secret dice.

Chapter 785 Mercenary Guild
"Level restriction?"

Luo Jun raised an eyebrow: "The nine provinces and the capital are all on the same land, right? Can't you get there?"

Mulan Shi shook her head: "That's the background setting, but in reality, each province is in a different plane. This world is like a giant video game, and its operating logic is completely different from other worlds."

"I've made a lot of attempts over the past two days. Friendly NPCs in the town cannot be attacked. You can only damage them when certain mechanisms are triggered to put them in a hostile state. Similarly, buildings will not be destroyed except in special circumstances, which is a kind of protection mechanism for the town."

"But once you're in the wild, these restrictions loosen considerably. Besides being able to attack monsters more freely, trees and rocks are also considered resources that can be destroyed and mined."

"Even in a game, the degree of freedom isn't that high..." Luo Jun complained.

"There are indeed many restrictions, but the NPCs here are also very intelligent, at least much more so than those in the beginner village. It feels like a different version," Mulan Shi said. "Aside from certain pre-defined functions, they communicate just like ordinary people. They can trade freely, make friends, join organizations, and even steal and frame others..."

Luo Jun looked at Mu Lanshi with a somewhat complicated expression: "You've tried quite a few things these past two days..."

“I guess it’s an occupational hazard,” Mu Lanshi sighed. “When I come to a new environment, I always try to figure out the rules of operation as soon as possible.”

"So that means even a master of ascension to immortality has their power greatly restricted in this world?" Luo Jun looked at his hands as he said this.

“You could say that.” Mulan Shi checked her supernatural abilities interface: “I’m a dual cultivator of the main control and secondary elements. My abilities in this world have been categorized as skills and quantified. Power, mana cost, casting range, and area of ​​effect all have clear values. To some extent, it’s indeed standardized, but many of the related reactions based on the laws of reality’s physics have also been blocked.”

"For example, suppose a powerful, top-tier warrior, with terrifying strength, can punch a crater with a diameter of over ten meters, damaging multiple enemies within its range. However, under the rules of the game, no matter how heavy his punch is, it's still a single-target attack. Even if a punch deals 99999 damage, it can only kill one enemy."

Luo Jun had already confirmed this; he discovered it while hunting monsters in the starting village. Although the attack power was high enough, the impact on the world and the environment was greatly weakened...

"It seems I'll need to adapt more to move freely in this world..." Luo Jun nodded. "My abilities are limited, and I can't use my Noble Phantasm yet..."

“People like you and me are alright,” Mulan Shi sighed. “The more powerful they are, the more obvious the limitations are, like the Ice Queen.”

"It's obvious too, okay!" Luo Jun retorted, somewhat unconvinced. Mu Lanshi paused for a moment, then laughed, "Right, right, I almost forgot, you're a little prince of treasures!"

A treasure? Luo Jun was slightly taken aback. Looking at Mu Lanshi's clear eyes, he thought to himself, "Wan Guiyuan didn't tell her about my abilities?"
Although Mulan Shi is young, she is considered a high-ranking member of the Yuan Cultivation Society... However, recalling that Elder Zheng didn't seem to know much about my abilities, could it be that these Ascension cultivators conspired to conceal my cultivation level?

However, since others don't understand, Luo Jun has no reason to show off.

"In short, the most urgent thing right now is to level up and gain the qualification to go to the capital," Mu Lanshi said. "I joined the Rose Mercenary Group to do missions and level up as quickly as possible. This will not only improve my strength but also earn me some gold coins. In this world, we also need to consider our basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter."

To improve our strength?
Luo Jun brought up his ability interface and saw that his health and mana were now marked with parentheses (+130), while his attack power was marked with (+13).

The numbers in parentheses represent the upgrades. Luo Jun observed that before level ten, each level increases life mana by 10 points and base attack power by 1 point. Starting from level eleven, each level increases life mana by 20 points and attack power by 2 points.

At the same time, after reaching level ten, his Eye of Insight also upgraded. In addition to the level, health, and mana bars, he could also see a white bar representing stamina, but it was all displayed as a percentage, and the specific value was unknown.

"By the way, Sister Mu, did you also redeem the Eye of Insight from the newbie gift pack?" Luo Jun noticed that Mu Lanshi would occasionally look up at the top of her head, probably activating her ability.

"You too?" Mu Lanshi smiled. "I think in an unknown world, gathering information is the most important thing. This not only shows your health and mana, but also the levels of NPCs and monsters up to ten levels higher than you, which is very convenient!"

