“Firstly the merit awards. 500 for third place, 1000 for the second, and 2000 for first. There are also orbs.” Milosh said and opened the first chest. There was an azure orb with a pair of boots swimming inside.

“This is a wind elemental boot orb. It can double the user's speed and unleash devastating wind attacks. Use it wisely.” Milosh said as he handed the chest to Safire.

“Thank you, sir.” Safire took it happily and kept it on her lap.

Next, Milosh removed a pinkish orb with some sort of a letter swimming inside it.

“A rune orb?” Safire asked in surprise.

Miles looked at the rune and Milosh with confusion. Milosh started to explain, “Rune-type of orbs are one-time orb, but their effects can last for a long time. You can use this type of orb on any surface, and the surface will take the power inside the orb.

This orb is barrier elemental, and if you use it on armor, the armor will have a solid barrier rune that can be activated at will. As long as that part of the armor is not destroyed, the rune will work just fine. This is damn too precious to be wasted on newbies like you, but it is the reward. Here, use it wisely.”

“Will do, sir.” Alex took the chest and sat back.

“Welp, the previous two rewards are basically nothing compared to this one,” Milosh said and removed an orb in blood-red color. It looked like a normal orb, but Miles felt the orb’s difference with a glance. Miles hardly held his gasp. ‘Blood Orb.’

“This is a Skill Orb. When melted by the energy it gives a skill. Because they can only be used once, we don’t know what type of skill this orb contains, but we can predict from the silhouette inside and the monster’s abilities.

So far, Skill Orbs only looted from humanoid monsters. The reason is unknown, but the most plausible explanation is that it is related to the advanced brain.

As you can see, this orb has an arm with scars on it. Although it is too vague, when you add the monster’s abilities, it is not that hard to guess.” Milosh explained slowly.

“What were the monster’s abilities, sir?” Miles asked. He felt his mouth going dry.

“The monster was a dangerous demon baby. I don’t know if you ever heard of demon babies, but they are troublesome little things that can regenerate endlessly. Cutting off a limb doesn’t kill them, and decapitating them only increases their number.

There is only one way to kill demon babies, that is destroying them in one fell swoop. Otherwise, they will keep on regenerating or clone themselves.

Luckily this demon baby was only low-tier, and Feline Industries decided to use it to sponsor the newbie competition, as its abilities are limited to Form-Rank.” Milosh said and pushed the chest towards Miles.

“Thank you, sir,” Miles said and took the chest from the table.

“Now, since the competition ended and rewards were given, you are finally eligible to accept quests from the academy. Unlike working in the city, quests given by the academy are quite rewarding.

The ranking still affects the priority of quests, and you can even form teams to finish them. Soon, second-year teams will come and talk to you about teams and will invite you. You can join them or create your own, or if you wish you can do a solo quest. Whatever is your choice. Now, beat it, kids.”

Three of them left the office with the chests in their arms. Miles was thinking deeply when Alex patted his shoulder.

“I say, let’s look at the quest center,”

“Sure.” Miles nodded and they walked towards the administrative area between freshman and sophomores. Outside of the Student’s Affairs Office, there was a holographic telepathic screen floating in the air. One could reach out their mind limbs to look for quests. It allowed people to filter quests and look at the same time, without blocking others.

Miles and Alex walked to the Quest Board and started to skim through them.

“Hunt the Invisible Knight!

An invisible monster terrorized the area close to the stronghold. It is estimated to be a humanoid monster with invisibility. Its rank is at least middle-tier.

Recommended party: 20 Mid-Tier or 5 high-tier

Reward: 1000 Merit Points”

Miles looked at the quest in pondering. The reward was too little for 20 people, but the monster was also just mid-tier. Although it was a humanoid monster and there was a chance for it to drop an artifact, it still wasn't a favorable quest.

Of course, there were also a few high-tier students in the academy. Even among the sophomores, only half were in the mid-tier.

Of course, if the reward was higher, students wouldn’t miss it but as it was, it wasn’t worth it. Firstly, the risk of injury or death was too high. Secondly, because of invisibility, the required party reduced the merit points per person.

Miles looked at a few quests. All of them were quests that could be solved by citizens living in the city, but the Academy was keeping these for students. After all, students couldn’t pay for monthly academy fees by hunting alone, if they weren’t lucky as Miles and Alex. Let alone buying weapons for themselves.

Working in companies or finishing quests were only a few ways to earn quick cash. Of course, these companies weren’t baseless. Most of them were branches of big companies or families in Unity. They would make contact in the academy to lure them into their companies in the mainland later on.

As Miles was pondering, Alex nudged him to look at one of the quests. Miles reached out his mind limb to Alex and saw which quest he was pointing at.

“Visit the Capital!

Dean Milosh needs items that need to be fetched from the capital.

Requirement: The student has to be a freshman and must have used at least 5 strengthening serums!

Duration: Two weeks.

Reward: 1 Merit.”

Miles looked at the quest in bewilderment and couldn’t help but say, “What the fuck?”