Lin Yun silently pretended to be a taciturn person as he observed his surroundings, grateful for the helmet on his head. The eye section of the helmet was like the narrow bars of a prison cell. Lin Yun could see the outside through it, but the people outside could not see his expression or where he was looking.
Unless they were particularly perceptive. Still, perhaps it was just his imagination, but Lin Yun seemed to hear the sound of dice.
He had been running a tabletop game store for so long that he was extremely familiar with the sound of dice. As he continued looking around without showing anything on his face, a number appeared in his mind.
"D20+3+2=17, success."
In an instant, Lin Yun's hearing seemed to grow stronger. He could hear everything around him, even some relatively distant sounds. It was truly miraculous.
It seemed that this real-life Dungeons & Dragons game was not simply making them role-play as Adventurers. It had even incorporated the dice system. He just did not know whether the dice system in this world would function like the so-called weapon of causality.
In the Dungeons & Dragons world, anything could be decided with a roll. For example, if you wanted to persuade someone or ask them to lower their price, you could make a Persuasion check. Generally, the DM would set a DC, or difficulty class, according to the difficulty. Once a twenty-sided die, the D20, was rolled, its result would be added to the attributes and proficiency on the character sheet. If the total passed the difficulty class, you could successfully persuade the other person.
For example, Lin Yun was trying to determine how difficult it was to notice his surroundings. He did not know, since he was not the DM, but his D20 roll had produced a 17. Adding his naturally high Wisdom of 3 and the +2 proficiency bonus from his Priest class, he had a total of 22. A normal difficulty class was generally 15 or higher, while hearing something clearly in a somewhat noisy place from a considerable distance required 18 or higher. Generally speaking, exceeding the DC by 5 would grant an additional bonus.
He just did not know whether he had exceeded the DC by 5 this time. At the very least, Lin Yun could now hear quite a few things.
"Hey, why am I still wearing clothes like these? Weren't we supposed to go adventuring?" This guy probably thought entering the D&D live-action game world would automatically change his outfit.
"What on earth is going on? Where is this place?" This person clearly had not figured out the situation yet. Hadn't the introduction already said it was the Adventurer's Guild?
According to Mosaic, everyone who had come here should have some understanding of D&D games. However, the phrase "some understanding" covered a wide range. There were complete newcomers who had only just started, veterans who no longer played, and people who were merely interested enough to learn a little—people who could not even be considered newcomers.
That was why things had turned out this way. And it was not only those who had failed to understand the situation.
There were also conversations among what should have been the native Adventurers of this world. Perhaps because Lin Yun was human and had automatically learned the Common Tongue, all the languages here were directly converted into languages Lin Yun understood, such as Chinese. "How are the Manticores beyond the mountains?" "If you want to earn more money, you still have to visit places like those ruins." "Ahhh, aren't there any easier quests?" "I heard a Demon Lord recently appeared in the capital." "If it's only a Lesser Demon, I dare take it on." Things like that.
After all, Adventurers had to make a living. Places like Adventurer's Guilds generally had a great deal of information circulating through them, which was why Adventurers liked coming to such guilds.
A Demon Lord? Hearing both Demon Lords and Lesser Demons mentioned, Lin Yun wondered if this really was a high-magic world. Even Demon Lords in a high-magic world were not necessarily absurdly powerful, but words like "high-magic world," "Demon Lord," and "Lesser Demon" were dangerous enough.
Just then, Lin Yun suddenly noticed someone among the crowd, behind the counter that should have belonged to the Adventurer's Guild's receptionists. She had a head of orange hair in thick braids and wore a black attendant's uniform. She had a sweet face and intimidating headlights. "Next, please."
Standing before the receptionist was a young woman holding a tin staff as tall as she was. She wore a priestess's robe that looked, at a glance, to have extremely "thick" armor, yet was almost like a qipao, displaying her figure to the fullest.
At that moment, she was clutching her staff tightly and said nervously, "Um... I—I want to become an Adventurer."
Come to think of it, Lin Yun had originally considered wearing a Priest's robe since he was a Priest. But after thinking it over, he decided that a Priest's robe would be far too troublesome for adventuring. It definitely was not because a Priest's robe cost five Gold Coins. Definitely not. Was Lin Yun the sort of stingy person who would care about that?
