Chương 36: The Missing Researchers

The Awakening Head Office was as busy as usual, bustling with noise and excitement. Arthur arrived exactly at the appointed time. He swiftly walked towards the Quest Hall, discovering the place to be even more crowded. Arthur could see a sea of Awakened, ranging from veteran experts to newly awakened youths such as himself. As Arthur swept his gaze across his surroundings, he suddenly noticed a person waving a hand at him from the private Quest Search section.

Unsurprisingly, it was Nickolas and his group, currently gathered at the exact same location. Arthur casually walked over to them. It was not the slightest bit surprising that they had arrived a step earlier, given Nickolas's extreme enthusiasm to meet.

"You guys arrived early," Arthur said.

"Not at all, we only just sat down. So, what is our plan for today?" Nickolas asked, his tone maintaining that same enthusiastic energy. Arthur sat down in front of a digital pad and logged in. He originally planned to accomplish two tasks today: first, he needed to gather more information regarding the Night Crystal; second, he had to accept a low-risk, high-commission Quest. He decided to proceed with both. First, he searched for the Night Crystal on the Awakening Database website.

The results started to load, but Arthur faintly felt it was taking quite an amount of time. It was completely different from the lightning-fast results he had experienced yesterday. After waiting for more than ten seconds, the System finally finished loading, displaying but a single result. He immediately clicked it open, revealing a document containing an image of the Night Crystal alongside its description. Arthur started to read the text.

However, the more he read, the more dread he felt towards this Quest of collecting the Night Crystal. According to the document, Night Crystals were the exact same Core Crystals obtained after killing monsters from a Gate. However, humans were completely unable to absorb these Core Crystals. Based on the common knowledge of mankind, they were considered defective Cores. People would simply throw them away; they were absolutely not used for widespread sales or transactions.

"Throw away the Crystal," Arthur muttered. If a crystal was not useful to someone, they naturally tended to throw it away; it was simply human nature. Thinking up to this point, Arthur felt both happy and sad. He could either be lucky enough to find a collector who gathered these Night Crystals, or he might never find twenty kilograms of them at all. It could be either of the two.

Since the old man said these crystals were auctioned off, there must still be a demand where curious people bought them simply as a hobby. Hence, if he could frequently participate in the auctions for the next two weeks, he might just find someone who possessed Night Crystals. Arthur felt a little happy, as he had finally found a small path forward to complete the second System Quest.

"Night Crystal? What is that?" someone suddenly asked while Arthur was pondering. It was Nickolas. Arthur now noticed that Nickolas was craning his neck, reading the contents of his translucent screen.

"Night Crystal? I have heard that name somewhere," another youth who used a sword chimed in.

"Oh, it is nothing. I am just collecting some rare items," Arthur casually gave a false story.

"So, are you guys planning to do a Quest?"

"Oh, yeah, obviously. So, where are we going? Are we going to find this Night Crystal?" Nickolas asked. Hearing this, Arthur was dumbfounded. These youths were actually planning to tag along with him! That had been blatantly clear from yesterday's conversation. Thus, Arthur had to choose to do a Quest with them. However, he currently needed to earn at least 500, 000 Credits. To do so, he would have to choose an relatively dangerous Quest.

Taking these youths with him would definitely make things harder for him, far outweighing the help they could provide. Unfortunately, he had no choice. They would not let him off easily, especially Nickolas. Stolen story; please report.

"Let me check the Quests first," Arthur said, calling out the operating panel and navigating to the Quest list. [50 Alpha Monster Cores] — 50, 000 Credits [Scout Newly Opened Cave] — 40, 000 Credits [Escort Industrial Inspector] — 60, 000 Credits [Capture Delta Standard Living Monster] — 100, 000 Credits [Manufacture Military Supplies] — 100, 000 Credits On a normal day, these Quests were very good.

With the help of his Skeletons, Arthur could definitely take these Quests, completing multiple Quests within a single day. Currently, however, he needed a large amount of Credits. Firstly, he needed them for the Night Crystal. He was uncertain how much it would cost, since he was going to buy from collectors. Generally, collectors would not sell what they found. Thus, he might have to offer a huge amount of money in order to attract them. Secondly, he had to slowly gather all the materials needed to hire workers.

