The quality of the reward was also directly linked to the quality of the package. Not that any of them were useless, or anything less than a priceless treasure, but there was definitely bias being shown in the rewarding process.
The items that came from the bronze wrapping paper were mostly trinkets and pieces of jewellery that would help with growth or strength. But the items from the Silver category were more practical.
They included mostly weapons, the mage's spellbook, and in one case a scroll that would let the user pick one new combat skill from a set list.
But Karl had gotten a rather incredible new class skill that would let him easily teach the beasts new skills, and Dana had gotten a new combination attack and defence spell that nobody had ever heard of before.
[Nullification Barrier] simply dispersed anything that touched it. It didn't matter if it was a magical attack, or a stick that the warriors swung, it simply lost all energy and stopped when it hit the barrier.
The offensive use of the spell, [Nullification Blade] surrounded a weapon, and would cut through anything that they could find with ease, even the other mages shields.
Nobody was willing to try with a magical item, for fear that it would be disenchanted, but the barrier appeared to be much stronger than the usual ones they trained with.
If it had come from a skill book, she would have been fabulously wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, but the golden chest simply taught her the skill the same as it had taught Karl. Both were what the Academy would call Tier Three skills. Not the basics, or the advanced versions of the basics, but something that was entirely new and on another power level.
They were incredibly rare, and often unique in the world, with only one Elite having ever learned them. But more than that, they had a growth rate that scaled proportionately to their advantage. If they were twice as deadly as normal skills at Awakened Rank, they would be twice as deadly as other spells when you were at Ascended and Commander Rank as well.
They were simply superior in all ways.
Karl's was mostly only relevant to himself, but it didn't specify that the animals had to be bonded to him, and that was something that he wanted to test.
"Druid, sorry I forgot your name. Do you have a bonded animal?" Karl asked.
"Not yet. Most druids get the ability, but I'm still at level three, according to the way that Druids see their progression, and I don't have that ability yet.
My healing got much better while I was here, though, and I learned to use an area heal spell while training on the stairs." The druid replied.
"What did you get from the box?" Karl asked.
"A staff. It vanishes when I want it to, and it applies its additional magic damage even when I am wild shaped." He explained.
"Oh, you're a transformation type Druid. Never mind. I was thinking about trying to teach a Druid's spirit animal a new trick when we get back to test out the reward I got." Karl explained.
That made the others curious. Karl had returned first, so none of them had seen what he had gotten, and so far, he hadn't spoken of it. But if it was a transferrable power, a skill that he could teach others, wouldn't that just be too powerful?
If he left to join the army, he could teach his whole unit that power, which the team assumed should be at the Ascended Rank, since the item type rewards everyone got were generally a Rank above themselves. The thought that it might be a Tier Three skill that would scale with his growth, and not simply a more powerful normal Skill, never crossed their minds.
"We have some time before we are ejected, so get some sleep after you eat. We will get up early to pack our gear before we are pushed out, and then we can finish the mission and find the other plants that we came here for." Karl decided.
"Wait, we're still doing the mission? Even after we found a holy relic and got all these rewards, we are still going to get the plants?" One of the warriors asked.
"Do you not need them anymore? Will they not be effective on you now that you've gained some power?" Karl asked.
The warrior looked sheepish, and his friends consoled him. Technically, it looked more like mockery, but what were friends for?
"See, we will finish the mission, and then make sure that our new friends from the church make it safely to the train with us. Now that we've found the Holy Relic, it is not just about getting them back safely, but they need to properly relay to their superiors the information that we have gathered about this place so that it is protected and not disturbed before the next time that it decides to let a group in." Karl explained.
The cleric students nodded rapidly. "They will likely want this to be kept all hush-hush. You know how it is with holy relics. If we talk about finding it, then any Elite could look up our mission information and find the general area that it is in, to come here and try to exploit or destroy it."
That was something that Karl hadn't considered. The church did good things for the poor, and they had the best healing magic, but not everyone was a big fan of theirs, partially because of the power that they had. Karl didn't watch the news often, but there was always someone mad about something that someone else did.
It was an undeniable fact, and the Church inevitably got caught up in arguments when their programs conflicted with someone else's.
The students all seemed to be in agreement, and as Karl brought out a bit more of the Awakened Rank boar meat for their final dinner here, the talk turned to what they might find at the other herb sites.
So far, they had found two spots that weren't on the map, an Ascended Beetle, a Holy Relic, and two refugee clerics. If they kept up at this rate, they might find the lost city of knowledge, one of the students suggested.
The thought of that was hilarious. The City of Knowledge was just a legend from mythology, and it was supposed to be where the young World Dragon learned the power to travel between worlds to find a new home to protect. But the World Dragon and its offspring were immortal, and given the nature of the legend, the City of Knowledge probably wasn't even on this planet.
Not that it had stopped generations of treasure hunters from going looking for it.
The final meal was a larger one than usual, as everyone who had gathered food d a bit extra for the celebration, and they made a massive pitcher of punch out of all the energy drink pouches that they hadn't been using.
The plans to sleep early had gone right out of everyone's mind, and when the ever vigilant Golems warned them that they had one hour left before being ejected, they were all still sound asleep.
"Everyone up and get packed. We don't want to end up leaving half our gear here, unless you all fancy sharing tents for the rest of the journey." Karl warned them all.
That got them up and moving. The boys all knew that the girls wouldn't want to share with them, and Karl was right about them not wanting to cuddle with each other in a tiny tent with a single sleeping bag.
Breakfast was delayed, but they all got their gear packed in the next half hour, though it was quite disorganized, and most of it would need to be repacked before they went anywhere.
"Everyone, shoulder your packs and make sure there is nothing left on the ground, no signs that we were here at all." Karl added.
That took a few more minutes, while they adjusted their packs enough that they could be worn properly without gear falling out, but once they were settled, Karl called out to the Golem.
"Sir Golem, we are finished and packed, will you please send us back out?" He requested.
Instantly, he was standing outside the entrance to the cave, along with the other eleven members of their team.
"Alright, clerics, take two warriors and one of the golems as an escort and mark the entrance of the Holy Relic, then we can get going."