"You... are you sure?" Looking at the girl who was obviously a complete beginner and an utterly "adorable" newcomer, the receptionist's expression became somewhat complicated.
"Y-yes, I'm sure." Although the little newcomer tried to make a determined gesture, it was obvious that she was far too nervous.
"Then... all right." The receptionist could only smile. As a receptionist, unless there was some special reason, she had no way to directly refuse someone who wanted to become an Adventurer. But what she intended to do secretly was another matter. As she spoke, she took out a form. "Can you write?"
"I can. I learned a little at the Temple." Still speaking in a trembling voice, the little newcomer hugged her tin staff tightly.
Looking at this pair, Lin Yun felt a vague sense of familiarity. Then his brows tightened as he realized something was wrong. If he remembered correctly, D&D games often did not state the Main Quest directly. More often, they were open-ended, allowing players to explore while completing the quest. The DM would guide them, but would not interfere with their choices.
Lin Yun had experienced this many times. He would prepare an extremely long Main Quest, only for a group of players to run off to some unknown corner. He could only open another route and then try to lead them back to the Main Quest.
After all, players did not like proceeding step by step. The moment they heard they had to fight Gnolls, even if they knew it might be the Main Quest or contain some major plot, they would say... "Wait, let me go kill some minor monsters first." Some would even end up focusing on living rather than adventuring: "Wait, let me earn enough money to buy some good equipment first."
Of course, for some particularly excessive people, he would simply give them a BAD END.
In any case, looking at that familiar-looking back, Lin Yun thought that since he had appeared inside the Adventurer's Guild, there could be no harm in first registering as an official Adventurer.
With that thought, Lin Yun stood up, holding the Lantern Staff, and walked over to the little newcomer. His scale armor produced a series of rubbing sounds as he moved. The little newcomer instinctively turned around in alarm and looked at Lin Yun. "C-could I ask what you want?"
Now that he thought about it, Lin Yun's 1.8-meter height, combined with his cloak, full-cover helmet, and rustling scale armor, was overwhelmingly intimidating to the little newcomer, who was only around 1.6 meters tall. She especially could not shake the feeling that this terrifying man was staring at her.
And in fact, Lin Yun was staring at the little newcomer. No wonder she had seemed so familiar. Wasn't this little newcomer the Goddess Priestess from the Goblin Slayer novel? Yes, the nameless Goddess Priestess. Well, that was common in D&D games too: "Hey, warrior," or "Hey, wizard," and so on. Ahem, there was no need to focus on the details.
It was precisely because he had realized the Goddess Priestess's identity that Lin Yun had spaced out for a moment.
Meanwhile, seeing Lin Yun's appearance, the receptionist seemed to let out a sigh of relief. "You're here, Mr. Silent."
"You know me?" Lin Yun was slightly stunned. Then, in a deep and concise tone, he asked, "Why?" Silent was the name on his current Priest character sheet.
"Yes. Everyone knows that Mr. Silent often helps people without asking for anything in return. Have you come to bring in a newcomer this time? As it happens, this young lady is a Goddess Priestess. We would be extremely grateful if you could help her." The receptionist spoke with a broad smile.
"?????" If he had not been wearing a helmet, Lin Yun would probably have had a whole string of black question marks over his head. After sorting through his thoughts, however, he more or less understood what was happening. It was probably because of his background.
Many people playing D&D now ignored the importance of backgrounds. Often, backgrounds were treated as a source of abilities or convenience. Only someone as earnest as Lin Yun, and perhaps a little obsessive, would write a character's backstory from birth all the way to the present in painstaking detail.
In the background, Silent was taciturn and liked helping others without asking for anything in return. Well, strictly speaking, it was not entirely without asking for anything. Silent generally required those he helped to pray to the Eye of Omniscience as thanks. As a believer of the Eye of Omniscience, Silent naturally considered this a suitable form of gratitude for his assistance. More importantly, the character sheet named Silent was actually an extremely proud person. He believed that when people thanked him, he experienced a subtle, superior sort of pleasure. That was why he went around helping people. It was his flaw.
And since Lin Yun's current Silent was a devout Priest, Lin Yun naturally had to play the part properly.
While Lin Yun was lost in thought, the receptionist took his silence as agreement. It fit Silent's personality perfectly, so the receptionist began explaining the various matters concerning Adventurers.
Before you continue