18th Hour, The Black Dragon Sect Mission Center:

Fenghuang Yu entered the mission center having left the Fire Mana classroom with the rest of the students, despite her inability to participate in the closing demonstration of skill against the target dummies. She saw several interesting skills which gave her a few ideas on which skill to get; once she actually managed it that is.

Unfortunately, going straight from class meant she did not have time to eat or bathe. But Vice Leader Long Mingchen said she was supposed to report to her “punishment” in her next free block and it was getting late so she did not want to take the chance of missing Elder Ting by stopping for dinner. The food was available at all times after all, so she could eat later.

Yu walked to the circular counter for people who needed information, to turn things in, or to get various addendums or equipment for a mission. Yu went to the information area and asked to speak with Elder Ting. The outer sect disciple behind the desk looked at her skeptically and asked, “Your name and for what purpose?”

“Fenghuang Yu and I have an appointment.”

The disciple opened his mouth with a sneer and said, “An appointment? Do you have any proof of your supposed appointment or are you just here to beg like the rest?”

Yu blinked. “Huh?” Beg for what, help with a mission?

“You know.” And his tone turned into a high pitched simper, “I need an extension, elder. Those beasts were so much stronger than I expected, elder,” then normal speaking, “and my personal favorite,” back to the simper, “my beast ate the herbs, elder.” Then he sighed and shook his head. “People come up with the most ridiculous excuses for failing missions. It boggles my mind. Why take on a mission you can’t complete? Putting all their points on the line when there are far less risky and almost as rewarding ways to earn points is a good way to get themselves expelled. Right?”

Yu listened to his rant, a little astonished at his public display, and said, “Umm. I suppose? But I’m not-”

“Exactly!” he exclaimed while pointing at her. “I mean mission difficulty is not just there for show. We rate them that way on purpose so folks know what they are capable of taking on and not. If you had just one meridian open, would you go traipsing around in the forest hunting beasts? No. You. Wouldn’t.” His previously pointing finger was jabbing down onto the bamboo desk with each of the final three words.

Yu had in fact done that, but she did not have any meridians at the time. Her teacher had tossed her out on her butt back when she was only at the second level of Foundation stage before she even had more than a few bones enhanced with Qi. That was a stage and seven levels prior to even attempting to open a meridian. Not that she was going to tell this obviously passionate disciple about it.

“Umm. I promise to take your words to heart and not overreach. I don’t know your name, disciple. I’m Fenghuang Yu and I have an appointment with Elder Ting. Could you let her know that I am here? Please?”

He looked at her curiously now. “You’re not here about a mission failure?”

Yu shook her head. “No. I haven’t failed any missions to my knowledge. I really do have an appointment.”

He was obviously skeptical as he looked hesitant to believe her, but apparently got over it because he stood up and said, “Wait here, please.”

Yu nodded and stood perfectly still, not wanting to risk another lecture on the obvious absurdity of disciples attempting to push themselves. Yu found it ironic that a disciple whose way of getting points was to sit behind a desk and listen to other people’s questions about risking themselves would take it upon himself to lecture them on risking themselves to earn points. Well, there were all types in the world.

“What the Fuck?!” yelled out from near the board. Then a vibrating clack echoed through the hall as a tall male disciple who appeared maybe 17ish stomped his foot. “Who took it? I need to find out who took it!” He was turning his head this way and that trying to find whoever it was that took the mission he was so passionate about. Yu was surprised to see this disciple was one of the few who had shaved their head bald.

Either way, it didn’t matter to her. Yu shrugged and turned back to wait for Elder Ting. A moment later she heard stomping and the student pushed past her right up to the desk and called, “Cheng Huo! Where are you? Who took our mission!”

The disciple from before was returning with Elder Ting behind him and Yu was about to step forward when the elder asked firmly, “Disciple Bao, why are you yelling in my mission center?”

The boy, Yu actually took a good look at him then and saw he was two heads taller than her, was broad-shouldered, and visibly well-muscled. “Elder, someone took the monthly food collection mission. The Bao Consortium reserved it.”

Elder Ting raised a thin gray eyebrow and said, “We do not share such information, as you well know. If someone took a mission you wanted, take care of it within the sect rules. Now stop causing a disturbance in my building.” Then she looked beyond him to Yu and smiled thinly. “Ah. Disciple, Fenghuang Yu. Please come around to the side.”

