Most Magical Girl quests fall into a difficulty of one to five stars. One stars quest can be small things like finding missing people, finding a lost pet or dealing with scouting parties of Unfeelings with low power such as Ravenous and Merciless.
Two to four stars all deal with varying threat of Unfeelings. The difficulty depend on the strenght and numbers of Unfeeling the quest has to deal with. Three or four stars can also be government sanctioned missions to end a small town's Usurpation.
Five star missions are for big cities Usurpations or missions that can be just as dangerous as a big scale Emergence.
Six star missions are extremely rare and for the longest time was tought to be nothing more than an urban myth. At six stars we are dealing with a country and/or world ending threat and the top ten Magical Girls need to be involved.
A guide on mission difficulty by the Mystic Alliance. -2053
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When they arrived at the Magical Girls Club everyone was arleady there. ''Finally.'' Primoria muttered.
Nurse Perenelle smiled at them. ''Alright, now that we're all here we can begin.'' The Witch went toward the back of the room and retrieved a board that she wheeled at the front. The board was filled with all sort of paper with images of either people or Unfeelings. ''Today we're doing missions!''
Melody cheered and the three other girls seemed similarly giddy at the news. Rin for her part was only confused. ''What kind of missions?''
Emily cleared her throat as she took a lecturing tone. ''Oh, Millenium. This will be your first mission for the school, right? To explain quickly, civilians or the police departments from around the city can send us requests to either find missing people, hunt down Unfeelings or simply other small tasks that require the help of magic. Since you're all in middle school. You will only get up to three stars quests. You'll have to wait for high school to hunt anything more dangerous. And three stars quests will only be accessible to girls who have proven they can handle it.''
The nurse gave a short but meaningful glance toward Primoria, who smirked proudly back at her. ''For today you should try a one star quest Millennium. I know you have experience arleady in dealing with Unfeelings, but I would rather you still learn the basic.''
''So there's Unfeelings in the city right now?'' Rin questioned slightly startled, she had tought everything was safe in the city. Should she be more wary when she went and left school?
Melody nodded and was the first one to respond. ''Yep! There was a Reality Usurpation in New Quebec about three months ago. It was kind of an ordeal. Ever since then there's been Unfeelings hiding all over the city. But even without Emergences within the city itself you can still have Unfeelings winding up here from the Emergences of other neighbouring towns. Not all Unfeelings stick in one area after the Reality Usurpation is gone.''
''Mmh, so there could be Unfeelings from the Alagia's Emergence winding up all the way here.'' Rin muttered. Alagia was only about two hours away from New Quebec.
''So Nurse what are the teams today?'' Maria asked in her usual monotone voice.
''Oh right! Since the club members are uneven we'll have a team of three and a team of two. Millennium, Heartsong and Maria you'll be the first team. Miko and Primoria will be the second.''
''Aren't you particiating today sensei?'' Miko asked with a confused look.
Emily made a face. ''Please don't call me sensei. And no I won't participate today. I only did it last time because I needed to teach Millennium the basics. But I'm not normally meant to participate in patrols, much less on official missions.''
''Tch, you can put all four of them on a team Nurse. I can do this all on my own.'' Primoria stated cockily while shooting an annoyed look at Miko who wilted under her glare.
Emily shook her head. ''No can do, school regulations dictate that Magical Girls in this club must fullfill their duties in teams. As talented as you are Primoria, you are still a rookie. I can't ignore regulations just for you.''
''Whatever.'' Primoria replied clearly unhappy she didn't get her way.
''Let's go pick a quest!'' Melody exclaimed happily, completely ignoring the drama unfolding around her. She took Rin by the hand and drag her toward the notice board. Without making a sound Maria rose from her seat and came to join them.
The amount of quests was quite varied there was apparently a pack of Ravenous prowing the sewers of the city. A gang using magical weapons had set up shop in the cities and have been going around robbing banks. Which seemed interesting. Unfortunately it was a three star quest and was quickly snatched up by Primoria who held the notice with a confident smirk.
Rin focused on one star quests since that was what she was supposed to do. And her eyes stop at a notice with the picture of a young girl. She was most likely in elementary school with how young she looked. Her parents made a request for Magical Girls to search for her.
Rin felt her heart clench in sympathy at the poor girl and her parents who were most likely worried sick. Without hesitation she took the notice in her hands. Melody stared at what Rin had taken and nodded in approval. Maria did not say anything and simply walked out of the classroom. Clearly expecting the two others to follow her.
Rin and Melody ran up to her as to not be left behind, the search for a lost little girl had begun...
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The first thing they did as they left school was to go meet the parents of the missing girl. It was heartbreaking to see how happy and relieved the two mothers were that a team of Magical Girls were actually looking for their daughter.
They said the girl, named Mia, was supposed to have gone to meet her friends at the park after school. But there had been a storm and her friends had apparently left before she arrived. No one had seen the girl since.
The obvious place to start searching was the park. The two women thanked the trio of Magical Girls for their help as they left the house and made their way to Red Leaf Park.
The first thing Rin noticed as they reached their destination is that this park completely put Alagia's playground to shame. There was so much greenery all around them that the park almost felt like a miniature forest. This would be a nightmare to search.
