Chapter 172: The Rumor Mill

Thanks to the speed and agility of his mount, Villin had no doubt he would be able to reach the destination within eight hours, leaving him with some spare time.

It was because of this that he decided to make a couple of small detours to the tiles holding teleportation arrays. For the most part, these tiles seemed the same as all others. There were insects and small creatures moving about as well as a variety of plants.

There were only two real differences, the first was the lack of proper predators in the area and the second was the stone platform in the middle of the tile.

The platform was surrounded by stairs which you had to climb. On top were a number of different objects.

The most obvious was the mission board. A massive standing stone with magically inscribed text on it. He decided to read the first couple of lines to see what kind of missions there were.

The mission board was split into several sections. First, it would state the mission type, this included things such as 'guard', 'create', 'attack', and 'converse'.

Villin could easily guess what guard and attack missions would probably include. Create was also be pretty straightforward. As for converse? That one was a little weirder, it seemed a little odd that people would pay then just to talk with them but Villin didn't know enough yet.

The second section mentioned the mission giver. Most of these came from The Academy themselves but there were some others that came from guilds associated with The Academy or influential families.

The third section was the simplest, a mission either had a skull there or they didn't. Villin noticed some of the defend and attack missions had skulls while others didn't. As for 'create' missions, almost none of them had skulls.

Villin guessed this corresponded with danger. Even though the missions already should be corresponding to the difficulty of the tile he was on, there were still other things that were in play. It was most likely that guard missions without a skull didn't actually expect anyone to attack while those with a skull knew there would most likely be danger involved.

The fourth section showed the rewards for each mission, most of it was just a certain number of magic crystals while a few offered specific items or ingredients.

Then, the final section showed the requirements the mission-taker had to fulfill. It was also here that he figured out what 'converse' actually meant as the requirements for those was generally someone older than eighteen-years-old.

In general, there were around thirty missions on the mission board he was looking at but none of them caught his eye. There were a couple for runemasters but they were too simple for Villin to bother. He felt a little interested seeing those asking for someone that could use transfiguration to guard or attack, but even then, he doubted it'd be much of a challenge.

Inspecting the runes around the stone, Villin got a general idea of how the mission board should work. You sent magic power into the mission you wanted to follow, then this would send a signal elsewhere, probably to the inactive teleportation array Villin saw on the ground.

Inspecting the teleportation array, Villin felt a wide variety of magical frequencies moving through it. It seemed that the array would only let people through of which it had the signature.

And so, Villin sent a bit of his magic power into the teleportation array. The one surprise he noticed was that there was no power supply, it seemed that students had to use their own resources to fuel the teleportation array if they wanted to use it.

Overall, Villin thought it was pretty fair. The pay on the missions seemed pretty good and it would make sense that The Academy wouldn't pay for all of their trips.

And so, Villin continued onwards. He passed by a couple of other teleportation arrays, most of the missions were different from location to location but there were a couple that stayed for a multitude of tiles.

In total, Villin passed by four teleportation arrays before he began to close in on A1, the destination of his travels.

The separation between A1 and the other tiles was much wider than any other spanning nearly a hundred meters. The ice wolf that Villin used as a mount was also extremely reluctant to go in. 

After talking with Ashera, they ended up leaving the mount behind. Under their command it shouldn't leave for a day at least, they could've forced him into A1 but then the date of the creature revolting would probably come in just a day or two instead of a week, and Villin found that having a mount was rather handy, and well, he wasn't sure when he would find such a fast and powerful canine again.

And so, Villin crossed the hundred meters of no man's land. Once he passed it, he felt himself going through an illusionary ward as the sight in front of him changed. From the outside, A1 looked like a regular forest, but once you entered, its true nature became clear.

Various tall buildings were spread across the tile. Every guild had a place here, just like they normally would in a guild hall. Still, for most guilds, this place was just used for making connections. The true headquarters of most guilds were out in the forest, they would hide and oftentimes attack each other for their resources.

The Academy was serious that almost anything goes as long as you didn't purposefully kill someone. In a way, it was very similar to the situation between the schools in the proper world. If they could, they would hide from each other but when the opportunity came, they would attack and take the other party's resources.

