He immediately walked away from the counter after receiving his card and walked to the mission center. Without any hesitation, he quickly grabbed three mission papers from the dashboard and took them to one of the desks to get them registered.
He handed his card and the three Iron Rank missions and requested the person behind the counter to get it registered. The person quickly registered the missions and the man took them with him out of the building.
After exiting the building, Leo breathed out a sigh. He didn't like spending a lot of time using the spell since there were chances he could get caught. After all, if there were any 4th Circle Aura Knights, they might be able to see through him completely.
The only way he would be able to ease himself would be if he successfully mastered the spell, but that was taking a lot of time. But to his credit, by spending so much time training the spell, he was starting to near Intermediate Proficiency.
He looked at his mission cards and smiled. All of them were gathering missions that required him to submit herbs for the guild. He would be getting paid 100 Starcoins for each herb.
He walked into the guild again, this time with his original appearance. He went and took another two missions. He forgot to take them the first time. These were also gathering missions like the first three he took.
Out of all the Iron Rank missions, only three weren't gathering missions. Those three were group missions in which at least 5 members had to participate. He wasn't interested in missions like that at his level though.
He put the papers that had the missions into his dimensional ring and made his way to the Eldridge Forest. This time, he was not going to venture far into the forest. He was going to stay in the perimeter where he would actually find low-ranking Magical Herbs like the ones he was supposed to find.
For the rest of the day, he only spent his time trying to find the Magical Herbs he had chosen. Even though there were a total of 5 variants he had to find, they were all spread out. However, it was incredibly easy for him because he had his abnormal senses.
He was able to find 10 of each item by the end of the day. He put them each in one separate bag and divided them into his dimensional ring. He first took out the last two and went into the Mercenary Guild.
He always went in as himself because he would be able to notice if there were any strong Aura Knights or mages around him. He wouldn't be able to control whether they would enter after he did, but he would be able to see if they were already in the guild.
For the first time, he went beyond the entrance of the guild and went to one of the rooms inside to get his herbs checked. The process only took a few seconds after which he got his money and his card updated. He was now only 8 missions from being upgraded to the next rank.
He left the guild and came back as Orion and submitted those herbs as well. After getting the money, he left the building and went back to his apartment. He earned a total of 4000 Starcoins from the missions, which wasn't a lot.
He would make that if he killed a single 2nd Circle Magical Beast. But he trusted the process. The only reason he wasn't making money like he normally did was because he was only an Iron Rank Mercenary. If he upgraded to the next rank, then he would eventually get better-paying missions.
What he didn't know was how hard it was for someone to finish 5 missions like that in a single day. Unlike him, no Aura Knight had that level of perception as a 3rd Circle Aura Knight. This meant that normal people who just became mercenaries and opted for this mission would actually take a couple of days to finish just one of those missions.
So people would only get 500-600 Starcoins as an Iron Rank Mercenary in a single day. He was just an anomaly. He didn't know this and kept taking 4-5 missions a day. By the end of the week, he was done with the requirements to move to the next rank.
He went into the Mercenary Guild and to the desk where he registered to be a mercenary and asked about the upgrade.
"Hi, how do I upgrade to become a Steel Mercenary?" He asked.
The person pointed to another counter which was for upgrading his rank. He sighed an walked over there. The place had too many places for too many things. There was a desk for registering, getting a card, getting a mission, getting paid, and upgrading his rank. It was going to take some time to get used to.
He went to the desk and handed his card. "Hi, can I upgrade my rank? I finished 10 missions in the Iron Rank." Leo asked the lady behind the desk.
"Of course. Let me just check to make sure that you are eligible for an upgrade." She said. She took the card and put it in an artifact beside her.
She quickly turned to him and smiled. "You are eligible for an upgrade. You just need to come back in two days with this card and you can exchange it for the new one."
Leo smiled and took the card. "Thank you."
He repeated the process with his other identity and then went back to his apartment. For the first few times, it was fun changing identities. But it quickly became annoying. But he was expecting it to only last for the first one or two months. After that, he wouldn't need to go using his real identity.
This was because the missions would eventually become harder than what a 1st Circle Aura Knight could handle. That's what Orion would complete. If there were indeed any problems with his identity, he could just discard it at any time.
That was the main reason why he wanted an alternate identity. It would bring all the suspicion toward a non-existent person that he could hide at any time. He was only planning on using this identity for the next few months until his entrance into the academy.
Two days passed and he collected his Steel Rank Mercenary Cards. The difference between the cards was that the Steel Card had a little bit of decoration added to it. He also had to pay the same fee as last time to collect the cards.
The only difference was that he had to pay after he got the cards instead of before. He guessed that it was because he was now considered a part of the guild and hence more trustworthy.
He grabbed the cards and took a few missions from the Steel Mission board and walked away. This time, the missions were not just gathering missions. They were a mix of hunting missions in the pile as well. But that was only better for him.
