Chapter 60: Group Hall
Max walked towards the reception where a multitude of ladies clothed in maid-looking outfits were. He looked around searching for someone free as it seemed that every one of them was taking care of one or more students at the same time.
'It is quite busy' Max thought while glancing around.
Seeing Max walk around, glancing around as if searching for something, a maid waved while calling him out.
"It's free here!" She announced, Max already looking in her direction.
He made his way to her hurriedly, not wanting someone else to take his place. Max reached her and was now looking at her face-to-face, separated just by a wooden counter whose height reached Max's upper abdomen.
"My name is Amanda; how can I help you?" The maid introduced herself, a gentle and melodious voice entering Max's ears.
"I have to thank you for helping me" Max didn't even introduce himself before thanking the lady named Amanda. He was aware that she intended to help him first out of all the people surrounding the reception.
"It's no problem, we prioritize new people so it was my job to take you first. This helps with the first interactions and such" She explained to Max who felt slightly awkward now.
"It's that apparent?" Max questioned; he didn't want to look like a newbie as this might bring troubles.
"For us at the reception it is, we meet at least once with every student that is allowed in this place. You can also expect us to notice a new pretty face" Amanda told Max before winking at him, a firm smile appearing on her lips while doing so.
"Alright then," Max managed to calm himself down through the carefree attitude of Amanda " I was told to come here and ask for quests at second-year level" He revealed the intention of coming here, thinking there was nothing to hide from her.
"Oh… wait for one second" She reacted quickly, kneeling under the counter. Noises were heard as she moved books from one side to the other in search of something. "Here it is!" The slightly muffled tone of her voice was heard by Max before seeing her getting up, holding a thick leather-cased book in her hands.
The book looked seemingly old but to Max's surprise it wasn't filled with dust and neither did it have mold on it. It was extremely used though, giving it its old aspect.
Amanda placed the book on the counter before rotating it, now the book being in front of Max. She opened it and flipped at a specific page before addressing Max once again.
"These two pages are filled with missions that a new magician can accomplish on his own while the next eight pages are missions that either a more advanced magician can do on his own or a group of new magicians can do together." She informed Max, not waiting for his reply.
"I think I should give you a few tips to start off, I recommend to select a group mission first. Even though you were sent on your own it doesn't mean that your group isn't siding with you, but it's quite the opposite you see? Relatively powerful groups send their new members alone as a sign of trust, this makes them adapt faster while also going through the process of doing certain things on their own at an early stage." She said trying to encourage Max. She didn't know of his interactions so far with his group and being left alone to do a task, even as simple as choosing a mission, usually made the newbies feel left alone.
"Thanks for the tip, and you might also be right. They told me to meet up with them after I select a mission so with what you said this means that they will check it out and help me if I can't complete it alone…" Max thought while speaking out loud, he wasn't given an explanation to everything yet so he could only guess something like this.
He checked out the first two pages before moving on to the next ones, looking around and getting the idea of what second-years are able to accomplish. He couldn't check all of them out, there were at least a few hundreds of missions on these ten pages he was allowed to look at after all.
The missions varied greatly, they were from hunting beasts and even requests for clearing dungeons to easy ones such as finding a specific type of plant or helping nearby cities or villages with labor work.
Below each mission was a number, signifying the number of points the mission will give upon completion. And of course, easy missions had a lower amount of points awarded in contrast with the harder missions.
"Aren't some… not that interesting?" Max asked right after reading about a mission that solicited help in constructing a building, trying to sound polite.
"I understand what you are saying but there is one factor you don't know about…" She stopped talking before seeing Max concentrating on her words.
"The missions aren't only for our Mana Academy, different academies- magician academies or otherwise- have access at these quests as well. This will make it quite harsh to find a good quest though, the best ones usually being taken away immediately." She told Max, patiently informing him of whatever he wanted to know.
"Wouldn't this create a lot of conflicts and competition during a quest?" Max asked as soon as she stopped talking.
"This won't happen because of the system put in place just because of this. Once a quest is taken by an individual the writing soliciting help will disappear from the book, making it impossible for another student to take the mission" She informed Max who had an even more questioning gaze.
"Disappear? How does the writing disappear from a book after claiming a mission?" Max questioned Amanda once again, knowing there was something else at play here.
"It might seem like a complicated process but it's in fact really simple. The book is a relic seed, using its special property we can link books together, making the writing inside the books identical and once you write or erase something from one book, the content from all of them changes" Amanda gave a brief explanation to Max who seemed to grasp the idea of it.
'From what I know, Spirit Weapons are relics as well but are characterized and called differently because of certain properties they possess' Max thought while remembering the contents of the book 'Dive into a Soul Weapon.
"Thank you for all the information that you are sharing with me, I think I'll finish picking a quest," Max said, finally being satisfied with the level of knowledge he gained just from a few questions. He shifted his gaze back on the book before continuing reading.
***
A few minutes go by while there was no conversation between Amanda and Max. The latter was searching for a decent quest while the former was busy helping other people in the time Max was reading the quest book.
"Miss Amanda, I have decided on a quest" He announced after noticing the fact that she wasn't around him anymore.
Amanda heard Max and hastily came back from a backroom, holding something in her hands. She made her way in a specific direction before coming back to Max, holding nothing in her hands.
"Alright then, which one?" She asked curiously. The curiosity she felt wasn't towards what quest he would pick but it would be about what group Max was part of, he didn't inform her before but she still had the chance to learn it after picking a quest.
"A few Low-Grade magical beasts hoarded together, their leader is a Medium-Grade magical beast and they occupy the forest outside of Wulon City… this one" Max pointed his finger to where the text he read was written at.
He chose such a quest as it was just outside of the city he was currently in. The mission didn't seem that hard either, knowing that he would be getting help from his group that was.
"Please complete both of these papers, one will be given to you while the other you leave behind. This is like insurance for both parties" Amanda said before handing Max two identical papers.
It requested information such as his name, year, and group. Nothing too serious so Max brushed through the signing and folded the paper that belonged to him.
"Have a great time hunting!" Amanda said her goodbyes before Max distanced himself from the reception.
Max left the Group Hall shortly after. He paced towards the dorms area searching for the place where second-year students had their rooms.
He found the building which looked relatively the same. He walked inside before being greeted with the same interior he was already accustomed with and seeing this he knew the way to the room, going swiftly up the stairs and arriving in front of a door where '56-M' was written on.
His hand shook slightly before using it to knock on the door in front of him.
"Come in!" A voice Max felt familiar with resounded before the door cracking open.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Cozma
Cozma To have enough time for my student life, free time, and the time I need to complete a chapter I have chosen to push back the release schedule by a few hours. A new chapter will always come out between two and three hours after the daily reset.
I hope you guys can cheer me up with a review and/or with a power stone. I want to finish this novel and this helps me motivate every time I spend two or three hours writing and editing a new chapter.
Thank you for your time!
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