A1 was like the big city. There were opportunities here, but it was also extremely dangerous. Robberies happened constantly and people on the street always looked around carefully before moving forward.

This immediately became clear to Villin when he entered. Since the new year was about to begin, activity in this area was somewhat high. Nearly all guilds had representatives out but luckily they seemed to have come to a temporary truce.

Villin swiftly moved across the dirt road as he continued to move towards the center of the tile. A few people did a double-take on him as they noticed he wasn't wearing any shoes but nobody seemed all that interested in him. He was just another representative going to recruit some new people in their eyes.

Once he got close enough to the center, Villin noticed a large, square building in the middle of the tile. Representatives were lined up a distance away from the building as they seemed to be waiting for something.

Villin silently went and moved next to some of the more chatty people here. Even though gossip was often unreliable, he would like to have at least somewhat of an idea of what exactly was going to happen.

He waited for a dozen more minutes and the start of school was impending. Villin noticed the crowd had become a lot bigger now. Those that were already in the fourth or fifth grade the previous year simply used one of the teleportation arrays that either their guild had, or they used one from a guild that allowed people to hire teleportation arrays. At this point in time, nearly everybody had arrived, except for the newbies that was.

The gossiper Villin stood close to also began talking less about random things as he checked the position of the sun every couple of seconds.

Then, finally, the doors opened.

"Hehe, so they'll be coming out according to the rank the Academy put them in, those in the front will always be fought for by dozens of guilds, even though I don't think it'll go that way this time around!" the blonde gossiper exclaimed as he talked to his female compatriot.

"Why not?" she questioned as her eyes were glued to the now-open door.

The gossiping boy didn't respond as he simply looked at the door, a few seconds later, the first person came out.

"Here, this is Ruby Von Hauser, a noblewoman of the highest quality. She created her own guild in the second grade and is extraordinarily skilled in runology. Her guild sells information currently but it is almost certain they'll become spies for The Academy in the future!"

Hearing the man's excited tone the girl smiled and nodded, as if appreciating his gossiping prowess.

When the second person came out, he spoke again, "Oh, here we have 'The Scarlet Vixen' one of the top members of the mysterious new guild 'Athena's Forge'. It is said that she once created a pill that turned one of her rude suitors into a frog, I advise you not to mess with her!"

Hearing his theatrical warning, the female chuckled, "My, my, she truly does seem beautiful!"

Without pause, the man pointed at the next person that came out, "Oh my, here, the person most opposite to the scarlet vixen. The 'One-Eyed Demoness'! It is said that she once was the most beautiful girl in the world, but then she was cursed by the gods and lost an eye. Now she has become one of the most fearsome warriors in the third grade, she's also one of the top dogs of 'Athena's Forge'!"

The girl covered her mouth with one of her hands "My, my, I can nearly sense the bloodlust from all the way over here! How dangerous must she be!"

The man didn't have time to respond as the next person was already in sight, "And then there we have the final top dog of Athena's Forge, 'Rein The Talentless'.

"A boy that has forever been underestimated but keeps pushing back against fate with hard work and determination. I even heard he got approached by some of the best enchanters in the world who wanted to take him under their wing but he refused them all!"

At this point, the girl no longer had to feign her surprise, "My goodness, and they all seem so young too! Just who owns Athena's Forge?"

Hearing her ask the question brought the boy into a good mood as he ominously began talking again, "Nobody really knows who they are. But as I've heard he's called 'The Villain' as for how he got that nickname, nobody knows!"

The girl first gasped but before she could respond, another person to their right interrupted him "He? Who says it is a he? Why can't it be a woman? Nobody knows who they are anyways and the upper echelon of the guild are primarily female!"

The speaker has a blonde beauty that had been staring at Kayley with somewhat lustful eyes.

The male wasn't too abashed by the interruption though as he instead agreed, "You are indeed right! It could be a woman, there is simply no way to know until they come back!"

Villin who was standing on his other side felt extremely conflicted. Just what kind of gossip surrounded them now.