After settling in Golden Harbor, Jeming quickly adapted to the life here.
Though the city was noisy, it gave him a long-lost sense of freedom.
He rented a simple room; during the day, he road the streets under the guise of "Jack", and at night, he returned ho to silently study intelligence and train.
After dealing with Carl, the latter unexpectedly did not continue to cause trouble, perhaps genuinely frightened by Jeming’s tactics.
Jeming didn’t pay much mind to this, knowing from Jack’s mories that there were only "rely" five "legends" residing in all of Golden Harbor.
If nothing happens, then "Mr. Jack, the Low-Rank Adventurer" naturally wouldn’t stir up trouble, but if sothing were to occur, it would be "First Level Official Wizard Jeming" taking action.
By then, it wouldn’t be a problem that could be solved by the death of just a couple of people.
The reason Jeming spared Carl before also partly had to do with wanting to see if he could fish sothing out.
In the first few days, he was sowhat excited, but Carl didn’t take the bait, leaving him slightly disappointed.
However, the previous intimidation had indeed been effective.
Upon stepping into the "Drunken Dolphin" tavern again, the half-beastman bartender’s face bore less impatience and more awe.
When Jeming requested a small task to collect magical beast materials, the bartender pointed with his short, thick fingers towards a wooden staircase deep within the tavern.
"Hey, Jack, a tough guy like you shouldn’t just take on those insignificant jobs." The bartender lowered his voice, with a tone of flattery, "The second floor is prepared for ’truly strong’ adventurers like you. There are juicier fish there."
Jeming glanced at him calmly and then headed straight up the stairs.
The environnt on the second floor was much tidier than below, and the lighting was brighter.
A large wooden board was covered with various task scrolls. Unlike the tasks downstairs, where the rewards were generally a dozen copper coins to several silver coins, the tasks here ranged from a dozen gold coins to hundreds of gold coins.
The adventurers here were evidently more robust: muscular warriors, agile rangers, and cunning thieves were all around.
They gathered in groups of three or five, whispering about tasks, or stood alone, sharply eyeing the task board.
Jeming noticed that most tasks were related to dangerous magical beast nests, ancient ruins explorations, and reconnaissance of certain perilous areas.
Occasionally, when a small adventuring team completed a high-difficulty task and returned, they would receive envious or jealous glances.
However, Jeming also noticed that regardless of whether it was downstairs or upstairs, magic professions were extraordinarily rare.
Even in a bustling city like Golden Harbor, the appearances of spellcasters were rare enough to count on one hand.
Judging from Jack’s mory, most spellcasters were patrons of noble families and would never appear in such a motley Adventurer’s Guild.
After visiting several tis, Jeming built a rapport with a middle-aged adventurer nicknad "Old Hui".
Old Hui was an experienced warrior, weathered and scarred with a knife mark over his left eye.
He always liked to sit in a corner of the bar, silently drinking his malt beer.
Among the generally low-quality adventurer crowd, Old Hui, while careful with money, was one of the few "righteous" characters.
Jeming was happy to interact with him, occasionally buying him a glass of fine rum or sharing so rare materials he discovered in the wild, and Old Hui would open up.
"Hey, Jack, you’re quite the oddity. Those small fry can’t last three seconds with you," Old Hui said, downing his drink with a slight slur, "But you need to know, the adventuring trade runs deep. On the surface it’s just work for money, but in reality, our trade is divided into two kinds."
He lowered his voice, brimming with emotions: "One kind is us, fighting in the wild for a bit of food and gold coins. Even if your skills are decent, in so people’s eyes you can only be considered the bottom level."
"Oh?" Jeming swirled his glass, intrigued by the words, "Then what counts as the top level? Is it what you referred to as the other kind?"
Old Hui’s tone was filled with scorn: "The other kind... hmph, are those Great Adventurer’s Groups, they’re Black Gloves working for various kingdoms. You know, the tasks from the Adventurer’s Union aren’t released on a whim, they all have the approval of local governnt officials. Especially those large tasks, they almost always involve strategic materials or politics, there’s no way the noble lords would hand such important matters over to random unknown individuals."
Jeming stroked his chin, realizing he indeed wasn’t aware of that, and Jack’s mory held no related information.
After all... "Jack" previously was just a bottom-level adventurer.
