Chapter 84: Chapter Eighty Four

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 is 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  soft 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.

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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.

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