The Record of Unusual Creature

A group of dusty “adventurers” had arrived at the city beneath Longwind Peak, White Maple Leaf City.

Adventurers were a common sight there, and as the biggest human settlement on the plains and as the only stop before the Longwind Peak tunnel, White Maple Leaf was the place where travelers going north or south would pass through. The travelers included scholars from the plains, demihuman merchants from the mountains, adventurers or mercenaries from the White Mountain region, and even the hermits as well as druids dwelling within the deep forest of Longwind Peak. Many travelers in different shapes and forms would pass through the city, searching for wealth or knowledge. That allowed both wealth and knowledge to circulate day and night within the ancient city.

As a result, even oddly-dressed demihumans or armed mercenaries would not look out of place even if they went in and out of the city boldly—as long as they did not go looking for trouble.

Thus, Hao Ren and his crew were able to enter the city’s streets, and with that world’s clothing, they managed to hide their presence successfully. Aside from the time they ran into guards while they were entering the city and little Y’lisabet’s mental magic got them through, everything was going according to plan.

This was after all not the first time they were moving about in a foreign world. Hao Ren and his crew had already smashed all available skill points in ‘dressing like a local’. After changing into the local clothes and equipment, Nangong Wuyue and Vivian gave everyone’s clothes a dusty appearance to better reflect the image of “a group of outland travelers”. They literally looked the part. And Lily actually wanted to apply some blood on her face after changing into her mercenary gear but she was properly chastised by Hao Ren. They were there for recon work, not assassinating the city’s lord…

“Whoa… this feels like a pretty awesome place now that I’m here. Whoa!” Even though they were in the streets of a foreign world, Lily did not feel a shred of uneasiness and had been looking around like a country bumpkin who just a city for the first time. Despite the fact she had seen many things together with Hao Ren, her husky nature simply led her to have that reaction every time she saw a new thing. Needless to say, it was beyond medicating. “This place doesn’t feel all that different from Holletta’s Royal City, and there are more races here. I think I saw a slime just bounce over there! Eh, there’s a fruit stall…”

Lily’s getup was that of a swordswoman, and she was clad in battle-worn studded leather armor, a pair of leather trousers and short boots. Her long silver hair had been tied into a simple ponytail while her dog ears perked up on her head. As using her Frostfire claws would be too eye-catching, she was now holding that giant alloy X10 sword that she used during the Backtrack. Truthfully, the sword looked almost like a door, and most male warriors would even struggle to hold it up, but werewolves were a race gifted with extraordinary physical strength, and even a female werewolf is capable of wielding such a massive weapon to break the lines. So Lily carrying the sword would not stand out at all. After all, this was based on the images of local female werewolves lugging the same thing about that led to Lily be dressed up like that.

All of their getups were checked beforehand. Prior to making landfall, they had used the probes to gather images of the locals and confirmed that at least a dozen or so people were in such getups. Nolan then analyzed the data to determine the possible occupation and team composition before preparing the gear Hao Ren and the rest needed. This greatly reduced the possibility of them attracting unwanted attention.

However, Hao Ren soon realized that the moment Lily opens her mouth, while they may possibly look the part, but Lily’s outgoing nature made it a problem for them to keep a low profile. He had only turned away for a moment and the werehusky was already lugging her giant X10 sword to nearby fruit stall picking fruits. Did she really not notice that everywhere she went, people would need to clear out at least two meters to make way for her sword?

“Low profile, low profile. You’re not even buying, why are you disturbing people’s business.” Hao Ren grumbled as he pulled the werehusky back with much effort. “We are just roaming around trying to understand the local customs. Vivian had already sent her bats out. Wait until the bats have the entire map scouted before anything, okay?”

While the probes managed to gather a lot of information, Vivian’s little bats were clearly much better in collecting more minute details. The bats were part of Vivian, and not only could they transfer real-time voice recordings, but they could also share all sensory details with her. Once the bats were deployed Vivian was pretty much scouting the entire place with thousands of her doubles. While she may have had to circumvent some rather difficult-to-scout areas, her ability to clear the fog of war was still the best in the team.

Vivian was, at the moment, dressed in a sorceress garb, not the bookish type with their gaudy long robes, but more of a slim-fit short robe with a staff: Based on the probe’s report only casters in a mercenary or adventurer group would be dressed like that to better aid in outdoor movement and combat. At times they would see magicians in shiny long robes and tall hats, those were probably the ones nested in their towers.

Upon hearing what Hao Ren said, Vivian nodded. “I have expanded the scouting zone beyond the streets. It shouldn’t take long to have the entire picture of the city’s layout. While it’s lively here, its no match for the size of the cities on Earth. There are plenty of dark corners too, and it’s easy for my bats to move about.”

