The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

"Do you have the mission item?"

You could tell she was already fed up with talking about mission 3956. But Isaac wouldn't halt his plan just to be considerate of her feelings, so he continued. He pointed to the wolf pelt behind the counter and spoke,

"The mission item has already been submitted."

"Yes, but it hasn't been submitted by you. Either submit a mission or leave."

Isaac just smiled,

"Earlier you mentioned that you could only give the rewards to the person who accepted mission 3956. My name is Isaac Dahl, I'm the one who accepted it."

"If you want the mission rewards, you need to submit the mission item. If you don't have it, please leave."

"Where does it say that in the rules?"

"... Excuse me?"

"I've read the rules for applying to, accepting and completing missions. Under the section for submitting missions it says, and I quote, 'When the mission task has been completed or the mission item has been submitted, the mission will be considered as complete and you may receive your reward.' No rule states that I must submit the item myself; so long as it's submitted, I have completed the mission."

The woman frowned. She looked through the draws beneath her desk for 2 things: a copy of the rules for missions and the file for mission 3956.

First she checked through the rules and was surprised to find Isaac was correct. Every minute of a Rank 3's time was worth more than a Rank 1's daily earnings, so it was common for powerful Rank 3 or 4 cultivators to make a subordinate submit their missions for them. That was why the rules didn't specify that you had to submit the mission item in person. After all, if the job got done, who cared about how it was done or who did it? The sect got their mission item, so the mission was completed and they would reward the person who accepted the mission. Simple.

The woman at the desk had never worked at an Adventurers' Hall in the Rank 3 district, so she'd never seen anyone use this complication in the rules and didn't know about it. However, Isaac had spent a significant amount of time analysing the rules and specifically looking for loopholes, which is how he noticed it.

After the woman finished skimming through the rules, she grabbed the file for mission 3956 and verified that Isaac was the one who accepted it. The sect used a network of Rank 1 Ink Fountain Anima to keep track of important documents. Rather than offensive, defensive, or movement Anima, these were information Anima. When somebody wrote on one sheet of paper marked by the Ink Fountain Anima, that writing would appear on other sheets marked by the same Anima. It only had a limited range so it couldn't be used for long-distance transmissions, but it was good enough to keep track of things within the sect and it meant that the woman could see all the recent changes to mission file 3956.

She could see that Isaac had indeed accepted mission 3956 just a few minutes ago. Just like anyone, she didn't like being proved wrong, but everything Isaac'd said was correct and not giving him his reward would be a dereliction of duty. That was why she looked up with a moody expression and spoke,

"Here are 3 reward points, I will also increase your merit points by 4."

"Thank you very much."

Isaac accepted the 3 wooden tokens with a smile. Meanwhile, the woman wrote down Isaac's increase in merit points before ushering for him to leave.

Isaac left the line like the considerate, law-abiding citizen that he was and went back to his seat near the entrance. After a while, he saw somebody entering with dirt all over him and a bag full of glowing yellow Lumnos Crystals.

This prompted Isaac to quickly join the queue for accepting missions, and he soon got to the front.

"My name's Isaac Dahl, can I accept mission 2199 please?"

"Is that a Rank 1 easy difficulty mission?"

"Yes."

Isaac waited for a few seconds while the guy at the desk flipped through a few files. Then he wrote a couple things down and spoke again,

"Okay. You will need to complete the mission within 7 days; here is your mission pass so you can leave the sect, and good luck."

The words 'good luck' were said with absolutely no sincerity. I mean, the guy talked to and interacted with hundreds of people every day, so it was hard to care about what all of them were doing. He probably just had a selection of pre-set lines which he said to everybody; it wasn't a job requirement to act friendly with everyone, he just had to do his work efficiently.

Honestly, Isaac was thankful for this since he preferred to just get things done quickly and without much talking. He took his mission pass and headed back to his seat, where he pretended to read. However. He was secretly observing what happened at the task submission desk.

The man covered in dirt put his bag of Lumnos Crystals on the counter. The woman took them and put them in the storage area behind her, then they exchanged a few sentences. The man grew more and more agitated as the conversation continued, but he didn't completely lose his temper or aggressively swear like the group before had. Instead, he stormed out of the hall while cursing under his breath... at least he didn't get chased out like the previous team.

After the man had left, Isaac walked up to the task submission counter. The moment she saw him, the woman at the desk's mood instantly worsened.

"Hello, I'd like to claim the rewards to mission 2199."

"You just received the rewards for a mission 30 minutes ago. I don't believe you've accepted another mission and completed it in that time."

"But I believe we already agreed that I don't need to complete the mission myself. If you look behind you, the required item for mission 2199 is already there. In fact, you put it there yourself."

The woman didn't say another word. She quickly found the file for mission 2199 and checked the mission item; it was 7 Lumnos Crystals. Then she checked the person who'd accepted it; it was Isaac. The woman sighed in defeat. Since Isaac had completed the mission, she handed him some reward points and told him to leave, since every second spent looking at his smiling face was a bad one.

Isaac received his reward and obediently went back to his seat near the entrance. This scene repeated itself 3 more times with other people who'd accepted the missions Isaac had messed with. Of course, the woman at the desk felt incredibly suspicious by now. 5 incidents in a row couldn't be a coincidence, so she knew Isaac was up to something. He'd even dug up some obscure sect rule she didn't know as part of his scheme, so she could tell he'd planned this out long beforehand.

Now she was caught in 2 minds: should she report these strange incidents of people submitting the wrong quests to her superiors, or should she stay quiet and mind her own business? The former would earn her merit points, some kind of financial reward, and maybe stop her boss being so hard on her. The latter would give her a chance to get in Isaac's good books; he'd already shown enough intelligence and cunning to prove he had a bright future, so she might be able to earn a spot as one of his aides if she helped his rise now. This was an incredibly attractive proposition to her, since she'd been stuck at the boundary to Rank 2 for several years and just needed one good pill or Qi herb to break through. She'd already given up on that, since it wasn't something that she could earn; even if she had the money, she wouldn't have the channels to acquire it.

If Isaac was somebody who took good care of his people, helping him and becoming his subordinate might be her last hope for breaking through. If she reached Rank 2, she might even escape her life as a clerk in the Adventurers' Hall and become a manager.

On the other hand, she'd never been an overly ambitious person. That could be seen from how she gave up on breaking through after a year or so of trying. Right now, she had a stable job, a moderate income, and enough time and money to somewhat enjoy life. She wasn't sure if she was willing to risk that.

Of course, Isaac was unaware of her dilemma and the decision she eventually came to. Could he adapt to the changing circumstances and squeeze out the maximum benefits?