Chapter 130 Adventurers and Villagers

Two days later.

In the wilderness near Rivervale Town.

The pale gray mist that had choked the air, lingering like the shadow of death, had long since vanished without a trace.

In its place came bright sunlight unobstructed by the canopy, fresh air carrying the earthy scent of dirt, sweeping grassy plains, winding country roads, and trails of cooking smoke rising in the distance.

Compared to the Misty Forest, it felt like an entirely different world.

There was no need to worry about furry, highly venomous spiders dropping from the branches to slide down a collar, nor any need to guard against dangerous monsters lurking in the fog and shadows, coveting the fragrant flesh on their bones.

The only thing you really had to watch out for was the occasional pile of dog shit on the side of the road.

Walking along the rolling dirt path through the countryside, the ground beneath their feet felt far more solid than mud buried under a thick layer of dead leaves, bringing them a deep sense of security.

The soft clinking of his Chainmail Iron Rings rubbing together with every step drifted into his ears.

He was long used to it.

But to Xia Nan in this moment, the sound was exceptionally pleasant and soothing.

Right now, the Green Blood Squad had completely left the Misty Forest and returned to the human world.

They were currently on the road back to Rivervale Town.

Although they had encountered many unexpected incidents during the expedition, the party had fortunately suffered no casualties.

No one had even sustained any severe injuries.

They had also reaped rewards that far exceeded their previous bounties.

It was, by all accounts, a complete success.

Even Adeline, who rarely showed emotion to outsiders, wore a faint smile.

"We should make at least twenty-something gold when we get back, right?"

Abi walked with his back slightly hunched under the weight of the gear they had stripped from the gnolls, his expression excited and his steps light.

Knowing he was a rookie with a clear gap in both experience and strength compared to the rest of the party, Abi felt he hadn't contributed much during the mission. Thus, he not only actively helped clear the battlefield and do whatever was within his capabilities, but he also took the initiative to carry the vast majority of the squad's heavy loot. This relieved a lot of the burden from Xia Nan and the others, allowing them to react more freely if they encountered danger.

"We'll definitely get twenty gold," Berg replied, his tone relaxed as he trailed at the back of the group with a longbow slung across his back. "Between the bounty on that Flesh Devourer and the reward for the goblins, everyone's cut is already going to be quite a bit."

"Add in the secondhand gear you're carrying and the other odds and ends,"

"And we might even hit thirty gold!"

Having escaped the high-pressure environment of the forest, Berg had completely shaken off his restless anxiety, returning to his usual persona of a slick veteran.

He had finally managed to wind down.

Hearing this, a wistful look appeared on Abi's face. He pinched his fingers together, calculating as he spoke.

"If we calculate based on twenty-five gold... I'll send seven gold back home, pay off the five gold I owe, and that leaves—"

"A whole thirteen gold!"

Abi's eyes instantly lit up.

"Once we get back to town, I'm going to the Rockhammer shop to buy that set of Fine leather armor I was eyeing earlier."

"It's only a dozen or so gold. I'll just grit my teeth and buy it!"

"You're going to spend it all and not save anything for yourself?" Berg teased from behind him.

"You just joined the business, so you probably haven't saved much, right?"

"If you blow it all this time and your next few missions don't go smoothly, won't you be unable to afford even basic supplies?"

At those words, Abi's excited expression instantly twisted in conflict.

"Then, maybe—I should save up a bit more?"

"Hahaha." Berg laughed, stepping closer and patting his shoulder. "I'm just joking. If you want it, just buy it."

"We're in the Adventurer business now. Who has time to think about tomorrow?"

"Just live for today!"

"But..."

Xia Nan walked beside them, keeping silent.

Listening to their conversation, a few thoughts crossed his mind.

He had always been a "lone wolf" before, taking on quests by himself.

He had been fairly lucky. Combined with a bit of strength, he had weathered quite a few bumps in the road, but he had survived them all.

And the rewards had been bountiful.

All the earnings from his adventures belonged entirely to him, with no need to split them among teammates.

As a result, he didn't have any personal experience with the income levels of average Adventurers.

Thinking about it now, for seventy percent of the bottom-tier Adventurers in Rivervale Town, buying a new set of gear worth more than ten gold was clearly not an easy decision to make.

They might even have to dip into their savings.

