Chapter 152: Beg Town Bar
‘Fir Black Forest’
Passing through the tree-shaded pool, Xilutiya walked down the obvious road along the mountain slope, soon turning the bend in the mountain forest, where a small town with rising cooking smoke appeared before her eyes, with scattered small houses distributed among the mountain slopes, connected by stone brick paths.
Compared to the ‘Golden Plain’ located in the central area, Fir Black Forest has few permanent residents, totaling only 2000 people, scattered across various areas, while ‘Beg Town’, as the central settlement, has nearly 800 permanent residents.
Along the way, Xilutiya occasionally saw young students passing by; looking at their badges, most were between First Order and Second Order, and as for those above Third Order, she only saw one, probably the town’s resident apothecary, who wore an emerald green robe embroidered with intricate patterns of flowers and leaves.
“Dean, you’re back.” From a roadside shop drying herbs, an auntie greeted the young man passing by.
“I’m back, Helen Auntie.” Saying this, the young man carrying a broadsword walked over, chatted with her a few more sentences, then left.
“Lusha, you’re here too; did you just come out from Teacher’s herb small house?”
After walking a few steps, Xilutiya heard another conversation; the young man named Dean waved to a young girl passing by.
“Yes, I was busy all day today before finally preparing the Maglin potion base that Teacher needed.” She said this while yawning.
“Right now, I just want to sit in the bar and eat something good, then go to sleep.”
“Hehe, it’ll be better after this busy period; next time we go to ‘Gravel Riverbank’, do you want to come along?”
“There? Sure, but you guys have to protect me well; I don’t have much combat ability.” After that, the two chatted idly for a few more sentences before parting.
On the road, Xilutiya’s sharp hearing detected several similar situations; it seemed the residents of this small town, whether students or permanent staff, were all very familiar with each other.
That made sense; after all, the town only had 800 people in total, and over time, those seen frequently could be called by name.
There were two organizations stationed in this small town: ‘Lanxiang Secret Medicine’ and ‘Elk Horn’, the former mainly consisting of apothecaries, the latter composed of rangers, war dancers, and beast blooders, all professions adapted to the forest environment.
Arriving in front of the bar in the town center, Xilutiya stopped; this was probably the largest building in town, with a tall triangular roof over a three-story wooden stone building, and lively noisy voices coming from the open doors and windows.
Of the town’s 800-plus people, probably over 200 were gathered here; some drinking and eating, some gathered laughing and talking, others handling matters at the counter on the side of the hall.
Seeing the situation at the counter over there, Xilutiya understood why there were so many people; it turned out this bar was an asset of the ‘Woodland Association’, with the local office right inside the bar, extremely convenient.
The spacious hall could easily accommodate hundreds, and even when noisy, it wasn’t too crowded; Xilutiya could still see quite a few empty tables.
The tables and chairs here were mostly made of pine wood, with beeswax candle lamps hanging around the supporting pillars of the hall, a faint fragrance diffusing with the candlelight.
Sitting down at a small table in the corner of the hall, soon an enthusiastic server came over; she bounced and jumped, with a perky tail behind her waist, looking like a cat beastkin.
“What would you like?” She placed the wooden menu on the table, with rows of words written crookedly in pen.
“Any recommendations that are particularly delicious?”
Xilutiya looked at the menu above, where the main ingredients were all common in the forest.
“You must be here for the first time; then I recommend the shop’s mushroom savory pie, paired with refreshing blueberry juice for the best taste.” She selected today’s dinner for Xilutiya.
“That’ll be it.” Xilutiya decided.
“Alright~ Please wait a moment; baking the pie crust and stir-frying the filling will take some time.” The cat-tailed girl hugged the menu, waved to Xilutiya, and bounced away again.
This girl should have the ‘First Order·Beast Fangs’ nature; watching her departing back, Xilutiya observed.
She couldn’t help being curious; the prices of the dishes in this bar were higher than outside but not outrageously so—how could they afford such staff? Could she also be a student, doing some voluntary work or task?
The maiden’s gaze then shifted to the other side, where the association’s counter was, with a bulletin board nearby, hung with various sizes of signs displaying bounties and notices.
“Seeking Planli flowers, one gold coin per stalk.” There was also a sketched flower pattern beside it.
“Demanding snake sheds above Second Order; if complete, acquiring at 20 gold coins per portion.”
“Transferring a serpentine sword, quality ‘Second Order·Excellent’, price 50 gold coins.” There was a detailed description beside it; this sword had （ Sharpness+2, ‘Bleeding+1’） effects.
“Seeking specialized ‘Purification Master’, required to reduce Twisted corrosion effects by over 40%; extra 10 gold coins reward per adventure, and equal share of harvests.”
……
Purification Master? This was the first time Xilutiya had heard of this profession; from the meaning, it probably had the ability to alleviate ‘Twisted’ nature corrosion.
About 20 minutes later, Xilutiya’s ordered mushroom savory pie was finally ready, served steaming hot on the table, paired with a glass of prepared iced blueberry juice.
“Total 2 silver coins.” The price was about 8-10 times that outside, but acceptable in the woodland.
On the crispy pie crust were stir-fried mushrooms, onions, garlic slices, paired with cheese on top, the whole emitting steaming hot aroma; Xilutiya cut a small piece with a knife, put it in her mouth—slightly hot, then came the savory taste; the mushrooms were quite refreshing, balancing the richness of the cheese, while the onions and garlic slices enriched the flavor.
After finishing this plate of mushroom savory pie, Xilutiya drank half a glass of blueberry juice, then sat for a bit, slowly finishing the sweet-and-sour blueberry juice before getting up to go to the counter.
“Hello, I’d like to inquire about adventure matters in the deep forest.” She asked the association staff.
“Oh, you’re a newcomer who just arrived here, right?” She hadn’t seen Xilutiya before.
“If you’re thinking of going to the secret realm to find some resources, I suggest starting from the small river in the south, following it downstream, then heading into the valley; you might have some gains.”
“The monsters and anomalies on this route have low danger levels, very suitable for beginners.”
“If you want higher returns and some rarer resources, you’ll probably need to team up, plan the route, and best not stay in the secret realm for more than five days.”
“If you stay too long, firstly accidents are prone to happen, and secondly the secret realm will gradually erode with Twisted corrosion, requiring timely exit for recovery.”
“Traversing the grayish-white Shadow World each time brings faint corrosion; such effects are not obvious at first, but once the fate card’s corrosion reaches over 30%, it becomes extremely hard to handle, so general adventure teams return quickly once it reaches 20%.”
Was there such a thing? The maiden couldn’t help recalling that time she accidentally entered the Shadow World, shuttling through that black and white world; she did feel a bit uncomfortable, needing to consume her own nature power, but hadn’t suffered any corrosion.
Maybe it was because the place she went that time was a shallower layer, not considered dangerous.
