Appearances Can Be Deceiving

"What do you see?"

Sometime later, a refined-looking middle-aged man in a deep blue robe appeared beside Mo Tan, tilting his head with interest as he asked this question.

"I see an epic," Mo Tan said, glancing at the statue of Gary Alen, the founder of the Adventurers' Guild, before turning his head back to stare at the nameless adventurer statue with no face or any distinct professional or racial features. "And a mirror."

The man smiled warmly at him. "Well said. I feel the same way every time I come here..."

"It's not a feeling," Mo Tan replied with a slight smile, then shook his head. "Epics and mirrors are what I see, but if we're talking about feelings..."

He looked up at the Pioneer's Gate in front of him, large enough for an adult dragon to pass through with ease, and sighed. "Freedom and unrestraint, nothing more."

The man was slightly taken aback, looking at Mo Tan thoughtfully for a long while, but in the end, he said nothing, simply patted him on the shoulder, and turned to leave.

Mo Tan glanced back, slightly curious, only to find that the middle-aged man who had just been in his sight had disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if he had never been there at all.

He suddenly felt a little regretful, wondering if he had answered more thoughtfully just now, instead of subconsciously saying what was on his mind, he might have had a chance to get some hidden quest from that handsome uncle, like telling him to go to the Ten Mile Slope Mountain Shrine outside Anka Market tonight and act like a jerk...

And then reward him with a Spirit Sword Control manual, a set of Celestial Master Talismans, and a fairy sister with Nuwa Bloodline as a bonus.

"Crazy." Mo Tan rolled his eyes, cursed himself, and strode towards the Pioneer's Gate of the Adventurers' Guild, deciding to hurry up and register his identity first. After all, he was in danger of disconnecting at any time and couldn't waste time daydreaming.

As one of the largest Adventurers' Guild branches in the Northwest Continent, the Anka branch was always filled with a large number of adventurers of various races, genders, ages, values, and sexual orientations, which even gave Mo Tan, who had just entered the first-floor lobby, the illusion of entering a subway station during rush hour...

Although it wasn't to the point where he would be carried off his feet by the crowd if he wasn't careful, it had to be said that the sheer number of adventurers here was even greater than all the living creatures Mo Tan had seen in the game in the past two days...

A thin rogue with several daggers hanging from his waist, his entire body wrapped in black leather, and a mask that didn't even leave a hole for breathing, leaned against the wall as if asleep, yet still managed to exude a sharp chill.

A slender and graceful White Elf huntress with long, pointed ears and a longbow on her back was talking softly with her companions. Mo Tan keenly noticed that a faint silver halo would occasionally ripple around her. Perhaps beneath that agile and graceful exterior, she was also a priestess with a firm faith.

An elderly human mage walked calmly through the crowd, and all the adventurers around him, who also looked powerful, subconsciously made way for him. The unremarkable, ancient staff in his hand constantly emitted sparks, and his magic reserves could be described as unfathomable.

And there was a Half-Orc girl standing in front of a certain display window. Although she had a pair of gray beast ears and sharp tiger teeth, she remained silent, but that was definitely because this unremarkable girl had just completed some dangerous and difficult task, and could only reveal it when a higher-level receptionist came...

And there were many more people, just a glance was enough to know that they were all ruthless characters!

[As expected of the Adventurers' Guild...]

Mo Tan, who had just stepped into the lobby, gathered a lot of information through observation in a very short period of time, and couldn't help but feel awe. But before he could finish half a sentence in his heart, he heard a loud wail coming from across the room.

"Oww!!! Who stepped on my foot!" The thin rogue who had previously 'exuded a sharp chill' jumped three feet high, looking around vigilantly, then asked in confusion, "Huh? Why is it dark?"

Someone nearby patted him on the arm and reminded him, "Your mask fell down..."

"Oh, thanks!" The rogue quickly pulled up his mask, muttering, "Actually, it was supposed to be down, but I forgot to cut a hole in it when I made it. I was wondering why I felt so suffocated when I accidentally fell asleep just now..."

Mo Tan: "..."

