Chapter 204 - Blackrock Depths
With the lifting of the ban, the mercenary groups sprang to business. Their objectives were more or less the same — begin warming up its members, and at the same time, commence missions to receive remunerations. Rhode’s Starlight was no different, naturally. Starlight functioned rather clandestinely because Rhode didn’t need to follow the points system in order to elevate to guild status. But Rhode still required to strengthen and polish his mercenary groups’ aggregation through various missions. Furthermore, he also needed the remunerations to maintain the operation cost. After all, money doesn’t simply fall from the skies, even for him. Since his mercenary group had grown in size, Starlight’s financial reserves began to dip.
Thus, Rhode concluded that it’d be better to accept hard, yet less life-threatening missions, and at the same time, having high remunerations. But his requirements were slightly too demanding…
“Why do I feel like it’s rowdier in here than before?”
Rhode frowned as he stood in the hall of the Mercenary Association while looking at the clamorous crowd. The place was literally in chaos. Waves of mercenaries crammed at the mission notice board, trying their best to seek out missions or requests that their group can accomplish. But this kind of scene wasn’t surprising at all. After all, many of these mercenary groups had been financially starved so severely due to the ban that they couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
But due to the previous incident, the mercenary groups had begun to follow the rules. They avoided dangerous missions and places that they weren’t supposed to go. They accepted ordinary missions with low danger levels, and some even confirmed many times with the requestor that they wouldn’t need to visit dangerous areas. Most of them accepted 2 Star-Ranked missions, leaving the 3 Star-Ranked missions mostly untouched.
That was good news for Rhode as no one would be snatching business from him. Now, he only needed to consider which mission amongst them would be most beneficial for his mercenary group.
Rhode had stopped considering missions that involved undead creatures because of the increase in numbers. Previously, as he had lesser people, his clerics could cover all of them with their holy spells. In this scenario, having an increase of members wasn’t necessarily a good thing. So, this time, Rhode decided to accept normal missions.
“Hmm?”
But at this time, Rhode was sidetracked by a note embedded with golden edges. On the paper, there was a clear, golden scale.
Marlene shook her head. As a mage, she knew how much the scrolls were worth. In the market, the cheapest magical scrolls also required at least a dozens of gold. And that wasn’t all, as there weren’ many mages who would sell magical scrolls, the quantity was very scarce. A big city like the Golden City might have more of them, but Marlene didn’t feel like there would be that many magical scrolls in a small city like Deep Stone City.
“No matter what, we shall see the situation first.”
Rhode shook his head as he brought Marlene to the counter and tapped lightly on the table. In no time at all, Old Hank ran out and displayed a warm smile to the two of them.
“Why, isn’t this Mr. Rhode and Miss Marlene? Are you two here for the missions as well?”
“Something like that. It seems like you guys are very busy.”
Rhode glanced around while speaking. The mercenaries were shouting and screaming as the secretaries toiled and recorded their accepted missions and mercenary group names.
“Yes, we are currently swamped. But this is great too as it has been a while since we had a crowd like this. This is what the Mercenary Association should be like.”
The busy Old Hank appeared as though he was rushing for time, so he stopped his casual chat with Rhode and went straight to the point, “So, Mr. Rhode. Which mission does your Starlight group intend to take up?”
“I would like to know more about that mission.”
Rhode pointed to the golden note on the notice board.
“A three Star-Ranked mission? You people in Starlight are truly competent. No one even dares to take up a three Star-Ranked mission, and there you go, taking one as your first mission after the lifting of the ban… buuuuut… then again, this isn’t your first time taking a three Star-Ranked mission.” Old Hank nagged and lifted his head towards the notice board. “I can’t help but recall the time when you guys came and took on a three Star-Ranked mission for the first time. To be honest, we thought that you guys were just throwing your lives away…”
Old Hank yapped endlessly. A while later, he finally realized which mission Rhode referring to. “Oh… So you wanted to attempt the church’s request?”
“That’s right.”
Rhode nodded his head.
“When did this request appear? Had any other mercenary groups accept this?”
“This mission… hmm…”
Old Hank frowned and tried to recall if anyone had taken it.
“It should be within the past few days. There shouldn’t be anybody else who had accepted it.”
I see…
Rhode went silent after hearing Old Hank’s answer. But at this moment, a hand suddenly stretched from the side and slammed on the table.
“Uncle Hank, I’ll take this mission.”
A voice sounded.