My action of walking up to the man left him confused as I did not say anything for a moment until I was next to him. He looked confused and slightly put off by what I was doing, but before he could say anything, I spoke up, saying, “I could use some help with finding where some of these tasks are located. And before you ask, no, I don’t have a map, and I don’t really know anything about the surrounding area.”

That left him stunned for a moment as the people behind him at the table looked up at us, clearly having heard what I had just said. The man himself was just standing there for a moment, opening and closing his mouth, seemingly trying to formulate some words that he never ended up speaking. Eventually, after what must have been an arduous experience for him, he finally asked me, “Do you have a team or partner you are traveling with?”

Shaking my head, I responded, “Not to my knowledge.”

A girl who was standing at the table then responded to me. “How do you not know if you have a teammate?”

Turning to look at the girl, I countered, “Because I was told to come here and choose a mission, not whether I will have a teammate or not. And while I hope that one will be allowed, I’m not taking my chances.”

The man finally gained some of his faculties back and said, with his cheeks slightly reddening, “Oh. Alright then. We could let you look at our map if you would like. We can even help you find a mission that would be easy for you.”

I looked back at him and quirked an eyebrow before looking back at his compatriots, only to see a few of them shaking their heads with one of the two women in the group facepalming. The one who spoke to me was looking at me with some hostility for some reason, but I ignored her and looked back to the saying, “Thanks for the help, but I only need to see where everything is in relation to the sect if you don’t mind.”

After saying that, the woman who was facepalming earlier raised her head and waved at me, saying, “Come over here then. I don't mind showing you where we’re at. After all, that muscle brain won’t be able to help in his current state.”

The last part was spoken while she was pointing at the man who asked me if I needed help.

I did not expect for him to be thrown under the bus by his friend, so to speak. So I gave a little prayer for him while walking over to the table.

When I was near the table, some of the people there made a space for me. Looking down at the table with the map laid out on it, I saw that it appeared quite large and covered a good portion of land. At least, that was from what I understood from what I was seeing. I could be completely wrong for all I know.

The map itself had multiple styles of borders drawn on it with a small ledger in the corner. Looking at it, I was able to see that this map contained the borders of various sects and counties, with even the edge of the closest two countries marked out.

This was more than helpful for what I had planned. With it, I was able to see that the tasks I had my eye on the most were mostly from towns on the border of the Sect’s influence. Choosing any of these would lead to me crossing the borders of at least one or more smaller sects that are affiliated or directly subordinated to the Silver Moon Sect.

Trying my best to memorize as much as I could, I eventually thanked the group and stepped away from the table. 

I was about to walk over to the mission board again when Lou Xia walked through the doors and spotted me. She then made her way right over to me and asked, “Did you find the mission you wanted?”

I shook my head in response to her question before replying, “I was just about to grab one.” 

I did not wait for a response and walked up to the board, grabbing one of the investigation tasks. Walking back to Lou Xia, I then asked her, “Now that I have this, what do I do with it?”

Lou Xia hung her head and shook it with a slight smile on her lips before saying, while pointing at one of the counters, “Under normal circumstances, you would hand the quest over to them, but for this mission, you will need to go to the administration hall. Other than that, you will always go to those counters unless otherwise told.”

I guess I should have already known that, but it was a good thing I asked so we could avoid wasting our time in the lines for the counters that I did not even notice until now for some reason.

Lou Xia then grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the doors, saying, “Come on now. We don’t have all day, and you aren’t going to do anything if you keep getting distracted.”

Hearing her say that reminded me of my past life for some reason I could not remember at the moment. Regardless, she was correct in what she said, so I let her pull me along for now.

Right as we were about to leave, my ears picked up the sound of the man who helped me, asking, “How fluffy do you think her tails are?” I wanted to do something to him for a moment after I heard that, but the crisp slap that echoed throughout the room stopped me from doing anything.

I guess the angry girl finally did something.

Vulthurtoor

Sorry for the long time without an update. I got pulled into panting a house as well as helping with tile.

Besides that, I managed to get this chapter done and I am now going to be removing the no uploads after 10:00 pm PST rule that I have been imposing on myself as it has ended up hindering me more than anything right now.

With that out of the way, I hope everyone has a nice night/day and enjoyed the chapter.