The slums were in similar conditions to those in White Elephant State, although they were twice as big.
Those slums were the main territory of the Silver Mercenaries.
As a Rogue, or as he was commonly called, a thief, Husseret had learned the skills including bluffing, coercing, and convincing, as well as other specialties in “communication” apart from stealth and anti-stealth skills.
Besides, he could trade intelligence in the Guild of Rogues here, which gave him more advantages.
So, it only took him three days to figure out the basics of the Silver Mercenaries.
Inside the hotel, the five friends were gathered in a room reading the city map on the desk. Circles had been drawn on the slum area on the left side as well as other places to mark the territory of the Silver Mercenaries.
“We’ll start from this place.” Roland pointed at the slums. “This is a world at the bottom level. Based on Husseret’s investigation, the Silver Mercenaries have been sucking the slums’ blood. At least one-third of their revenue is from the slums.”
Li Lin asked, not entirely convinced, “How much can they suck out of the slums?”
“There must’ve been a lot of slums that they took advantage of.” Roland continued, “Betta and you will wander in this slum later. Betta is always lucky when it comes to mission-triggering. I don’t think it will take long for you to receive a quest against the Silver Mercenaries.”
“Then what will you do?” asked Li Lin.
Roland was not joining them on the trip to the slums, but nobody thought that he would slack off.
“I’ll scout the Northern Dawn Woods from the sky and try to determine where the relics are mostly likely to be located.”
Brazil was perplexed. “That’s a forest. What can you possibly see from the sky?”
“I can cover it with my mental power. Though I can’t cover it all at once, there won’t be a problem if I hover above the woods for several laps.”
Li Lin clicked his tongue. “You do have a lot of tricks. I didn’t know that Mages could work as reconnaissance drones.”
Brazil said, “Why don’t you create a Mage character too? I have a feeling that the more Mages we have, the better.”
“Forget it,” Li Lin said without any hesitation. “I don’t think I’m smart enough. It will be embarrassing for a high-school graduate to play as a Mage.”
Everybody laughed.
Li Lin was the only person in the gang who never went to college. He joined the army after he graduated from high school.
They went down to the lobby of the hotel and saw three mercenaries standing at a corner. Upon seeing them, the three stood up, and one of them came close and asked, “Mr. Golden Sons, have you thought it through? Work with us. Our deputy captain has stated that we can split the profits evenly.”
They had been watching over Roland and his friends, fearing that they might sneak to the Northern Dawn Woods.
Actually, normal people would’ve left Pine Wind City when they were watched in such a way, but Roland and his friends were still here, which further convinced the Silver Mercenaries that they were hoping to find something in the Northern Dawn Woods.
On the other hand, the Silver Mercenaries were already turning the Northern Dawn Woods upside down, hoping to find the treasure in the forest by themselves.
But they hadn’t found any leads yet.
So, the people who were sent to watch over the Golden Sons dared not relax at all but followed the targets closely.
It was well-known that something important would always happen once the Golden Sons formed a group of five.
That was not a secret among the mercenaries.
Roland glanced at them and walked to the door, before he swooshed up into the sky.
A Mage who could fly… Those mercenaries certainly couldn’t follow Roland, so they could only watch over Betta and the rest of them.
Betta smiled at them and then led his friends to the slums.
Roland flew fast and soon came to the sky above the Northern Dawn Woods.
He swooped a dozen meters above the woods and established his mental power field.
Earlier, he had learned the trick to colorize the vision provided via mental power from a branch chairman at the library in the capital’s headquarters. He was inspired by the trick and figured out how to further expand his mental power.
In such a mode, his mental power couldn’t distinguish the souls of human beings from those of animals, but it could detect the terrain precisely.
It was exactly such a mental power field that Roland unfolded.
He hovered above the Northern Dawn Woods and blanket-scouted the terrain below.
Because Human Cannonball was very fast, and he was flying at a low altitude, he caused loud noises, and the Silver Mercenaries at the Northern Dawn Woods naturally noticed him.
The archers at several sentry posts aimed at him, but none of them dared to shoot their arrows, partly because Roland was too fast for them to hit, partly because they had been instructed by their deputy captain Spara not to attack the Golden Sons unless they were attacked.
As long as they obeyed the rules, the Golden Sons wouldn’t dare to do anything randomly.
The truth was that Spara was only half-correct.
