CHAPTER 383: IS THERE SOMETHING ON MY FACE?

"Finally, it’s time to farm some Academy Points!" Chuck said as he rested his hands on his waist. "Isn’t that right, Dim Dim?"

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim raised its little stubby hand, completely agreeing with Chuck.

With the Mission Hall at last open to the First Years, they could finally take on some missions, which rewarded Academy Points upon completion.

(A/N: From now on, I’ll refer to Academy Points as AP. Do not confuse it with Arcana Points, which is also AP.)

Inside Frieden Academy, AP was the main currency everyone used in transactions.

It was mainly used to buy items from the Exchange Center or purchase things from students who specialize in production-related services.

Even cafes around the academy accepted AP, since their customers were mostly students who had just finished their classes.

"Are you not excited, Alex?" Chuck asked.

"Not as much as you," Alex replied.

Alex now had over four million academy points after cashing in the Monster Cores he had gathered inside the Orion Dungeon.

He had given his members a hundred thousand academy points each as their share of the club funds.

Of course, Nessia had received a bigger share. After all, it was thanks to her talismans and artifacts that they could breeze through the competition without endangering themselves.

To her satisfaction, Alex generously gave her 500,000 AP.

"Let’s go." Chuck grabbed Alex’s hand and dragged him out of their room. "You know what they say—the early bird catches the early worm!"

"Dim Dim!"

"See? Even Dim Dim agrees with me."

"Dim!"

Alex looked at the two with amusement, thinking they looked like kids about to go on a field trip.

Since most of these missions required students to leave the academy, it seemed accurate to consider them field trips as well.

But Alex already had a destination in mind.

Slime Paradise.

In the world of Arcana, slimes were considered the most protected monsters.

An unwritten rule dictated that slimes were untouchable, allowing them to freely travel across the land, unharmed by even the most aggressive of creatures.

In fact, Alex could carry a single baby slime with him to a battlefield and the fear of retribution would ensure that no one dared to lay a finger on him.

Since Dim Dim was the creator of Arcana and its best friend was Eiko, a baby slime, the slimes gained a divine protection of sorts.

If people intentionally hurt or killed a slime, they would soon find themselves regretting their decision.

In fact, in the MMORPG Mode of Endless Leveling Online, a player who hunted a slime would see their character imprisoned for thirty days and have their levels decreased by half.

Simply put, it wasn’t worth it, so almost no one dared to hurt a slime deliberately in ELO.

So why would Alex go to the place called Slime Paradise?

It was because there was a hidden treasure chest there that would allow him to learn one of the rarest skills in the game.

It was so extremely rare that selling the skill book in an auction would net millions of gold coins.

Of course, he had no intention of selling that skill. He planned to use it for himself.

And this skill was none other than... Teleport [EX].

This skill would let him teleport to places that he had been to before.

The number of places that he could teleport to would be equivalent to his Rank.

Since Alex was now a Rank 3 Oathkeeper, he would be able to save three locations he could teleport to whenever he wished ‌.

The good part about this ability was that he could teleport not only himself but up to seven other people.

Although the cooldown was three hours, it wasn’t a bad trade-off given that Alex could cover any distance using this skill.

Unfortunately, there was no mission located at Slime Paradise. Knowing that all he had to do was pick a mission that would bring him as close to it as possible, Alex was naturally not stumped by this.

’North, huh?’ Alex thought. ’It’s still very far from the Aetherion Empire, but their influence has already reached that area.’

While Alex was looking for a suitable quest, Chuck spotted Charles and Renard and hurried to ask them where they planned to go.

Renard didn’t answer Chuck since he wanted to do a solo mission and didn’t want to risk the troublemaker coming along. As for Charles, he was naive enough to spill the details of his mission, which was to escort the children of the Sunveil Orphanage on a field trip.

"Sunveil Orphanage?" Chuck blinked. "Isn’t that the orphanage where your sister is currently at?"

"It is." Charles nodded. "Actually, I originally thought of accompanying them for free, but my Aunt refused. She said she was going to commission the academy for their safety, so if I wanted to join them, I must go through the proper channels."

"Heh... it seems that your Aunt wants you to earn Academy Points while spending time with your family," Chuck commented. "So who else is going with you? I suppose Nessia is coming, right?"

At the mention of Nessia, Charles’ face stiffened, which made Chuck chuckle.

"It’s fine." Chuck patted Charles’ shoulder. "Only an idiot won’t have already noticed that you like her."

Renard pretended that he was so engrossed with reading the mission board that he briefly lost his sense of hearing. He refused to be labeled as an idiot who hadn’t realized that Charles had a crush on Nessia!

"So, is she coming?" Chuck pressed.

"Y-Yeah," Charles answered. "Whenever I go to the orphanage, she comes with me to do volunteer work. So she’s also aware of the mission and already registered for it."

