Chapter 52: Recruitment
In a faintly lit tavern, there was a boiling cauldron of voices.
A customer put their oaken wine cup down onto the thick table, cleaned the wine suds from his bead, and bellowed, “Two people lost against one, they truly lost face!”
Everyone knew what he was talking about.
These last several days, the entirety of Snake Rat Island had been discussing Zong Ge.
“I heard you were at the pier, tell us what you saw in detail.” A companion curious requested.
The drinker exposed an awkward look, “I don’t know, either. In short, there was a spate of fighting, then both the commander and Hei Fei collapsed. More embarrassing, their weapons were snatched away by that mercenary, Shi Qi.”
Ordinary people could not discern the moves.
His companion couldn’t help but purse his brows, “Are you certain you saw that with your own eyes?”
These last few days, he also heard many rumors pertaining to this fight.
After all, on Snake Rat Island, silver level cultivators fighting was rarely seen, and would attract the enthusiastic discussion of ordinary people.
The drinker quickly refuted his fellow customer, “I saw it with my own eyes!”
The drunk customer was red across his entire face, “Shi Qi suddenly roared, pushed with both hands, and then there was a terrifying explosion of red light that looked like a fierce dragon breath!”
“Hei Fei and the commander also used the strongest battle skills of their lives, and the three’s attacks collided in the sky.”
“The ground was blown away and the sea waves reached a hundred meters!”
“The light was too harsh, and by the time we could open our eyes, Hei Fei and the commander had already fallen, their bodies all bloody.”
The retorting customer scowled greatly and berated, “Nonsense!”
But most of the tavern patrons were fixed on the customer that was loudly bragging.
Even the customer’s companion also listened attentively with zeal.
As far as these ordinary people were concerned, they wanted to hear the more exaggerated descriptions more.
Rou Zang’s capable man, the silver warlock, Mo Kong, was also mingling with these customers disguised as an ordinary person.
These days, he was secretly using collected life aura to arrange magic formations while also not forgetting to investigate and deepen his understanding of the survivors’ group.
From these false exaggerations, Mo Kong still parsed some useful information.
“The one known as mercenary Shi Qi, seemed to be close to the gold level.”
“A weapon master?”
“The city guard commander and Hei Fei had their weapons taken away. But that alone is not enough to deduce him as a weapon master.”
“Anyways, at minimum his close quarters fighting skills are very good.”
The tavern door was pushed open and Tripleblade walked in.
Upon seeing his familiar features, the tavern quickly went quiet.
A similar scene had happened before.
At the time, Hei Fei’s group was pleasure seeking in the tavern.
Now, Hei Fei’s group was the target of ridicule. The Dragon Lion Mercenary Group suppressed them, and Tripleblade was one of its members.
Numerous eyes focused on Tripleblade.
Tripleblade walked to the counter and said to the barkeeper, “Let me announce that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Group is recruiting! As long as you are proficient in a particular field, and are willing to work, you can become a member.”
“Of course, you must pass through our filter.”
He was purposely loud.
Therefore, all of the customers drinking there could hear him clearly.
They stared at each other, and all of their faces fluctuated.
Tripleblade then turned around and looked at the customers, “Drink to your heart’s content, I will be entertaining you tonight!”
Thus, joyous shouts suddenly rang out as an immense clamor nearly blew off the tavern’s roof.
The wine customers offered their thanks to Tripleblade’s generosity, and the noise attracted nearby pedestrians outside the tavern.
As people came and went, the news that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Group was recruiting spread like wildfire.
Tripleblade did not sojourn around, and left the tavern soon after.
The warlock, Mo Kong, was mingling with the crowd and watched Tripleblade’s back vanish as the door closed shut.
“Should I seize the opportunity mix in with them?” The thought popped into Mo Kong’s mind, but he dispelled it.
Why should he take the risk himself?
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Group had an impressive background, who knew what kind of detection method they had?
The scouting birds from before already alarmed Mo Kong.
“I’ve gathered a lot of information already, including their aura, I don’t need to collect more.”
During the gold level magic beast ruckus, Mo Kong had gathered the dragonman youngster’s life aura in passing.
“As long as the magic formation is arranged well, after it is activated, they will know how terrible we are!”
“Hehe.”
“With this merit, I have enough to report back to the captain.”
At dawn, new announcements were posted on bulletin boards on the main road that attracted the attention of many people.
Ordinary people were uneducated, and few of them could read.
Most peasants couldn’t even write their own names before they died.
But around every posting, there was a speaker preaching.
This hadn’t been invented by Tan Qiu, and was done by every feudal lord.
The preachers loudly and quickly read through the bulletins to the assembled people.
“The Dragon Lion Mercenaries are recruiting?”
“That mercenary group is very strong, not long ago, Shi Qi beat down Hei Fei and the Lord Commander and publicly humiliated them!”
“I heard that even Rou Zang ate a great loss at their hands.”
“If I could join them…”
Many people couldn’t help but be tantalized.
Snake Rat Island hadn’t been developed for long, and all of the island’s inhabitants were immigrants to this place.
Many of these people were very adventurous.
But someone expressed their misgivings, “The Dragon Lion Mercenary Group treated their sailors as slaves to sell off, if we become members, will we not sell ourselves into slavery? Being sold off in the future will be certain misery!”
