"Mayi! What are you rushing around for in such a hurry? I always teach you not to be so hasty with things—where did all that advice go?!" The landlady sat on a stool, glaring fiercely at Mayibeia.
Mayibeia lowered her head in embarrassment, fiddling with her hands. As a physically resilient demon and an adventurer, the fall hadn't hurt her much, but the landlady was human, so it definitely hurt her more.
...
After Dan Feng and Galdaruf finished eating, Dan Feng returned to his room.
The room interior was pretty much the same as when he first arrived, only now it carried a slightly different atmosphere—the feeling of a place that had been lived in for a long time.
Dan Feng set his long spear aside, then thought of Cloud-Piercer in his mind. Instantly, a spear about eight chi long, entirely profound cyan in color, appeared in his hand.
When this Cloud-Piercer fell into Dan Feng's grasp, it felt as cold as touching an ice block.
The spear's body was elegantly shaped, with dragon-scale reliefs embedded along the spine—especially the spearhead section, which was even more beautiful.
That black-and-white leisurely orb (Abyssal Pearl), symbolizing the inheritance and power of the Vidyadhara clan's Dragon Sovereign, added an air of refined elegance to the entire spear.
"This weight, this texture—one touch and you know it's a fine spear!" Dan Feng began testing swings with Cloud-Piercer. The feel was incomparably better than the long spear he had paid a fortune to have custom-forged.
Yingxing: The sharpness of this spear can pierce through dragon scales.
Dan Feng: I don't believe it.
In any case, the Dan Feng here was absolutely convinced it could pierce dragon scales. With this spear combined with Cloud Rider spear technique, he could handle all sorts of sudden situations.
Early the next morning, Dan Feng headed to the Adventurers' Guild as usual.
Over these two years, he had developed this habit: going early allowed him to snag the better requests. If he arrived later, only the low-reward, poor-value ones would be left.
He stood in front of the request board, scanning for suitable A-rank requests.
At that moment, he noticed a request that shouldn't have been on the A-rank subjugation list.
[A-rank Subjugation Request: Subjugate Shadow Wolf Pack]
[Number: No more than one hundred]
[Location: The border between the Great Forest and Blue Dragon Mountains]
[Reward: Ten Millis gold coins]
Without hesitation, Dan Feng tore the request off and headed to the counter to register it.
Shadow wolves were pack-type C-rank monsters known for their incredible speed. They typically hunted at night, and by the time you noticed them, all you saw was their shadow in the darkness—hence the name shadow wolf.
The Adventurers' Guild receptionist, seeing it was the Cold Dragon Young, didn't question his capability at all and immediately registered the request for Dan Feng.
After thanking her, Dan Feng ran toward the city gate leading to the Great Forest.
The knights guarding the gate, recognizing Dan Feng, immediately opened it for him.
They were all old acquaintances—what was there to stop him for?
When Dan Feng became a C-rank adventurer, he passed through here almost every day, naturally building good relations with the Millis knights stationed there.
Dan Feng sprinted along with his spear in hand at considerable speed—thanks largely to the physique boosts from the template progress bar.
The surrounding scenery blurred past him rapidly. Since Dan Feng didn't wear armor or anything that added weight to his body, he ran with no hindrance at all.
A spear as a weapon offered both offense and defense with immense power.
If you could wield it proficiently, whether in close combat or at range, enemies would be helpless against you.
When Dan Feng reached the border between the Great Forest and Blue Dragon Mountains, he found no trace of the shadow wolves at all.
"In broad daylight—are these shadow wolves all hiding?" Dan Feng wondered inwardly, then cautiously advanced forward step by step.
He pushed through dense grass, missing no possible hiding spot for a shadow wolf.
Yet despite his vigilance, he still saw no sign of them.
Just then, a faint sound reached his ears.
It was a low growl, as if some creature was suppressing its rage.
Dan Feng knew this was likely the shadow wolves he was after.
Following the direction of the sound, he saw a large patch of grass ahead shrouded by big trees—the noise seemed to come from there.
