Leaving the manor and walking downward for nearly half a kilometer, they reached the edge of East Hamlet near the meadow, where an open-air assembly hall with stone brick walls stood.
The Weeping Peninsula was a remote, lawless land; this region had no dedicated Adventurers' Guild, only Gatherers' Guilds like this one.
It was also a quite bustling place.
The Gatherers' Guild throughout the Weeping Peninsula only truly thrived here, because Hamlet Town was situated at the entrance of the peninsula, connected to a neighboring inland port town called Haven. Whether it was cargo shipping, resting crews from long voyages, or supply stops for hunting groups targeting wyverns, everyone passed through Haven, and passing through Haven naturally brought them to Hamlet Town for purchasing supplies.
The only geographical advantage of remote areas was the sufficiently low acquisition price of raw ecological materials.
Wyvern scales were driven down to a price of 100 scales per Gold Lei, whereas in the kingdom that price would soar to 65 scales per Gold Lei.
Dragon blood was even cheaper. Because scales easily maintained their vitality, while dragon blood lost it far too quickly, the difference between the local price and the market price reached a factor of two and a half.
Near the various gatherers' stalls, special well-ventilated small fur tents could be seen, housing thick fur armor inside. These were the stall owners' own clothes; they dressed as if for a seaside holiday in the morning, but put on fur armor at night—the climatic effect of the Weeping Peninsula's high altitude, coastal location, and special isolated mountain topography.
Noticing that Melina's gaze had already been drawn away by the cheap materials, Sonia had no choice but to gently pat the other girl's arm.
"We'll be staying here for a while; you'll have plenty of time to look around yourself."
"I was merely observing the construction of the local social structure," Melina casually retorted.
Sonia spread her hands. "Never mind then." Her expression then shifted as she waved forward. "Ah, we've arrived."
Melina looked ahead to see an elderly man wearing Gothic armor known as "Ore Orc Armor" approaching. He sported graying Greek-style whiskers, stood slightly taller than the senior student, chomped on a cigar, carried a shield on his back, and had an iron flail hung from his left waist, the spike-like protrusions on the flail ball crafted from a kind of silver dragon scale.
He was followed by two short, blonde, twin-tailed girls. They were twins, wearing modified Ore Orc Armors with thinned chestplate thickness on the front, more gaps on the thigh armor, and hollowed-out lower halves on the leg guards to minimize weight. This was because one carried a two-handed warhammer and the other a two-handed greataxe. The advantage of pairing such giant weapons with petite figures was possessing an agility and speed ordinary two-handed weapon users lacked; the disadvantage was that they could get knocked out extremely fast, easily reduced to a KO state by a single tail sweep from the Black Dragon Species—the weakest on average among the Four-Colored Dragons.
Melina also noticed that while both were Orc Armors, the old man's armor was noticeably brighter, while the other two had undergone dark treatments.
Shield and hammer to draw fire, two-handed heavy weapons to seize the opportunity to deal damage—good tactics.
At the same time, all three had curved blades, a spliced short spear, and a stack of kunai hanging from their lower backs respectively.
A blunt-force team. She had heard of this type of team composition back at the Academy. Their secondary armament pairing was a bleed team. Truly professional; enemies that blunt weapons couldn't solve were usually afraid of such bleeding weapons, and enemies that bleeding weapons couldn't defeat were usually afraid of blunt weapons. Of course, this was just a common scenario; this kind of team composition basically couldn't fight wyverns, super wyverns, and super land dragons, as the frontal resistance of the shield-hammer was far too weak, and the combination of lolis with heavy weapons was indeed far too fragile.
While Melina was still making objective evaluations, Sonia had already hurried forward, then suddenly struck a pose with a cold face, left hand clenched into a fist and smashed downward. The old man reacted even faster, right hand clenched into a fist and smashed upward, their gauntleted fists colliding up and down with a loud clack. The next second, they began a flashy routine of fist-bumps, high-fives, and low-fives.
Sonia bellowed at a terrifying, groundhog-like volume: "Senior!"
The old man yelled back with an equally roaring voice: "Junior!"
The twin sisters shook their heads in tacit agreement, sighing:
"Two idiots."
They noticed Melina's gaze. Probably because she was about the same height as the two sisters, the older of the twins greeted Melina in a very friendly manner:
"Hello. Please forgive us for making a spectacle of our team's newcomer."
"Huh... Huh? A newcomer?"
Melina snapped out of it.
Ah, not the captain? This guy looked seventy or eighty years old, yet he was actually a newcomer?!
Melina fell into a state of bewilderment.
The old man glanced at her and reached out to tug at his beard: "And this is?"
"My junior, Melina," Sonia said, then pointed at the old man. "George Don Quixote, my senior. Melina, you're in the elite class and only share one major lecture with me, which is why you don't know Senior Don Quixote's reputation in the academy. Life isn't just about smooth sailing, nor is it only about sinking and giving up. Senior probably entered the academy around age twenty, dropped out midway due to various circumstances, and finally returned to the academy at the age of seventy, taking five years to graduate."
