Chocolate muffin

A strange mercenary group appeared in the foggy town. It's not unusual for mercenaries to be independent and rugged after years of spilling blood, but a group with such an odd combination was indeed rare.

An old man with white hair who was on his last legs, a strong man with a face full of tattoos, a seductive mature woman, and a gloomy teenager took up a table, and people nearby all cast scrutinizing glances at them.

Among them was Ina, who muttered in her heart: I've been waiting for you for a long time, recipients of the letter.

Since the day she decrypted the secret message she received, Ina had been waiting for the arrival of the recipients. Even the upgrade of the Dragon Flame Restaurant, which now could open new branches, was put aside by Ina. She feared any distractions that might allow an attack on her base.

The foggy town was where she first arrived on the Moro Continent, and she would never allow anyone to stir up trouble here.

[You've triggered a random side quest 0-5: Storm Coming

Reward: Unknown

Progress: 50%

Task requirements: A group of unexpected guests has appeared in the foggy town. Are they unique mercenaries, or the ill-intentioned "recipients" of the letter?]

These people ate dinner like ordinary mercenaries and even packed some food to take away. After they left, Ina asked Dusì, who just packed their food, "Did you smell anything on them?"

Seeing Dusì's puzzled face, Ina added, "The smell of blood."

Dusì wasn't scared by Ina's cryptic words but looked thoughtful, "Isn't it normal for mercenaries to smell of blood? Or do you mean the smell of human blood?"

Ina laughed, "You're right, it's very normal. Never mind, go back to your work."

Anty overheard their conversation and chimed in, "These people must be a group of good hunters."

"How so?" Ina gestured for her to elaborate.

Anty shyly shook her head, "I can't explain it clearly, it's just a feeling when I got close to them, a feeling I only ever got around the best hunters in the tribe." She remembered once when the village was besieged by a pack of wolves, an uncle stepped through pools of blood to kill the wolves and carried her down from the roof. That feeling of proximity was probably similar.

However, at that time she was very sure that the uncle was there to rescue her, and she felt incredibly safe. But being near these people, she felt somewhat uncomfortable, like there was a thorn in her back.

Ina listened to Anty's words, that feeling, it must be what they call killing intent, right?

———

The black cat Elvys finished its lunch in Ina's room, squatting on the window sill and looking at the gray sky for a while.

The restaurant's tables at noon were simply not enough, and even the guests had to share tables and queue up, but this black cat refused to eat on the ground, only willing to eat if the bowl was placed on the table. Ina had no choice but to put it in her room. At first, Elvys was excited, thinking he was one step closer to Ina's secret.

But once inside the room, he found that it didn't look like a girl's room at all. His cell in Neranka was more luxurious than this place.

There were four white walls, a table in the middle, and no other furniture. Not even a bed.

Elvys was eating a chocolate muffin and wondering, did she take away all the related items to guard against him, or did she simply not rest and didn't need such a bedroom?

Speaking of which, he never seemed to have seen Ina sleep. She always seemed to be busy, energetic and enjoyed it.

Ina: Do you know what it means to grind a game? The current effort is for the future Golden Dragon Nest!

Elvys yawned lazily, planning to bask in the sun and take an afternoon nap. He loved basking in the sun, but the foggy town didn't let in a single ray of sunshine. However, he found that sleeping near the glow daisies in the backyard of the Dragon Flame restaurant, he could also feel the warmth of the sun, so he often dragged his exclusive little mat over there for an afternoon nap.

Excitedly, Elvys ran to the tea tree forest, found the mat he left here in the morning, and was about to lie down, but suddenly stopped. He circled around the mat twice, bit one corner, and run back to the restaurant.

Seeing Ina still behind the bar, Elvys visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He leaped up, put the mat on the counter in front of Ina, and pushed it in her direction with his paw.

Ina looked at Elvys, who was also looking at her.

"Do you want to change the mat?" Ina said slowly, "If you don't like this pattern, would you prefer a floral one? Or striped?"

