Chapter 44: Eastern Dance Maiden
The Pearl of the Desert.
This is a city very close to the Eastern World and serves as a border point for the Death Desert. Continuing east from here leads into the Death Desert’s territory. It is a very dangerous place and a gathering site for the followers of the God of Death – Naraku, where many divine professions proliferate from the Death Domain, but the most evil among them are undoubtedly the followers of the God of Death – Naraku. This ancient deity is known as the enemy of the good, the hater of life, the dark messenger, the gloomy king, the harvester of flesh and blood, and so on. Since its appearance until now, it has risen and fallen many times but has still not fallen.
This is one of the few surviving ancient gods of death!
The followers of the God of Death – Naraku attack others without needing a reason, as their doctrine is to harvest lives.
This God of Death hates life and living beings.
Soren’s figure arrived here; not many of his kind, with a mainland visage, are left in this bustling desert city. This is the territory of the desert people, and other races rarely venture too far in. In the center of the city stands a towering palace, its walls adorned with exquisite reliefs. At the top of the palace is a massive statue of a phoenix, which is said to have once appeared here, reborn from flames, thus making it a thorn in the God of Death – Naraku’s side.
There are quite a few people in the Adventurers’ Guild.
Soren unexpectedly saw elves, dwarves, and halflings, but most of the elves here are druids. Since the training of Eastern monks spread to the mainland, many druids travel to the Eastern Kingdom.
“May I assist you?”
A slender, veiled Eastern woman with a delicate waist appeared before Soren; she is the receptionist of the Adventurers’ Guild. Due to geographical differences, here is naturally different from the mainland regions.
Do not underestimate this woman.
Soren could tell at a glance that she was an Advanced Eastern Dance Maiden; hidden beneath her exotic long skirt are at least a dozen deadly throwing knives.
An advanced profession somewhat akin to a jester dancer.
Eastern Dance Maidens are skilled in some combat skills of bards while having undergone a small amount of training from monks. These women’s movements are sharp and lethal, and sometimes they moonlight as assassins. They are adept at using their beauty and alluring dances to confuse enemies, making them appear as if they are dancing even during combat.
This is a highly talent-demanding advanced profession, requiring both agility and charm.
The Eastern World has many special advanced professions. Soren’s eyes scanned and spotted two or three special advanced professionists, including a ronin close to the Eastern Sea.
An advanced variant of the ranger profession, a dangerous group proficient in swordsmanship.
“I want to issue a recruitment task.”
Soren glanced at the Eastern Dance Maiden before pulling out a task sheet and handing it to the woman.
“Hmm?”
The Eastern Dance Maiden glanced at it, raised her head to look at him with her blue eyes, and softly said, “Exploring ancient ruins? Task difficulty C-level? This will require recruiting some high-level professionals!”
“The fee is one thousand Gind, and we will announce your information.”
“If someone wants to take on this task, we will send someone to notify you. Please leave your current address with us.”
Soren quickly left the location of his lodging, then glanced around the Adventurers’ Hall before turning to head toward the inn; he still needed to learn some new spells. Recruiting a group of capable hands isn’t easy. Lower-tier professionists have no qualifications to serve as cannon fodder in ancient ruins; Soren planned to stay here for three days.
As Soren’s figure departed.
The Eastern Dance Maiden quickly moved to the back of the hall, where a middle-aged man with a bushy beard sat. After glancing outside, he spoke in a low voice, “What’s his background?”
The Eastern Dance Maiden shot him a glance and replied slowly, “High-Level Wanderer. Decent skills. Should be from the south. Smells of the sea.”
“Just like that ronin!”
“Probably someone who used to drift at sea for years; I wonder why such a wanderer would come to the desert!”
Reading the signs.
The Eastern Dance Maiden was skilled at gathering information; her knowledge was not inferior to that of bards.
“As long as he doesn’t bring trouble, that’s fine.”
The middle-aged man glanced at the task sheet and murmured, “Exploring ancient ruins? Adventurers come here every year to die. They have no idea what lies deep in the desert!”
Hearing this, the Eastern Dance Maiden shrugged and remarked, “If they want to come and die, what can be done?”
“We can’t stop them either.”
Soon.
The task notice was posted since it was a C-level difficulty task and was placed in a very obvious position.
“Exploring ancient ruins?”
“Recruiting experienced veterans? A reward of at least five thousand Gind? The issuer is a wanderer? Looks like the pay is quite rich!”
The notice quickly attracted the attention of many.
However, most weighed their own strength against it and chose to withdraw, as many were mercenary groups that primarily handled escorting merchant caravans. The danger level of exploring ancient ruins is too high; even with a substantial reward, they lack confidence, and most professionists prefer to seek a safer route.
