What if I don't turn in the mission and wait here until midnight?

And what if the other players do it and take the rewards instead? Even if it's only five hundred Exp and five silver, that is still more than the whole deal in the E-rank version. Since the plague rats give the largest share of the experience it might still be worth it.

Except for that oddity: the mission only had one hour left to finish, even after the escalation. What happens if it runs out? There was no penalty when the task became invalid because someone else turned it in. Would every participant lose standing if nobody does?

Okay, let's ask this from Selene and why it's so great to take on double-booked jobs. Talking to her is faster than filtering out all the unrelated bullshit on Wroddit, and she can give me more to do. She must have planned this after all.

Returning from that A-rank mission, the other errands kept leading me closer to the Guild. I told her once that time is of the essence, and give me jobs close to each other. She has done it ever since, and it's hard to believe that all players get the same treatment.

That last house with the plague rats was on the same street as the market, although on its other end. It's a minute-long dash to the village center, and it got busier since noon. The red-named players stare a hole into me now, hanging out with that guy sure made me a target.

Well, as long as I have nothing valuable on me, they have no reason to attack. It's a good thing the huge haul of copper doesn't weigh me down. Even the bow from DragonSlayer remained there for future use so they could only gain one rat tail.

I don't remember how much those sold for, but they shouldn't make me a target. The next hurdle is the crowd inside. It had grown a lot since my last visit, and the noise level did too. There is a long line at the Assistant's desk, another first since I started playing.

But Selena got some help in handling it. While she's lightning fast, the system adjusted the NPCs' number in this busy hour. The players disappear from the queue in a minute, and whether it's luck or her calculations, I end up at her desk again.

"Ah, Noob, you're back. How was your first A-rank quest?" She flashes a warm smile and the contracts disappear from my inventory before my hand can move. She stamps every parchment and prepares the payout without her eyes straying off me.

"DragonSlayer did in the bandits in seconds. I took down twelve of them with his bow yet it still felt like doing nothing of value." That gaze makes me blush despite the age difference. What's with those piercing grey eyes? She changes every time we meet and still stays the same.

"Twelve bandits? And as a beginner? That is the opposite of nothing, dear. And he didn't even share the rewards with you? I'll have a word with him next time." She shakes her head as even though my goal was the Exp.

Wait. Do the NPCs even know about experience? What if they think the only reward is the money? The Assistant knew about the exploits, but wasting her time with silly questions would be a dick move. It's enough to clear up the misunderstanding for now.

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"We agreed that he keeps the monetary rewards and I get all the loot." This calms her down, and the smile returns to her face. While there are no red-named players nearby, some boasting is fine too. "It was so much, it will take ages to bring it back, so there is no reason to complain."

"Did you forget to bring your pack animals with you?" Her question slaps me hard. Are pack animals a thing? So that's how players deal with the tons of loot and handle their gear? It's so sensible, I'm embarrassed for not thinking about it until now.

"It's hard to forget something I don't have." Let's laugh it off poor beginner style. She has this pitying look so it's better to change the topic. "Looting took too long already, and one of the quests became invalid."

"Yes. There was no time to explain, but this can happen." She shrugs, pulling out a new batch of contracts. "Not every adventurer finishes their quests as reliable as you, Noob. Sometimes they will take dozens of contracts and never return them."

"Dozens?" Oh, to be a Premium user, that doesn't have to worry about these arbitrary limits. There is one question that bugs me though. "But won't they get sidelined if they let the quests time out? It wouldn't surprise me if they could no longer get a job after messing up a few."

"Timing out? There is no such thing." She looks at me with her head tilted. "If they don't finish a job in twelve hours, I'd consider giving it to another Guild member, but anything can happen. We don't penalize adventurers for something that trivial."

"B-but..." The system mutes me before mentioning the descriptions in my journal. For the first time, it won't offer an alternative wording either. Could it be a free-user thing, or does it mean something different? "What happens if they fail the mission? Is there even a way to fail them?"

"Yes, of course." She nods, flipping around a contract. "Let's say they cause collateral damage or the customer dies. They will have to pay for it, and might get blacklisted, if we confirm it was their fault. Yet, if they don't show up, we have enough volunteers to take on the job."

There are small prints on the back of that freaking paper, who would have known? These didn't appear in the system descriptions, and they list every quest condition. And that is an already-finished job from a mission that escalated, with the text updated too.

"Whenever possible, I avoid handing out the same quest to more adventurers. We have plenty to go around and wait a day before looking for someone else. Today is a bit different though, as you can see, we have more people here than errands remaining."

Could this timer only tell how long until the Guild gives my quest to someone else? And the Premium users get one day, instead of the six hours. This is still not set in stone on days like this when she has no choice but to hand out the same quests to everyone.

"There is something I observed though and take it with a grain of salt." She continues with her voice reduced to a whisper. She leans in like before, and let's hope nobody disrupts her this time. "Whenever someone takes a job and doesn't finish in a day, they escalate."

"Oh!" So that's the trick. The system canceled one errand and elevated another to a higher tier. Did she sort the jobs with this in mind? "But what about that other escalation earlier? Was that job double booked too?"

"Hmm, it's a valid question. No, it wasn't, yet it sat on my desk for two days before I gave it to you." She ponders, putting the pieces together. "Of course, no such jobs exist anymore. And I tend to avoid giving them out to rookies, in case they can't handle it."

Yeah, that first E-rank mission almost cost me my life.

"But I know you can deal with them and are eager to prove yourself." She winks, and three more contracts end up in my inventory.