Hence, taking small commission Quests was not an option, since his life was involved. He swiftly filtered the list for high-commission Quests. [Gamma Gate Suppression] Reward: 500, 000 Credits Details: A Gamma Gate has become unstable. Eliminate all monsters before a Gate Break occurs. [Rescue the Missing Survey Team] Reward: 550, 000 Credits Details: Recover eight researchers missing inside Solomon Valley.

[Reclaim Iron Mountain Mine] Reward: 700, 000 Credits Details: Clear all monsters occupying the abandoned mine and secure the area for mining operations. There were plenty of Quests paying half a million Credits, but the Quests themselves were very dangerous. With his current strength, the possibility of completing these Quests was fifty-fifty. He scrolled down for more Quests. The more he scrolled, the more commission he could obtain; however, the danger also increased proportionally to the commission amount.

[Lambda Mutated Beast Subjugation] Reward: 1, 000, 000 Credits Details: A mature Mutated Lambda-class monster has appeared near Faith City's borders. When he scrolled further, his eyes widened at a Quest commission of 5, 000, 000 Credits. However, his excitement calmed down, as the task was about recovering a Relic. One needed to enter at least a [Lambda] Standard Gate for such a task. [Recover the Bloom Relic] Reward: 5, 000, 000 Credits Details: Retrieve an ancient relic from a forbidden ruin.

Arthur quickly scrolled back up towards the Quests with a 500, 000 Credit commission. He could take one of them. With his current strength, he could easily travel to Solomon Valley and rescue the researchers. That was certainly possible. It was either that, or he had to take the Gate Suppression. Arthur decided it was better to enter Solomon Valley rather than entering a Gate or a mining cave. Hence, he decided to take the 550, 000 commission Quest.

[Rescue the Missing Survey Team] Reward: 550, 000 Credits Details: Recover eight researchers missing inside Solomon Valley. He clicked the Quest for more details and read through it. A total of eight Researchers had gone there two days ago to conduct research on a new type of plant. However, they suddenly disappeared without any contact. Hence, the Quest was to investigate their disappearance and rescue them if they had taken shelter from danger. Danger? Arthur pondered in his heart.

As far as his knowledge went, there was absolutely no danger in Solomon Valley. Strangely, no beasts or monsters lived in that valley; only plantations existed. People usually went there to collect herbs and other medical-related plants. This was one of the main reasons Arthur had chosen this Quest; the risk of failure was very low. He assumed they must have simply lost their path, since Solomon Valley was spread widely with dense vegetation. Arthur gave the matter some thought.

He could have taken other Quests with known dangers instead of stepping into an unknown danger. However, when he thought about his Skeletons' capabilities, he felt he could easily finish this Quest.

"I am planning to take this Quest. Do you all want to join?" Arthur asked once his decision was made. Everyone craned their necks to read the details of the Quest, their faces revealing varying reactions. Nickolas was very eager, whereas Finola was a little reluctant. Susanne maintained a neutral expression, and the other two sword-affinity youths kept their reactions neutral as well.

"Let's do it," Nickolas said.

"I am okay with that," Susanne agreed as well.

"No problem on my side," one of the sword-affinity youths agreed.

"Me neither," the other youth said. However, Finola did not utter a word regarding whether she agreed to go with them to Solomon Valley. Arthur shifted his gaze towards her, discovering her hands fidgeting incessantly.

"I am okay to go with you if you protect me," she said in a reluctant tone. Arthur did not judge her, as it seemed she only possessed a Special Affinity for healing. In regards to awakenings, a Special Affinity for healing was considered a heaven-bestowed Affinity. They were usually highly valued in every party. However, their main drawback was their complete lack of a combat-related Affinity. It was as if a curse was placed upon them the moment the Healing Affinity was bestowed.

It was extremely rare for a healer to possess a combat affinity, be it a weapon affinity or physical affinity. Hence, she had no choice but to rely on someone else to save her from danger. However, as the party leader who led the Quest, one must protect the non-combat party members. It was an unwritten rule. Thus, it was not an over-demanding request at all.

"No problem," Arthur said confidently. Only then did her agitated expression finally relax.

"Okay, let us decide how we will split the commission before we take the Quest," Arthur said.