Mercenaries & Sects

Closing the door behind him Adam surveyed the room and quickly located the orb the receptionist was speaking about.

In the middle of the wall opposite the door was an embedded orb around the size of a head.

After Adam approached it, he placed his right hand on the orb and closed his eyes as if he was feeling something in his body.

Like something awakening from the depths of his body a strange force, which seemed to be there for ages, flowed from a source located below his belly button slowly through a canal inside his body to his right arm and hand.

This force felt as if it was weaved into his flesh and bones as naturally as one would perceive the act of breathing.

Sensing the changes in his body Adam opened his eyes to witness the orb flashing a short and weak light before it quickly dimmed down again.

Although the receptionist said to confirm his Qi affinity quickly, he could not be that fast to put the form on the orb since the light only flashed for a very very short time, it was almost unperceivable.

So his Qi affinity was too weak, he had some but simply not enough.

New Task: Acquire better Qi affinity!

After looking dejected Adam regained his confidence and composure, stepped out of the room, and went outside to find an inn, where he can stay.

Wandering through the city and looking at the things, which are foreign to him, he remembered the recommendation he received: The Nervous Dog.

Moreover, after asking for directions from passer-byes he quickly arrived before the inn, which had a big sign that read "The Nervous Dog".

'Yea, I don't know but it seems legit'

While entering the building Adam surveyed his surroundings and noted that the ground floor was used as a tavern and there were people there already drinking so he approached the counter and asked the bartender "I heard it's possible to buy a room here." While eying the bartender "You're right, a room for one person a night is 15 silver." The bartender answered suspecting that Adam was alone.

"I'll take one," Adam said as he gave him 20 silver while nodding to which the bartender smiled and picked out a key from under the counter and gave it to Adam.

"Room 18, up the stairs, on the left side, and almost at the end of the corridor."

"Thank you very much."

Adam went up the stairs, located left to the counter, to the second floor, where the rooms are located and followed the given directions to room 18.

As he entered the room and inspected it he found out that it was not very filthy and the smell was not bad, there also seemed to be no mold.

Apparently the trick of bribing the person in charge of giving you the room to get a better one really worked, or it could be that the general hygiene of the inn is good, which is not very likely as the rooms are rather cheap as the receptionist said and judging from the architecture the technical evolution of this world seemed not to be too advanced and rather old-fashioned, almost at the standard of the middle-ages but through the Qi stuff somehow better.

Anyway, he only paid 5 more silver coins to get a good room, the problem is Adam only has 30 silver coins left as Eliezer gave him 50 and he already used 20 for the room so he could only stay for two more nights and he had to get money as quickly as possible.

Since it was only afternoon and he already had a room he decided to walk around the city a bit, these new sights were intriguing and somewhat addicting.

However, something he really did not expect to see was "Sect & Mercenary Guild".

While casually strolling through the streets and looking at the shops and other stuff he saw this building.

It seemed a little bit run down and consumed by the flow of time though it looked stable as if it could hold a mountain without as much as a crack surfacing on the façade.

'I was previously thinking of this to make money, seems like I can try it out for real, huh.'

As soon as he went inside, he saw a note displaying the floors of the guild:

1st floor: Mercenary guild, Quest Board, and Grade 1 lounges

2nd floor: Grade 2 and 3 lounges

3rd floor: Sect guild, and Quest Board for Cultivators

'Aren't the guilds already represented at the information center?'

'Well, that's a thing for later.'

The layout of the ground floor was similar to the inn: a corner-counter with tables and stools filling the rest of the room with a set of stairs in the corner.

There were already some groups of people decked in fighting and survival equipment speaking silently at a couple of these tables and at the 4 spots for receptionists, 3 were vacant so it seemingly wasn't very busy.

Going up to the receptionist Adam asked, "Hello, can you give me some general information about mercenary bands and how to join them."

"I'm going to start with the Grades of Mercenary bands; they range from one to three, one being the lowest. You have probably seen these on the sign at the entrance, although grade three mercenary bands are powerful they are still weaker than sects are, hence the sects occupy the top floor.

Joining a mercenary band has to be discussed with the bandleader and members since we do not command them.

The Quest Board is for listing tasks, where a mercenary band is needed and the tasks on the Quest Board on the third floor are addressed at the sects.

Mercenary bands are there for solving tasks; sects are too busy to do or rather the rewards are too lacking.

That is where the Mercenary bands come into play, they are stronger than the public, can solve those tasks, and will be rewarded accordingly, but they are still weaker than cultivators, which solve tasks of higher difficulty featured on the Quest Board on the third floor.

As for which Mercenary bands you can join, there are some searching for members but they will not treat a newbie nicely, I would recommend the 'Oblisey Grey Wolves', they have a long history with the city and generally stay in its vicinity, they work with a small number of members and receive support from the city, hence I would say it's your best choice."