However, although he spoke disdainfully, he could hear a hint of repressed envy in the guy’s tone:
"So you’re saying those high-level adventurer factions are basically the private soldiers of the nobility and kings, just acting under the na of the Adventurer’s Guild... Isn’t this just being a dog for the nobles?"
"Shh! How dare you say that so loudly, are you tired of living?" Old Hui glanced around nervously.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, smacked his lips, and said, "But you’re right, still... not everyone can be a dog. At least in front of us at the bottom, they’re still lords high above."
Old Hui suddenly couldn’t help but feel smug: "But you know, being a Black Glove isn’t that easy. Although they earn a lot, when danger arises, they’re the first ones up."
"Just like now, ever since those ’Otherworld Demons’ (Wizards) invaded, those great adventurer’s groups have been summoned by the various kingdoms, drafted as high-level forces and sent to the front lines. This has allowed small fry like us to boast a bit, and snatching so work isn’t that hard anymore."
"That’s a good thing." Jeming nodded from the side.
Old Hui had drunk quite a bit and was mumbling on the table: "Yes, but the situation is completely chaotic, and even this place is getting more and more dangerous..."
Seeing the other party completely slumped, Jeming said nothing more, flicked out a few copper coins to pay for his drink, and turned to leave.
During this period, through chit-chat in the tavern, adventurer tasks announcents, and secretly observing the townspeople’s words and deeds, Jeming was quietly piecing together the current situation on the Elorcia Plane:
First is the Human Kingdom, which has been continuously at war with the northern Beastman Empire and the western Elf Kingdom, and internally unstable due to noble conflicts.
After the Wizard invasion, facing enormous external pressure, the Human Kingdom signed a peace agreent with the other two countries to jointly resist foreign enemies.
However, this peace is fragile, and frictions continue secretly.
Especially recently, with the Wizard’s offensive easing again, border frictions between humans and beastn have started to beco noticeable, with small-scale conflicts occurring frequently.
The Elf Kingdom is relatively isolated, living deep in ancient forests, maintaining high vigilance against external invasions.
Yet internally, it’s not monolithic, with factions espousing "staying close to nature, self-preservation" and others advocating "actively confronting foreign enemies, maintaining plane purity," which subtly oppose each other.
The Dwarves conform to the stereotype of stubbornness, guarding their ancient veins and generational forging skills, remaining highly vigilant against invaders.
Their mountain fortresses are easy to defend and hard to attack, but they rarely launch offensives, preferring self-preservation about the Wizard invasion.
The Beastman Empire has always worshipped raw and powerful divine spirits, valuing strength and war.
After the Wizard invasion, they demonstrated astonishing courage, becoming the most direct and primary military source of resistance against the Wizard incursion.
Previously, the Beastn were willing to resist the Wizards because the Human Empire promised supplies, but as the Wizard’s offensive wanes, so short-sighted human nobles have begun planning to renege on this debt.
The core that supports the entire plane’s operation is the divine system.
The Gods of Elorcia have clear divisions of responsibilities, with a God of Life and Providence, a God of Death and Souls, a God of War symbolizing power and conquest, and a God of Wealth bringing prosperity and trade, among others.
Except for the God of Gods, other divine spirits are not native deities and require the constant acquisition of faith power through the devout prayers and offerings of followers to directly unleash divine magic to intervene in the mortal realm.
On the day he entered Golden Harbor, he chose a historically significant yet unpopular small chapel, pretending to be a devout believer, and began small donations over ti.
Each ti he donated only a few silver coins and showed a strong interest in the divine teachings, spending half a month establishing a simple rapport with the low-tier priests and priests of the church.
Through so casual chats, Jeming gradually inquired about so in-depth information.
For instance, the divine spirits are indeed very vigilant about the Wizard invasion and view it as a serious threat.
But what most divines truly fear is not the fall of the mortal world but rather worry that the Wizard invasion will rob them of faith.
After all, if the source of faith is severed, even powerful beings like deities will gradually weaken.
Jeming scoffed at this internally, which matched the intelligence he’d acquired at the workshop perfectly.
This was exactly what the Wizards deliberately displayed as a "weakness" and "purpose" during their invasion, showcasing a strong desire to infringe the plane’s law and covet faith power, to so extent reducing the self-destructive tendencies of the divine spirits.
Leading the divine spirits to weigh the pros and cons without recklessly employing the plane origin for a desperate ultimate showdown with the Wizards.
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