The Tales of Draconic Warlock

Let's register this mission first.

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Mission: Burglary has become rampant in the capital's South Dorsk district. The city guards were overwhelmed due to the recent small monster tide a few kilometres away from the capital, which destroyed three villages and a small town.

Find the burglars and report them to the City Guard station or if possible take them down.

Time Limit: One month

Rewards: You'll be rewarded points based on how the mission goes.

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The mission is simple. I need to find the thieves who were responsible for the disappearance of a lot of valuables from their original location.

The rewards that I may earn from the completion may differ it seems. If I can catch them, then the points that I gain should be much higher than if I just pass on the information to the city guard.

Well, there should or if the rewards are the same for every scenario, then no one would be motivated to catch them even if they have the strength to do so. Rewards are what motivate people to work hard and to complete tasks properly.

If the rewards were lacking or stayed the same no matter how hard you work, then even the ones that usually work hard would be tempted to stop working and laze around like others.

This would not be beneficial to the society, rather it could degrade the society.

This was something that the academy knew very well. So there were no definitive rewards but the rewards are based on how the mission goes. It is a good way to make the strong ones take action.

These battles would help in the future if they have to fight against bandits or an enemy nation's army.

Though it looks like the nations are at peace they are not. There are border clashes every now and then. Though the clashes remain small, there are fatalities every once in a while.

No one can say whether that could stay the same in a few years.

The reason every nation would fight each other is for only one reason, resources. If a poor nation suddenly finds a high-level dungeon or a secret realm or a mine that can provide tens of thousands of tons of any magic metal, then they should be prepared to be invaded.

There are only two ways to protect themselves.

One was to hide the recent findings of these resources. In this way, if others don't know about the existence then there would be no invasion but it is quite difficult to keep such a thing secret for long.

No matter how high the security is, anyone can slip up the secret either in sleep or when they are intoxicated or due to simple greed. It would be a huge disaster.

The only other way to survive was to bend their knee to someone powerful and become their vassal. In this way, you have to give away some resources to this empire or something that you became a vassal and can keep some for yourselves.

The quota would depend on the resources and also the empire's policies towards the new territories. There are many other factors that decide that.

So what I am saying is that, if a new resource point was found in one of the kingdoms, then the other nations surrounding them would definitely invade them.

So one should be prepared for attacks from both monsters and humans.

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"Hello, I am here to register a mission", I approached the window, where mission registrations would happen.

The girl smiled at me, "Hello, Student ID and the Mission Pamphlet", she asked.

The mission pamphlet would be only one and it has to be taken from the mission board to get registered. If not, someone else can register and it would be theirs. Even if you complete the mission, the rewards will be issued to the one under whom the mission was registered.

Of course, there are repetitive missions, which don't need to be registered.

These include monster parts, herbs and other items that people would stumble upon in the wilds.

These types of missions don't need registration but mission materials can be submitted directly at the mission completion counters. They would just hand you the mission rewards but the mission would remain on the board for others to take it as well.

Not all herb collection missions are repetitive. There are one-time missions that require some herbs that were useful to create something one time or probably because they are rare and wanted to collect them beforehand for a rainy day.

I handed her my student ID and the pamphlet which had the mission printed on it. As soon as I decided, I tore it from the board. This is so that it belongs to me and others have to select something else.

She took a look at my ID and the mission, "Are you the only one?" she asked.

"Yes", I replied.

I am not interested in forming teams with anyone. I have way too may secrets and having teammates means one or two of these secrets would be revealed in time and maybe even all of my secrets.

This would be disastrous for me.

I don't need to be this strict once I reach Tier-7 but even at that rank, if all my secrets were revealed, there would be many greedy ones that covet what I have.

I could become a lab rat, as my body holds too many secrets. There is also the cosmic market, which should be kept a secret no matter what. Even if my talents are known by outsiders, it wouldn't be problem as long as you are strong.

Whoever wanted to get their hands on me would try underhanded methods but once the secret of the cosmic market was known to others, then everyone would want such a treasure in their hands rather than in other one's hands.

So no teammates for now. It is also why I didn't socialize with others that much. Another reason was that most of these idiots would lose their lives on missions or after graduating from the academy.

"Okay, it's done", the girl handed my ID back, "You have a month to complete the mission and submit it to the city guard. After one month, it would automatically regarded as a failure, and you can't take this mission again. However, this is an investigation mission. So if you can show that you made huge progress, you can get an extension depending on what you have uncovered", she said.

I nodded, said "Thank you", and went on my way.

This was already said during last semester and it was also mentioned in the guidebook that was supplied when we returned for the third year and went to collect the keys for the quarters where I had to stay.

---

I reached the capital city in minutes.

After entering the capital, I went to the city guard's post. Though I took the mission, the details of the mission are still with the city guard.

They may have posted the mission but that doesnot mean that they wanted everyone to know the details.

From what my sibling said about such investigative missions, most of the details had to be learned on our own. The guards would have the statements from the victims and whatever they were able to uncover when they searched the residences to find any trials left by the thieves.

It was already mentioned in the mission that the guards were busy dealing with the recent monster tide that happened nearby. They wouldn't have focused whatever strength they had on thefts.

The capital is a very large city with a huge population. There are many crimes that occur every day within the city limit. There is no way that they can manage everything. Most of the time the tasks would be handed over to the adventurers, mercenaries or students from the Royal Academy.

Since they are busy, I can't depend on what they have uncovered. After getting the files, what I would get is the Initial point from where I have to start my investigation from.

Based on what they did, I should try other things but I shouldn't. I should verify whether the results obtained by them were true.

Though they are the city guards, they are still humans and prone to make mistakes. So I should verify the findings before I could go and try other ways to see if there would be any results.

Many times, it was human errors that made people not see results no matter how much they tried to.

Oh, the city guard station is here. Let's go and meet the person who is incharge of the missions.