When Tal went out of his way to invite him for a drink, Xia Nan had assumed he had some important favor to ask.
It was like those side quests in the game from his previous life. Fighting alongside him had raised Xia Nan's affinity with the other man past a certain threshold, unlocking a related story quest.
After a formulaic series of errands and conversations where he stood around talking, he would finally kill a few moderately powerful enemies and receive a piece of green or blue quality enchanted equipment.
But as it turned out, the bald Ranger before him had a much simpler reason for buying him a drink.
"As you know, Mr. Xia Nan, my former teammates all died on missions." Tal's voice lacked confidence, and he adopted a thoroughly deferential manner, as though terrified of angering Xia Nan.
"I'm just an ordinary [Ranger]. I don't have your exceptional strength. Even if I take missions alone, I can only pick low-level ones, like clearing out goblin nests-nothing too dangerous or difficult, but nothing that pays particularly well, either."
"For ordinary people like us, having a team is pretty important if we want to keep making a living in this line of work."
After quite a bit of preamble, he finally reached the crucial point, his face tightening with nerves.
"A few days ago, back in Ice Tree Village, Uriah and the others asked what I had in mind. They asked whether I'd be willing to join their tea-"
Tal was a veteran [Ranger] whose profession level had reached Level 4. Besides his extensive adventuring experience, his strength was at least average for his level.
Although his performance during the Banshee mission had not been particularly outstanding, he had fulfilled his duties as the team's ranged attacker to