The School's task hall might be conveniently located for traffic, unlike the depths of Black Castle.
Stepping through the vast doorway guarded by Left Ao and Right Ao, then walking straight down a broad road for a bit, one could catch a glimpse of a black, three-tiered spire castle structure.
That was the place where the Tin Saint School managed contribution points — General Affairs Castle.
The first floor of the castle was a huge hall, the floor laid with neatly arranged grey slabs. Passing through the crowd, one could catch sight of three black screens suspended high on the front wall to the left and right.
"Solve the Cilia Kingdom's moonlight pollution (Danger Level: First Rank Intermediate; Contribution Points: 160), transport cold crystal (Danger Level: Zeroth Rank Advanced; Contribution Points: 5)..."
The screens, as dark as ink, were crammed with dense clusters of white text.
The danger levels noted in the brackets seemed to be directly benchmarked against a Wizard's strength... which was rather intuitive and straightforward, easy to understand at a glance.
Colin gave the three screens a quick scan and had a rough idea in his heart.
Overall, most of the missions on the screens were of the First Rank and Apprentice Rank, Second Rank were a few, and it seemed there were just over ten of the Third Rank.
The gap in contribution points between different difficulties was also quite significant.
According to the information he had gathered yesterday from Senior Lillian, Colin stepped up to a white pillar embedded with a white crystal ball at its top and slightly extended his spirit.
The next moment, the screens on the wall slowly materialized before his eyes.
Thinking it over, he focused his spirit a bit more—
"Solve the Cilia Kingdom's moonlight pollution (Danger Level: First Rank Intermediate; Contribution Points: 160)"
The white text expanded to display:
"Yanan Calendar, November 21st, the night of the full moon."
"In Vifta, the capital of Cilia Kingdom, hundreds died under mysterious circumstances, their bodies mostly mangled, showing signs of savage beast bites, suspected to be the doing of the 'Werewolf' Polluter that has been frequently appearing in recent years.
Danger Level: First Rank Intermediate, not recommended for newly promoted First Rank or Wizards below that to take on the mission."
After quickly scanning it, Colin closed the screens, as his purpose today was not to take on a mission.
After stating his purpose to the duty Wizard and showing his Silver Feather Token, he followed up to the second floor.
Unlike the busy first floor, the second floor was relatively quiet.
Heading up the stairs, a brown counter faced him, currently unattended. The duty Wizard asked him to wait for a bit, then turned and walked down the corridor behind the counter, soon disappearing from sight.
It wasn't clear how long passed before two figures reappeared in front of him.
"Are you here to exchange witchcraft for contribution points, Mr. Colin?"
The person who came with the duty Wizard was an affable old man with salt-and-pepper hair, awkwardly wearing a peaked Wizard Hat that was uncommon nowadays, and like his Wizard Robe, grey.
"Indeed," Colin nodded.
"Very well, very well... Please come this way, call me Bartley," the old Wizard adjusted the hat on his head.
Although he had already been briefed on Colin's purpose by the duty Wizard, he still paused for a moment, reacting before beckoning Colin towards the counter.
Centuries ago, because new Wizard relics were frequently discovered, the crowd going back and forth at this counter was bustling.
Back then, there were twelve professional Wizards taking turns in charge of identifying witchcraft.
But later, as the war remnants' relics were gradually excavated and due to additional reasons, the Tin Saint School hadn't seen a Wizard come to submit new witchcraft or knowledge for a long time.
This place had been left with only this old man enjoying his twilight years.
"Then I shall take my leave," the duty Wizard said.
"Right," Colin nodded.
The duty Wizard respectfully turned and left the area.
As a bearer of the Silver Feather privileges, he had various privileges within the Tin Saint School, provided he didn't touch upon the interests of those truly privileged classes.
"Mr. Bartley, I'd like to first understand how many contribution points can be exchanged for a typical piece of witchcraft?" Colin sat in front of the counter and asked.
"It's not certain; it depends on the specific effects of the witchcraft," Bartley pondered as he procured a thick pair of glasses from nowhere, "Generally speaking, Zeroth Rank Attack Witchcraft can exchange for no more than a hundred points, First Rank for no more than a thousand points, and Second Rank for five thousand points, and so on."
"But we need to see the actual witchcraft for judgment. Sometimes certain First Rank witchcraft might only fetch a single-digit number of contribution points."
"I understand," Colin nodded, presenting the manually written Limit Breaking Resist Temperature Force Field, "Please take a look at this, a First Rank Defensive Witchcraft."
Bartley accepted the neatly bound booklet, but he was in no rush to read it. Instead, he rummaged under the counter and found an old, yellowing contract.
The gist of it was that he could read the Defensive Witchcraft brought by Colin but could not divulge it to anyone else.
Colin took the contract, checked it carefully, and then imprinted it with his Spiritual Imprint.
Respect for knowledge property rights in this world was ingrained in its marrow, and he wasn't surprised.
But from a development perspective, this sometimes wasn't conducive to knowledge innovation and could easily lead to a knowledge monopoly.
After all, the number of those with selfish intentions far outnumbered the selfless, and over time, centralized and monopolistic organizations were bound to emerge.
In fact, it seemed that this had already happened.
Colin silently observed Bartley poring over the witchcraft booklet carefully.
The old Wizard read through it while also consulting something with a white crystal ball.