"Attaboy!" Chuck smirked. "But you’re still slow, Charles. If you don’t make a move soon, someone might steal Nessia from you, you know?"

Charles lowered his head after hearing Chuck’s advice. Nessia might not be as eyecatching as some of their schoolmates, but she was the loveliest girl in his eyes.

She was smart, humble, kind, dependable, and made Charles feel a warmth that reminded him of home.

Seeing that his words were starting to work, Chuck moved closer and whispered devilishly in Charles’ ear.

"If you don’t make a move soon, someone else might take her away," Chuck repeated. "For example, Alex. Have you seen how close they are?"

"That’s not going to happen," Charles replied confidently. "If you had mentioned any other guy, I might have believed you. But Alex won’t make a move on Nessia."

"Tsk!" Chuck clicked his tongue. He also knew that Alex didn’t see Nessia that way, but he wanted to spur Charles on.

In fact, their relationship was very similar to best friends who had each other’s backs.

"Still, you shouldn’t dilly-dally, Charles," Chuck insisted. "Trust me. I am a love expert. I know what I’m talking about."

"... Hey, you know I can hear you, right?" Nessia, who was only a few meters away from the boys, asked with a reddened face.

"Oh no!" Chuck exclaimed dramatically. "She found out, Charles! Now, you can’t get married anymore. Nessia, you have to take responsibility for hi—ick!"

Chuck hastily jumped back as Nessia fired a Stone Bullet near his feet in order to stop him from talking.

"One more word from you and I’ll bury you six feet under," Nessia threatened.

"Oh dear. Look at the time!" Chuck took out his pocket watch with shaking hands and looked at it. "It’s time for me to find a mission! Bye, guys! See you later!"

The troublemaker retreated as if his pants were on fire, moving over to Princess Xenia and Mary, who were looking at the Mission Board a good distance away from the rest.

Alex laughed internally, finding Chuck’s attempt to play matchmaker to be quite amusing.

However, it did have an effect because Charles looked more determined to finally confess his feelings to Nessia.

"I see, so they’re a couple, huh?"

Alex almost jumped out of fright because he hadn’t noticed that someone was behind him!

When he turned around, he saw Evangeline smiling at him.

"Eva, please don’t do that," Alex said as he patted his chest. "I almost got a heart attack."

"Eva?" Evangeline blinked.

Only those close to her, including Eleanora and her Father, called her Eva.

Hearing Alex use that nickname made her heart skip a beat.

"Ah, sorry. Should I call you Evangeline instead?" Alex realized that he had acted too familiar with her, which was something that he absolutely shouldn’t have done. After all, they were not even friends yet.

"You can call me, Eva," Evangeline stated. "Please call me by that name."

"O-Okay." Alex was caught off guard by the intensity of Evangeline’s gaze, making him subconsciously take a step back.

In order to change the topic, he decided to ask her what mission she was planning to take.

"I haven’t decided yet," Evangeline replied. "How about you? What mission do you plan to undertake?"

"I’m letting Dim Dim choose it for me," Alex answered.

He had been distracted by Chuck’s antics, so he’d asked Dim Dim to look for a mission that would allow them to visit Slime Paradise.

When the little bun had heard that Alex wanted to visit that place, it had become very motivated and jumped onto the mission board, crawling over its surface while looking for the perfect mission.

When the students saw Dim Dim, some of them asked the little bun to toss the missions that were pinned on the upper part of the Mission Board beyond their reach.

Dim Dim, being the helpful little God it was, didn’t hesitate to toss the mission quests to the students who had asked for them.

"Dim Dim, don’t forget our own mission!" Alex reminded the little bun, who was having fun because it felt like it was playing a game of catch with the other students.

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim gave Alex a salute before resuming its task.

"Do you plan to go on any specific mission?" Evangeline asked out of curiosity. "Maybe I can help you find it."

"Actually, I want to visit Slime Paradise, so I’m looking for a mission that would take me close to it," Alex answered.

Although he had tried to be more guarded against Evangeline because of her background, the sense of familiarity he felt toward her made him answer honestly without thinking.

When his brain finally caught up with his mouth, he immediately thought that Evangeline had used a Charm Skill on him.

However, he dismissed this idea aside since he was immune to Charm. Besides, he believed that the young lady beside him wouldn’t resort to something like that.

In fact, Evangeline only used her Charm Skill when the player actively decided to choose the options that would force the young lady on the Anti-Hero Route of Story Mode.

It was a skill she refused to use if she could help it because she was unnerved by the act of taking away another’s free will.

"Is there something on my face?" Evangeline suddenly asked.

"No, of course not. I was just zoning out." Alex coughed lightly before shifting his gaze back to the Mission Board.

He wasn’t aware that Eleanora was observing him from a safe distance. Though her expression was calm, she’d come to regard him as some kind of thief who might take something precious away from her.