Adventurers' Guild

Amber City had stood for over six hundred years, and its history began when the Agate River changed course. Due to the large-scale desertification of the plains upstream, as well as an epic-scale "Mad Serpent Rebellion," relations between the human kingdoms and the Druids worsened further, and the Agate River's channel shifted nearly sixty kilometers. Even today, the Druids still restricted humanity's excessive destruction of the natural environment, resorting to armed violence when necessary! The Agate River's diversion led to one city's decline and Amber City's rise. Unlike the filthy, chaotic Slums, Amber City's streets were much wider and cleaner, with stone-paved roads broad enough for ten carriages to pass side by side. But such cleanliness and order were built upon driving out vagrants and impoverished commoners. Every entry into Amber City cost one Copper Daler, money that the poor and homeless simply could not afford. Even if they slipped inside by chance, nighttime patrols would discover them, and the Guard Force might throw them back out. Such situations were common in southern cities; inside and outside the city were practically two different worlds. The noble district was even more beautiful, like a garden. Flowers, grass, and trees lined both sides of the roads, while towering, magnificent buildings and exquisite sculptures could be seen everywhere. Even Soren could not enter that place casually, because it had guards specifically assigned to the nobles. The Grand Plaza was Amber City's largest market. It handled the trade of goods transported from all over, bringing Amber City considerable tax revenue every year while securing the nobles' sources of income. A manor's annual agricultural income amounted to less than a dozen Gold Dalers. For nobles, getting involved in the transport trade along the Agate River was the best way to amass wealth and strengthen their families! Along the way, Soren saw many heavily guarded sentries. The Skinning Incident had left Amber City looking somewhat desolate. After hastily selling off their goods, merchants left the city. Experience had taught them that wherever the Dark Domain was active, trouble and danger were sure to follow. Directly opposite the plaza stood the Adventurers' Guild. It was a vast yet loosely organized institution that spread across nearly every corner of the world, but its management was formed through negotiations among various powers. Whether kingdoms, nobles, the Church, or other organizations scattered across the world, none would allow the Adventurers' Guild to develop a unified will. They had to ensure they each possessed a force of their own within this enormous yet loose organization. The Adventurers' Guild was made up of local Councils, with each region operating independently. Amber City's Adventurers' Guild, for instance, covered work within five hundred kilometers, including three cities, twenty-one towns, and over a hundred villages. The Council's members were controlled by nobles, the Church, local powers, and so on. They stood on equal footing with Adventurers' Guilds elsewhere in the world, retaining only agreements formed around shared interests. Soren now needed an Adventurer identity! Becoming an Adventurer required no qualifications or strength assessment; one merely had to afford the application fee. It cost a total of ten Gold Dalers—enough to support an ordinary family of three for three years. Every Adventurer identity began at F-rank and bore an Arcane Mark that could be verified at Adventurers' Guilds anywhere in the world. Of course, if one was strong enough, one could forge it! The greatest use of an Adventurer identity was as a pass, because many places were not places one could simply enter at will. This world had deeply entrenched regional attitudes. Population movement was also very slow, because the wilderness held far too many dangers. Many ordinary people never traveled farther than a few dozen miles from their homes in their entire lives. If one only moved about near one's hometown, such things were naturally unnecessary. But if one intended to travel elsewhere, two documents had to be prepared: first, proof of Freeman status; second, proof of Adventurer status. These two documents could eliminate much hostility and trouble! Of course, if one could obtain a noble identity, things would be even simpler. Pretending to be one was fine too, as long as one was not exposed. If exposed, things became very troublesome. Soren first needed to prepare an Adventurer identity for himself, then Freeman identities for himself and Vivian. That way, they could move freely through most southern regions. Without such documents, many towns and villages would refuse them entry! Even with identification, entering places that were highly xenophobic and strongly attached to local identity could still result in the Garrison captain calling one in for a talk, followed by a serious warning not to cause trouble there! This was true. Back then, many people had eagerly set out to seek adventure, only to be repeatedly questioned and investigated everywhere they went. In the end, they would even become targets of special attention! The moment one made any suspicious move, local residents would report it to the Garrison, and fully armed Warriors would soon come to have a talk. Unless one had truly experienced it, it was difficult to imagine just how much trouble was involved!... There were not actually many people in the Adventurers' Guild. It was dangerous work, and also work that made retirement very easy. A single accident in battle could leave one with injuries that were difficult to heal, causing one's strength to plummet. If one could not afford the costly treatment of Divine Magic, then it was about time to retire. There were countless registered F-rank Adventurers, but only one in ten could reach E-rank, while fewer than one percent could enter D-rank. However, if one possessed an E-rank Adventurer identity, had a clean background, and no criminal record, one could easily find work with a guard unit near a town. The income was not as generous as that of an Adventurer, but it was still a stable source of income—enough to marry, have children, and raise a family. After all, not everyone had the desire to adventure, and the risks involved meant gambling with one's life! The commissions posted here were relatively formal. Many low-tier tasks were privately entrusted to individuals and were not handled through the Adventurers' Guild. The lowest-grade tasks here were F-rank, with challenge ratings generally above level 5. For example, one commission Soren saw read: "A village named Snadata, within Lord Tenordo's territory, has recently been troubled by a group of Goblins, among whom Gnolls have been sighted. The village militia cannot contend with these Monsters, so they offer a reward of fifty Gold Dalers for Adventurers to eliminate them. Task rating: F+." This was merely the basic information on the commission. If one intended to accept it, one first had to weigh whether one could handle a group of Goblins and roughly several Gnolls. And that was only the beginning. Before deciding to accept the task and head to the destination, one had to investigate whether the enemy numbers were truly as stated. If they were, one could begin making a battle plan. But if the enemy numbered far more than the record indicated, one had to decide whether to abandon the task and demand compensation, continue it while asking for greater payment, or simply not care and solve the problem before taking the money and leaving. Soren still remembered his first time accepting a task. He had found two companions then, and the difficulty had been similar to this one's, but in the end, an Ogre had appeared. He had nearly lost his life there! Had the client not raised the reward by fifty percent afterward, he might even have considered putting a blade to the client. This was no joke! Soren had truly done such things before. Once, he had strung a client who deceived him about a task's difficulty—and caused one of his teammates to die—up on a flagpole, whipped him to death alive, then hung the corpse there for three days and nights! That had been his first story Aborigine teammate, a big Qibu boy with a somewhat shy smile. He had two younger brothers and a younger sister. Before persuading him to become a teammate and leave his home, Soren had promised his mother that he would earn enough money to repair their village after it had been damaged by flash floods, then return safely. He had been the only professional in that remote village, an outstanding level 6 Warrior. He had saved Soren's life once, taken three arrows for him, and ultimately fallen into an encirclement while covering Soren's escape. By the time Soren found him, Gnolls had gnawed away half his body, and not even a complete corpse could be recovered! That day, Soren killed many people. But revenge did not ease the pain in his heart. In the end, all he could do was send his comrade's cremated ashes back to his hometown. More than a thousand Gold Dalers in task earnings gave him not the slightest courage to face the sorrowful expression of a pitiful mother who had lost her child. He had once promised to bring that shy young man back alive, but what he ultimately brought back was only a handful of ashes. At that moment, Soren truly understood how Cruelty and real this world was! As a Rogue, he would never abandon his vigilance, nor would he ever trust anyone easily again. Because he had already made that mistake once! Perhaps it was precisely because of this that he stood out among countless Rogues and ultimately became one of the few Legendary Rogues among the Players!