Chapter 255: A Huge Bounty

“Click!” The door of the Tavern opened, and two young men who pushed the door open wore top hats with velvet. Their wide red silk outer garments were embroidered with crossed Halberds and Longswords using silver thread. The bulges and folds hidden under the outer garments clearly revealed that they were wearing a suit of metal armor inside.

“So it is a few sirs from the City Guard! The same as usual today?” The owner of the Tavern quickly changed his attitude and started greeting the two young men who walked in. Although his face looked similar to when he faced others, the sharp gleam in his eyes undoubtedly gave him away. The few people in front of him were definitely his big customers.

The three citizens nearby glanced at the two who entered, then ignored them and listened even more intently. The mutual hatred between citizens and nobles from the era of King Salisbury over 300 years ago had now vanished completely.

The citizens here were not as subservient to noble landlords as they were in the last century. Noble landlords still called citizens the most noble merchants and gentlemen, and appreciated their generosity.

Therefore, in the inn, one could often see merchants and nobles drinking together like brothers. They were even very welcome because they had money and would often pay the bills for those nobles with coats of arms.

Because citizens who were truly granted status were usually collectively referred to as gentlemen. They were a social class, second only to nobles in the independent city of Saxony.

The traditional class division of Saxony society grouped nobles and the land-owning gentleman class together as the “Upper Class,” corresponding to the “Middle Class” composed of ordinary merchant classes and Master Craftsmen, and the “Lower Class” composed of ordinary craftsmen, coolies, and farmers.

But even so, there was still an indelible gap between the noble class and the gentleman class. The noble class was allowed to carry weapons on the street in the Inner City and wear metal armor within the defense area of Saxony. Commoners and guards would stand in awe of nobles, and nobles were allowed to defend themselves in Court when arrested for a case.

Ordinary Commoners would be sentenced without a public trial. Even the gentleman class could only ask familiar nobles to defend them—here, the prototype of lawyers and pettifoggers seemed to have appeared. The Church of the Just Lord had already struggled against such situations many times, but they all ended without result under the joint boycott of the nobles and various guilds in the city.

Even the Lord of Justice, the mainstream faith of Saxony, could not contend against the entrenched privileges of huge interest groups in this aspect. However, the indirect route they chose later seemed to have achieved certain results. Although they could not change the system, the believers of the Lord of Justice who controlled most of the trial rights were doing their best to ensure the fairness of the law.

The most critical reason for this was that due to being an independent city, the noble class of Saxony was quite large compared to other places. Here, titled nobles, the first generation of collateral lines or illegitimate children of hereditary nobles, Knight ranks, clergy, or guild leaders all belonged to the privileged class.

Among them, the first four were regarded as nobles, and guild leaders themselves could not obtain noble privileges. But those capable of becoming guild leaders often held one of the first four identities.

Aside from nobles, people of other identities could not openly carry weapons or wear armor on the street unless they received special treatment. Hiding weapons on the body or wearing armor under clothes, if discovered, would lead to arrest.

The only exception was thick padded armor, because it was difficult to distinguish between the work clothes of many Commoners and thick padded armor, and it was easy to hide inside loose coats, so the government directly stipulated that wearing thick padded armor in the city was allowed.

Druids and Rangers could bring dogs, camels, and horses to most places outside the noble district, while other beasts could only stay outside the city. Without special permission, no creature could fly over the city, except for low-altitude flight not exceeding the height of buildings.

Even Mages had quite strict restrictions here. First of all, casting spells in public places had many restrictions, and using spells that could be used for crimes would cause various troubles. For example, casting invisibility in the Commercial District, regardless of whether there was theft or not, would be regarded as a crime. In addition, unauthorized detection of others might also bring trouble, and charming behavior was absolutely prohibited.

So, if one wanted to live comfortably in such a city, a noble title still played a pivotal role. However, with so many privileges and benefits, it would naturally bring some corresponding troubles. Although lower-class people stood in awe of nobles, deep down they were actually afraid of or even hated nobles. In addition, nobles going out without disguise would attract the attention of others, and their every move was likely to be noticed.

Although nobles could go on the street fully armed, for nobles who valued reputation, wearing armor on the street every day was simply a shame. Unless an accident really happened, nobles usually wore noble clothes that were inconvenient for movement, wore jewelry that was detrimental to stealth, and carried decorative swords that looked good but were useless at their waists. To show or distinguish the difference between them and other classes.

And although these two nobles just now belonged to the noble class, as officers from a foreign country; like the few Knight ranks in Saxony, they belonged to the few noble members who carried weapons all day long without attracting too much attention from others.

“Wait a moment, we might have official business to handle today, so change our Ale to low-alcohol Cider. The rest as usual.” These two active duty officers looked at an Adventurer nearby who was making a long speech. Fortunately, this was not the Inner City, otherwise they would probably have to wait until everyone was gathered before acting.

