That's obvious!
Stone was furious: "I want to register as a mercenary!"
Fortunately, the mission hall was very noisy, which prevented it from attracting a large crowd. Nevertheless, people around still turned to look at the stone.
Stone continued to glare: "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a beautiful woman before?"
If it weren't for the fact that Stone looked extremely young, those mercenaries with their short tempers would probably have already rushed up and taught her a lesson. Of course, in the end, it's uncertain who would have taught whom a lesson.
Seeing the resolute expression on Shi Tou's face, the old man said nothing more: "Registering as a mercenary requires one silver coin. Do you have one?"
silver?
Stone was deeply depressed. She had two mountains of gold coins and a mountain of purple gold coins, didn't she?
She originally intended to throw out gold coins, but then Shi Tou thought that there was no need to show off her wealth here. So she took out a silver coin from her small pocket, which was the change she had exchanged when buying food and drinks along the way.
"Can you write?" The old man took the silver coin and was about to hand the stone a piece of paper, but he stopped himself and asked with great suspicion.
asshole!
Stone was really angry. This was utterly disrespectful! She was a well-rounded university graduate from the 21st century, excelling in moral character, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor!
Well, although it's just a third-rate university...
☆, Chapter 197: Aftermath of the Novice Quest
To be honest, Shi Tou's handwriting is really bad. Well, in her past life she was used to using computers, so naturally her handwriting wasn't very good. And in this life, strictly speaking, she never really had a proper education.
In the Dwarf Kingdom, she was at most a tutor for a few days, and then it became a hands-off approach. At the Imperial Academy, although she studied for several years, the problem was that the main course in the Aura Training program was practical drills, not theoretical learning.
So, as you can imagine, after Shi Tou filled out the form, the old man hiding behind the counter gave him a disdainful look without hesitation.
What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a beautiful woman who isn't good at studying?!
After paying a silver coin and filling out a form, Stone finally received a small badge and a small booklet.
The badge is a miniature version of the mascot at the entrance of the Mercenary Association, and the notebook records the daily rules of the Mercenary Association, as well as basic knowledge on how to hand over missions.
After quickly glancing through the contents of the notebook, Stone pinned the badge to his left breast. There was no other way; the first page of the notebook stated that to accept missions from the Mercenary Guild, one had to wear the badge.
Fortunately, the badge wasn't too ugly, Stone comforted himself.
After attaching the badge, Stone began to research what kind of quest she could take on.
As mentioned earlier, the entire mission hall was very large. Stone initially only glanced at it briefly before focusing her attention on the mercenary registration counter near the entrance. Now, she began to pay attention to the mission handover counter.
The mission hall is rectangular, located to one side of the mercenary registration counter, and occupies a very small area. The entire wall facing the door is covered with various missions listed.
After walking around for a while, Shi Tou realized that the counter for posting quests was on the left side of the entrance, while the counter for accepting quests was on the right, the two sides clearly separated. Thinking it over, Shi Tou realized she didn't seem to have any quests to post, so she walked over to the huge quest wall.
The quest wall was enormous, divided into several smaller sections. The quests with the largest font in the very center were the most difficult, with detailed requirements for the mercenaries who accepted them. Of course, the rewards for these quests were very high.
Aside from the largest central section, the other smaller sections are categorized by function. For example, there are sections for delivering messages or items, searching for specific materials, and exploring certain locations. There are also many sections related to the exploration of the inner reaches of the Crimson Forest several months later.
The tasks on the task wall were scrolling, and Stone's eyes started to get tired after looking at them for a short while.
Stone felt certain she would enter the Crimson Forest, but she hadn't yet decided whether to go in alone or have someone guide her. Furthermore, even if she did have someone guide her, she needed to figure out whether she intended to be an employee or the boss.
The Mercenary Guild imposes certain restrictions on the mercenaries who accept missions. For example, Level 1 mercenaries can only accept Easy-level missions, Level 2 mercenaries can accept Normal-level missions, and Level 3 mercenaries can accept Hard-level missions...
The highest difficulty mission on the mission wall is the legendary level, which requires ten mercenaries of level five or above.
Stone checked her rank. Well, it seemed she was only at the trainee level. Trainee mercenaries were rather pathetic, usually only able to take on tasks like delivering messages and items in towns, which made Stone quite unhappy.
Damn it, she's here to be a mercenary, not a delivery person, okay?
Back at the counter where he registered as a mercenary, Stone stood on tiptoe and asked, "Grandpa, is there any way to quickly increase a mercenary's level?"
The old man behind the counter was taken aback at first, then looked furious: "What did you call me? Grandpa? Am I that old? Let me tell you, I'm only 103 years old!"
O(╯□╰)o
"囧囧有神" (a Chinese idiom meaning "a look of disbelief or awe") is no longer enough to describe Stone's feelings at this moment. "Damn, you're 103 years old, so what if I call you grandpa?"
"Then... Uncle?"
The old man's anger did not lessen at all: "Uncle is uncle, why add the word 'old'?"
Shi Tou's lips twitched violently. Damn it, Grandpa Huo is only in his sixties, and he still makes us call him Grandpa. Does this guy really think he's that young?
With a need for his help, Stone suppressed the urge to curse and gritted his teeth as he said, "Uncle, I just want to ask you, is there any way to quickly increase my mercenary level?"
The old man gave the stone a deep look: "Accept the mission."
Accept a mission? Isn't that obvious?
According to the mercenary handbook, Stone needs to accept 10 delivery missions to advance to level 1 mercenary. These missions are actually quite simple, but the problem is, Stone doesn't want to do such tedious tasks!
