The Mercenary Guild, a platform where players and NPCs can place orders based on their needs, is located in the Imperial City of Perth and opened to all servers at 8 am this morning.
Xia Yao first went back to her own guild to return the apology package sent to them by President Bei Ming, then left through a small alley and went all the way to the Mercenary Guild.
It was already 8 o'clock in the evening. Players were coming and going in the Mercenary Guild Hall. Some were there to register and accept quests, while others, like Xia Yao, were there to post quests.
Before posting a mission, you need to register with the NPC at the front desk. Since Xia Yao possessed a Baron Badge, the NPC promptly registered her. In addition, you must pay a membership fee, which serves as an operating fee for the mercenary platform—200 gold per person.
This price is not expensive at the moment and many players can afford it.
After Xia Yao submitted the order, she posted the photo in the order details and waited for the order to be accepted.
The NPC received her completed order, reviewed it, and confirmed it contained no violations before posting it to the mercenary system. This system allowed players to view the order remotely, but they couldn't claim it. Players could only claim unclaimed orders by visiting the guild hall in person and speaking with a designated NPC.
Guessing that no one would take the order for a while, Xia Yao didn't plan to waste time waiting, and ran towards Hughes Heights after leaving the Mercenary Guild.
After all, she holds the title of "Aldrich's Apprentice", so she still has to set a good example for the majority of enchanter players.
Miner Yunyan should also be in Hughes Heights. Xia Yao asked for her address and met her.
"How's the digging going?" Xia Yao walked forward with a smile and looked at the cart of iron ore behind Yunyan.
Yunyan's face turned red with embarrassment. She rubbed her hands and sighed helplessly, "It's still the same. The ore quality just can't be improved."
Her mining level has reached level 9. One more level will allow her to be promoted from an apprentice miner to a junior miner. However, the impurity content of the ore she dug out is still very high.
This time, the client specifically requested 200 pieces of iron ore, with no more than 10% impurities. She had originally planned to dig 300 pieces first, then remove the impurities. By carefully sorting through the 200 pieces, wouldn't the impurity rate be lower?
But who knows if it was just bad luck today, she dug for a whole day, but half of the ore was unusable.
The customer is urging her to deliver the goods before 12 o'clock tonight, and there are only a few hours left. She is really worried.
Xia Yao walked to the mine cart and picked up a few for identification. The results showed that the scope of use was limited without exception.
She thought for a moment, then turned to Yunyan and asked, "How do you usually mine?"
Yunyan was stunned for a moment, then picked up the shovel and dug a shovel under her feet: "Just dig like this."
Xia Yao saw Yunyan's casual posture: ...
Covering his face, he said, "Give me the shovel and I'll show you how."
Yunyan handed it over obediently and stood beside Xia Yao to watch.
Xia Yao bent down and slowly explained, "Many people think mining is a physical job. As long as you have the physical strength, anyone can do it. But the question is, what about the quality of the ore you dig out? How can we guarantee it?"
Yunyan listened carefully, thought for a moment, and asked, "Does it still depend on the technique?"
"That's right," Xia Yao nodded, gently digging the shovel into the soil. She didn't use excessive force like Yunyan, but her force was neither too strong nor too weak, just enough to keep the concave surface of the shovel firmly stuck in the gap between the ore and the soil, without any deviation. "Each ore that is refreshed is different in size, shape, and depth, so you can't use the same force and angle to dig. You need to think about what kind of force to use each time."
After saying that, he exerted a little force with his forearm, and a piece of shiny ore jumped out intact.
Yunyan opened her eyes wide and quickly picked it up for identification.
"Flawless! President, you are so awesome!" she shouted excitedly.
He held the ore in his hands like a treasure, with both envy and sadness in his eyes.
"Alas, it's a pity that I can't..." she said.
Xia Yao handed the shovel back: "How can you know if you don't try?"
Yunyan hesitated for a moment, but finally took the prop. She looked around and found that new ore had appeared in the place she had dug out before. So she walked over, stood there, observed for a while, took a deep breath, and dug the shovel into the soil.
No crushing feel.
Yunyan's eyes moved slightly. She stared at the ground intently, holding her breath, and turned her arms little by little to pry up.
As the ground loosens, the ore is exposed.
【Iron ore mined (without defects)*1】
[Proficiency reaches 2300, skill [Mining] reaches level 10]
Congratulations, you have become a junior miner.
Yunyan was stunned, joy written all over her face. "President! I succeeded! I'm a junior miner!"
I have always been thinking about when I can be promoted to the beginner level as soon as possible like my friends in the group. I didn’t expect that after receiving guidance from the president today, I would break through directly!
"Wow, President, you're so nice~"
How many presidents can be willing to use their own time to guide her, a rookie?
The joy of the upgrade did not cloud Yunyan's mind. Thinking about giving something to the customer in the evening, Yunyan explained it to Xia Yao obediently. After receiving the latter's nod and encouragement, she jumped up and went to dig things.
A smile appeared in Xia Yao's eyes. She took out her shovel and started digging with great concentration.
Her current [Mining] level is less than level 6. How should I put it? Although she is not a professional miner who has apprenticed like Yunyan, for the sake of her enchantment identity, she still cannot be too slow.