This Tavern, which was also an inn, was still quite lively. The smell of stewed vegetables and roast meat came from the kitchen, and the aroma of Ale filled the ground floor shop. At the same time, the noise and laughter were livelyly transmitted to the road outside through the open door.

It could be said that this hotel was also one of the resting points for the patrol team led by those two young men. When the Outer City patrol was almost completed, they would rest here for a while and order some food by the way. If there were tasks next, drinking was not allowed. Because sometimes they still needed to go to some places outside the city to take a look.

This simple inn was filled with noise and the smell mixed with sweat and alcohol, which was a bit unpleasant at first. But the soldiers who came in afterwards almost all showed comfortable expressions and relaxed, showing that they were all very used to these. Just when their captain entered first, they were arranging horse issues with a few stable boys.

The Adventurer from before seemed to have run out of stories to tell due to his long bragging. He had to stop his words and picked up Ale to cover his embarrassment. But even so, the ordinary people in the Tavern started whispering to each other about the terrible legends of the Underdark.

One of the older noble youths began to stabilize people’s hearts: “Actually, you don’t have to worry, the nearest passage from here is in the Duchy of Nohan in the north. Under the encirclement and suppression of so many Knights there, the possibility of them threatening us here is not high.”

From his skilled actions, it could be seen that such behavior was far from the first time. Although this kind of comfort was more or less crude, it still had a good effect on those Commoners who didn’t know many characters.

But the two extra citizens in the Tavern today were not as easy to fool as those ordinary hard-working people. One of the gentlemen asked with some doubts: “Recently, the performance of the Moradin Church is quite abnormal! When I was running a business in a foreign place, I heard that those Dwarves and Dark Elves are mortal enemies. Is their action because they sensed some danger in advance! Although the strength of the Duchy of Nohan is powerful, it is hard to guarantee that there are no other entrances right near us! Wasn’t the passage in the Duchy of Nohan also newly discovered recently?”

“You think too much, that’s because a large number of Dwarves and Gnomes escaped from the previous underground passage. That Temple is lobbying the Noble Parliament to let them come here to settle.” The officer shook his head and said.

“A large number of Dwarves coming here to settle! This is a big deal! By the way, if it really happens, won’t we become the famous Steel Capital of the Western Continent?” One of the gentlemen seemed to be very optimistic about the development in this area.

In Saxony City, the forces of Heironeous the Invincible Hero, Pelor the Sun God, Kord the God of Brawl, Tyr the Lord of Justice, Bokabu the God of Magic, and Fharlanghn the God of Roads were the most huge. Their formal Clergy were officially recognized as priests, which showed their extraordinary influence.

At the same time, because it was a multi-race commercial city, the believers of racial gods such as Yondalla the Halfling Goddess, Moradin the Dwarf God, Bahamut the Platinum Dragon God, Garl Glittergold the Gnome God, and Corellon the Elf Main God were not few. In addition, during the establishment process, the power of Wee Jas the Goddess of Magic and Death, Olidammara the God of Rogues, and Hextor the God of Tyranny was borrowed. All the above few Churches also had open Temples, although they were not officially recognized.

In fact, the relationship between Hextor the God of Tyranny and Tyr the Lord of Justice and Pelor the Sun God was extremely bad. Wee Jas the Goddess of Magic and Death and Bokabu the God of Magic were even mortal enemies. It was unknown how these guys coexisted peacefully in the same city.

Even more amazing was that it was said that Nerull the God of Death, Vecna the God of Secrets, Erythnul the God of Hate, Gruumsh the God of Orcs, and Tiamat the Goddess of Evil Dragons also had secret Temples here. This environment of mixed good and bad people was really no different from a big demon capital.

Fortunately, nobles who served as Clergy usually believed in Heironeous the Invincible Hero or Tyr the Lord of Justice. Although there were also nobles who believed in Hextor the God of Tyranny and Sas the Human True God, they would not publicly express their faith. Especially Sas, who called himself the Human True God, the heretic who promoted monotheism was the enemy of all gods. However, it was said that he could improve the aptitude of believers in certain aspects, so there was still some market among nobles.

Precisely because of this, those influential Dwarves would make such a request.

“Impossible! The guilds in the city will not allow it, a large number of foreign Craftsmen dividing the cake that belongs to them! Especially those Masters of the Blacksmith and Mason Associations, the reaction is unusually fierce. This matter is still noisy, I dare not predict the final result.” Someone revealed a little inside news and then started to replenish their strength.

Due to the development of commerce and handicraft industry, a new joint organization—Guild—gradually emerged in free cities and coastal areas. Its names included “Brotherhood,” “Friendship Society,” “Association,” “Alliance,” etc. Later it developed and flourished. It even spread to the entire Western Continent, sweeping through cities and towns.

