Chapter 69: Gambits and Duplicates
They both took the pouches of gold from her hands, having looks of excitement on their faces.
"Thank you, Captain," they said almost at the same time.
"Alright, you both may go now," she said, dismissing them.
They both nodded and left her chambers.
Mages, especially the ones in the Academy, were among the richest people in the kingdom. Each mission had a reward attached to it, and members of the guild who completed such missions were entitled to the reward that came with it; most of which were in gold or silver.
This was also part of the reason why commoners with some form of magic wanted to get into the Academy. The money they would receive in return was enough to change their lives and those of their families.
"So about yesterday..." Aiden began as they had both stepped out of the captain’s chambers.
"W-wait, Aiden, people might be listening," Laela said frantically while looking around the room, even though the other mages were already dispersing from the main room to carry on with the rest of their day.
Aiden had stopped talking briefly and smiled.
Laela then gazed back toward him and said, "We don’t have to talk about it, but know that I loved every moment."
Aiden nodded in understanding, with a smile on his face. Laela was generally a nervous person, so her reaction was very much normal.
She smiled at him and then turned away, with both her cheeks going red while making her way back to her room to keep her money safely.
Aiden slid the pouch of gold coins into his pocket, and with a thought, the money disappeared into his system’s inventory. Then he turned and made his way toward the notice board.
Staring at the missions and guild requests, he had a contemplative look as he examined their details. The ones already being handled by another mage or team had the name of the mage or names of the party signed underneath the notice paper for that request.
Since no one was really paying attention to him, he spoke to the system: "I know I’m supposed to complete one request a day for six days to get the full rewards, but what happens if I complete six requests in one day?"
[You would have completed your total count of Daily Missions for the days it was meant for and will receive the accrued rewards]
[You will receive no further daily missions until after those number of days have passed]
"Okay, that’s fine. I need the XP really quickly too," Aiden said to himself, then scanned through the notice board.
The guild requests looked easier to deal with, though they paid the lowest—except for one request from Elena. The details of the request were:
Help Elena Yoren find the Purple Hermis Stone.
Tip: Last place the Purple Hermis Stone was found was in the mountain region of Geshu.
Payment: 50 gold coins.
This guild request from Elena was the only one paying in gold, which meant it was important to her. However, he had no idea what the Hermis Stone was, but he knew he was going to have to use the library for this one.
Different mages had various guild requests, but the most peculiar one was the captain’s, and it read:
I’ll be needing someone to get me new underpants from the market. Preferred color is black.
Reward is 10 silver pieces or you can watch me bathe.
Your Captain, Katherine.
And of course, the one name signed underneath the said mission was Piers’. It was probably why he wasn’t within the guild right now; he was in the market looking to buy black panties for the captain.
There weren’t many mission requests at the moment compared to the guild requests here and there. There were about four of them.
The first was an A-ranked dungeon mission, with five days left before dungeon break.
The second was a mission needing at least three mages to act as bodyguards and escorts for the daughters of Mr. Gregory Havensworth of the Havensworth family, going to the nearby town in three days for a party. The pay was to be discussed when the mages arrived.
The third was another dungeon-related mission: C-ranked, with four days left before dungeon break.
The last one was specific: it was a request for at least a Junior-ranked mage who would teach the eight-year-old son of Ser Forslund how to control his magic. The pay was two gold coins per hour.
Aiden had to think through these requests carefully. He understood the system well enough to know that engaging in the mission requests had the probability of giving special and side quests as well.
There was, however, a problem; the captain mandated four mages for a dungeon. Now he could go and present himself and three other duplicates of himself, but he doubted the captain would allow that.
And there wasn’t anyone else readily available at the moment. He couldn’t see Arianna or Kayden, leaving Laela, who had just gone upstairs.
The second mission was only happening in three days, and it didn’t seem like duplicates of himself would work for that either.
The last mission was rank-specific; that was a total loss for him.
However, he decided to get the guild requests going. He made a mental note of the several requests from the members of the guild and left the guild room.
While he walked away from the guild’s wing, he came to a turn in the corridor, and at that moment he used his self-duplication skill.
This avatar that was made right after, was indeed a perfect copy of Aiden. "Its like staring at myself in the mirror," Aiden said. Then they both nodded at each other, knowing where they had to be next, as they took different paths.
The original made his way to the library, mainly because he had to complete the side quest that had been assigned to him in the early hours of that morning; one that needed him to read books containing information on demons.
Then also about this Hermis Stone that was important to Elena.
The moment Aiden crossed through the library’s entrance, a thought returned to him from the day he spoke to the Librarian. Now, he was now an Initiate and as such could access spell books containing supplementary spells from King to God level.
And that very thought put a grin on his face.