Chapter 80: Chapter Eighty

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 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 effect 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 the 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.

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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  the 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.

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