Then he heard the White Elf huntress, who had a gentle smile and was suspected of being a 'priestess with a firm faith', muttering to her companion with a aggrieved expression, "But it's pretty..."

"Pretty my ass!" The Lizardfolk summoner next to her, his red face full of scales, turned green with anger, jumping up and down as he shouted at her, "Why did a ranger apprentice like you buy Aura Glitter Powder when you have nothing to do! It would be fine if you could climb trees! As an elf who can't even climb a tree, and can glow intermittently, are you afraid of dying too slowly!?"

The ranger apprentice shrank her neck, her little face flushed as she whispered, "Girls like shiny things, and the one I bought was a clearance item that was about to expire in the Goblin Secondhand Market, so it shouldn't be too obvious..."

"Goblin Market?! What doesn't those bastards sell with a bit of gunpowder mixed in!" The Lizardfolk was as angry as a chameleon, pointing at Mo Tan and shouting at the young elf whose expression suddenly began to panic, "How is it not obvious! Didn't you see that passerby with a confused look has been staring at you for a long time?!"

Mo Tan: "..."

Then he saw a commotion in the crowd around him, and vaguely heard people shouting 'run', 'crap' and other things. Mo Tan turned his head stiffly, and saw the elderly old mage who was 'unfathomable' walking towards him while gesticulating wildly, shouting as he walked, "Why are you guys avoiding me! This staff of mine was passed down from my ancestors. Even if it's been around for a while, it shouldn't explode so easily!"

"Get lost!" A Gnome priest who couldn't squeeze past the others waved his hand in horror and screamed, "You bastard who's about to be buried in the ground and is still just a novice mage! Stay away from me!"

Immediately, many people echoed him loudly...

"Yes! Stay away from us!"

"This old thing's antique staff that explodes everything but himself has exploded four times this month!"

"Four times? I remember it was three times..."

"You weren't even healed from the last explosion~"

"Uh, wait a minute, I'm a little dizzy, how did I get hurt back then?"

"He blew you up!"

"Damn!"

In short, except for Mo Tan, who was stunned by the blow and didn't react, everyone else nearby ran away vigilantly. Then...

The old man with extraordinary talent, who was still just a novice mage at the age of eighty, suddenly brightened his eyes and trotted towards Mo Tan, smiling happily as he ran, "Young man, do you want to team up with me? My Great Fireball is incredibly powerful!"

"Wait!" Mo Tan looked at the antique staff in the old mage's hand, which was constantly emitting ominous sparks in the air, and felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart. He quickly waved his hand and said, "Don't come..."

Boom!!!

A minute later, Mo Tan got up from the ground in a disheveled state, and pulled up the old man whom he had subconsciously knocked down just now, and sighed as he looked at his remaining 5% health.

Everything happened so suddenly. When a wisp of black smoke suddenly appeared from the staff in the old mage's hand, Mo Tan immediately snatched it away without saying a word, and then threw it into the air with the speed of a special forces soldier discovering a grenade rolling to his feet. Then, while prostrating on the spot, he also pressed the old mage to the ground, and then...

Then he was blasted away nine-tenths of his health, and the burning effect attached to his body burned away another 5% of his health.

So, under normal circumstances, the saying that good people don't live long is not without reason...

[It really freaking hurts...]

Mo Tan stood up blankly, staggered to the wall and collapsed to the ground, ignoring the dazed old mage and the countless gazes and applause of 'This young man is amazing, not afraid of death!', and only felt like he had no will to live.

Then he heard a 'Woof~' next to him.

Woof!?

Mo Tan turned his head and immediately felt himself pale. The aloof Half-Orc girl he had noticed earlier finally spoke, but it was just a single syllable, a 'woof' at that...

"Um..." The human girl behind the counter raised her hand to her forehead, then spread her hands at the Half-Orc girl in front of her, who seemed to have canine blood: "How bad is your common tongue, exactly?"

"Woof o(╥﹏╥)o..."

"Sigh, how about this? For task inquiries, you say it once. For complaints and such, you say it one thousand four hundred and seventy-three times."

"Woof?!"

