The destination is Prosper, the capital of Sivalier. The reason for going there is simple, to register as a mercenary.
The west coast mercenary union headquarters is well deserved to be located in the capital of the most powerful country. Even if they take a shortcut, the journey for the two of them will take at least ten days and a half, but Henry is not in a hurry. They moved forward unhurriedly, repeating substantial exercise and rest every day.
The sage hoped that Mira would have sufficient abilities before arriving at Prosper, and he wanted her to also register as a mercenary.
If this were known to ordinary adventurers, they would definitely make people laugh.
Mercenaries with gem badges - which are often referred to as brands - have a lot of privileges. Even the lowest green card has some permissions that ordinary people do not have.
The first thing to bear the brunt is the guild mission.
As a very large chain guild that can be found in almost all large and medium-sized cities in kingdoms and kingdoms, the mercenary guild has a long history and a large number of staff.
"As big as murdering the king, as small as helping with the harvest, as long as you can pay the money, the mercenary guild will award any task. Don't ask the customer, don't ask the reason; pay the money with one hand, and deliver the goods with the other hand." This saying is spread among the people on the West Coast. The words indicate the nature of the mercenary guild to a considerable extent. It is a snake oil-like existence that makes many people with a little money choose to entrust it to help.
The guild will take half of the commission fee, and the remaining half will fall into the hands of the registered mercenary who accepts the task.
Folks usually divide people who have brands registered in guilds into two types. Those who join the three types of war mercenary groups ABC and the three types of hunting mercenary groups DEF① are called mercenaries, and people like Henry and Mira are called mercenaries. Those who plan to act individually are called adventurers.
There are many benefits to joining a mercenary group. In addition to the benefits and privileges provided by the guild, the mercenary group also has its own rewards. The larger number of people allows them to accept tasks with higher rewards, and it is relatively safer to have companions to take care of them, which are not available to independent adventurers.
Other than that, the only difference between the two is their names.
The boundary between mercenaries and adventurers is very blurred, and the boundary between mercenaries with brands and ordinary people without brands is not particularly clear. In fact, many times some mercenaries with brands still return after receiving the mission. Will hire people without licenses to assist in tasks.
Therefore, most people call them according to their own preferences, and no one will deliberately emphasize their differences.
Despite this, there are still many people who become registered mercenaries every year. In the final analysis, it is these privileges that attract them. Obtaining tasks that are the source of daily livelihood is one of the key points. In addition to the tasks released by guilds that only registered mercenaries can receive, the bounty tasks in cities in various countries usually give priority to registered mercenaries.
So, for the sake of the convenience of the two of them in the future and the consideration of tempering the white-haired lolita, Henry made such a decision. However, this brings us back to our question above. How can a little girl who is only 11 years old and has never been exposed to combat before take just over 20 days to be able to pass the green card test?
Most people would laugh out loud after hearing this - you must have taken the mercenary test too easy.
But Henry is no ordinary person.
Mira is no ordinary person either.
Time passed quickly, and we walked a long distance across the main road. After seeing the vast fields of Inznil that had been harvested and the windmill just a few hundred meters away, I People entered a more secluded path.
The news of Avenella's victory over Sivalier began to spread crazily in the past few days. There were undercurrents among the people and the top leaders of the two countries, but the business routes that were no longer obstructed by Sivalier's army put profits first. Priority merchants resumed business almost the next day.
This made Henry admire the ability of the Sivalier people to block news, but also felt helpless at the slow response of the Avenella people.
Silvalier is well aware of the military deployment and deployment of Avenella, and they accurately judged the failure of the Golden Maple Leaf Army to assemble in time, which means that Silvalier has excellent intelligence in Avenella. source.
In contrast, the Sivaliers mobilized tens of thousands of troops to march on the border. Even if they did block the news and even massacred the merchants of Avenella, it was not just the Avenera people who walked on this trade road.
It is impossible for the Sivaliya people to kill their own merchants, so in order to prevent them from getting close to the nobles, they must have notified the domestic chamber of commerce early. Coupled with the movement of tens of thousands of troops, Chen Bing crossed the border just like this. A week later, the scouts from Wawasika accidentally discovered it.
There is a lack of effective means of communication between city-states, and there are not enough informants on the borders. Compared to Sivalier, the entire country of Avenella seems to be in disarray.
Perhaps after this battle, the inexperienced prince would realize these problems and start to correct them. Henry thought so, and the two slowly arrived at the border of Inznir.
