Adventurer's Guild

Constan City, downtown area.

Siegfried pulled his black hood over his head and walked quickly through the bustling streets.

People around him turned their heads, looking at him and the woman beside him with curious, surprised, and even somewhat lecherous gazes.

"Master Mei Lan, are you going to register your adventurer team?"

Catalina asked excitedly.

Today, she had shed her heavy knight's armor and donned casual clothes. A white undershirt, light leather armor, brown high boots, and a black leather belt around her waist, with a knight's longsword hanging from it.

This attire was that of a common female swordsman. Siegfried had asked her to dress this way to avoid attention.

But, well, Catalina's chest was simply too full. It was fine when covered by armor, but once she changed into these lighter clothes, her tall and proud figure was immediately highlighted.

This directly led to a huge increase in their turning heads. Avoiding attention was impossible; it would be a miracle if it didn't spread throughout the city.

In a small city like this, even a dog giving birth to quadruplets would become news, let alone a strikingly attractive and alluring unfamiliar female swordsman.

Soon, a large number of single male adventurers would probably hear the news and come to invite Catalina to join their team.

Siegfried looked at the female knight with worry and replied, "Yes... sort of."

To be honest, he didn't want to bring this tomboy.

The reliable ones were all busy. The princess, who wasn't busy, was angry and hadn't spoken to him for days.

Of the remaining fighters, Fafnir and Darren were unreliable, leaving only Catalina.

Siegfried sighed helplessly. His combat ability was too weak. Without someone to protect him, if anything happened, he'd probably go to meet his parents in heaven.

"Have you thought of a team name? How about Sunny Rose? Or Light of Salvation? Or something straightforward, like the Savior Team?"

Catalina chattered excitedly in Siegfried's ear, making his eyebrows twitch.

But this wasn't Catalina's fault. The Adventurer's Guild held special significance for heroes.

According to historical records, the founder of this largest neutral organization in Qilan was the first hero—"Star Savior" Mars.

This first hero established the guild so that even after his death, there would be successors to continue protecting the weak commoners. The guild lived up to expectations, not only inheriting Mars's will but also growing stronger.

Now, the guild divides adventurers into eight levels, from E to SSS.

Newly registered novice adventurers are E and D rank.

If these newcomers don't die during missions, those who pass the guild's assessment of strength and character can be promoted to C rank within five years and B rank within ten years.

From A rank onwards, promotion is not solely based on strength and character; significant achievements are required.

For example, hunting a powerful monster that plagues the world, killing a certain number of demons on the front lines, or single-handedly saving a city from annihilation by a demon army.

Such achievements are required to apply for higher-level adventurer status.

Although promotion is difficult, the guild currently has more than ten SS-rank adventurers on record. They are of different races and backgrounds; some are companions of previous heroes, and some are centuries-old monsters.

But they all stand at the pinnacle of this world, powerful enough to shake the heavens and earth, and all have fought against the demons for order.

However, even so, none of them have been promoted to the final SSS rank.

Because to be promoted to this level, one must meet one requirement—saving the world!

Yes, this is a rank only heroes can reach.

Every generation of heroes has an unwritten tradition: they will always form their own adventurer team in the guild, and this hero team is the only SSS-rank team in the world.

In fact, the rule that a team can have a maximum of five people also comes from the tradition of heroes having only four companions.

In Catalina's view, Siegfried was going to form his own SSS-rank team.

And since she was brought along, it meant that she definitely had a place among the four members. How could she not be excited?

(Hahaha, Your Highness will never guess that I'm one step ahead in becoming a hero's companion! Once I become an SS-rank strongman, I'll challenge my teacher and take Durandal!)

This airhead was already thinking about how to betray her teacher and destroy her school. If Roland knew, she would probably be furious enough to purge the school on the spot.

The two arrived at a building with a peculiar shield emblem.

"Brilliant Star Sword and Shield." The building with this special emblem was the Adventurer's Guild. This pair of uniquely shaped swords and shields were the weapons of "Star Savior" Mars.

Siegfried didn't come here to form a team; he was here to deal with a hidden danger.

After receiving Siegfried's warning, the Earl of Constan was terrified, almost hiring all the adventurers in the city as manor guards.

Although this weakened the princess's search, it greatly hampered the current siege plan. Hundreds of adventurers with various skills could turn the Earl's Mansion into an iron bucket.

Siegfried's purpose was to persuade the guild to withdraw these adventurers.

The guild acts as the administrator of the adventurers, directly assigning tasks to suitable adventurers and canceling ongoing tasks.

