It didn't take long for the people who had finished writing their letters to run back to the guild.
A long, winding queue had already formed in front of the Adventurer's Guild.
The noise was deafening, as rowdy as a bustling market.
People clutched letters tightly in their hands, their eyes shimmering with a light that flickered between hope and anxiety.
“Listen up! Write the recipients' full names!”
“Describe their physical characteristics in as much detail as possible! If you know their address, you must include it!”
Lin Gui held a crude tin megaphone in his left hand, shouting at the top of his lungs to maintain order.
His right hand was busily collecting copper coins and neatly folded letters.
At this moment, he looked exactly like a vendor hawking his wares in a market.
There was no trace of the cold, indifferent mage he usually was.
This sight caused many adventure groups, dust-covered and just returning from their commissions, to look over in surprise.
Their faces were filled with astonishment and confusion.
That wandering mage who always kept to himself and had such a frigid expression...
Was he actually rolling up his sleeves and crowding together with a bunch of commoners?
This scene was simply too disruptive to their understanding of him.
The leader of New Covenant City's highest-ranking party, the Lion Party, a man named Ross, happened to be passing by with his members.
He came to a halt, his heavy, armor-plated boots making a dull thud against the cobblestones.
He scanned the noisy scene with a disdainful gaze, looking at them as if they were a pile of eyesore trash.
“Hmph. A wandering mage born a beggar can't change the lowly nature in his bones; he really is only fit to mingle with these mud-legged peasants.”
He mocked in a low voice, his tone laced with cold disgust as if looking at them for even a second longer would soil his eyes.
A year ago, he had condescended to invite Lin Gui to join his party, only to be flatly rejected.
At that time, Lin Gui's gaze toward him had been as indifferent as if he were looking at a stone on the side of the road.
No, it was more like looking at roadside trash; that gaze still felt like a thorn in his throat to this day.
“Leader, do you think... he can really make it to Caran City?”
A young member beside him, whose face still held a trace of childishness, couldn't help but ask in a small voice.
There was a flicker of hope in his eyes that was difficult to detect.
“Absolutely impossible!”
Ross interrupted him decisively, his voice gruff.
“The demons in the wilderness have long since reached plague proportions; they are far from as docile as they were a year ago.”
“Going alone is nothing but seeking death. He's just delivering snacks to the monsters!”
“But... didn't he come back from the even further Magic City before? That place was even more dang—”
The member's words stopped abruptly under Ross's cold stare, and he swallowed the rest of the sentence.
“Let's go. Don't waste precious time in a place like this.”
Ross gave a cold snort and led his members through the guild's grand gates with large strides, unwilling to spare another glance.
Outside the guild, Lin Gui had originally thought it would end easily in an hour, but he hadn't expected this...
He had still underestimated the speed at which news traveled among the people.
He had also underestimated the mountain of longing that had been built up over ten whole years of being cut off by high walls.
The guild was located on the city's main street, which was crowded with people.
More and more people heard the news and joined the queue.
Instead of shortening, the line only became more bloated.
It wasn't until the sunset dyed the horizon an orange-red color.
When the last person, an old woman, stuffed a crumpled piece of letter paper into his hand...
The backpack that was supposed to hold a fair amount was already bulging to its limit.
The fabric was stretched tight, and the seams were making slight ripping sounds, nearly on the verge of bursting.
“Hey, System, how many letters did I actually collect?” Lin Gui marveled to himself.
【A total of 679 letters, Host.】 the System's cold electronic voice rang out promptly.
【A solemn reminder: Over-accepting letters will not bring additional rewards.】
【You could have completed these gradually through subsequent commissions.】
【This action is no different from wasting at least six hundred basic rewards for Novice Magic.】
Setting aside the tone, the System's voice actually seemed to carry a hint of human-like speechlessness and helplessness.
“Well... once the floodgates are open, they're hard to close.”
Lin Gui rubbed his throbbing brow and let out a sigh.
Of course, the deeper reason was that he truly looked down on those Novice Magic rewards.
As a High Rank mage, spells like Fireball and Illumination were... deplorably weak to him.