With two years of adventurer experience, Dan Feng could almost certainly conclude that the shadow wolves for this request were hidden in that clump of grass.
Dan Feng took a deep breath and slowly raised his long spear.
His gaze sharpened extraordinarily, as if it could pierce straight through the grass to see the shadow wolves concealed within.
He channeled all his strength into his right hand, gripping the spear handle tightly.
As he moved, the spear trembled slightly—this was Dan Feng's habit. Ever since learning about mana, he infused it into his spear during every fight.
Finally, Dan Feng burst forward, hurling the spear like lightning.
With a crisp "whoosh," the spear shot forth like an arrow released from a bow, piercing straight into the grass clump.
In an instant, a miserable howl erupted from the grass. A black wolf was impaled by the spear and pinned firmly to the tree trunk behind it, as if nailed in place.
The wolf pack immediately burst from the grass and swarmed toward Dan Feng.
Dan Feng smiled, then waved his right hand—Cloud-Piercer appeared in his grasp.
"I'll use you all to test Cloud-Piercer."
...
After the battle ended, Dan Feng stuffed the wolf king into a sack. With that, the A-rank request was complete.
"As expected, the early bird gets the worm. It's noon now—time to eat some of these shadow wolves." Dan Feng casually picked out a smaller-looking shadow wolf and skillfully began dismantling it.
Then he gathered some wood and used fire magic to ignite it.
Shadow wolf meat didn't have the sour taste of Paxus coyotes; it was extremely delicious and had five times the nutritional value of beef.
Once full, Dan Feng casually fired a fireball spell to incinerate the remaining shadow wolf corpses. After the fire died down, he used water magic to extinguish the flames before leaving.
"It'll still take a while to get back to Millishion. No rush—I've already completed an A-rank request, so I can take it slow." Dan Feng said this while the sack in his left hand continuously dripped blood.
As Dan Feng walked slowly and neared Millishion, a scene suddenly caught his eye.
"Um, excuse me, but I saw other people going in just fine—why are you stopping us now?" A girl with water-blue hair wearing a hooded cloak stood at the city gate with a small beast-race girl.
"What the hell? Are you going in or not? If you're a demon, show some proof of identity already." The gate knight wore an impatient expression, his eyes full of disdain for demons.
"I'm an adventurer. This is my adventurer card." The girl pulled a card out from inside her cloak—proof of her status as an adventurer.
The knight took the adventurer card, glanced at it carelessly, and tsked.
"Even such a small demon is already A-rank. I don't know how the Adventurers' Guild sets their promotion standards." The knight casually tossed the girl's adventurer card.
The girl quickly caught it, but the next words made her pupils dilate.
"Entry fee is one Millis gold coin."
"So expensive!" The girl looked like she wanted to cry as she put the card away, then took out a very girlish purse and pulled out a shining Millis gold coin.
But at that moment, Dan Feng slowly stepped in front of the girl.
The girl was blocked by this man who reeked of blood all over.
The little beast-race girl, seeing it was a man approaching, immediately hid behind Roxy Migurdia in fright.
Because this beast-race girl had been rescued from a lolicon merchant in Zant Port, she was extremely afraid of unfamiliar men.
Thus, the request to escort the beast-race girl home had been taken on by Roxy Migurdia after she rescued the girl from the lolicon merchant.
"Hey, Lawrence—since when does it cost this much for demons to enter the city?" Dan Feng looked calmly at the knight before him.
Though they knew each other, Dan Feng really couldn't stand this kind of racial discrimination—especially as someone who frequently interacted with demons.
"Dan Feng?" The knight was stunned to see him, then noticed the blood-soaked sack being dragged on the ground.
He leaned closer to Dan Feng and whispered: "She's a demon, though! Of course we charge more."
"But that's way too much. She looks like just a kid—no need to make things hard for her."
"Fine, fine—original price, one silver coin then." Lawrence couldn't argue with Dan Feng. Though Dan Feng usually didn't talk much, when he did speak, his reasoning was solid and irrefutable.