Not only merchants, sailors, Craftsmen, painters, teachers, actors, hunters, farmers, but also monks, beggars, executioners, etc., all established guilds. Merchant guilds initially had great power because handicraftsmen also joined merchant guilds at first. With the continuous enhancement of the power of handicraft guilds, merchant guilds began to decline but were still pivotal.

These guilds were organizations established to protect the interests of their own industry, help each other, limit internal and external competition, stipulate business scope, ensure business stability, and solve owner difficulties. At the same time, they often possessed many characteristics.

But the most important was monopoly. For example, city merchant guilds, although initially every citizen could participate, later gradually became groups held by a few oligarchs. Merchant guilds stipulated that those who did not participate in this organization could not do business. Participants had to trade at designated times, places, and agreed prices, and violators would be punished. Handicraft guilds had strict regulations on the production conditions, business conditions, number of apprentices recruited, working hours, product specifications, quantity, price, and tools used by guild members, and commodity sales and raw material procurement were also handled uniformly.

Moreover, in order to ensure their monopoly position, guilds solved various problems through the “independent jurisdiction, force, and assembly” established by themselves. For example: “When the city wanted to wage war, the guild participated in the battle as a separate company, it had its own weapons and its own elected commander.”

They paid such a big price, of course they would not allow others to touch this big cake that had already been made.

Especially the Craftsmen Master Associations, Craftsmen Associations, and Apprentice Associations among handicraftsmen, initially established only due to differences in age and technology. Later, they had differences in wealth and power, belonging to three different levels. The originally solid System might fall apart due to those Dwarves and Gnomes suddenly pouring in.

Although there were also members of those two races in the guilds of the independent city of Saxony, they were only a minority after all.

And the Merchant Guild of Saxony, managed by the Duncan family, undertook all commercial behaviors, from opening shops on the surface to killing and arson in the dark, any transaction could be entrusted to the Merchant Guild for intermediation. Compared with other Merchant Guilds, the Merchant Guild of Saxony City even integrated the functions of the Thieves Guild and the Mercenary Guild, with a large number of members and complex components.

The Merchant Guild had autonomy in the Caravan District, they required Caravans entering and leaving the city to accept their unified management in addition to paying tariffs. According to the regulations of the guild, goods transported from the river could not find Caravans to transfer by themselves, and goods transported from land could not load ships by themselves either, all goods had to be stored in warehouses first and distributed by the guild. At the same time, local residents with legal citizen status of Saxony City could join the guild to be exempted from tariffs and obtain priority distribution. It could be seen that their strength was solid, and the efforts of the Dwarves could be said to be slim.

At the same time, the Duchy of Nohan began to offer a bounty for the whereabouts of those potential Dark Elves in the Underdark. The finder could exchange relevant information for 100-3000 Gold Coins, the more detailed, accurate, and urgent the intelligence, the higher the price.

In addition, there were 6000 Gold Coins, which was to go deep into the Underdark connected by the cracks below, and draw maps in a large area below to determine if there were underground aliens living there. Since fighting and elimination were not required, the task was 6000 Gold Coins, and it did not need to be completed at one time, as long as an area was drawn, the corresponding remuneration could be obtained.

Generally speaking, the Underdark was located 2 kilometers below the ground. If it was the first layer, there were many natural caves. Simply put, the Underdark was a network composed of several incomparably huge cave systems connected to each other, it also included other terrains, such as coral caves with deep water, hollow parts of huge hard ice with creatures living in them, and caves formed by fungi, bones, and even simple power. So the second task was actually not easy.

These two tasks were almost a big task, with a total value of 9000 Gold Coins, therefore, they were immediately responded to by local Adventurers and foreign high-level Adventurer teams, they rushed here one after another, and the fast advance team had already arrived here yesterday, which was the third day after the news was announced.

However, although this was the case, it was still very quiet, and several teams of Adventurers were active in the designated camp area not far away. For 5 Knights of at least Bronze Rank, for the Lord, for the stationing of 3000 soldiers, they were still quite in awe.

Here they rarely had loud noises, let alone fighting events—they were just seeking wealth. Conflicting with the employer, especially a Lord of a Duchy, was something they didn’t like, they had long passed the era of being hot-headed and rash.

But at this time George behaved quite excitedly, because the sales of the rations he brought could be said to be increasing day by day.

Although many rocks on the first layer of the Underdark were covered with moss, and there were thin water flows, and some were mushrooms that didn’t need light. Although most of the water was non-toxic and drinkable. But for mushrooms, several of them were poisonous, and several were not. It was not so easy to distinguish—because their characteristics were completely different from the Surface.

Although there were schools of fish in places with a lot of groundwater, those schools of fish whose eyes had completely degenerated, said to be very delicious. However, this was not so easy to find.

Adventurers without space bags could not carry a large amount of logistical materials, so the supplies on the Surface appeared particularly important.