As far as Dove knows, apart from her group and Longjing Tea’s who was the only wizard among the players, the other party who received the special mission would be Delicious Wind Goose’s group.
But their mission wasn’t to collect materials or explore the details of changing one’s profession.
Instead, they were heading to the capital for adventure.
Annan wasn’t stupid. Since he had the players to scout the path, he wouldn’t be doing those risky deeds himself.
Annan gave a mission to Delicious Wind Goose to sneak into the capital and collect information before he arrived. After that, he would release new tasks at any time according to the situation. Anyway, after the “update”, he could already delegate missions remotely.
This was the first time Annan used this feature.
The team was in the setting of an elite squad consisting of four people, but there seemed to be a small issue.
Besides the Delicious Wind Goose being in charge of communication and Jiu Er being proficient in combat, the remaining two players were “Van Helsing” and “Yokai Sensei”, who had joined the Silver Sire Church.
They had only mastered one divine art because they had only acquired one holy light engraving, which was usually provided to the newcomers upon joining the teaching.
But the great thing about the two of them was that they both wisely spent their only holy light engraving on buying the divine art [Eternal Youth], the only healing divine art. As a result, they became the rare healing profession with a status comparable to a national treasure.
Indeed, there were basically no players in this batch who could heal except the two.
Van Helsing was a balanced swordsman who prioritized more in the Agility attribute. His next goal was to complete the mission from the church. After getting the next holy light engraving, he would learn [Sharp Object]. Then, the next profession advancement for him would probably be the agile [Fencer] or [Duelist].
Indeed, Van Helsing was still a Level 10 Swordsman, with his secondary profession being a priest. He failed to meet the advanced requirements in his previous dungeon instance.
On the other hand, Yokai Sensei had attained advancement and became a Transcended.
As the healing tank majored in physique and parry, he planned to follow the path of healing.
His upcoming profession after advancement would be “a knight specialized in shield”. It was also the only profession advancement that allowed the players to wear plate armor or heavy armor and focused on shields.
If it weren’t for his ability to heal, he was actually the most orthodox tank.
In terms of defense alone, Yiyi’s stats were worse than him.
But Yiyi’s advantage was that she was the only tank proficient in agility — a defender who utilized parry with no armor and no shield.
On the other hand, Yokai Sensei had to wear his heavy armor and put on a shield on his back. This set of equipment was purchased with the accumulated affection ratings of both him and Delicious Wind Goose.
To carry these loads, they needed a horse, which Annan sponsored.
In the end, Yokai Sensei being the only healer and the stable tank among the players, was assigned to the Goose’s elite squad.
Then, the squad was complemented with the addition of a flexible [Swordmaster] who had learned three sets of swordsmanship (Basic Swordsmanship, Bodyguard Swordsmanship, and Military Swordsmanship) and also a [Berserker] who had the most serious burst damage.
Annan was quite invested in this squad.
The rest of the players couldn’t help but complain: Those are pretty extreme cases.
But as long as they knew about Jiu Er’s fighting style, they would realize that having two healers might not be enough.
The “spell casting material” that Annan prepared for the squad alone was worth 40 silver coins.
There were travel expenses and also healing potions.
In the beginning, Delicious Wind Goose felt that the money was quite a lot, and there might be a couple of coins left for them to keep. After all, including eating, drinking, lodging, and renting a carriage along the way, the squad would only spend up to 20 silver coins.
When they first departed, they discussed about distributing the remaining money after arriving at the capital.
Unexpectedly, after they encountered a wave of bandits, they found that Jiu Er’s participation in battle took resources worth at least 6 silver coins to recover her lost health. Half of the given silver coins were used already, after including the treatment cost of the rest of the squad members.
After that, they didn’t dare to let Jiu Er participate in a fight.
Once Jiu Er entered the battle again, this little money probably wouldn’t allow them to survive until they reached the capital.
They simply made Jiu Er disguised as “the eldest daughter who ran away from home but found that she didn’t have enough funds and was forced to return home.” The remaining three members of the squad were disguised as a housekeeper, a priest, and a guard supporting the eldest daughter in her journey. Then, they had successfully infiltrated into a caravan.
It was probably because there were two of them capable of utilizing divine arts for healing, plus the four of them appeared civilized, unlike mercenaries or robbers. Moreover, Jiu Er was indeed the daughter of an affluent family (TN: In her real life), while Delicious Wind Goose was quite persuasive in his words. Under Delicious Wind Goose’s careful negotiation, they had actually gotten a carriage on the condition of providing treatment (fee), and they were able to eat and live for free.
After the caravan reached its destination, Delicious Wind Goose realized that it was a good idea and soon contacted another caravan.
In the end, they turned into those “budget” content creators for traveling, and they didn’t have to spend a penny.
Delicious Wind Goose was also particularly good at chatting. As he mingled around, he gradually collected some information and soon filled in the loopholes in the identities they adopted. Even the standard of food had improved to another level. There were a few merchants in the second batch of caravans who insisted on giving them some gifts.
But in short, it was much faster and safer than the squad journeying forward alone.
“Goodbye then, everyone.” Delicious Wind Goose politely bid farewell to the second caravan.
They had officially left the North Sea Territory and arrived at Tasque, the Tasque County’s capital.
There were 16 towns in Tasque County, which was the northernmost part of Count Shelley’s territories, and it was also a relatively small one. After passing through four towns further south of the Tasque, one could see the northern suburbs of the royal capital.
Delicious Wind Goose had inquired that another name of Count Philip Shelley was the Supreme Court Justice Philip, the highest judge of the Noah Kingdom.
His younger brother, Sir Stilwell Shelley, was the Noah Kingdom’s Chief of Police.
Tasque, where Noah Kindom’s primary prison was located, had strict security. Therefore, many caravans would choose to rest here.
“But how do we get out? That’s another problem. This place is too close to the capital. Can we still use the previous excuse? The risk is too high.”
Van Helsing asked helplessly on a deserted street corner, “Yokai Sensei and I can go to the local church to stay, and it won’t be a problem for us to enter or leave the city. But what about the two of you?”
“The two of us will find a motel first and get two rooms to stay. Luckily, our previous efforts are not in vain. Our remaining money should be enough for the rest of the journey. We could just walk there in our worst-case scenario since we have covered half the distance to arrive at the royal capital. Anyway, law and order here are better. There is no need to worry about ambushes on our journey.”
Delicious Wind Goose replied confidently, “Let’s stay here for two days first. Then, I’ll go and ask around for more information. If there is a convoy to take us into the capital, that would be great.”
“I hope so…” For some reason, Van Helsing felt a little uneasy.