Dan Feng nodded, gave Lawrence a confirming look, and dragged his sack inside.
Lawrence, however, showed a look of contempt and sighed.
It was no surprise—in a country so steeped in racial discrimination, Dan Feng's actions wouldn't earn him much favor. In the Holy Country of Millis, demons were beings everyone wanted to beat.
After hearing it was only one silver coin, the girl's eyes lit up instantly. She quickly pulled out a silver coin, handed it to the knight, and successfully entered Millishion with the little beast-race girl.
Once inside, the girl immediately looked around for Dan Feng.
But she found he had already walked far away.
"Huh? He left so fast. I was thinking of introducing myself." Roxy Migurdia showed a trace of disappointment.
Dan Feng went straight to the Adventurers' Guild and submitted his request at the counter.
Next, he showed the staff the shadow wolf king's corpse and sold it to the guild as well.
After successfully receiving his reward, Dan Feng didn't leave the guild immediately. Instead, he returned to the request board to see if there were any easy requests he could take now and do tomorrow.
That way, he could skip coming to the guild the next day.
When the Adventurers' Guild announced the new list of A-rank and S-rank adventurers, the idle adventurers browsing around couldn't stay calm.
"What?! That kid Dan Feng reached A-rank in just two years?" A middle-aged adventurer stared at the list in disbelief.
He had been an adventurer for twenty years yet remained stuck at B-rank. Every time he joined new parties for A-rank requests, he couldn't keep up, leading to heavy losses for every team he joined after becoming B-rank—though somehow, he always survived unscathed. Quite rare.
"The Cold Dragon Young is a genius—what are you? Someone cursed by the Demon God." Someone in the crowd said.
"No way—that reckless bastard is slandering me here? Come out—I think you want to taste my flame burst."
"Hey, hey, please don't fight in the Adventurers' Guild—you'll get fined." The staff tried to calm the many adventurers.
...
After looking around, Dan Feng found no particularly good requests.
This was because the Great Forest had entered the dry season—powerful monsters mostly stayed hidden. They only came out during the rainy season.
This made it hard for adventurers to get decent requests in the dry season.
So Dan Feng prepared to head back to the tavern.
Just as he turned, a familiar figure once again entered his line of sight.
"This is awful—why won't any inns here let me stay? Today has been really terrible. The only thing that made me happy was eating the apple pie Mama Aire made." Thinking of this, Roxy Migurdia's mouth began to water uncontrollably.
"I really want to eat it again. That sweet, silky taste is impossible to resist."
Dan Feng just stared at her. She didn't notice him and walked straight toward the counter.
"What a coincidence—seeing her again." Dan Feng thought inwardly, but he had no intention of saying hello.
When Roxy Migurdia reached the counter, she handed a signed request completion form to a female staff member.
The staff member, seeing it was a demon, forced a smile: "How may I help you?"
"Um, this is my request report." Roxy Migurdia took out a report signed by Aire's parents and handed it over for review.
The staff member glanced at the report, then handed over some reward money: "This is your reward. Please take it. If you have any concerns about the amount, feel free to raise them."
Roxy Migurdia looked at the reward, then gathered her courage and said softly: "Um... although this request was posted by the guild, the reward seems low for this kind of job. Could some of the travel expenses from Zant Port to Millishion be compensated?"
For long-distance escort requests like this, the Adventurers' Guild would normally reimburse travel costs.
Hearing this, the staff member's expression immediately went blank: "There's no such thing. The total travel fee is already double the reward. Did you really pay that much to the gate knights?"
Hearing this, Roxy Migurdia clenched her fists tightly. Along the way, she had endured no shortage of gossip—just because she was a demon, people here looked at her with prejudiced eyes.
She hadn't done anything wrong and didn't know them, but because of this, Roxy Migurdia's mood grew even worse.
She turned to leave but bumped right into someone.
"Hey, I can testify—she did pay the gate knights." Dan Feng stared expressionlessly at the female staff member.
His face matched the staff member's blank expression perfectly.
Roxy Migurdia