Chapter 118

After settling down in Golden Port, Jie Ming quickly adapted to the life here.

Although this city was noisy, it gave him a long-lost sense of freedom.

He rented a simple room. During the day, he walked through the streets and alleys in the identity of "Jack," and at night, he returned to his residence, quietly practicing while studying intelligence.

After dealing with Carl, the other party unexpectedly didn't continue to find trouble, perhaps indeed scared by Jie Ming's methods.

Jie Ming didn't care much about this. Through Jack's memories, he knew that there were only "mere" five "Legends" sitting in the entire Golden Port.

If nothing happened, then "low-level adventurer Mr. Jack" naturally wouldn't make trouble casually, but if something really happened, then the one who would come out would be "Tier 1 official wizard Jie Ming."

By then, it wouldn't be a matter of two people dying that could solve the problem.

Part of the reason Jie Ming let Carl go before was also to try to see if he could fish.

In the first few days, he was also a bit excited, but didn't expect Carl didn't take the bait, which made him slightly disappointed.

However, the previous effect of establishing power was indeed good.

When he stepped into the "Drunken Dolphin" tavern for the second time, the half-orc bartender's face already had less impatience and more awe.

After Jie Ming proposed a small mission to collect magic beast materials, the bartender pointed to the wooden stairs in the depths of the tavern with his short, thick fingers.

"Hey, Jack, a ruthless character like you shouldn't just take those low-level jobs." The bartender lowered his voice, his voice carrying a hint of flattery. "The second floor is prepared for you truly 'powerful' adventurers. There are fatter fish there."

Jie Ming glanced at him calmly, then walked straight up the stairs.

The environment on the second floor was much cleaner than downstairs, and the light was brighter.

Various mission scrolls were posted on a huge wooden board, and unlike the missions downstairs where the rewards were generally from a dozen copper coins to a few silver coins, the mission rewards here ranged from a dozen gold coins to hundreds of gold coins.

The adventurers here were also significantly more capable; warriors with knotted muscles, agile rangers, and thieves with shrewd eyes could be seen everywhere.

They were either in groups of three or five, discussing missions in low voices, or alone, scanning the mission board with sharp eyes.

Jie Ming noticed that most of the missions here were related to dangerous magic beast nests, ancient relic exploration, and reconnaissance deep into some dangerous areas.

Occasionally, when an adventurer squad completed a high-difficulty mission and returned, it would always attract a gaze of envy or jealousy.

However, Jie Ming also noticed that whether downstairs or upstairs, magic-type professions were extremely rare.

Even in a prosperous city like Golden Port, the number of times one could see spellcasters could be counted on one's fingers.

Through Jack's memories, most spellcasters were offerings of some noble family and would never appear in such a mixed Adventurers' Guild.

After coming many times, Jie Ming established a good relationship with a middle-aged adventurer nicknamed "Old Grey."

Old Grey was an experienced warrior, weathered, with a knife scar on his left eye.

He always liked to sit in the corner of the bar, drinking malt ale silently.

Among the generally low-quality adventurer group, although Old Grey was calculating about money, he could be considered a rare "decent" person.

Jie Ming was also happy to contact him, occasionally treating him to a glass of fine rum or sharing some rare materials he found in the wilderness, and Old Grey would open his chatterbox.

"Hey, Jack, you're really a freak; those small fish and shrimp can't live for three seconds in your hands." Old Grey drank the wine in his glass in one gulp, saying with a hint of alcohol. "But you have to know, this adventurer business is deep. On the surface, it's working for money, but in reality, this business is also divided into two types."

He lowered his voice, his tone filled with emotion: "One type is us, for food and clothing, for a few gold coins to fight for our lives in the wild. Even if your strength is good, in the eyes of some people, you can only be considered bottom-level."

"Oh?" Jie Ming shook his wine glass. Hearing this, he was a bit curious. "Then what kind can be considered top-level? Is it the other type you mentioned?"

Old Grey's tone was filled with disdain: "The other type—humph, it's those big adventurer groups; they are the black gloves doing dirty work for major kingdoms. You know the missions of the Adventurers' Guild are not issued casually; they all have the approval of local government officials, especially those large-scale missions, which basically involve strategic materials or politics. How could the noble lords casually hand over such important things to people whose background they don't know?"

Jie Ming stroked his chin; he really didn't know about such things, and there were no such things in Jack's memories.

After all: "Jack" was just a bottom-level adventurer before this.