An Explorer in his seventies... That was also quite common. A human body modified by Magic Factor could greatly prolong its lifespan and maintain its peak period even without belonging to those few races.
Melina nodded.
Sonia then pointed at the blonde twin-tailed sisters.
"Also, the twin tails on the left is Ray, and the blonde on the right is Joan."
"—" The two blonde twin-tails glared at the senior student.
Don Quixote tugged at his beard again and nodded firmly: "Junior Melina, you just need to remember that the blonde on the left is Ray, and the twin-tails on the right is Joan."
"Hey!" Ray's eyes widened as she let out a heavy, bad-tempered humph.
Joan grabbed Ray's hand, maintaining a gentle expression as she blinked at Melina:
"I am the younger sister, and this is my older sister. If my older sister says anything foolish, please be understanding. Our Echo Squad will give this job our absolute all. We kindly ask for your precious trust."
Melina leaned on her parasol and nodded slightly:
"Sorry to trouble you this time. I vouch for my personal trust."
A strange voice came from beside her. Sonia was covering her mouth with both hands:
"What a reliable and cool junior."
Old man Don Quixote made the exact same gesture:
"What a cool and reliable senior."
...
The employment fee had already been negotiated, but it seemed Melina's arrival was not anticipated, so an additional fee was required.
"Just for adding one person, your team wants 300 Gold Lei from me? That's way too expensive!"
Sonia argued strongly on grounds of reason.
"It's very cheap, eh! You won't find any other team outside willing to bring you into the Red Dragon Species hunting grounds for this price, eh!"
Seeing that the seemingly meek Joan was actually the captain of the Echo Squad, and in charge of pricing as well as showing zero mercy during bargaining—even dropping lines like, "Senior just became an Explorer, basically small fry, it takes a lot of effort and trouble for us to drag deadweight like you around, and now we have to add another person to protect..."—she even said things like that.
Melina glanced at the two of them, pondering Sonia's situation in her mind.
It seemed Senior Sonia wasn't one hundred percent sure she would come? ... From the looks of it, the other party really wasn't very close to her before rebirth?
Strange noises came from beside her once again.
"Oh, junior!" "Oh, senior!"
Sonia was already hugging Joan with a posture that made people want to call the police, and Joan also wore an utterly cheesy expression. It looked like the price had been settled.
...
The two of them were moving along the main road at a full sprint, preceded by the three members of the Echo Squad.
"How much did you spend?"
Melina secretly whispered into Sonia's ear.
"200. Her asking price was too cutthroat; actually, around 180 would've been fine, but we have to rely on them, so paying a bit more saves trouble."
Sonia wore a sunny, smiling face.
Setting out from East Hamlet into the wilderness only required walking.
However, an Explorer's walking was "long-duration sprint running." The Echo Squad members ran easily while carrying heavy loads, chatting as they ran, and making preparations for leaving the town and entering the wilderness.
This special, over-spec squad (3 + 2) galloped all the way, easily overtaking two rangers patrolling out on wild boars, and ran out of Hamlet Town amidst the gatekeeper's admiring gaze.
When the running reached a certain speed, the feeling of bodily freedom was unreservedly unleashed.
It felt like consciousness was sinking into the cloudtops.
When the speed reached the point where it could rival a galloping Dragon-Turtle Cart, the Magic Factor would automatically condense in front of the eyes and body, isolating the head-on wind and sand, and allowing oxygen to flow through the wind pressure around them to ensure bodily respiration.
Passing through the meadow at the edge of town and approaching a stretch of wilderness, the Echo Squad members slowed down. The speed of the entire group instantly dropped to "only a normal jogging speed."
Though she had studied Explorers' books and adventure logs day and night, Melina still didn't understand why they had slowed down, casting a look of seeking help toward Sonia.
After reducing her speed, the senior's black single ponytail bounced up and down, exuding an extreme aura of youth. Turning her head and catching Melina's gaze, she slowed down just a bit more to run alongside Melina.
"What's wrong, Xiaomei?"
Her post-exercise voice was sweet and clear, reminiscent of summer honey iced tea.
"Why slow down?"
"This, you see," Sonia thought for a moment. "To guarantee field of vision."
"Field of vision?"
"Just vision, yeah. When we're running at full tilt, don't our lines of sight unconsciously keep looking straight ahead? So once we slow down, we can ensure our vision captures most of the information. In gaming terms, we've entered the material-gathering phase after slowing down."
Things in books were ultimately somewhat imperfect.
With a sense of novelty and a desire to learn, Melina watched the Echo Squad ahead leisurely scattering one or two people from time to time to pick up various flowers, grasses, bones, and stones along the way, tossing them into their backpacks.
However, such arrogant plundering along the road would indeed invite retribution—dragons were the masters of this foreign, out-of-bounds land of human civilization. Because of the overly flamboyant noises of grass-pulling, tree-felling, and ore-mining that startled them, they rushed out to hunt.