Once we finished the Might Stone test we caught up with Jessie and went to go find our fourth party member. It wasn't hard to figure out where he was. Benny had been spending every possible free minute with the pretty elf noble and her party whenever we were here. We'd had to go collect him so often we had the route memorized. None of us minded though, Benny did all his actual work at home, so his time here was either shopping or spending time chasing Celine, who didn't seem to mind being chased.

We'd worried about that a bit, but Martin said she would have mentioned if she was feeling pressured. Apparently Benny was far from the first to show interest in the elf girl, and she had no problem telling people to fuck off, and I was happy for Benny that she seemed to return his interest. They spent most of their time discussing the culture here and back on Celine's planet and how they differed, with brief forays into the cultivation system there that Benny kept me apprised of because he knew I had an interest in the subject.

By the time we made it to dorm it was starting to get dark, but we were able to get in easily enough. The dorm wasn't exactly a secure facility, just a doorman who already knew who we were and didn't mind letting us up. Sarah greeted us as we came in the front. "Oh! Hello! Saint Aidan was so pleased with how your meeting went, I'm glad you all got on so well. I assume you're here for Clockwork?" Her tone was bubbly, and it struck me exactly how much more lively she was than the first time I'd seen her down in the sewers hunting goblins.

Benny, for his part, was sitting at the table in the back talking to Celine, and when he heard Sarah address us his head snapped up, shooting us a wide grin. "Hey, you guys are here! I was just talking to Sally about this whole scavenger hunt thing! You guy's heard anything about it?" He was practically bouncing with cheerfulness, which wasn't unusual when he was around Celine. The nickname was new though, and I saw the elf girl's pale cheeks flush a bit, though her expression didn't change at all. Despite my amusement though I was more interested in what he was talking about, I hadn't hear about the scavenger hunt.

At my head shake he opened his mouth, then paused, reconsidered, and gestured for Celine to fill us in. She smiled graciously at him, and I got the impression that was some kind of politics or manners thing from her culture because Benny was practically beaming with pride. She cleared her throat lightly. "The scavenger hunt is an event held for the first year students to get them used to the way the Academy functions. It's an introductory competition. Admission isn't based on the rankings, though they do affect where you start the hunt."

Callie made an interested noise. "That does sound like fun. I take it your team will be signing up? What relation does it have with the other competitions? I know those are based on the rankings. I take it this one had an effect on ranking placement too?" That got my attention. I needed a way to get my ranking up, and if this scavenger hunt was a way to boost myself up and further explain my explosive growth I was all in. Plus Callie was right. A scavenger hunt did sound like it would be a blast.

It was remarkable how calm and collected Celine was about everything. Even her chuckle was aristocratic. "Indeed. Most new students are freshly at the G rank and unable to make any real progress on the faculty tests. Because of that, the first place prize of ranking points is considered one of the most effective ways to get ahead of the pack. Most champions end up in the top ten thousand of the rankings by the next year. The high placement and the fame from the win catapults them forward in points, often allowing incredibly early advancement as well as a head start getting into the rankings for the next big competition."

That made sense. I knew that there were eligibility requirements for the competitions, but not age or year. If you could shoot up in points from winning the scavenger hunt you might be able to grind up enough points to get yourself into another of the competitions before the end of the year. That was one more bit of renown to squeeze out of this place. It would also give me a chance to check out the other newbies to see if I could identify some more Heartrippers. There was a decent chance there would be some among our year.

Thinking back over what she said I did have one question though. "You said ranking can decide placement? What did you mean by that? Is there some kind of strike zone where they drop you? Actually where is the scavenger hunt held? I can't imagine it would be anywhere in the city. This place is a maze and that isn't exactly controllable." The last thing the Academy would want would be some punk ass crime lord accidentally offing one of their elites before they had a chance to make a name for themselves. Wouldn't look good for anyone.

She waggled her hand. "Not exactly placement in a physical sense. More like start time. The hunt begins at a specific time, and you can start earlier based on your placement. They do it in brackets." She looked embarrassed. "Actually it was why I brought it up with Clockwork. I was hoping to enlist your aid in a mission. A number of crafting students paying in mission points have put out a bounty on a G rank monster. We were hoping to complete the mission before the hunt to bolster our rankings. We could pay you for your time."