“You’re wrong.” Another voice from the crowd immediately said, “Those sailors were all Stone Egg Island fisherfolk, they were saved by the Dragon Lion Mercenaries. They weren’t strong enough and could not fight, thus the Dragon Lion Mercenaries, our Lord, and Hei Fei made a deal together. Now the fisherfolk have become our fellow islanders, and some are even my neighbors.”
The bulletin board was lively, and attracted the attention of even more pedestrians.
The people gathered in three groups and their discussions grew more ardent.
One of them mentioned the material benefits of the Dragon Lion Mercenaries.
If one was selected for the marksman squad, they could receive an alchemy crossbow or firearm. In the future, if they had enough merit, the sailor could be given that weapon!
The Dragon Lion Mercenaries also had beastmen slaves, these were top-notch cannon fodder, and the humans that joined would be above them.
After the survivors cleaned out their previous people, they needed to replenish their manpower.
Although they had many dogmen and oxmen, they couldn’t have only beastmen, they needed the bulk of their forces to be human to maintain stability. It was the same principle Tan Qiu had when structuring the population demographics of Snake Rat Island.
Of course, Zong Ge’s previous bitter and heavy military training also allowed some people to distinguish themselves, those people are all currently part of the marksmen squad.
Zi Di was standing in a far off location, watching the people discussing around the bulletin board, she nodded slightly.
This was the third place she had inspected.
In the crowds, she had arranged people to refute rumors, answer questions, advertise the benefits of the Dragon Lion Mercenaries, and attract more people to come to the assessment.
The opportune moment was nigh.
Zi Di, the big guy, Mu Ban, and the others would use this cover to show their face and officially become members of the mercenary group.
Snake Rat Island, the Sheng Ming church.
As the morning sunshine passed through the multicolored glass window and illuminated the chest of the god’s likeness, morning prayer came to an end.
Almost every prayer was overseen personally by the priest.
He treated his congregation of mostly ordinary fishermen and peasants amiably and gently, and he attentively listened to their petitions.
As a result, after morning prayer finished, some of the participating residents stayed behind and sought the priest for aid.
Under normal circumstances, the church would solve some of the residents’ troubles. Such as supplying food and clothing, and treating sicknesses.
But today, after the priest gave a brief explanation to the residents, he withdrew from the holy prayer hall.
He came to the building wing behind the church and went to the third floor.
In his study, he saw a guest secretly paying him a visit.
It was because these days, Zong Ge was rather famous.
Zong Ge had come seeking treatment.
His arm was injured, and hadn’t yet been cured.
Whenever he used his battle qi, the power of it would erode the fractures around his arm wound, causing great harm.
His arm injury was Zong Ge’s greatest hinderance that prevented him from displaying his full strength.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t obtained a suitable treatment yet.
In his previous fight with Hei Fei and the city guard commander, don’t be fooled by the fact that Zong Ge didn’t use any battle skills, he had actually moved all of the silver battle qi within him.
After he returned to his ship after the battle, his arm injury could no longer be suppressed, and once again, a bloody circular scar appeared.
This time, because of the Anti-investigation and Prophecy formation was built, and paired up with the Deceptive Disguise spell, after Zong Ge discussed it with the others, he took a risk and came to the Sheng Ming church in search of treatment.
He previously dispatched someone to make an appointment with the priest, and requested that this treatment session be private.
The priest understood why Zong Ge had asked this, and agreed to it.
But after examining Zong Ge’s injury, the priest’s brows pursed.
“A truly dreadful wound.”
“Your arm was completely severed!”
“Regretfully, since you didn’t receive effective treatment at the time, serious repercussions remain.”
“So sorry.” The priest shook his head, “My divine spells are only silver level, insufficient to cure you.”
“A gold level divine healing spell should work.”
“A gold level healing medicine or scroll can also be tried.”
Gods bestowed believers with divine spells, and every god gave their clergy different divine power, thus each church had their own strengths.
The Sheng Ming Church was not good at healing.
Zong Ge had no choice but to regretfully leave the church.
That night, he received a letter from Tan Qiu.
The contents of the letter, as well as the humble passion of the courier, conveyed the message – Tan Qiu invited Zong Ge to dinner.
Since Tan Qiu only invited Zong Ge, it subtly wished that Zong Ge would keep this a secret.
Before leaving, Zong Ge informed the other survivors of this news.
He came to the castle alone, and joined the private banquet Tan Qiu specially prepared for him.
As the moonlight spilled across the water and delicacies, Tan Qiu made his intentions bare to Zong Ge, “Your distinguished self is close to the gold level.”
“In light of your sire’s strength, why should you be working under a semi-dragonman?”
“It would be better if you joined our side, and become a member of Snake Rat Island!”
“If you have any conditions, do not hesitate to raise them. I will do my best to meet them.”
“For example…”
When he mentioned that, Tan Qiu paused and apologized, “I don’t intend to pry on your secrets, Sir Shi Qi.”
“But I can’t bear to see a warrior like yourself be encumbered by injury.”
“I won’t hide it, I have a bottle of healing medicine on me.”
“Gold level.”