The black cat meowed in a low voice, irritably extending its claws to scratch the edge of the mat, hooking out several loose threads.

Ina didn't tease him further, she reached out her finger and gently tapped the center of the mat.

[Tainted by an unknown liquid, took 100 corrosive damage.]

Elvys didn't expect her to touch it directly, jumped in surprise, and extended his paw to hook Ina's finger to take a look. Ina laughed and waved her still delicate and fair hand in front of him, incidentally patting his fluffy head.

Elvys immediately jumped away, angrily glancing at Ina's hand. Ina didn't continue her touch after scoring a hit, she took out a pair of wooden chopsticks and threw them on the mat, the chopsticks didn't show any abnormality. Ina took out a small piece of raw meat from the kitchen and threw it onto Elvys' mat as usual, this time the raw meat visibly rotted and turned black at a visible speed, finally turning into a puddle of muddy blood.

A corrosive potion that only affects flesh and blood? Ina's gaze had a moment of sharpness, it was easy to imagine that if Elvys hadn't noticed the abnormality of the mat in time, he would probably have been horribly injured now. But why was such a powerful magic potion used to harm a black cat?

Ina glanced at Elvys, whose tail fur was slightly bristling, gave him a new mat, and shooed him out, "Go take your nap."

The expression on Elvys' face was somewhat amusing, the round eyes that were like glass beads were full of condemnation that read, "Why aren't you investigating the one who intended to harm me?" Ina couldn't help it and scratched his chin again.

Elvys extended his paw and placed it on Ina's hand, stopping this person's serious offense against Duke Elvys. Seeing her smiling eyes, he was furious: She didn't realize her mistake at all!

So, Ina got headbutted by the jumping black cat.

Elvys immediately ran away with his mat, he spread the new floral mat under the tea tree, basked in the soft light emitted by the glow daisies, and lay down comfortably.

Ina's gaze followed Elvys until it was blocked by the wall, then she spoke in a cold tone, "System, check the surveillance of the tea tree forest."

All properties under the restaurant control panel are under round-the-clock and all-around system surveillance. Elvys' mat was placed in the tea tree forest, and the surveillance naturally could record the process of the perpetrator poisoning it.

Ina opened the corresponding time surveillance, in the screen a pitch-black bird flew in diagonally, the amplitude of its wing flapping seemed extremely stiff, causing it to only be able to fly close to the ground at a very low speed. It was this bird that grasped the corrosive potion and poured it onto Elvys' mat.

The corrosive potion was colorless and tasteless, quickly seeping into the fabric, and there was not even a trace of moisture visible.

Ina showed this footage to Professor Derick. The professor had intended to leave the town and return to the Imperial City these days, but because of his addiction to eating ice cream and persuading Ina to become a professor at Star Academy, he stayed in town and refused to leave.

"This doesn't look like necromantic magic, more like a kind of puppetry," Professor Derick judged. He scoffed at this kind of magic, "Necromancy only uses the bones of dead creatures and does no harm to living beings, yet it was once considered dark magic. However, no one is resisting this evil magic that turns living creatures into puppets. Those old guys in the Magic Association are truly Useless."

---------

The man with a face full of tattoos looked discontentedly at the old man who was fiddling with some unknown liquid, "Is it necessary to go through all this trouble to deal with a cat? If we keep delaying, what if the big fish in the swamp escapes?"

The old man slowly replied, "Didn't you see that the black cat has an owner?"

The man scornfully said, "That little girl? I could crush her with one finger." He seemed to be impatient and urged, "I might as well help you kill that black cat and charge straight into the restaurant. What's the worst that could happen?"

A faint voice appeared at his ear, blowing a breath, "Underestimating women, you are asking for trouble."

She was too close, and the tattooed man didn't even know when she had appeared. There was a moment of stiffness in his spine, then he immediately took several steps forward, trying to distance himself from this elusive woman. He hated working with her!

