Chapter 15: The Adventurers' Guild

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Valley Town, an ordinary settlement on the southeastern border of the Kingdom of Servia. Located inland, far from the sea, the few nearby rivers are blocked by mountains, making river trade difficult to develop. Moreover, the area lacks any special local products, and the terrain is complex with difficult routes; any respectable merchant caravan would not consider this place a stop along their journey.

Under normal circumstances, this small human settlement would remain as obscure as countless other villages within the kingdom’s domain. Forget kingdom history or heroic epics; even if it were completely overrun due to neighboring wars or monster invasions, it would probably only be mentioned in passing at some weekly court meeting by a relatively conscientious official.

Yet for now, it stands as one of the important towns in the southern part of the Yunclimb Province. The reason is actually quite simple—just one thing: the Mistwood Forest.

The forest is shrouded in a persistent gray-white mist, not a peculiar natural phenomenon, but caused by an overabundance of magical energy in the air. While this has given rise to many powerful monsters that threaten human lives, countless precious magical potions and hidden realms have also appeared, drawing wave after wave of adventurers seeking danger and fortune.

Given this, Valley Town, surrounded on three sides by mountains and easy to defend but hard to assault, naturally became the preferred place for adventurers to rest and resupply. The adventurers’ guild branch established here years ago has become a landmark that further attracts adventurers from the southeastern border of the kingdom.

Much like a “college town” built around multiple universities in a previous life, or the industries clustered near tourist attractions, Valley Town boasts a bustling street dedicated entirely to serving adventurers.

Bang—

A middle-aged man, drunk out of his mind and spewing curses, was thrown onto the street by two guards clad in leather armor. The scent of alcohol mingled with the noise spilling out from a half-open wooden door nearby.

On the roadside, a well-dressed, plump woman clutched a zircon necklace, arguing heatedly with a vendor. Beside her, a little boy gazed curiously at the burly men sweating inside the smithy facing the street.

“Hey there, handsome~” came a sweet, sickly-sweet feminine voice whispering in his ear.

Looking over, he saw two scantily clad, shapely women leaning against the wall, beckoning him with coquettish smiles.

Xia Nan was not shy; he smiled and nodded in greeting.

Apparently considered a potential client, his response immediately stirred a chorus of flirtatious chatter.

Yet he showed no intention of approaching, continuing to walk along the main road.

Seeing this, the women lost interest and turned to entice other passersby.

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As he walked away, the strong scent of perfume gradually faded in the air.

Xia Nan tightened the backpack on his back, his gaze calm and composed.

It was impossible to say he wasn’t tempted at all.

After all, this body was in the prime of human vitality. If not for the memories from his past life, shaped by the vast flood of information from the internet and modern society…

Back then, as a simple boy who grew up working in the fields and had seen hardly any peers of the opposite sex, encountering those “service industry elites” would likely have meant following them off without a second thought.

Having just arrived in this world and not yet settled, he naturally couldn’t entertain such thoughts.

Instead, he was more curious whether this world also had the kind of “embarrassing” diseases from his previous life, and, given the presence of supernatural powers, whether people’s preventive measures were similar.

“I wonder if healing potions are effective?”

Now removed from danger, everything about this other world fascinated him deeply.

Even a humble street food stall could inspire his mind to wander.

After walking and pausing intermittently for about twenty minutes, Xia Nan finally reached his destination.

It was a building of peculiar style.

Four stories tall—not particularly eye-catching on this street, yet it seemed the very center of the entire area, bustling with comings and goings.

Unlike the brick and tile houses he had seen, the entire structure was built from some dark wood, with intricate, natural wood grain patterns forming unique decorations. The eaves were even adorned with clusters of lush green tree branches and leaves.

From afar, it resembled a giant treehouse.

For some reason, standing at the entrance, Xia Nan felt a faint illusion of being back in the Mistwood Forest.

The building bore no signboard, but simply by watching the adventurers come and go at its door, one could easily recognize it—

The Adventurers’ Guild (Valley Town Branch).

Xia Nan shook his head, dismissing those extraneous thoughts.

He stepped inside.

Before him lay a spacious hall, decorated in a natural style brimming with the forest’s essence, through which adventurers of all kinds passed.

Drawing on memories from his previous life, he scanned the crowd and finally stopped at a counter on the right side of the hall.

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Behind the counter sat a short-haired young woman wearing the guild’s work uniform, her face pretty but bearing a notably listless expression.

She appeared to be working, yet her eyes drooped as if she might fall asleep at any moment.

Xia Nan approached and placed on the counter a coarse cloth bag containing goblin and bear goblin ears he had prepared earlier.

“Hello, I’m here to turn in a quest.”

The short-haired girl lifted her eyelids slightly but didn’t touch the bag. Her lips moved as she said:

“Team badge.”

“Oh, right.” Xia Nan immediately understood and took from his pocket a palm-sized black iron plate, handing it over.

This was the emblem of the Magi Squad, issued by the guild, recording the team’s identification number.

The receptionist needed this number to look up the quests the team had accepted.

Luckily, he hadn’t forgotten to bring this little token when cleaning the battlefield; otherwise, he’d be in big trouble this time.

“Mountain’s Bow?”

“Uh… yes.”

Xia Nan was momentarily taken aback upon hearing this—the official registered name of the Magi Squad.

After calling themselves the “Rotten Fish and Shrimp Squad” so often, he almost failed to recognize it.

The short-haired girl merely glanced at him, showing no interest in questioning why the other teammates were absent, as if such occurrences were commonplace.

The counter was slightly elevated, preventing Xia Nan from seeing her actions clearly.

Though curious how, in this world with limited technology but abundant supernatural forces, she managed to handle such time-consuming paperwork, he remained patient.

He watched as her hands moved a few times just out of his sight while she silently muttered some unknown incantations.

Bang.

Within five seconds, a pouch of coins was tossed onto the counter before Xia Nan.