no choice, Elke."

"I know there are problems with acting against people like that, but when someone is cornered, sometimes hitting the monster in their path head-on is the only alternative."

He then got honest, but without giving too many details. "Alric has not only tried to get involved in our affairs, but he has also tried to act against me before."

"Our situation had already passed the point where we could shake hands." He looked her in the eye seriously. "He needed to suffer that, or situations like the one before would continue to recur."

"I don't regret what I did, Elke."

"Sigh..."

"So you two already had a past..." She sighed in defeat, feeling bad about it all.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry. I'm already working on something."

And indeed he was. Lothur had not expected to have to deal with a vengeful family right at his start in this place. But terrible or not, that made no difference to his journey. He was not training to deal with only one revenge, but for the journey of power, in search of his freedom.

So he was already preparing himself for every kind of variable similar to this, as he sought to become stronger and better informed about the situation of the place he was in.

Thus, he had not lost his calm and was comforting Elke!

...