Completing The Mission

The journey back was uneventful, and after showing his badge to the guards at the front, Minos was once again let back into the core residence of the sect.

Heading to the Mission Hall, Minos immediately noticed some people were looking at him while whispering.

"Psst, did you hear?" One disciple whispered to the other beside him as he eyed Minos.

"Hear what?" The other whispered back.

"Apparently Merth took that Thunder-Stroke Wolf King mission." The first disciple said.

"Really? Is he insane? I thought he was only in the Sixth Layer?" The other disciple responded.

"He must be, but seeing as he's back in one piece, he must have wised up mid-mission and decided against it."

"You're right."

Hearing the disciples all talking, having similar conversations, Minos ignored them. Walking up to the receptionist, he handed his badge over.

"Ahh, welcome again Merth. Are you here to return the mission? I've got to remind you there is a penalty." The receptionist said, clearly having no hope in him.

Without even responding, Minos tossed the large wolf tooth onto the table, causing the entire room to come to a complete silence as everyone held their breath in awe.

"It must be a fake!" One disciple couldn't help but say, causing the others to also let out a sigh of relief, agreeing with him.

Unfortunately for them, before they could get comfortable, the receptionist used a special device to check the wolf tooth, nearly falling over as she saw the results.

"Congratulations Merth, you've accomplished the mission, here are your contribution points." The receptionist said, making her voice even kinder and sweeter while doing so.

Hearing this, the room once again went silent, before completely exploding in a cacophony of shock and amazement.

"Impossible, impossible!"

"My heavens, he really did it!"

"He must have gotten lucky, otherwise given his strength, that's impossible!"

Minos ignored the chatter, exiting the building and heading back home. Looking at his receding back, the other disciples couldn't help but look at themselves, feeling like the difference between people was like that between clouds and mud.

…

While Minos was back at home taking a warm bath to recover from the tough fight, word of his mission completion quickly spread around the sect, soon reaching everyone's ear.

The Thunder-Stroke Wolf King was pretty much the hardest mission one could take before reaching the Inner Heaven Realm, so completing it was the same as propelling one to the very peak of the sect, right below the elders and sect leader.

With this, Merth's name was already being held in comparison to the First Son of the Sword, some even thinking Minos could win the grand competition in a year's time and claim the young sect leader title for himself.

Of course, most people still held the attitude that Minos got lucky, so unless he managed to complete another mission of similar difficulty, few really thought he was deserving to be compared to the strongest disciple in the sect.

Even if Minos was aware of all this talking, he wouldn't mind, after all it was only natural. Merth wasn't some unknown character, but rather the Ninth Son of the Sword, so anything he did would become news.

As Minos was laying back in his warm bath, the maid suddenly came in with an excited look on her face

"Master Merth, is the news true!" She asked with amazement, clearly having heard about what Minos had done.

"Of course." Minos said with a laugh. From his memories, he knew this maid was one of the few people Merth treated well considering their 'special' relationship.

Of course what Merth didn't realize was that this little maid of his wasn't as pure as he thought, but Minos could see clearly with his Heart Path vision.

The little maid was no doubt excited, but thicker than her aura of excitement was her aura of greed, clearly covetous for Merth's 'chance.'

"Master Merth, how did you do it?" The maid asked with 'curiosity.'

"You doubt your master's strength?" Minos asked back with another laugh.

"Of course not Master Merth, but considering your strength, I'm just amazed at how you did it. Please tell me!" The maid asked again with pleading eyes.

As the maid kept pushing for an answer, Minos became certain that she was a spy, the only question was who she worked for.

But for Minos, whether she was a spy or not didn't actually matter, after all, he wasn't actually Merth, but still, being eyed by someone was comfortable.

Minos was a predator, not a prey, and since someone was arrogant enough to try and hunt him down, they needed to pay the price.

While the maid wasn't looking, Minos pulled a bracelet from his spatial ring and quickly snapped it onto his wrist.

The bracelet naturally wasn't any sort of treasure, but rather something Minos had picked up in his past journeys, but now it had a chance to play a role.

"Don't ask anymore, I just got lucky." Minos said sternly, no longer entertaining the maid.

While doing so, he stepped out of the bath, 'inadvertently' flashing his brand new bracelet towards the maid.

If anyone was to claim that they knew Merth the best, this maid would definitely win, hence the moment she saw the bracelet on Minos's wrist, she immediately realized it was new, not something he had ever worn before.

Minos seemed unaware of the maid's sudden realization, instead focused on drying himself off and changing back into his robe.

The day was still young at this point, so Minos decided to head out to the Resource Hall and check out how many contribution points it would take to make his first puppet.

As he exited his house and entered the streets, the maid quickly ran up to the door, watching closely until Minos completely vanished.

After making sure Minos was gone, the maid ran up to her room. After shutting her door securely, she pulled a loose board from her floor, revealing a signal talisman.

After activating the signal talisman, she waited a moment. Soon enough, a knock came at her window, so she opened it up, allowing a cloaked figure into her room.

"What did you call me for?" The cloaked figure said in a gravelly voice.

"It's about Merth, I think I know how he managed to complete that mission!" The maid said with excitement.

"Really!?" The figure said, his voice breaking for a moment, revealing his elation.

"Ahum, I mean, really?" The figure said again, fixing his voice.

"I think so!" The maid said, not having the courage to mention the figures screw up.

"How did he do it?" The figure asked.

"If I tell you, you promise to give me the cure to my poison, right?" The maid asked, having been forced into this position through nefarious means.

"If I confirm that what you said is true, then naturally I'll give you the antidote." The figure replied.

"Good! It's his bracelet, I've never seen him wear it before, so I think it may be some sort of treasure!" The maid said honestly.

"Bracelet? Hmm, I'll look into it. In the meanwhile, act as normal, and remember, I was never here." The figure said, jumping back out of the window and disappearing into the sect.

…

While a conspiracy was happening behind Minos's back, he was in the Resource Hall, looking at all the things he could buy.

The cheapest puppet he could build at the moment was the One-Moon Gold-Nibbling Mouse, but even then, it would cost him around 200-300 contribution points for one attempt.

One had to remember that even puppet masters would fail more than succeed, so reasonably speaking, he would need 10x that amount to really make it.

This was another reason puppet-masters were an unpopular occupation. If weapon refining was burning money, then puppet refining was burning banks.

Minos was unimpeded by the price, but now wasn't the time yet to begin building his first puppet, first he wanted to save up for a Three-Moon sword technique, then he could begin.

But while he didn't plan on building puppets just yet, there was no reason he could begin his training. The materials required for making a training string were pretty cheap, only 20 contribution points, so Minos bought it without a care.

He was already a Three-Moon Weapon Refiner, so didn't need anyone to custom make the string, he could do it himself.

Heading back home, Minos sealed his door shut before pulling out his furnace, quickly getting to work making the string.

The process was simple, but the actual skill required to make it was quite high, requiring one to repeatedly hammer the material until it was the thickness of a hair.

Too much force, and the material would completely snap, not enough, and it wouldn't be the proper thickness.

The requirements for control were incredibly high, and finally Minos's year worth of mastering the basics began paying off, allowing him to succeed in a single attempt.

After sweating away for a few hours, Minos finally had an extremely long and thin string. One shouldn't be deceived by its size, because based on a quick test by Minos, it could easily hold up hundreds of pounds.