“This looks nice.”
A bearded dwarf clad in heavy armor glanced over, then set down his battle axe and said in a deep voice, “Maybe I’ll talk to this wanderer.”
Taking on the task is naturally not that simple.
Not many veterans would decide lightly; they would certainly want to know the specific details of the task.
Another person attracted by the task was the ronin sitting in the corner, beside him was a wine jug as he polished his sword blade, and only when he heard the commotion did he take a serious look.
Five thousand Gind.
That’s quite a substantial reward, enough to tempt a professional like him.
Spellcasters are still as rare as ever.
Not a single wizard could be found in the entire Adventurers’ Guild, and even sorcerers were absent; druids seemed uninterested in such tasks, as they are often averse to underground explorations, believing it can easily lead to disaster. Many of the druids here are arborists, not practitioners of the combat faction of druids. The divide in strength is quite severe.
Three days passed quickly.
Soren managed to recruit some useful veterans with the generous reward: a heavy armored shield warrior dwarf, an Eastern ronin, and a desert warrior.
Adding Soren, the group totals four people.
It was a fairly good team, with the only flaw being that they were still one priest short.
High-level priests remain consistently difficult to recruit; these individuals hold a high status and rarely venture out for profit.
Due to the inability to recruit spellcasters, Soren had to postpone his plans.
While he wasn’t too bothered, these temporarily recruited teammates still hoped for a spellcaster by their side for added safety.
In the end, Soren had no choice but to raise the reward to eight thousand Gind.
Unfortunately, this still failed to ignite the interest of the spellcasters; helplessly, he turned his investment toward purchasing supplies from the Desert Temple.
Expensive healing potions are still somewhat useful.
Potions made by priests could achieve a ‘healing serious injury’ effect, though at a high price.
Just as Soren pondered whether to find a high-level professionist to round out the numbers for a five-person adventurer party, a small unexpected event occurred.
Someone unexpectedly sought him out, ready to take on the task.
It was a woman.
A very beautiful and dangerous woman.
………………
Time rewinds to a day ago.
Soren was just about to return to his inn after hiring a group of workers to help him dig a passage down to the underground ruins. However, just as he reached the door in front of his room, his expression suddenly became serious, and he instinctively reached for the curved blade.
Someone had tampered with his door!
Before leaving, Soren had left a very slight mark, and now this mark was asymmetrical; the door had been opened by someone.
Soren had instructed the innkeeper not to clean the room. Thus, the likelihood of someone sneaking in was very high.
There was no sound within the room.
Soren could be certain that if someone was inside, they would hear his footsteps ascending the stairs.
He reached for the doorknob, took a deep breath, and slowly pushed it open. Everything inside appeared normal, but a quick glance revealed that the items on the desk were slightly askew. The distance was about one or two millimeters; if it weren’t for his remarkably keen observational memory as a wanderer, it would have been impossible to discover that someone had been there and rummaged through his belongings.
Creeeak!
Soren gently closed the door, not relaxing his vigilance for even a moment despite the absence of visible persons within the room; many experts skilled in stealth exist in this world, many of whom possess abilities not inferior to his.
Swish!
A slight whoosh of air sounded.
Soren’s body instantly tensed, and he performed a sideways roll, drawing the Curved Blade “Ice Death” with a clash as a peculiar throwing knife appeared at the position of the door.
The knife looked twisted like a snake, aimed directly at Soren’s throat.
A faint sound of wind.
In the dim light of the room, a hazy figure appeared, and with the sound of air slicing, five throwing knives shot from different angles, cutting off all of Soren’s escape routes.
Clang, clang!
Soren instantaneously drew his blade to block the enemy’s attack while lunging forward, his figure strangely disappearing in midair, reappearing behind the hazy shadow in an instant.
——“Shadow Leap!”
——“Shadow Assassination!”
Soren showed no mercy, his attacks aimed to be lethal.
“Cackle!”
At that moment, the ethereal figure let out a crisp, delicate laugh, and then the hazy shadow split into three, dodging in three different directions.
——“Phantom Dance!”
Illusion!
The agile and tall figure performed a flip, lightly tapping on the ceiling, then dove down, thrusting a pitch-black dagger.
“Eastern Dance Maiden!”
Soren’s brows furrowed tightly as he faced the descending figure from the ceiling. Suddenly, he closed his eyes; his ears twitched, and without looking at the overhead attack, he directly slashed the blade toward the foot of the bed. The shadow that had charged down from the ceiling vanished abruptly, while the corner of the wall warped slightly, a hazy shadow flashing by once more.
Still an illusion!
The enemy had yet to reveal themselves.
………………(To be continued ~^~)
