Chapter 47: CH. 47 | Two Missions, One Choice

He arrived at the ideal distance, not too close, not too far. Keeping his eyes fixed ahead, he read through the missions pinned up on the board one by one.

The woman had posted them from the highest rank down to the lowest. Theo narrowed his eyes, his gaze locked clearly on what lay ahead.

Theo’s attention wasn’t drawn to the top rows of the board, since those were reserved for the higher rank missions.

Instead, his eyes drifted downward, where he spotted plenty of F rank, E rank, and D rank missions.

Right after the woman finished pinning everything up, Theo activated his Foresight skill again to get a clear look ahead, straight into the future.

[Foresight Skill Activated]

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:10]

The world around him instantly turned gray, everyone’s movements froze, and only their future shadow images kept moving.

Theo stepped past the red tape barrier and walked right up to the mission board.

Up close, he could clearly make out the list of missions and their descriptions, especially the D rank ones.

One thing that caught his eye was a mission to hunt goblins on a farm north of the city.

According to the short description, whoever took the mission would need to guard the farm for three days against goblin raids during the full moon period.

Theo wasn’t sure if this was the ideal mission for him and his team, but compared to the others, the D rank goblin mission promised a solid payoff from the sheer number of kills, since he figured there’d be a lot of them.

He let the Foresight skill run out and let the world return to normal. Theo looked ahead and pointed toward that mission, then turned to Avara.

"Please go grab that mission for me," Theo said.

Avara looked ahead and nodded in agreement. Theo also explained that she could go get it once the guild staff gave the signal.

But then something unexpected happened. Not many adventurers had gathered in front of the mission board this time, a stark contrast to before.

There’s little chance we’ll end up shoving through a crowd this time.

"Never mind, I’ll just grab it myself later."

The tape came down, and the adventurers moved forward at a brisk pace to grab the missions pinned to the board.

Theo got exactly the mission he wanted, then showed it to Thalia and the others.

Thalia clapped and walked over to Theo, with Aya and Lily following suit. When they read the mission description, they looked stunned.

"G-Goblins...?"

"Yeah... goblins," Theo said, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing’s wrong. It’s just that they always treat women brutally," Thalia explained.

Lily stepped closer and pointed at a number 2 symbol printed on the mission. She asked what it meant.

Theo had no idea either, so he suggested they all head over to the front desk to ask Sara for the details.

"Hey, Sara."

"Hey, Theo," Sara greeted him, "How’d it go?"

Theo handed over the guild mission paper and asked about the symbol. Sara began explaining it to them.

"Oh, this is a joint party mission."

"A joint party mission?"

"That’s right," Sara explained, "The number two printed here means this mission has to be carried out by at least two parties."

"So what happens with the reward?" Theo asked.

"The reward stays the same. It doesn’t get split even if two parties run it together."

Theo went quiet for a moment. When he asked more about the requirements, Sara explained that this mission couldn’t be taken on by a single party of rookie adventurers, unless a silver rank adventurer was helping them out.

"So I could take this mission on with just my own party, as long as I manage to recruit a silver rank adventurer?" Theo asked.

"That’s right."

Theo thanked Sara for the explanation, then headed back to a tavern table with Thalia.

The three girls sat down at the wooden table while Theo stood in front of them.

He asked Thalia to go grab another mission from the board. Thalia nodded, understanding, and headed back over.

It was easy enough for her to grab one, since there weren’t many adventurers crowding around, in fact, there was hardly anyone there at all.

Before long, Thalia came back to the tavern table with two more missions from the board.

She stood right beside Theo and laid them out on the table, so now they had three missions in front of them from that morning.

"So, are we doing all three missions?" Lily asked.

"Not really. There’s no way we could run three missions at once," Thalia said, "I grabbed these other ones so we’d have something to compare against Theo’s goblin mission."

"This one’s an E rank mission. We’d be assigned to collect crystal materials from an old mine," Thalia explained, "And this D rank one has us collecting ten pieces of black ink lizard skin."

"So, what do you all think?" she asked again.

Lily and Aya looked over the missions. Both of them leaned toward the Black Ink Lizard mission, since it felt like a safer bet compared to the goblin one.

Still, they both looked tempted by the reward the goblin mission offered.

Theo could sense their hesitation about taking on the goblin mission, which was exactly why he wasn’t going to push them into it.

"Let’s not take unnecessary risks," Theo said, "We’ll go with the lizard skin mission."

Aya and Lily nodded, clearing their throats, and Thalia agreed as well. Theo picked up the mission they weren’t going with and pinned it back on the board.

Thalia and the others walked over to the front desk to hand in the mission and register it under Theo’s party. Theo followed and walked up to the counter.

"Not taking the goblin mission after all?" Sara asked.

Theo shook his head, "Too risky. We’ll focus on leveling up first before we take that one on."

"Sure thing," Sara said.

[Congratulations! Guild mission successfully registered for the party]

[Party Name: Theo’s Party]

[Leader: Theo (None || Lv. 4)]

[Guild Mission: Collect Black Ink Lizard Skin (0/10)]

[Mission Rank: D-Rank]

[Mission Duration: 02:23:59:51]

[Reward: +200 exp || +15 Contribution Points || +35 Copper]

The guild mission system panel appeared in front of Theo and his party members, and now Aya could see it too.

Sara reached across the counter and handed Theo the mission paper.

"Good luck, Theo."

"Thanks, Sara."