''So Rin, what spells do you have? I saw your debut video so I know you can teleport or something like that. But do you have other spells?'' Melody asked. Rin responded by shaking her head. ''Mmh, you should think about expanding your magic arsenal. Your signature spell seem great and all. But you should at least get to learn the basics. Protective shield, basic magic attacks and basic healing. You can't be expected to master all field of magics but you should at least try to cover your bases.''
[She's right you know, you've been focusing on raising your stats, which is great. But as a Magical Girl spells will be the biggest ace up your sleeve to turn the tables on the Unfeelings.]
'But how do I even get more spells? No more spell appeared in my skill menu after I bought Time's Breath.'
[...Oops, I knew I was forgetting to explain something. I should have probably explained this way earlier. But to get new spells you need to first buy a new grimoire with your accumulated points. This will unlock a tier of spells in a certain category. For example the tier 1 protection grimoire will unlock all tier 1 shield spells and other defensive buffs. The tier 1 offensive grimoire will unlock basic magic attacks such a the bolt of magic, the fire ball and the spike of ice.]
'...Alright, what grimoire should I unlock first?' Rin asked in her mind.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
[I would recommend going with the protection grimoire first. I'm sure you would love to throw fire balls as quickly as possible. But I would rather you have a way to protect yourself from heavy hits first. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened with the Rageless.]
Rin shuddered at the memory of that massive ape. 'Point taken. Alright buy the protection grimoire.'
> Protection Grimoire Tier 1: 50 points
>
> Points Remaining: 734.
Rin blinked, she had completely forgotten she had amassed so many points after the Emergence. She winced as she realised that buying more grimoires would set her back on her goal to reach three thousands points.
[I know you're looking foward to live in a body that make you feel authentic, Rin. But you'll need those spells if you want to amass those points and actually survive long enough to reach your goal.]
Rin winced. 'I know, I know, but it still suck.'
She looked at her skill menu and saw that a basic protective barrier spell costed three skill points. She bought it and put her remaining two skill points into wisdom to ensure the sturdiness of the shield.
''Alright, I'm ready. Let's go search for Mia.'' Rin said and her two companion nodded.
The first thing Rin did was to try to concentrate and sense emotions like she did to find the convenience store robbery. Unfortunately she couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. The strongest emotion she could feel is happiness and excitement from a couple of kids playing on a swing.
So with a dissapointed sigh they started searching around the park the old fashion way. They search any places a kids would usually hang out. The swing had a couple of boys playing and having fun. But since they were searching for a girl, it was obviously a dead end.
The other playground attractions were similarly devoid of Mia. And so they started expanding their search in the greater park. Looking in wooden areas, small streams. They questioned every passing adults if they had seen a young girl with blonde pigtails hair and they spent almost half an hour at the public pool to see if Mia could be among the many swimmers there. But still no dice.
It was unfortunately getting late and they were still getting no lead. They decided to make one last cursory search around the park before quitting for the day. If they didn't find anything they would look around the city proper tomorrow.
They spent an another hour combing through the park and it seemed like they would go back home empty handed. Rin approached a drain tunnel expecting nothing of it. But suddenly she felt a cold sensation at the back of her neck. One she hadn't felt since the Usurpation of Alagia.
She drew her glock out from her soul gem and carefully called out. ''Hello? Is anyone there?''
At first nothing hapened, but then something hissed in the darkness of the tunnel and she heard the patter of something running at her at full speed. She saw a gray blur emerged from the darkness and she yelled. ''Tutela Obice!''
Her barrier appeared just in time before something extremely quick rammed into it. The creature recoiled from the impact with her shield and Rin saw that she was facing a strange feline creature. But instead of fur it had a gray scales on it's body. It was a strange creature with the combining appearance of a leopard and a lizard.
''Unfeeling!'' Rin yelled, Heartsong and Maria snap up to attention from where thye had been searching in the foliage and ran up to her.
Melody summoned a pink staff with a white star at the top. Ready to cast magic to help her fellow Magical Girl. But as soon as her eyes landed o the Unfeeling Rin was facing she froze and her face paled. ''Prideless.'' She said barely above a whisper.
The Unfeeling apparenty called a Prideless rammed into Rin's shield a second time and Rin lost control not expecting a second sudden attack. As the shield went down she summoned her sword and tried to slash at the beast. But it quickly jumped out of the way and started charging toward the most vulnerable member of the team which was the still frozen Melody.
Rin knew she couldn't reach Melody in time the normal way. So she inhaled and held her breath. The world turned gray and froze around her.
She ran up in front of Melody and summoned her gun again. Deciding she has had enough of the speedy Unfeeling she started firing her gun until the magazine of silver bullets was completely depleted.
Once that was done she exhaled. The world turn back to normal and she watched as the bullet raced toward the Prideless. To her absolute shock and horror the feline instantly reacted to the bullets and jumped over them with a somersault.
''What the hell is that insane reaction speed?!'' Rin yelled as she summoned her sword and was about to face off against the insanely fast leopard-lizard. But before it could reach her Maria suddenly appeared.
