After settling in Golden Port, Benjamin quickly adapted to life here.
Although this city is noisy, it gives him a long-lost freedom.
He rented a simple room and wandered the streets as "Jack" during the day. At night, he returned to his residence to study information and practice quietly.
After getting rid of Karl, the other party unexpectedly did not continue to make trouble. Perhaps he was frightened by Benjamin's methods.
Benjamin didn't pay much attention to this. Through Jack's memory, he knew that there were only "only" five "Legend" in charge of the entire Golden Port.
If nothing happens, then "Mr. Low-Level Adventurer Jack" will naturally not cause trouble casually, but if something does happen, it will be "Level 1 Formal Wizard Benjamin" who comes forward.
At that time, the problem will not be solved by killing two people.
Part of the reason why Benjamin let Karl go was because he wanted to try to see if he could fish.
He was a little excited in the first few days, but he didn't expect that Karl didn't take the bait, which made him a little disappointed.
But the effect of establishing prestige before was really good.
When he stepped into the "Drunken Dolphin" pub for the second time, the half-Orc bartender's face was less impatient and more awe-inspiring.
After Benjamin asked for a small task of collecting Magic Beast materials, the bartender pointed to the wooden stairs deep in the tavern with his stubby fingers.
"Hey, Jack, a ruthless character like you shouldn't just take those low-level jobs." The bartender lowered his voice, with a hint of compliment in his voice, "The second floor is for you truly "powerful" adventurers. There are fatter fish there."
Benjamin gave him a calm look, then walked straight up the stairs.
The environment on the second floor is much tidier than downstairs, and the light is brighter.
Various quest scrolls are posted on a huge wooden board. Unlike the quests downstairs, which generally reward a dozen copper coins to a few silver coins, the quest rewards here range from a dozen gold coins to hundreds of gold coins.
The adventurers here are also obviously more capable. Muscular warriors, agile rangers, and thieves with cunning eyes can be seen everywhere.
They were either in groups, discussing tasks in low voices, or alone, scanning the task board with sharp eyes.
Benjamin noticed that most of the tasks here are related to the dangerous Magic Beast lair, the exploration of ancient ruins, and the reconnaissance of certain dangerous areas.
Occasionally, an adventure team returns from completing a difficult mission, which always attracts looks of envy or jealousy.
However, Benjamin also noticed that legal professions were extremely rare, whether downstairs or upstairs.
Even in a prosperous city like Golden Port, the number of times you can see a spellcaster is only a handful.
Judging from Jack's memory, most of the spell casters were worshiped by a certain noble family, and would never appear in such a mixed bag of the Adventurer Guild.
After frequent visits, Benjamin established a relationship with a middle-aged adventurer nicknamed "Old Gray".
Old Gray is an experienced warrior, weathered and has a scar on his left eye.
He always liked to sit in the corner of the bar and drink ale in silence.
Among the group of generally low-quality adventurers, Old Gray is one of the rare "decent" people even though he cares about money.
Benjamin is also happy to get in touch with him. Occasionally he will invite him to drink a glass of good rum, or share some rare materials he discovered in the wilderness, and Old Gray will open up the conversation.
"Hey, Jack, you are really a weirdo. Those small fish and shrimps can't survive more than three seconds in your hands." Old Gray drank the wine in one gulp and said with a hint of alcohol, "But you have to know that the adventurer industry is in deep water. On the surface, you work for money, but in fact, our industry is divided into two types."
He lowered his voice, and his tone was full of emotion. "One kind is us, who fight for food and clothing in the wild for some gold coins. Even if you are good at it, you can only be regarded as the bottom in the eyes of some people."
"Oh?" Benjamin shook the wine glass. Hearing this, he was a little curious, "What kind of person can be considered the top class? Is it the other one you mentioned?"
Old Gray's tone was full of disdain. "The other kind - hum, are those big adventure groups. They are the black gloves that do the dirty work for the major kingdoms. You know that the tasks of the Adventurer's Guild are not issued casually. They are approved by local government officials. Especially those large-scale tasks, which basically involve strategic materials or politics. How can noble gentlemen just casually hand over important matters to some people who don't know the details."
Benjamin touched his chin. He really didn't know anything about this kind of thing, and Jack had no related things in his memory.
After all--:"Jack" was just a low-level adventurer before this.
