Chapter 45: Four-Star Mission

  After meeting Old Wark, Rod didn't leave the Mercenary Association quickly. After all, the current mercenary team still lacked a main force MT and output. If they could find a defensive profession like a shield warrior, then for Rod, the next task would be much easier. Unfortunately, this time Rod did not find the mercenaries he wanted. After all, people of this type are always on the front line in battle, facing far greater danger and pressure than other mercenaries. Generally, only soldiers choose such professions, but these people either have no interest in the life of a mercenary or have already been recruited by major mercenary teams, making it difficult to meet them. Rod took Lidge around the main hall, contacting several swordsmen, but because none met Rod's requirements, they were all eliminated in the end.

  In the end, Rod had no choice but to give up his original idea and focus on improving the strength of the two people first. During this period, Deep Stone City did not have much potential to be dug up, although there were a few mercenary teams with very good strength, but Rod could not afford to hire them, and he was also worried that the other party would take advantage of their numerical superiority to produce some unexpected ideas, so Rod simply put this matter aside, because in front of him there were more urgent things to do.

  That's the mercenary group's contribution points.

  Lijie's words are not wrong, what is most needed now is to try to improve the score as much as possible to avoid being forced to disband during the winter break period. This is the top priority and Rod's current biggest concern. At least - at least it can't be zero eggs anymore.

  The mercenary group's points come from tasks, and the tasks are divided into two categories... One is that the client publishes the task to the Mercenary Association, and then the mercenary group takes it on its own. After completion, they receive the reward deposited by the client in the Mercenary Association. The other type is that the client actively entrusts the mercenary group, and both parties sign a commission agreement at the association before executing the task.

  The integral is determined according to the level of the task. In the Mercenary Association, commissions are divided into six levels: in addition to ordinary tasks, the remaining ones are also divided into one to five-star levels. The integrals represented by these tasks are also different and have strict restrictions.

  Mercenary teams are only allowed to take on normal, one-star and two-star tasks. Upon completion of a normal task, 1 point is awarded, while one-star tasks award 2 points and two-star tasks award 3 points. Mercenary corps, on the other hand, can only earn points by taking on two-star, three-star, and four-star tasks. Although they can also take on normal and one-star tasks, these tasks will not be rewarded with points even if completed by a mercenary corps. The top-tier mercenary guild is no exception; they can only earn points after completing three-star, four-star, and five-star tasks, with no points awarded for anything below this level.

  These provisions were formulated by the Mercenary Association and strictly prohibited anyone from crossing, that is to say, even if a mercenary squad or mercenary group completed a five-star mission, the association would not accumulate any points for them. However, this possibility was extremely small, as five-star missions were almost all extremely dangerous, and even for many large-scale mercenary guilds, it was a matter of nine deaths and one life. Letting those mercenary groups and squads that were far less powerful than them do so would basically be ten deaths without survival.

  Under such constraints, each mercenary group has its own approach. Some mercenary groups work diligently on the lowest-level and safest tasks, accumulating bit by bit to ensure their existence. Others adhere to the principle of "not making a sound until striking big", either not doing anything or going all out for a big haul.

  Rode chose the second way, after all, now the mercenary group is short of manpower, doing the lowest-level tasks diligently and carefully may be safe, but the points will not grow very quickly. As the saying goes, two fists are hard to defeat four hands, the disadvantage in number can never be eliminated. Since there is no way to be stable, it can only be done by completing high-level tasks as much as possible to gain a large number of points.

  However, when Rode put the task called "Pavel's Cemetery" in front of Uncle Hank, the old mercenary association still looked at the young man in front of him like a ghost, as if he had seen a walking dinosaur fossil come to life.

  "Are you sure you want to take on this task? Young man?"

  Old Han Ke wiped his glasses and looked at Rode in front of him with a serious expression.

  "This is a four-star mission, even if it's a fully-staffed mercenary group, it would be hard to get a good result."

  As he spoke, the old man furrowed his brow and tapped on the table.

  "It's not old Hanke trying to scare you, but previously the Blue Valley Mercenaries and Black Lion Mercenaries had taken on this task. They weren't lacking in skilled fighters either. What was the result? Even they suffered heavy casualties, and their leaders almost lost their lives. Those guys sent over a dozen people and still couldn't take it down. You... few people think you can settle it? It's good that young people have enthusiasm, but..."

  "I think there's no need to hesitate."

  As for Old Hank's words, Rod didn't take them to heart at all. The standards of "good hands" in this world and the standards of "good hands" among players are really too far apart, making it meaningless to compare them. And Rod chose this task not only because of its high score but also because of its content and reward.

  Pavel's Cemetery is located in the mountains north of Deepstone Castle, an abandoned cemetery where a lich named Pavel lies in wait. The task involves eliminating the lich and his minions, with the goal being to bring back Pavel's head as proof of completion.

  Rode chose this task with his own thoughts, apart from the high-level points, it was also because of the cards in his hand. To be honest, with Rode's current combat power, he could deal with undead creatures very effectively, but if he were to go after mountain bandits, it would be a bit troublesome. Another target was a skill book held by a lich named Pavel.

  Rumor has it that this Pavel, a lich wizard, was once a highly respected bishop, but later became a lich wizard after encountering some popular events. He possesses a sacred book called the "Book of the Divine", which is Rod's goal, as it records the skills of the spirit master.

