Before long, those who had finished writing their letters came running to the guild.
A long, winding queue had already formed in front of the Adventurers Guild.
The crowd was noisy and bustling, like a busy marketplace.
People clutched their letters tightly, their eyes flashing with a mixture of hope and anxiety.
“Listen up, everyone! Write the recipient's full name!”
“The more detailed the physical description, the better! If you know their address, make sure to write it down!”
In his left hand, Lin Gui held a crude tin megaphone, shouting at the top of his lungs to maintain order.
With his right hand, he nimbly collected copper coins and neatly folded letters.
At this moment, he looked just like a peddler shouting in a market.
The aloof mage he usually was had completely vanished.
This sight drew sidelong glances from many adventuring parties returning from their commissions, covered in dust.
Their faces were filled with astonishment and bewilderment.
That rogue mage, who always kept to himself with a cold expression...
...was actually rolling up his sleeves and squeezing together with a crowd of commoners?
This scene was simply too subversive to their understanding.
Ross, the leader of the Lion Party—the highest-ranking party in New Covenant City—happened to pass by with his members.
He stopped, his heavy armored boots making a dull thud as they stepped on the stone pavers.
His eyes swept disdainfully over the noisy scene, as if looking at an eyesore of a trash heap.
“Hmph, a rogue mage born of beggars will never change his lowly nature. He really is only fit to mingle with these dirt-diggers.”
He sneered in a low voice, his tone laced with cold disgust, as if looking for even another second would defile his eyes.
A year ago, he had condescended to invite Lin Gui to join his party, only to be flatly rejected.
Back then, the look in Lin Gui's eyes had been as indifferent as if he were looking at a stone on the roadside.
No, it was more like looking at trash by the road. That look still felt like a thorn in his throat to this day.
“Leader, do you think... he can really make it to Caran City?”
Beside him, a young party member with a childish face couldn't help but ask in a low voice.
There was a barely perceptible trace of hope in his eyes.
“Absolutely impossible!”
Ross interrupted decisively, his voice harsh.
“The demons in the wilderness have already overrun the land. They are far from as docile as they were a year ago.”
“Going alone is nothing but seeking death, serving himself up as rations for the monsters!”
“But... but didn't he return from the even more distant Magic City? Isn't it more danger—”
The member's words cut off abruptly under Ross's cold gaze, swallowing the rest of his sentence back down his throat.
“Let's go. Don't waste precious time in a place like this.”
Ross snorted coldly and strode through the grand gates of the guild with his members, unwilling to spare another glance.
Outside the guild, Lin Gui had thought it would easily end in an hour, but he had not expected...
He had still underestimated the speed at which news spread through a crowd.
And the yearning that had piled up like a mountain after being cut off by high walls for a whole ten years.
The guild was located on the city's main street, where foot traffic was dense.
More and more people rushed over upon hearing the news, continuously joining the queue.
Instead of shortening, the line grew increasingly bloated.
Not until the setting sun dyed the horizon orange-red...
...did the last old woman stuff a crumpled piece of letter paper into his hand.
The backpack, which could originally hold a lot of things, was now stuffed to the brim.
The fabric was taut, and the seams let out faint tearing sounds, on the verge of splitting open.
Hey, System, how many letters did I actually collect? Lin Gui clicked his tongue inwardly.
【A total of 679 letters, Host.】 The system's cold electronic voice sounded right on cue.
【Solemn warning: Accepting letters in excess of the limit will not bring extra rewards.】
【You could have completed them gradually in subsequent commissions.】
【This action is tantamount to wasting the basic rewards of at least six hundred basic spells.】
The system's voice seemed to carry a hint of human-like speechlessness and helplessness.
“Sigh, once you open the floodgates, it's hard to close them.”
Lin Gui rubbed his throbbing temples and sighed.
Of course, the deeper reason was that he truly looked down on those basic spell rewards.
As a High Rank mage, spells like Fireball and Light were... terribly pathetic in power to him.
What truly interested him was the extra reward promised by the system.
Mana enhancement.
If he relied solely on his own meditation, breaking through to the Transcendent rank would take an estimated three years...
