Chapter 656 Blonde Hair and Grey Eyes

When Tal specifically sought him out for a drink, Xia Nan initially thought the man had some urgent favor to ask.

It felt like those side quests in the games from his past life. Their experience fighting side-by-side had pushed Tal's affection for him past a certain threshold, thus unlocking a related storyline quest.

After going through a formulaic sequence of running errands and standing around for dialogue, he would finally kill a few averagely strong enemies and reap a green- or blue-quality enchanted item.

But to his surprise, the reason the bald Ranger had invited him for a drink was actually quite simple.

"As you know, Mr. Xia Nan, several of my former teammates died during the mission." His voice lacked confidence, and Tal kept his posture very low, as if terrified of angering him.

"I'm just an ordinary [Ranger]. I don't possess your outstanding and formidable strength. Even if I took on missions alone, I could only find low-level tasks with little danger, low difficulty, and very average income, like clearing out a Goblin Lair."

"If we want to survive in this line of work long-term, a team is quite important for mediocre people like us."

After quite a bit of buildup, he finally reached the crux of the matter, and Tal's face tensed up nervously.

"A few days ago, back in Ice Tree Village, Uriah and the others asked about my intentions, wondering if I'd be willing to join their team..."

Tal was a veteran [Ranger] with a Class Level as high as Level 4. Not only did he possess a wealth of adventuring experience, but his personal strength was also at least average for his Class Level.

While his performance during the banshee mission couldn't exactly be called spectacular, he had fulfilled his duties as the team's ranged shooter with a high degree of competence. He could definitely be considered reliable.

After the Sulfur Dragon Breath team lost the half-orc Gank, they were left with only a bard and a Rogue.

The Rogue went without saying, positioned as a melee assassin in combat. Uriah's own fighting style was also mostly melee; he would only hide in the backline to cast spells when he needed to play his flute to buff his teammates.

According to the configuration of a proper four-person team, they still needed a frontline Warrior to pin down enemies—which had been Gank's role—as well as a true backline damage dealer.

Under these circumstances, Tal, who had completed a mission with them and shared the experience of fighting side-by-side, naturally became their top choice.

Well—it was worth noting that when Xia Nan first joined the team, Uriah and Treebrook had secretly evaluated him, wanting to see if he could meet the requirements for the team's vanguard or frontline Warrior.

But later, as the mission progressed and Xia Nan increasingly revealed his strength, the two of them tacitly never brought the matter up again.

As for the Sulfur Dragon Breath adventuring team, while they seemed rather average to Xia Nan, they actually held a bit of a reputation among the adventurers in the Calm Peaks Province.

Even though their captain, Gretchen, had been missing for a long time and the half-orc in their party had died, the remaining bard, Uriah, and Rogue, Treebrook, were still capable of upholding the Sulfur Dragon Breath name.

Tal needed a relatively reliable team that matched his strength to secure his future adventuring career, while Sulfur Dragon Breath urgently needed fresh hands to replace their rapid, successive losses.

Thus, with a mere hint of interest, even if the two sides didn't instantly hit it off, forming a team became a very real possibility.

This was exactly why Tal was acting so awkwardly in front of Xia Nan right now.

After all, prior to this, he had been following Xia Nan, standing firmly on his side during the mission.

Making such a sudden decision now, he inevitably worried about angering the exceptionally young yet powerful adventurer sitting before him, who seemed to possess some unfathomably deep background.

As a seasoned veteran immersed in the adventuring industry for years, how could Tal not know the benefits of clinging to a powerful backer?

He remembered that when he first joined the trade, the captain of his squad had disbanded their team entirely just to suck up to a Class Grade powerhouse and join that Class Holder's party.

Afterward, Tal watched with his own eyes as his old captain's originally shabby and worn equipment was gradually replaced with Fine gear. The man became much more generous with his money than before, often treating Tal to food and drinks, and spending entire nights in the casino.

Back then, Tal had envied him immensely, hoping that one day he, too, could latch onto the connections of a veteran adventurer just like his old captain.

That was until a year after the team disbanded. That high-level adventurer returned as usual, but all that came back of Tal's former captain was half a chainmail shirt.

Only then did Tal truly realize what kind of price was required for the benefits he hoped to gain from those so-called "powerful backers."