Benny of course looked eager to agree, and I wasn't against it. I was a bit curious how it would work though. "Are the mission points limited or applied to everyone who takes the job? Like would this bump our ranking up too? And what exactly are you all going to be hunting? Not some kind of G rank super goblin I hope." I would go down into the sewers again if I had to, but I absolutely wanted to avoid it if possible. The place was gross, and it had taken ages to get the smell out of my costume.

The chuckle that elicited was closer to a giggle than anything I'd heard from her. "No, not a super goblin." Her face turned disgusted. "Worse I'm afraid. Apparently there have been reports of a rat king spawning. It's concerning because they don't form naturally, rat's aren't prone to the behaviors that influence their creation. Someone is probably feeding them and organizing them to make the thing. Luckily someone found out early. It's only G rank right now, but rat kings can keep scaling the more rats they incorporate, so we need to hit it as soon as possible.

That sounded...gross. But I could see the need. "So I take it we won't be the only ones looking?" Something this big might not be city wide news, but the mission wasn't going to be limited to just one team either. I was guessing this was something more along the lines of a bounty hunt. Not that it mattered, rat kings were pretty big, even I knew that, and Seek Hidden would lead us right too it. We could beat any of the other teams there, I just wanted to know what kind of resistance I was looking at.

She blew out a breath. "Unfortunately. But my sources have gotten us a basic lead on where to start, so we should be well ahead of any of the others. Regardless, without our own G rank we're functionally incapable of taking on this task. To answer your earlier question as long as the group is less than ten we should all get a full share of points. They don't to encourage people to run off alone, but they're also reticent to pay out too much. Ten has long been considered maximum group size for missions such as this."

That sounded like a win win for us honestly. Got to do some work on our ranks before the big hunt and help out Benny's crush. I only had one more concern about it. "Are we harvesting here? As much as I'd like to believe a bunch of crafters just decided they wanted to make the world a better place with all their crafting income I'm guessing they picked up the tab for this instead of the Academy or the Unity for a reason. What are we supposed to be collecting from the rat king? And how much?"

Another grimace from her. "Yes, we're going to be gathering materials for them. Multiple types. The tails are apparently excellent for whips and bow strings, the hide can be used to make expanding bags, the teeth can gouge through most equivalent rank stone or metal, and the eyes are part of a recipe for a potion of permanent night vision. Eyes from dark dwelling creatures in general tend to be good for that, but the rat kings mutagenic properties make the change permanent if handled right, which is a rare and expensive thing. It's why this mission pays so well."

I could see how that would be attractive to crafters. Hell it was attractive to me. Permanent change potions and pills were crazy expensive. But my mask made it unnecessary for me at the moment anyway, one if it's many amazing features I was still discovering. Zeke's ability was pretty terrifying actually, which made sense for how strong he was. Creating even a lower ranked item this good so casually was exactly what I'd expect of a B rank with what seemed like at least a partial crafting ability. Not that I was sure exactly what rank the mask even was.

Still, her points were all solid, and honestly...I just wanted to do it. Despite all the terrible things that had happened mixed in with the good stuff, I just...I wanted more. More adventure, more power, just...more. My life had been so flat before, so uninteresting, and all of this was just so exciting. I mean sure, I wanted to become the Wishmaster, but that was only so I could get more resources and get stronger. At the end of the day I just wanted to feel ALIVE, and everything about what I'd been doing since I got here did that.

Benny was similar in a way, but different. He wanted to BE more. I knew it had always bothered him what a backwater this planet was. My friend was just ambitious, making a name for himself would be enough for him. For me making a name for myself was a means to an end. I just wanted to experience more of this absolute anarchy. More recursion and nonsense and violence and power. So I agreed. Because why wouldn't I. "Sure, we'll help you out, we definitely want to rank up before the hunt, and in general we don't want to turn down a friend."

Of course, aside from all that I had another reason. Celine had said someone was probably feeding the rat king, and I knew at least one faction who seemed to be doing everything they could to cause problems around the city. When we went down to get the thing I would look around, because maybe whoever or whatever was doing the feeding was connected to the Heartrippers. And if they weren't? Well, picking a fight with another underground society wouldn't be the worst outcome. At least it wouldn't be boring.