【Host, you will soon regret this.】
“Regret? No way!”
Lin Gui forcefully tightened the buckle of his backpack, which was about to snap.
He confidently patted the bulging "mountain of yearning."
“Old Green, let's go!”
He flipped himself up and mounted the giant lizard.
The giant lizard let out a low hiss, stepping forward with its thick limbs and carrying him swaying toward the city gate.
The guards had long grown accustomed to his peculiar mount. After a simple inspection, they let him through.
Just as he was about to leave the gate, a familiar guard captain with a scar on his face stepped forward with some embarrassment.
He stuffed two tightly sealed family letters and two shiny gold coins into Lin Gui's hand, lowering his voice.
“Lord Lin Gui, please... let my elderly parents in Caran City know I'm safe. Tell them... their son has been unfilial, but he is still alive.”
Not long after leaving the gate, shouting suddenly echoed from behind.
The voices were somewhat muffled by the wind, but the urgency and sincerity in them could still be heard.
“Lord Mage!”
“You must return safely!”
Lin Gui looked back and saw that on the grayish-brown city wall...
...quite a few residents who had just delivered their letters had gathered.
Squeezing behind the battlements, they waved their arms vigorously at him.
Their weathered faces were filled with genuine hope.
A trace of warmth rose in Lin Gui's heart, as if he were being gently warmed by the winter sun.
He waved back at them lightheartedly.
Guiding the giant lizard, he stepped resolutely into the vast wilderness where shadows were deepening and dangers lurked everywhere.
Forty years ago, the Demon God descended upon the world. The heavens wept blood, and crimson rain poured down.
Every intelligent being touched by the foul, bloody rain had their flesh and blood melted into stinking, bloody water.
As for the mindless beasts of the mountains, they transformed into terrifying monsters that knew nothing but slaughter.
The apocalyptic blood rain fell for seven days and seven nights.
The population of the entire Akara Continent plummeted by three-quarters, and the fire of civilization flickered on the verge of extinction.
Nations and racial systems completely collapsed, and the survivors huddled inside towering city-states.
The cold, massive stone walls protected them but also cut off contact with one another. Thus, the Dark Age began.
At first, there were not many demons in the wilderness.
Although the monsters were terrifying, most of them were muddled and rarely launched large-scale invasions of human territories on their own initiative.
Back then, there were still some fragile lines of communication between the remaining city-states.
Until the nightmare known as the "Dark Tide" arrived.
Some said that the Dark Tide, like the blood rain, was another catastrophe brought by the Demon God upon all living beings on the Akara Continent.
Others said it was a man-made disaster targeting living beings, jointly triggered by the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Kings under the command of the Demon God.
But what no one could deny was that the appearance of the Dark Tide was always without warning, as if born out of thin air.
Each time, it gathered hundreds of millions of frenzied demons, like a black tide that destroyed everything, flattening all the city-states along its path.
Afterward, the tide would mysteriously disperse, leaving behind immeasurable numbers of demons in the wilderness, allowing them to roam, wander, and breed.
The Dark Tide occurred once every two years, like a regularly recurring chronic illness. By now, it had happened twenty times.
Terrifying numbers of demons, far exceeding the total population of the existing continent, were "injected" into the wilderness time and time again.
This made the world outside the city walls increasingly dangerous, where every step could be a death trap.
Fortunately, except for one branch influx, the borderlands had never experienced an influx of the main flow of the Dark Tide.
Therefore, the density of demons in the wilderness had not yet reached that completely despairing, ridiculous level.
But even so, this land was no longer something that ordinary High Rank adventurers could easily cross.
Every journey was tantamount to stepping half a foot into the gates of hell.
Lin Gui patted Old Green beneath him, and the giant lizard obediently quickened its pace.
He glanced back at the silhouette of New Covenant City fading in the distance, then turned around resolutely.
Facing the unknown wilderness shrouded in twilight.
The 679 letters in his backpack were heavy, weighing not only on his back but also on his heart.
Every letter was a hope waiting to be delivered, a possibility of reunion for a broken family.
“Alright, time to get to work.” He muttered softly, his eyes growing sharp. “First stop, the Black Demon Forest.”
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