Nothing is Impossible

Atlas woke up and dragged himself out of the barracks once more. He cracked his neck and then headed over to the main building once more for breakfast. After scarfing down his bread and cheese he decided to do something different.

He went upstairs, reaching the room with the tasks at his level. The room was just as large as the previous one, but the walls were covered with wooden boards with writing on them. Atlas walked over to one of them at random and looked at it.

Task: Kill the giant rats that are infesting the storehouse.

Details: In the northern storehouse rats have taken over the building, eating away at all of the produce held there and attacking workers indiscriminately. They are not too powerful, but they are quick, so the workers can't easily do anything about the rats.

Requirements: At least Tier 2

To Complete: Kill the 8 Giant Rats infesting the northern storehouse.

Reward: 5 silver

Atlas nodded to himself. Pretty straight forward then. He started to walk further into the room, glancing at any boards that caught his eye.

Task: Escort Merchant Caravan

Details: The Music Tapestry Merchants are in need of an escort group as they travel to Nilthom, the nearest town. There must be at least 6 people escorting them (They do not have to all be in the same group), and they must expect to work for 8 hours a day, in two 4 hour shifts.

Requirements: At least Tier 3, minimum of 6 people must join

To Complete: Escort and Defend Merchant Caravan to Nilthom (ETA: 3 Days)

Reward: 30 Silver each per day

Task: Cull Monster Population (Daily Task)

Details: Its monster season, and the guards are understaffed. The guards are willing to pay ANY adventurer as long as they can kill at least 10 monsters their tier, or 100 monsters a tier below them. All the monsters are concentrated to the east, in the Worger Woods. Pay varies depending on monster slain.

Requirements: None.

To Complete: Kill 10 monsters your tier, or 100 monsters the tier below you.

Reward: Depends on monsters slain.

Task: Help the farmers water their fields (Daily Task)

Details: The farmers are having trouble watering their fields and need help. Any adventurer with water magic or a wide area water skill would be very helpful.

Requirements: Any Water magic ability, or large area water skill.

To Complete: Water any one of the fields

Reward: 50 silver (Farmers are very strict about jobs, pay may be less than stated if the job is not done to their satisfaction.)

Task: Guard Baron's House

Details: An event is happening at the baron's house, so his guards are in need of assistance.

Requirements: T3, within 50 levels of T4, and must be tested by the guards and pass.

To Complete: Guard the barons house as the event goes on (Days till event 8)

Reward: Minimum of 1 gold, maximum of 5 depending on Guard Captain's level of satisfaction with your work.

Atlas was intrigued by all the different tasks, and it made him wonder what tasks on higher levels would look like. There was a very large and diverse amount of tasks, and Atlas only bothered to look at the ones that were at least tier 3 or looked interesting. Some of the tasks were as simple as "Help out at the tavern" and Atlas even saw one that said "Help escort a family to the market and back"

After looking at quite a few different tasks, Atlas went back to the two daily tasks he had noticed and tried to take them off the wall, only to find them nailed to the wall. Atlas frowned, how was he supposed to get a task then?

Just as he was contemplating how to get the task, he heard a voice behind him and saw a wizened old man behind him. Atlas blinked, rubbing his eyes and staring again. Was that… Zores?

The old man was wearing a long flowing red robe, and had a pointed red hat with upside down triangles on it. The robe was covered in flowing gold text that seemed to shimmer and move. Atlas concentrated on the words, watching as they morphed and wiggled on the robe. Atlas tried harder to read it, the words slowly became legible.

The Fire Expands From The Chest, Consuming All And Taking Hold Of Your Magic, Rending You Apart.

There were multiple other lines, but Atlas concentration was shattered by a notification.

You have gained the skill: Arcane Glyphs (SSS)

Arcane Glyphs (SSS): You can read and understand the meaning of pure magic turned to text. You can speak and write in this magical language, and if you use the glyphs to cast magic, the magic will be made far more powerful, but the casting time will include glyph writing, causing spells to take longer.

Atlas's face became shocked. Had he really just learned a magical language just by brute force and trying as hard as he could to understand it? His skill gained speed was really something else.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Zores looked at the shocked young man's face. "Can you read this text?" He said in awe, pointing to the arcane glyphs on his robe. When Atlas nodded slightly Zores looked at him closer. "Have we by any chance met each other before? You look slightly familiar and judging by your reaction, you have met me before."

Atlas swallowed. "We met in the trial of intelligence, you were in charge of the riddles when I was versing the demon guy." Try as he might, he couldn't remember the demon's name.

Zores nodded. "Ah yes, I remember now, you faced off against young duke Daryl, who was not so pleased with how the events of that day played out."

Atlas blanched. "He's still alive? I thought failing the test ment death?!"

The man shook his head. "For you? Yes you were risking your life, but for Daryl? Not so much." The man held up a hand to stop Atlas from asking further questions. "But back to the original matter, how do you know how to read arcane glyphs? By my reckoning you should be tier three, maybe tier four at the very most. I didn't learn this language until tier 6, when I was exploring old catacombs. Where did you learn it?" He asked, eyes turning deeply inquisitive.

