Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 54:First Mission (1)

After Lucy’s and Cador’s entrance into the special class. Their mission had been postponed to give them some time to acclimate with the other special class students.

But now, they were truly going to go for their first mission as special class students. This was the main thing that separated normal students and special class students. The normal students would have to wait until their third year before they could take missions, while special class students were given the opportunity right from the get-go.

Although calling it an opportunity was a bit of a lie. Sure, these missions rewarded points, improved grades and more. But the normal students could just not take any missions, and stay in the academy instead. Whereas special class students were forced to take the missions.

Of course, Raymond could pay points in order to not go. But unfortunately, he and Ellen had some plans the needed to execute on this first mission. Involving a certain brown-haired girl and a tall grey-haired boy.

Waking up earlier then usual, he found Ellen in his kitchen preparing something.

He couldn’t help but ask, "What are you making?"

From what Raymond could see, it looked like some kind of scrambled egg and bread fry.

"It’s bregg."

"What?"

"Bregg, have you never eaten this before? "

Raymond shouldn’t have been too surprised that different dimensions had different cuisines. But usually there was enough similarities that he was familiar with most foods. The same ingredients with the same human mind would usually lead to the same creations after all.

But it was always weird to see something he was so utterly unfamiliar with. He could have sworn in his several years living here he had never seen such a dish.

Biting into it, it tasted a lot better then he expected. Soft salty eggs broken up by the occasional crispy crackly bread pieces.

"Why’d you decide to make this all of a sudden?"

"My dad says that every time he would go out onto the battlefield, mom would always make him this for good luck. That’s how they met in the first place. It’s my moms own invention. "

An interesting bit of trivia. He hadn’t known that about Rayez and his wife and it also explained why he had never seen this before.

Scooping up the rest of it and finishing it all in one go. He wiped his mouth with a napkin before a thought suddenly struck him.

"Does this make me the first person who you made this for?"

Since he had never seen her make this for anyone else before. That made him the first!

She rolled her eyes, "You aren’t even going to compliment my cooking? That’s what you’re concerned about?"

"Am I the first?"

"...no."

Ellen was lying of course. But he had no way of knowing that.

"Joshua’s the first. You’re second. "

He narrowed his eyes. Joshua’s priority on his hit list jumping up significantly to second place.

"C’mon. We need to go get ready. "

***

"Aren’t we in the special class? Why do we have to travel in a standard cabin? It’s not like it costs that much for the academy!"

The academy mission was simple with their briefing being extremely short. Travel to a relatively large town called Dravenport, help the local residents there with a small monster infestation that kept destroying their power systems. Along the way, they would be accompanied by Thomas’s instructor Juliet.

As for their other instructors, well they were all some of the top elites in the realm. They couldn’t exactly be expected to babysit a bunch of kids. Taking a few hours every week in order to personally guide them was already enough of a service. Not to mention that even with only Juliet, she was still an S+ rank powerhouse that could easily destroy most threats. Sending more would just be a waste when they had better things to do.

But seriously, the academy wasn’t short on funding were they? Weren’t they supposed to be the best of the best yet they only got...this?

Raymond wasn’t expecting much, flight or any forms or aerial travel was dangerous due to the high densities of flying monsters. Vehicles were only suitable on roads or flat terrain, most unable to handle the damage from monsters. Leaving only trains as the best option.

The were fast enough to escape from most weak monsters, armoured enough to protect its passengers well, and due to the relatively mountainous region of the continent they were in, often went through tunnels. Providing them safety from flying monsters. Raymond equated it to the region that most of humanity living in being the same as Asia on Earth. Filled with dangerous wildlife, mountains and countless jungles and forests.

It was always usually hot or humid, with only the more northern and eastern cities experiencing any seasons. Luckily the capital and New Rayan did experience these seasons but Raymond remembered a few times that Zachary gang travelled to the more southern parts. It was only ever hot and humid.

The academy had naturally provided free transportation to the town of Dravenport. But the academy was as stingy as ever. Free transportation, free food and free accommodation—sounds good, except the academy never gave anything good for free.

