The day had gone by longer than expected as the team finished their last round of exploring the city. From the outskirts to the center, they scoured every street and building they could find. But nothing of importance could be seen, to the frustration of Calliope and the team.
They stopped in front of the large billboard, gazing at the many papers stuck to it. Colton placed his hand on the layers of old and new commissions stuck to the wall, each one asking for something different. Mercenaries around them came and went, ripping off papers from the board or approaching the woman in the booth to collect their reward.
"Well, this is much better than how I'd get contracts back in the other world." Marcus remarked, walking closer and reading each piece of paper while the rest stayed back.
"What jobs would they want done in a world like this?" Celestine asked with an uncertain expression.
After glazing at a few more commissions on the board, Calliope replied. "Seems like just hunting animals, or gathering certain things from the forest, such as herbs and meat or fur."
"We call those Mead Cup Jobs." He laughed.
"Mead cup?" Celestine asked, this time curious with what Marcus just said.
"Basically jobs that guarantee you'd at least get a cup of mead in the nearby tavern. Low risk low pay jobs." As Calliope placed her hand on one of the papers, another hand grabbed onto it as well.
Next to her was a well dressed man, donning a sleek and protective tunic and pants, with a sword sheathed on his belt. The man looked young, wearing a prideful smirk on his face, seemingly a kid from a richer household. Colton realized that the man's arms had thin ropes hanging on them, meant for combat and to tie on objects.
"Ah, I'm sorry. From how you all look I presume you're all some new commoners trying to earn a few coins?" He spoke with a mocking tone.
"I wished to read what was task was on the paper." Calliope coldly replied.
"My apologies then, I assumed that you would love to take on those jobs, low risk and low pay." The man laughed, the sight made Marcus and Quill annoyed.
After a few moments, the man grabbed another paper on the billboard, a high risk and high paying commission. He chuckled as he read it.
"Ah, killing a few beasts, well this should be simple. You should be fortunate that people like I take on these jobs, lest the army may force you to do them to just clear them from the board." With a bow, the man walked away with the paper, disappearing through the crowds of mercenaries and regular citizens alike.
Marcus was visibly irritated by the man's demeanor and presence.
"From his appearance and personality, he just looks like a fame-blinded rich boy. I witnessed many in my village, most of whom came back heavily injured." Celestine remarked, having analyzed the man while he was talking.
"What a prideful little cretin." Marcus gritted his teeth in anger.
"Calm down, we may not even see him again. This world is big anyway so this'll probably be the only time we talk to that guy." Quill reassured.
With the interaction over, Calliope continued browsing through the hundreds of jobs plastered on the board.
"These jobs seem somewhat more difficult compared to what we received in the previous mountain" Calliope commented, her eyes drifted through the hundreds of papers on the wall, but stopped at one in particular.
"It seems this one calls for bringing a certain package to another mountain, interesting." She ripped the paper off from the billboard, reading through it with deep interest.
"The reward is merely a few coins, but our destination is the gambling mountain. The package may be claimed in the booth." She began reading off from the paper, handing it to Marcus to bring whatever the package was from the booth.
"So we will perform errands now?" Myo laughed. The crowd of mercenaries shrunk as many have embarked on their own journeys.
"The reasons vary, from growing what coin we have to ensure stability as we continue on our task and to further understand how this world may operate." Calliope explained, her response surprised Myo, nodding his head in approval.
Soon, Marcus returned with a small wooden box in his hand.
"I had a chat with the woman there, a kind lady." He handed the paper and box to Calliope.
"I managed to get some information from her, mainly in how we may get those so-called documents and such." Calliope looked at him, now curious.
"What did she say?"
"Well, similar to how Yoliran mercenary guilds operate, the more jobs you do the higher your status becomes. Apparently our records are clean and empty, so we may need to begin doing more contracts, riskier ones mostly.." Marcus explained to the team, Calliope looked away, forming a plan in her head.
"The commission does correlate with our task at hand. And with the information Marcus provided, makes our situation easier to comprehend." Calliope explained the plan to everyone, quickly understanding what to do next.
"With the package and destination on the paper, we may begin heading off to the next mountain. Hopefully it contains books we may take." After speaking, Calliope led the team away from the billboard, heading down a street towards the edge of the mountain. Along the way they could see other mercenaries walking by, going towards the edge as well or back to the billboard and the woman.
"So is this really how mercenary work is normally done?" To pass the time, Celestine started a conversation, walking next to Marcus and waiting for a response.
"Mostly from taverns rather than a single place. Experience is measured by how many customers you worked for. For the most part." He responded, Celestine took in every word he said, heavily interested.
In a few minutes, they arrived at the edge of the mountain, a line of rope connecting them to the next mountain was tended to by another stall.
"State your business." The man asked with a gruff tone.