Luo Jun nodded and shared the information about the upgraded Eye of Insight with Mulan Shi.

"So the effect increases with level..." Mulan Shi nodded: "In other words, if the level is high enough, the Eye of Insight may even be able to see through all of a person's attributes. Perhaps some of the explorers who came in earlier have already reached a very high level."

“The benefits of leveling up in this world are more than I imagined. I’m going to register for a mercenary qualification tomorrow,” Luo Jun said, taking a bite of a meat skewer. “Or, Sister Mu, could you recommend me to your mercenary group so we can do missions together?”

Luo Jun also discovered that completing quests was a more efficient way to level up than killing monsters. He had previously done quests haphazardly in the starting village, killing a large number of high-level monsters, and only managed to level up to level twelve. Moreover, as his level increased, the rewards for killing monsters decreased. Just delivering a simple love letter gave him the same experience as killing ten high-level monsters.

Even if he registers tomorrow, he'll just be a novice mercenary, and it will be difficult for him to get high-difficulty missions. If he can join a large mercenary group, it should improve his efficiency a lot.

“I’m afraid that won’t work…” Mulan Shi shook her head: “The Rose Guild is an all-female mercenary group and does not recruit men… If there were no such restriction, I wouldn’t be able to join so easily.”

"If you can't find a mercenary group, you can try forming a random group and being matched with several NPCs. It's more profitable than doing solo missions."

"That's all we can do." Luo Jun sighed. "I just don't know... what kind of mission do I need to complete to go back to the main world..."

"We should get some clues once we get to the capital and meet the seniors."

………………

The next morning, Luo Jun registered with the Mercenary Guild. Because his level was not low among newbies, he was not rated as the lowest E-level mercenary, but was given a D-level.

However, D-rank mercenaries were everywhere in the main city, making it difficult to find a large team to join. Luo Jun had no choice but to activate the free matchmaking system. Since he was currently D-rank, he could only be matched with E-rank to C-rank missions. He selected C-rank missions first and was quickly matched with a random team.

"Huh? Only three D-rank matches?"

The random team consisted of eight people, including Luo Jun. Five of them seemed to be acquaintances who often teamed up with each other, and they were naturally the core of the team. The leader was a red-haired, heavily armored warrior.

"We five are all C-rank mercenaries, so you three D-ranks better not drag us down!" The red-haired warrior's disdain was utterly undisguised. The others' reactions were equally vivid; if it weren't for the levels and health bars above their heads, you'd never guess these guys were just game NPCs. "So typical?" Luo Jun thought to himself, "Could the creator of this game world be a hardcore anime/manga fan?"

"Our mission is to hunt the C-rank magical beast, the Heavy Armored Xuan Turtle," the red-haired warrior in the lead said. "The guild has marked the exact location on the map, and you should all have received yours by now. I don't know if any of the three of you have experience hunting C-rank magical beasts, but I'll warn you beforehand that the Heavy Armored Xuan Turtle is considered quite powerful among C-rank magical beasts. The huge bone hammer on its tail is incredibly powerful and can easily smash through a knight's heavy armor; it's one of the spoils we'll be bringing back. But what's most terrifying about this monster is its defense. That thick shell is so difficult to damage without sufficient attack power... So I advise you to bring some armor-piercing equipment and items."

As he spoke, he glanced at Luo Jun and said, "The one-handed sword on your waist is obviously not good enough. If you replaced it with a hammer or something similar, it would be more suitable."

"Okay, I'll go change right away." Luo Jun was very easygoing. "Could you wait for me a moment?"

"We're about to set off, and you're only now thinking about changing your gear?" the blue-haired mage beside the red-haired warrior complained. "The Heavy Armored Tortoise's habitat is nearly twenty kilometers from Harbor. Even if everything goes smoothly, we'll have a hard time getting back before dark..."

"Fine, let him go." The red-haired warrior curled his lip impatiently. "It's better than scraping a tortoise shell with this little piece of metal..."

"Sorry, sorry..." Luo Jun said with a smile, "Give me twenty minutes... no, fifteen minutes will do." With that, he left the group's sight.

The NPCs kept their word and waited obediently for Luo Jun. After about seventeen or eighteen minutes, Luo Jun jogged back to the rendezvous point.

"Wasn't it fifteen minutes?" the blue-haired mage frowned. "You're three minutes late! If this delays the hunt, can you take responsibility?"

