Besides the trade, there was another very important reason for our trip to Falling Rain City: to help Delisha and Anya obtain their Fiend titles.
On the way to Falling Rain City, she had already witnessed the large number of bandits. Although Delisha had the strength to kill them, having a Fiend Medallion could prevent many foolish bandits from harassing her.
Upon arriving at the Fiend Hall, the receptionist was no longer the one who had greeted Jason and his group before; it was unclear whether something had happened or it was simply a routine shift change.
"Your Excellency, two of my clansmen are to participate in the Fiend assessment."
The quiet, young receptionist looked at Delisha and Anya, slightly surprised. "Ten thousand Nether Stone each!"
Jason readily handed over the Nether Stone, and then proceeded to listen to the usual instructions.
Suddenly, Jason felt someone put their arm around his shoulder. "Hey, sweetheart, it's been a hundred years! Do you still remember me?"
"Lady Cheryl?" Jason was taken aback, then remembered that she was the leader of his Fiend assessment team.
Jason straightened up. "This is Cheryl, my leader from the last Fiend assessment; these are my kinsmen, Delisha and Lady Anya."
Cheryl nodded. "Oh, do the Highgod in your family take turns participating in the Fiend assessment?"
Jason's eyes darkened. "Kasabu was already dead in battle."
"Oh? I remember Kasabu was that Highgod from last time. Tsk, that's normal, he's Fiend, I might die on my next mission too." Cheryl laughed, "I saw Melita earlier, she went south on a mission about ten years ago, and she treated me to a meal before she left, she seemed quite grateful to you."
Melita is the Soul Mutation that Jason rescued earlier.
"Really? Then we probably won't see each other again."
Cheryl turned her head. "Murphy, which mission is this Fiend assessment?"
The receptionist took out a record and handed it to Cheryl.
"Interesting, a quest to advance to Five-Star Fiend." Cheryl glanced at it, then looked at Delisha and Anya: "I have a personal commission for you two, would you like to accept it?"
Delisha smiled and said, "Your Excellency, please tell me first."
"My strength is at the Four Star Fiend, and I want to participate in this mission to advance to the Five-Star Fiend level. You'll need to assist me, and of course, I'll help you complete the assessment. Afterwards, I'll give you five hundred Soul Gold Bead; we'll split the spoils from the mission equally."
The price of the Soul Gold Bead in the Netherworld is relatively low, at 30,000 each. Even for Highgod, the value of 500 beads is still not a small amount.
Cheryl probably thought Delisha was Highgod who had Refine Divine Spark, just like Kasabu before her, which is why she set this price.
Delisha transmitted her thoughts telepathically. "Jason, what do you think?"
Jason thought for a moment, "I hope I'm not so unlucky as Linley in the original story, accidentally killing a clone of a powerful figure at the Prefect-level? Hmm, that mission seems to be for advancing to Six-Star Fiend. Killing a powerful figure's clone shouldn't be classified as a mission for advancing to Five-Star Fiend."
"The task of advancing to Five-Star Fiend should not be too dangerous for you, clan leader. You can make the decision yourself."
Delisha understood. "I can agree to help Cheryl, but I request two more Highgod Artifact."
She doesn't lack these things; she just doesn't want to appear so easy to talk to.
"No problem," Cheryl said with a smile. "Murphy, register me for this promotion! Also, give me a list of anyone else who participated in this task."
"OK."
Ultimately, Jason also joined the mission.
"A batch of Violet Light Pearl Mussel belonging to the Mowo Clan in Northbone Prefecture was stolen by bandits from the Tungsten Copper Stronghold. The mission requires you to eliminate the bandits of the Tungsten Copper Stronghold and retrieve all the Violet Light Pearl Mussel. If you cannot retrieve them all, you are required to kill all the remaining Violet Light Pearl Mussel."
Jason assessed the mission as quite safe; it was a bandit suppression mission, so it wouldn't offend any powerful figure.
In this mission, there are five Highgod who have been promoted to Five-Star Fiend, but according to Cheryl, only she and one other Highgod are genuinely seeking promotion; the others are just there to help. Their objective is to kill the three leaders of Tungsten Copper Stronghold, all of whom are Five-Star Fiend. Whoever kills them will complete the mission.
Those who participate in the Fiend assessment are required to seize Violet Light Pearl Mussel; obtaining one is considered completing the task.
In addition, there are thirty One-Star Fiend like Jason, whose mission is to kill the fallen Violet Light Pearl Mussel. This is not a promotion mission for them, and each of them will be rewarded with 500,000 Nether Stone.
Jason said the mission was quite safe for another reason: the reward for Fiend like himself was only 500,000 Nether Stone. Such a low reward meant the mission was truly not difficult.
Delisha, Anya, and Cheryl sat together.
"Your Excellency Cheryl, is there a problem with this mission? Why do you look so downcast?" Anya asked.
"The mission itself isn't the problem; the problem is the people participating this time." Delisha pointed to the area in front of her. "That's Johanna, the daughter of our Falling Rain City lord. I have a grudge against her."
Delisha frowned.
"Don't worry, I only have a bad relationship with Johanna. I have a very good relationship with the city lord. That's because I'm Lord Lloyd's lover."
"Ah--this!"
On the other side, Jason sat with thirty Midgod Fiend.
"Brothers, the reward for our mission this time is a bit meager," said a kind-looking Fiend.
"Stop keeping us in suspense, we're old acquaintances, we know you're full of tricks," another Fiend said directly.
"Ahem, what I mean is, we'll join forces to capture some Violet Light Pearl Mussel alive, then sell them to those Midgod undergoing assessments, and split the Nether Stone afterwards."
"Great idea!" "I agree!" The people around him chimed in with approval.
Jason didn't care and readily agreed.
Although Delisha and Anya had asked him to catch two Violet Light Pearl Mussel to pass the assessment, he could just pay for one for each of them himself later.
"By the way, how many bandits are there at Tungsten Copper Stronghold this time? Let's hope we don't end up losing." One of the Fiend asked.
"I heard it was originally a large tribe that all its members turned to banditry; there were quite a few of them." Another Fiend glanced around. "There are eight hundred people participating in the assessment, so the number of bandits is definitely no less than two thousand."
Unlike clans, tribes are not bound by blood ties, nor are they simply united by the strength of their leaders and close followers. Therefore, the overall cohesion of a tribe is generally weaker than that of a clan, and the number of tribe members tends to decrease in the later stages of its development.
Two thousand or more Deity-level tribes are already large tribes, while two thousand or more Deity-level families are still small families.
The Rhine Clan has only surpassed three thousand in population; in terms of the number of Deity-level, it is still less than a thousand.
As for the matter of becoming a bandit, it depends on the official characterization. After all, wars between tribes are common, and it's quite common for them to steal each other's things.
It took ten months to reach the destination. We had already passed the southernmost point of Falling Rain City's jurisdiction and entered the territory of "Black Snake City".
"I didn't expect this mission to take so long. Those clansmen in Falling Rain City will have to stay for a while longer. Luckily, you bought that house before," Delisha and Jason transmitted their voices.