In the blink of an eye, in less than an hour, she successfully dug up 300 flawless ores, and for every 100 flawless ores she dug up, she would receive an additional 100 proficiency bonus. Her mining level rose to level 7 18.75% in one go.
After doing all this, Xia Yao clapped her hands. Seeing Yunyan still digging not far away, she did not disturb her and left quietly.
She still needed to collect bone particles, and the current progress was only 20%. God knows when she would be able to collect all 1,000. Fortunately, she was not in a hurry to unlock the ring dropped by the sea monster. After all, she had good equipment, enchanted gems and additional intelligence bonuses, so her output was not a problem.
Now all the level 30 maps are open. Xia Yao chose the Bone-Eroding Forest, which is closest to Hughes Highlands, and rushed there.
Just as she entered the Bone Erosion Forest, a player passed by her.
"You mean the Mercenary Guild? Okay, I'll go take a look. Thanks, Bugui Langren. I'll introduce you to some clients later."
The other person walked out quickly while talking on the phone, completely unaware of Xia Yao.
Xia Yao glanced at his ID and raised her eyebrows.
Sword Demon King.
A knight by profession, a former member of the Black and White Wind Shadow.
Why say "original"? Because Xia Yao discovered that the half black and half white skull badge on his chest, which symbolized the black and white wind shadow, was gone.
He was wearing it when he rescued Zhang Bu'an last time, but he wasn't wearing it this time.
In order to verify her guess, Xia Yao clicked on the friend add button, entered the search bar, typed in the three words "Sword Demon King", and then clicked on his personal information.
Sure enough, the guild column became blank.
Xia Yao looked at the Sword Demon King's quickly disappearing back, as if thinking about something. Then she withdrew her gaze and plunged into the map.
You can pick up a bone particle by killing an elite monster. In order to improve efficiency, Xia Yao switches to an exorcist poet, moves in a Z shape all the way, does not waste a layer of soul, and quickly harvests the elite monsters.
In just 15 minutes, she collected 30 bone grains.
Unfortunately, the elite monsters here were killed too quickly by her and there was no time for them to refresh. Xia Yao retracted her bow and prepared to move to another location.
Suddenly, she received a message from the Mercenary Guild.
[Your order has been accepted by player [Jian xx], please keep an eye on it]
Sword xx.
She recalled what a certain knight had said when he passed by her just now.
He also quit the big guild (of course, he might have been kicked out), was farming monsters in the level 30 map, and was in a hurry to go to the mercenary guild to take orders and make money. When these elements were combined, Xia Yao probably guessed something.
So he called up the mercenary system panel and changed the original 200 gold order reward to 500.
"Fuck!"
Even though there was no one familiar around him, the Sword Demon King couldn't help but exclaim.
The people around him looked at him as if he were an idiot, but the Sword Demon King quickly withdrew his gaze and clicked on the order page again, carefully confirming the reward amount.
Weird, it was clearly 200 when I answered it, but how come it doubled to 500 right after I answered it? Is there a bug in the mercenary guild system?
But no matter what, the jump from 200 to 500 is like a surprise from heaven for the Sword Demon King who is currently short of money!
A few days ago, he was kicked out of the guild by Vice President Bai Yexing for repeatedly challenging the guild's bottom line.
The Sword Demon King knew what he had done. Not only did he fail to complete the task of bringing the number one on the list into the guild, he even saved the life of the number one's friend. Therefore, when he was questioned in public, he did not make any excuses.
But his luck was also bad. When he rescued Zhang Bu Bu, there was no one from his own guild at the scene. Later, he was caught by someone and taken to court.
Well, nothing he said could change the situation anyway. The squinty-eyed president Hei Zhu Luo and the seemingly gentle but dark-hearted vice-president Bai Ye Xing were both intolerant people. So he took off his equipment, threw away his weapons, handed over all the gold coins he had, and apologized sincerely. Only then was he expelled from the guild.
Perhaps because he was an old member, Bai Yexing did not do anything to him later.
After all, he was so poor that he was not worth being targeted.
Fortunately, he had run errands for the guild several times before and met a blacksmith named Bugui Langren. With the latter's help, he was able to barely survive in the game.
Just now, thanks to him, I learned that the Mercenary Guild had refreshed a batch of new orders, and one of the orders had a very high bonus - a full 200 gold.
In order to grab this order as soon as possible, he ran from the Bone-Eroding Forest to the city without looking back.
Fortunately, the order was still there, so he took it immediately.
I don’t know which rich guy is so rich. The Sword Demon King glanced at the ID of the person who placed the order - "Yin xx".
Three words I don’t recognize.
However, what he didn't know was that if the IDs of the person taking the order and the person placing the order only have two characters, the system will add an extra x at the end to prevent players from guessing each other's identities.
The Sword Demon King was completely unaware of this. Instead, he happily took a screenshot of the order and sent it to his friend Bugui Langren.
Sword Demon King: Look at the reward, 500! I met a rich guy! Thanks, brother, for helping me again.
The wanderer who was packing up his stall over there clicked on the button to take a look when he heard the sound.
Huh? Wait.
This local tyrant...isn't he the one number one on the list?
The author has something to say:
Xia Yao: Hi~ It’s me~ヽ(▽)ノ
PS: The setting of the mercenary guild is based on my old book "The First Alchemist in the Server". Friends who have read it may find it familiar. Haha~
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