  Here's a brief explanation of the differences between players and NPCs in terms of leveling up in Long Soul Continent.

  The player's advantage is obvious in all aspects, because of the existence of skill points, they can freely upgrade their skill levels as they wish. Like Luo De, at level 10, he can already possess NPC-level skills of 30 or 40 levels. However, NPCs are not so lucky, except for a few geniuses and monarchs, most NPCs have skills that match their level, making it clear who is stronger when compared.

  On the other hand, one of the advantages of NPCs is that their talents are not categorized like players', many NPC professions have integrated talents, and can even be chosen at will. This also makes many players quite envious, after all, their talents are separated, and due to the limitations of skill points, they cannot choose freely like NPCs, let alone the fact that many talents are exclusive to NPCs, just looking at them makes people feel jealous.

  Apart from these, there is also a big gap between the two sides in terms of upgrading. Players upgrade by eating experience, but NPCs are more like small universe explosions. They don't eat experience or upgrade normally. To make them upgrade, there are only two ways: one is that after the affection value between the two parties increases, the NPC will propose a task, and as long as the player completes this task, they can instantly upgrade the NPC's level. The other way is to use skill books on NPCs, who learn skills without level or special restrictions, so even if an NPC is only level 5, as long as they learn a level 10 skill, they will immediately upgrade to level 10.

  Of course, this also takes time.

  If she could get her hands on this book, Lisha wouldn't have to worry about anything until level 40, and the "Sacred Book" also had many real attack sacred arts that could make up for the girl's current half-baked attack power, becoming a truly qualified saint who can fight on the front lines. Moreover, considering that there will inevitably be a battle with the Night Country in the future, it is also very important to let the people around her get familiar with the fighting style of the undead as soon as possible.

  If it weren't for these reasons, Rode wouldn't be willing to run around the dead all day either. After all, he's still a living person and doesn't have much interest in those undead... In fact, if possible, Rode would rather hire a mage, even an apprentice mage would do... However, unfortunately, mages are even rarer than spirit masters, most of them don't even leave their homes, let alone come to the Mercenary Association...

  "I've made up my mind, Uncle Hank, don't worry, we'll definitely complete the task."

  I hope so.

  Having spent all his breath, Hank Uncle was unable to persuade the other party and could only helplessly sigh and shake his head. Then he bent down, focused on writing something on paper before nodding at Rode.

  "Alright, Mr. Rod, the registration is complete. Once you've completed your task, just bring back the item according to the requirements of the task delegation. As soon as it's verified and confirmed correct, we'll issue the reward to you."

  "I understand."

  Rod nodded and didn't say anything else, quickly turning around to leave. Uncle Hank looked at the slightly thin figure disappearing into the crowd before shaking his head helplessly.

  "Youth is reckless, daring to take on such a perilous task... Alas, I don't even know what to say. How pitiful, looking so young and yet..."

  Muttering to himself, Hank picked up the wine jug beside him, completely unaware of the figure that had appeared behind him at some unknown time.

  Along with the appearance of a figure, a clear and bright voice also rang out.

  "What's foolish, Mr. Hank?"

  "Oh, little miss!"

  Hearing this voice, Hank was startled and hastily jumped up. He awkwardly put down the wine jug in his hand, turned around awkwardly to look at the figure behind him, and squeezed out a bitter smile.

  "Miss, how did you have time to come here... I thought..."

  "I've come to ask you, about the matter I entrusted to you previously, how is it going?"

  "This..."

  Upon hearing the other party's inquiry, a thin layer of sweat appeared on Old Han Ke's forehead. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his face before continuing to speak with a forced tone.

  "This... I'm trying hard, miss, you've seen it too, these guys lately are really not great, I haven't found a suitable one so far, so..."

  "So it was."

  A beautiful voice like a bird's gentle chirping at dawn jumped slightly.

  "So what did that person who came looking for you just now want?"

  "Oh, that little kid."

  Upon hearing this, Old Han Ke immediately changed his expression and began to sigh.

  "Hey, that guy really doesn't know his place, miss, listen to me..."

  Perhaps he had finally found someone to talk to, and Old Han quickly told the story of how Luo De took on the four-star task. Of course, there were also complaints from young people who were proud and arrogant, and not at all down-to-earth. However, as a member of the Mercenary Association, he would never say that Luo De was sure to die there - mercenaries are very sensitive about such things, after all, they make a living by licking blood off their knives, so it's too heartless to curse someone to death.

  "So it was."

  After listening to Old Han Ke's complaints, the figure chuckled lightly.

  "How interesting, a mercenary group with only two people, actually dared to take on a four-star mission, this is indeed a rare occurrence, isn't it?"

  "Yes, and I heard that this kid is also highly valued by Serrek. I really don't know what point of this arrogant little guy was seen by Lord Serrek..."

  Uncle Hank.

  The old man's words had not been finished when the figure suddenly interrupted his speech.

  "I have something I hope you can help me with, but I don't know if you're willing?"

  "Willingly, as long as I can do it, absolutely no problem."

  "Alright, so..."

  The mercenaries in the hall grew more and more boisterous, but after hearing the figure's request clearly, Old Hanke's face turned incredibly dark.

  PS: This chapter finally roughly introduced the game's system framework, although some people may feel a bit wordy... I won't say more about this aspect in the future.