It didn't take long for the group of eight to decide in accepting the task. When Zana went back to the lady behind the counter, Emery noticed that on the side of the lady, there was some kind of projection that gave numbers. After Zana had registered the number became less by one.
The rest of the other seven followed suit and received the mission. Their task was to gather one ton of tier two material called titanium. They would have to retrieve a ton of titanium each, that was about eight tons of titanium overall.
Once everyone gave confirmation that the gathering mission was in the symbol on their hands, Emery looked at the lady behind once more and the number on her side had become less by eight. Emery inferred that the mission they just took was a limited mission, and the number beside it was the total number of requests of titanium needed the blacksmith institute needed. He then wondered if he could bring more titanium then register for this task for the second time or third time. Would there be a bonus or something?
The beautiful girl behind the counter then slid over eight small circular objects that had the image of a pickaxe on it. She proceeded to explain that once they pressed on it hard, it would summon a pickaxe, which they would use for the gathering. They stored it on their storage ring and lastly, the mission information on the symbol of their hands updated. It showed them a list of locations where they could dig the so-called titanium.
"What does savage planet mean?" Emery asked the lady behind the counter, looking over the list of destinations.
"It's a planet that is mainly filled with savage creatures," she replied.
It sounded straightforward, however, Emery felt there were more to it. He tried asking for more information, but it looked like that was all they were going to get. Either he needed to ask other people, an acolyte or a magus perhaps, or maybe once his rank had upgraded, he would have access to more information.
The group looked over the list of level one planets. Thrax was again suggesting to pick the location that had the most dangerous description but they ignored him, and chose the planet that seemed the least dangerous place based on its descriptions.
The beautiful girl behind the counter then said, "If you don't return in 48 hours to submit the material, it means you'll have failed the mission and the task will be given to other acolytes."
They all nodded. It looked like everything had been settled, so the group proceeded to one of the many portals in this location. They stood before the portal and on the side was some kind of cube that was blinking. Zana once more took the lead, entered the data of the location they would be going to.
[Planet 14722]
[Class M planet - savage level 1]
The portal lit with the image of a yellowish planet before them. Zana turned, so did the other two, to Emery's group, gestured at the portal and said, "Let us go."
The three Zaieuo walked on the portal. The other five followed suit. And when Emery placed one foot inside the portal, it felt like it sucked him in, throwing him a bit forward as he landed on an unfamiliar place. Once he regained his senses, he saw that they were in the middle of a wilderness. There were large rocks in the distance; when the wind blew, it carried bits of dust that hit gently their faces, and made them shiver for a moment.
The place they arrived seemed to be in the middle of the night, however, the shadow on the distance quickly lit up like the day was arriving. Emery looked and saw a large spherical shaped planet, getting out of its way for this world's sun to shine on the land. He was stunned to see that planet-like thing, which reminded him of the Earth when Gaia had shown him the vision of its birth.
Turning his head around, he noticed that this place felt heavier to move around and it looked like he wasn't the only one that had the same sentiment. Still, it wasn't that much of a hindrance since they could still move properly, Klea, on the other hand though, looked a little bit struggling. Maybe it was due to her battle power being the lowest among them.
Now that they had gotten their bearings back, Emery moved around and first noticed the portal they had exited from. The portal looked like nothing from the Magus Academy, it was a large structure that had two spikes pointing upward at the stars beyond. The second thing he noticed were the several small buildings not far from them.
There weren't a lot of people moving about. They walked into a small building that had an image of a mug on its hanging sign. Heading inside, they found out that this was a tavern-like building with about two dozen people inside, drinking and chatting. The patrons were mostly humans, but some looked to be not human. Half-blood humans, similar to Silva, the patrons had their own distinct features. Some looked like fish, some looked like stuff from a nightmare with their disfigured faces, large bodies, more than four limbs, etc. The patrons became silent as they watched the eight people walk on the hall up to the bartender, who seemed to look like a normal human with a large beard.
When they got before the counter though, they were wrong. The bartender was a half-giant, half-human, making them stretch their necks just to speak properly.
The half-giant spoke in a booming voice, "Universe magus acolytes! It's been a while since we've last seen your bunch. Come for a drink!"
Zuna was the first to speak. "No, thank you. We would like some information, instead."
"Information we need," followed up Zaku.
"Need some information we do"
The bearded man behind the counter exclaimed, "Arghh, duma shit! Stop your nonsense! If you don't want a drink or speak properly, then piss off!"
The bartender turned away from them, as it turned out, it wasn't only them who thought these three from Zaiueo acolytes were weird. Julian actually chuckled seeing the group get shouted at. But that seemed to garner greater reaction from the bartender for Klea stepped forward immediately and said, "I apologize for my rude associate sir of course we will buy a drink. Give us eight of your best in house drinks."
The bartender grunted as he served eight glasses of brownish drink that didn't at all appear appealing. Klea casually threw four white stones and quickly said in a sweet voice, "I believe that good man should be more than enough for the drinks and a spare of your precious time."
"Okay, what do you want to hear?" asked the half-giant. Klea took the lead and proceeded to ask questions, which the man blabbered away, giving away all the information they needed. The best place to find the titanium and what creatures they had to look out for.
"Thank you very much," Klea said, giving a wink to the person. They left the establishment without touching the drink while being stared at by the dozens of remaining patrons.
Emery has known about the spirit stones before, but this is the first time he sees it. Looking at Thrax's blank face, she again explains that the small whitish colour is called the spirit stone. They were widely exchanged in a lot of places, not only the Magus Academy, because of its multitude of usage.
When Julian asked if she had gotten it, however, she smiled mischievously and didn't bother explaining.
Emery then started to wonder where the group would be without Klea. She was smart, beautiful, able to blend in with people naturally, and she was the most powerful among them. Emery figured if they couldn't keep up with her, they would most likely look like Klea's little soldier and fan group.
On this savage planet, there was no mode of transportation such as carriages or even horses. Hence, they ran with caution toward the location given by the half-giant, half-man. They had to be on-guard at all times because even though this was tagged as a level one savage planet by the mission description, they were advised not to explore too deep for this planet wasn't fully explored yet and might have some dangerous creatures, which could end them nevertheless.
After running for more than two hours, not a single one of them was out of breath due to their enhanced battle power. They found the hill exactly where the bartender had mentioned it to be.
On this rock and dust-filled hill, devoid of trees, the titanium stones should be inside the large rocks. As to know which rock had it, they'd have to strike it with the pickaxe.
Before climbing up the hill, they had to decide who would be on guard duty as well as the people striking the rocks. Because according to the bartender, they had to beware of the six-winged creature who liked to prey upon anything that moved on the high ground.
It was finally time to show what they could do.