Apart from supplies, they did not have much communication with the locals along the way. The Sivalier people's hostility towards Avenella is obvious now. Even though neither of them seems to be Avenella, they are not. It's better to get rid of this bad luck.
The land area of Sivaliya is quite large.
Unlike Avenela, which is close to the foot of Mount Tambur and has mostly mountainous plains such as Ecasta, the entire country of Sivalier is on a plain.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a plain of Ecasta that has been enlarged dozens of times. The Tambur Mountains that people can see from this side are still towering and spectacular, but to reach the foot of it, unlike Avenella, But you have to walk through dense virgin forest for a long time.
The parts of the Inznil province close to the forest usually have patrolling troops, and some places even have city walls to protect residents from attacks by monsters and wild beasts.
But on its sparsely populated western border there is almost nothing.
The Sivaliya people call the completely unexplored forest in this area Lapujo, which means "fearful." in the local language. And just on the afternoon when Henry and the others entered the Lapu Ruo Forest, the black-haired sage and the white-haired Luo An Loli were honored to meet the reason why it was named.
"Hooooo——"
A long and trilling cry echoed in the sky. The strong and powerful war horse almost fell to its knees when its legs softened. Henry quickly turned over and dismounted, and then pulled the two horses hard and hid in the woods.
"Huh-huh-"
A huge roar sounded, and Mira shivered and curled up in the sage's arms. The moment the roar sounded, she felt that her hands and feet had lost strength for some reason, and her whole body became cold.
Shadows moved across the land.
A huge green flying dragon with a wingspan of more than ten meters was holding a dead calf in its paws. The bell tied around the calf's neck jingled as it swayed. It was obviously the property of a local resident.
"Ugh..." Mira was like a cat with fried fur, she had goosebumps all over her body and she clenched her teeth. She felt like her legs had lost all feeling, and her spine could no longer support her body and she could only lie there. In Henry's arms, the horses behind him were so frightened that they didn't even dare to run or express any restlessness. If the flying dragon discovered them and wanted to come and snatch them away, they would have no choice but to be slaughtered.
"Forest Flying Dragon." Henry read out its name, and Mira looked at him: "Is it... is it dangerous?" She stuttered a little, and the first time she encountered a real dragon shocked the girl's heart. I couldn't calm down for a long time - even though they were only seen from a long distance through the gap between the trees.
The voice gradually calmed down and the flying dragon disappeared.
"It's not particularly dangerous." Henry shook his head: "This kind of flying dragon does not have the ability to breathe, and its claws and teeth are not very powerful."
"Huh?" Mira rolled her eyes at him: "It just grabbed a calf and flew over!"
"Yes." Henry shrugged: "It's just a calf. If it were its distant relative, a rock-dwelling flying dragon living in the grassland, then it would be holding an adult cow and horse in its claws."
"And one claw at the other," the sage added, and Mira rolled her eyes at him again.
…
The encounter with the flying dragon did not have a big impact on the two of them. At most, it only added some knowledge.
In fact, flying dragons are quite common on the west coast, and there are even reports of earth dragons attacking a certain village.
At the intersection of the Mobigas Inland Sea and the North Rica Sea, sailors often encounter young water dragons running in from the outer sea. These sea dragons, whose temperaments are far more ferocious than adults, are responsible for the sinking of at least a hundred ships and the deaths of thousands of people every year.
When dangerous and powerful dragons appear, there will naturally be people who are determined to fight against them in order to gain wealth or fame.
They chose a safer area surrounded by big trees at the edge of the Lapuo Forest as a place to spend the night. Henry and Mira, who had just started cooking dinner in an iron pot, met such a person.
With a height of more than two meters, Henry could only look up at him, and the solid muscles wrapped in scales and mail made this blue-brand mercenary look far stronger than what his brand showed.
What attracted him over was the light of the fire and the aroma of food, and as soon as this man with a loud Rodney voice sat down, he unceremoniously extended his hand to the iron pot. Mira naturally showed her dissatisfaction. After all, this was their food. Why should this uninvited guest take a bite?
"Don't be like this, little lady." He let out a rough laugh from his broad chest and said: "We are all travelers, so we should help each other."
The man who unilaterally asked for help from Henry and the others leaned the giant sword two palms wide to the side as if to demonstrate. The heavy sword sank into the soil of the forest floor as soon as it was put down. He glanced again Glancing at Henry's big sword, which was also leaning against the tree trunk, Sage's Claymore looked like a bean sprout compared to a giant sword of this size.
