14 Far Travel

"I would like to take this mission please."

Ray passed down a couple papers to the reception and they began checking it and recording everything.

They flinched when they saw the requests but they didn't openly show it around Ray.

"Sorry if I may ask, what is your equipment level and your highest spell?"

He was just a lowly student brought in by a teacher who couldn't pay the fee to continue, so he had to take the job to be a receptionist for his admittance.

He passed the wand and said his highest level spell was a fireball.

The once slightly anxious face of the reception relieved itself slightly but still quite stiff about it.

"You have the minimum requirement to take on the mission. I will be handing you a visa shortly..."

He went back inside the quarters and came out shortly with a slip of paper rolled and marked with the emblem of the mage academy.

This was normally done for missions outside of the academy since students had to voluntarily live there and take on missions to get any sort of leave out the academy.

"That will be 1 Gold coin and you will be able to keep the visa for two months. If not returned by the date of return, you may renew it with an extra purchase and will have to pay the late fee."

Ray nodded and began making preparation, once he was done, he would show the scroll to the guards in the gate and the two month period would start.

The mission he received came from a distant border town down south which was getting problems with monsters in the area. The influence of the monsters became apparent when they began straying to the nearby town and even found near a city. The mayor and several lords were counting on many forms of solutions to get by, getting the adventurer guild and mercenaries to help the cause. But to no avail, they kept coming and had to loosen their expenditure since every monster they killed would give them money and if they were to get injured, they would be reprimanded. The subject of the mission slowly became different from being a subjugation mission to kill monsters to an investigation one.

The mission objective was very vague and only spoke about finding the cause of the monster swarm and ending it.

But Ray knew better that a monster swarm wouldn't form just all that odd, their must be a reason for their appearance and that was an easy conjecture to make.

Two conclusions came into play, with countless readings and knowledge only magicians know, it was either the appearance of a dungeon or an awakened creature was born.

Dungeons are born from the concentration of mana in the area to somehow form its own environment and kept in stasis using the mana to repair the vesicle. The attraction of mana could come to many forms as traps or even monsters, as mana is one of the main attributes given to beasts and their crave of mana.

It was basically a lure but generally, the monsters in dungeon would remain in due to the intake of mana.

But when a dungeon takes too much, an overflow would begin and monsters would generally flood out. Monsters would form by the entropy of mana and replenish itself, with the residing monsters to take form.

And the other was an awakened monster, who managed to overcome their locked conscious to become mindful once more. They usually become the leader of monster hordes and wreak havoc in any area.

The rewards of the mission was about 400 Gold and that was already a fortune, the mission was given to all magic academies and all mage towers to take on the matter.

But over the past two months after the appearance, the investigators would never come back, slowly all pulled back and the reward was increased.

The mage towers had suspicious movement as they had also opened a request on the issue and would pay the person handsomely with magical equipment and ingredients.

It was sketchy and even the receptionist knew of the dire situation of the incident.

The city near the incident in the town was several miles away and he would have to travel for at least two weeks to arrive and two weeks to leave.

He had generally about a month to take on the mission and to investigate any matter of the site and all loot would come to the investigator.

He packed some emergency rations as well as some equipment such as rope and another pair of clothes to use. Two potions that came to a price of 5 Gold coins as well which were low tiered mana potions.

He was preparing his trip and began setting off.

The gate of the Academy was very large and overwhelming with two pedestals of a lion and a wolf was present in the front with several gold linings and a fountain decorated with dolphins and mermaids.

Four guards were lined up with top of the art magic armor that was glistening with a red hue and their long tipped spears made any passerby afraid of their surrounding.

He walked to the front and the four guards all blocked his path.

"Visa and identification please."

The leader was a participant of the war that occurred 50 years ago before the armistice was signed between Tyridal and Sanghael, a common background check of the captain said that a sword art wounded his eye which shown with all white and a huge scar to prove it.

He handed his papers to him and checked each word meticulously before nodding his head.

"Safe travels."

"Thank you, you to...."

He was embarrassed and began walking away.

many carriages lined outside the bustling street near the magic academy which were designated for the comfortable use of any official of the academy.

He stood near one and passed the coachman about 50 Silvers.

The coachman looked at the fare and looked up.

"Where to?"

"Paska."

"Alrighty, get in."