The Greatest Sinner

Evan, like dozens of other students, had his pick of tasks. Many of them he could not take, even though he was an "Inner student". The reason was that these tasks had a restriction on the student`s rank. Evan simply couldn\'t take the tasks for the second rank students.

All the tasks he could take were zero rank ones. He would become a first rank student only when he reached the "One-Pointed Star". Nevertheless, there were a huge number of zero rank tasks. They were the easiest and quickest to complete, so new ones kept popping up.

It wasn\'t five minutes before Evan approached the bulletin board, but other students had already taken several tasks. The space was immediately filled with other ones, that the person in charge brought in.

At that moment, Evan realized something about this city that he hadn\'t thought about before.

<Hmm, when you think about it that way, the people in this city have a huge number of mercenaries in the form of students of the Academy. They\'re the magicians who are just happy to complete a task to get "Moon Coins" for it. What a common man has to do is pay for, and his problem will be solved with a hundred percent probability.>

This conclusion was pretty obvious, but Evan realized it only when he saw how many students were on the bulletin board.

After a while, Evan chose the right task for himself. It was not only of a zero rank, but it was also the easiest of all, with only one star on it.

Each task, in the upper left corner, had the stars drawn on it. The more there were, the more difficult the task was. But, regardless of the number of stars, the task of a zero rank couldn`t be more difficult than the first rank task.

"I think to collect forty "Sun Clovers" will be quite easy," Evan mumbled and made his way to the assignment desk.

Before choosing this task Evan looked up where the plant was growing and the location proved to be the right place for him. It was only a kilometer away from the "Valley of the Azure Dandelions." That way he could easily get to the "Half-Dead Forest" and in addition, earn some "Moon Coins".

The task was very simple and safe, so the reward was very small - 50 "Moon Coins". It could be considered as a delivery fee, since collecting 40 "Sun Clovers" anyone can do.

At this point, Evan didn\'t care how many "Moon Coins" he got for completing the task. It would be his first such experience, and he was going to the "Half-Dead Forest" anyway. He could complete the task on his way there.

Evan took his time walking up to the assignment desk and handed the sheet to the girl. She was in charge of accepting the tasks and their registration.

The girl looked at Evan and calmly asked: "What\'s your name?"

Evan told his name, the girl nodded and signed the bottom left corner of the sheet and, to Evan\'s surprise, handed him the needle, pointing to the lower right corner of the sheet.

Evan had done something like this before when he had been in Mossy Vulture, so he knew right away what he had to do. The young man took the needle and a second later, a drop of blood fell on the corner of the sheet.

That was enough.

"The deadline for the task is one week, the penalty is 200 "Moon Coins", the subject of the task should be brought to the warehouse." The girl said quickly, pointing to the door behind her.

Everything she said was written on the other side of the sheet, but she was obliged to repeat such important things.

Evan nodded, moved the sheet of paper into the spatial ring, and headed for the exit of the Academy.

Before heading to the "Half-Dead Forest", Evan had some shopping to do.

After reaching the third zone, he went into one of the stores and bought a very detailed map of "The Kingdom of Fallen Hopes". He also bought a few more maps of different areas as well since a large map just couldn\'t show every detail. To track down the "Demonic Tree", he needed every tiny detail.

Next, Evan went to the ordinary store that sold all sorts of junk. He only went there for one thing, and that was a demon mask. However, Evan couldn\'t find anything like that. He was surprised and frustrated.

<It seems that I underestimated the influence of the "Demonic Tree". The common merchants are even afraid to sell masks like theirs. It\'s pretty annoying...>.

Realizing that there was no chance to buy the mask he had originally wanted, Evan started looking for another one. There were a huge number of masks there, so Evan quickly found something he liked.

"Great, this one will do." Quietly Evan muttered looking at the black and white mask with a strange smile.

The left half of the mask was white with a sad expression. The right half was, by contrast, black with a cheerful expression. There was the contrast not only in color but also in emotion expressed on the mask.

Evan quickly bought the mask and immediately moved it into the spatial ring. For a few maps and the mask, Evan gave 50 "Moon Coins". He would have spent considerably less if he hadn\'t bought such detailed maps.

<Well, it could be considered that I just have spent the reward for completing the task. In any case, it was worth it.> Evan thought and headed for the exit of the city.

But, he stopped in front of the gate because he remembered something. Evan watched at the people coming into the city and thought, "That\'s right... I need a horse."

Of course, Evan could have gone to the "Half-Dead Forest" on foot, but that didn\'t make sense. All he had to do was buy a horse, it would be the right decision.

Luckily, the stables were not too far from the exit of the city. Evan quickly found the right horse. He didn\'t really have any strict criteria in choosing the horse. If he liked the horse, he would just buy it and that was it. There was no point in thinking seriously about such things.

Evan\'s choice fell on a sturdy, black horse with a thick mane. He looked calm but strong.

To Evan\'s surprise, the horse was quite expensive, as much as 500 "Moon Coins", and that\'s even though it was the third zone.

<It`s quite expensive, but I can get there in no time.> Evan thought and climbed on his horse.

While Evan was on his way he thought about one thing <By the way, why was Sana without a horse? The "Valley Azure Dandelion" isn\'t very far from the city, but traveling by horse is obviously many times faster.>

<I wonder if this pill really could cure the one-eyed raven? I do not doubt that the old man gave me a good quality pill, especially considering its price, but the raven\'s wounds were very serious.

If I hadn\'t frozen it and stopped the bleeding, it would have died the same day.>

While Evan was thinking about the raven, he had already reached the place where "Sun Clover" grew.