However, although he was very disdainful when speaking, he heard a hint of suppressed envy from this guy's tone:

"So those high-level adventurer groups are basically private soldiers of those nobles and kings, and they are just acting in the name of the Adventurers' Guild. Isn't this just being a dog for the nobles?"

"Shh! You dare to say this so loudly; I'm afraid you're tired of living!" Old Grey looked around slightly flustered. Now that no one noticed their side, he then smacked his lips: "But what you said is also correct, but—being a dog is not something anyone can do. At least in front of us bottom-level people, they are also high-and-mighty lords."

Old Grey suddenly became proud again: "But, black gloves are not so easy to be; although they earn a lot, they are also the first to go up when there is real danger."

"Just like now, ever since those 'Otherworld Demons' (wizards) invaded, those big adventurer groups have all been conscripted by various kingdoms as high-end combat power and dragged to the front line. This has made us small fish and shrimp arrogant, and grabbing some work is not so difficult."

"That's a good thing." Jie Ming nodded on the side.

Old Grey was already a bit drunk, lying on the table and muttering: "It's not bad, but the situation has become completely chaotic, and even here it is becoming more and more dangerous—"

Seeing that the other party was completely lying down, Jie Ming didn't say much, popped out a few copper coins to pay for his wine, and turned to leave.

During this period, through idle chats in the tavern, mission announcements, and secretly observing the words and deeds of the town residents, Jie Ming silently pieced together the current situation of Plane Nuolun in his heart:

First is the human kingdom, which was once at war with the Orc Empire in the north and the Elf Kingdom in the west, and was also turbulent due to noble disputes.

After the wizard invasion, under huge external pressure, the human kingdom signed peace agreements with the other two countries to jointly resist foreign enemies.

However, this peace is fragile, and friction continues in secret.

Especially recently, as the wizard's offensive has relaxed again, border friction between humans and orcs has begun to become obvious again, and small conflicts occur from time to time.

The Elf Kingdom is relatively isolated; they live in the depths of ancient forests and maintain high vigilance against external invasion.

However, the interior is not monolithic, and there are different factions of "getting close to nature, avoiding the world to protect oneself" and "actively resisting foreign enemies, maintaining the purity of the plane," with subtle opposition between them.

Dwarves are very consistent with the stereotype—stubborn as always, guarding their ancient mineral veins and generations of forging skills, maintaining high vigilance against invaders.

Their mountain fortresses are easy to defend and difficult to attack, but they rarely take the initiative to attack, and they tend to protect themselves against the wizard invasion.

The Orc Empire has always believed in primitive and powerful gods, advocating power and war.

After the wizard invasion, they became the most direct and main source of military power to resist the wizard invasion with astonishing bravery.

However, before, the orcs were willing to resist the wizards because the human empire promised to provide materials, but ever since the wizards' offensive slowed down, some short-sighted human nobles have begun to plan to renege on this debt.

And the core that supports the operation of the entire plane is the pantheon system.

The gods of Plane Nuolun have a clear division of labor; there are gods of life who govern life and abundance, gods of death who control death and souls, gods of war who symbolize power and conquest, and gods of wealth who bring wealth and trade, etc.

Other than the God of Gods, other gods are not native gods and must obtain faith power continuously through the pious prayers and offerings of believers to directly descend divine arts and intervene in the mortal world.

On the day he entered Golden Port, he chose a small church with a long history but little popularity. After pretending to be a relatively pious believer, he began to make small, long-term donations.

He only donated a few silver coins each time and showed a strong interest in the god's teachings, spending half a month establishing a simple relationship with the low-level priests and pastors of the church.

Through some idle chats, Jie Ming gradually learned some deeper information.

For example, the gods do indeed maintain high vigilance against the wizard invasion and regard it as a serious threat.

But the place where the vast majority of gods are truly worried is not the fall of the mortal world, but the fear that the wizards will compete with them for faith after the invasion.

After all, once the source of faith is cut off, even a god as powerful as them will gradually weaken.

Jie Ming sneered at this in his heart, which was completely consistent with the information he learned in the workshop.

This is exactly the "weakness" and "purpose" that the wizards deliberately showed during the invasion process; they deliberately showed a strong infection of plane laws and a greed for faith power, just to reduce the self-destruction tendency of the gods to a certain extent.

Let the gods, after weighing the pros and cons, not go to the point of using the plane origin at all costs to have a final decisive battle with the wizards.