Hao Ren nodded in return. “Notice anything out of the ordinary?”

“Not yet, it’s really a normal Otherworld city,” Vivian whispered as she acted the part of a sightseeing traveler. “But the closer to the city center the stronger the magical powers or something similar to it, and their strength and level is much higher than the outer zones. I’m guessing that this is not only the magical fluctuations of some powerful spellcasters, and this also includes some facilities that require magic to function. My bats have also detected something like a sewage treatment station in the sewers, and that is also driven by magic.”

“Even tech tree is developing as per normal huh… This world within the Umbral Realm sure is getting interesting.” Hao Ren pursed his lips. “Nolan also sent word earlier that she saw an antenna-like structure within the mountain range by the city. A rhythmic signal is being transmitted between those facilities. Probably some long-range network’s ‘base station’.”

Lily’s eyes widened immediately. “Huh? I only see medieval-style buildings, and they have WIFI here?!”

“Every world’s tech tree is different. Many high magic societies study anti-gravity magic the moment they start digging out stones to build their houses, but at times, even if they are able to develop teleportation, they may not be able to produce chemical fertilizers. This is what the diversity of worlds and civilizations means,” Hao Ren said with an “I’m well-learned so I’m not surprised” look as he shrugged before he turned curiously towards the end of the street. “Eh, what’s going on there, why is there a crowd before that big building?”

Lily immediately perked up as she heard there’s fun to be seen. “Let’s go see! Let’s!”

Towards the end of the street was a big building with a blue pointed roof. The scale of the building was quite large but its decorations did not look like the extravagant noble dwellings in the city center, rather it looked more like a public facility. By the time Hao Ren and the rest got to the building an even larger crowd had formed as layers of onlookers crowded before the lobby of the building. Within the crowd was a cacophony of noises, some were discussing something, others were cursing as their tails or foot were stepped on. Hao Ren noticed that most of the people in the crowd were in mercenary getups, and these bellicose scoundrels were all gathered together, making the already chaotic scene even worse.

He led his crew around the crowd before managing to squeeze in (this was mainly due to Lily’s massive sword and Y’zaks face) and as he squeezed in he understood what the building was for:

From the local speech and the sign hanging on the building, it seemed like the hub for mercenaries and adventurers, or well, a guild hall.

“A mercenary guild hall, eh,” Lily said to Hao Ren by her side as she squeezed in while hefting her giant sword. “It is rather cheesy but I’m getting a rather warm and fuzzy feeling! Mr. Landlord, didn’t we also register as a group of mercenaries the first time we went to Holletta?”

“F*ck, don’t remind me of that.” Hao Ren started having cold sweat as he recalled that. “Imagine having a super awesome main character going into another world forming a mercenary team and ended up having registered that bloody name!”

“The No Good Names Left Mercenary Group! What’s wrong with that?” Lily had a cocksure look on her face. “Why, you’re looking down on my naming sense?”

Hao Ren was speechless.

The attempt of both of them trying to force their way through the crowd had made quite a few onlookers unhappy,and even within the mercenaries, someone like Lily who could heft a greatsword like it was a feather around was a rarity, plus the terrifying visage of the seemingly demi-giant in the form of Y’zaks holding fort, the normal mercenaries could only swallow their anger as Hao Ren and the rest actually made it to the front.

There was still a layer of people before him and Hao Ren could not see clearly what was happening so he turned and ask, “Excuse me, what’s going on here?”

The person he asked was a red-haired mercenary. This lady, clad in a simple garb with a terrifying scar on her face was already unhappy at being pushed and shoved , and the moment Hao Ren tapped on her shoulder she turned around with a glare. But as she saw Lily’s massive blade on her shoulder her expression immediately changed to ‘F*ck me, that’s impressive’ and whatever vulgarities she had on the tip of her tongue were instantly forced back down her throat. Awkwardly, she spoke, “That crazy b*itch Rheia is looking for more lab rats for her crazy adventurers, but the guild had already blacklisted her long ago, and no private mercenary groups are willing to take her mission, and they started fighting because of that. Heheh, this happens often enough to be entertainment.”

Hao Ren acted like he understood everything as he listened. Of course, he did not know who Rheia was, but from what he heard, it was a simple civilian squabble, and he felt a little disappointed. He thought some apocalyptic news had broken out, making the place look more like an Umbral Realm…

Just as he entertained his thoughts he heard another commotion as the guild hall’s main door was opened with a loud “dush” and a tiny little lady was thrown out.