I Reject Quests

Rewen studied in the library for over an hour, then issued the book he was reading along with some others and went into his class' training ground.

4th grade Training Ground.

Rewen wasted no time in increasing his mana storage. He wanted to reach the 200-mark today.

Sometime later.

---

MP: 200

---

A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

After the session ended, he went home without engaging in conversations with anyone.

***

Klofar Residence.

Rewen placed the meal that he had bought while returning home on the dining table.

"Ah, Rewen." Denny came out of her room after hearing the sounds of footsteps. "Hm? You brought something to eat?"

"I won't give you." Rewen pettily said, before sitting down and starting to eat.

Denny slightly smiled. "By the way, Uncle sent some things."

Rewen nodded. "Are they in the garage?" He figured the 'things' she was talking about was most likely the equipment for crafting a Magic Artifact. Two minutes later, he completed his meal and washed his hand before going to the garage.

As he was standing before the garage, his smartphone rang.

Rewen took it out and saw that a message had arrived.

---

Greetings, Mr. Klofar.

Hope you have been in good health.

I had received word from my subordinate that you had managed to defeat the two squads I sent in quite a fashion! To think there would be a traitor among us!

First, congratulations! Also, excuse me for not appearing in person or sent my heartfelt congratulations earlier.

Rejoice, you have passed your second hurdle. Your second hurdle showed me your resolve and ruthlessness. It showed that to achieve your goals, you won't stop at anything. You are truly a very interesting person. 

Unfortunately, your third hurdle won't be as simple as the second. Without spoiling anything--- I'll just say it outright, you can't survive. Even if you were a Rank 3 Mage, it would still be difficult for you to survive. 

Eh? Am I missing anything? Ah yes, I didn't forget anything but as an upright man, let me reward you with something.

As far as I'm concerned, both your cousin and ex-girlfriend have explosives on their bodies. Those explosives are connected to a five-way remote. I won't destroy the remote but I would destroy one of the four connectors left. Sounds good?

Enough chit-chat. Take a rest for today and tomorrow I'll send you the location and details of the next squad(s).

Take care.

With regards,

X.

---

'He doesn't even bother to make it seem like he didn't copy from the previous message.' He chuckled, then his face turned grave. 'To make a reasonable interpretation, it's fair to say that… the next battle would not be me fighting a single squad.'

Keeping the smartphone in his pocket, he stood still for a long moment. After a while, he sighed. 'Well, I guess there's no other way. Still too early to speak about this but tomorrow, the results would come out.' Then, he opened the garage.

Dust washed over his body.

He coughed a little before his sight was set on a shiny, tall, wide cylindrical machine. It was without a doubt, the [Terminator]. Besides that, a fairly large box was kept.

Rewen walked to it and opened the box.

Three bottles of [Enhancer].

Five [Type Slots].

Seven [Mana Collector].

Three [Watcher].

Eight [Distributor].

There was also a thick book titled - "Getting into Crafting".

Rewen was pretty damn satisfied with this but at the same time. Eventually, after inspecting the different types of equipment, he picked up a [Distributor] and smiled for unknown reasons.

"This is severely underrated."

For the rest of the day, he was engrossed in his studies.

Today was the first day that he didn't log in.

***

It was night.

At the extreme north of Travil Town, a small clinic was running its business when a middle-aged man in a leather suit appeared.

"Do you have an appointment?" The receptionist asked.

The middle-aged man took out a card from his pocket and handed it over to her. "Yes, here's my card."

"Please come with me, Mr. Dorothy."

The receptionist brought the middle-aged man to a room where a young doctor was reading some articles.

Seeing two people entering, the young doctor raised his eyes.

The receptionist left, leaving the middle-aged man named Mr. Dorothy who quietly looked at the young doctor.

"Please sit." The young doctor gestured his guest to him in the chair in front of him.

The middle-aged man did as he was told.

The young doctor spun a pen around his finger, then tapped on the desk wondering about something. "You know, helping someone by curing their medical problems feels great. It's not as simple as people think. Never mind that, what is the report?"

"The target is trying to learn artifact crafting."

The young doctor nodded with his lower lips bulged out. "Okay. Did he have the equipment from the start or did he buy them? Didn't you tell me that his economic condition isn't good?"

"Around eleven at night, the target called his father. From the contents of the call, it can be concluded that his father sent him the machinery to craft."

"Who is his father?"

"Any information about his parents doesn't exist."

"How about their names?"

"His mother's name is Viviana. As for his father's name, it's unknown. It is suspected that the target himself doesn't know his name. It is also very possible the name 'Viviana' is a fake name."

The young doctor laughed out loud. "That smells bad news to us. Think about it. How many people in the country can have their identity totally personal? But that's fine. We have the target wrapped up. He won't risk the lives of his close ones to contact the authorities."

"What if he does?"

"Then, we'll simply run." The young doctor appeared to have some thoughts, then continued. "And then? Did the target do anything troublesome?"

"He attempted to make a scout I sent to reveal himself."

"Hm… he isn't stupid. What did he say to the scout?"

For the first time after coming to the room, the stoic middle-aged man smiled. 

***

Two days pass in silence.

Rewen holed up in the garage the entire day. Because the protests were going on, the academy was unofficially closed. Aside from that, he also disconnected himself from social media. Now, if he were to take a look at his social media, he would notice that his DMs are filled with his friends calling him out for a recent video of him being racist circling around the academy forums.

"Rewen?"

Denny appeared behind him with a boxed parcel. "Here." Keeping it near him, she watched the garage.

Once an empty garage had turned into a mess. Open books were lying on the floor. Mechanical equipment was all over the place. There was even a laptop that Rewen recently ordered. Right now, he was typing something on his laptop. He hadn't even noticed her arrival.

"Rewen?" Denny gave him a little push on her back.

"Oh, what's the matter? Can you come later? I'm a bit busy." Rewen answered while still typing.

Denny sighed. "A parcel has arrived."

"It arrived?" Rewen stopped typing, then looked at the parcel. "Good."

Denny wanted to say something but eventually left without saying a word. While she may not understand everything he was going through, she understood that if she were to be in his position, she would fall apart. That's why she wanted to encourage him but their current awkward relationship didn't allow her to.