Chapter 15

Hegu Town, an ordinary town on the southeastern border of the Servia Kingdom.

Located inland and far from the ocean, the few rivers nearby are blocked by mountain ranges, making it difficult to develop maritime trade.

Coupled with the fact that this place has no specialty products and the terrain is complex with difficult access, no legitimate merchant caravan would ever list it as a waypoint.

Under normal circumstances, this small human settlement would be as obscure as the countless other villages within the kingdom's territory.

Let alone kingdom history or heroic epics, even if it were completely overrun due to a war with a neighboring country or a monster invasion, it would likely only be mentioned in passing by some reasonably conscientious official during the weekly morning assembly.

But right now, it is one of the important towns in the southern part of the Pan Yun Xing Sheng.

The reason for this is actually very simple, just one point—

Mist Forest.

The grey-white mist that never dissipates in the forest is not some peculiar natural phenomenon, but is caused by the overly abundant magic in the air.

Although this has given birth to many powerful monsters capable of endangering human life, countless precious magic potions and Secret Realms have emerged in tandem, attracting batch after batch of professionals to come and adventure.

With this as a premise, Hegu Town, surrounded by mountains on three sides and easy to defend but difficult to attack, naturally became the first choice for adventurers to prepare and rest.

And the Adventurer Association branch established here many years ago is even more like a landmark, further attracting adventurers from the southeastern border of the kingdom.

It is just like the "University Cities" built around multiple higher education institutions in his past life, or the numerous industries supporting tourist attractions.

Hegu Town also has such a bustling street specifically serving adventurers.

Bang—

A middle-aged man, dead drunk and spewing profanities, was carried out and tossed onto the street by two guards in leather armor; waves of wine aroma flowed out from the half-open wooden door along with the clamor.

On the street, a wealthy-looking woman in gorgeous attire clutched a zircon necklace, arguing until her face was red with a merchant in front of her; the little boy she was holding by her side was looking with curiosity at the sturdy men sweating like rain in the blacksmith shop across the street.

"Hey, young man, come play~"

A sweet, cloying, and delicate female voice came from his ear.

Looking over, he could see two slender women with skimpy clothing and hot figures, leaning against the wall and beckoning to him.

Xia Nan was not shy; he smiled and nodded in greeting.

Seeming to be considered a potential customer, his response immediately stirred up a chorus of chirping and cooing.

But he himself had no intention of getting close and kept walking along the main road.

Seeing this, the women felt it was boring and turned their heads to solicit other passersby.

As he walked further away, the rich scent of perfume in the air gradually dissipated.

Xia Nan tightened the backpack on his back, his gaze calm.

To say he had no thoughts at all would be impossible.

After all, this body is in the period of peak human vitality, if not for the memories from modern society that he had in his past life, which had been washed by the massive amount of information on the internet.

Just like the simple kid his predecessor was, who grew up in the fields and hadn't even seen many peers of the opposite sex.

Encountering those "service industry elites" just now, he feared that if they had just beckoned, his soul would have followed them.

Right now, he had just transmigrated to this world not long ago and hadn't even settled down, so naturally, he couldn't consider these things.

By comparison, he was more curious about whether this world also had the kind of "unspeakable" diseases from his past life, and given the existence of supernatural powers, whether the preventive measures people took were the same as in his world.

"I wonder if healing potions are useful?"

Having escaped from a dangerous environment, everything in this other world made him incredibly curious.

Even a random snack stall on the side of the road could make his mind wander.

Walking and stopping like this, about twenty minutes passed.

Xia Nan finally arrived at his destination.

This was a building with a peculiar style.

Its four-story height was not conspicuous on this street, but it seemed to be the center of this entire area, with people coming and going, incredibly lively.

Different from the brick and tile houses seen along the way, the building was made entirely of some kind of dark wood, and the regular and complex wood grain naturally formed its unique decoration, with even clusters of lush green tree branches and leaves adorning the eaves.

Looking from afar, it was like a huge treehouse.

For some reason, standing at the door of the house, Xia Nan had a faint illusion of returning to the Mist Forest.

The building itself had no sign, but just looking at the adventurers coming and going in front of it was enough to know its name—

Adventurer Association (Hegu Town Branch).

Xia Nan shook his head, casting away those superfluous thoughts.

He walked into the main entrance.

What came into view was an exceptionally spacious hall, the decoration style also natural and filled with the atmosphere of the forest, with all kinds of adventurers walking before his eyes.

According to the memories left by his predecessor, he searched the crowd with his eyes, finally stopping at a position on the right side of the hall that looked like a counter.

Inside the counter sat a short-haired girl wearing an association uniform, with a pretty face, but her demeanor appeared exceptionally listless.

She looked like she was working, but in reality, her eyes were drooping, as if she would fall asleep in the next second.

Xia Nan walked up and placed the coarse cloth bag he had prepared, containing the ears of Goblins and a Hobgoblin, onto the counter.

"Hello, I'm here to turn in a mission."

The short-haired girl lifted her eyelids slightly, did not touch the cloth bag, and her lips moved:

"Squad badge."

"Oh, oh." Xia Nan immediately reacted, took out a palm-sized black iron piece from his bosom, and handed it to the other party.

This was the identification of the Maji Squad, issued by the association, with the squad's number recorded on it.

And the front desk staff needed to use this number to query the missions the squad had accepted.

Fortunately, when he was cleaning up the battlefield, he didn't forget to bring this little thing along, otherwise, he would have suffered a big loss this time.

"Mountain Bow?"

"Uh... yeah."

Xia Nan couldn't help but be stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then realized that "Mountain Bow" was the official registered name of the Maji Squad.

Having called them the "Trash Squad" in his heart so often, he almost didn't react for a moment.

Regarding this, the short-haired girl just glanced at him, without any intention of asking why the other teammates were not present, as if she were already accustomed to such things.

The counter was slightly higher than the ground, making it impossible for Xia Nan to see the girl's operations.

Although he was a bit curious in his heart about how the other party handled this kind of work that required a lot of time to flip through documents in a world where technology was not developed and supernatural powers existed.

But he still maintained his patience.

He just watched as the short-haired girl moved her hands a few times in his blind spot and muttered a few characters of unknown meaning.

"Bang."

In less than five seconds, a money bag was tossed onto the counter in front of Xia Nan.

(End of chapter)