Volume 3: Chapter 6 – Mercenary Guild
Finished cleaning, I went back to the living room. The old man seemed to be waiting for me, “We’re done. Let me bring you to where you’ll be sleeping.”
“Young man, you’ll be sleeping here. Straight and simple, put it together. Ah that’s right, I still don’t know your name. This old name is called Lei Jie. You can call me uncle. I haven’t married, I’ve been by myself.”
“Here is good. Uncle, my name is Zhang Gong. Thank you.”
I sat on the bed and chatted with uncle. I heard him say we were near the Aixia kingdom’s border. In the past, this place had once belonged to the Kingdom of Xiuda. The folk on this side are sincere and down to earth, and they all treated their guests well. After all, they are at the border, there aren’t that many people who can use magic here. He also said that if I still wanted to go to the Xiuda Kingdom, I must be careful. Recently, it hadn’t been very peaceful and secure over there. At our border, there are a few bandits that come and go as a result of our friendly relations. The territory’s sovereignty is a sensitive topic, therefore it wasn’t properly guarded.
Hearing him talk about this location, I couldn’t help but ask, “Then currently, is it impossible to go over there?”
“No, everything is ordinary at our border city. Polima city assembled a large group of people and hired a few mercenaries as escorts. With this, it’s already much safer.”
“Oh, Then I should go to Polima.” Haha, there was still such a great thing. I should try out becoming a mercenary. I might even make some pocket money, hehe.
That uncle had clearly misunderstood my meaning, “Right, since you want to go to the Xiuda Kingdom, it is better to travel from that place. Going together with merchants will also be much safer.”
Without needing to explain, I asked where I could wash. He told me there was a brook behind the village I could bathe in.
I used the clear and cold river water to wash the dirt and fatigue. So comfortable. After washing, my body felt indescribably refreshed. From the dimensional storage I took out a set of clean clothes, and changed into them. Then I took the washed clean clothes and returned to that uncle’s house.
I lied down on the bed, thinking about today’s events. Although I said that from now on I wouldn’t take a beautiful woman as a wife, their fairy-like appearance continuously swam in my mind, and I dazingly entered slumberland.
At dawn, I had finished eating breakfast with uncle and we said our goodbyes. According to his directions, I went forward to Polima city.
Perhaps it is because merchants from both countries pass through here, even though it was a border town, Polima was a very prosperous city. The main street was bustling with activity. All kinds of shops were dazzlingly light up like glittering jewels. I inquired the location of the mercenary guild from a passerby.
The mercenary guild’s sign is a diamond coin with sword passing diagonally through it. I suppose the idea behind it was that mercenaries used their own skill to get their coin.
Walking through the mercenary guild’s entrance, I faced a very large hall. The hall had various sorts of desks all around. At center of the hall were many differently dressed people. There were those who wore warrior’s clothing, mage’s clothing, and there were even a few sharp eared elves and a few short, rugged dwarves. Elves and dwarves are both classified as minorities, both are peaceful races. Elves are born archers, possessing keen senses and impressive eyesight and capable of learning any natural magic. Dwarves are powerful warriors and very skilled craftsmen. A great many high quality weapons were forged by them.
I walked to what I believed to the front desk, and inquired to the young lady behind it, “Excuse me, where could I receive mercenary missions?”
The service lady took a glance at me. Seeing that I wore only ordinary clothing, she obviously wasn’t very enthusiastic. She lazily said, “First go to the left over there and get a form and apply to become a mercenary. After that, you will get a mercenary’s mission card. Then you can go to the right and receive missions.”
“Oh, Thanks.” I answered quickly and took a form. The asked for name and surname, profession, degree of ability and so-on. On the form, for ability, I put that I was a great mage. When I gave the registry form to service lady, she said with surprise, “You’re a great mage?”
“That’s right, what’s the matter?” I, who diligently studied at royal magic academy for a very long time, naturally didn’t know that great mages were uncommon.
“Do you have identification from the magic union?”
“Of course I do.” I took a magic union capability card from my bosom. (A mage’s ability and experience are all verified and confirmed within the magic union’s record card. Everyone had their own unique magic card.)
That service lady anxiously authenticated it for a moment. She read it and mumbled: “Zhang Gong Wei, graduated from the Royal Intermediate Magic Academy, representative of his year. As a result of his exceptionally outstanding achievements at the academy, he was exempt from testing and awarded with the title of great mage. Wow! You’re a great mage that graduated from the Royal Magic Academy?”
Because of her voice was relatively loud, everyone present had heard. At the time, I became everyone’s focus and felt somewhat embarrassed.
“That’s right, what’s the matter? Can I become a mercenary or not?”
Distracted for a moment, she promptly said, “You can, of course you can. Because you’re a great mage, you are directly promoted to a rank C mercenary. You can accept any missions you believe you are capable of.”
“Rank C Mercenary? Mercenaries are ranked?” I asked with doubt.
She smiled at me, I suppose it because I was ignorant and inexperienced. “Naturally, Mercenaries have high to low ranks from S, A, B, C, D, E, F, to G. What missions a mercenary can accept depends on their rank. They are promoted in accordance to the difficulty and quantity of their completed missions.”
“Oh, so it’s like that, thank you.” I took the mercenary card that she handed to me, and then I walked to the desk on the right to look for a mission that went to Xiuda.
The service staff at the desk to the right knew that I was a great mage and treated me with an exceptionally friendly attitude. Seeing me walk over, they approached me and asked, “What rank of mission would you like to receive?”
“The rank doesn’t matter. What matters is if it goes to the Xiuda Kingdom. I want to travel there, so a mission heading there would be best.”
“Wait one moment, sir. I’ll help you check.”
While she was searching, I was looking at the top tile of the mission board and it was unexpectedly the first assignment that Teacher Di had given me, to acquire Holy Sword, the weapon that the God of Creation had once used. Rank SSS, Ah, there are three S’s! It is clearly going to be very difficult. The reward was also extraordinarily high, to go so far as to offer a hundred thousand diamond coins. I reckon that is about how much my country receives from taxes annually.