Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 143 - 7 New Task_1

(263...084...458... Readers group, feel free to join. PS for friends passing by, please add it to your favorites and recommend it. Your support is my greatest motivation. By the way, could you all give me some feedback, thanks!)

"Senior, you are part of an adventure team, aren’t you?" Dora looked at the other three people, "Are you preparing to enter the Shining Forest on this trip to Karatomir?" freēwēbnovel.com

"Why? Do you also think it’s dangerous to enter the forest in this season?" Catherine furrowed her eyebrows, replying with some puzzlement.

"That’s not exactly it." Dora shook her head: "Magical beasts are not intelligent and don’t have Aggression like intelligent beings do. They rely entirely on their physical strength for combat. A Gold Rank professional can handle at least three Gold Rank magical beasts. The several of you working together could handle more than a dozen without any problems. I’m not worried about magical beasts."

"Is there some other issue in the forest?" After hearing what Dora had said, Catherine realized there was an implicit message in her words.

"Yeah, there have been some problems recently." Dora chose the information that she could disclose: "Recently, headquarters received a medium-sized task to eliminate a band of thieves operating in and around the Shining Forest. This band of thieves is involved in human trafficking."

"Slave trading?" Lina wrinkled her nose in disgust, making a square with her hands in front of her chest and muttering a prayer.

"Not slave trading, thank the elves, and thank the 214-Day War twelve hundred years ago." Dora muttered quietly: "Without the elves eliminating most of the major human aristocratic families who supported the slave trade, the abolitionist movement would not have been so successful."

"If it’s not slave trading, then what are they trafficking people for?" Catherine inquired curiously.

"I don’t know." Dora shook her head: "We’ve captured some of the peripheral members, but even they don’t know who the buyers are, or what their purpose is."

"We came across a dark god’s sacrifice last month." Catherine suggested, "Could it be that group?"

"Probably not, a dark god’s sacrifice always leaves traces and bodies behind. But these human traffickers..." Dora paused for a moment: "The trafficked humans vanish without a trace. No people, no bodies, completely disappeared. No one knows what happened to them. That’s why someone at the Guild has offered a high reward for the mission to track these people. The client remains anonymous, but I suspect it might be a lord from somewhere near Neville, or perhaps even the current Speaker of Neville."

After the split of the Neville Empire, twelve duchies and fourteen marquisates were formed, making up the Neville Federation. The Federation doesn’t have a king. Instead, representatives from the twenty-six lords jointly form the nobles’ council to handle state affairs. Every three years, they elect a Speaker from among the twenty-six lords. The Speaker’s term cannot exceed nine years, hence the title ’current Speaker’.

"So, have you tracked them down?" Catherine suddenly realized: "You mean, they’re hiding in the forest?"

"Yes, that’s what the prisoners said." Dora confirmed: "However, the prisoners are mere peripheral members, they don’t know the specific location inside the forest."

"They can actually station themselves in the forest." Catherine was surprised: "Really amazing."

"It’s not actually that hard." Dora simplified the explanation: "They don’t have more than a thousand people. To the magical beasts, they are just another tribe. Among them, there are four Gold Rank professionals and several Silver Rank professionals. So to the magical beasts in the Shining Forest, they are a relatively strong tribe. As long as they don’t provoke the Legendary magical beasts in the center of the forest, they can occupy any large cave and maintain daily safety without too much trouble. They might lose some of the less important members at most."

"Hmm, makes sense when you put it that way." Catherine nodded: "I’ve never heard of coexisting with magical beasts before."

"I only found out about it after I got stationed here for border patrol." Dora replied: "That said, it would be quite troublesome if you ran into these people while you are in the forest."

"Thank you, Dora." Catherine replied: "We will be careful."

"Senior, I don’t think you understand what I’m asking for." Hesitating for a moment, Dora stepped forward, grasping Catherine’s arm firmly, looked directly into her eyes, and said, almost pleadingly: "Senior, help me."

Catherine didn’t respond, calmly looking at Dora. Her eyes slowly descending from Dora’s face, her neck, her shoulders, her left arm, before finally stopping at Dora’s left hand on her chest. Her lips twitched as she said: "Heh heh, oh dear, it’s been a while since I taught you the rules of being a human, hasn’t it?"

"This... this... this... is an accident, I didn’t mean to." Dora was also surprised, quickly letting go of Catherine while explaining with a nervous laugh: "You trust me, right, Senior? I didn’t do it on purpose."

"You, you, you." Catherine sighed and shook her head, stroking her long hair: "I really want to smack you."

With an evasive look, Dora continued to giggle: "I apologize Senior, but, I really need your help."

"Help you with what?" Catherine asked: "Help clear out the band of thieves?"

"Yes." Dora nodded in affirmation: "It’s the season for magical beast invasions, and the team is scattered across the various villages on the border line. We can only spare forty Silver Rank members to enter the forest. Of course, even if it wasn’t this season, we couldn’t have sent too many people in. If too many people entered at once, it would easily provoke a large-scale magical beast attack, and we would be inevitably annihilated. So, the current situation is that I have to lead forty Silver Rank members to eliminate nearly a thousand enemies. Among the enemies, there are four Gold Ranks and over thirty Silver Ranks."

