Chapter 22: Adventurers’ Guild
Amber City. Established for over six hundred years, the history of Amber City began with the alteration of the Agate River’s course. Due to large-scale desertification in the upstream plains and the epic-scale ‘Mad Snake Uprising,’ the relationship between the human realm and the Druids further deteriorated, causing the Agate River’s channel to shift nearly sixty kilometers. Even to this day, Druids continue to restrict human activities that harm the natural environment and may resort to armed violence if necessary! The change in the Agate River’s course led to the decline of one city and triggered the prosperity of Amber City. Unlike the dirty and chaotic conditions in the slums, the streets inside Amber City are much wider and cleaner, with cobblestone roads wide enough for ten carts to pass simultaneously. However, such cleanliness is built on the expulsion of vagrants and the lower class. Every entry into Amber City requires a fee of one Copper, which lower-class citizens and vagrants simply cannot afford; even if they manage to sneak in, they risk being discovered by nighttime patrols and potentially thrown out by the guards. This situation is quite common in southern cities, where the inside and outside of the city are two entirely different worlds. The noble district, in particular, is as beautiful as a garden, with roads lined with flowers, trees, and impressive buildings and exquisite sculptures everywhere. Even Soren cannot easily enter that area because it is guarded by specialized noble guards. The Grand Square is the main market of Amber City. This is where goods transported from various regions are traded, generating substantial tax revenue for Amber City each year and ensuring the noble families’ economic sources. A manor’s annual agricultural income barely reaches a few gold coins. For the nobles, engaging in transportation trade on the Agate River is the best way to accumulate wealth and strengthen their families! Soren sees many heavily guarded soldiers along the way; the occurrence of skinning incidents has made Amber City seem a bit desolate, with merchants hastily selling their goods before leaving the city. Past experiences tell them that any area where Dark Realms operate is bound to attract trouble and danger. Directly opposite the square is the Adventurers’ Guild. A large and loosely organized body, it spans nearly the entire world, but its management is composed of representatives from various powers. Nobles, the kingdom, the church, and other organizations scattered around the world do not allow the Adventurers’ Guild to form a cohesive will, so they must ensure their influence within this vast and loose organization. The Adventurers’ Guild is composed of councils from various regions, each operating independently. For instance, the Adventurers’ Guild in Amber City encompasses work within a five-hundred-kilometer radius, including three cities, twenty-one towns, and over a hundred villages. Council members are held by nobles, the church, local powers, etc., and they operate on equal footing with other Adventurers’ Guilds worldwide, only maintaining treaties based on common interests. Soren now needs the identity of an adventurer! There are no requirements or assessment of strength to become an adventurer; you only need to pay the application fee. It costs a total of 10 gold coins, enough to sustain a family of three for three years. All adventurers start from F level, marked with a magical seal, which can be verified at Adventurers’ Guilds around the world. Of course, if your strength is sufficient, you can also forge it! The greatest use of the adventurer identity is as a pass, because many places aren’t open to just anyone. This world has a strong sense of regional identity. Population movement is also very slow due to the many dangers in the wilderness; many ordinary people never leave their homes for decades. If you only operate near your hometown, you naturally don’t need such things. But if you plan to go elsewhere, you must prepare two things: the identification of a freeman and the identification of an adventurer. These two items can eliminate much hostility and trouble! Of course, if you can obtain a noble identity, it would be even easier. Deceiving isn’t a problem as long as you don’t get caught; if you do get caught, it could be very troublesome. Soren first needs to prepare an adventurer identity for himself, followed by the freeman identities for himself and Vivian, allowing them to move freely in most southern regions. Without these, many towns and villages will refuse you entry! Even with these identifications, entering some places with strong exclusivity and regional identity will still have the Captain of the Guard wanting to talk to you, warning you not to cause trouble there! This is true; many people have left enthusiastically to adventure, only to be repeatedly questioned in every location. In the end, they may become the focus of attention! Any suspicious behavior will be reported to the guards by local residents, and soon fully armed warriors will come to speak with you. If you have never experienced it, you can hardly imagine the trouble within! The Adventurers’ Guild actually has very few members. It is a dangerous job, and one that is easy to retire from. Just one mishap in a fight can leave you with irremediable injuries, significantly reducing your strength. If you can’t afford the expensive divine technique treatment, it’s about time you prepared for retirement. There are countless F-level adventurers registered at the Adventurers’ Guild, but the number of adventurers who reach E level is only one-tenth, and those who make it to D level are less than one percent. However, if you possess an E-level adventurer identity and have a clean background with no criminal record, you can easily find a job as a guard in towns nearby. Although the income is not as rich as that of an adventurer, it provides a stable economic source sufficient for you to marry, have children, and propagate. After all, not everyone has the desire to adventure; the risks are borne with their lives! The tasks displayed here are quite formal. Many low-level tasks are privately commissioned to individuals, without going through the Adventurers’ Guild. The most basic tasks here are F-level, with challenge difficulties usually above level 5. For example, in front of Soren is one such task, stating: “In a village called Snatha, within the territory of Lord Tenodo, a group of goblins has recently appeared, along with traces of werewolves. The village’s militia cannot combat these monsters, so they are offering a reward of fifty gold coins for adventurers to eliminate these threats. The task level is rated: F+.” This is just the basic record on the task. If you plan to accept the task, you need to assess whether you can handle a group of goblins and several werewolves. This is just the beginning. Before deciding to undertake the mission, you need to investigate whether the number of enemies is truly as many as they claim. If it is indeed that many, you can start preparing to devise a battle plan. However, if the number of enemies greatly exceeds what is recorded, then you must make a decision: abandon the task and seek compensation or continue the task while demanding more rewards. Or you may simply not care and prepare to solve the problem and take the money in the end. Soren still remembers the first time he accepted a task; he had found two companions, and the task difficulty was similar to the one before him, but in the end, a single ogre came out unexpectedly. His life almost ended there! If the client had not increased the reward by 50% at the last minute, he might have considered attacking the client himself. This is not a joke! Soren really did that; he once hanged a task client who deceived him regarding the task’s difficulty and led to the d*ath of a teammate on the flagpole, whipping him to d*ath and leaving the body hanging for three days and nights! That was his first native teammate, a big boy from the Tibu tribe who smiled shyly. He had two younger brothers and a sister. Before persuading him to leave his home and become a teammate, Soren had promised his mother that he would earn enough money to repair the flood-damaged village and return safely. He was the only professional in that remote village, a level 6 elite warrior who had saved Soren’s life once by blocking three arrows and ultimately fell in battle while covering his escape. By the time Soren found him, the body had been gnawed down to half by werewolves, and he could not even recover a complete corpse! That day, Soren killed many people. But revenge did not ease the pain in his heart; in the end, he could only send the ashes of his comrade back home after cremation, and the task earnings of over 1000 gold coins did not give him the courage to face the grieving face of a poor mother who had lost her child. He had once promised he would bring that shy big boy back alive, yet what he returned with was only a handful of ashes. At that moment, Soren clearly recognized just how cruel and real this world is! As a thief, he will never let down his guard and will never easily trust anyone. Because he has missed that chance once! Perhaps it is because of this experience that he could stand out among many thieves and ultimately become one of the few legendary thieves among players!