"Humph." The two-meter-tall man did not hide the contempt on his face. Mira glared at him angrily, while Henry waved his hand to signal for peace.
The sage's peaceful expression was seen by the other party as fear of his own strength, and his chest puffed up higher. After eating two-thirds of the food in the pot so that Henry had to cook another pot, he seemed to be satisfied with the taste of the food. The man began to introduce himself to the two amateurs he looked down on. got up.
"I am Bunir, a man who wants to hunt dragons." The tall Bunir patted his iron giant sword and said, "This sword is awesome! It weighs 15 kilograms, and it cost me It took a full Sivaliya gold coin to make it, but you must know that this is 2,350 Dannos! This is because the blacksmith took off the small amount because he saw my future."
Bunir couldn't put it down with the giant sword in his hand, and then he glanced at Henry again for some reason: "Brother, you look like a northerner. Let me tell you, I also have half northern blood. I like northern culture very much. ."
"Northerners should use big and heavy weapons to conquer huge monsters." He said, and then a sarcastic smile suddenly appeared on his face: "But brother, I'm afraid you can't swing it with your body. It’s a weapon like mine, hahahaha!”
He let out a rough laugh and turned his body to the side and patted Henry's shoulder hard with his palm, while the sage sat there and just smiled slightly. Bunir was a little confused when he saw the other party standing still, but he did not think about it carefully, but started boasting again.
"If you came from this direction, you should have seen a green dragon."
"..." Henry nodded, then scooped out a wooden bowl of broth from the iron pot and handed it to Mira. The girl took a sip, it was a little hot, she stopped to blow but at the same time she did not forget to look at her with hostile eyes. Bunir.
"Well, that's the dragon I'm chasing!" Bunir seemed to be unable to speak at a volume that could scare away all the creatures in the forest, and then spoke loudly: "I set off from Vasha, and then I met this good guy in the forest on the border of Isabel!”
"I almost caught it on the farm in front during the day, but this good guy can fly. As soon as I pulled out the sword, it grabbed the calf and ran away!" Bunir sighed: "I didn't eat it. Be full, otherwise I will definitely be able to catch up with it and kill it with a sword."
"Pfft--" Henry turned his head away in response, and Mira couldn't help but spray a mouthful of broth onto the ground next to her.
"So, little brother, and the little lady here, do you want to come with me and be my chef!" Bunir said again with a bright smile and a rough voice: "Anyway, you can You don’t have much fighting power, so follow me so that I can have enough to eat, and then my wealth and fame will be yours too!”
Bunir said this, and Henry smiled slightly.
"Thank you, no." Then he refused decisively.
"Hahaha, you are really discerning - uh - that's really a pity. Then you two should be careful outside. Let me tell you, not only these beasts and monsters, but many people will also stare at you like this. A layman, after all, not everyone is as friendly as me!" Bunir finally said this, then took away three pieces of bread and a piece of bacon, stood up and walked towards the other side.
The heavy footsteps, like a bear walking, slowly faded away, and Mira, who finally finished the broth in the bowl, rolled her eyes at Henry and let out a long breath.
"Thank you for being able to tolerate that savage." The girl used Avenella-like adjectives to describe Bunir as a rude ogre, but Henry just smiled: "Just a young man."
He said this, and Mira rolled her eyes at him again.
…
After a night of silence, nothing worth mentioning happened. On the 17th day of intermittent exercise and rest, the two passed through the hinterland of Sivalier and arrived at the outskirts of the royal capital of Prosper. .
…
Note: Classification and grading of mercenary groups: A=War A-level mercenary group; B=War B-level mercenary group; C=War C-level mercenary group. D=Hunting a first-class mercenary group; E=Hunting a second-class mercenary group; F=Hunting a third-class mercenary group.
Within the mercenary guild, the status of hunting mercenaries is relatively lower than that of war mercenaries, so they are ranked in the bottom three of the alphabet. But there is no conclusion on which mercenary group is more powerful. The factors that determine the level of a mercenary group are the number of people and its size. The lowest levels, C and F, can be registered with only 5 people, while the highest level requires 1,500 members.
Hunting mercenaries mostly make a living by collecting materials and hunting monsters. War mercenaries undertake various tasks of guarding, suppressing bandits, training new army recruits, and even contracting wars.
It can be understood simply and crudely that one is for Warcraft beasts, while the other is for humans and other civilized races.
