The first task Emery and his new pack took on was successfully completed without any problems. When the three of them returned to the Wolf Guild to report the completion, they were awarded 200 fame points and their status was upgraded according to their achievement.
[Evan Valerious]
[Fame Points: 200/1000]
[Grade: E]
Following their upgraded rank, Emery could now take on higher and more dangerous assignments. With their bodies still stained with the blood of the Fire Ants, Emery chose another short-duration task that would be suitable for his current team.
[Rank E Quest]
[Acquire Golden Silk, medium threat - 275 points]
The Golden Silk requested was not the kind harvested from harmless silkworms, but silk produced by spider-like creatures with pitch-black carapaces called Silk Spiders. It was another task that involved diving into a cave located several miles from Silvermane City, so that was exactly what they did.
Killing the dozens of Silk Spiders entrenched in the cave network took the three of them several hours and gathering the Golden Silk took even longer. In the meantime, Emery decided to gather more than needed to complete the task, to keep for himself.
After reporting the completion of the Rank E quest, Emery and his pack of three continued to take on more similar tasks.
[Hunt Moghulis, medium threat - 250 fame points]
The Moghulis was a Legendary creature with rock-like skin and gargantuan body. They were normally seen in the hilly ranges hundreds of miles away from Silvermane City.
Emery and his pack went on a half a day journey before they finally arrived at their destination. The completion of the task itself only took a few minutes as they quickly found and killed the gigantic creature, cutting off its horns as proof, at which point they traveled back to the city in another half a day journey.
Fortunately, along the way back and forth, they also found and hunted two more Legendary creatures that they randomly encountered.
As soon as they reported their success, Emery continued and took another task.
[Gather Glanthus Nivalis, medium threat - 375 fame points]
The next task only required collecting five stalks of a flower named Glanthus Nivalis. However, the plant's habitat laid at the bottom of an underground lake filled with various creatures.
After walking through the dark cave leading to the lake, Emery cast his basic nature spell [Water Breathing] on his three subordinates. Diving into the underground lake, they ended up fighting several high-level magical creatures, before finally being able to collect the flower.
Once again, Emery found interest in this rare plant and decided to pick up a few extra to bring back.
Finally, after reporting the completion of their fourth task, they managed to upgrade their grade to the next level.
[Evan Valerious]
[Fame Points: 1,100/10,000]
[Grade: D]
Now he just needed to rise another level to finally fulfill the minimal requirement to join the Royal Hunt. However, the amount of fame points he needed to obtain for that had increased tremendously.
Realizing it would take a dozen high-level tasks at the very least to reach such a number, Emery decided to put a halt on his streak for now, returning to the inn and taking the break they needed.
Just as they were about to leave, the foxgirl guild attendant stopped him in his tracks with a question.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you not want to trade your points?"
"Trade?"
Thanks to the short but concise explanation given by the fox girl, Emery learned the fame points he had gathered could actually be used to trade various items in the inventory of the Wolf Guild. Most importantly, he didn't have to worry about his current grade dropping, because the Wolf Guild calculated the two values differently.
It was at this moment Emery realized why some people would be so diligently doing all these tasks that he thought only awarded fame points. Those people were aiming for the items they could obtain by trading the points away.
"What can I trade it with?"
With a smile, the fox girl guild attendant showed him an electronic display showing hundreds of items. All of them were divided into 3 categories, namely [Artifacts], [Battle Arts] and [Consumables].
In an instant, Emery skipped the first category. He had zero interest in any weapons or armor that was generally available in the Magus Universe. On the other hand, his brows rose slightly when he saw the second category.
Considering that the place he was currently in was the Wolf Guild, there was a high possibility the battle arts on offer were specifically made for wolf half-bloods, so he was genuinely interested in what they had.
"Show me all the skills related to the Wolf bloodline."
"Certainly, sir."
[Claw techniques]
[Wild Strike - 500 points]
[Disembowel - 1200 points]
[Violent Barrage - 1750 points]
[Spirit Claw - 3000 points]
[Body techniques]
[Quick steps - 800 points]
[Hunting Sights - 1200 points]
[Beast Strength - 1500 points]
[Bloodhound steps - 2500 points]
[Other techniques]
[Raging Howl - 2000 points]
[Summon Wolf familiar - 2500 points]
As Emery looked through the list, the foxgirl guild attendant explained that those available to him right now were all common skills that could be learned by any wolf half-blood. As for those considered 'special', they could only be purchased by those of a higher rank.
Other than battle arts, there were also the consumables – any kinds of potions and pills that were generally available in the magus universe. As for the one specific for wolf half-bloods, there were the bloodline elixirs.
[Legendary Bloodline Elixir - 5,000 points]
[Legendary Wolf Blood Elixir - 20,000 points]
The first elixir was something that Emery had received during his time at the Magus Academy. As for the Mythical one, it was not available for him to purchase because of his insufficient grade.
There was also an option to trade the fame points for spirit stones. The conversion is 100 points for 5,000 spirit stones.
At the moment Emery had limited points, hence he decided to keep them for a later time.
As he was already tired and a mess from all those cave extermination tasks, he quickly returned to his quarters. After cleaning up, he sat down on the bed and decided to spend some time with the [Memory Puzzle].
Actually, the teamwork he'd been doing the past few days with Yoro and Andrei, somehow, gave him a glimpse memory of some people. A group consisting of people his age – people he seemed to be close with.
But other than knowing that those individuals were acolytes of the Magus Academy, who came from Earth like him, he couldn't remember anything else.
It was slowly killing him, knowing he had forgotten something very important, people and promises alike. Sometimes, he couldn't resist the urge to return to Earth and find out who these people are.
Unfortunately, he couldn't. Not now.