"Quickly? Is there a way to improve quickly?" Stone asked again, emphasizing the word "quickly".
"A young girl like you should start from the bottom, gradually taking on tasks and slowly climbing the ranks. Sigh, young people these days..."
Seeing that the old man was about to start nagging, Shi Tou quickly made her escape; she had no interest in listening to an old man lecturing her.
Sigh, since there's no quick way to level up, she'll just have to honestly accept quests.
Sighing, I returned to the task wall. These days, without the sacred and noble profession of courier, there are quite a few tasks involving delivering mail and packages.
Since he was still a trainee mercenary, he couldn't accept the easy-level missions that required traversing mountains and valleys. Helpless, Stone had no choice but to set his sights on the small mission board at the bottom right of the mission wall.
This small task board lists more than a dozen tasks, all located in this town, and they look very simple.
Task 1: Every morning, deliver the mail from the town center to all the recipients according to their names.
Task 2: Every evening, wait at the town entrance for the horse-drawn carts carrying supplies and deliver the supplies to the town mayor's house.
Task 3: ...
Shi Tou glanced at the tasks; they weren't just tasks that could be completed in one day, but rather calculated by the number of days. In other words, if she wanted to be promoted to a level one mercenary, she would have to spend at least ten days on these tasks, and she couldn't make any mistakes during that time.
She had intended to accept several missions at once, since, strictly speaking, these missions shouldn't take a whole day if she acted quickly. However, when Stone went to accept the missions, she discovered that mercenaries below level three could only accept one mission at a time.
After struggling with the decision for a while, Shi Tou had no choice but to accept what seemed to be the simplest task—helping to transport supplies every evening.
Well, anyway, she has spatial equipment, right?
After lingering at the Mercenary Guild for a while, Stone noticed it was getting late and hurried towards the town entrance. He hadn't been waiting long when a line of cars arrived.
The beginner quest that Stone accepted wasn't about transporting all the supplies—that would be too brutal, since not everyone has spatial equipment. Stone's task was to deliver the supplies from one of the twenty wagons.
Apart from Shi Tou, everyone else who accepted the mission drove their own vehicles. Upon seeing the supplies arrive, they quickly went forward to unload them.
Stone stepped forward and found the vehicle assigned to his mission. The driver was dumbfounded when he saw a young girl. When he saw her pacing around without making any move, he became furious: "What kind of trick is the Mercenary Association playing? Sending a little girl to transport supplies is one thing, but why haven't they prepared anything?"
The other mercenaries looked up and saw a middle-aged man with a lewd appearance say, "Who cares? We all have to pay a deposit when we take on a mission. At most, this little girl's deposit will be confiscated."
deposit?
Stone blinked, and it took her a while to realize that the person was referring to the processing fee she paid when accepting the mission. Okay, she genuinely didn't know it was a deposit, not a processing fee. But if it was a deposit, did that mean she could get it back after completing the mission?
Thinking this, she looked up at the driver: "Is this the kind of supplies I'm supposed to transport after accepting the mission?"
You see, she didn't do anything earlier because she didn't know what to move. The mission only specified which carriage was numbered, without giving any details about how much supplies were involved.
"Don't you even know how much cargo we need to move?" the driver glared.
Stone nodded obediently.
The driver looked at the stone, speechless with anger: "Hey little girl, do you think you can just get a plate or something? Good heavens, your deposit is probably gone."
Is it really that exaggerated?
Seeing the coachman's distressed expression, Stone asked sadly, "Are these all right?" Looking around, he saw that the other mercenaries had almost finished moving everything, so Stone figured it must be correct.
She reached out and took the supplies, but Shi Tou didn't use the space in her ring. For such a small amount of stuff, the space bracelet that Huo Xiaoxiao had given her was enough.
"ah?"
Under the coachman's astonished gaze, Shi Tou had already stored all the supplies into her spatial bracelet. Shaking her wrist, Shi Tou thought, "Actually, doing the beginner quests isn't that difficult. Just a little stroll around every evening, and the quests are done. Of course, if I could load the supplies for ten carriages at once, leveling up immediately would be even better."
Swinging her wrist, Stone strolled slowly back to town. The town was actually quite large; at her pace, it would take at least half an hour to walk there. Glancing at the sky, Stone decided to treat herself first before delivering the food, since the mission didn't specify a time limit.
The stone, focused on its journey, was completely unaware that it had suddenly gained a tail behind it.
My period started and I'm extremely stuck writing. Please give me some encouragement!
...
☆, Chapter 198: Heartbreaking Good News
"Gaga, Master, there are some really fun people following you!"
As Stone hurried along, pondering what to eat later, he suddenly heard Baozi speak. Startled, Stone asked in a low voice, "What?"
"Hehe, Master, Baozi will never tell you that ordinary people don't have spatial equipment!" Baozi's voice was still full of extreme smugness: "A piece of spatial equipment is very, very valuable!"
Space equipment? Valuable?
Stone isn't stupid. Baozi made it so clear, how could she not guess?
Without looking back, Stone continued on his way as if nothing had happened, but as he walked, he gradually deviated from the main road and headed into the sparsely populated alleys.
Before long, Stone realized he had reached a dead end. Raising an eyebrow, Stone turned around and shouted, "There's no one here. Aren't you coming out?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a man appeared at the alley entrance. He took a few steps and stood in front of Shi Tou: "Little girl, you've got some nerve."
"It's you?" The man in front of him was someone Shi Tou had just seen before. He was the middle-aged man who had mocked him, and his lewd appearance left a deep impression on Shi Tou.
"Not bad memory either." The lewd man chuckled. "It's a pity he had bad luck; he died at such a young age."