However, although he spoke with disdain, he could hear a hint of suppressed envy in this guy's tone:
"So those high-level adventure groups are basically the private soldiers of the nobles and kings. They just use the name Adventurer Guild to act. Isn't this just treating the nobles as dogs?"
"Shhhh! You dare to say this so loudly, I'm afraid you're tired of living!" Old Gray looked around in panic and no one was paying attention to him. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and finally said, "But what you said is right, but... not everyone can be a dog. At least in front of us low-level people, he is also a high-ranking master."
Old Gray suddenly couldn't help but feel proud again. "But, black gloves are not so easy to cheat. Although they can make a lot of money, they will be the first to fall in danger."
"Just like now, since those "devils from another world" (wizards) invaded, those big adventure groups have been recruited by various kingdoms and taken to the front lines as high-end combat forces. This has made us small fish and shrimps feel nervous, and it is not that difficult to grab some jobs."
"That's a good thing." Benjamin nodded aside.
Old Gray was already a little drunk, lying on the table and pouting. "That's good, but the situation has been completely messed up, and even here is getting more and more dangerous---"
Seeing that the other party was completely lying down, Benjamin didn't say anything more, popped out a few copper coins to pay for his drink, turned around and left the place.
During this period, through chatting in the tavern, announcing adventurer missions, and secretly observing the words and deeds of town residents, Benjamin silently pieced together the current situation of Eloria Plane in his mind:
The first choice is the human kingdom, which used to be at constant war with the Orc Empire in the north and Elven Kingdom in the west, and was also turbulent internally due to noble disputes.
After the wizards invaded, due to huge external pressure, the human kingdom signed a peace agreement with the other two countries to jointly resist foreign enemies.
However, this peace is fragile, and there are still constant frictions behind the scenes.
Especially recently, as the wizard's offensive has relaxed again, the border friction between humans and Orc has begun to become obvious again, and small conflicts occur from time to time.
Elven Kingdom are relatively isolated. They live deep in ancient forests and remain highly vigilant against external invasions.
However, the interior is not monolithic. There are different factions that "close to nature and hide from the world to protect themselves" and "actively fight against foreign enemies and maintain the purity of the plane." There are subtle oppositions between each other.
The Dwarfs are very consistent with the stereotype of being as stubborn as ever, adhering to their ancient mineral veins and forging skills passed down from generation to generation, and maintaining a high degree of vigilance against intruders.
Their mountainside fortress is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but they rarely take the initiative and prefer to protect themselves against the invasion of wizards.
Orc Empire has always believed in primitive and powerful gods, advocating strength and war.
After the wizards invaded, they used their astonishing bravery to become the most direct and main source of military power to resist the wizards' invasion.
However, before Orc were willing to resist the wizards because the human empire promised to provide supplies, but since the wizards' offensive has slowed down, some short-sighted human nobles have begun to plan to ignore the debt.
The core that supports the operation of the entire plane is the system of gods.
Eloria has a clear division of labor among the gods. There is the God of Life, who controls life and fertility, the God of Death, who controls death and souls, the God of War, who symbolizes strength and conquest, and the God of Wealth, who brings wealth and trade, etc.
Gods other than Overgod are not native gods. Only through the devout prayers and dedication of believers and the continuous acquisition of Power of Faith can they directly send down divine magic and intervene in the mortal world.
On the day he first entered Golden Port, he chose a small church with a long history but little popularity. After pretending that he was a relatively devout believer, he began to make small donations for a long time.
He only donated a few silver coins at a time and showed a strong interest in the teachings of the gods. He spent half a month establishing simple relationships with the low-level priests and priests of the church.
Through some small talk, Benjamin gradually found out some deeper information.
For example, the gods are indeed highly vigilant against the invasion of wizards and regard them as a serious threat.
But what most gods are really worried about is not the fall of the mortal world, but the fear that wizards will rob them of their faith after they invade.
After all, once the source of faith is cut off, even if it is as powerful as a god, it will gradually weaken.
Benjamin sneered inwardly at this, which was completely consistent with the information he learned from Workshop.
This is exactly the "weakness" and "purpose" that the wizards deliberately showed during the invasion. They deliberately showed a strong infestation of the laws of the plane and a problem with the power of faith, in order to reduce the self-destructive tendency of the gods to a certain extent.
Let the gods, after weighing the pros and cons, not use Plane Origin at all costs to engage in a decisive battle to the death with the wizards.