He still remembers when Leon used to say: a man’s romance is a strong horse.
Vehicles attract most men. Angel is no exception, except that he values “whether he needs one or not” rather than just pursuing speed and pa.s.sion.
At the very least, he urgently needs a flying craft before he learns flying magic.
The closer he gets to the centre of Tree Spirit Court, the denser the surrounding buildings become. Moreover, as Angel enters the central gathering area, senior apprentices can be seen almost everywhere. From time to time, he can feel strong power fluctuations explode from somewhere nearby.
The most important thing to note about the central gathering area is there are no shortages of screaming and conflicts.
In a short period, Angel saw several fleeing figures flitting overhead like floating lights.
In such a violent area, more and more people are putting on indifferent expressions on their faces. For example, not too long ago. A man covered in blood laid down at the foot of a pa.s.ser-by. He stretched out his hand to seek help from the pa.s.ser-by. But inconceivably, that pa.s.sers-by hadn’t given the man as much as a pa.s.sing glance.
Seeing such a scene, Angel suddenly felt that the peripheral of Apprentice Town was a paradise.
Mission Hall is located directly in front of the central square. Unlike the surrounding small houses, Mission Hall architecture is particularly magnificent. With inlaid inscriptions on the building structure, gorgeous and colourful gla.s.s, as well as a round top red roof structure like ones seen on top of mountains. This building looks more like a sacred chapel than a task building.
The crowd gathered here was even denser, with everyone seemingly in hurry, coming and going like the wind.
When Angel enters the Mission Hall, he saw more than a dozen huge round counters. Above each round counter was a 360-degree curved screen on which words and numbers leapt rapidly. On the other side of the counter was a service staff member quickly recording the task information scrolling down the screen.
All that scrolling word and numbers on the curved screens are information about tasks.
On both sides of the walls, there is a huge gla.s.s screen nearly ten meters long and wide that was broadcasting scrolling task information. In addition, Angel noticed the screen is divided into blocks, among which the tasks published by formal wizards and the organization itself are in the top block. The published apprentice tasks are slightly closer to the lower-right area, and the lower-left area is used to publish some important information.
Since this is Angel’s first time coming to Mission Hall, he is still a bit unfamiliar with the process of receiving tasks. So he simply found a remote corner and observed the practices of other wizard apprentices.
After observing for a while, Angel has gained a basic understanding of the process for picking up tasks: Most wizard apprentices look at task information under a large screen and then see if a task piques their interest. After, they will write down the task number and go to register the task with a service staff member at the counter. Some people directly ask the service staff member for the relevant task information.
Angel also continues learning from others by watching the task the information scroll down on the large screen.
He notices that many of the most cost-effective tasks disappeared almost as soon as they appeared on the large screen. The task information that has been scrolling on the big screens are mostly low-return or time-consuming tasks. Such as going to another mainland to find talents. This task is left to scroll on the large screen all the year-round. There are also highly paid but difficult tasks. Such as the exploration of ruins, going to an outpost on a wasteland plane, and so on… Although these tasks are published for apprentices. In fact, everyone knows the apprentices who take up these tasks are basically treated as cannon fodder.
Additionally, there are still some tasks which are highly rewarding and with short time frames, but there is still no one willing to take them. Angel was a little confused at first, but when he saw the task publisher, he realized why.
Dulmatin.Bayer, nicknamed “Miniature World.” He is a famous wizard known for brutally taking brains for cruel ** experiments.
Dulmatin’s published task: Seeking an apprentice to cooperate with an experiment. Apprentice must have a mental force value of more than 15. Paying 100 magic crystals a day.
There is another task with frighteningly high remuneration, but there are still very few people willing to take it up. These are technical tasks which involve studies such as magic array and alchemy. These tasks are the ones Angel is focusing on.
There are many amongst them because the Savage Grottoes itself has very few alchemy wizards. So most of the tasks involving alchemy have higher pay all year-round, even tending to be more and more expensive as time goes on.
Angel saw someone publish a buy task for “Prynne Potion.” One moment the reward was 200 magic crystals, then the next moment it went up to 230 magic crystals. The task publisher even prepared all the materials to refine a potion, just in case a pharmaceutics alchemy wizard was willing to refine one.
For the subject of Pharmaceutics, Angel has done very little research on the matter. But he remembers Morrow mentioning that Morning Dew After the Rain has the same effect as Prynne Potion which is breaking through the barriers between apprentice realms.
Although he still has a lot of Morning Dew After the Rain left at his house, he is unwilling to hand it over to complete a task.
Angel also looked at some other alchemy tasks related to alchemy inscriptions. Among them are several from formal wizards looking for necessary experimental tools. The Energy Stabilizer is on the task list with a price of more than 300 magic crystals just for one device.
Looking at the list, there are many published tasks for advanced cla.s.s alchemy weapons.
