The Magician's Journey

  The continent of Aochen is a world full of opportunities and challenges, where prosperous businesses thrive, rare resources abound, but also fraught with various dangers, including untamed barbarians, ferocious demons, bloodthirsty beasts, and even powerful dragons. Evil undead sorcerers also lurk in the shadows. However, it is precisely because of these numerous dangers that adventurers have emerged to take on the challenges. To maintain the prosperity of commerce on the continent, strong guards are needed to protect merchant caravans. Obviously, such protection cannot rely solely on the military might of individual empires, so mercenary groups have also appeared. With the emergence of so many adventurers and mercenaries, institutions for managing these mercenaries have naturally arisen.

  The Mercenary Guild has a branch in every city on the continent, where adventurers accept and deliver quests, confirm mercenary levels.

  At this moment, I am standing in front of the Mercenary Guild in Tart City. Since I have never been on a long journey and don't have the common sense that adventurers should have when traveling, it's simply impossible for me, a novice who is traveling alone for the first time, to reach the distant city of Lalsen, which is located at the other end of the continent. Crossing the continent alone? I'm not arrogant enough for that.

  After consulting with Lila's father, the old village chief, I chose to become a mercenary. This way, I can take on some tasks in that direction, and at the same time hone myself, increase my travel knowledge and experience, which is a win-win situation.

  I looked up at the magnificent building of the Mercenary Guild with great admiration, it's a rich place, even a branch is so luxurious, two giant dragons guarding the entrance, with their teeth and claws open, more than three meters high, on the high steps leading to the grand main gate of the Mercenary Guild.

  People passing by me are all in a hurry, no one is as leisurely and carefree as I am, as if they are here to visit. Those who pass by me glance at me with a strange look, then quickly leave, making me feel very embarrassed, involuntarily quickening my pace.

  As I walked through the entrance, a huge circular hall came into view. The walls of the hall were lined with counters, behind which sat the receptionists of the guild. In the center of the hall stood an enormous bulletin board, surprisingly made from a single massive slab of clouded white stone. The magical display on the board showed a dense array of task items that could currently be accepted. If a task was taken, it would disappear from the board, and the board would refresh to show another screen of tasks after a short while. I watched as each screen displayed different tasks, and even after watching for nearly ten screens, I didn't see any repeated tasks - just thinking about it made me realize how many tasks there were.

  I silently observed from the side, and found that each receptionist had a crystal ball in front of them. When people saw the task on the bulletin board, they could also go to the receptionist to ask for detailed information about the task. The receptionist would display the details of the task on the crystal ball. A place like this must require many magicians to maintain its operation, showcasing the great magical civilization's strong practicality. Rare magicians should not be in short supply for the Mercenary Guild, right?

  I leaned in close to the counter, carefully listening to the conversations between the receptionists and the mercenaries. That's when I found out that the bulletin board tasks could also be seen by various cities across the continent, which means you can post a task in any city as long as it can only be completed in another city, and that task will also appear on the bulletin board of that city so that mercenaries from that city can accept the task nearby. The information about the completion of the task can also be queried at the guild for the first time. The mercenary guild's commission is 20% per task! No wonder the mercenary guild is so rich.

  After being shocked and amazed, I finally remembered the purpose of this trip. I walked up to a receptionist, who was a quiet-looking girl, seemingly easy-going, so I tried approaching her for consultation.

  "Hello, I'm Alex. Excuse me..." I mustered up the courage to flash a flattering smile at the girl and asked.

  "Don't say unnecessary things, don't tell me everything, I'm busy, get to the point, there are many people waiting behind." The girl urged expressionlessly.

  "Uh... I want to register as a mercenary." I hastily stated my purpose, and for some reason, I suddenly felt a pang of guilt.

  The girl didn't even glance at me, flung a form in my direction and said: "Fill it out over there and bring it back, next."

  I had just taken the watch in my hand, when a burly fellow behind me pushed me to one side. I looked at the big man and instinctively dodged to the other side to look at the watch.

  After filling in my name, hometown and other information, I hesitated for a moment at the occupation column. After a long time of hesitation, I finally wrote down "Intermediate Archer" with a flourish. I didn't fill in "Mage" as my occupation, mages are scarce professions, and few mages are willing to join mercenaries. I've heard Tissen say that mages generally disdain being ordinary mercenaries, even if there are mages who want to travel the continent as mercenaries, they would immediately be recruited by large mercenary guilds, and even novice mages can enjoy very high treatment. I don't want to be a mercenary for my whole life, I just want to practice myself in a low-key way, still as an archer, after all, it's not fake.

  After filling out the form, I found that girl again. She was still expressionless and processed my application. After verifying my intermediate archer badge, she impatiently collected a gold coin as the processing fee, tossed me a copper mercenary badge and a guidebook, and pointed to the bulletin board in the center, saying "Look for your mission yourself, next one."

  "Hmm, may I ask, what's required to obtain the silver and gold mercenary badges?" My curiosity got the better of me, and I asked the question despite the lady's impatience.

  "This profession's advanced title, completing two hundred level-one difficulty tasks can obtain a silver emblem. This profession's special title, you're an archer, that is to say obtaining the 'Divine Archer' title, completing three special difficulty tasks can obtain a gold emblem. The white gold emblem can only be possessed by those with a divine title, and in three hundred years no one has obtained it because there hasn't been a divine profession to apply as a mercenary. It's all written on the guidebook, next time look at the guide before asking." The beautiful miss rolled her eyes and repeated: "Next one, hurry up!"

  I awkwardly smiled and turned around to stand in front of the bulletin board in the middle of the hall.

  Before my eyes were overwhelmed by the chaotic information, I finally found a message in this ocean of information: "Escort Mission: Escort merchant Finster to Daling Port, 5-man escort team, missing archer (mid-level or above) one person, reward one gold coin, including food and accommodation. Contact location: Rosen Hotel, full departure." Remember the task number, quickly find the receptionist, take on this task, Daling Port is just my next destination, a five-person escort mission should still be easy. After the expressionless receptionist threw me a token and instructed "Hand over the token to the merchant", I left this place that made me feel suffocated and depressed with a big sweat.

  I sighed inwardly at the "big store bullying customers" and asked someone for directions, heading towards the Rosen Hotel.

  My mercenary career has finally begun!