What truly interested him was the extra reward promised by the System.
Mana improvement.
If he relied solely on meditation, it was estimated that it would take him three years to break through to Transcendent...
【Host, you will soon regret this.】
“Regret? Not a chance!”
Lin Gui pulled the nearly bursting straps of his backpack tight.
He patted that bulging "mountain of longing" with full confidence.
“Old Green, let's go!”
He flipped himself onto the giant lizard's back.
The giant lizard gave a low hiss and started moving its thick limbs, carrying him toward the city gates in a swaying motion.
The guards were long since accustomed to his strange mount; after a simple inspection, they let him through.
As he was about to leave the gates, a familiar guard captain with a scar on his face hurried forward.
He shoved two tightly sealed family letters and two shining 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 is unfilial, but he's still alive.”
Not long after leaving the city gates, shouts suddenly came from behind him.
The voices were blurred by the wind, but the urgency and sincerity within them could still be heard.
“Lord Mage!”
“You must come back safely!”
Lin Gui turned his head to see that many of the residents who had just delivered their letters had gathered on the grayish-brown city walls at some point.
They crowded behind the battlements, waving their arms at him with all their might.
Their rough faces were filled with genuine prayers and hope.
Lin Gui felt a slight warmth in his heart, as if he had been gently touched by the winter sun.
He gave them a carefree wave of his hand.
Guiding the giant lizard, he stepped resolutely into the vast wilderness where the shadows were deepening and danger lurked everywhere.
Forty years ago, the Demon God descended upon the world. The sky wept blood, and a crimson rain poured down in a deluge.
Every intelligent being touched by the filthy blood rain had their flesh and blood dissolved into foul-smelling liquid.
Meanwhile, the witless beasts of the mountains were transformed into terrifying monsters that knew only slaughter.
That world-ending rain of blood lasted for seven days and seven nights.
The population of the entire Akara Continent was reduced by three-quarters, and the flames of civilization flickered on the verge of being extinguished.
National and racial systems broke down completely, and the survivors huddled within towering city-states.
The cold, giant stone walls protected them but also cut off contact with one another. From then on, the Dark Age began.
In the beginning, there weren't many demons in the wilderness.
Although the monsters were terrifying, they were mostly muddled and rarely initiated large-scale invasions of human territory.
Back then, there were still some fragile lines of communication between the remaining city-states.
That was until the nightmare known as the "Dark Tide" arrived.
Some said the Dark Tide was another calamity brought to all living beings on the Akara Continent by the Demon God, just like the rain of blood.
Others said it was a man-made disaster targeting living beings, jointly triggered by the Seventy-Two Pillar Demon Kings under the Demon God.
But what no one could deny was that the appearance of the Dark Tide was always without warning, as if it were born from nothing.
Each time, hundreds of millions of frenzied demons would gather like a black tide that destroyed everything, crushing every city-state along its path.
Afterward, the tide would mysteriously dissipate, leaving countless demons in the wilderness to roam, linger, and multiply.
The Dark Tide occurs once every two years, like a recurring disease; it has happened exactly twenty times now.
A terrifying number of demons—far exceeding the total population of the current continent—had been "injected" into the wilderness time and time again.
This made the world outside the city walls increasingly dangerous; every step could lead into a death trap.
Fortunately, with the exception of one secondary torrent that poured in, not a single mainstream Dark Tide had entered the borderlands.
Therefore, the demon density in the wilderness had not yet reached a completely hopeless and ridiculous level.
But even so, this land was already something that ordinary high-ranking adventurers could not easily cross.
Every journey was no different from stepping halfway into the gates of hell.
Lin Gui patted Old Green beneath him, and the giant lizard obediently quickened its pace.
He took a look back at the receding silhouette of New Covenant City, then resolutely turned around.
He faced the unknown wilderness shrouded in twilight.
The 679 letters in his backpack were heavy, weighing not just on his back, but also on his heart.
Every letter was a hope waiting to be delivered, a possibility of a broken family being reunited.
“Alright, let's get to work,” he whispered to himself, his eyes sharpening. “First stop, Black Demon Forest.”
Rate on N.U.