Atlas scratched his head. "Uh, about a minute ago?" He said, not sure how to phrase it any differently.

Zores just looked at him. "Hmm." He mused to himself. "That shouldn't be, realistically speaking, possible. The only way would be…" he squinted at Atlas. "What is your skill acquisition rate?"

Atlas blinked. How had he figured it out so quickly? "200,000." He said honestly.

"200? That isn't nearly enough-"

Atlas interrupted him. "200 thousand."

Zores just stared at him. "Ah." Was all he managed to get out.

Atlas and Zores just stared uncomfortably at each other for a few very long seconds.

"So…" Atlas began. "What were you going to say originally?"

"Ah!" Zores exclaimed, obviously happy to change the subject. "You looked like you were struggling with acquiring a task. To get a task all you have to do is simply touch the board and say "Add Task." and the task will be directly added to your task tab. You can then mentally "Click" on the task and an arrow will appear in front of you, pointing you in the direction you need to go. Upon completing the task, the money will either automatically appear in front of you, or you will need to report to someone if the pay is variable and subject to change depending on how well you do. Any questions?"

Atlas thought about it for a second. "Not really. Everything you said makes sense to me."

Zores nodded, glancing at the stairs leading upwards. "Well, I must go now, as I was told there was a task made that would be very beneficial for me, and I wouldn't want to miss out on it. On that note, I would be very interested in talking to you further. I will be in town for a couple weeks, feel free to come talk to me any time, I am currently renting the green houses on the right of the guild entrance. That's to the right going into the guild, not your right coming out of the guild. Have a good day." With that, he spun on his heels and walked over to the stairs, heading upwards.

As he left Atlas scanned him, very curious to see what level he was.

Archmage

Tier: 9 Level: 723

Atlas nodded to himself he was at the high end of tier nine, he could most likely end Atlas with a single spell. Atlas turned back to the tasks, "Add Tasks." He said, touching both of the daily tasks.

Task(s) Gained: Cull Monster Population, Help The Farmers Water Their Fields!

Atlas opened his tasks and activated the watering task, walking outside of the guild building and heading in the direction it was pointing him. After walking for a while he found himself directly in front of a wall. Sighing, he used Mind Step and teleported through the wall. Once on the other side, he walked over to the nearest field, holding up a hand in greeting to a farmer tilling the grounds nearby.

"I have a task to water the fields. What exactly do you need me to do?" Atlas asked the farmer, folding his arms against his chest.

The farmer turned to him and looked him over. "You're a water mage? Don't look much like one." He said, clearly doubtful of Atlas's abilities.

Atlas merely pointed a finger gun at him and shot a pencil thin blast of water directly at his face. Atlas raised an eyebrow at the now spluttering farmer. "That enough to prove myself?" He wanted to get this over with, he hated when people doubted him, for whatever reason. It reminded him of his life on earth far too much for his liking.

The farm wiped off his face and glared at Atlas. "That's more than enough." He grumbled.

Atlas looked over the fields. "So all I have to do is water this and I get my money?"

The farmer smirked. "If only it were that easy. This field is massive, if you are able to water it all within an hour you can consider the full 50 silver easy money. The amount of mana you would need for that would be in the hundreds of thousands."

Atlas narrowed his eyes. Was that a challenge?

The farmer looked down at his bracelet. It looked to be similarly styled to the adventurers bracelet. "Your time starts now." He said, before walking away and returning to working the fields.

Atlas began by pulling up all the relevant skills and what they could do.

Elemental Control (ZZ): You can control the elements. How you use this power is up to you and your creativity. Mana usage depends on what you are doing, higher tiered elemental combinations cost more mana and lower tiered combinations cost less.

Absolute Mana Monarchy (ZZ): You are the master of the mana around you. Your mana regen and power of abilities is greatly increased. You can temporarily increase your maximum mana pool for up to 10 minutes (Multiply Mana by 1.2). After increasing mana temporarily, you will suffer one level of mana exhaustion.

Arcane Glyphs (SSS): You can read and understand the meaning of pure magic turned to text. You can speak and write in this magical language, and if you use the glyphs to cast magic, the magic will be made far more powerful, but the casting time will include glyph writing, causing spells to take longer.

Magic Circle (S): You can create a circle of magic that is waist high off of the ground, while standing in the circle, skills and spells cost half as much mana, but they are twice as long to cast.

Atlas poured over the skills nodding to himself as a plan began to take shape. This would be the first time he was trying something like this, and he really hoped it worked.

Creating a magic circle where he stood he started to condense a large cloud above the field using the active part of Pure Mana Monarchy he artificially increased his maximum mana.

Then he began to speak.

"The Perpetual Cloud Hangs Above The Field, Constantly Full But Refusing To Rain. When The 12th Hour Strikes, It Does, And It Releases A Flood Of Water, Sending What Appears To Be Too Much But In Actuality Is The Perfect Amount Of Water To Give The Plants Far Below Life." Atlas tried to continue, but at that moment, his mana hit rock bottom, and the spell was cast.