Chapter 0127
The Assignment Center, once known as the Wall of Jobs until one of the Elders got made a motion to change the stupid name, is the loitering place for the members of the Eternal Spirit Guild.
The Assignment Center is like the adventurers guild in most stories where an adventurer would register, pick up the task, turn in said task, issues task or sell miscellaneous items they got during their ventures.
Unlike most small tiny adventurers guild in the stories Tempest reads about back on Earth, the Assignment Center of the Eternal Spirit Guild is a giant u-shaped building with seven floors.
The level of difficulty of a task is rated on a one to five scale, with one being the easiest and five being the hardest, corresponds to the five giant walls in the courtyard of the Assignment Center. Although the task is assigned a difficulty level, the guild does not restrict its members when choosing a task. New recruits can take a level five task while old timers might work the level one task all their lives.
Many people proposed to impose a level restriction on the mages and require new recruits to prove their mettle before attempting the more difficult task, but the Council of Elders never made a move to do so.
First of all, the level of difficulty is subjective. With the right elements, a task might be a level one. However, with an incompatible group, the task might rise to a level three. Furthermore, unforeseen events might change the difficulty level. It is up to the group to decide what they can or can not handle.
Second, some mages might be hiding their powers to mingle with other mages and they can do so more easily without an impose restrictions. The Elders and the higher ranking members of the guild are notorious for pretending to be low level mages and mingle with the new recruits who they expressed an interest in. It is one of the methods the someone thought of to test a mage’s suitability to become their student.
The penchant for pranking the new recruits led to the third reason why the Council of Elders never impose any restrictions - the task can serve a networking event where new recruits can get into contact with the more experienced group. High-level groups can be persuaded to take low level groups out with them. This gives a chance for both sides to networks. Who knows what connection a person can bring if they don’t make the effort to find out?
The guild has a rule for new recruits - they aren’t allowed to use their connections until five years after they joined the guild. The rule was in place to weed out the temporary members. The Eternal Spirit Guild recruits new members every five years, but unlike most guilds, the Eternal Spirit Guild doesn’t require the new recruits to stay in the guild.
There are many cultivators from other domains, mostly the Heavenly Mountains and the Mysterious Wasteland, who sends their young children to start cultivating the heart as their immortal potential since soul force and affinities can be tested early. If the child was tested later to have high mental power or good spirit veins, then they can switch over to another cultivation method or cultivate both.
Surprisingly, there is no conflict when cultivating the heart and another immortal potential at the same time. Furthermore, the cultivator can focus on the other immortal potential while the spirits temper their bodies.
After five years, the cultivator must decide whether they want to continue cultivating the heart as their immortal potential or change their cultivation method. The new recruits become an official member of the guild only after they decided to continue cultivating as a mage.
As to why the Eternal Spirit Guild is much more lenient in passing out their cultivation method lies in the fact that the cultivators themselves take an oath on their spirits to never pass on the cultivation method to anybody. If they break their oath, it is up to their spirits to enforce the oath.
Most spirits tend to enforce the oath, especially if a cultivator does not cultivate the heart as their immortal potential.
In the case of a Child of the Elements or a True Child of the Elements, they can break all the oaths they want, and the spirits will not make a move. Their spirits will help shield them from the backlash of their broken oath.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
The last reason no restrictions were set on a task is because the Elders want to weed out the stupid, the arrogant or the unprepared. If a group attempts to take a task beyond their reach and die in the process, no one will do anything about it. No guild want stupid people as their members. No guild wants powerful stupid people as their members.
Stupid members will involve the guild in senseless conflicts which result in the power of the guild weakening as the more powerful mages dies in the clash. To the Council of Elders, it is better to have the stupid people killed off before they become a problem.
Their attitude causes the Eternal Spirit Guild to have the highest death toll in their new recruits. Less than a third of the new recruits lives to the five-year mark.
It is at the Assignment Center do we find a little girl out peddling her charms using a cute cherub as bait while her group members look on with embarrassment.
“The guild set aside an entire area for merchants to conduct their business. You should go over there if you want to sell your charms. You don’t have to peddle your wares out in the streets like this.” Yu Li Ming couldn’t handle the strange stares tossed their way so she tried to urge Tempest to stop with her words.
“I already told you I need a lot of money in a short amount of time Ming. I make an extra silver per charm selling it here than in one of the shops.” Tempest made her stance clear to the rest of the group but in the back of her mind she made a note to visit the merchant area so she can either directly sell her charms to the shop or sell it on consignment. Tempest wasn’t picky in her money making method. She persisted in peddling her charms right now because she didn’t know about the merchant area and she didn’t want to appear the fool in front of her potential customers. If Yu Li Ming mentioned it earlier, when it was only them, then Tempest would have dragged Yu Li Ming to shops and they could have avoid their current situation.
“My name is Yu Li Ming. We aren’t close enough to be on a first name basis.”
“Ming, help me sell the charms. We can earn more money with another salesperson.” Tempest didn’t wait for Yu Li Ming to protest. She immediately shove a bunch of charms into Yu Li Ming’s hands and started yelling her slogan, “A charm can save your life and the life of your partners! Come see my wares! Wind Blade, Ice Bolt, As Swift as the Wind and many others!”
“I am not going to degrade myself and help you sell these stupid charms.” Yu Li Ming shoved the handful of charms back at Tempest.
“These stupid charms may one day save your life.” Tempest shoved the charms back.
“When that day comes, I’ll kneel down and beg for forgiveness.” Yu Li Ming shoved the handful of charms back at Tempest.
“I’ll hold you to it, Yu Li Ming! Until then, sell the damn charms!” Tempest shoved the charms back.
“Like hell I will. I’m losing out on the deal if I help you sell the charms. I have begged for forgiveness if it saves my life and embarrass myself in the middle of the street because you are poor and broke. I’ll sell all the charms you want me to sell after it saves my life.” Yu Li Ming tried to shove the stack of charms towards Tempest again but before she could, a charming black hair girl grabbed the charms out of her hands.
“Hey!”
“Hey.”
“You should be ashamed, selling theses worthless paper to unsuspecting people and calling it charms.” A black hair girl dressing in the same style of clothing as Yu Li Ming, excepts was blue instead of the white Yu Li Ming favored, appeared and sneered before setting fire to the charms Tempest has painstaking created.
Boom!
“My charms!” Tempest wailed.