We put the brick back and met back up with the others, who were just finished up stripping the rat king for parts. They all had backpacks to carry the pieces out in, and between the three of them the got most of the necessary stuff. The bags were normal, because spatial bags were almost always at least F rank, so they could only hold so much of the giant rat beast, and we ended up leaving quite a bit behind.

On the way back Celine gushed to Callie and I about the fight. "That was absolutely incredible. The way you worked together so seamlessly and how strong you were. I know it isn't exactly a small request, but would you consider pairing up with us for the scavenger hunt? Like I said, less than ten people can be counted as a single group for most things. With your abilities we would get much further, and I have some excellent tricks of my own. Especially if we end up in a forest. Between Jessie and I we would have quite the advantage."

Which brought up something I'd completely forgotten asking. "Right, you never said. Where is this scavenger hunt? I asked about it but got distracted. You said IF there's trees. Does that mean you don't know? Or that they change the place each time to present a bigger challenge?"

She shook her head. "Yes and no. It is held in the wilderness outside the city, but the location changes every year. We know the basics but nothing more. It prevents any undue preparation before the event. Regardless there are lots of wooded areas in the wilderness, so it's at least a decent bet that there may be trees. I would be invaluable in any sort of forested area we may end up in."

I bit my lip. "How about the points? We all get an even share of the winnings? Same way the mission works?" I wasn't against getting some help. In a straight fight Grimmengap weren't up to my standard, but they had other skills that would be helpful. I was pretty sure Sarah could heal for one, and until Jessie got her first aid skill up and synergized it that wasn't likely to be a skillset we had access to.

Luckily it seemed like things were consistent, she nodded, clearly relieved that I seemed to be receptive. "Yes, points distributed to all eligible team members. Usually enough to bump most of them a decent way up the rankings, though they tend to fall back down pretty quickly, since they don't have the skills or power to compete with those naturally there. Still, it often results in quite a boost to reputation and therefore power. The winner almost never falls back down quite as low as they were before."

That made sense. I wondered exactly how far the win would push me. Hell, I wondered exactly how far this mission would push me. It was a small mission but I was close enough to four hundred thousand to make it past that wall I was pretty sure. We made it back to the Academy in good time, and we took the supplies to the crafting hall to turn them in. The workshop that had posted the mission was called Titans Crest, and they were forking out the payment themselves. Apparently it was possible to actually spend contribution points like that, but pretty much no one but Crafters ever did it.

The two men waiting for us were a pair of brothers with bushy red beards, both about six foot five and twice as wide as me through the shoulders. They had on leather aprons and welding goggles, and looked positively gleeful when they saw the rat king materials, at least until they noticed the eyes missing. The one on the left, Byron apparently (his brother was Myron) scowled at us. "The payment was for the eyes too. We have a trade set up with an alchemist for a rare ore in exchange for those. You didn't complete the mission."

Celine slammed down a piece of paper. "The mission was an elimination. The material harvest was an additional objective. We found and killed the rat king, we completed the mission as posted. The points calculated can be adjusted based on the completion of the additional objectives, but keep in mind the eyes are listed separately. If you try to screw us on the harvesting bonus it could easily get out that you don't honor your contracts. I can't imagine it would make commissioning hunts any easier if everyone suddenly started hearing you don't pay up when you say you will."

The elf girl was all business, eyes cold as she stared down the two brothers who were even taller than I was. They were both G rankers too, but she had no fear basically threatening to destroy them. I could see why Benny was so interested, she was kind of scary, in a good way. Myron's face twisted into an identical mirror of Byron's annoyed scowl. "Enough, By. She's right. We obviously aren't paying for the eyes, but the rest of it we have to pay up for. This is why I didn't want to post it as an elimination mission. I told you this shit might happen."

Byron sulked. "I didn't want to pay the full point total. The Academy wanted the rat king gone, so we got it subsidized. It's still cheaper than if we'd just posted the damn thing as a material acquisition job ourselves. G rank missions always cost an arm and a leg." His tone was stubborn, but more like he was trying to hold onto his pride than any sort of actual belief in what he was saying. I was guessing they'd had a big argument and he wasn't willing to lose face by admitting he was wrong there, even if he contradicted himself.

