CH55 (419), Mission Center

Well, it was not like ranking up was an instant process. As I said to rank up one had to complete missions, and the number of missions necessary was not small. In this case, I believe it was better to start from the top and go down from there.

To rank up from Junior Aura Guardian to Aura Guardian, one had to complete a minimum of 10 3-star missions, 30 2-star missions, and 50 1-star missions. It was also possible to substitute 5 lower-star missions through a single higher-star one, so instead of doing all those missions, I could simply do 18 3-star missions instead.

The booklet actually mentioned that missions were preferable for advancement so that Junior Aura Guardians gained experience and proved to the order that they were capable of performing satisfactorily during various situations. It made sense and I fully agreed with the approach.

Aura Guardians were not just strong people, they were something akin to a symbol, so it made sense that their rank would not be determined solely by their strength, but that actual experience and results were expected from them as well.

Sigh, it seems like I would have to do quite a few missions if I wanted to get rid of the "Junior" part in my rank. That was probably not something I could complete during this vacation unless I could finish multiple missions per day. Even if that was possible, which I doubted, I would be unable to become a Senior Aura Guardian no matter how many missions I did since reaching Tier 4 was one of the requirements of the rank.

Still, it was not impossible to clear the mission requirement in advance so that I could rank up as soon as I reached Tier 4 since I was confident of gathering an Ace-Class trainer team by then, which was the third requirement. That or a personal prowess equal to a (mid) dark gold stage Pokemon, but the Ace team one was much, much easier for me.

Nonetheless, it was not good to plan for the Senior rank without even having gotten rid of the Junior one, so I decided to quickly finish the rule booklet before using the map one to find the mission center. A quick read later, I saw nothing inside the rule booklet that I would disagree with, and I was actually pretty happy with the rules.

The rules disallowed members to be bad guys or gals, semi-enforced decent behavior and encouraged good behavior. I believe the first one required no real explanation. I already said that Aura Guardians were more than just strong people, they were the symbol of good in everyone's mind, so any member acting like a bad guy/gal was not something the order could or should tolerate, and resulted in punishments ranging from light to pretty heavy depending on the "crime".

I also saw nothing wrong with semi-enforcing decent behavior since that was actually what the laws of pretty much any country, society, or organization were aiming for. Going against those rules mostly warranted warnings or light penalties at most.

As for encouraging good behavior, that was also obvious since as I said Aura Guardians were presumed to be good people, so the order encouraging such a behavior/image was not surprising, and the bonuses they gave out were not bad at all.

All in all, one was pretty much in the clear as long as one was not a bad guy or gal and stayed away from the dark side. Here at the order, good people could actually thrive. In my opinion, the rules were pretty much perfect for an organization such as the Aura Guardian Order, but that was no surprise since the order itself was said to be over 4000 years old and I was sure the rule book went through many revisions until it reached the current state.

Anyway, once I was done with the rule book, I took a look at the map booklet. From the index, I saw that the first fourth of the pages was on the Headquarters, and roughly half had after that came elementary maps on the regional headquarters.

The final fourth contained a list of all major Aura Guardian Centers along with the cities they could be found. Each center also had a small map beside it, that roughly showed where in each city they were located at. The last page of the booklet had a reminder that stated that each Aura Guardian Center or headquarters had a booklet of its own, with maps focused on its location.

Regardless, once I was done, I used the map of the main headquarters to make my way to the mission center, and after stepping inside, I had to admit it seemed pretty lively. There were all kinds of people present since missions actually had to be accepted on-site. The only missions that were not assigned here were emergency missions.

At least it was like that for missions below the Master rank since any mission intended for the Master rank and above could not be found at the mission center. Those were displayed/handed out somewhere else, but the booklet did not state where just that I would be informed once I reached that rank.

Anyway, the room was practically divided among the respective Aura Guardian ranks. The wall right across the entrance belonged to the Aura Guardians, the left wall belonged to the Junior Aura Guardians, and finally, the right wall belonged to the Senior Aura Guardians.

Now, one would wonder where the missions for the apprentices were, and I wondered the same until I looked back and saw boards beside the entrance/exit door. Still, I quickly ignored those and focused back on the actual mission boards.

In the end, I could not help but be curious about what the missions for the higher ranks looked like, so I decided to take a quick look at those before moving to the left side. Nothing was preventing me from just taking a look at the missions after all, at least nothing like that was mentioned in the rules booklet.

