When Marco took on students, he tailored his teachings to their individual aptitudes.
Only what suited them was the best.
He believed that every Cloth would find its perfect match, a successor who could fully unleash its power.
"Let's wait and see how difficult it is to earn contribution points."
After carefully browsing through the [Mall], Marco reluctantly looked away.
Those [Gold Cloths] and [Gold Skills] were simply too dazzling—each one incredibly tempting and truly heart-stirring.
This made him utterly unwilling to spend his contribution points, wanting instead to save up for [Gold]-tier items.
"Although Bronze-tier offers good value, it still depends on the difficulty of obtaining contribution points. If it's too hard to earn them, it's better to save up. Getting just 10 points daily is truly a drop in the bucket."
For now, Marco suppressed his urge to spend.
With a guaranteed 10 contribution points every day, he decided to slowly accumulate them while waiting to trigger other "contribution quests" to assess their difficulty.
The moment he thought of the "daily quest," Marco immediately got up and headed straight for Magnolia.
He had come up with an idea to exploit a loophole.
"Every day, issue a quest to Fairy Tail with the content of patrolling the city once, specifically designating me to complete it."
Marco went directly to the city hall and gave the order to the mayor.
That's right—he intended to exploit the loophole just like that: having his own people issue a quest and then designate himself to accept it.
The task was simple: just take a stroll around Magnolia.
"No problem, Your Grace."
The mayor naturally had no objections.
For them, it wasn't any trouble—just sending someone to Fairy Tail every morning to post the quest.
The reward amount wasn't high either, making it a very minor expense.
Of course, even if Marco had set the reward much higher, they would have complied.
After all, the entire Magnolia was Marco's territory, and they were essentially working for him.
After arranging the "daily quest," Marco returned to the guild to wait.
Soon, someone from the city hall arrived to post the quest.
"?"
Looking at the quest, Mirajane was full of question marks.
She glanced at Marco in confusion, wondering what kind of mischief he was up to.
Mira didn't even need to think—she was certain this was Marco's doing. The city hall staff weren't fools; why would they specifically name Marco for such a quest?
"Just process it as usual. I arranged it." Marco nodded, confirming that it was indeed his doing.
"There will be this quest every day from now on. Just handle it normally." Marco added without further explanation.
"Alright."
Mirajane nodded and directly approved the request, then handed the form to Marco.
Though she didn't understand, since Marco wanted it done, she would follow his wishes.
After receiving the request form, Marco immediately went out to patrol.
He ran a lap around Magnolia, then headed straight to the city hall to sign the form before returning to Fairy Tail to complete the process.
[Ding! Daily quest completed. Obtained 10 contribution points.]
The [Saint System] popped up with a notification—the daily guaranteed 10 contribution points had been credited.
This clever method clearly counted as completion.
"Then... what about even more clever methods?"
The success of this experiment sparked another idea in Marco.
He wouldn't be at the guild every day, and if he were absent, he wouldn't get the guaranteed 10 points—which would be quite painful.
Therefore, Marco began contemplating more opportunistic methods.
Since this bug could be exploited, could he completely automate his daily tasks without even showing up?
The next day, Marco immediately began a new experiment.
This time, he didn't go to the guild himself, instead sending a crow in his place.
"What's this all about again?"
Mirajane felt exasperated watching the crow carrying a quest form, but she knew what she had to do – just cooperate and get it over with.
Mira took the request form and registered it without hesitation. Then she watched as the crow flew off with the completed mission request.
Marco had the crow circle Magnolia before heading to the city hall to get official approval.
Afterwards, the crow returned to Fairy Tail to complete the remaining procedures – all without Marco being present.
[Ding! Daily mission completed. Obtained 10 contribution points.]
The Saint System displayed a notification, acknowledging this bug-exploiting behavior.
Marco couldn't help but laugh – now he wouldn't have to worry about missing his daily 10 contribution points.
This entire operation was fully automated: he arranged for someone to post the request, designated himself as the acceptor, then had the crow handle everything while both the client and guild directly approved it.
As long as no major issues arose – like Magnolia being destroyed or Fairy Tail being wiped out – this automated task could continue running smoothly indefinitely.
'Honestly, i really should get a Cloth for the Crow constellation. All these daily contribution points are earned by the Crow constellation,' Marco thought.
He wondered if having a matching Silver Crow Cloth would enhance the crows' abilities and intelligence.
For now, however, the Crow constellation's capabilities were sufficient.
While they couldn't provide much help in major battles against powerful enemies due to their individual limitations, their utility in other areas definitely placed them in the top tier.
For instance, in searching – among the many crows Marco had dispatched to find the "Tower of Heaven" some had finally discovered clues.
They had spotted some suspicious individuals at sea.
"So there really are slave transport ships."
After receiving the information transmitted by the crows, Marco immediately took it seriously.
As long as he found any trace of that "Tower of Heaven," he would definitely be able to uncover the location.
Based on the intelligence Erza had revealed, that "Tower of Heaven" maintained contact with the outside world because they needed a continuous supply of slaves.
Therefore, since directly locating the island proved difficult, Marco had the crows focus on searching for transport ships with unusual routes.
Generally, cargo ships followed fixed schedules and routes due to the high risks involved.
Few would venture into unfamiliar routes – this was ocean shipping, not paddling a small boat on a river.
So with careful searching, they were bound to find clues.
Those cargo ships that avoided conventional shipping routes and headed toward strange directions or remote islands were suspicious.
Even if they weren't heading to the "Tower of Heaven," they were worth investigating.
Over this period, the crows had identified numerous unusual shipping routes.
The next step was to investigate them one by one.
"Tower of Heaven, let's see how much longer you can hide." Marco clenched his fist, already eager to see it for himself.
...
Time flew by swiftly.
X783 soon passed, and X784 finally arrived.
The crows had been investigating for a long time, uncovering several smuggling dens and a few pirate hideouts.
It wasn't until X784 that they finally located their target.
This made Marco somewhat alert—the matter had ultimately dragged on until X784, that critical year.
However, even though it was now X784, Marco did not restrain his actions because of it.
He had no intention of waiting for trouble to come knocking; when it was time to take the initiative, he would strike first.
"Erza, I think I've found that Tower of Heaven."
As soon as he received the message from the crows, Marco went straight to Erza and told her the news.
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