Yu nodded and started walking around the circular desk to an opening along the far wall. Disciple Bao, certainly another from one of her least favorite clans, did not give up though. “Elder, the Bao Consortium reserved it fair and square and we need the name. I’ll have to ask my uncle to intervene if you don’t give us the name.”

Elder Ting stiffened and turned towards the boy. “Disciple Bao, if Elder Bao Shi comes to speak with me about this topic I will tell him the same thing I am telling you. We do not share our mission records. And if you ever want to be offered another mission in the future, I think you should leave my building. Immediately.” She hissed that last word.

Clearly she was not intimidated by the threat of the Bao Consortium or this boy’s uncle. Yu met the elder and turned to follow when Yu heard from behind them, “We’ll see!”

Elder Ting huffed and spoke to Yu rather than responding. “You will be spending your time here learning how missions are requested, rated, posted, and measured. For today you will start reviewing the hundreds of requests we receive and separating them into types. As you were told in your Welcoming, quests fall under one of five types. Do you recall those types?”

Yu nodded and said, “Yes, elder. Maintenance, crafting, gathering, beast hunting, and bounties.”

“Excellent. You will look through the various request parchments and put that parchment in a basket. Your next time here will be learning how we rate the difficulty. Ah, here we are.”

Yu and Elder Ting entered a round room containing six baskets as wide around as Yu was tall and up to her waist. Five were lined up against one wall with wooden labels for the quest types hanging from them, while the last was in the center and was labeled, “Requests.”

Yu was surprised to see this was all done manually instead of through the enchanted jade tablets which seem to be prevalent throughout the sect.

“I can tell by your searching look, you are surprised at the parchments rather than tablets. The reason is simple. So the disciples can earn points doing the work.”

Yu nodded. That made sense to her.

Elder Ting continued, “All requests from both inside and outside the sect must be submitted on parchment in a specific format or they are rejected. Also, requests that are outlandish or mispriced are rejected before they get in this basket. You won’t have to worry about that because you wouldn’t learn anything relevant. This is the best way to learn about missions. Work on this for a few hours and feel free to go when you feel you have done enough. I will be leaving soon as well so there is no need to check with me. Have a lovely evening, Disciple Yu.”

Yu bowed to her as she left, turned towards the center basket, and picked out a rolled parchment.

Requestor: Senior Alchemist Jianshen

Value: 20 points per week

Request Details:

I require a disciple to clean my alchemy lab three days per week at 7th hour. They must be sufficiently coordinated and careful enough to not knock over my things. Anything damaged or destroyed will be charged to the disciple.

This was obviously an example of a maintenance mission. It seemed quite straight forward and Yu placed it in the proper basket.

For the next twoish hours, Yu went through the various requests. Elder Ting was right. It was both interesting and educational. At least half of the requests were maintenance. Half of those remaining were gathering. The majority of the rest were beast hunting for various parts and pieces of demonic beasts. Only a handful weren’t specific to sect-owned areas around the mountain, but for those few, a personal flying mount was needed to get to the location and back.

Yu found the crafting missions interesting. And full of potential because most involved enchanting in one way or another. She could do little immediately, but after gaining some expertise, hopefully she would be able to earn points and train enchanting at the same time.

The last group and with the fewest number of requests were those that involved hunting humans for points. Most of the bounties were for criminals to be killed and brought in. A small few were locate or rescue missions. The latter were marked urgent and Yu placed them in a basket she missed before. It was a smaller basket hanging over the edge of the bounty basket. Either way, proof was needed to be provided in the form of a living person, a body, or a head.

Yu had to admit she struggled with those. To her knowledge, she had yet to kill a human and she was not sure she wanted to; although some of the crimes listed made her furious enough to kill. That said, Yu acknowledged she had to complete those missions to advance in the sect so deciding how to deal with it was in her future one way or another. Interestingly, the sect was paid in silver or service for those. So someone would build or craft or just outright pay for the head of a human. Yu was far more ignorant than she realized.

That was pretty much all she could take and it was getting late. Yu needed to eat and get home. She trusted the girls to take care of Bai but she and the cub should really have been spending more time together. She could feel his worry through their bond, even if it was barely there, like an itch in her mind. Yu stood, patted herself down, and walked out.