It was absolutely impossible for them to be like him, swapping out his entire set of equipment every ten days or half a month, completely skipping the need for maintenance.

Of course, to some extent, the high rate of equipment degradation was the price he paid for being a "lone wolf."

After all, ever since he joined the Green Blood Squad, it had been a long time since he last visited the Rockhammer shop.

Oh—one thing worth mentioning here.

According to Xia Nan's observations over the past half year, although Adventurers had a habit of saving, a significant portion of them often squandered their hard-earned gold coins in the taverns.

They lived in a drunken stupor, using alcohol to numb their nerves and soothe their inner unease.

Considering the absurd pressure of this profession, which was like walking a tightrope where one could lose their head at any moment, it was somewhat understandable.

After all, even Xia Nan made a habit of spending far more than an ordinary family at the White Chickadee Tavern to take care of his three daily meals.

He told himself that since he had finally gotten a second chance at life, he couldn't mistreat himself.

But it was also just another way of using good food to relieve stress.

It was just that his expenses didn't come close to those of the gamblers and heavy drinkers.

"I suggest you save it first. Hunting Day is nearing its end, so the price of supplies in town will soon return to normal, and there won't be as many goblins for you to kill in the forest as there are now," Adeline said.

As the squad leader, she was still walking at the front of the group, taking the time to explain her perspective to Abi.

"If your armor doesn't have any obvious damage, you can keep using it for now."

"What Berg said earlier is actually correct."

"Having enough savings to start over is extremely important, at least for an Adventurer."

As the "benefactor" who had brought him into the business, Adeline's advice undoubtedly carried far more weight than Berg's.

Abi nodded seriously, having already abandoned his plan to spend a fortune upgrading his gear.

'Is Hunting Day almost over?'

Xia Nan pondered to himself as he listened to their conversation.

It was true that on the Association's quest board lately, bounties related to Hunting Day were noticeably fewer than before.

In that case, it was about time for him to leave the squad.

There would be no messy entanglement; he had already made his intentions clear back when he first joined the Green Blood Squad.

Adeline and the others were well aware of it too.

For one thing, his Attribute Panel and array of Magic Equipment made him ill-suited for partying up with Adventurers he wasn't fully familiar with.

For another, he needed to set aside time to find the last combat technique required to obtain his Class Level, meaning he couldn't sustain long-term, high-intensity adventuring missions.

Even if he wanted to use the goblins to raise his proficiency in [Fang Hunt], the volume of combat and the gains from acting alone were far greater than being in a party.

And as long as he only targeted nests on the outer edges of the forest, given his current mobility, he basically wouldn't run into any danger.

In short, at least in the short term, Xia Nan had no intention of traveling with a squad.

Thoughts swirled through his mind.

Suddenly, a burst of commotion yanked his consciousness back to reality.

He subconsciously looked toward the source of the noise.

Off to the side of the road, at the entrance of a small village, a large crowd of figures had gathered.

"My lords, all the villagers of Emerald Creek Village sincerely thank you for clearing out the goblin tribe near our home."

"But as you know, the thirty gold bounty posted at the Association was already something I scraped together by going door-to-door."

"The village... truly cannot offer a single gold coin more."

An elderly man who looked like the village chief, dressed in coarse linen clothing and leaning on a walking stick, stooped low and spoke cautiously.

Deep sincerity and earnestness could be felt in his words.

However, the few people standing in front of him clearly didn't appreciate it.

They appeared to be Adventurers from Rivervale Town as well.

They were a five-man squad, and while their gear couldn't be considered Fine, the metallic sheen of their iron armor and the cold glint of their sharp blades still made the commoners in front of them subconsciously lower their heads, not daring to meet their eyes.

"No money!?"

The leader of the Adventurers was a middle-aged man with a scar near his eyebrow.

"Do you have any idea how many goblins were in that nest?"

"To ensure the safety of your village, my brother's newly bought armor was almost completely destroyed!"

As he spoke, he turned sideways and pointed his right hand at the chest of a monkey-faced Adventurer standing behind him.

On that dust- and mud-stained leather armor, there was a glaring, massive tear, fractured so deeply that the lining underneath was almost visible.

"A hundred gold!"

Scar craned his neck, looking down at the hunched old man with a sharp, booming voice.

"Hand over a hundred gold and we'll call this settled. My brothers and I will just consider ourselves unlucky and stop bothering you."

The words drifted through the air and into their ears.