A month ago, David once said the advanced cla.s.s alchemy weapon prices have reached as high as 200 magic crystals. But looking at the current list, 200 magic crystals seem to only be the lowest threshold. The vast majority of alchemy weapons have surpa.s.sed 300 magic crystals, with the highest even reaching over 1,000 magic crystals.
Angel had foreseen such a large price increase.
Because he received prior news of the Purification Garden opening. He was able to sell his refined sickle for 400 magic crystals, not to mention the other weapons he had sold that day.
Angel looks down from the highest-paid tasks and picked out each task he could take on.
For tasks above 1,000 magic crystals, he saw some which he can actually refine. But he considered the efficiency of the tasks as well as some thoughts on keeping a low profile, so he directly gave some of them up.
Angel noticed the price of weapons that need customization are generally very high. People are willing to pay close to 50 magic crystals for even those non-advanced cla.s.s customized weapons. Advanced cla.s.s customized weapon tasks cost even more at over 500 magic crystals on average.
He only has ten days left and had no plans to meet each task publisher one by one. So he chose tasks which were less demanding, easy to refine and have the best materials already prepared.
Angel selected seven tasks at once, and the total reward has exceeded 3,000 magic crystals.
After selecting the tasks, Angel didn’t head to the counter at first to hand them all over. But instead went looking for information on the announcement board on the lower-left area of the big screen. Most of the messages on the announcement board are closely related to wizard apprentices.
The news about the Purification Garden was published unexpectedly.
Angel continues looking down at the messages. The next message below the Purification Garden is about the upcoming opening of the second Frost Moon Channel.
Angel casually looks at the announcement board again, and there was little information worth paying attention to. He turned around and picked out a counter with a slightly smaller number of people and walked over to it.
The vast majority of service staff members were ordinary people. So, in the face of transcendent people. They all show enough respect.
Angel recited the task numbers he had chosen.
Many people are taking on multiple tasks at one time, so the service staff member didn’t think too much about it: “Sir, please show me your bone card.”
Angel handed over his bone card. After a while, the service staff member had a strange expression on his face: “Sir, your task record is zero. So if you want to receive these tasks, you need to first pay a 10% deposit of the remuneration for each task. And…”
The service staff member was suddenly interrupted. A young man in a gorgeous white robe came up from behind Angel and said: “Moreover, for the task publishers who brought their own materials, you will need to pay for some of the materials in advance.”
The service staff member froze, nodded and said: “This gentleman is correct.”
Angel frowned at this unknown young man.
The young man smiled at Angel and said: “I’m sorry, I just accidentally overheard the task numbers you picked up. So I knew you were picking up alchemy tasks…”
Accidentally overheard? Angel doesn’t believe him. This man definitely wasn’t behind him before. Clearly, it was only when the service staff member received his bone card query that he came towards him.
Angel gave a sneer and glanced at the service staff member. The other party bowed his head and dared not look directly at him.
This seems to be the case.
The white-robed youth didn’t seem to care about being seen through by Angel. Instead of talking about his tactic of buying off the service staff member, he continued to say with a smile: “Excuse me for asking, are you an alchemy wizard?”
Angel said with a straight face: “Does this have anything to do with you?”
The white-robed youth didn’t care about Angel’s indifference and continues smiling as he said: “Please don’t be so indifferent towards me. I have a great deal of respect for alchemy wizards. Although I used some small means, but even if I didn’t use them, others would use them. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him directly. Countless people are observing every task you take on.”
The service staff member who was called out by the white-robed youth shuddered and responded after a while: “It’s true.”
Angel’s face grew darker: “Did you inform the others too?”
The service staff member shook his head and said: “Not yet.”
The young man in the white robe said: “My offer is much higher than the others. So I should be the first one to hear the news. However, when talking with you, I should have attracted the attention of the others. I think the others will soon probably notice you, too.”
“Just because I took on alchemy tasks?” Angel frowned.
The white-robed youth also frankly admitted: “Yes that’s right. You have to know how precious alchemy wizards are here. My task has been published for nearly half a year, and no one has taken it up. You can imagine what it’s like for others. However, you don’t have to worry about other people, including me. We are just trying to get close to alchemy wizards. Apart from a very small number of people, no one will dare treat you badly.”
Angel asked: “Do you belong to that very small number of people?”
The white-robed youth was stupefied. Even if he was asked whether he had any malicious intent towards Angel, there would be no way he would admit to it. Only then did the white-robed youth notice that Angel was too young, probably not even sixteen years old yet. At this age, he hasn’t been completely immersed into the darkness of the world and will probably expect people to have some human nature. No wonder he asked such a childish question.
“Of course not.” The white-robed youth denied: “So, will you listen to what I want to say?”
“What do you want to say?” Angel asked.
“It’s still the same question from before, sir. Are you an alchemy wizard?” The white-robed young man asked.
Angel pondered for a moment before nodding to admit it.
The white-robed youth’s eyes brightened: “That’s great! I’m not going to speak any more nonsense. I saw you. Sir, take the advanced cla.s.s alchemy weapon tasks. So would you happen to be interested in task 5428?”