The five-story Adventurer's Guild Hotel is like a small fortress, built in the middle of Water Snake Town. To the east is the mayor's residence and barracks; to the west is a crowded civilian neighborhood, just like the adventurer's social status in the Disa Alliance. He is neither a wealthy noble family nor an ordinary half-elf civilian, but Located in the middle of the two major classes.
The door of the inn is open, allowing half-elf nobles and commoners to enter and exit. Of course, most nobles despise adventurers for their vulgar behavior and lack of education, and would not easily enter a hotel where adventurers gather; while civilians are generally afraid of the adventurers' force and arrogance. It is undeniable that the adventurer's inn is well-informed and contains many opportunities to change your destiny.
As long as you dare to put your life as a bet and participate in adventurous activities, no matter what the outcome is, you can always change your destiny and your own personality and habits.
Adventurers are fierce and cunning, full of passion, and very dangerous. Don't expect them to be obedient to the famous families. If they are forced, they will dare to draw their swords even when facing the dragon cavalry from the famous families in the highlands.
You must be careful when dealing with adventurers. They reject arrogant dignitaries and despise weak civilians. They only follow the survival rules that belong to adventurers. If they find that someone who intrudes into their territory is an "extraordinary person", someone will inevitably come forward to teach the intruder a lesson so that they can learn the rules.
It was afternoon when Victor and others entered the hotel. The hotel owner was reluctant to light candles in broad daylight. The light in the hall was dim and dim, and a few adventurers were sitting in the darkness. They all turned their heads and looked at the people who had just entered the door with sharp, wolf-like eyes.
They first looked at Victor, who was tall and slender, and then noticed Harvey next to Victor. As a result, these unruly adventurers immediately averted their eyes and chatted casually as if nothing had happened. It can be seen that Harvey's last visit to the hotel left a deep impression on the adventurers, at least it made them understand that Harvey was not someone to be trifled with.
Harvey's time in Water Snake Town was short, but his reputation was loud enough. The caravan stewards, thieves, and adventurers all mistakenly thought he was a level 6 Grand Master, and speculated that the identities of Harvey's companions were also extraordinary.
"Hey, man, where's the president of the Eckert branch? We have something to do with him." Harvey ignored the few guys sitting in the corner and asked the bartender behind the bar in a rough voice.
The young shop assistant smiled along with him, nodded and said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Harvey... The President of the Eckert Branch is out there and hasn't come back yet. If you have anything to do, just ask me."
Victor pushed Harvey away at this time, tapped his fingers on the smooth surface of the wooden bar, and said lightly: "Yesterday afternoon, when we were going out for an appointment, a thief sneaked into my residence and stole our things. . I plan to issue a reward through the Adventurer's Guild to capture the thief alive."
As he spoke, he tilted his head. Maddie on the other side immediately stepped forward and poured all the alloy coins in a money bag onto the bar.
"There are a total of 4,000 gold pagodas here, which are the bounties we paid in advance." Harvey raised his head and raised his chest, squinting at the dumbfounded bartender, and said arrogantly.
Coins mixed with a small amount of precious fine gold collided with each other and made a crisp sound. Experienced adventurers will be able to tell the subtle difference between these and the jingling sounds of ordinary gold coins.
Not to mention the bartender behind the bar, even the few adventurers sitting deep in the hall couldn't help but stand up and look around, then sat down again and listened carefully with their slightly pointed ears to the specific content of the reward.
4,000 gold pagodas is definitely a huge amount of money. If an adventurer can save so much money, he can almost consider retiring. The most important thing is that the task of catching the thief is so simple that it is not even a real adventure.
It's rare to meet a generous financial owner who is very happy to earn this large bounty.
The bartender stretched his neck, rolled his Adam's apple up and down, quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and said cautiously: "Sir Harvey, according to the rules of the Adventurer's Guild, a private bounty is placed. Regardless of whether the task is completed or not, we have to draw two from the middle. In other words, the cost of the task released by the union is 800 gold pagodas, and the bounty is only 3,200 gold pagodas. What do you think?"
What he said is wrong. The real situation is that only registered adventure groups are eligible to issue bounty tasks through the union. The greater the reputation of the adventure group and the higher the contribution level, the less the task release fee extracted by the union. According to regulations, Harvey must first produce registration documents to prove which adventure group he belongs to. The leader of the union must also spend time reviewing the specific content of the task to ensure that the bounty task complies with the union's regulations.
To put it simply, the bounty tasks released by the Adventure Guild are only related to adventure activities and are not allowed to target the half-elves of the Disa Alliance. Even things like hunting down thieves are not allowed to post bounty tasks.
However, rules are often broken, especially in the face of high bounties. The Adventurer's Guild always has ways to circumvent the rules.
Victor offers a large reward to the thief to retrieve the lost property. If he is rejected by the Adventurer's Guild, he can also ask the Thieves Guild for help, or ask the Water Snake Town Guard to come forward to solve the problem.
The thief leader can earn such a large bounty, the guard captain can earn it, but why can't the adventurers earn it?
Nothing more than catching a lowly thief
Regardless of who pockets the bounty in the end, if the Adventurer's Guild launches the bounty mission first, it will be able to take away the 800 gold tower fees first. This is a sure-fire deal.
