Our next destination was the Adventurer's Guild. As members, Nicola and I were naturally interested in visiting. After all, we had only been to the one in Norvale before.
Moreover, it was very inconvenient for Cyra to not have an official identity in the human world. We deeply felt this during our travel, so we had long planned for her to get an identity card too.
However, the sight before us was very disappointing.
"This place is too small, isn't it?"
We had thought that for the scale of the holy city Jethrobaines, the Adventurer's Guild building should be very grand. But when we arrived, it was much shabbier than we imagined.
"Let's go in and take a look!"
Nicola entered the guild hall first. This seemed to be a street-front commercial unit that had been renovated to serve as the guild hall. Because of the small space, only one counter was open, although there was also a quest board displayed with magic. But the board's size and number of quests were far less than the Adventurer's Guild in Norvale.
"Maybe it's because the church has a strong presence in the holy city of Jethrobaines. Everyone is so busy with religious affairs that they have no time for adventuring," Cyra guessed, looking around at the sparse crowd.
No wonder we couldn't directly teleport here. Under these conditions, if I was in charge of the Adventurer's Guild, I wouldn't prioritize setting up a teleportation array here either!
Since there was only one service window, despite the few people, we still had to queue up one by one. In this rundown guild space, there wasn't even a VIP room. It seemed the entire guild only had one staff member - the person behind the counter. Okay, maybe also including the person in the backyard responsible for ability assessments...
"But the lack of quests means not many people are seeking help from the Adventurer's Guild. Could it be that people here rarely face difficulties? That can't be right!"
Nicola looked carefully at the quest board and saw that among the few quests listed, there was actually a high-rank one, which immediately piqued her interest.
But the most important thing now was still to get Cyra registered as an adventurer. To be honest, I really regretted not thinking of registering Cyra when we were in Norvale. Now we had to come to this place with poor conditions, I didn't know if the location would have any effect. The upside was that with few people, we probably didn't need to spend too long time.
"When you saw that high-rank quest, what came to mind?" Nicola asked me during the waiting period, pointing at the quest board.
"A team had one member sneak into a phoenix's nest to steal eggs half a month ago. He was discovered and surrounded by two phoenixes, getting trapped on Mount Dona. The other team members couldn't do anything and had to go down the mountain for help..."
"Steal phoenix eggs? It's been so long, the person is probably long dead by now. Why is this quest still listed? It seems meaningless!" I said puzzledly. I vaguely remembered when we first arrived in Norvale, Brennan kept insisting on going to steal phoenix eggs, but was firmly rejected by Adrian and Vivianne.
Speaking of which, could it be that he snuck off to do it?
But that didn't seem right either! I shook my head, immediately dismissing the idea.
Last month, although we didn't actually see Brennan, we heard from Adrian and the others that this guy had been participating in the war against monsters in Astralrealm's army. He couldn't possibly have had time to go to Mount Dona Range.
"Who knows, there may still be hope! You forgot about the phoenix that appeared in Makalan City, didn't you?" Nicola hinted meaningfully.
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"The enchanted arrow stuck in that phoenix could very well be related to this incident. It's only been a bit over a day since then. And since the quest is still listed here, it means the requester hasn't given up yet. As for the details, we can just ask directly at the counter."
"So you mean you want to take on this high-rank quest?" I asked puzzledly. After all, we had witnessed the might of phoenixes. The last one that challenged Nicola was already lying defeated, it would take months to recover. Hence, it's a easy quest for us.
However, we currently had many other things to do. After investigating the Pope, we still had to visit the Sage Alliance located south of the Cresthaven Papal Dominion, with their capital Crescent City. When would we have time for quests?
If the arrow lodged in the phoenix in Makalan City was related to this quest, I wouldn't mind helping out, since that phoenix's appearance helped us evade Carl's assassination attempt. But currently there was no way to prove that connection.
"Of course not! I was just saying. Plus, I don't have enough credits to take this high-rank quest..." As expected, Nicola shook her head and denied my guess, earning an eye-roll from me.
In truth, the reward for this quest was really low. For regular humans, the cost-benefit wasn't high. Correspondingly, even if they failed, there was no penalty for failure. The requester probably lowered the requirements to seek more help. Although there was a credit deposit, as long as it was a normal failed rescue, all credits would be returned in the end. As a high-rank quest, the conditions were extremely lenient! You didn't even need to return to this city to complete it.
As we were discussing the quest, Cyra finally reached the front of the queue to register. From observing, the process seemed standard - fill out a form, register, get the ID card...
However, an unexpected situation occurred. The staff member looked at the registration Cyra filled out and suddenly shouted loudly:
"What? You're an angel!"
"..."
I felt a bit speechless. Although angels were rare in the holy city, did they have to be so surprised? Where was the professionalism? When I registered in Norvale, I didn't encounter anything like this!
"What? An angel?"
"An angel openly appearing in the holy city?"
"But she doesn't seem to have wings..."
After the staff member's outburst, quite a few people turned their attention to Cyra. She immediately became the focus of discussion from all sides.
"This local guild is really troublesome and unprofessional!"
Nicola shook her head with an exasperated look. We saw Cyra frequently glancing our way, prompting me to keep gesturing to her to hurry up and finish.
But just as Cyra received her ID card and was about to walk over to us, a young girl suddenly approached her with a pleading look and said:
"I heard from the staff that you're an angel. Could you please help me and take on a quest..."
"Huh? Me?"
Cyra was caught off guard. She had just gotten her ID card and was already being asked to take a quest, without even an ability assessment!
"What's going on?"
Seeing this, Nicola and I could no longer just stand by. We walked over to ask. This girl was probably also an Adventurer's Guild member, looking quite young with a pretty appearance. She was holding a magic staff, dressed in standard mage robes.
"I had previously posted a quest in the guild, hoping to gather people to rescue my companion. But the guild adjusted the quest to the highest rank, and in Jethrobaines, no one dares to take it! The other surviving teammates have already lost patience and left one by one. After so many days, I don't even know my companion's situation..."
From what the girl said, she seemed to be the requester for that high-rank quest we saw earlier. Unable to find anyone to take it, she was desperately turning to Cyra for help.
"My request isn't high. I don't necessarily need you to rescue the person, I just want to get accurate information - whether they are dead or alive. Even if my companion has died, as long as you can protect me to go to Mount Dona and investigate the result, I'll consider the quest completed!"
"Look, I only just registered. It's not really appropriate for me to take a high-rank quest right away. Moreover, I only have two wings..."
Cyra expressed her hesitation, then immediately threw us under the bus.
"Why don't you ask them instead? Their ranks are higher, one of them is even a high-rank adventurer, they may be able to help you! I'll go do my ability assessment first!"
Seeing my unhappy expression, she quickly ran off, leaving us to deal with the mess.
"A two-winged angel! Facing phoenixes would indeed be a bit difficult..."
After Cyra's words, the girl seemed to pause, no longer insisting as her attention shifted to us.
"I don't know if you two can help me with this? You should be very high-ranking angels, right?"
"Since you've already lowered your requirements, why not just explain the situation to the guild and ask them to reduce the quest rank? Why come to us?" Nicola replied noncommittally, somewhat acknowledging the girl's guess.
"I've already applied to the guild before, but they think that whether or not we need to fight phoenixes, facing such a sixth-rank or higher divine beast requires a high-rank quest difficulty level. So I could only turn to you."
The girl thought for a moment, then continued stating her conditions.
"Actually, I had almost given up earlier. But this morning I received news that a phoenix appeared on the other side of Mount Dona. It's likely one of the two phoenixes that trapped my companion before. So you may only need to deal with the other one."