Chapter 306 – Mission

“Afraid? Of course I’m afraid. That’s a famous Legendary Archmage we’re talking about. Who wouldn’t be afraid? Everyone would be!”

Faced with Punk’s sarcasm, Ben Lajie didn’t continue trying to brush it off with vague excuses. Instead, the fat old man began arguing loudly and indignantly, putting on a full display of blustering with a “I’m cowardly and I’m justified” attitude.

“Whatever. Anyway, your business is finished.”

Although Punk considered this fat old man somewhat excessively timid, when considering the attention of a Legendary Expert… even Punk had to admit that cutting losses in time to avoid attracting a Legendary Expert’s notice was the wisest course of action. That was a Legendary big shot, not some Master-Level ant that could be provoked.

Understanding was one thing, but understanding didn’t mean Punk would actually place Ben Lajie in the position of a “poor unfortunate soul.” In fact, Punk currently had no desire to deal with this overly familiar old man at all!

Don’t say Punk was being unreasonable – after all, Ben Lajie could no longer serve as a beneficial collaborator and might even bring trouble. Moreover, Punk was in a bad mood after having his research inexplicably interrupted, so he had no intention of being reasonable at all.

Completely unwilling to be reasonable, Punk directly ignored the fat old man still standing nearby with an indignant expression, then handed his identity card to the golem on his own and opened the Mission Hall’s projection panel.

The Thought of Truth’s branch mission panel was directly connected to the Headquarters, so most of the Master-Level missions Punk could see came directly from the Headquarters.

After seeing the densely packed missions on the panel, Punk couldn’t help but sigh – truly worthy of being a Legendary organization quite famous throughout the entire Faerûn Plane. The number of missions from Thought of Truth probably rivaled that of the most active Mage Guilds.

Even after Punk filtered out missions that were too geographically distant and required covering long-distance teleportation costs himself, there were still plenty of missions remaining.

However, selecting missions was delicate work that couldn’t tolerate any carelessness, especially when it came to missions with rewards that were either too generous or too meager – those needed to be avoided entirely. No matter how you thought about it, missions with inexplicably generous rewards were highly suspicious, while those with meager rewards… the few exchange points earned from such missions probably wouldn’t even cover the round-trip teleportation costs!

Some missions that sounded appropriate also needed careful scrutiny before consideration. For example, that mission prominently displayed at the top in bold golden letters – “Covert Retaliation Against the Rune Society” – absolutely couldn’t be touched. Not just because the Rune Society was a very powerful, vindictive evil spellcaster organization, but also because the word “covert” meant that even if problems arose, it would be difficult to receive support from Thought of Truth.

Similarly, the “Garrison Goldenleaf Forest Plane for One Hundred Years” mission couldn’t be touched either. The fact that two Legendary big shots within Thought of Truth had repeatedly clashed over this “Goldenleaf Forest Plane” was semi-public “news” within the organization. Foolishly rushing into the Goldenleaf Forest Plane and getting caught up in Legendary big shots’ disputes would mean dying without even knowing how it happened!

Actually, aside from these obviously malicious trap missions, what worried Punk most was Thought of Truth’s mission review mechanism itself.This organization’s mission system allowed “outsiders” to post tasks. However, its review standards were as “rigorous” (full of holes) as its management mechanism. Rumor had it that even missions issued by the Thought of Truth headquarters had contained trap missions infiltrated by hostile forces, so Punk had to carefully examine the identity of task publishers to verify the reliability of mission intelligence.

The cost of teleportation travel was exorbitantly high, especially for long-distance teleports that needed to bypass several spatially unstable areas. Moreover, travelers had to bear all the risks of frequent teleportation accidents themselves. Therefore, Punk prioritized searching for relatively nearby missions.

After narrowing down the search range this way, the number of available missions decreased significantly. When he limited the scope to “near Gray Rain Country,” only one mission remained on the task board!

The task board clearly displayed:

Mission Name: Dragon Slaying!

Mission Level: Master-Level

Client: Joni Zordas

Objective: Kill the young black dragon (Master-Level) Ovakain Acidmaw!

Target Strength: Level 17 Master-Level magical creature (no profession)

Description: The evil dragon Ovakain Acidmaw has led a group of cruel swamp dragon-men to occupy the territory of the Maple Leaf Kingdom. The kingdom’s National Guardian master-level powerhouse—Joni Zordas—has exhausted his personal wealth to seek assistance from the impartial Thought of Truth, in order to defend justice and the kingdom’s honor!

Note: The Zordas Family guarantees they will not claim any spoils of battle—the Zordas Family and the Maple Leaf Empire will take nothing!

“Dragon slaying? While it’s true that young dragons roughly possess master-level strength… and this Zordas Family… claiming no spoils at all?”

Looking at the mission description on the task board, Punk couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

Since the client was a noble with his own family, the probability of this being a trap mission was very low. After all, the retaliation from a legendary organization wasn’t something a minor professional family could withstand.

The mission objective also seemed relatively reliable. If it was just slaying an ordinary young dragon, it wouldn’t be excessively dangerous.

A level 17 young dragon—considering all the innate talents dragons possess as a legendary race—this Ovakain Acidmaw fellow would likely be quite troublesome to deal with. However, the fact that it wasn’t a professional and merely a magical creature should make it somewhat less difficult to handle. A young dragon without spellcasting abilities or powerful combat skills would just be tougher-skinned and have slightly stronger dragon breath…

Then there was this reward…

Puck narrowed his eyes slightly while reading the enticing clause: “The Zordas Family and the Maple Leaf Empire will take nothing!”

As everyone knew, dragons were powerful creatures with an intense fondness for hoarding wealth—an obsession that had practically become instinctual. The amount of wealth a young dragon, especially one that had occupied large territories of a kingdom, could possess was unimaginable.

Even disregarding the dragon’s accumulated treasures, the dragon itself represented enormous wealth. Whether it was dragon scales, blood, flesh, head, eyes, soul, or even internal organs—all were rare and precious master-level materials.

To put it bluntly, a dragon was essentially an oversized treasure vault!No need for doubt—if he truly managed to slay a dragon, combined with the exchange points offered as reward by the Thought of Truth, Punk wouldn’t have to worry about resources for his research for at least the next five hundred years!

“Wealth and resources, plus not having to bear the costly expense of long-range teleportation… though the corresponding risks are by no means small, still…”

Punk read through the mission description once more, the sapphire glow of magical energy in his eyes beginning to slowly swirl:

“Nothing in this world offers only benefits without risks. The path of the Legendary requires far too many resources—even if there are dangers, one must charge ahead despite them!”

Thinking this, Punk decided: his next target for plunder would be this black dragon.

But just as Punk was about to speak up to accept the mission, Ben Lajie, who was still standing nearby, suddenly interrupted his action:

“Ahem… Brother Cyan, it seems you’ve picked quite a promising mission, haven’t you? But let’s not rush into the mission just yet. I have an excellent collaboration proposal I’d like to discuss. What do you think?”

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Hahaha, the adventure begins! Though it’s dragon-slaying, the author guarantees it’s absolutely not cliché—utterly unique, absolutely an adventure of dragon-slaying you’ve never seen before!

Votes, please~

(End of Chapter)