Chapter 103
“In the same way that kilojoules are a measure of ATP, the amount of mana expended is measured in watts, although few people think about how much energy each reaction takes, if you want to maximize your enthalpy usage, you’d have to think about your wattage cost at least once in a while.”
Seeing that I had some interest in the subject, Destiny continued to talk about the concepts of mana and experience with some exuberance almost like she was reading from a textbook, although that was likely because she had. Even I had a feeling she didn’t understand some of these concepts and it was more that she had been forced to memorize them than that she understood anything.
As for me, it was difficult to get around the names, which while familiar, were also odd. I took a few physics classes in college, but it wasn’t my area of expertise, so I didn’t know how kilojoules translated to energy usage. I knew that a kilojoule of energy wasn’t all that much at all, but the kilojoule of mana didn’t seem to be directly comparable. At least, when I mentioned electricity, being related to kilojoules, she quickly shot that way of thinking down.
“A lightning bolt indeed has mana in it, but that mana is tiny.” She shook her head. “Ah, we’ve arrived.”
She had been speaking the entire time, so our trip across town seemed to end in an instant. We were standing in front of a building stylized like a pagoda. She gestured with a smile, and I followed her to the first floor. Rather than some tavern-like setting, the place had the feel more like a museum. It was quiet, and the walls were lined with portraits, although upon a closer look, I realized that those portraits were contracts written with a somewhat beautiful calligraphy which reminded me of Erika’s penmanship.
“Welcome to the request board.” A young woman with her hair up, glasses, and a delicate expression approached and spoke in a soft tone. “May I help you find or make a request?”
“It’s this guy’s first time,” Destiny spoke far louder than necessary without concern for the environment. “Why don’t you give him the fall spiel.”
“Of course, as the lady wishes.” The woman nodded to her before turning to me. “There is always a need for requests to be completed. There are seven floors in this building. As you climb, the reward as well as the respective difficulty will increase accordingly. To accept a quest, all you need to do is purchase a quest medallion.”
“A quest medallion?” I asked.
She pulled out a medallion and showed it to me. It was a circular disk, half white and half black, similar to the yin-yang symbol.
“You must purchase one of these to begin a mission. It costs only one piece of gold. With it, you can accept any mission you wish. Simply hold the coin to the contract you wish to accept, and then it will become active. You can only have one request active at a time. The medallion will assess the completion of your request. Should you succeed, return here and scan the contract again. The reward will then unlock automatically.”
“So, it’s all done like a card chip,” I muttered as I marveled at this world’s convenience.
Generally, the world seemed behind in technology compared to the world I came from. There were no cars, airplanes, or air conditioning. Yet, they still seemed to have some of that technology in other ways. There were vehicles and flying devices, but they just weren’t common out in the country, or so I heard. This very quest board was cooler inside than outside, so it had to have some kind of climate control. The medallion also seemed to be able to emulate a credit card in many ways.
“Excuse me?” She asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“Never mind that.” I put away the medallion after giving her the gold piece she asked for. “What is your highest paying quest?”
“Of course, there are a broad range of difficulty levels. Each level is divided based on the difficulty. It is generally assumed the first level is open to all people, but the 2nd tier requires someone to evolve, and each subsequent level coincides with that respective tier. That said, the difficulty can vary drastically within each level. So, even though a mortal can do all level one quests, skill and a party would be needed to do the highest-level quests on this floor.”
“Alright,” I responded, continuing to look at her.
Her lips tightened slightly as she saw me continuing to remain unmoved. “Well, the best quest on the 1st floor would be a quest to hunt infernal wolves. Although I saw you can only do one mission at a time, there are technically two missions when it comes to the infernal wolves. You can be paid simply per kill, but if you can kill without damaging their pelt, the pelts can be sold as a bonus. You can gain 1 watt per wolf, but a good pelt could sell for as much as 10 watts.”
“Is that-“ I began.
“Are you trying to get him killed?” Destiny snapped. “Infernal wolves? They move in packs, and their leader is twice as strong as the others. Even a high-level evolved would die if he tried to take them on, never mind a mortal!”
The woman’s eyebrow twitched slightly, but she maintained her composure. “As I was saying, this is a task for a top-tier party. There is a reason it pays so well. I wasn’t implying that he should attempt such a task on his own…”
“On his own…” Destiny made a face. “Even a party of evolved could die on this mission.”
The woman let out a sigh but didn’t speak back.
“It doesn’t matter,” I spoke up. “I wasn’t interested in that anyway.”
“Exactly.” Destiny nodded as if this was inevitable.
“It doesn’t pay enough. What do you offer from the 7th floor?”
For a moment, the two stared in confusion. Finally, after a few awkward moments, Destiny broke out into a giggle. The other woman’s expression narrowed.
“If you’re not going to take things seriously, I suggest you don’t waste my time.” The woman in glasses responded coldly.
I blinked. “Did I say something wrong?”
“I didn’t know you were a joker.” Destiny covered her mouth as she looked at me with amusement. “You think you can handle a mission on the 7th floor? That requires someone of the 7th tier, a king, likely requiring several of them. Do you think there would even be a mission of that difficulty? It’d be strange if the 6th tier even had one. It’d likely be a world-ending emergency if multiple lords were needed to handle a situation. However, even if it’s the 5th floor, only the Prestiged can go to that spot. It’s not for the likes of you or me.”
I wanted to let out a sigh. I was just asking. Since these missions were completely anonymous, I was thinking about covertly completing some high-tier missions and getting the debt paid off quickly. Of course, I’d need to confirm that anonymity first. However, I had multiple methods to hide myself, and with the proper preparation, it was doable.
“Why even have a sixth and seventh floor if there are no quests of that level?” I muttered to myself unhappily.
“It’s a relic of a different age. In the past, people used to be more evolved. Evolution has seemingly stagnated since then.” Destiny sighed.
“There is one request on the 7th floor.” The girl with glasses seemed to just want to make the other girl wrong.
“Eh?”
“It was issued thousands of years ago.” She responded with some energy, almost like this was a source of pride for their establishment.
“The person who made it must be dead!” Destiny frowned. “Unless they’re an immortal?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Her glasses flashed as she adjusted them. “The award is provided upfront. Unless a person cancels the request, it can remain up indefinitely until it is canceled. There are still quests that have been ongoing for ten years either because they are for some reason undoable or pay too little for their request.”
“Don’t you account for unfair quests?” I asked with some interest.
“We do, but conditions can change from when the request was made. For example, someone can request a common ingredient, but then a plague can come and wipe out the ingredient, making it rare. Many standing requests asked to gather ingredients until the amount of awards ran out, and that amount was never reached. Some of those ingredients are worth more in the auction than one could make fulfilling the request.”
“I see… and about that 7th floor quest…”
“Destiny! There you are!” A voice broke in before I could get the information I was seeking.
A muscular young man in armor and a cloak walked into the building with five other soldiers beside him. Destiny’s expression sank as soon as she saw him.
“Crap, not him again…” Destiny started hiding behind me.
It seemed like it was going to be even more trouble.
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