Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 345

Chapter 345: Mentor and Job
After retrieving his red-handled knife from inventory, he twirled it in his hand and then stabbed it through the bedside table’s flimsy wooden surface with a satisfying thud.

‘Can’t be too careful. Someone was already murdered right outside my room, and since the system classifies this place as not completely safe, I can’t be too careful.’

When he left Irio, he didn’t take Fen, the cute little puppy, with him, as he didn’t want to take any risk with him.

He knew that Gothic City’s level of strength was vastly superior to Irio’s, as this country was tier three.

Since there was a high possibility that he might encounter Martial Kings, he didn’t want to take a chance that they could tell that Fen was a special creature.

He didn’t know how easy it was to tell, so he didn’t take him with him, just to be safe.

Fen was not pleased and made sad-sounding sounds when he left without him. It even saddened Kiernan to leave him behind, as he had grown fond of him.

However, since this was for his safety, he knew he had to do it.

Fen had the ability that could signal him of danger, which would be very useful, but now that he had Instinct, he knew he could rely on himself to keep himself safe.

‘Let’s check the rest of the quests. I don’t want to stay in this place any more than necessary.’

***

[Mystery Quest]

[Rank: Advanced]

[Mission: Explore the scorched earth wasteland of the Ramshackle Battlefield and find out what caused the destruction of the once thriving civilization.

[Location: Ramshackle Battlefield

[Description: Ramshackle Battlefield, formerly known as Ramshackle Mountains, used to host a bustling city that was reduced to ruins in a catastrophic event. Find out what caused the destruction]

[Time limit: 6 months]

[Reward: 5,000 XP]

[Penalty: ???]

***

‘Ramshackle Battlefield…’

Kiernan pulled out his phone and checked the place on the internet.

Surprisingly enough, there were quite a few search results for the place.

‘Hmm, it looks like it was called Ramshackle Mountains in the past, but then one day it got destroyed. No one knows how.

‘About a hundred years after that, two armies clashed there, and thus the name changed to Ramshackle Battlefields, but the eerie thing is that no one survived in that battle…’

Kiernan frowned and rubbed his chin.

‘I don’t like this quest. From what I’ve read, no one has found out what happened to Ramshackle Mountains, and thousands of people have tried to find out.

‘Even if I have six months, there is a small chance that I will be able to figure it out!’

He thought, and for the final nail in the coffin, he used Instinct to look at the quest, and it was faint red colored.

“System, what does red mean?”

[…Dangerous]

“Should’ve guessed that… Yeah, I am not feeling this quest.”

Kiernan shook his head and then moved to check out the third quest.

***

[Hunt Quest]

[Rank: Intermediate]

[Mission: Hunt down and eliminate a pack of rogue direwolves terrorizing the Marauder Village.

[Location: The Forest of Marauder Village]

[Description: Hungry and angry, white-furred direwolves have been attacking unsuspecting villagers, and no one knows why. They’ve been peaceful, but one day, they suddenly turned violent and began attacking anyone in their path]

[Time limit: Till the next blue moon]

[Reward: 2,500 XP]

[Penalty: ???]

***

‘A hunting mission? Interesting, and direwolves? Never seen one. I thought that Fen was a dog at first, but I learned that he is actually a wolf.

‘Perhaps Fen is a direwolf?’

Kiernan turned his gaze back to the phone to check out when the next blue moon was.

‘Three weeks ago… How far is Marauder Village…’

It took him some time to find anything about Marauder Village, as it was a very small place and almost no one had heard about it.

However, after a while, he learned of its location and discovered that it was much farther away than he had expected.

‘It will take a couple of days on a plane to reach that place. The plane, of course, doesn’t land anywhere close to Marauder Village, so I would pretty much need to walk over there, which will take another extra few days.’

While the quest, at first, sounded interesting to him, but now it just seemed very bothersome.

‘I like the quest as it is clear that some antagonized those direwolves so that they became violent, and unfortunately those villagers will be in great danger, but I can’t risk my life for this.’

Lastly, he moved his gaze to the final quest.

***

[Mentor Quest]

[Rank: Beginner]

[Mission: You must teach how to defend yourself to a young boy]

[Location: Sirkus City]

[Description: Neal Yoxall, a timid young boy from Sirkus Middle School, has been bullied by his classmates for weeks. He needs someone to show him how to stand up for himself and gain confidence]

[Time limit: 1 week]

[Reward: 1,000 XP]

[Penalty: ???]

***

‘Hmm, even mentoring quests? The quest store really has it all, but am I really capable of teaching anyone?’

Kiernan used Instinct, and saw the color being very bright green, so it was very safe for him, and it seemed like there was also a high probability of success.

‘However, I can only choose one… or can I?’

Kiernan looked at the system interface and then asked.

“System, can I choose two quests?”

[…I don’t think you can]

“You aren’t sure? Please, let me have two quests, just this time.”

[…If you fail one, you fail both]

“That’s fine for me!”

Kiernan said with a smile and was quite relieved that it was actually possible to speak to the system as if it were just another human.

He thought that it would just be a robot, programmed to answer in very mechanistic ways, but it was actually possible to make deals with it.

Ding! Ding!

[You’ve accepted Job Quest and Mentor Quest!]

[The punishments have been decided]

[Job Quest’s Punishment: You will fail in all your job interviews in the future]

Kiernan’s eyebrow twitched at the punishment, as it was strangely specific.

‘What does the system consider a job? Ordinary 9-5 job? I doubt I will ever go for any ordinary job, as I will be a martial artist till I die, but maybe there is more to that punishment…’

[Mentor Quest’s Punishment: Neal Yoxall will be pushed down the stairs by his bullies, and he won’t be able to walk for the rest of his life]

‘That just turned dark. Surprisingly, the punishment is not directed at me but at someone else. I am not sure if I should be glad about that…’

Kiernan quickly ordered plane tickets to Sirkus City.

He planned to do the Mentor Quest first because it had a time limit while the Job Quest didn’t.