While a certain Innkeeper was planning his future farm, a large mixed group of mercenaries from the West were heading out on a joint mission to the dungeons. Now, they were just about to go past the Level 1 Danger Zone.
These were a few mercenary teams from Spaid Town—one of the territories in the western safe zone—including the largest teams, the Mallen Mercenary Team and the Seton Mercenary Team.
They were heading to the Northwest dungeon, Morveil.
Many mercenary teams rarely took missions to the danger zone. They specialized more in escort missions within the much larger safe zones, going against bandits, thieves, and political enemies rather than beasts.
However, once a year, they would hold joint missions to the level 2 areas to the nearest dungeon to them, which was the Morveil dungeon, known for its insectoid monsters.
This was because getting a lot of cores fortified level and above was difficult and very expensive. If a few gold could buy several awakened cores, and several gold can buy one or two toughened cores, then it’d take at least a hundred gold to get a fortified-level one.
After all, not only was this level of monster much stronger than the other two, but they could only be found at Level 2, which was an inherently much more dangerous place to be.
Hence, it was best to sweep through the areas near the dungeon, at least Level 2 zones, with a huge number of people. This was something quite often done, especially for missions past the Level 1 zones.
There were also ingredients—if they could recognize them—and there were specific people who went after these things, selling them for a high price to food-loving nobility.
Gathering materials in the Danger Zone was something adventurers usually specialized in, but Mercenary connections to the upper strata were far deeper than those nerds, and they could actually get better prices for the same goods.
Usually, they would just buy some from the foolish adventurers who risked their lives over here, and then sell them to the highest bidders elsewhere.
To summarize, the higher the level of the danger zone, the closer to the portals and the higher the level of the monsters and their loot. Plants also had a higher concentration of essence. It was just how it was.
The difference was that this mission was even larger than before, and there was a larger-than-usual group of nobles coming with them.
Having nobles in the team wasn’t too surprising. Everyone needed to maintain their levels, after all, and just absorbing cores might not be enough for longevity. Not everyone practiced this, but there were some who did.
"Wow, I think there are even nobles from other towns here..." one of the young men said. He had soft curly hair, tanned skin, and was tall and muscular for his age. He looked at the person next to him, a handsome dark-haired man with sharp features and pale skin, who did not answer him.
The tanned young lad was the 21-year-old Zachary, and the boy he was talking with was the 21-year-old Ren.
They were both awakened-level fighters, albeit already in tier 3. Normally speaking, they would have no business in Level 2, though.
However, this time, they were taken by their team, the Mallen Mercenary Team, on the mission as porters, along with several slaves, like the goblins.
Not many had space runes, after all. Of course, the items they carried were the cumbersome ones like the baskets, a change of clothing, secondary weapons, and so on.
As for whether it was safe for people in the awakened tier to be in a place where the average strength was at the toughened level—an entire rank higher—was, well, not really. But the pay was great, and the chances of promotion were also higher.
It was also seen as an opportunity for some to see more monsters of the toughened tier. For Zachary, it was this; for Ren, it was the pay.
Another role they had was to deal with some awakened monsters that came their way to preserve the energy of the main fighters. They were still not the main fighters because stronger people could handle the awakened monsters much faster and more efficiently, but the awakened porters must still be the ones to do a good portion of the work.
Of course, if they damaged the goods, that’d be docked from their pay, with interest.
Now, they had just cleared the path and were very near Level 2. By this time, the toughened-level mercenaries and above were starting to warm up.
The main fighters started taking care of every monster, including the awakened rank monsters—mostly monsters like the Bigroach—allowing Ren and Zach to focus more on their porter work (including butchering meat and gathering cores). It also gave them time to observe their travel companions more.
"They sure have servants and guards..." Zachary mentioned, looking at the group of nobles surrounded by Toughened and fortified-level guards and servants. "A lot more than I’ve seen before."
They heard a sneer at the side, and they turned to see that it was a blonde with an arrogant face.
"Plebians. Are you really mercenaries? You haven’t seen nobles before?" he asked as he walked alongside them. He was also an awakened-level young man, but he was from the other mercenary team. Also, unlike the two, he was no porter (his team had an all-goblin porter team).
Zachary blinked, answering the sarcastic remark literally. "I have seen nobles before, tho! I was part of an escort team once. It was all the way to Dana Town!" he said, quite proud. "Oh, Dana Town is very near the capital."
"..."
Aaron’s eyes twitched. "I know where Dana Town is, doofus ."
Ren’s unchanging expression changed a bit, and his head turned to give the blonde a look. The blonde flinched, realized his mistake, and then overcompensated and lifted his chin as if to look down on Ren.
"Huh, what is it, Ren? Wanna say somethin’?" he asked, purposely lowering his voice. "Unlike back in Town, you’re just a porter here. I won’t lose to you."
Aaron was a distant family member of one of the noble families in their Town. Although he wasn’t the heir, he still had a position, and he joined the mercenaries just to prove his capability.
Their generation was always compared, though, and he had lost more than once against the other team’s prodigy, Ren.
"You are a parasite here," Ren spat back with a consistently bored face, before heading to the fallen beasts and taking out the appraisal tool to see which one(s) had essence cores.
Ren and Zachary, along with the little goblins, worked on the monsters with cores. Aaron looked at everyone in his level with something to do, and he gritted his teeth.
He stomped to give them a piece of his mind, but he was handed a crude E-Class dagger instead. "If you have nothing to do, might as well help out."
Ren’s eyes traced over the many little green goblins ambling about, having to put a lot of effort into opening a monster’s shell. Goblins were inherently weaker than humans, so even at the same level, they naturally struggled.
Aaron did not seem to see where he was looking. He only felt offended. "How dare y—"
It was just that at this time, someone from the front turned back and glared. "Shut up!" he yelled. "Level 2 is approaching! If you don’t want to be picked apart by monsters, SHUT UP!"
Aaron finally shut his mouth, and the others did too, even if they weren’t speaking at all.
Gulp
Level Two...here they come.