Chapter 451 – Trial Mission Two

Chapter 451 – Trial Mission Two

Greta didn’t know how much psychic power she could currently mobilize, nor how many Gem Coins it could be exchanged for.

Unfortunately, this resource repository could only be opened by official members.

According to the materials, as a member’s standing within the Dawn Society increased, resource repositories of different tiers would gradually be unlocked.

The more Greta read, the more she looked forward to the day she became an official member of the Dawn Society.

Compared to praying for divine favor, she much preferred this feeling of holding her fate in her own hands.

The moment she finished reading all three documents, the {Study Material Pack Card} vanished and was replaced by a claimable {Dawn Society Trial Exam Card}.

After Greta claimed it, the card transformed into a virtual light screen with text on it, displaying the exam instructions.

【This exam consists of 100 questions, all multiple choice. Each question has four options: A, B, C, and D. Selecting the correct option counts as a correct answer. Each question is worth 1 point, for a total of 100 points. 60 points or above is a pass, 80 points or above is good, and 90 points or above is excellent. A pass earns the basic reward, good earns double the reward, and excellent earns triple the reward.

There is no time limit for the exam. Would you like to begin now?】

Greta carefully read through the exam instructions, then nervously tapped “begin.”

When she tapped start, her mind was completely blank—she felt like she’d read all the study materials and retained absolutely nothing.

But after reading the actual questions, she naturally picked out the most familiar answer from among the four options.

Each question took less than a minute to complete.

With every question she finished, she breathed a small sigh of relief. One question, one sigh; another question, another sigh. By the time she’d finished them all, her heart had settled.

Passing shouldn’t be a problem.

After submitting the exam, the exam card quickly produced her final score.

“Eighty-three points! Good!” Greta was so happy she felt like her body wasn’t even as cold anymore.

She hurriedly opened the trial card to claim her rewards for Trial Mission One.

Before long, she had two {Magic Card – Cleanse Death Force} cards, two {Item Card – Compass} cards, four {Food Card – Black Bread} cards, and four {Food Card – Drinking Water} cards.

After using one {Magic Card – Cleanse Death Force}, Greta felt a wave of warmth, and strength returned to her body.

She then materialized one {Food Card – Black Bread} and one {Food Card – Drinking Water}.

She received one large loaf of black bread and two wooden bottles of water.

Starving, she opened wide and took an enormous bite: “Hss!”

A sharp pain shot through her teeth.

She immediately switched to tiny, cautious nibbles—biting off small pieces, washing them down with water, chewing them soft in her mouth before swallowing.

Watching her struggle with the black bread brought back memories for Lilith, Sylph, and Vasida of when they had first started learning Culinary Magic, and they all suddenly felt a sympathetic toothache.

“Why not give her something easier to eat? Black bread is better suited as a weapon than food!” Sylph said.

“It’s all about cost!” Mo Lan said. “The difference between one black bread and one white bread isn’t much, but what about ten thousand black breads versus ten thousand white breads? I still haven’t collected a single unit of disposable magic energy so far—I’m running this at a loss! And it’s only because our Dawn Society hasn’t made a name for itself yet that trial missions even come with rewards at all!”

“…”

Mo Lan the shrewd merchant—truly terrifying.

Though the black bread really had no texture to speak of, the feeling of fullness it brought was quite satisfying.

Greta treasured it dearly. After gnawing through a small portion, she wrapped the remaining larger half in her robe.

Trial Mission One had shown her a glimmer of hope for survival. Now, whether for her own sake or for the sake of Trial Mission Two, she needed to get out of the Black Forest as quickly as possible.

She took out the {Item Card – Compass}.

She’d read the card description earlier—this compass could identify directions.

“The needle points south?” Greta held the compass. “So this way is south, that way is north, and this way is east? I’m in the Black Forest, the Black Forest is south of the Kingdom of Watson, and east of the Kingdom of Watson is Mage Empire territory, so I should head… northeast! This way!”

Greta set off confidently toward what she believed was “northeast.”

Vasida looked at Greta, then looked at the actual directions. “She’s heading… northwest, isn’t she?”

Mo Lan: “…”

She truly hadn’t expected that Greta could still manage to walk the wrong way even with a compass in hand!

She’d mixed up east and west again!

“What do we do? Won’t she just keep walking farther and farther away? She might end up walking right back into the Kingdom of Watson.” Sylph said.

Mo Lan took a deep breath. “It’s fine. There’s still the mission progress reminder!”

Since she was walking in the wrong direction, Trial Mission Two’s progress wouldn’t just stop increasing—it would actually decrease. Now it was just a matter of when she’d notice.

Greta walked for about an hour. During that time, whenever she looked at the compass, she’d walk northwest; but whenever she wasn’t looking at the compass, her path would veer off—sometimes north, sometimes west, sometimes east, and sometimes she’d loop all the way back around heading south.

Mo Lan and the others sat on the flying carpet following behind her, utterly dumbfounded by her inexplicable talent for getting lost.

“This is just too ridiculous! Can she even find her own house when she goes outside?” Vasida said.

“When she was studying at the Temple in the capital of the Kingdom of Watson, she’d get lost the moment she left the central avenue,” Mo Lan said.

The central avenue of the Kingdom of Watson’s capital was a straight road leading directly to the city gates. As long as you could tell front from back, you could find your way home.

“The key thing is, every time she veers off course, she just happens to perfectly avoid the Animated Blackdeath Trees and undead creatures,” Sylph said. “I can’t sense any magical fluctuations at all. It seems like it’s genuinely just coincidence? That’s incredible!”

“And overall, she’s actually been heading east. This compass seems to work worse for her than her own instincts.”

Mo Lan felt a pang of frustration just talking about it.

She had specifically designed the rewards with Greta’s situation in mind, only to discover now that the compass was having the exact opposite effect.

Without it, her route might actually have been more accurate.

When Greta finally got tired and stopped to rest and drink water, she at last remembered to check her mission progress.

【Trial Mission Two: Escape the Black Forest alive】(0.21%)

“I’ve been walking all this time, and it’s only 0.21%?” Greta wailed. “How long is it going to take before I get the next reward?!”

She couldn’t sit still any longer and immediately stood up to continue walking.

This time she walked while watching the progress on the card. “Hm? Why is it going down?”

Greta knew her own tendencies well enough. “Could I have drifted off course?”

She took the compass in hand again, watching both the compass and the card as she walked. “Why is it going down again?”

This time, she ignored the northeast direction shown on the compass and tried walking in every direction, finally finding the one that made the progress increase the fastest.

After memorizing where that direction fell on the compass dial, she continued walking that way.

“This time it should be right, shouldn’t it?”

After walking for a while and seeing the mission completion progress increasing more quickly, she finally relaxed.