It made Xia Nan involuntarily frown.

Although they were some distance away, he could clearly see that the leather armor the man claimed had been ruined in the battle against the goblins was actually an "antique" that should have been discarded long ago.

Anyone who still wanted to make it back to Rivervale Town alive for a drink would never wear something like that.

Even a general store wouldn't accept it.

Furthermore, even if it truly was a brand-new set of Fine leather armor as the man claimed, it still couldn't possibly be worth a whopping hundred gold.

Motherfucker, his own gear from the renowned Rockhammer shop—a Chainmail Shirt and studded leather armor—only cost ninety-five gold combined!

He dared to demand a hundred gold for a practically scrapped piece of leather armor? Did he really think that garbage was a priceless antique?

Xia Nan even doubted whether the damage on that leather armor had actually been caused in combat at all, rather than him just picking a random piece of trash out of a blacksmith's scrap pile to come extort money.

"What is the meaning of this? Hasn't the quest bounty already been entrusted to the Adventurers' Association by the villagers? Since when do you ask the issuer for a second bounty?"

"Moreover, even if they suffered losses during the mission, that has nothing to do with these villagers, right?"

Before Xia Nan could say a word, the squad's rookie Adventurer, Abi, could no longer suppress his indignation and began to criticize them.

Putting aside basic concepts of good and evil, as a newcomer who had just joined the profession—and who might have still been plowing fields on this exact day last year—he almost immediately sided with the villagers and condemned the extorting Adventurers.

In contrast, Berg, a veteran Adventurer who had been in the business for many years, had a much more ambiguous attitude.

He just crossed his arms over his chest, watching the crowd by the roadside like he was enjoying a show, making a "tsk-tsk" sound with his mouth.

"They feel the quest reward isn't enough, so they want to make a little extra."

"This kind of thing is far too common."

"But a hundred gold... Even if they sold these villagers, they couldn't afford it. How—"

"Are you stupid?" Berg playfully scolded Abi, reminding him, "Even a rookie like you knows they can't cough up that much money. Do you think those Adventurers don't know?"

"It's just to make it easier to negotiate the price later. Just watch, it's coming right up."

'Common?' Xia Nan murmured to himself, noting the man's word choice.

Having transmigrated to this world over a hundred days ago, he already had a certain understanding of the "Adventurer" profession.

He knew full well that not only Abi and his own original body, but also Adeline, Berg, and even eighty percent of the bottom-tier Adventurers in Rivervale Town had once been ordinary villagers just like the ones before them, not even daring to lift their heads in the face of swords and blades.

But the moment they slipped on a torn piece of leather armor that no one would even want if it were thrown on the side of the road, they instantly transformed, gaining the status of an "Adventurer," and could suddenly flaunt their power in front of these commoners who shared their exact origins, extorting them like bandits and forcing them to offer up everything they owned.

Just as Berg had predicted.

Knowing full well that the villagers couldn't possibly afford the massive sum of a hundred gold they demanded, the Adventurers led by Scar simply squeezed them for a few more words—making the village chief's already hunched body bow even lower—before finally revealing their true motives.

"Not enough gold coins? That's fine."

"You can pay with other things!"

"Alcohol, livestock, fabrics—bring out anything that can be sold for money. I'll just take a bit of a loss."

He flashed a savage grin, staring at the old man before him with eyes brimming with greed.

The village chief wasn't a fool either; he naturally knew the other party's goal couldn't possibly be the hundred gold they could never afford.

Seeing the man make his demands, he prepared to step forward and negotiate further.

However, as Scar's words fell, the previously quiet crowd behind him suddenly erupted into an uproar.

"Chief, Bonnie was just born! I really can't—"

"Jack was carried off by a giant eagle last year! All our family has left is a single ox for plowing. When spring planting comes next year—"

"Chief, don't you know Sir Fran from Rivervale Town? Can you talk to him, I—"

Seeing the old man instantly surrounded by the villagers behind him, the Adventurers showed no intent to rush them. They simply stood in place, waiting quite leisurely.

But right at that moment, the monkey-faced Adventurer in the torn leather armor seemed to suddenly spot something.

His eyes abruptly lit up.

He pointed into the crowd, gesturing to his companions. They exchanged glances, and eerie smiles spread across their faces.

He was pointing at a blonde girl with a simple braid and freckles dusting her cheeks.