He could, of course, shamelessly tag along by Xia Nan's side. Based on his observations of the man's character, as long as they lacked people for a mission and Tal was willing, this young, black-haired adventurer certainly wouldn't mind bringing him along.

But—with his own level of strength, could he really participate in the man's high-intensity, high-frequency battles that nearly surpassed his eyes' ability to track?

Even if his luck held and he managed to scrape by time and time again by clinging to this "powerful backer," reaping rich rewards in the process...

...if there was ever a single second where his grip loosened slightly...

...the enemies, whose strength vastly exceeded his own tier, would extract an unacceptable price.

"Oh?"

To be honest, Xia Nan was still somewhat surprised by Tal's decision.

After all, in his eyes, Tal was a seasoned adventurer with a relatively cautious personality. Furthermore, Uriah, the current temporary captain of the Sulfur Dragon Breath team, had pulled that selfish stunt of sacrificing a teammate in actual combat.

The two of them really shouldn't have associated with each other.

But after thinking it over carefully, he could understand Tal's choice.

They were all adventurers mingling between the towns and the wilderness, constantly and arduously walking a tightrope. Where would they find so many saints?

To some extent, even factoring in Uriah's maneuver inside the Goblin Lair, the caliber of the Sulfur Dragon Breath team still placed them solidly in the top tier of the entire adventurer community.

Especially in a place like Bloodcast Keep, with Tal's Level 4 rank and [Ranger] class, finding a perfect, hundred-percent satisfactory teammate was entirely a matter of luck.

Right now, even if Sulfur Dragon Breath was only a seventy-percent fit, compared to the many teams that couldn't even hit a passing grade of sixty, they were already the optimal choice.

They were merely passersby on this journey with no deep ties. Since the man had made this decision, he had surely weighed his options, so Xia Nan naturally had no reason to stop him.

He simply offered a well-meaning reminder with a smile and left it at that: "Then you'd better hurry. Otherwise, looking at their team's atmosphere, I reckon if they can't recruit anyone in the next two days, they might just disband entirely."

Seeing that Xia Nan's relaxed expression didn't seem faked, Tal couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In truth, he really had overthought it.

Xia Nan had always been used to taking on missions as a lone wolf. The only reason he had temporarily teamed up with Tal and the Sulfur Dragon Breath squad earlier was because of the banshee mission's requirements.

If there hadn't been a headcount restriction, Xia Nan would have brought Winter Wolf Fanny along at most.

He had no opinion on where Tal went and didn't care who he teamed up with.

The topic ended after a few sentences. Sensing Xia Nan's attitude, Tal visibly relaxed, and the atmosphere at the dining table lightened up.

Unlike Rivervale Town and Barracuda Bay, where Xia Nan had stayed for long periods, Bloodcast Keep was located on the northeastern border of the Servia Kingdom. Because its geography leaned toward the northern part of the continent, its dietary habits favored high-calorie, heavy-grease, and easily storable foods.

Also, because its location was still somewhat close to the ocean, various types of seafood were not uncommon there, frequently appearing on the dining tables of ordinary commoners.

Always particular about his food, and having just returned from a mission with the intent to enjoy a full, delicious meal, Xia Nan hesitated over the menu for quite a while before carefully making his selection.

A cold plate of sliced cod with sour tangerine cream, a small pot of venison and mushroom stew, several skewers of roasted grouse, half a fruitwood-smoked wild boar leg, and finally, a large mug of sweet, rich mead.

There was no real pairing to speak of, and from a nutritional standpoint, it couldn't be called healthy, but it was exactly what he wanted to eat.

His powerful Class Grade physique not only gave him a robust appetite but also allowed him to indulge his preferences and consume almost any ordinary food without worry, completely freeing him from the "lifestyle diseases" of modern humans.

The dishes tasted excellent. The sweet and sour flavor of the tangerine cream perfectly complemented the fresh aroma of the cod. The firm, fragrant venison was soaked in thick, sweet mushroom broth. The slightly crispy skin of the wild boar leg exuded the fresh scent of fruitwood, while tantalizing, appetizing grease slowly dripped from between the meat's fibers.