Redhead waved his hand and looked at Luo Jun: "How's the hammer replacement going?"

Luo Jun smiled and opened his inventory, taking out a huge bone hammer the size of a water vat. The back part, which could be called the handle, was bloody and covered with scales, looking like the tail of some kind of monster.
"Is this okay?"

Several C-rank warriors stared wide-eyed at the sight, the leader, a red-haired warrior, his voice trembling slightly: "This is... the bone hammer of the Xuanjia Dragon Turtle? What you...!"

"Isn't this the quest item?" The other two D-ranks exclaimed in surprise, "The quest is already complete?"

"You...who exactly are you..." The blue-haired mage looked at Luo Jun, his teeth chattering, his tone and address changing.

"Who I am is not important..." Luo Jun smiled and lowered the tail of the armored tortoise: "Did I delay your mission?"

"No, no, no... You're joking..." The blue-haired mage's legs were a little weak. Although Luo Jun couldn't hurt him as a friendly NPC, his behavior was very much in line with real people and hadn't changed because of the game mechanics.

"In that case, let's go turn in the mission." Luo Jun smiled at the red-haired warrior: "You're the captain, you initiated the mission, right?"

“Um…we didn’t do anything…” Redhead shook his head: “You should pay for it yourself. We don’t deserve any reward…”

"You want me to have it all to myself?" Luo Jun looked at the task list: "This task is worth eight gold coins, and each person can get one gold coin. Are you willing to part with it?"

"You...you're joking." The blue-haired monk smiled broadly. "I was blind to your greatness and was very rude just now..."

"I still prefer your defiant attitude from just now..." Luo Jun smiled, then turned to look at everyone else: "We'll split the mission reward equally. In return, I have a favor to ask of you all..."

…………

Meanwhile, in Booty Bay, south of Harbor Harbour, a group of fully armed mercenaries were cautiously advancing.

This mercenary group was composed entirely of women. The leader was a blonde female knight wearing silver armor named Margaret Golden Rose, the leader of the Rose Mercenary Group, and one of the few A-rank mercenaries in Harbor.

Following behind Jin Qiangwei was Mulan Shi, who held a longbow and looked wary.

The Rose Mercenary Group is Harborn's elite mercenary group, known for its all-female mercenaries. They possess considerable combat strength and typically undertake missions of at least B rank, with some even having participated in S rank missions.

Normally, it would be difficult for a newbie like Mulan Shi to join such a powerful and skilled mercenary group. However, Jin Qiangwei wasn't particularly superstitious about mercenary ranks and even enjoyed discovering potential talents among novice mercenaries. When she returned to the guild to turn in a quest, she happened to see Mulan Shi registering as a mercenary and was immediately attracted by the remarkable magical power emanating from the girl, so she took the initiative to ask her to join.

"A little nervous about participating in an A-level mission for the first time?" Jin Qiangwei seemed quite composed, turning around and smiling, "These past two days I've only done two C-level missions with the second team as a warm-up. The intensity of an A-level mission is completely different."

Mu Lanshi nodded. She was also at the Concentration Realm and a dual-faction cultivator. Her strength far surpassed that of ordinary C-rank mercenaries. Normally, C-rank missions should be easy for her.

However, firstly, she hadn't fully adapted to the pace of this game world, and secondly, although her cultivation level was quite high, she mainly worked in administrative and clerical positions within the Yuanxiu Association, and had almost no real combat experience. Therefore, what should have been an easy C-rank mission still brought her a slight shock.

Because of the gamification, the battles in this world are not very bloody. However, both humans and monsters have various unavoidable lock-on skills. Although they are not fatal, they will make your health bar jump around and you will be afflicted with various abnormal statuses.

Ironically, in this world, the pain of being attacked is exceptionally clear, and as the health bar decreases, a unique discomfort arises that is absent in other worlds. Furthermore, different abnormal states cause different sensations of pain.

After a battle, no matter how much blood is lost, the body remains intact, but the spirit and soul will suffer considerable torment.

"It's alright..." Mu Lanshi nodded with a smile.

"Relax," Golden Rose smiled. "Your attributes are quite good. With your health, unless you encounter a monster of A rank or higher, it's impossible to kill you in one hit. Even if you're ambushed, you'll have a chance to fight back... Besides, I'm here."

Seeing her confident commander, Mu Lanshi felt a little more at ease. But just then, she caught a glimpse of a dark shadow out of the corner of her eye, shooting towards her at incredible speed!

(End of this chapter)