Xiali bid farewell to the nun and stepped out of the church.
The fresh air rushed over her.
Between the city streets stood houses built with stone bricks, bustling crowds walked along the cobblestone roads, and every now and then, a carriage squeezed through the throng.
Street merchants and vendors shouted loudly, residents outside the taverns laughed heartily as they clinked their mugs, children gathered to kick balls back and forth, and women in cafés discussed neighborhood gossip.
A scene full of vitality and life was spread out before her eyes.
Staintainburg—that was the name of this city.
It lay to the east of the Englia Empire and was one of the cities closest to the territory of the demon clans.
“I’m a bit hungry…”
Xiali sniffed the wheat scent drifting from a nearby bakery and glanced at the linen bag the nun had handed her when she left the church.
Inside were 20 copper coins, two pieces of white bread, and a bottle of fresh milk.
Is this the newbie starter pack…?
“20 copper coins—that’s equivalent to thirty pieces of rye bread, or ten liters of milk, or two kilograms of beef…”
Xiali weighed the scant copper coins in her hand and sighed deeply.
She was, after all, blessed by the Goddess. Even if she wasn’t granted great riches, couldn’t they at least give her more money to eat?
The church sure was stingy!
But given the situation, she’d better eat first.
She pulled out the white bread and bit into it.
“Crack!”
Whoa, so hard!
This wasn’t bread at all—it was clearly dry wood!
Chewing it made a crunching sound in her mouth, with no sweetness whatsoever, only a faint wheat fragrance mixed with a slight bitterness and sawdust.
Right, there was sawdust in it!
This couldn’t compare to the big white steamed buns she used to eat every morning before the transmigration!
“No wonder in the game, when you replenish hunger with rye bread, the character’s mood drops a lot.”
Xiali’s eyes dulled.
If even white bread tasted this bad, then black bread below this must be terrible!
From a demon lord capable of destroying the heavens and earth with a wave of the hand to a hero nibbling on bread— the gap between these two identities was so huge it was like different worlds.
Xiali drank the milk as she swallowed the white bread bit by bit.
The feeling of fullness reignited the fighting spirit in her eyes.
It seemed her goal as a hero was very clear.
Make money!
She wanted to eat meat, eat seafood, and enjoy the grand feasts of this other world!
Not gnaw on wood here!
“Is there a way to quickly get money here?”
Xiali recalled the ways to make money in the game.
Join the Adventurer’s Guild and take on commissions; fool rich women until their affection maxes out and get an automatic ATM; take off clothes and perform on stage for tips; find a part-time job at a small tavern in a back alley and endure a night for a fat payout…
After all, it was an adult-rated game.
The only decent option was to become an adventurer.
At least she could keep her dignity and chastity.
“Or maybe I should switch over to the demon lord side and secretly take some gold coins from the treasury? One gold coin would last me several months.”
Walking along the street, Xiali toyed with this mischievous thought.
But it was only a fantasy.
If the Seven Demon Generals including Lilyveil, or the saints of the Englia Empire, found out, it would bring unnecessary danger whether she was hero or demon lord.
Better to obediently be an adventurer.
Besides, since she had transmigrated to this world, she might as well experience life here. The adventurer profession sounded pretty interesting!
She should find a lot of fun.
As the frontier city bordering the demon clan territory, Staintainburg’s Adventurer’s Guild was truly the city’s “pillar industry.”
It was said that 30% of the city’s population were adventurers.
Among them, only a small portion were locals; the rest had come from other cities to join the high-risk yet highly profitable wave of adventures.
Xiali passed through rows of potion shops and magic weapon stores before pushing open the guild’s door, where the noisy chatter of the hall came pouring in.
Among the adventurers inside, only a few holding magic wands were genuine mages, while the rest wielded swords, shields, and armor, listening to the arrangements and lectures of the former.
After all, this was a world where magic was supreme.
No matter how sturdy their armor or shields were, they were only enough to fend off weak low-level monsters.
If the team encountered a mid-level monster without a mage, the result would inevitably be total annihilation.
In other words, those called adventurers were really just assistants to the mages, responsible for carrying luggage, gathering monster corpses for materials, and blocking monsters when necessary.
Of the “30% of the population that are adventurers,” genuine mages were less than 10%.
The rest were little different from part-timers.
“Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild~”
As Xiali approached the front desk, the receptionist gave her a professionally practiced smile. “Little miss, are you here to post a commission?”
Am I being underestimated because of my appearance and age…? Xiali said helplessly, “No, I want to register as an adventurer.”
The smile on the receptionist’s face faded quietly. “Are you sure? Being an adventurer isn’t easy. Thousands die in the wild every year.”
This young girl looked fresh-faced, at an age where she should be in an academy. She had no weapons on her, only a ragged cloth dress. Leaving Staintainburg would mean becoming monster fodder!
“I’m a mage.” Xiali stopped her argument with this one sentence.
“…Understood. Please provide your identification information.” The receptionist’s tone shifted from “you” to the more respectful “you.”
“Xiali, eighteen years old, human.”
“And your address?”
“…None at the moment.” Xiali thought of the broken wooden hut the hero had back home and shook her head.
The receptionist paused, doubting if the girl in front of her was truly a mage, but still continued with the registration process.
After a moment, she pushed a bronze badge engraved with a name toward Xiali.
“This is your adventurer badge. Please keep it safe… Oh, and you need to pay a 15 copper coin registration fee.”
Xiali’s hand froze as she took the badge.
15 copper coins?!
There was a fee just to register as an adventurer?
She only had 20 copper coins in total!
If she paid this huge sum, she wouldn’t even be able to find a room tonight, forced to gnaw on rye bread wrapped in this ragged cloth and sleep on the streets!
Stay calm. Finish more commissions today and you can earn it back with interest… Xiali endured the pain and placed three 5-copper coins on the counter.
At last, the adventurer badge was hers.
“Are there any commissions I can take right now?” Xiali immediately asked.
“There are these commissions for new adventurers.” The receptionist placed a list in front of her.
Xiali glanced over it.
Collect herbs, deliver letters, find lost kittens…
All trivial personal errands.
She did the math.
The pay for these commissions was at most 10 copper coins, and 10% would be deducted as the guild’s cut.
That left only a single-digit copper coin payout.
“Are there any commissions with higher rewards?” Xiali asked again.
“For those, you need to go out to the wild and hunt monsters.” The receptionist took out another list.
“Recently, monsters have been seriously rampant outside Staintainburg, affecting residents’ daily lives. The city lord has issued a bounty commission with unlimited rewards.”
Simply put, you earn money based on the number of monsters you slay.
The more you kill, the more you earn!
“Slime 5 copper coins, Forest Wolf 15 copper coins, Treant 20 copper coins, Poison Spider 50 copper coins…”
Xiali’s heart beat faster with every line she read.
This was pure, shining silver!
As expected, to make money, you have to start with monsters!
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