Two days later, a man and a woman appeared in the mission hall. The man donned leather armour and iron boots, whereas the woman wore a dress with a cloak and held a wand in her hand.

Locke and Angelina didn’t stick out like a sore thumb when they appeared in the hall. The people around them wore various styles of clothing, and although the majority of people there were knights, there were also many casters. The hall was very large and it could accommodate around five to six hundred people inside.

Locke handed the list of missions to the staff at the front desk. He had considered them a week ago. Since he didn’t have Joaquin’s help this time, it took him quite a while to choose, having to rely on his own judgment and intuition. One of them was the suppression of bandits in Kegmo.

“You have three months to complete it, starting from now onwards. Understood?” The staff at the front desk was a young man. He probably had a chance to meet many knights and casters by virtue of his job. Although he was just an ordinary person, it seemed like he didn’t really have much respect for a mid-rank Knecht like Locke based on his tone.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll only need two months at most.” Locke waved his hand. The group of bandits only consisted of two low-rank Knechts, a few beginner-rank Knechts and some ordinary people, so it wasn't challenging to him at all.

The young man glanced at Locke in surprise. “In that case, I wish you the best of luck!” He stamped Locke’s student badge on the task panel, and the mission started from that moment onwards.

“Let’s go!” Locke beckoned to Angelina and they both walked out of the hall.

“Are you sure we can complete it in time?” asked Angelina when they were outside. She didn’t ask him the question when they were inside because she wanted to save his face. She was actually a little worried as both of them had to annihilate the whole group of bandits.

“Don’t worry about it!” Locke didn’t say much and just gave her a reassuring look. He’d led a unit of soldiers to annihilate bandits before when he was in Cardoj’s territory. Those scumbags could only pick on ordinary folk. Although he didn’t have a unit of cavalrymen with him this time, he believed that a mid-rank Knecht and a low-rank Lehrling could complete this mission without any difficulties. Plus, they had Angie, a low-level major monster. It was a matter of course for casters to fight battles with their pet familiars.

Ever since Angelina’s advancement, she gained a mysterious mental connection with her pet. It seemed like there was an improvement in Angie’s strength as well, as it could now cast its own spells.

The name of the spell was Dark Orb. Although it sounded domineering, it was actually just an ordinary magic missile with hints of dark element within. But because of the corrosiveness and stealthy properties of the dark element, it was very useful in actual combat.

Only a second-year student like Locke would be able to receive missions on this level of difficulty. Mid-rank Knechts were only supposed to take on missions that corresponded to their strength. Even if their opponents weren’t mid-rank Knechts, low-rank Knechts didn't automatically mean easy pickings. Exterminating a group of bandits that was led by two low-rank Knechts was rather easy for him as there was a huge difference in combat power between Knechts of different ranks. A mid-rank Knecht could deal with five low-rank Knechts at once.

Angelina was worried because she hadn’t been in a life-and-death situation like Locke before. As a qualified caster, she judged her enemies’ strength only in the theoretical sense, which was undoubtedly the safest and the most reliable method to do so. A week later, they departed from Princeton.

......

Diana was the daughter of the village chief in Kegmo Village. She was tall and slender, and a dependable father, so she had a lot of admirers. But all of this had changed two months ago.

A powerful group of bandits gathered at Westridge, a place outside Kegmo Village, two months ago. Last month, they invaded the village and took away most of the women and riches.

Those bandits were quite powerful and the militiamen in the village were no match for them at all. After the hands of dozens of villagers were broken, the whole village surrendered to the bandits.

Diana didn’t manage to escape from the bandits even though her father was the village chief. While trembling, she carried a plate of food and a jug of wine as she walked carefully into the room where the leader of the bandits was in. A few half-naked men were playing cards in the smoky room.

“What took you so long?” asked a one-eyed man viciously. Although the black eyepatch covered his blind eye, it couldn’t mask his hostility.

Diana didn’t dare to reply. A few days ago, a girl was taught a lesson by the group of men just because she’d explained herself, and hasn't been seen since. It was said that she had been thrown into the mountains behind Westridge.

Westridge was one of the few dangerous locations around Kegmo, and villagers rarely went to the mountains behind Westridge as the terrain there resembled an upside-down bowl on the ground. When Diana was a child, she’d heard from her father that there were wolves in that area.

“I should teach you a lesson for that!” A young man chuckled. Diana lowered her head and dared not look at him.

The young man had left a deep impression on her as he was the one who broke the necks of nearly ten militiamen in Kegmo with his bare hands. He was one of the two leaders of the bandits.

However, a burly man beside him scolded, “Stop messing around!”

After hearing this, the young man pursed his lips and kept quiet. The burly man was the leader of the group and the young man’s brother. He didn’t really like his younger brother’s behaviour. His brother had actually killed a woman a few days ago and he had to clean up the mess for him by sending someone to throw her corpse away.

He knew that being a bandit wasn’t a promising career and something would happen to them sooner or later. He’d already heard that the lord of Kegmo had asked several nobles to make a move on them. But he wasn’t afraid because there were around ten bandits in his group who could use impetus, so it wasn’t difficult to deal with these local nobles. If worse came to worst, they could just move to another location like they've always done.

Perhaps it was because he was getting older that he didn’t want to live dangerously anymore. He wondered if he should start a 'legitimate' trade with his group, such as human trafficking with some of his friends. But they needed a stable base of operations for that. He knew that Diana was the daughter of the village chief in Kegmo, so he didn't allow her to be touched on account of the chief.

The young man who was scolded by his brother ignored Diana and drank a sip of wine.

“Get out!” said the burly man.

Diana immediately ran out of the room.

“Brother, do you think that the business will work out?” asked the young man suddenly.

Apart from him, the other bandits in the room who were playing with cards turned their heads to look at the burly man.