CHAPTER 41: PRELUDE TO THE FIRST MISSION

"These are the newest members of the fold, well, pending until they become initiates, but I trust that outcome. In time, make sure to get familiar, but for now we’ll be heading off for a mission."

She had introduced the four of them. Frankly, the other mages already knew they were the newest Academy mages, and their being there that morning meant they were part of the guild.

But given how mad the captain had been in the early hours of the morning, no one was in the right mood or could think straight enough to come say hello. Not when they needed to scamper out of the captain’s sight.

However, one by one, they all started saying, "Welcome to the guild."

The four new Academy mages simply nodded in acknowledgment.

Katherine then turned toward Piers and said, "Yes, Piers, read out the mission’s details," while resting her arm on the hilt of her sword strapped to her side.

"Yes, Captain!" Piers replied, as he pulled out a neatly folded paper from his pocket.

This was the mission deployment notice that had the details of said mission written out. It had been delivered to their guild much earlier that morning.

"So it reads as follows," Piers began.

"Captain Katherine, you are expected to take your newly inducted Academy mages to the town of Tarrin and see to it that the Dungeon Break is brought to an end."

"Dungeon Break?" Katherine asked with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, Captain," Piers replied.

"What’s the stated mission’s difficulty?" she asked.

"C-Rank," Piers replied again.

"Hmm..." Katherine went into a contemplative expression, then said, "Go on, Piers."

Piers continued. "Please note: The Captain is only there as a supervisor and is not expected to interfere unless it is absolutely necessary to save the life of the mage or other townspeople."

"That is absolutely ridiculous," Katherine said. "They may have the highest magic potential, but a dungeon break is not something Academy mages should be handling. They probably don’t even have techniques yet, nor any field experience."

Arianna immediately spoke up. "Have some more faith in us, Captain."

Katherine turned toward Arianna’s determined face and said, "I understand your confidence, but a dungeon break is no child’s play."

Then Aiden spoke up. "Like she said, Captain, have some faith in us."

Kayden added, "Moreover, it would be insulting if the mission they assigned to us could be considered easy for Academy mages."

Kayden always had that pride. The last thing he would want people to think was that they got an easy mission.

Katherine looked at the determined faces of her new mages for a moment. She sighed resignedly and said, "Alright."

They all nodded in acknowledgment.

"Is that all?" Katherine asked Piers.

"Not yet. It also says here that at the completion of the mission, you’re to report to the Grand Magus with their performance," Piers replied.

He looked up from the paper to the captain’s face and said, "Your report to the Grand Magus will be what she considers in awarding them performance points. Apparently, that’s why you’re a supervisor."

Katherine took one breath in and let it out, then said, "I don’t know what that woman is playing at, but we might as well make the best of it. Those merit stars won’t hurt."

Merit stars were awarded to guild mages who completed missions. The number of stars given was usually based on the difficulty of the mission.

Successfully completed E-rank missions gave 1 star, D gave 2 stars, C gave 3 stars, and so on until S-rank, which gave 6 stars.

Missions above S-rank difficulty would give anywhere from 6 stars and above, depending on individual performances during the mission’s duration.

The total merit stars earned by guild members would in turn be added to the guild’s count.

So if each member of a guild had one star each, and said guild had 30 members, the guild’s merit star count would be 30.

This way, it was much easier to determine a guild’s ranking.

Katherine turned to them. "Are you all ready then?"

"Yes, Captain!" they said in unison.

Piers asked, "Shall I take you guys?"

Katherine’s face broke into a smile as she rubbed Piers’s cheek. "Piers, darling. Don’t worry about this one. It’s their first day, they should get the full experience."

Piers smiled and simply nodded his head in agreement.

His magic was Transport Magic. With it, he was able to go anywhere he saw fit, so long as he had been there before or had a map of where he was going. To this effect, he always used the map of the kingdom in his possession to pick out locations and travel to places he had never been to.

He could also take people with him, with the maximum number of people he could transport being six, including himself.

Katherine started heading out, but before she left the main room, she turned back and said, "Piers and Elena are in charge."

"Yes, Captain!" the others chanted out.

With that, she and the Academy mages left the room.

...

The captain and the mages took the guild’s horses and set out immediately. Each guild had a set number of horses kept in the academy’s stables.

Ravens Grave only had three to their name. It was more of a privilege thing. The number one guild, Fractured Stars, had about twenty-five.

The captain mounted one, Kayden and Arianna mounted one, leaving the last one to Aiden and Laela.

He helped the pretty elven lady up and said in a kind tone, "Hang tight."

Laela simply nodded, and when Katherine saw that they were all ready, she led the way to the town of Tarrin.

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