Reborn as a Hatrack in the Mystical Land-Chapter 76 - 7 The Rookie Mercenary Group

"Since you're from the Reversed Fire Mercenary Group, why would you still want to form a Mercenary Squad with me?" The next day, after bidding farewell to his younger sister at home, Zack stood at the entrance of Shaba Town with Yue Jinghua, shouldering the dry, desolate Gobi winds like the edge of a knife, it took Zack a moment to come back to his senses.

In the town's tavern, represented by Johnny, the mercenaries had started betting on whether this novice squad could complete their first mission.

Nearly ninety percent of people bet they would fail the task.

Even so, Yue Jinghua did things her own way; after leaving a bold statement at the tavern, Yue Jinghua went to the Mercenary Guild in the town. She presented a personal recommendation letter from the deputy leader of the Reversed Fire Mercenary Group. In the Eastern Continent, a recommendation from the well-known Reversed Fire Mercenary Group was not something ordinary.

With the help of that recommendation letter, Yue Jinghua symbolically completed the physical test and family background investigation, acquired the mercenary qualification, and received a Mercenary Manual, wearing a One-star Mercenary Star Badge on her hand.

"I need to become a Two-star Mercenary within a month. To take on Stone Rank mercenary tasks step by step, that would require at least ten tasks, which means about half a year to successfully promote," Yue Jinghua had already studied the Mercenary Manual.

The Mercenary Guild is one of the organizations with the longest establishment and most complete system on the continent; the mercenary system it set up has become near perfect to this day.

According to the Mercenary Manual, mercenary levels are divided into One-star, Two-star, Three-star, Four-star, Five-star, and Star Soul, with Mercenary King beyond that. Corresponding mercenary tasks are divided into five major Shell Ranks: Stone, Shell, Bead, Diamond, and Unparalleled, each rank is further divided into Blue, Yellow, and Red according to difficulty levels.

Mercenaries undertake tasks that match their level. The Mercenary Guild also provides cross-rank tasks, but it requires a small team composed of at least two mercenaries of the same level to accept cross-rank mercenary tasks.

Upon completing a Shell Rank task, depending on the difficulty level, a Blue Shell, Yellow Shell, and Red Shell respectively count as five, six, and seven Stone Rank tasks. The normal cycle to complete a mercenary task is about five to ten days. Therefore, Yue Jinghua had to team up with others to have a chance at being promoted by completing two Shell Rank tasks within a month.

"Becoming a Two-star Mercenary in one month is almost impossible. It's been many years since someone like that has appeared in Shaba Town," Zack was well aware of the difficulty of advancing in ranks among mercenaries, let alone for someone like Yue Jinghua who had no previous mercenary experience.

"The undefeated Mercenary King Robb Keri once said, 'To do what others cannot is to be a mercenary,' and there's nothing in the world that's impossible," This is also the foreword found in the Mercenary Manual.

Yue Jinghua looked out, in front of Shaba Town was an open cold desert Gobi.

The Gobi seemed barren, yet it nurtured plenty of unique resources. Here were Gobi snow lotuses, gastrodia tuber insects, and a variety of highly valuable Dark Insects.

The mercenary tasks in Shaba Town were mostly related to this Tak Gobi. Every year, large numbers of Medicine Merchants and merchant caravans crossed through this Gobi, trading its produce to every corner of the Eastern Continent.

The task for Yue Jinghua and Zack's Mercenary Squad was to collect one hundred poison needles from the Gobi Poison Bee Tail Scorpions.

The Gobi Poison Bee Scorpion is a crawling Dark Beast, not very large, but its attack potential lies in its two pincers capable of crushing rocks and a poison needle at its tail.

Any experienced mercenary has dealt with these scorpions before. This task was commissioned by a Medicine Merchant residing in the town to the "Coconut Shell" tavern; the difficulty of the task itself wasn't high, reasonably it should be a Red Stone Rank task.

However, the Medicine Merchant demanded a short timeframe. One hundred Poison Bee Scorpions had to be collected within two days, thus the mercenary task's level was raised to Shell Rank.

Despite harboring doubts about Yue Jinghua's actions, Zack still entered the Tak Gobi with her.

Zack voluntarily went ahead of Yue Jinghua, which made her notice that Zack brought a large cloth bag.

Zack was taller than Shangguo people, but due to his family's lack of wealth, he appeared thin. He prepared a pocket in which he stored gloves for handling scorpions, a stick for moving stones, and a light for illumination.

Zack, born and raised locally in this generation, had been dealing with the venomous insects of the Gobi from a young age, familiar with all their habits.