I Reject Quests

Rewen sat on a chair. In front of him was a clean table. On top of the table was a thin paper upon which Rewen was scribbling over. 

"Two daily missions from [Basic Knights and Magic System]"

[Check.]

"Two daily missions from [Bloodline System]"

[Check.]

"A single daily mission from "Blacksmith" feature."

[Check.]

"Done. Let's wrap it up. I have to go to the real world. It's been over twenty hours here."

[Wait. What about the 'Male God System'?]

"Are you an idiot or pretending to be one? Obviously, I won't use it. I am already very famous among ladies as you have seen it the entire day. Won't I trouble my fellow brothers this way?" He said in a monotonous way but anyone with half-a-brain could sense the sarcasm. 

[Is the Host sure? There could be unexpected benefits… who knows!]

Rewen's lips made a frown. "What?"

[A lottery]

"A lottery? Ok. I see. What is the lowest quality item possible?"

[The highest prize is not lower than "Freestyle Combats Manual"]

"You sure?"

[I pledge on my 76th G-546 System Protocol-]

"I get it. A lottery is definitely worth it. Besides, youth is incomplete without love and lust. Aside from my already negative reputation, I have nothing to lose. However…"

[However?]

"Heh, nothing. I'll let you think you are winning. Alright, two daily missions from [Male God System]." He flicked his pen and wrote it down on the paper. 

[Check.]

"Okay, log out!"

Time stopped. 

***

Rewen took off his helmet and placed it on his PC desk. He felt a bit dizzy immediately after logging out but within a few seconds, that sensation vanished. He got up and sat down on his PC and went to the academy website. In the "what's new" section, he found several threads. 

---

Give respects to the Future Strongest Man on Earth #Respect #Funny (657955 replies) 

Shocking! The two eldest teachers in the academy might be married! #Shock #Relationship (34656 replies) 

Omg!! Fang hugged me!!!! #Bliss #NowICanDieInPeace (23575 replies) 

I secretly saw Ruby without her mask and you wouldn't believe it… #Gasp (9986 replies) 

… 

.. 

---

Rewen clicked on the overwhelmingly popular thread. Some replies made him feel shame but he hardened his resolve and continued reading it. He knew he couldn't falter here. He had to thicken his skin to not be a joke in public. He had to digest the whole thing "sportingly".

By the end of the 45th page of replies, he started laughing about it. 

"Rewen! Come for dinner!"

He heard Denny's voice. Shutting down his PC, he went to the dining room. Cal was sitting down reading a magazine. Denny brought up the dinner she prepared from the kitchen. Rewen was a bit emotional looking at his new family. Growing up, he had no blood relatives aside from his mother. Of course, the villagers and neighbours treated him with love and affection but he knew he wanted kin. 

He had two identities. He knew he was fortunate enough to have a full family in one of them and was grateful. If he could, he wanted to make his family prosper and make them feel proud of him. Having such thoughts, he smiled and sat down at the table. 

As he started eating, Denny raised her eyebrows and stared at him with her dead fish-like eyes. "I can't believe I'm having dinner with the Future Strongest Man on Earth. Ah, I'm so lucky." 

Rewen stopped chewing the food in his mouth but didn't say anything. After a moment, he resumed chewing. Cal, on the other hand, looked confused. In curiosity, he asked. 

"What's with that?" 

Denny took out her phone and showed him the video. After the video ended, Cal had a hard time restraining his laughter. Rewen snorted. 

After dinner, Rewen went back to his room and took out a new book from his bookshelf - "Becoming a Mage - Book 1 by Rofel Gruntz", kept his pen and notebook ready and started reading it. The book itself wasn't anything special. There were millions of books having the same contents. What makes it apart from the rest of them was the name "Rofel Gruntz". He was a renowned direct official of the Thirteen Continents Council and also a genius in mana research. Throughout his life, he proposed more than twenty theories that are used to date. 

As Rewen was reading the book, he felt the power system was very complicated. In the mages system, there are a total of ten ranks (0-9). To become a Rank 0 Mage, he/she must learn to absorb and store mana. Everyone's storage is originally zero, the competition comes when the question arises - how fast? That depends on the percentage of mana resonance. For example, a person with 15% resonance would need a minimum of five minutes to restore 100 MP. A person with 20% resonance can do the same within three minutes. 

The base MP to become a Rank 0 Mage is set to 100. Generally, people can only store 100 MP at Rank 0 but few exceptions come up now and then. All in all, there is only a single criterion to become a Rank 0 Mage, i.e., to store 100 MP in the body. Normally, it would take around a month to reach Rank 0 and he would be the highest in his class due to him having the highest mana resonance. 

In Academy, classes are generally divided into six grades. The 6th Grade students have a mana resonance of less than or equal to 10%. 5th Grade students - less than or equal to 15%. 4th Grade students - less than or equal to 20%. 3rd Grade students - less than or equal to 30%. 2nd Grade students - less than or equal to 35%.

1st Grade students - over 35%. 1st and 2nd Grade Class was called the Special Classes. 

One of the important requirements to graduate successfully is that a student has to reach Rank 1 by the end of their second year which is also the biggest hurdle for 4th and some 3rd Grade students. Naturally, 6th and 5th Grade students are pursuing different paths and any 2nd and 1st Grade student could easily become Rank 1 by a single year if they try hard enough. 

Why is it that difficult for an average Joe to get to Rank 1? Because to become a Rank 1, he/she must learn at least four skills and store 3000 MP. Simple. 

"No, it's not simple. If I take a month to grow my storage from 0 to 100, then it would take at least two years and six months for my storage to have 3000 MP and I haven't even taken the four skills to learn into consideration. Of course, there would be opportunities to boost the speed and it seems that the only way to make this possible is to make full use of those opportunities.

"To increase the capacity of the storage, there is a compulsory special training to be done at Academy and can only be done at the academy for two hours. There is no other alternative."

Rewen sighed. "Hopefully, the system will help me through it. I might seem powerful after defeating a Rank 2 Mage but even if I am the strongest student in the academy, I still won't be able to graduate unless I pass other requirements. After all, combat strength isn't a measure of an estimate of potential."

Rewen kept the book, pen and notebook in his study desk and headed to bed after turning off the sleep. "Today was the toughest day in my life." He said as he slowly closed his eyes.