Harvey waved his hand, raised his voice, and shouted: "Okay! 800 gold pagodas is 800 gold pagodas. We want to see the thieves alive and kicking. Don't fool me with corpses or half-dead people... Humph, I want to see it." What audacious bastard dares to instruct a thief to steal my master's things! As long as we find out, even if he is an official of Water Snake Town, I want him to look good!"
The bartender quickly divided the money scattered on the table into two parts, swept it into different drawers, and then took out paper and pen, and asked passionately: "Mr. Harvey, do you have any clues to provide?"
"The thief was a teenage girl named Stephanie. She once pretended to be a tailor's assistant and came to our rental house." Harvey glanced at Victor and continued loudly: "She sneaked into the rental house quietly. But they didn’t bring any money or anything, they only stole our identity documents and a very important letter of introduction.”
The loud voice echoed through the halls of the hotel, and Harvey deliberately wanted as many people as possible to hear it. In fact, Stephanie only stole some change, and the so-called identity documents and letters of introduction were purely false. However, Victor deliberately muddied the waters with this design. Even if Stephanie was captured alive, there would be no way to expose their lies.
It doesn't actually matter whether the adventurers believe what Victor and his party say. As long as they want to get a huge reward, they have to support Victor's position on the surface - to catch the thief for the owner, recover important identity documents and letters of introduction, and then collect the huge reward of 3,200 gold towers.
Victor used this to create public opinion, implying that the captain of the Water Snake Town Guard had deliberate intentions and ordered Stephanie to steal their identity documents. When the conflict between the town guard and Victor and his group became public, the adventurers, as an important armed force in the town, could just watch with a cold eye, without having to act as thugs for the town guard.
There are still several armed caravans stationed in the local area. Their stance is basically the same as that of the Adventurer's Guild. There is no need to work for the town guard and they can be regarded as a whole. Therefore, Victor, who is suspected of being a highland noble, and the Water Snake Town Guards, as well as the Adventurer's Guild, form a delicate balance.
Victor pretended to be a noble and wanted Stephanie in a high-profile manner to give the Adventurer's Guild and the armed caravans a reason to stand by.
Of course, his true identity cannot withstand investigation at all. If reinforcements from Fallen Leaf City arrive in Water Snake Town, this fragile balance will be broken, and the Adventurer's Guild will most likely join in the roundup of Victor and others.
Because of this, Victor judged that without adventurers joining, the town guards would probably choose to be patient and not attack them immediately.
This is enough, Victor only strives for time to move freely in Water Snake Town. In two or three days, he could fully evolve the cave environment beneath the town at different locations.
One after another, adventurers poked their heads out on the stairs of the hotel and looked down. Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Victor nodded and led his men to the third floor of the hotel, walked through the dark corridors, and came to a large guest room at the end.
The door was ajar, and Victor stood at the door for a second, then pushed the door open and entered.
Rhine, who had silver hair and bright red eyes, sat deep in the room and was not surprised at all by Victor's intrusion. He has a perception beyond ordinary people, and naturally loses the emotions that ordinary people find surprising. However, it is the most basic courtesy for a guest to knock on the door first, and Victor's intrusion did make Rhine a little annoyed.
"You didn't close the door." Victor confidently pointed out Rhine's mistake and turned to look at the room as if he was the owner here.
Rhine shook his head, sat on the chair, sighed helplessly and asked, "What do you want to see me for?"
Victor's eyes fell on him again. This majestic bounty hunter wore a set of leather armor even when he was alone in the room, completely covering his strong body.
"I'm curious, don't you feel hot when you are dressed like this all day long? Or do you have to be fully equipped like this when you are intimate with a woman?" Victor's tone was frivolous, and he turned sideways and let Maddie turn the two puppets. The beautiful woman led him to the front, let Rhine take a look, and continued: "Yesterday you said you wanted to spend money to buy these two female slaves. I brought them to you, but now I doubt that there is a bounty that refuses to take off the armor. Are hunters really interested in them?"
Rhine chuckled and said frankly: "No doubt, I am indeed not interested in them, including the information about the Wolf Shepherd Girl. I have no idea where she is."
Victor raised his eyebrows and asked: "So, you deliberately lied so that the guests attending the outdoor party would stay in the mayor's small garden... What is your purpose for doing this?"
Having said this, Harvey took a step forward and passed half of Victor's body. He held the hilt of his sword and stared fiercely at the bounty hunter across from him, with a very obvious threat.
Rhine said nonchalantly: "What I want to do has nothing to do with you...and you are in big trouble. If I were you, I would just find a way to escape from Water Snake Town."
This guy refused to communicate with Victor with a gloating attitude, and ignored the threat of force from Harvey.
Harvey had the urge to beat Rhine to pieces, but he was also wary of the opponent's strength. He couldn't guarantee that other people would not be affected by his actions with Rhine in such a narrow guest room. Victor was not angry on the contrary. He vaguely felt that Rhine's bad temper was to deliberately alienate others, and there was no malice in himself.
"Your target should be the Middletons... Then, I will give you a piece of information for free." Victor held Harvey's shoulders and said to Rhine with a smile: "There is something in the basement of the mayor's residence. A secret passage, there may be something you are looking for in it."
"Farewell."
After saying that, Victor turned around and left with his companions without even closing the door.
Through the open wooden door, looking at Victor's slender and well-proportioned back as he turned the corner of the stairs, Rhine's joking smile gradually disappeared, his bright red eyes revealed a hint of darkness, and his whole temperament became particularly deep.
(End of chapter)
