Chapter 15: Adventurer’s Association

Riverbend Town is an ordinary town on the southeastern border of the Sevia Kingdom.

Located deep inland, far from the ocean, the few rivers nearby are blocked by mountain ranges, making it difficult to develop any meaningful shipping trade. Add to that the lack of local specialties and the complex, difficult-to-navigate terrain, and it is safe to say that no serious merchant caravan would ever list this place as a way-point.

Under normal circumstances, this small human settlement would be just as obscure as the countless other villages scattered throughout the kingdom. Forget about kingdom history or heroic epics; even if it were to fall entirely due to a neighboring war or a monster invasion, it would likely only be mentioned in passing by some moderately responsible official during a weekly morning meeting.

Yet, as of now, it is one of the important towns in the southern part of the Cloud-Climbing Province.

The reason for this is quite simple and boils down to one thing:

The Mist Forest.

The grayish-white mist that never disperses from the forest is not some peculiar natural phenomenon, but a result of the excessive magical energy in the air. While this environment gave birth to many powerful monsters capable of threatening human life, it also caused countless precious magical herbs and secret realms to come into being, attracting batch after batch of professionals to come and adventure.

Given this premise, Riverbend Town—surrounded by mountains on three sides and easy to defend but hard to attack—naturally became the first choice for adventurers to rest and resupply. And the local branch of the Adventurer’s Association, established here many years ago, serves as a landmark that further attracts adventurers from the southeastern border of the kingdom.

Much like the “university towns” built around multiple higher-education institutions in his past life, or the various industries that flourish around tourist attractions, Riverbend Town has a bustling street dedicated entirely to serving adventurers.

Bang—

A middle-aged man, thoroughly inebriated and spewing obscenities, was carried out by two guards in leather armor and tossed onto the street. Waves of the scent of alcohol flowed out from the half-open wooden door along with the raucous noise. On the street side, a wealthy, plump woman dressed in ornate clothing clutched a zircon necklace, arguing until her face was red with a peddler; the little boy holding her hand looked with wide-eyed curiosity at the burly men sweating profusely in the blacksmith shop across the street.

“Hey there, little brother, want to come play~”

A sickeningly sweet, delicate female voice drifted into his ear.

Looking over, he saw two slender, hot-bodied women with very little fabric on their frames leaning against a wall, waving alluringly toward him. Xia Nan wasn’t shy; he smiled and nodded in greeting. Seemingly taking him for a potential client, his response immediately sparked a flurry of chirping and cooing from them.

However, he had absolutely no intention of approaching and continued walking straight down the main road. Seeing this, the women soon found it boring and turned their attention to soliciting other passersby.

As he walked further away, the thick scent of perfume in the air gradually dissipated. Xia Nan tightened the straps of his backpack, his gaze calm.

To say he was completely uninterested would be a lie. After all, this body is in the prime of human vitality. If not for the memories from his past life—forged by the massive influx of internet information from a modern society—and if he were still that naive boy who grew up in the fields and had barely seen a handful of peers of the opposite sex, he might have been lured away by those “elites of the service industry” with just a wave of their hands.

Since he had just traveled to this world and hadn’t even settled down yet, it was naturally impossible to consider such things. In contrast, he was more curious about whether this world suffered from the same types of “unspeakable” diseases as his past life, and whether the preventive measures people took—given the background of supernatural power—were the same as in his world.

“I wonder if healing potions are effective?”

Having escaped a dangerous environment, everything in this other world made him incredibly curious. Even a small food stall on the side of the road could set his mind wandering.

Stopping and starting like this, about twenty minutes passed.

Xia Nan finally arrived at his destination.

This was a building with a unique style. At four stories high, it didn’t look particularly conspicuous on this street, but it felt like the center of the entire area, bustling and incredibly lively. Distinct from the brick-and-mortar houses he had seen along the way, the entire building was constructed from a dark-colored wood; the intricate wood grain naturally formed its own unique decorations, and the eaves were even dotted with clusters of green tree branches and leaves.

Looking at it from afar, it resembled a massive treehouse. For some reason, as Xia Nan stood at the entrance, he had the vague illusion of having returned to the Mist Forest.

The building itself had no signboard, but simply looking at the adventurers coming and going at its entrance was enough to know its name—

The Adventurer’s Association (Riverbend Town Branch).

Xia Nan shook his head, throwing away those superfluous thoughts, and walked through the main gate.

What met his eyes was an exceptionally spacious hall, decorated in a natural style filled with the breath of the forest, with various types of adventurers walking by. According to the memories left by his predecessor, he searched the crowd until his eyes landed on a counter-like station on the right side of the hall.

Inside the counter sat a young girl with short hair, wearing the Association’s uniform. She had a pretty face, but her demeanor appeared exceptionally listless. She seemed to be processing work, but her eyes were drooped low, as if she were about to fall asleep at any second.

Xia Nan walked up and placed the rough cloth bag containing the ears of the goblins and the bugbear onto the counter.

“Hello, I’d like to turn in a mission.”

The short-haired girl raised her eyelids slightly. She didn’t touch the bag, her lips parting slightly:

“Squad badge.”

“Oh, right.” Xia Nan reacted instantly, fishing out a palm-sized black iron plate from his tunic and handing it to her.

This was the identifier for Maji’s squad, issued by the Association, and it recorded the squad’s registration number. The counter staff needed this number to look up the missions the squad had accepted. It was a good thing he hadn’t forgotten to bring this little item with him while clearing the battlefield, or he would have taken a massive loss today.

“Mountain Bow?”

“Uh… yeah.”

Xia Nan was stunned for a moment, then realized that “Mountain Bow” was the official registered name of Maji’s squad. He had gotten so used to calling them the “Stinky Fish and Rotten Shrimp Squad” in his mind that he almost didn’t react in time.

The short-haired girl merely glanced at him, with no intention of asking why the other teammates hadn’t shown up, as if she were already accustomed to such things.

The counter was slightly raised above the floor, making it impossible for Xia Nan to see the girl’s actions. While he was curious about how, in a world without advanced technology but with supernatural power, the staff processed work that required翻阅大量文件 (flipping through massive amounts of documents), he remained patient.

He watched as the short-haired girl moved her hands a few times in his blind spot, and muttered a few characters of unknown meaning.

Bang.

In less than five seconds, a coin purse was tossed onto the counter in front of him.