"Oh, tasks and such, right. Taking a task or submitting one? Taking one is one 'woof', submitting is two."

"Woof (▽)."

"Hand over your handbook, let me take a look... You can only accept the lowest-ranked E-class tasks right now." The clerk girl handed back the handbook with a large bone drawn on the cover: "Go look at the task board over there, copy down the number once you've chosen, and register it with me."

"Woof..." The Half-Orc girl reached out her hand.

"Alright, alright, here's a pen, remember to return it to me later."

"Woof~~(?w?)"

The Half-Orc girl took the pen and ran off.

Suppressing the urge to vomit blood, Mo Tan, who had recovered a bit of strength, struggled to get up from the ground and walked to the super-unique clerk lady from before. He raised his hand and greeted her through the window: "Excuse me~"

"Hmm?" The other party asked absently while playing with her fingernails, "What's up?"

Mo Tan smiled politely: "I'd like to register as an adventurer, I was wondering what I need to do..."

Smack!

A piece of paper was slapped directly in front of Mo Tan. The clerk glanced at him: "Fill out the form, give it to me when you're done, and I'll give you a handbook."

"It's that simple?" Mo Tan was surprised. Although he should be able to take any more ridiculous things in stride at this point, McGre had mentioned before that registering as an adventurer wasn't difficult, but it did require a simple assessment.

Could it be that the information was outdated?

"In theory, we should do a little test, after all, we have some rules here." The girl smiled at Mo Tan, then pointed to the few charred patches on his body: "But I saw you survive that old geezer Jadeka's self-destructing staff unscathed, neither dead nor crippled. You should be qualified in terms of strength. After all, judging by that magical fluctuation, if you were a weakling, you would have been directly cremated on the spot..."

So cremation is also popular in Innocent World?

Mo Tan gave a dry laugh and nodded. After borrowing a pen from the other party, he looked at the not-so-complicated form, quickly filled in his name, gender, age, and other basic information, and finally wrote 'Novice Warrior' in the strength column to complete it.

"Mo?" The girl muttered while checking the level on the crystal panel beside her: "That's quite a unique name, could it be a pseudonym? Were you originally called something like Silly Cow... Well, whatever, the Adventurers' Guild will only recognize this name from now on, here you go."

As she spoke, she handed Mo Tan a thin, black leather handbook.

"Thank you~" Mo Tan thanked her politely, took the handbook, and then heard a system prompt in his ear.

[You have unlocked the Identity System]

[You have obtained the Identity: Novice Adventurer]

[Novice Adventurer]

Identity (Non-Unique)

Use: To receive or register E-class tasks at the Adventurers' Guild

[Note: Noob]

[You have obtained the bound item: Adventurer's Handbook]

[Adventurer's Handbook]

Bound, Unique

Use: To prove your identity

[Note: Replacing it doesn't require any procedures, but it's very expensive... very expensive... very expensive...]

"You're welcome." The girl smiled at him: "You're now a Novice Adventurer, you can only accept the lowest-level tasks. Although they're troublesome and a pain in the ass, they're safe. After completing a certain number of tasks, you can increase your level and receive higher-level tasks, but it's best to do so after your strength has increased to a certain extent. Our Anka Branch's annual death rate is already high enough, so for the sake of our bonuses, please be sure to pay attention to your own safety..."

Mo Tan was originally a little touched, but after hearing the latter part, he was only left with complaints in his heart. After thanking her again, he quickly walked towards the task board not far from the center of the hall, wanting to see just how ridiculous those E-class tasks were.

"This isn't in accordance with the regulations, Guild Master." After watching Mo Tan leave, the girl whispered to the air as if talking to herself: "You have to be responsible if something happens..."

Accompanied by a faint wave, the refined man Mo Tan had met at the branch entrance appeared behind the girl, shrugging his shoulders: "When have you ever been responsible when something happens? Don't worry, that young man is quite interesting..."

Martin Sloan, the Guild Master of the Anka Market Adventurers' Branch, known as the Star-Radiant Sage, chuckled softly: "I saw redemption in his eyes..."

Chapter 19: End