He was right about not giving the players a chance to fight back, but the players did not have to attack him to take him down.
Roland’s eyes glittered during his seventh lap above the Northern Dawn Woods. He stopped and slowly descended after casting Slow Landing on himself.
Since his speed was greatly lowered, this spell could be totally used as a floating spell.
Roland perceived the terrain below for a while and then flew back into Pine Wind City.
At the same time, Betta left a message in the system. “Brother Roland, we’ve got six quests related to the Silver Mercenaries. Are you coming over?”
Roland: “No, you can take care of them yourselves. I’ve found the entrance. I’ll do some shopping and make preparations for our exploration.”
Betta: “Okay, then we’ll begin our operation.”
…
Sitting in the mercenaries’ base, Spara was somewhat ill at ease.
The Golden Son Mage hovered in his mind again and again. He didn’t know what the guy was up to.
But he didn’t think that he had done anything wrong.
After all, he had strictly forbidden his men from inciting conflict with the Golden Sons. All the mercenaries knew that many Golden Sons were branded with black leaves on their faces for ruining Winterwind. Those people were hunted by the Church of Light, the Church of Life, and even by other Golden Sons.
During the few months since then, the Golden Sons were clearly much more obedient.
They were not as unrestrained as before, and they would not threaten to kill anyone easily now.
The mercenaries were most sensitive about that. They could tell that the Golden Sons were really laying low.
The truth was that Spara wanted to cooperate with the Golden Sons if possible, as those people were really good at making money.
He had seen at least four mercenary groups who made a fortune after establishing connections to certain Golden Sons and completing their special missions.
The Dragon Claw Mercenaries in particular, who were his main rival, had cooperated with a group of Golden Sons named “Phoenix” on an escort mission. Though they lost some men, they got a reward and compensation of twenty gold coins.
Spara was quite jealous.
Why couldn’t they do that if other mercenary groups could?
But of course, the Golden Sons were very capable. They would never ask for help if they were confident of taking care of something on their own.
So, he had to make use of his advantages and force them to cooperate with him.
The five Golden Sons came to his Northern Dawn Woods, which meant that this place had something they wanted.
Spara was quite angry that he couldn’t see or touch the treasure when he knew that it was out there somewhere.
He had to play some tricks and coerce the Golden Sons into working with him.
The Golden Son in the sky left after hovering a while.
Spara was supposed to be relaxed, but for reasons he didn’t know, he was more and more uneasy, as if he had neglected something.
Time went by gradually, and Spara kept thinking in his chair. He hadn’t figured out what he neglected by the time it was evening.
When he was about to return to the city and enjoy some wine, one of his subordinates barged in anxiously.
“Deputy captain, not good!” The man wiped his sweat and said quickly, “The Golden Sons attacked us in the slums! Some of our brothers were killed, many were heavily wounded!”
Spara stood up abruptly and snapped, “How is it possible? The Golden Sons dare not attack us randomly right now! Are they not scared of getting black leaves?”
“I don’t know.” The man almost cried in fear under Spara’s fury.
“No, I have to take a look.” Spara stood up. “You ring the bell and ask everybody to gather. We’ll all go there and find out why the Golden Sons attacked our brothers.”
In a slum, Betta glanced at the quest menu and said with a smile, “Well, the quest ‘Avenge the Blind Girl’ is complete. Next, it’s ‘Granny Asana’s Fury,’ which requires us to kill at least two lackeys of the Silver Mercenaries and break the legs of ten.”
Holding his giant sword on his shoulder, Li Lin grinned hideously. “Roland is indeed smart and vicious. He was right that we could trigger quests in this place. I love slashing those son of bi*ches.”
Around them, many heavily wounded members of the Silver Mercenaries were moaning in pain. Most of the poor people had been scared off and were hiding far away.
At this moment, a skinny boy came to them from the wall timidly. His clothes were dirty and patched, and his hair was as messy as a rat’s nest.
He was trembling hard, but he summoned his courage and walked to Betta before he opened his hand.
Inside his dirty hand were three coppers. “You’re not scared of the Silver Mercenaries, right… Could you help me find my mom, please? She was taken away by them. It’s been three days since I saw her. Please…”
Would you like to accept the elite quest “Punish the Silver Mercenaries For Compelling a Female to Engage in Prostitution”?
They all looked at each other with a smile.
Betta took one of the coppers and said, “Buddy, we’ll accept your request.”
