Arin stood with his eyes fixated on the Mission Building. It was a two-storey building, with students coming in and out.
Since there were no classes today, some of the students decided to take missions. After all, they had spent their points on weapons, so they needed to get more.
Without further hesitation, Arin walked into the building and was greeted with the sight of two rows of students standing in straight lines with a paper in each of their hands. In front of both rows of students, there were two tables and chairs with two ladies seated on them, collecting the papers before writing down something.
Arin quickly noticed that the line of students wasn't that long. 'Guess I won't have to wait for long...'
Without wasting time, he walked towards the board that was at the side of the room. Papers were stuck to the board with details of missions written on them.
Arin's eyes scanned the board, looking at all the available missions. 'I feel like taking a mission that isn't related to Beasts.'
Almost all the missions present were about killing a particular Beast and bringing its body. Some of them even specifically requested parts of the Beast, like teeth, horns, or just the bones.
'I guess most of these missions were issued by Alchemists,' Arin thought. 'They use stuff a lot.'
Apart from Alchemists, villagers also issued missions to the Academy through letters. It could either be to kill a particular Beast disturbing them or to escort one of their villagers to the City.
As Arin was scanning the mission board, his eyes suddenly settled on a particular mission. The next second, a smirk formed on his face. "I'll take this..."
He immediately removed that particular paper from the board and joined the students in the line.
Within minutes, it was finally his turn. The woman in front of him raised her head, looking at him, and stretched out her hand.
It was clear what she wanted, so Arin instantly placed the paper in her hand. She grabbed it and looked at it.
For seconds, she kept staring at it before finally....
"A... Are you sure this is the mission you want to take?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly.
"Yes," Arin replied shortly.
The woman was silent again before she tapped the other woman beside her who was attending to other students. She showed her the paper, making her eyes widen also.
The woman then looked at Arin before asking, "What Rank are you?"
Arin was already expecting this question, so he instantly replied. "Grade 4 Veteran Mage."
The woman was about to speak, but Arin interrupted her.
"I'm very sure my Rank is now higher than that," Arin said.
The first woman sighed before speaking, "We don't know that, except you take the Ranking Up Test."
"And this mission must not be taken by any student below the Master Mage Rank," she added. "So how sure are you that you're already at the Master Mage Rank?"
"How about we take the test and find out?" Arin replied with a question, going straight to the point.
The woman instantly sighed again. With the expression on her face, it was very clear that she didn't want to stand up to take Arin for the Test. These two women were in charge of approving the missions that students wanted to go for and also in charge of the Ranking Up Test.
But today, a lot of students were going for missions, so there would be no time for them to take a student for a Ranking Up Test.
Meanwhile, the students behind Arin were already grumbling lightly because they were taking more time than usual.
As the woman was thinking of what to do, she suddenly spotted someone, and a bright smile instantly appeared on her face.
"Perfect..." she whispered.
Arin, noticing this, instantly followed her line of sight, and then he realized...
'Wait... Don't tell me it's what I'm thinking...'
The woman's smile widened, and then.....
"Tessa Silverhart," she called out, making Tessa, who was at the back of the line, look at her.
A slight frown instantly appeared on Arin's face. 'Oh shit.'
Tessa walked to the front of the line before standing beside Arin.
Because of this, the frown on the faces of the students behind Arin deepened.
Arin stole a glance at Tessa, noticing that a slight frown was also on her face.
'I mean, she currently has no reason to smile,' Arin thought.
Immediately Tessa got to the front of the line, the woman began explaining.
"He wants to take this mission," the lady began, handing the paper over to Tessa. "But this mission can only be taken by a student at the Master Rank and above."
Tessa turned her head, staring at Arin. At this point, he couldn't help but further notice how beautiful she really was. She suddenly tilted her head, making Arin look away.
"He claims to be at the Master Rank, but we'll have to take the Ranking Up Test to confirm that," she added.
'Okay, I never said that,' Arin thought.
Tessa was silent for some seconds as she stared at the paper. "Bandits, huh?"
"So, what should I do?" she asked.
The woman smiled before replying. "He's at the Grade 4 Veteran Mage Rank now, so I want you to go with him on this mission. Let him do everything by himself and watch him fight the bandits."
Arin's frown deepened while Tessa furrowed her brows.
"I trust that you'll be able to rate him based on how well he uses his Spells, and you can also observe his Mana output," she added.
"But I'm not sure it'll be accurate," Tessa instantly said.
"Don't worry," the woman smiled. "We'll also make him take the test either when he returns today or tomorrow. But for now, since he's confident that he's up to the task, just watch him."
'Hmm, doesn't sound too bad,' Tessa thought. 'It's still a mission, so I'll still get points from it. And moreover, we'll be going to a village for the mission, so at least it'll be a change of scenery and I'll be able to distract my mind from all these thoughts.'
She looked at the lady before speaking, "Mission accepted."
"Yes!" the woman exclaimed. "Don't worry about points, we'll discuss that when you return."
The woman winked at Tessa as if saying she would be rewarded handsomely. After that, she approved the mission and gave Arin a small square-shaped tag with the Academy's stamp and details of the mission on it.
Tessa nodded her head and looked at Arin. "Let's go..."
Arin just felt confused. 'Everything happened so fast...'
'I didn't see this coming AT ALL.....!'