I quickly arrived in front of the 1-star mission board of the "Senior" side, and as I expected no one stopped me, even if I saw a few of the clerks briefly throw curious looks in my direction. Letting my gaze wander through the missions listed I noticed that most of them were either regular resource retrieval or pacification requests, with the odd investigation or negotiation mission thrown in.

I did find a few "bounties" belonging to either humans or Pokemon, and I could see a few reasons listed below as well. From what I saw reasons went from high-profile robbery, wanton murder, and terrorizing of certain places, to destruction of vast areas.

The only thing aside from those, that stood out was that all missions transpired deep in what could be considered wild areas. Even most of the bounties pointed to those, probably where the targets were living or seeking refuge. It was important to note that these were the wild areas inside humanity's "territory" and not the true wilderness.

After I noticed that, I moved on to the 2-star board and saw much the same there, just with the occasional true wilderness mission thrown in. However, from what I saw none of them required the mission taker to go too far off the border. Most were within one hundred kilometers of the border, and most of them were border patrols, just on the other side of the border.

The 3-star board had more of the same just with harder goals, or stronger targets. Oh, and some of them seemed to require truly going into the wilderness, and not skirting around the border zone. Though I did notice a mission from someone I recognized. Professor Michael Cameron posted two separate missions, both dealt with a Pokemon I had not heard of before.

I would have to look into what an Annihilape was, but it had an ape in it, and the only Pokemon with an ape in their species name I could think of off the top of my head were Primeape and Infernape. However, Infernape was already a third-stage Pokemon, so maybe it was related to Primeape. It could even be an evolution I never heard of or read about.

Well, it was also not impossible for it to be an alternate evolution of Monferno since Infernape did sound as if it was somewhat related to destruction, as did Annihilape. Yet, I could also be wrong on both accounts and Annihilape had nothing to do with either species and was a completely unrelated new Pokemon.

Yes, this had indeed aroused my interest and I would definitely have to look into it. Hopefully, Annihilape was not a completely unknown species that no one ever got to document in some form before I arrived in PokeVerse 6942 and I would be able to at least find some information on it inside my super library.

Unfortunately, there were no details on Annihilape in the mission since it is written that they would gain more information upon acceptance. Still, seeing how one mission was regarding pacification/suppression of said species, while the other was on observation and documentation in the wilderness, I could surmise that the professor had one specimen at his lab, while also having information on the location of another one out there in the wilderness.

Anyway, after I was done with the senior side, I moved to the middle wall and began checking out the mission boards there. They followed a similar pattern, just with lower difficulty since there were no missions related to the true wilderness.

Even missions related to the deeper sections of the "human wilderness" were rarer and could mainly only be found on the 3-star board. That was not to say that there were no border patrol missions because they were, but none of them lead to the other side of the border.

Also, I found another person I recognized among the mission publishers. Professor Maria Varon published missions asking Aura Guardians that had either Buneary or Lopunny capable of using aura, or an Aura-variant Lopunny in their teams to cooperate with her research. The mission could be found on all three boards, and once I moved to the "junior side" I saw the same mission posted on all three boards there as well.

I actually took time while checking out the mission boards on this side since I could actually choose to complete these if I wanted to. Well, not now, since I had promised dad that I wouldn't do it today, but I could take note of the ones that interested me.

Then, once I was back home, I would decide which one(s) I wanted to start with. That way, I could directly apply for the mission(s) once I came back without having to look through the mission board.

Anyway, I initially had the hope that I may be able to blitz through a bunch of 1 and 2-star missions, but after looking through a majority of the available 1, 2, and 3-star missions, I decided that it would be more efficient to complete 18 3-star missions instead of bothering with the 1 and 2-star ones.

I made sure to choose missions that sounded interesting, did not take more than a day or two, and could probably be solved concurrently. Due to that, I had to stand there for more than an hour before I managed to note down 24 missions that I might be able to complete. The extras were in case one or two got finished/taken by others before I got to try my hand at them.

Out of these, only 4 required me to do something close to the border, so those were probably the riskiest among the bunch, even if they were the most interesting as well. The rest was much easier in comparison, and even those four could be considered standard missions. Not my words, but what is actually written in the mission description.

Anyway, after I made sure to note down the mission details of all 24 missions, including the mission number, I closed my notebook and made my way out of the mission center. Now, one would ask why I bothered noting the missions down instead of simply taking a photo with my phone.

Well, that was because taking pictures of the mission board was forbidden, as was the reckless propagation of any mission details.

After I was out of the mission building, I made my way out of the castle, and back home since there was nothing else I wanted to do for now.

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