Adventurers Association

River Valley Town, an ordinary town on the southeastern border of the Servia Kingdom.

Located inland and far from the sea, even the few nearby rivers were blocked by mountain ranges, making river trade difficult to develop.

On top of that, there were no local specialties to speak of, and the complex terrain made travel difficult. No legitimate merchant caravan would include this place as a stop along its route.

Under normal circumstances, this small human settlement would have remained as obscure as the countless other villages within the kingdom's territory.

Forget kingdom history or heroic epics—even if it were completely overrun by war with a neighboring nation or a monster invasion, it would probably only get a passing mention at the weekly court meeting from some reasonably conscientious official.

But now, it had become one of the important towns in the southern part of Climbing Cloud Province.

The reason was simple. There was only one—

Thin Mist Forest.

The grayish-white mist that lingered throughout the forest all year round was not some unusual natural phenomenon. It was caused by the excessive Magic Power saturating the air.

While this had given birth to many powerful monsters capable of threatening human lives, it had also brought forth countless precious magical herbs and Secret Realms, drawing wave after wave of professionals eager for adventure.

With that in mind, River Valley Town, surrounded by mountains on three sides and easy to defend but difficult to attack, naturally became adventurers' first choice for rest and resupply.

The Adventurers Association branch established here many years ago had further drawn adventurers from across the kingdom's southeastern border, becoming something of a landmark.

It was like the "university towns" built around clusters of High-Grade colleges in his Previous Life, or the many supporting industries surrounding tourist attractions.

River Valley Town also had a bustling street dedicated specifically to serving adventurers.

Bang—

A middle-aged man, drunk beyond measure and spewing vulgarities, was carried out by two guards clad in Leather Armor and tossed into the street. The scent of alcohol and noisy clamor spilled from the half-open wooden door behind them.

By the roadside, a plump, extravagantly dressed woman clutched a zircon necklace as she argued red-faced with a merchant before her. Beside her, the little boy she held by the hand stared curiously at the burly men drenched in sweat inside the Blacksmith Shop facing the street.

"Hey, handsome, come have some fun~"

A sweet, cloying female voice drifted into his ear.

Looking over, he saw two shapely women in scant clothing leaning against a wall and beckoning to him with coquettish smiles.

Xia Nan was not embarrassed in the least. He smiled, nodded, and greeted them.

Apparently taking him for a potential customer, his response immediately sparked a chorus of sweet calls.

But he had no intention of approaching them, continuing down the main road without pause.

Seeing this, the women found it boring and turned to solicit other passersby instead.

As he gradually walked away, the heavy scent of perfume slowly faded from the air.

Xia Nan tightened the Backpack on his back, his gaze calm.

It would be impossible to say he had no thoughts about it at all.

After all, this body was at the peak of human vitality. If not for the memories from his Previous Life—memories of modern society, tempered by the overwhelming torrent of information on the Internet—

With the former owner's simple-minded upbringing, having grown up in the fields and barely even met girls his own age, he probably would have lost his soul with a single beckoning finger from those "service industry elites" just now.

He had only recently crossed into this world and had yet to even settle down, so naturally, he had no intention of considering such things.

By comparison, he was more curious whether this world also had the kind of "unspeakable" diseases from his Previous Life, and whether, in a world where supernatural power existed, people took the same precautions as they had in his world.

I wonder if Healing Potions work?

Now that he had left the dangerous environment behind, everything in this other world fascinated him.

Even a random snack stall by the road could send his thoughts wandering.

Walking and stopping like this, about twenty minutes passed.

Xia Nan finally arrived at his destination.

It was a uniquely styled building.

Its four stories did not stand out on this street, yet it somehow seemed to be the center of the entire area. People came and went, and the place buzzed with activity.

Unlike the brick-and-tile houses he had seen along the way, this building was made entirely from some kind of dark wood. Its intricate, regular wood grain naturally formed distinctive decorations, and several clusters of lush green branches and leaves even adorned the eaves.

From a distance, it looked like a gigantic treehouse.

For some reason, standing at its entrance gave Xia Nan the faint illusion that he had returned to Thin Mist Forest.

The building bore no signboard, but the adventurers constantly passing through its doors were enough to reveal its name—

Adventurers Association, River Valley Town Branch.

Xia Nan shook his head, dispelling those unnecessary thoughts.

Then he walked through the doors.

Before him was an exceptionally spacious hall, decorated in the same natural style and brimming with the atmosphere of a forest. Adventurers of all kinds passed through his field of vision.

Drawing on the memories left behind by the former owner, he searched the crowd with his eyes before finally focusing on a counter-like area on the right side of the hall.

Behind the counter sat a short-haired young woman in the Association's uniform. She was quite pretty, but her expression was remarkably listless.

She appeared to be working, but her eyes hung low as though she might fall asleep at any moment.

Xia Nan stepped forward and placed the coarse cloth sack he had prepared in advance, filled with Goblin and Bear Goblin ears, onto the counter.

"Hello, I'm here to turn in a quest."

The short-haired girl lifted her eyelids slightly. Without touching the sack, her lips moved.

"Team Badge."

"Oh, right." Xia Nan immediately understood. He took a palm-sized Black Iron Plate from his chest and handed it to her.

This was the identifier for Maji's team, issued by the Association and inscribed with the team's number.

The front desk staff needed that number to look up the quests the team had accepted.

Fortunately, he had not forgotten to take this little thing when cleaning up the battlefield. Otherwise, he would have suffered a major loss this time.

"Bow of Mountains?"

"Uh... yes."

Xia Nan froze for a moment before realizing that "Bow of Mountains" was Maji's team's officially registered name.

He had called them the "Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp Team" so often in his head that he almost failed to react.

The short-haired girl merely glanced at him. She showed no intention of asking why none of his other teammates were present, as though she had long grown accustomed to such things.

The counter was slightly raised above the floor, preventing Xia Nan from seeing what the girl was doing.

Though he was curious how she handled work that would normally require extensive time searching through documents in this technologically undeveloped yet supernaturally empowered world,

he remained patient.

He only saw the short-haired girl move her hands a few times outside his line of sight, then mutter several characters whose meaning he did not know.

"Bang."

Less than five seconds later, a money pouch was tossed onto the counter in front of Xia Nan.