To her amazement Maria was sporting a pair of pure white wings on her back. She dove toward the Prideless with her fist raised and dove down toward it at full speed. The creature however showed it's still insane reaction speed and jumped out of the way just in time as Maria fist connected with the ground where it used to be. The earth trembled from the impact. Leaving a crater where Maria had punched.
Wow, Rin had heard that Maria liked to punch thing but she hadn't suspected how insanely strong she was. No wonder she didn't feel the need to use weapons.
Maria turned toward them and sported the first expression she had seen from the girl thus far. It was hard to tell due to how inexpressive she was. But Rin tought she look annoyed. ''Heartsong snap out of it! We need your magic!''
Melody seemed to snap out of a deep trance. She starred at the Prideless who looked at them like a predator circling around it's prey waiting for them to leave an opening. Her hands was trembling as she clutched her staff.
''W-what do you need me to do?'' Her voice was nothing like the bubbly girl Rin was used to. She sounded like a lost and traumatized child. Why did this Unfeeling made her act this way?
Maria turned to Rin. ''Can you use the spell you did earlier? The one that made you appear and unload your entire gun at once?''
''Hum...'' Rin replied unsure.
[There's three minutes left before you can use the time's breath again.] Oh well crap.
Rin shook her head. ''It's on a cool down.'' Maria looked unpleased for a second before she schooled her expression to be more neutral.
''Alright then, would you be willing to perform a Heart Sync with me?'' She heard Melody spluttering and starring at Maria in shock.
Heart Sync, Rin had heard about it. The ability for Magical Girls to share abilities and powers. She had heard that whatever method was used to do it was quite intimate. Which made Rin pause a bit, but right now there were all going to die if they couldn't deal with this slippery feline.
So Rin hesitantly nodded. Maria turned to Melody again. ''Alright Heartsong when I tell you ignite the ground beneath the Prideless. This will create the opening we need to kill it once and for all.''
Melody trembled, but she nodded with her best courageous expression.
Maria approached Rin with a conflicted look in her face. Rin was wondering what would happen as the girl was now really close to her, making her blush slightly. And then without warning Maria bent down and kissed Rin right on the lips.
Rin squeaked, she felt her body grow hot and she felt lightheaded. For a moment she tought this might be what a kiss with a cute girl normally feel like. But she realised this was a different feeling entirely when her body ignited with raw magical power.
She felt something raw and alien start seeping in her own body. Emotions that weren't her own started appearing in her own head. She felt someone who felt emotions, strong emotions that she was ashamed of.
In response of these shameful emotions she had hardened her heart and tried to be as emotionless as possible. But no matter what the shameful emotions kept coming back. No matter how hard she try ignoring it.
'I'm sorry father, I had sinfuls toughts for another girl again.' She heard Maria's voice say in her own mind and realised the emotions she felt were Maria's. And what she heard seemed like a deeply burried memory.
Now she knew why this was considered an intimate technique. It wasn't just a kiss, they were barring their soul to each other, completely. Rin trembled as she realise how much the other girl might have learned about her. Would she hate her? Just like the people of her old town had hated her?
Rin felt something sprouting from her back. It was surprising and felt weird, but it wasn't painful. The kissed ended after what felt like an eternity. Rin looked back and was shocked to find a pair of white wings, just like the ones Maria had, had appeared on her back.
She looked back at Maria and found her with white fox ears and a white fluffy tail. ''Heartsong cast the spell!''
Melody nodded with a wobbly smile and raised her staff high in the sky. ''Ardenti Agro!'' The ground beneath the Prideless ignited into an inferno of flame. But the creature reacted, just as quickly as it ever did and jumped in the sky.
Maria inhaled and held her breath. The world turned gray, Rin was susprised that she could still see and move. She had expected for the time stop to only affect Maria. But maybe since they now shared the same magic. The spell affected them both at the same time.
Maria extended her wing and flew right in front of the Prideless. She motioned for Rin to follow and made a motion of punching. ''You want me to punch it with you? But I'm nowhere near powerful for that to be useful!''
She clenched her fist expecting a paltry amount of strenght and was nearly knocked her feet when she felt raw unbridled power entering her arm. ''O-oh I have the same strenght as you now.'' Rin said in realization and Maria nodded in confirmation.
Rin extended her black wing and flew on the other side of the Prideless. Maria held up three fingers and started countin down. '3...2...1.' Maria exhaled and immediatly both girls punched the Prideless with all their strenght.
The beast roared in agony before it's body exploded like a bomb of dust that scattered all over the park.
> Unfeeling Slayed!
>
> Prideless: 20 points
>
> Quest Completed: The Hidden Predator
>
> You have dealt with a dangerous Unfeeling hidden in the local park and have stop it from making anymore victims.
>
> Quest Rewards: 30 points, 50 exp.
''Good job Rin.'' Maria said with a genuine little smile on her face.
''You're the one that came up with it Eve.'' Rin replied shaking her head in denial.
Both of them suddenly froze. ''I-I know your name.'' Rin muttered in shock.
''So do I.'' Eve replied equally surprised.
''Well...crap.'' Rin ears lowered down as her face fell. ''I suck so much at this whole secret identity thing.''