The Adventurer's World

For the next few days, Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu were in no rush to enter the Dungeon. Although they were essentially penniless and relying entirely on their goddess to support them, Zhang Ruofeng was certainly not reckless enough to head into the Dungeon without fully understanding his own physical state. Consequently, for these few days, Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu spent almost every moment engaged in various forms of basic training. Xin Mu even hung a target on a tree; since Zhang Ruofeng was already well aware of her hobbies, she no longer felt the need to hide anything. Aside from Zhang Ruofeng, she truly did not care how others viewed her. Furthermore, through her observations over these past few days, Xin Mu realized that the people of this world did not place much importance on gender issues. Perhaps because the gods themselves were both male and female, the status of women in this world was basically equal to that of men.

Moreover, as this city was on the front lines of the world's wars, the number of female adventurers was extremely high. With groups like the Amazons and female dwarf adventurers present, women were not treated as fragile beings in this world; in fact, they were sometimes even more unrestrained than men. These past few days, one could often see female Amazon adventurers walking the streets in extremely revealing attire, most of them marching in groups with long blades and broad axes—a truly spectacular sight.

While the two took these days to give themselves a break and adapt to an era without the internet or electrical appliances, they also conducted some observations. Although most of the summarizing was done by Zhang Ruofeng, Xin Mu would sometimes provide insights from a female perspective on details that Zhang Ruofeng might easily overlook or fail to examine closely. After all, as a novice adventurer, if Zhang Ruofeng were to stare too intently at the passing adventurers on the street, it would be a disaster if he ended up in a conflict with some hot-tempered individual.

Over the course of these few days, through observation and Xin Mu's input, Zhang Ruofeng discovered several very interesting things.

First, the strongest Familias in this era were the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia, with the Familias of the main gods Odin and Amaterasu, as well as the well-known Freya, trailing slightly behind. Ancient main gods like the Jade Emperor and Shakyamuni did not seem to exist in this world; the only Eastern main god he recognized appeared to be Yama.

Second, the proportion of blacksmiths among the Dwarves was much higher than in other races. It could only be said that the Dwarves were truly worthy of being the race described in myths as living underground and being closely tied to minerals; in terms of forging weapons and armor, the Dwarves' prowess seemed to be a cut above the rest.

Third, the iconic feature of the Elves was their pointed ears. Their hair color was not uniformly golden; they came in almost every color, but it seemed that the purer the bloodline, the purer the color. Pure green and pure golden yellow appeared to be the highest-level bloodlines. Elves were very xenophobic; even within the same Familia, Elves generally did not walk with others. They also showed a high degree of rejection toward members of the opposite sex from other races, while their rejection of the same sex was relatively lower. However, very few Elves were able to maintain good relationships with other races. Since most adventurers wore their emotions on their faces, this was quite easy to observe.

Fourth, the main gods were truly very casual and lacked distinct characteristics. Aside from the fact that most were handsome men or beautiful women, Zhang Ruofeng could only identify them as gods through their wise eyes and bantering tone. Because his own goddess had too much curiosity about the unknown, to be safe, Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu tried their best to avoid various gods during these few days. However, sometimes even the peaceful old man selling potatoes turned out to be an agricultural god. Zhang Ruofeng estimated that the secret of him and Xin Mu being from another world would not remain hidden for long.

Fifth, although the Guild had main gods, all members of the Guild had no Levels; they were people without a divine Falna, intended to show fairness and a lack of interference in the lifestyles of other Familias.

Seventh, as a metropolis for adventurers, people died in this city every day, so the most prosperous businesses were of two types: one was bars and restaurants, where almost every night, drunken adventurers could be seen staggering down the streets. The other was the Pleasure District, which was said to have an overall revenue even higher than the bars. It was also the gathering place for nearly fifty percent of the Amazons in the city and the place the Elves loathed the most.

Eighth, bars were a great place to gather intelligence. As long as you bought a male adventurer a drink, most were willing to tell you their adventure stories. Although many parts were exaggerated, Zhang Ruofeng, who was completely in the dark about this world, still gained a lot of information from them. The Pleasure District was a place that must never be stepped into; both the goddess and Xin Mu warned him that if he dared to enter, they would make Zhang Ruofeng wake up as a eunuch the next morning.

Ninth, and most importantly, the various Familias were not united. Competition and hatred were everywhere, and vendettas and conspiracies were staged in this place every day. The Guild would stop and punish acts that openly incited war, but conspiracies and assassinations that the Guild could not judge were their biggest headache.

Can I take advantage of this? Zhang Ruofeng began to calculate in his heart. Aside from the fact that his goddess and Evan were close friends who helped each other in every aspect, it was easy to figure out the friendly and hostile relationships between various factions. The ones to be most wary of were those adventurers who sometimes deliberately provoked incidents or designed accidents in the Dungeon; they were the most uncertain factors.

"Absolutely cannot afford it." Xin Mu was currently strolling with Zhang Ruofeng down a street dominated by weapon forging. Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu were dazzled by the pile of zeros; Zhang Ruofeng saw a right arm guard made of crude copper, and it cost 5,000 Faris. There was no need to even consider it. Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu simply did not have that much money. As for a set of throwing knives with blood grooves, the price was 8,000 Faris. Zhang Ruofeng touched the 100-coin in his pocket, feeling very sorrowful.

"Update the status tonight; we start going to the Dungeon tomorrow." Zhang Ruofeng said to Xin Mu. After nearly a week of adaptation and observation, the two had gained a certain understanding of this unfamiliar world. The biggest problem now was still the lack of money. Therefore, the two going to the Dungeon had become an urgent matter.

"Oh? You two are going to the Dungeon?" The goddess was still enjoying her daily routine, but Xin Mu and Zhang Ruofeng could no longer wait. It was truly too painful to have the ability to earn money but look at the things they wanted to buy and be unable to afford them. Moreover, the ultimate goal of the two coming here was to be able to conquer the Dungeon. Although neither had specifically brought this up to the other, both knew it in their hearts; if there was a possibility of returning, neither would ever give it up.

"Then let's update your data first." The goddess smiled slightly at the two earnest people. "But I actually wanted to tell you from the beginning: Ruofeng, your and Xin Mu's training to adapt to physical changes might have failed."

"Why?" Zhang Ruofeng asked, puzzled. To confirm the changes in his abilities, Zhang Ruofeng had trained very hard these past few days, and even Xin Mu, a good girl who would usually never do any strenuous exercise, had been testing her physical limits with him. Zhang Ruofeng did not feel his training had failed.

"I saw your training: sprint training, dodge training, long-distance running, and even push-ups, right?" The goddess suddenly brought up the training content. Zhang Ruofeng had to nod, not finding anything wrong with it.

"Then did you and Xin Mu train to your limits every day?" The goddess asked again calmly.

"Could it be..." Zhang Ruofeng frowned. "Fura, do you mean that this kind of basic training also allows our strength to improve?"

"Although the improvement that can be gained without adventuring in the Dungeon is very, very small, and for many adventurers, they really cannot count on this method to improve their abilities, your skill 'Knowledge of the Otherworld Adventurer'—even you yourselves don't know what kind of skill it is, so I cannot guarantee that you haven't gained any improvement." After the goddess finished speaking, she dripped her blood onto Zhang Ruofeng, then printed the values on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

"This..." Zhang Ruofeng really hadn't expected this. "Strength H1, Agility I99, Dexterity I98, Endurance I100. Except for Endurance, the others actually grew so much! But Magic is still 0."

Since even this method could increase his strength by such a large margin, Zhang Ruofeng knew that his training tests might really be meaningless.