(I wonder what kind of person the guild master here is? What expression will he have when he sees Master Mei Lan?)

(I wonder if the guild master here will recognize me as the fake Mei Lan?)

The two entered the guild building with different thoughts.

......

Robert, the guild master of the Constan City Adventurer's Guild, recently suffered from severe anxiety.

The specific symptoms were that he would sometimes rage and curse someone, sometimes tremble in fear and mutter to himself, and sometimes laugh maniacally and talk nonsense, causing the guild staff to dare not approach him.

Recently, some people wanted to find a priest from the church; they suspected that the guild master was possessed by something evil.

Robert was originally a dignified middle-aged man with a refined, wise, and world-weary face and beautiful silver hair, much admired by the receptionists.

However, now he had sunken eyes, a sallow complexion, and his silver hair was constantly being pulled out by his anxiety, resulting in a large bald patch on his forehead. He looked like a dying old man, with no trace of his former elegance.

But this current appearance was more like his true profession—the Bishop of the Necromancer Cult, Robert Daniel.

Robert didn't understand; even pulling out his hair didn't help him understand.

Why was the Hoover Trading Company empty?

He clearly remembered that there were hundreds of slaves and dozens of mercenaries in the basement, but why did the soul-absorbing array only capture three souls that night? Two of them were horses.

"Not enough... not enough... not nearly enough!"

He suddenly roared, violently overturning his desk and hysterically kicking the overturned surface.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! You're all going to die!!"

"Woo... woo."

As he kicked, he suddenly hugged his head and cried.

"How could this be? The altar, painstakingly prepared, only absorbed one human soul. How can I account to the Lord, Robert! How can you atone to the Lord!"

The Death God altar in the Hoover Trading Company was built by the Necromancer Cult with great effort. Only the followers of their Death God could see that altar. Order creatures couldn't even sense it, let alone see it. The followers used this characteristic to avoid the search of the Sun Church.

The Hoover Trading Company, a ruthless human trafficking organization, had a large number of people in its basement, and slaves died in the prison every day.

Their souls would be automatically absorbed by the altar, and the bodies would be secretly recovered by the followers to be made into living corpses.

The Hoover Trading Company was the most suitable place in Constan City to place the Death God altar.

However, some time ago, Mei Lan's sudden appearance caused the cult to completely lose its two ice and snow elves.

They were a crucial part of the plan. Logically, the cult should have tried everything to get them back.

But the problem was that even trying everything wouldn't get them back! There wasn't even a chance!

The opponent was Mei Lan. Even if the top few [Death Servants] from headquarters attacked, they might not be able to gain an advantage, let alone a small bishop from a remote area.

To make up for the missing elf souls, the cult had to use the altar's full power to activate the soul-absorbing array and extract the souls of all creatures in the Hoover Trading Company.

For this, they would completely lose this hidden base and bear the risk of being discovered by the Sun God Church at any time.

However, the great cost yielded only the soul of an E-rank fat man and two broken horses.

The altar, built with nearly half of the funds of the Moen branch of the Necromancer Cult, had only yielded three garbage souls!

How could Robert bear this?

"Why is there no one? Why is there no one?! Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Robert was so anxious he almost wanted to roll on the floor. At this moment, a hurried and disorderly knocking came from the office door.

Knock knock knock!

"Huff, wait a moment."

He calmed himself and replied in a low voice.

The room was in a mess. He intended to clean it up before opening the door.

His recent behavior had been too abnormal and had attracted the attention of the church. This couldn't continue.

However, the person outside couldn't wait and directly burst in.

Robert was instantly annoyed and scolded, "Sandy, what are you doing!"

Sandy, the pretty receptionist, was pale, her lips trembling so much that she could barely speak:

"Guild... Master, out... outside... someone wants to see you."

Robert's expression darkened. The people from the Sun Church had finally come.

(Humph, it doesn't matter. I doubt they'll find anything.)

"Alright, I understand. Tell the church people to wait in the hall. I'll tidy up the room."

"No, it's not, it's not the church."

(Not the church? Who is it then?)

Robert glanced at the panicked receptionist, quite puzzled. Was this a ghost? Scared like this.

He picked up a cup of hot water from the coffee table and handed it to Sandy, saying:

"Don't worry, take your time."

"It's Mei Lan!"

Clang!

The cup fell, and the warm tea splashed everywhere.

Robert's legs went weak, and he slumped to the ground.

Yes, the visitor was far more terrifying than a ghost.