PEW!
The Stinger sliced through the air, whistling as it plunged into the vitals of six-armed gorilla.
The gorilla howled as it wildly swung at Rui.
WHOOSH
Rui casually evaded the blow as he closed the distanced between them.
BOOM!
A powerful Flowing Canon attack crashed into the gorilla’s wound.
The gorilla screamed in pain as it scurried away in fear and pain.
Rui walked forward as he happened upon a transparent tree. Rui raised an eyebrow as scrutinized its strange features; the tree looked like it was made up of glass.
His eyes turned to one of the fruits hanging, he immediately reached to pluck all of them, placing it in a special container.
“Mission accomplished; I guess.” He muttered as he took out the mission tracker device and hit the mission completion button before placing it back and heading back.
This was one of the hunting commissions that he had received and decided to accept. A procurement mission of the Glass Apples, a valuable esoteric resource that existed in the Jalvan Forest far south of the town Of Hajin, in the Mantian Region.
The Glass Apples were an esoteric resource that were used in the production of premium high-grade healing potions apparently. The commissions had come from a potion company that had wanted to hire him to procure the Glass Apples since the danger level of the heart of the Jalvan Forest was at the Apprentice Realm.
He headed back towards the town of Hajin. Five days had passed since his signing of the sparring partner contracts with the three Martial Families. Today was going to be the first day of this mission. He would be heading over to the Hrava Martial Academy branch to begin a lengthy period of sparring training.
The name of his training partner was Siera Frial, daughter of Martial Master Rana Frial. He hadn’t been given any additional information on her for some reason.
He shrugged, it didn’t matter at all, frankly.
Within two hours, he had reached the town of Hajin. And in half an hour, he had arrived at the designated drop-off location; one of the branches of the company.
“Apprentice Quarrier.” An assistant bowed deeply. “Thank you for the successful completion.”
“Express my regards to chairman William.” Rui nodded before getting up to leave.
“Ah, the chairman wished to speak to you about a partnership agreement.” The assistant told him.
“Unfortunately, I am busy for the rest of the day. Please convey my regret to him.” Rui immediately turned around as he left like the wind, activating both his maneuvering techniques. It hadn’t taken him long to reach the Martial Academy at the core districts of the town.
“Apprentice Quarrier.” An inspection officer greeted him as he returned. “We have verified the mission completion with the client. Please proceed to complete the post-mission protocols.”
“Will do.” Rui nodded as he headed up to fill the necessary report and paperwork. It was the one part of missions that he disliked the most. But unfortunately, it was very necessary.
Once he finished that, he immediately headed to his dormitory. Stripping nude as he tossed his sweaty uniform onto the bed. He couldn’t wait to take a bath. He was going to be heading to another branch of the Martial Academy. He, the representative of the Hajin branch in the Martial Contest. In the eyes of the Martial Community, it was bad enough that he was a commoner. He bet that appearing sweaty and dirty would make his job much worse. Seeing how much prestige and pride the Frial Family had, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Siera Frial was an egotistical, haughty and arrogant girl.
Still, a job was a job. The pay was very solid and he was curious to test the efficiency of the VOID algorithm as a good training and sparring method for others.
Soon he made all the arrangements as he set out for the Hrava branch of the Martial Academy. He couldn’t very well walk to the branch, it was much too far, instead he partook in the transportation provided by the Martial Academy.
The Hrava branch was a considerable distance away, outside of the Mantian region. The transportation made the travel more convenient. It was a semi horse-drawn carriage and a semi-motorized vehicle that was remarkably fast.
Rui was impressed that the esoteric technology of this world allowed for motorized technology. He recalled that for the royal capture and rescue mission, the Kandrian Investigation Bureau had made use of wholly motorized vehicles. At the time he was too focused on a personally important life-or-death mission to consider the matter fully.
It seemed that it wasn’t ubiquitous, however. For the most part, man-pulled rickshaws were the norm at the lower strata of society, while horse-pulled carriages were the norm for upper classes of society. And it seemed that motorized technology was either too impractical or unviable to mass-produce, or was proprietary technology of the Royal Family and to some extent, the Martial Union.
Regardless, it was quite fast, and in the span of a few hours, he had already arrived at the Hrava branch in the Frixtal region of the Kandrian Empire.
Rui immediately got off, gazing at the gigantic Academy before his eyes. The Hrava branch was no less impressive than the Hajib branch, it seemed.
“Purpose of visitation?” The guards demanded.
“Mission.” Rui simply answered as he brought out his signed and stamped mission bill as well as his learner’s license, handing it over to the guards for inspection and verification.
“All clear.” The guard nodded, handing back the bill after he verified and confirmed the legitimacy of the document and the mission. “Please enter, Apprentice Quarrier.”
Rui wordlessly retrieved the mission bill as he entered.
(‘The structure seems more or less the same.’) he mused as he gazed at a map conveniently placed upon entry. The alignment and designation details was a bit different, but otherwise the organizational structure was identical.
“Alright then… time to begin the mission.” He sighed as he entered the building.