Myron rolled his eyes. Or at least, I assumed he did. The guy was wearing those same welding goggles, but the motion of his head made it seem like he was eye rolling. He reached into his shirt and pulled out his coin. "Alright. A thousand points for the kill, a hundred apiece for the bones and hide. Only one tail, but it's a big one. We were hoping it was a horde type, but the tail is more durable post convergence anyway, so a hundred for that one too. Thirteen hundred seven times is ninety one hundred points total."

Byron smirked. "Our subsidy was ten thousand, we still made a net profit here. Guess I was right after all." I decided not to point out his bitching about the eyes, mostly because we were about to get paid and this guy seemed petty enough to sit here and argue all day about this. We held out our coins and I watched Myron touch his coin to ours one after the other. His rank jumped up over and over with each tap and ours all dropped.

I was curious how the actual math for the points worked. I'd gotten points from the battledome and from the test, but I didn't know how many points, or what the income was, just that I'd gotten them. Which meant combined with scalin difficulty I had no clue what my rank would be after I got the points from this mission. Myron tapped my coin, and the points transferred over, and I grinned as I watched the number on the coin plummet. The rank getting lower and lower, closer to first and the top of the heap, but with quite a ways to go still.

My ranking had been four hundred and six thousand two hundred and eighth place, I'd expected to have been bumped down, but it seemed like the lower I got the bigger the gap between ranks, and I'd managed to hold onto that. When his coin touched mine it dropped down past four hundred thousand to three hundred ninety six thousand five hundred and ten. Not nearly as big a jump as before, but it hadn't been that many points I guessed, and I WAS getting lower in the rankings so it was bound to slow down.

I nodded to the burly bearded man and stepped away to let him get the others. I was pretty happy with this job overall. I'd learned some things about the Heartrippers that would help me keep tabs on them, I'd gotten to fight a big ass rat monster that had been tough as nails, and I got a pretty big boost to my ranking, which was bound to help me improve faster. Benny came over, having finished getting paid and nodded to me jovially. "Well, this was a fun day." He turned to Callie, who was making her way over now as well. "So what do we have on the agenda until the scavenger hunt boss."

Callie nodded to me. "We take advantage of the one thing we have that others don't. We need to get you and Jessie to G rank as soon as possible." I was glad she was having the same thoughts on that as I was. She also kept it vague to make sure no one overheard. "Did Celine tell you exactly when the scavenger hunt is by the way? We've talked about it plenty and I know it's soon, but I don't think anyone has mentioned exactly when it's taking place. How long do we have to prepare? Also can we bring in outside contractors?" I was thinking about how much of a help Cark could be.

Benny looked unsure, so we turned to wait for Celine, who came over looking pleased with herself. When we posed her the question she flushed a bit. " In regards to outsiders, as long as they're registered and within the bounds of student power level they're allowed. Connections are a power all their own, so if you can recruit a G ranker feel free. Though I wouldn't worry about it too much. Only recruits from the other cities and the seeds or children of local power players will have reached your level.Ah, did I not mention that? Apologies. I got a bit excited and didn't give you all the necessary information. It takes place in two weeks. I realize the timing is a bit tight, but remember that most of the freshman will be H rankers still."

Which would have been much more reassuring if we weren't potentially looking at literally hundreds or thousands of sleepers scattered throughout the freshman class. H rank or not enough ants could take down an elephant. Plus there were obviously G rankers mixed in. We needed the others up to G rank to safely handle anything that came up. Luckily they tried to avoid being impressive from what I knew, and while G rankers in general could be middle of the pack freshman who hit that level were usually pretty noteworthy.

I was also hopeful the puppet master had some sort of limit for number of sleepers, or at least number of sleepers active at one time. Our only real advantage was that since this was a scavenger hunt and people were spread out we might not run into many of them. We could avoid meeting up with sleepers with my Seek Hidden, but I couldn't use it all the time, so in the end being prepared was our only option. Benny had been working on some new devices to integrate, and combined with the upcoming rank ups we should be able to hold our own out there. I shook off my worries, what would come would come.

We said our goodbyes to Grimmengap, arranging a few check ins and a meet up in two weeks for the actual hunt, and then we headed for our car to get back to the house. Fourteen days to get the points needed for the two of them to reach G rank, it should be enough. They would have to work hard to get enough skill experience to trade me for the points, and Benny had work to do inventing once his time was done, but we would be ready. In any case, I couldn't pretend I wasn't excited. A massive free for all of all the freshman, with assassins mixed in to spice things up? This was going to be fun.