The Rise of the Black Plain

After a few more weeks, Minos and his group were more familiar with Armhands and the reality of Zocarro.

Some of them hadn't done any individual missions yet, as they had business to attend to before continuing with their responsibilities to the guild.

However, Minos, Maximillian, and the other group members had already completed all the mandatory individual missions they had under their responsibilities for this year.

They were already starting to think about the collective mandatory missions, two of which they had to complete in the coming months. These missions couldn't be done with the whole group, as they were missions for a maximum of six members in each team. So, they would have to subdivide into 3 groups to carry out their two compulsory group missions.

But they had already made their team divisions, and two of the three teams were already preparing to go ahead with these responsibilities before each of these individuals turned their focus to the optional missions.

That was not the case for the group that Minos, Maximillian, and Ruth were part of, which preferred to wait longer to pursue these responsibilities.

In Armhands, a force member didn't have to fulfill all of their responsibilities to gain access to the optional missions. As long as one carried out their mandatory missions, they would have access to a certain number of optional missions that they could do before continuing to fulfill their duties with the guild.

Then, when one had completed all the mandatory missions, individual and collective, one could access everything at their disposal until new mandatory missions were escalated to them.

As such, Minos and those who had already completed some individual mandatory missions were already turning some of their attention to ways of earning merit points more easily.

As already known, one could earn merit in many different ways. But between earning the respect of a stronger member, increasing one's strength, and doing an optional mission, doing the optional mission was the most direct and simplest method of earning points.

Optional missions were freely chosen by the sect members and had predefined scores. In other words, one would commit to something knowing exactly the level of the 'payoff.'

Minos and Maximillian were still fulfilling their other responsibilities with the guild, training their powers, cultivating, learning more about this place and their professions, etc. But in the 5 or 6 hours or so they had free, apart from their rest period, they would be focused on doing these missions from now on!

And just today, Minos was starting his first optional mission on that floating headquarters!

...

The mission Minos was on was a little different from the duties he had been carrying out in recent weeks.

His mandatory missions weren't necessarily extremely easy for him. They required some effort, hard work, and dedication. But they were simple activities that didn't require him to risk his life, for example. It was just the typical job that other, better-placed people didn't want to waste their time doing, so they passed them on to Recruits who had no way of escaping them.

But the optional missions were more like what one would find in free guilds in this world or even in the Spiritual World.

There were missions to collect resources inside and outside the headquarters and hunt down fugitives or even special beings of interest to alchemists, poison masters, blacksmiths, array masters, etc.

In other words, they were missions that had a dangerous component but could also actually help the guild grow or achieve its goals.

Mandatory quests were the minimum necessary for the guild to function. But they wouldn't generate growth opportunities for the organization. That's precisely why they were compulsory and didn't pay merit points.

Optional missions were different. No matter how small certain missions were, through the large number of members carrying out missions of this type, the guild could maintain its power, increase its numbers, influence, etc.

Through the optional missions, the guild could obtain resources for the production of materials and resources for members of the organization of all hierarchies, but also information that could change the fate of the guild.

That was positive for the guild, but also risky for the force members.

There were missions outside the headquarters, even for external members, but these required the prior authorization of superiors and their participation. It wasn't easy for a mission like this to come along, let alone for a Recruit to get authorization to do one, but they did exist.

Anyway, Minos was at Armhands headquarters while he was with a small group of guards in the middle of the city.

As much as this was the headquarters of an organization, there were guards there who focused on keeping things in order. Why? Simply because the guild was as big as a city and problems happened there in the same way as in cities.

There was no stealing, as that was the kind of crime that would result in the punishment for treason, namely death. But troubles did happen. Many members competed assiduously against specific companions. Sometimes, they had problems with each other over missions or competitions within the guild itself or even over minor issues, such as a dispute over a woman.

Having lived in Zocarro long enough to understand this world, Minos and his companions had already realized that, no matter the world or origin, women caused problems everywhere.

Where there were women, there were men and disputes between men over women, which caused problems for those directly involved and sometimes even for unrelated people.

In short, there were enough problems within this place for the guild to have guards, or rather a repressive force, that enforced the guild's rules.

Minos had just joined a group of guards, the Law Enforcers of Armhands, as a Recruit of the Law Enforcement Hall. He would earn 300 merit points per week of service to this group, a great job, in his opinion.

This job was simple on the surface. One had to work for the Law Enforcement Hall as Law Enforcers for a week and then receive their pay and the option to continue with that mission.

However, not everything was so simple. Despite being well paid and a relatively easy activity to understand, Law Enforcers dealt with problems of all kinds and had to get involved with problems and problematic beings.

Why was there an assignment for this service with such good pay? Minos was about to find out as he left the Law Enforcement Hall alongside a group of four other Law Enforcers!

"Recruit Minos, is this your first time working as a Law Enforcer?" Asked the leader of the group, a level 100 individual.

"Yes, Soldier Bavis."

"Then you'll be in charge of neutralizing offenders today. Try your best before asking for our help."