Lord of the Sky City

Now, the food problem in Thunderhawk City was solved, and there was some surplus money in the treasury, enough at least to buy the next batch of yarn. After two months of training, the Guard Corps was fully prepared, both physically and equipment-wise. Finally, Rocky could focus on the next step of his plan.

His next plan was naturally the mission from the Mercenary Guild!

Since he had returned from Eternal City two months ago, he had been working hard toward this goal, and now everything was finally in place to take on missions from the Mercenary Guild.

So, after returning to the City Lord's Mansion, Rocky didn't go to sleep right away but eagerly took out the mission receiver.

This mission receiver, which he had bought from the Mercenary Guild for five hundred Gold Coins, allowed him to easily review all the missions from the Mercenary Guild and directly contact them to receive missions.

The mission receiver wasn't large, about the size of a palm, and looked like a dish embedded with a Magic Stone, equipped with several buttons. When Rocky turned it on, a beam of light shot out from it and transformed into an image right before his eyes.

"Damn! That scared me!"

Startled by the image projected from the receiver, Rocky immediately thought of a term not of this world: holographic projection.

This mission receiver was just like a holographic projector!

When he looked more closely at the image, he saw rows and rows of information, all related to missions.

Rocky's interest was piqued, and he quickly selected one of the messages, pressing the buttons on the receiver to read the details closely.

Type: Merchant ship escort.

Requirement: A Void Magic Squad of more than ten people.

Duration: Three days.

Mission Objective: Accompany the merchant ship from Baili City and escort it to Hundred Beasts City, making a land stop for resupply. The mission is completed once the merchant ship successfully reaches its destination.

Commission: Thirty thousand Gold Coins.

Mission Issuer: ×× Chamber of Commerce.

Unlike the bulletin board inside the Mercenary Guild, the task information displayed on the mission receiver was very detailed, clear at a glance, and very convenient.

When Rocky saw the detailed information of the randomly selected task, he couldn't help but lick his lips.

"Goodness, a three-day escort mission can earn thirty thousand gold coins… That's quite generous."

"I just wonder what kind of valuable goods the issuing Chamber of Commerce is transporting to hire a Void Magic Squad for such a high price."

Although surprised by the high commission of the mission, Rocky quickly moved on to other information because he couldn't take this mission.

Shortly after, another piece of information caught his eye.

Type: Demons extermination.

Requirement: A Mercenary Group of over one-hundred people.

Duration: ——

Mission Objective: Head to the forest farm owned by the Mengma Commerce Guild in the Jialin Mountain Range, exterminate the demons within. Estimated number of demons is over thirty, specific types unknown, no high-level demons, and the mission is completed once all demons are exterminated.

Commission: Forty thousand Gold Coins.

Mission Issuer: Mengma Commerce Guild.

Unlike the previous escort mission, what attracted Rocky's attention was an extermination mission, and the commission for this task was very high, a total of forty thousand Gold Coins!

Furthermore, the requirements for this mission completely matched Rocky's capabilities, even exceeding them, meaning that he could definitely take on this mission.

But Rocky didn't act rashly because after carefully reading through the mission information, he realized that although the commission was high, it was also extremely dangerous.

The objective of the mission was to clean out the demons that had occupied the forest farm, and according to the information, the number of demons inside was over thirty! That number was a bit too much!

Thirty demons!

Although Rocky hadn't engaged in large-scale combat with demons before, he knew that such a number and scale of demons could only be confronted by a Void Magic Squad; ordinary soldiers, let alone a Mercenary Group of over one hundred people, even a five-hundred-person mercenary group might not be able to handle them!

So, despite the very high commission for this task, Rocky wasn't blinded by the amount of money at stake. He indeed wanted to earn money by completing tasks, but he wasn't about to risk his life for it.

Also, precisely because he maintained his rationality, the more Rocky looked at this task, the stranger it seemed to him.

If this task truly required exterminating at least thirty demons to be completed, then why would the Mengma Commerce Guild need to hire a mercenary group of more than a hundred people? You should know the commission they were offering was a whopping forty thousand gold coins, a sum sufficient even for a mercenary group larger than five hundred members.

