Lin Feng accepted a charcoal pencil from the receptionist Normir and began writing on a piece of brand-new sheepskin parchment.
He wanted to write his own name at first, but then something occurred to him, and he ended up signing his name as Brand Linfen.
Most of the time, not giving away one's own name could save one a lot of trouble.
After all, Lin Feng was already a Grade-3 smith with the Smiths' Association. If he used his own name at the Mercenaries' Guild too, word would probably get out that Lin Feng was part-timing as both a smith and a mercenary.
The name Brand Linfen was borrowed from his apprentice's and adapted from his own.
After Lin Feng handed in the sheepskin form to the receptionist, however, he saw her smile widen even further.
"Done!
"Welcome, Mr. Brand! You are now an officially registered member of Grimm's Mercenaries' Guild!
"Please allow me to introduce the Mercenaries' Guild's benefits to you!"
Lin Feng blinked and then nodded inwardly.
The Mercenaries' Guild at Grimm was indeed an official establishment, so it was not surprising that they had these so-called benefits.
However, the receptionist Normir's next words almost immediately made him choke on his saliva.
"According to the contract, if you happen to accidentally pass away during a mission, the Mercenaries' Guild will provide you with a magnificent funeral worth twenty gold coins!
"We guarantee that should anything happen to you, we'll give you a wonderful gravestone with the best view!"
The corners of Lin Feng's lips twitched. Just then, the smiling receptionist took an upside-down triangular badge embedded with amber from under the counter and handed it to Lin Feng, saying,
"Mr. Brand, this is the Mercenaries' Guild's badge. Please take good care of it. From now on, you will receive points for every commission you complete, and we'll measure them using the magic stored in this badge."
The talkative man interrupted the receptionist there impatiently, saying,
"Enough, Normir. Just give the key to the sewers we got from the city defense corp yesterday to Mr. Brand."
He dug his ear with a finger and then suddenly glanced at the street outside the Mercenaries' Guild, frowning.
"The Smiths' Association's competition is even affecting business here at our Mercenaries' Guild. There aren't many people who could hold their excitement and go for quests now."
Normir seemed to remember that as well. Retaining a professional smile, she reached under the counter to find a copper key and placed it in Lin Feng's hand.
"Mr. Brand, your commission is located in the south-east part of the city. The entrance to the sewers there is quite easy to find, and this mission is not too difficult, but still, be careful!"
Lin Feng accepted the key and put it in his pocket, nodding at the smiling Normir before turning to the talkative man to ask,
"I noticed that the commission only says to find out the reason behind the recent disturbances in the sewers.
"What if I go down there and search the whole place but can't find the reason?"
The talkative man snapped his fingers and chuckled.
"Easy, the mercenary badge you just took will automatically record where you go. If you really do search every corner of the sewers without finding anything, we'll be able to tell that you've completed this so-called investigation commission."
Lin Feng nodded again.
He was not surprised that the mercenary badge had location-tracking magic applied to it.
In this era when demonic beasts were constantly attacking humanity, both magic and martial arts were on a consistent upward trend.
More daily necessities involved the power of what they called 'magical technology'.
He pinned the mercenary badge to his collar and put the sheepskin parchment with the task information into his pocket. After that, he bid the man and woman in the Mercenaries' Guild goodbye before leaving the building.
There was nothing else for him to do while waiting for the results of the Smithing Tournament, so he just wanted to find something for himself to do.
He had noticed something when he fought the group of Grade-3 beasts last time.
Although he was physically as strong as a Grade-3 weapon, he was still sorely lacking in actual combat experience.
After all, he had been a blacksmith for most of his life. Before this, he had barely ever fought anyone or anything at all.
Accepting these mercenary commissions allowed him to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could he train his combat skills, he could also earn a bit of extra change.
As he considered his next steps, he headed toward the sewers, his destination for his mission. Slowly but surely, Lin Feng drew up his plan for the next few days.
There were two days until the next round of the Smithing Tournament, so he should use this time while the Smiths' Association workshops were unavailable to do a few more mercenary commissions.
He could think of it as his little training camp.
Half an hour later, Lin Feng was at the south-eastern side of the city, all on his own.
There were barely any people around. After all, most of Grimm's nightlife-loving citizens had already taken to the main streets.
No one would hang around a deserted corner like this.
"This place…
"Yeah, it's definitely old…"
Lin Feng sighed and tried to fan away the air in front of his nose. Amidst the foul, even sour stench of waste and rot, he pulled open the sewer's grille gate and went inside.
The moist, disgusting air immediately enveloped him whole.
Lin Feng frowned slightly.
Grimm was a relatively busy and large city, so there were at least several thousand families living here. That added up to a considerable amount of waste.
After tearing a piece of hemp off his clothes and covering his nose with it, Lin Feng slowly walked down the sewers.
When he turned around a corner, though, he suddenly heard a rustling in the near distance.
Lin Feng's entire body tensed up, and he took another cautious step forward. At the same time, his eyes gleamed.