The Regressed SSS-Rank Water Mage Wants To Live a Calm Life-Chapter 23: The First Task

They pushed through the crowd, slithering through spaces between the rough men and women. Tedious, it might’ve sounded, but it was relatively easy with the golden badge — or license — hanging on the chest area of Maxwell’s shirt. The moment they saw the glistening license, the mercenaries that stood in their way shifted, giving way to the duo. Or trio, if Frilo was counted. And like that, they made their way to the front and got a closer look at the taskboard.

Vin exhaled, shoulders slumping. And Frilo, on Vin’s head, had the same relieved expression. Almost like it was mirroring Vin’s every bodily movement.

Maxwell, however, grinned.

"A wide variety of tasks," the young mage muttered. "Which do we choose?"

On the board, white papers were pinned. And on each of the papers, there was specific data.

Vin stepped forward, hand on his chin.

"I’m thinking of an A-rank task for starters," he said. "Although I don’t think I can handle another A-rank task as coreless as I am. The last wyvern fight left a lot of bruises on my body. Most are still unhealed."

Hearing this, Max raised a brow.

"I was thinking the same about an A-rank task, just needed to find the perfect one. And as for the core part... don’t worry, you won’t remain coreless for long."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Max waved a hand dismissively, fixing his gaze on the board. "And you can go visit a healer to get your bruises treated after this task. You have the money to afford one now."

Vin’s eyes widened.

"Ah," his eyes narrowed. "You’re right. I almost forgot."

Maxwell let out a dry scoff.

"Hurray for me, then."

Max’s gaze washed over the entirety of tasks ranked E to A on the board. From the mundane F-rank task of capturing sewer rats underground, to the E-rank task of finding missing farm animals.

He hummed, remembering his past life. How he’d crawled from the bottom, doing these meager tasks just to rank slowly. And even then, he never attained S-rank before he quit the mercenary life.

Maxwell chuckled, refocusing his attention on the board.

This time, he carefully scanned the A-rank tasks present on the board as they were the highest-ranked tasks available. S-rank tasks were only given by the Guildmaster himself or the vice-guildmaster.

Maxwell squinted his eyes, gazing at a particular pinned sheet of paper. In the sea of tens of A-rank tasks, this one seemed like the most rewarding.

He read the data.

[Task: Telanchis execution.]

[Description: Telanchis, the infamous beasts of the Eastern swamp at the outskirts of Ludia, have once again laid eggs. And these eggs have hatched, causing the newborn beasts to cause havoc at the outskirts of Ludia. They pose a threat to the districts of the city should they leave the outskirts.]

[Threat rank: A-rank, baby Telanchis. Their vast numbers make them an A-rank threat.]

[Task rank: A-rank! Warning! A subjugation squad is recommended, as the beasts have superior numbers!]

[Reward: 70 gold coins! (Can be converted to silver or bronze)]

Maxwell pondered on the task. Slaying a couple of baby monsters would be easy. And 70 gold coins, if shared with Vin, would leave him with 35gc.

Their last cash reward was quite high, courtesy of the superb results of the alchemical auction. But this task wasn’t like the last one. Telanchis weren’t rare beasts, and their crimson cores — the conduit of beasts’ accumulated mana — were small.

The smaller the crimson core, the smaller the mana they’d accumulated, and the lesser the strength of the beast. The wyvern had a large crimson core. And the Alchemists found studying corrupted mana — the special mana of beasts and monsters — greatly interesting, as it was hard to process into effective potions. And to those eccentric, masochistic fellows, ’hard and difficult’ was a good thing. And so the cores of wyverns were priceless to them.

And honestly, if an Alchemist so needed a Telanchis’s core or any other part of the monster’s body for research or production of potions, they could commission any C-rank or so mercenary to capture one alive. Unlike a full, mature wyvern that was almost impossible for any low rank dreg to hunt.

Maxwell wondered. How was the wyvern even spotted in the first place? No, that wasn’t even the main question. That forest wasn’t the habitat of wyverns. Wyverns lived in Elyrus, the ancient equator. That gigantic forest, as large as a continent itself, that separated the four continents of the world, Cryst. The home of all demi-human races. Dwarves, Elves and all the other races favored by the mother tree.

How curious.

Originally, Maxwell and Vin had left the vicinity of Ludia, heading to a not-so-far forest outside the city. It was the place where the wyvern was spotted and so reported in the task details. Even if Max and Vin didn’t go to hunt the wyvern, it’d have been eliminated. A wyvern was a threat. A mature beast that’d almost evolved into the tier of ’monster.’

Knowing that the beast would’ve been eliminated anyway, the other mercenaries avoided that task.

But Maxwell and Vin had hunted the wyvern, held onto its wings as it rampaged through the air from that forest to Ludia, and to, ultimately, the field where Maxwell had free fallen from.

’Ah, FreeFall.’

Maxwell smiled. He’d love to experience it again. Thinking about it now, it really was addictive. No wonder he’d done it every little chance he got in his past life.

"You’ve been staring at that particular task for a while now," Vin suddenly interrupted Maxwell’s spiral of thoughts. "Are you thinking of taking it?"

Maxwell blinked, shook his head, and gathered his bearings.

"I think it’s a good task. The reward is high too. It’s not a bad choice."