Chapter 163 Chapter 162-Registering as a Mercenary (2nd update, Cheer me with Power Stones!)
After John left, the prairie returned to its original tranquility.
Perhaps only the whispering wind and the startled low-level beasts in the distance knew what had occurred here.
It was a while before the tranquility that had just returned to the grassland was disrupted again.
Ripples silently surfaced in the calm space as two shadows suddenly materialized.
They lowered their heads, searching around, but found no useful information.
"The identity spirit plaques show that this is the last known location of 88 and 91. There's no mistake," said one shadow, its voice sounding rather dark and unpleasant.
"But there are no signs of a battle here. Did they accidentally fall into a secret realm?" another shadow chimed in.
"That's impossible. If there's a secret realm here, its entrance would be very obvious. We didn't detect any spatial fluctuations as we searched," argued the first shadow.
Suddenly, it seemed to spot something, moving quickly along the ground, appearing just like a soft-bodied creature crawling on the earth.
The shadows moved towards a certain area.
The shadow then morphed into a mysterious figure draped in black, with a hood covering his head.
His outfit was identical to those worn by the 88 assassins.
Clearly, he was also from the ancient and mysterious assassin's guild: AGHHO.
The figure bent over and studied the scattered clothes and black masks on the ground thoughtfully. "Is this... from 88?"
The second shadow also turned human, exclaimed in surprise at the sight of the items.
The leading figure reached out, picked up a bit of Ash, and rubbed it between his fingers.
He frowned and said coldly, "Quickly check around. If 88's stuff is here, the others probably left similar items."
His companion swiftly vanished into stealth mode, reappeared after a moment, his voice incredibly grave, "I've checked, there are six places in total. Seems like all six of them were wiped out, not one managed to escape..."
"56, what the hell happened?"
The leading figure shook his head slowly and speculated, "There are only two possibilities. Either they provoked a force they shouldn't have while carrying out their quest and got killed in retaliation..."
"That's impossible!" his companion immediately shook his head, dismissing the leader's theory, "Unless they ran into a large force from the most ancient churches, there's no way they couldn't escape. But this place is spotless, there's no sign of a large-scale conflict."
The leading figure suddenly looked up, a chilling light flickering in his eyes beneath his mask, "Then the only other possibility is that they underestimated their target's strength, caught off guard, and got wiped out."
They fell silent.
From their standpoint, the second guess was even more unreasonable.
Before carrying out a quest, AGHHO would thoroughly investigate their target.
If the target was found to be too strong, they would escalate the quest to more capable members of the guild.
Even if the target's true strength differed from their investigation, it was impossible for all six of the top assassins ranked within AGHHO's top 100 to be wiped out.
The formation of six top assassins was formidable enough to infiltrate any major race's palace with a reasonable chance of survival for at least two.
But the facts were laid bare before them.
If the first guess was invalid, then the second guess had to be the closest answer to the truth...
The leader sighed deeply, saying somewhat helplessly, "It seems we need to escalate the level of this quest a few notches. If someone could wipe out the six of them without making a sound, I reckon they wouldn't have much trouble taking us out."
"This quest is beyond our abilities. Let's hand it over to the elders..."
A gust of wind swept past, and the two figures disappeared from the grassland once again.
As if they were never there, the residual clothing on the ground also vanished into thin air.
...
John made his way back to the werewolf village and teleported to Silverglow.
As soon as he emerged from the teleportation hall, he was surprised to find the number of players in Silverglow had noticeably increased.
The streets were bustling with foot traffic, as the Life-Class players were busy setting up stalls and pitching their handcrafted wares to passing pedestrians.
The grand halls of the various churches, where class transitions take place, were also swamped with activity.
A smile tugged at John's lips, realizing the population of players diving into Godslayer was booming.
As he casually strolled along the streets, he was taken aback by the surge of new buildings in the town. Especially flanking the main road where the lord's mansion was located, several domed structures seemed to have sprung up overnight.
The tallest and grandest among them bore the words "Mercenary Hall."
It was then that John remembered the addition of a mercenary feature in the latest game update.
Presumably due to the increased number of teleportation points, making inter-regional travels more convenient for players, the mercenary feature was unlocked accordingly.
Players who believe they are powerful can register as mercenaries in the Mercenary Hall and take up various quests published there.
It effectively addressed players' craving for quests.
Before this feature, players had to manually initiate chats with NPCs to stumble upon quests other than their class' main ones.
Aside from the Mercenary Hall, the names of the other new buildings also piqued John's interest.
Equipment Forging and Appraisal Hall...
Trade Hall...
Guild Management Hall...
The Equipment Forging and Appraisal Hall was certainly designed for players to conveniently manage their gear and items.
With the increasing number of energy gems of various attributes, players needed a place to embed these gems into their weapons and armor.
The Trade Hall was self-explanatory, a venue dedicated to facilitating trades between players.
If a player obtained an item or piece of gear but was unwilling to cough up the hefty commission fee at the auction house, they could head to the Trade Hall to trade with others directly.
This was undoubtedly a boon for solo players who were notoriously stingy, always eager to stretch a dime into a dollar...
Lastly, the Guild Management Hall was established for the major guilds.
With this hall in place, guilds couldn't simply attack each other recklessly.
If they wished to initiate a guild war, they needed to file an application at the Guild Management Hall and could only proceed upon approval.
John mulled it over and decided to step into the grandest Mercenary Hall.
The moment he entered, he was greeted by a cacophony of chatter.
In the spacious hall, players of all levels were huddled in small groups, chatting away while occasionally glancing up at the quest board overhead, trying to pick a mercenary quest suitable for them.
There were also some registered Mercenary Guilds holding up signs displaying their guild name and the class of the members they were looking to recruit.
"Iron Fist Mercenary Guild, we're in need of a Priest.
If there's any Priest above level 50 looking for quests, come quick..."
"White Maple Mercenary Guild, we urgently need two Assassin class players and two Mage class players.
No specific elemental attribute required for the mages.
Our guild leader is a whopping level 62. If you want to level up fast, come join us..."
"Green Vine Mercenary Guild, we're about to embark on a quest and need a Paladin above level 55 on short notice..."
...
The messages on the signs were a colorful array, but their content all boiled down to the same thing: they were recruiting newly registered mercenaries.
The concept of the Mercenary Guild, a small-scale team, came into being along with the mercenary function.
Most had only a few core members, and when they set out on quests, they would temporarily recruit additional members if they felt underpowered.
The composition of these small teams was typically very diverse, with some being guild members doing quests for fun, others being solo players looking for strength in numbers.
The maximum number of people a Mercenary Guild can have is 20.
John casually passed by various Mercenary Guilds stationed near the entrance, holding up their signs.
He simply shook his head and declined the proactive advances of some players.
He navigated through the crowded throng of people and arrived at a counter.
Looking up, there sat a stout, matronly NPC.
"Hello, I'm here to register as a mercenary."
John knocked politely on the table.
The stout lady behind the counter, looking rather impatient, lifted her head and threw over a piece of parchment.
"Write down your name, class, and level... Then just press your handprint onto it."
John smiled, unbothered by the lady's brusque attitude.
He knew well why she seemed so impatient.
After all, the mercenary function had only been opened a few days ago, and there must be a massive influx of players pouring into the Mercenary Hall to register.
This lady probably deals with tens of thousands of players registering each day, so it's no wonder she's not in the best mood...
Visit freewe𝑏n(o)vel.𝑐𝘰𝑚 for the best novel reading experience