I Reject Quests

Learn normal skills?

That's not a logical way of thinking.

The problem with Rewen is not his skills. His skills are strong enough for a Rank 1 Mage.

The problem is the skill casting time.

He always has to make preparations beforehand. If something doesn't go on his way, he can't suddenly change the outcome.

Then, he thought about learning normal skills but after a bit of research, he found out that skills aren't easy to learn for beginners. Oftentimes, when a beginner is learning his first skill, backlash is unavoidable. That's why it needs a supervisor. It also takes longer than a month to properly learn a skill for the first time.

Rewen wasn't narcissistic enough to think that he is a genius. 

His 'Daily Missions' are locked and there probably wouldn't be a quest issued for him to get stronger for the time being.

That leaves him with the last option.

Magic Artifacts.

No matter how unreal it may seem, he has to do something.

After some time, several people arrived in the library together. There were two women and three men. With a camera and a microphone in hand, they headed towards the librarian.

"What can I do for you?" The old man adjusted his glasses as he looked at the students. They wore black suits indicating that they were in the [Political Science] department.

A ponytailed woman came in front with her mic. "We just want to ask some questions."

"Okay." The old man nodded. He had been in the academy for more than forty years. He knows how the [Political Science] department is. The moment an incident concerning the minority occured, they would go on strikes, conduct surveys and so on. It's not that he believed that it's wrong to do so but he wasn't in favor of going political. After all these years, he had gotten used to it.

The young woman turned to one of the young men indicating him to start recording, then started her questions. "What do you think of the recent incident concerning the relative of a Seeker?"

"I haven't heard about it." The old man honestly said.

"It's like this. The student was discriminated against his entire life for being a Seeker and now that he finally got the opportunity to enter the academy, he was beaten up on the first day of academy. Do you think that this incident is racially motivated?" The ponytailed woman didn't beat around the bush and directly came to the point.

The old man carefully listened, then shook his head. "I haven't heard about it so I can't speak unless I hear both sides of the argument."

"He was just beaten up for being a relative of Seeker. The evidence says that he was standing there, watching the infrastructure when he got pushed into the ground by two sophomores. It has been investigated to the extreme details and we believe that it was indeed racially motivated. What is your opinion about it?"

"Then it must be so. The academy should take some measures. What happened with the two students who beat him up?"

The ponytailed woman shrugged. "Nothing. What could happen to them? If this was Frozen Fire, they would have long been expelled." Unlike Eastern Dream Kingdom, Frozen Fire was a constitutional monarchy which didn't follow fascist policies. Even though it wasn't a democratic and totally free country, it was much more progressive than Eastern Dream Kingdom.

The old man appeared surprised. "That's sad to hear."

"That's why we are preparing for a protest tomorrow. Not only would the protest contain students and professors from this academy, it would also be joined by the students from other neighboring academies. The motive of the protest is - to expel the two students. Unless they were expelled, the protests wouldn't stop. Would you like to participate in the protest?"

The old man's eyes squinted. A second later, he got up and straightened his back. "Haha… I'm just an old man. I wished the protest would go smoothly but I can't participate myself…" He said the same thing that he had been saying for the past forty years.

The ponytailed woman nodded and was about to open her mouth when she heard a voice behind her.

"Would the training grounds be locked because of the protest?" The speaker was Rewen. He wasn't paying much attention to the ongoing discussion but when he heard about the protest, his ears perked up. It's alright if the library was locked or the classes were postponed but one thing he couldn't be negligent about was his mana storage.

The ponytailed woman had a ridiculous expression on her face. "Dude. There's a case of discrimination and you are worrying about training grounds. You mages are something I can't wrap my head around."

"I just asked if it would be open or closed." Rewen asked again.

"Of course, it would be closed. It's a large-scale protest." This time, a man answered.

Rewen sighed, then shook his head and went back to his studies. 

The students of the [Political Science] department looked at each other, then went to him.

"Can I ask some questions?" The ponytailed woman asked while holding her microphone towards his face.

"Not really. I'm studying." Rewen said in a bland voice while reading.

The ponytailed woman didn't get angry. She had been training in journalism for four years and had met all kinds of people. 'He seems angry. It's probably got to do with the training ground being closed. I could make him represent the other side of the people who think that the incident was perfectly justified' Thinking so, she smiled. 

"It won't take much of your time." Then, she looked at the cameraman and gestured to him to start recording. 

Rewen figured out her strategy. At this point, if he were to say 'no', he could very well be painted as someone who is in support of racism with a little bit of editing. Normally, he would have given in but how could he bear to care about how others think of him when his life was barely hanging by a thread. 

"Fuck off." 

The ponytailed woman's eyes brightened. He gave her the 'material' she wanted. She immediately retreated. "Oh-okay dude. No need to get aggressive. Come, let's go." Leading her team, she exited the library.

Rewen was engrossed in his studies and didn't pay any attention. 

At this moment, the old man spoke up. "Young man, you should go after them. You don't know how much the media holds."

Rewen raised his face. "Let them do whatever they want. I'm not in a position to care."

The old man sighed. "That kind of thinking isn't bad but as a man living in a society, you have to be a little mindful of your words and actions. Otherwise, you would be ostracized. At some point, you would be forced to have beliefs that you don't acknowledge."

Rewen didn't say anything. He neither has any political opinion nor about society. If he has to answer why, it would be that he laid more emphasis on self rather than the society as a whole. That's how he had always been.