Just like its cafeteria food. Anything free was basically just the bare minimum. Want something better? Too bad, pay up the points. Or if you had access to money. You could just use that while outside.

Raymond would have loved to use his points to purchase the luxury cabin, only to have been told it was a whopping 700 points. Almost the same amount of points that Noelle made as the third ranked student. He may have made 7500 points a month, leading him to have a sizable amount. But wasting 700 points on a few days of luxury was too much even by his standards!

It would actually cost 1400 points since he had to purchase it twice for the return trip as well!

But out of all of them, Noelle, Lucy and Cador managed to get a luxury cabin. Not because they paid for it in points but because they had simply dialed their families to ask for some cash.

Raymond had tried the same thing as well.

"So you can understand why we need the money right? Please send us the 54,999 dollars by like right now if you can."

click

Rayez hung up on him quickly. Not even saying a word. Even when Ellen tried, they had gotten the same exact response.

This billionaire was refusing to drop even 0.00002% on his only daughter whom he supposedly loved and cherished dearly. Seriously, what was the point of all that money if you never did anything with it?

Which lead to the current situation, Raymond and Ellen both sharing one cabin while Thomas and Audrina both shared the other. It had originally been separated by gender but Ellen had asked to swap with Thomas since she wanted to be with Raymond and he had happily agreed. Meanwhile, Noelle, Lucy and Cador was in an entirely different car, enjoying some fine dining and the much more comfortable accommodations.

It left a bitter taste in his mouth and it didn’t help that the few times they saw Noelle, she had made sure to not so subtly flash her luxuries at them.

As for why Thomas and Audrina were also in the standard cabins.

One was a demon who had betrayed her own race and defected to humanity, the other a newly born angel who had decided to go travel and wander the human realm. Safe to say, they were both poor and had been basically living on the streets until the academy.

Although poor was a bit of an exaggeration. The government did extend a hand to help them, offering countless things. Except they only mainly gave Thomas and Audrina resources that would help them grow stronger—likely to keep them on humanity’s side. It left them in a bit of a bizarre situation where they had lots of resources, yet not a lot of money or even a house to live in.

Raymond was left with even more questions about the logistics of the government and the academy. You could offer so much of these precious items but can’t give someone a house?

Or maybe it was because they were all still G-rank. Even if they were precious items that helped increase your strength, they were all relatively cheap compared to the more expensive stuff for higher ranks.

"-ond? Raymond?"

Raymond looked up from his notepad, jumping slightly as he made eye contact with Ellen who was standing way too close to him and had been calling his name repeatedly.

Sitting down next to him, she worriedly asked him. "What’s the matter? You usually respond pretty quick when I call your name."

"Just thinking about some trivial things. What’s wrong?"

The two of them were in a separate training car. It was naturally very small by nature of being confined to the limits of a train car, but Ellen had managed. While Raymond just sat down and continued with his research on Borrow Future Strength for Ellen. Something he still hadn’t been able to figure out, but he had gotten a lot closer these past few months.

"I just thought about it, but do we really need to kidnap Lucy and Cador? Wouldn’t just kidnapping one be enough?"

True, the whole reason they were planning this was just to find out what exactly was the butterfly effect which caused Lucy to join the academy and who Cador was. Was kidnapping both really necessary?

Actually, the whole plan was pretty unnecessary. But Raymond felt like something was off with Cador. His mana senses kept tingling every time he saw him, he couldn’t identify what it was exactly but he knew for a fact that he wasn’t what he seemed to be.

"Let’s just kidnap Cador then, there’s something off about him. But I can’t quite tell what it is exactly."

She nodded in agreement, she too was curious. Who was this individual who had never existed in the previous timeline?

He never smiled, laughed or even showed any emotions. His movements always seemed so stiff and robotic, he never talked or even made any sounds like a hum or a sigh. If it weren’t for the occasional spars during their classes or the few accidental collisions, she would have thought he was a golem or a robot and not a human.

Raymond pondered on the newly revised plan for a bit.

"Isn’t Cador mute? How are we supposed to interrogate him?"