This is really strange...

Shaking his head, although Rocky couldn't figure out the answer, he still felt that the task released by the Mengma Commerce Guild, despite its high commission, was too dangerous and there seemed to be something off about it. It was a task he wouldn't accept.

Fortunately, there were many tasks available at the Mercenary Guild, and there was a vast array to choose from. Thus, even if this particular task wasn't suitable, there were other tasks to consider.

In this way, Rocky soon began to look up information about various tasks one after the other and noted down the ones he was interested in.

Before he knew it, he had spent most of the evening looking and, by the time he realized it, it was nearly dawn.

The next day, he called Liliya, Aileen, and Monte into his room.

The tasks from the Mercenary Guild were definitely to be taken, but they couldn't be accepted recklessly, or else he might end up spending all they had, which was not something Rocky wanted to see happen. Thus, for the sake of safety, they needed to discuss which task to take as a group.

Once everyone had arrived, Rocky took out the task receiver and showed everyone the tasks he had selected the previous night. He believed these tasks were within their capability, but which one to actually take still required everyone's opinions to make a decision.

However, before that, he first brought up that extermination task again, because he always felt there was something peculiar about it.

"Look at this task," he said. "Doesn't it seem problematic to you? I just feel there's something odd."

After bringing up the detailed information of the extermination task, Rocky spoke.

On being asked, Liliya, Aileen, and Monte all looked towards the task information.

"My lord, is it the requirements of this extermination task that you find problematic?"

Aileen was the first to speak, having just glanced at it briefly.

This was somewhat unexpected for Rocky, as he thought perhaps Liliya or Monte would be the first to notice something amiss, but he quickly nodded in agreement.

"Exactly, I don't understand why the Mengma Commerce Guild would spend forty thousand gold coins yet only hire a mercenary group of more than a hundred members. Logically, a task of this difficulty would require a group of at least five hundred members to complete, you know..."

"The Mengma Commerce Guild did it on purpose."

Even before Rocky could finish articulating his doubts, Aileen had an answer for him, continuing to say, "The reason the Mengma Commerce Guild set the task's requirements so low is actually to attract those mercenaries whose capabilities are clearly insufficient but are blinded by the prospect of money."

"Because if a mercenary group with insufficient strength took this task, even if they couldn't complete it, they could still indirectly lower the difficulty of it — after all, a group of more than a hundred might not be able to exterminate all thirty demons, but could probably kill at least one or two, right?"

"But if only one or two demons are killed, the Mengma Commerce Guild definitely won't pay the commission, yet the difficulty of the task would have been reduced. Then, the Mengma Commerce Guild could immediately lower the commission and raise the requirements, allowing a competent mercenary group to quickly finish the task. This method guarantees them a no-loss situation," Aileen explained.

In just a few words, Aileen had clearly explained all of Rocky's doubts, leaving him completely dumbfounded!

"I never thought it could be done this way..."

It took a good while for Rocky to regain his composure after Aileen's explanation, after which he frowned. Although he had felt this extermination task was fishy, he hadn't realized there were so many twists to it, and the Mengma Commerce Guild's tactic was utterly devious!

Seeing through Rocky's thoughts, Aileen then said, "My lord, these are just small tricks of merchants, quite normal. We just need to be more cautious."

When Rocky couldn't help but feel the Mengma Commerce Guild was too sly, Aileen appeared unconcerned.

Remember, Aileen was a merchant too!

For a merchant, profits are always the top priority. To achieve their goals while minimizing expenses, such little tricks are nothing.

Moreover, though the task seemed sly, it was up to the volunteers. If those mercenary groups, clearly lacking in strength but hoping to make a fortune, ended up annihilated, whom could they blame?

Therefore, to Aileen, such tricks were nothing much at all.

Upon hearing Aileen's words, Rocky, while reluctant to admit it, couldn't help but nod. He also privately felt fortunate that calling everyone together to discuss this had been the right move, because clearly, what seemed simple in the Mercenary Guild's tasks often had many underlying complications—one misstep could lead to unwittingly benefiting others.

So afterward, he laid out the tasks he had picked the day before, discussing with everyone which task they should take.