He had no idea where this tavern had found its chef, but their culinary skills were far better than Xia Nan had imagined.

He was even planning in his mind to clear out a slot in the still-spacious [White Flask] Pocket Watch just to store these rare delicacies.

While he was enjoying his meal, three familiar figures suddenly appeared at the tavern entrance.

Under the effects of his sharp Perception, he sensed their presence immediately, and his gaze followed.

What caught his eye were two boys around fifteen or sixteen years old, alongside a middle-aged man with greying hair.

The two boys had wildly different personalities. The blonde one walking at the very front looked much more energetic.

A pair of curiosity-filled eyes swept across the surroundings without any concealment. His chin tilted up slightly as he walked, revealing an unintentional and naive arrogance.

Noticing the various meaningful stares coming from all directions, the blonde boy didn't show the slightest stage fright. Instead, he lifted his pale chin even higher, using deliberate and awkward body language to show the crowd that he wasn't some rookie.

This caused the steady man following closely behind him like a guard to sigh silently.

He was long used to it, and this wasn't the time for dissuasion or lectures.

He simply quickened his pace silently, using his own body and the heavy shield strapped to his back to block as many of the surrounding adventurers' stares toward his young master as possible.

Trailing at the very end of the trio was a boy with rare grey-blue eyes.

They were similar in age, but compared to the blonde boy at the front, this boy's family background was clearly much worse.

His frame was two sizes thinner, and his skin bore the distinct, weather-beaten darkness of a fisherman. His rough, dark brown hair was casually tied back with a thin string.

After entering the tavern, although he wasn't intimidated by the crowd either, his actual behavior was the polar opposite of the blonde boy's.

His personality was so introverted it almost bordered on gloomy. He followed behind with his head lowered, only his slightly dim eyes refracting a grey-blue luster from beneath the shadows.

The arrivals were none other than Winsor, the gloomy fisher boy he had briefly met in Salt Rock Port, along with Zanfrey, the noble young master who claimed his family possessed the "Shield of the Silver Lake" and was the third son of his clan, and his guard, Ake.

'How do these guys... know each other?'

Thoughts flickered in his mind, but in the very next second, Xia Nan already had a guess.

He remembered that when he had first set out from Salt Rock Port heading toward Bloodcast Keep, he had bumped into Zanfrey and Ake on the road.

At the time, their group was being besieged by monsters, and he had stepped in to help them out.

It was exactly through that opportunity that Xia Nan learned of their backgrounds and goals. He knew they had already enlisted in the conscription squad early, planning to return to Salt Rock Port with the soldiers first before heading to Bloodcast Keep with the main force.

Calculating the time now, that conscription squad he had encountered back then would have first gone to Salt Rock Port to rest for two days while recruiting personnel, and then hurried back to Bloodcast Keep with the adventurers and civilians willing to join the army. The timeline matched up perfectly—

As for the fisher boy, Winsor, judging by the current situation, it seemed he had also joined the conscription ranks?

He had felt surprised upon seeing the boy at first glance, but thinking about it carefully, he could somewhat understand his mindset.

Perhaps due to his family's past tragedies, this local—the first one Xia Nan had met after arriving in the Calm Peaks Province—had a depressing personality that was extremely rare for someone his age.

Thinking back on it now, Xia Nan figured that if he hadn't happened to swim by at that moment, the kid probably would have jumped straight into the sea.

Even if he had some sort of awakening afterward, his current transition from a fisherman to a soldier most likely wasn't out of a desire to serve the country. He probably just wanted to leave something valuable behind in this world at the very end.

Sitting in the corner, Xia Nan went unnoticed by the three who had just entered the tavern.

The noble youth, Zanfrey, kept his chin raised and plunked his butt onto a barstool in front of the counter with feigned experience. Because he sat down too forcefully, he failed to stabilize himself for a moment, his body swaying as he nearly fell over.

Catching himself somewhat wretchedly with both hands on the bar, Zanfrey's already awkward expression showed a hint of embarrassment.

He coughed dryly twice as if to diffuse the tension. Waving with feigned boldness at the tavern owner behind the counter—who was looking at him with a bizarre expression—he raised his voice slightly and said, "Boss, what specialty dishes do you have here? List them out for me to hear!"