Rebirth: Supreme Soul Master

But such dangerous missions come with generous rewards. Furthermore, once any team completes any of these dangerous missions, that team will receive a token that can be used to request reinforcements from any nearby or active teams undertaking the same mission.

It's as if this team will be promoted and become the leader of the local power.

William saw the reward increase from 10,000 crystals to 30, then 50, 70, and then the highest reward of all missions, at the very bottom of the list, giving any team that completed this insane mission a grand reward of 100,000 crystals.

"Find and lead the other squads to take down the Dark Soul Master's entire base... Basic reward: 100,000 spirit crystals, with additional rewards based on individual contributions in this battle... This guy is a real rip-off rich man!"

Clearly, the reward for achieving such a goal will be in the millions! Even tens of millions of spirit crystals!

This is one of the most valuable treasures in the world... William's thoughts drifted to the academy's principal, to the lords of the scorched earth, to the lords of other regions, and even to the royal family members in the capital.

"To do that, you need to level up first... and before that, you need to do other tasks..." William received a hidden hint that wasn't written on the scroll.

The person performing this task must have the privilege of leading other teams in the region. And needless to say, previous tasks have all offered such privileges in their reward lists.

“It’s too early to think about that now.” William shifted his gaze from the insane task and reconsidered which goal he should choose from all of this.

William wants to achieve this goal someday, but it's not the right time for him to appear on such a higher stage yet.

“I can start looking for the location of the Dark Soul Master squad and gathering intelligence on their activities and abilities…” William began to think like the person who issued the mission.

He planned to grab a blank sheet of paper and begin drawing his own map of the activities and movements of the Dark Soul Masters in the Scorching Lands.

As for knowing the techniques and soul power of Dark Soul Masters, he knew how to do so. He possessed extensive knowledge in this area, and could decide everything for him and his family simply by observing any Dark Soul Master in battle.

"Trying to monitor this horrible, and highly experienced, scumbag gang won't work using normal methods..." William knew that in carrying out this kind of task, the usual methods were ineffective.

The correct approach would be to actively seek out those Dark Soul Masters, even lure them out, and then fight them directly while employing some clever tactics.

This would be killing many birds with one stone. William would train his team on how to fight those despicable traitors, better assess the performance of his newly formed team, and test their loyalty and stance towards the Dark Soul Masters.

At the same time, he will complete many tasks, which will not only earn him a lot of crystals, but also bring him a lot of reputation for his newly formed team. Not to mention improving his team's ranking in tasks.

The more William thought about it, the more he wanted to do it.

“Senior, I must do this.” William returned to the window and stood before the same elder. The window was now empty. William extended the scroll, intending to return it to its former owner.

"Keep it, tch!" The leader didn't like his decision. "You have to pay 100 spirit crystals first... I need your team name, or at least your name, to register this mission."

“Here you are,” William said, putting away the scroll and taking out one hundred crystals, placing them on a tray extending from the window. “Register them under my name, William.”

“Alright,” the elder seemed unable to shut up, but ultimately couldn’t, “Did you see that scroll? Did you see what was written on it?”

“Yes.” William nodded, realizing his earlier guess was correct. The text was added by a skilled person working here, not by the person who issued the quest. “By the way, who issued this quest? His name isn’t mentioned on the scroll.”

“He prefers to keep his identity a secret.” The elder’s expression was grim. He disliked seeing the academy’s children lose their lives so meaninglessly. “Here, this is a token representing the mission. Once completed, or if you have other ideas about this matter, go to any mercenary department here—or anywhere else—either deliver the mission objective or return the token and have the mission removed from your name. But remember, the one hundred spirit crystals are non-refundable!”

“Thank you, senior,” William said, knowing that the elder had done all this out of his pure and kind heart. “I will do my best.”

“I will pray for your safe return.” The elder didn’t say anything more, but he prayed for his mission to succeed. William left the building while checking the token he had received.

It looked like a simple, flat, octagonal token, only the size of his fist. It was white, with a snake's face pierced by a sword on one side and bizarre symbols of many shooting stars on the other.

Apart from that, William didn't find anything particularly special about the token.