The old man with white hair coughed twice, "I saw Wenter from the Mercenary Guild in the town. I don't want to make any waves in the town before the big fish is hooked."

The tattooed man suggested, "Then let's go for the big fish first, once we succeed, we can kill the black cat on the way and leave. Can Wenter alone handle the four of us?"

No one contradicted him this time.

The prices in Mist Town were dropping. The mercenaries were the first ones to feel the drop in grain prices. The Dragonflame Restaurant had reduced the prices of food involving flour by more than half, and the white bread in Hana's Bakery was also much cheaper.

[Your actions have impacted the lives of the townspeople. Mist Town is becoming more livable, and the residents are full of confidence in the future. Regional Reputation - Silver Empire - Mist Town +20]

Ina specifically asked Rosa, "With the cost of coming to the town reduced, will it attract more people to enter the Midnight Swamp in the future?" Reasonable hunting of magical beasts can control the size of the beasts, preventing them from invading the town due to a lack of food. If a large number of mercenaries swarm into the Midnight Swamp and disrupt this balance, Ina will consider raising the price of grain tomorrow.

Rosa explained with a smile, "What mercenaries consider the most is the difficulty of the route to Mist Town from the outside world, followed by the cost of staying here."

The only road leading to Bante City from Mist Town, with the cliffs where the ravens hovered, the lake full of rotting thorns, and the unpredictable weather, all deterred outsiders.

"Moreover, the Midnight Swamp has a special environment, those without experience absolutely do not dare to enter rashly. Even if mercenaries come to Mist Town, they can't find enough willing old mercenaries to guide them."

Ina was finally reassured.

In the afternoon, The Goldfinch came, not only bringing the good news that the Four-winged Thunder Eagle agreed to become the new manager of the fish pond but also important clues for Ina's random task.

The Four-winged Thunder Eagle made a great contribution as soon as it joined, it caught a strange bird in the Midnight Swamp that was identical to the one that poisoned the black cat not long ago.

The feathers on The Goldfinch's neck had fully grown back, and it had returned to its previous cute and smart appearance. Its wings crossed behind its back as it paced back and forth on the window sill like a scholar, "It's a bit like the bird that sent the message a few days ago, um, not in appearance, but in smell."

"What kind of smell?"

"The smell of rotting corpses."

Ina went to get the bird's corpse from the Four-winged Thunder Eagle and sent it to Professor Derick for research. Professor Derick extracted blood from the shrunken corpse of the bird, and solemnly sought out Ina:

"It's a Dragon Blood Sorcerer."

Ina felt again that she had become an antique. She had never heard of this profession in her previous gaming career.

Professor Derick explained, "The appearance of Dragon Blood Sorcerers is due to improvements in blood separation and purification technology. They are good at creating puppets by polluting animal blood and strengthening themselves by purifying the blood of animals with dragon lineage, so they are called Dragon Blood Sorcerers."

Ina couldn't help but ask, "Dragons are extinct on the continent, and the Dragon Blood Sorcerer just appeared?" It sounds like this profession does not have a promising future, the mixed-blood lineage of dragons is being diluted generation by generation, coupled with their capture and slaughter, sooner or later there will be no dragon blood available.

"Because the dragons have disappeared, the behavior of Dragon Blood Sorcerers is so unbridled. If dragons were still active on the Moro Continent, even if they didn't care about those mixed-blood descendants with diluted bloodlines, they would definitely consider the actions of Dragon Blood Sorcerers as a provocation to the dragon race, and absolutely wouldn't allow them to exist."

Ina: Although she inherited the bloodline of the dragon race, it seems that she did not inherit the sense of collective honor. But if they want to harm her or the lizards, she will let these Dragon Blood Sorcerers feel the wrath of the black dragon.

[You triggered the random side mission 0-5: A Storm is Coming

Reward: Unknown

Mission Progress: 75

Mission Requirement: You have already locked onto the target, take action, and make those who dare to provoke you pay the price.]