Blacksmith: The Tempering Begins With One’s Flesh - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: The Mercenaries’ Guild

Lin Feng casually looked through the brownish sheepskin posters pinned up to a wall.

From the top to the bottom, he counted more than twenty posters in total.

It did not take Lin Feng long to notice that the posters were arranged in order, probably based on the difficulty and grade of the mission involved.

He ran his eyes across them.

The first one he noticed was a commission from the city defense corp asking for help to maintain the discipline in the city.

Tasks like those were the lowest-level mercenary commissions. All they had to do was take a day or two to patrol the city with Grimm’s city defense corp and weed out unsavory characters.

It was easy to complete, so the rewards were extremely low as well. It would only earn them about eight silvers to one gold piece.

Lin Feng did not spend too long looking at that one at all.

What interested him more was a piece of yellowed sheepskin parchment that was pinned up as high as he could reach.

Unlike the other posters, which were written in black ink, this one was covered all in red.

Lin Feng skimmed it and gradually understood its contents. After he finished reading it, though, even Lin Feng felt the corners of his mouth twitch.

“Sigh…

“Friend, heed my advice. Don’t even think about that one.”

While Lin Feng was still looking at that poster, a middle-aged mercenary dressed like a warrior who was having a drink in the Guild suddenly approached him.

“That mission has been hanging here at our Mercenaries’ Guild for an entire year now. No one who tried it made it back alive, tsk… Seriously, what were the higher-ups thinking? Asking the Guild to hunt a Grade-5 demonic beast…”

Lin Feng instinctively nodded in agreement.

The beasts’ grade system was similar to that of human warriors, but the difference in power between grades was more pronounced for the beasts.

Although Lin Feng could easily handle a Grade-3 beast now, a Grade-4 one would be much smarter and stronger. Lin Feng would not stand a chance.

Legends had it that Grade-5 beasts were strong enough to move mountains. They were almost as strong as the Warriors’ Association’s legendary hero.

“Hey, friend, I don’t think I’ve ever met you before, have I? Are you a newbie here to register?”

The man seemed quite talkative, and he could not help but ask after taking another close look at Lin Feng.

Lin Feng did not know much about the Mercenaries’ Guild to begin with, so when the man started talking his tongue off, he was more than happy to get a free explanation. As such, Lin Feng nodded with a smile.

“To be honest, this is my first time at the Mercenaries’ Guild.”

The talkative mercenary’s smile widened, and he rubbed his hands together.

“So you are a newbie, haha! You’re in luck, because I happen to be here today. C’mere, old boy! You look a few years older than me, so I’ll be calling you Old Bro.”

The talkative man patted Lin Feng’s shoulder in a friendly manner.

After Lin Feng reinforced his heart that day, his blood circulation improved immensely, and now his skin was looking much smoother. Any outsider who saw him now would think he was a middle-aged man of about forty.

The talkative man pointed at the posters on the wall and said,

“As you can see, missions at our Mercenaries’ Guild are ordered in terms of difficulty level. A newbie like you should probably start with some easy ways as training.”

The man then pointed at the tasks Lin Feng had been looking at just now, the ones about helping the city defense corp.

Lin Feng was silent for a while before he said,

“Are there any beast-hunting commissions?

“I may not look like it, but I fought on the battlefield before…”

Once Lin Feng said that, the talkative man nodded. He appraised Lin Feng again, realization dawning in his eyes.

“I get it!

“You must be a veteran retired from the frontlines! Haha, my bad, my bad.”

The man hesitated for a bit and then snapped his fingers.

“Come to think of it, I suddenly remembered a mission that would be better suited for someone with beast battle experience like you.”

As he said that, he ran his finger down the posters on the wall. When he reached a particular poster on the second row, he whistled and said with a laugh,

“Here we go, this one.”

The talkative man pulled the poster down from the wall and gave it to Lin Feng.

“This is a commission the Mercenaries’ Guild just recently received. It’s only because they’re having that Smithing Tournament lately that none of our men had snatched this up yet.”

Lin Feng glanced at the poster curiously.

It did look suspiciously new. After Lin Feng read it carefully, his expression turned somewhat exasperated.

It was indeed a cushy job.

For one, it was only below-average in difficulty.

However, its rewards were a bit higher than all the other jobs of the same grade.

The only thing that left Lin Feng speechless was the fact that the target was in Grimm’s sewers.

“As you can see, Grimm’s sewers have been a bit rowdy lately. Some old soldiers in the city said that there are probably low-grade beasts loitering around there.”

With that, the talkative walked to one of the Guild’s counters. Lin Feng followed him and saw a lazy-looking woman lying behind the counter.

“Hey, Normir! Stop slacking off and bring out the key to the sewer that the city defense corp gave us yesterday!”

The talkative man seemed to be used to the woman’s attitude. He tapped the counter, and the woman raised her head, rubbing her drowsy eyes.

When she saw Lin Feng, her eyes lit up.

“A new merc?!”

She looked at Lin Feng, abnormally surprised, and her tone somehow turned honeyed.

“Good… Good day, sir! Do you want to register as a mercenary?

“We haven’t had a new mercenary for six whole months now!”

Awkwardly, Lin Feng looked at the eager receptionist and then nodded without a word.

“Oh, thank goodness!”

The receptionist, Normir, beamed brightly.

“Here, sign this! Hurry!

“Once you fill in this form, you’ll be a member of our Mercenaries’ Guild here at Grimm! Sir!”

The receptionist’s enthusiasm left Lin Feng feeling flabbergasted.