"Sounds a bit exaggerated." Catherine scoffed.

"It’s outrageous, like we’re being sent to our deaths." Dora said with a bitter smile, "It would be better if we couldn’t find them. If we do find them, it’s not certain who will be wiping who out."

"But, as I remember, the leader and captain of your Silver Lily Group are both Legendary." Catherine asked in confusion, "And the leaders of your third, fourth, sixth, and seventh teams are all Gold Rank. Why don’t they go with you?"

"It’s a magic beast invasion." Dora said with gloomy expression, "Our captain is stationed at the southernmost line of defense, and our leader is here. They are indispensable. The other four Gold Rank captains are stationed in the most dangerous villages. If we remove them, I’m afraid the villages will be breached, and many villagers will be injured or killed. So, it isn’t feasible to call them here. The leader is now considering whether to change the task, like other mercenary groups asking for help, but doing so will leave a bad record for our mercenary group. So, please, I need your help."

"This gang is incredibly strong." Catherine pondered, "I have never heard of them."

"It’s the result of several gangs coming together." Dora explained, "We don’t know who their employer is, able to merge several unrelated gangs together. It’s quite a headache."

"Dora, I need time to think." Catherine stated solemnly after a while of thought, "You should know, this is a dangerous matter. I cannot simply agree, I need some time. Let’s do this, I will give you an answer tomorrow morning."

"Big Sis." Lina signalled Catherine with her eyes and whispered a few words in her ear before saying in her normal voice, "Anyway, our task is exploration and treasure hunting. There wouldn’t be a major difference in the chances of encountering the thieves whether we cooperate with them or not, the risk is the same."

"Exactly, Big Sis." Vivian chimed in after a brief discussion with Lina and Pannis, "So, it’s fine to agree. Also, don’t you remember Lina’s new ability? Even with more enemies, there’s no need to worry."

Pannis didn’t say anything, focusing on the mutton on his plate, which drew an annoyed eye roll from Catherine. Of course, she knew Pannis didn’t like to express himself in front of outsiders. His behavior indicated that he agreed with Lina and Vivian’s viewpoints.

"Phew." Catherine sighed deeply and looked askew at Dora, "I am an adventurer."

"I know." Dora blinked in confusion.

"I am an adventurer!" Catherine emphasised her words, glaring at Dora.

"Ah, I understand now." A smile appeared on Dora’s face, "I will let the others pay the Adventurers Guild as per the rules."

"Good." Catherine’s gaze became sharper and she said assertively, "Then, let’s discuss the question of compensation."

"Five thousand." Dora held up five fingers, "Not a coin more."

"Are you kidding?" Catherine snickered, supporting her chin with her hands, she shot a hostile gaze at Dora, "We are about to face countless magical beasts, fight against four Gold Rank professionals plus more than thirty Silver Rank ones, and finally battle more than a thousand people. Yet you want to dismiss us with five thousand gold coins? Are you insulting our judgment?"

"You can rely on me and forty Silver Rank professionals." Dora didn’t back down, her words bristling with challenge, "We can only get forty thousand gold coins for the whole task, giving you one-eighth of that is already a big commitment."

"Ha, ha, ha, what a funny joke." Catherine broke into an artificial laugh, "Do you think this is my first day dealing with mercenaries? The starting price for an intermediate task of a mercenary group is at least fifty thousand. Given the difficulty of your task and the background of your employer, I don’t believe the reward is less than seventy thousand."

"There are only fifty thousand gold coins at most." Dora stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes sparkling with defiance, "Based on the number of people, we have forty-one and you have four, we can’t give you too much, at most six thousand."

"What a joke." Catherine’s eyes were ablaze, a fierce stare exchanged between the two, "Can one compare the price of four diamonds to the price of forty-one stones? We are the ones exerting the most effort."

"Eh, tell me." Pannis quietly asked Lina and Vivian, "Is bargaining a mandatory course in their Knight Academy?"

"I think so." Vivian nodded vigorously, "And it’s a very aggressive form of bargaining."

Lina pulled out a small folding fan from somewhere and half-opened it to cover her mouth while she giggled, engrossed in the gold-by-gold quarrel between Catherine and Dora.

"By the way Lina." Vivian whispered into Lina’s ear, "What did you secretly tell Sis just now?"

"I just reminded her." Lina laughed like an elegant fox, "Even if we find the other party, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll engage in combat. When the time comes, if we find the risk is high, we can just withdraw as long as we’ve marked the location. Whether we fight is up to us. Even if we pull out, they will still be grateful to us. And since we’ve got their location, it’s not too late to call in reinforcements."

After pondering for a moment, Pannis quietly shifted to the side, striving to widen his distance from Lina who lightly hummed a tune and cast a gentle glance over Pannis’s face, and then broke into a faint smile.

The argument lasted nearly an hour. Under the nearly numb gaze of the other mercenaries in the tavern and Pannis’s group, Dora and Catherine finally agreed on a compensation of fifteen thousand gold coins.

"Here’s to a pleasant partnership." The two female knights displayed satisfied smiles as their hands clasped tight.