"Nice to meet you, Soka, I'm Hayato." With Joe, himself, Hazel, the summoner, and now Soka, they had a full party, provided someone didn't suddenly back out. "We're going to be headed into this Blighted Woods area. It's somewhere in Excaledvol, and they're trying to set up a research station. They'll need someone to clear the area of monsters. We don't have any Clerics or Binders, but I think if we watch each other's backs we'll be alright."

Hazel confirmed that she'd be going as long as there was a fight, and Hayato nodded.

"The description said they'd probably be low rank monsters, but they know the terrain better than we do and there will likely be several of them. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the fighting."

OOC: Assuming Duthguy's alright with it, since everyone else seems set in this group, I'll go ahead and move us on. This will also give everyone else a demonstration of how future special assignments go.

---

After everyone had grabbed what equipment they needed, the group met up in the entrance lobby again and then headed down a large central hall, where a few sets of double sliding doors led into identical rooms. Each room was a large cube, white tile on all four walls, the floor, and the ceilings. Immediately after entering, though, to the right there was another holoboard and in the center, a large circular pad big enough for them all to stand on. 

Hayato went to the board and entered the quest they'd taken, and a magic diagram of incredible complexity suddenly appeared on the pad. Several of its symbols began to rotate along the outer edge, clicking together with bright flashes of color, until the proper coordinates were aligned.

While a way to permanently close off the two worlds had not yet been found, a method had been discovered of creating small rifts that would collapse on themselves after a set amount of time. Combining this with teleportation magic (a very delicate art that not many Magic Classes could use by themselves) allowed the Academy to send the students to any location on either world as long as they had the correct coordinates. The pads were locked unless one had taken a Special Assignment or had the proper clearance, however. Attempting a transport without the coordinates could very likely hurl someone into the black vacuum of space, or tear them apart in the limbo between worlds. The thought made Hayato do a double check that he had done everything correctly.

When the group had all gotten onto the pad, the magic began to glow and hum, rising in volume slowly as the circle rose off the pad and began to rapidly spin. Then, with a blinding flash and a feeling like when an elevator suddenly starts up and you're not ready for it, they found themselves standing outside a large bunker type building made of slabs of concrete and sheets of metal. There were several adults, in a mix of magi robes and lab coats, running around doing various tasks, and when one noticed the students he ran over fumbling with a clip board.

"You're just in time! We've just detected some Exbeasts on the move to the north east, right beyond that treeline there!" He pointed at where he meant. "Sorry to rush you, but we're in the middle of some very interesting data retrieval, and if they interrupt we could lose all our progress!"

"Yeesh, right to it, huh?" Hayato said, looking around. True to the man's word, though, there was an ominous rustling along the border of the clearing, and he thought he saw something shadowy moving between the trees...