The booth is occupied by two men and one woman, about sixteen years old. One of the men is rather impatient, with a black-faced, fierce look and a sharp stubble like steel needles.
The mage's robe of the woman is already tattered. She simply cut off the sleeves and wrapped a tight belt around her waist, accentuating her proud breasts. She wears a common adventurer's shorts, revealing her long, sturdy thighs, exuding a wild seductiveness. This outfit somewhat subverts Charlie's definition of a female mage - the integration of intellect and wildness is quite tempting.
Seeing Charlie approaching them, the three became alert.
"What do you want?" The black-faced man growled in a low voice.
Charlie stopped in his tracks and said, "The bartender said I can ask you for information in exchange for something."
The black-faced man frowned slightly, about to refuse.
The woman smiled amusedly, "A newcomer."
"Yes."
"Why did you choose to ask us? Jimmy would recommend, but he wouldn't specify who."
"Well, among these people, only your team has a girl, and I trust the beauty!" Charlie spread his hands and smiled, "Can I sit down?"
The woman laughed, "Our information is quite valuable, can you afford it? You don't need to take out any gold coins."
Charlie took out a scroll from his pocket and placed it on the table, then sat down, "Is this enough?"
It is a parchment scroll with complex magical runes drawn in faint blue lines, clearly a high-level scroll, and the faint magical wave it emits proves it is an effective one.
"A light magic scroll?" The woman's face showed a hint of surprise.
Hearing this, the other male companion exclaimed, "Katharine, are you sure?"
"Mm! I feel the holy light energy."
Katharine nodded and asked, "What spell is it?"
"Fourth-tier Holy Light Barrier." This was the first fourth-tier spell Charlie had tried to analyze, taking a long time to slowly comprehend, and being able to draw it on a scroll was just a few days ago, a process that wasted not less than a few hundred sketch papers and five enchanted parchments.
Hearing the answer, they seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
The black-faced man grunted, "How many do you have? We want them all!"
"Taylor, can you be a little more composed?" The other man glared at him and sighed.
Katharine also gave a bitter smile.
Seeing their expressions, Charlie roughly grasped the value of this scroll, and also understood the personalities of these three people, and gained a key piece of information: light magic scrolls are in high demand in Twilight Town.
Charlie placed his hand on the scroll, lightly tapping his fingers, and said, "No problem, take it out, I'm prepared to pay. But I have to get something valuable in return, otherwise, forget it!"
Taylor grunted, "As long as you're willing to use the scroll as a reward, we can tell you anything other than our personal secrets."
The pale-faced man looked at Taylor, quite helpless, and said, "Whether it's valuable or not is entirely up to you. How do we know if the information is true? If we hand over the information and you're not satisfied, what then?"
Charlie shook his head and smiled, "That's the difference between you and me. I can talk to Taylor, but not to you. There's no basis for a deal!"
The pale-faced man sneered, "You don't need to use these words to provoke me. When you're out there, caution is a must! A deal that hasn't been settled is better than one with disputes."
Charlie sighed, "First, I'm a newcomer, and I have a need for information. Second, one party has to show trust first, without initial trust, there's no basis for a deal. Third, you are the elders here, and I believe you also have a certain understanding of your own strength. Three against one, are you really not confident?"
The pale-faced man explained, "This is the Blood Raven Tavern, no one can cause trouble here!" He looked deeply at Charlie and said, "But you're right, I believe you're a person who knows when to advance and retreat. Go ahead and ask!"
Charlie smiled, "Is light magic scrolls particularly popular here? What's the general market price?"
The three were momentarily stunned by this first question.
Taylor exclaimed, "You're really too smart!"
Katharine snorted, "It's not that he's smart, it's that you're too stupid!"
The pale-faced man replied, "It's simple, the creatures we have to deal with here are mostly shadow creatures, and the holy light barrier can resist the corrosion and erosion effects of shadow spells, with the best defensive performance. For those active around Twilight Town, the Holy Light Barrier is worth a life!"
"What about other scrolls?"
"Other scrolls don't have this extra meaning. It depends on the specific situation, of course, high-level scrolls are popular everywhere, they are extra supplements to magic power and spiritual power."
"Points can't be traded directly, so how do you usually trade?"
"The Necromancy Academy often posts some collection tasks on the platform, with fixed points, so basically anything can be used to measure the collection target, and some people also have special trading needs, usually in a barter system.
There is a fixed auction every week in the town, if your scrolls are more in quantity and variety, you can go participate. You can also go to the west market, basically all the new things can be found there."
As a scroll apprentice, Charlie's value is demonstrated. As long as he is willing, he can be a scroll master in the town, slowly accumulating points, without having to go out on adventures, though this is not the way Charlie expects.
After more than an hour of questioning, Charlie basically understood the task gameplay and rules of Twilight Town, and he had fully exploited the value of the Holy Light Barrier scroll. He had drained this small team of people, learning a lot of common knowledge, basically getting rid of the plight of a Twilight Town newcomer.
The relationship between Twilight Town and the Necromancy Academy is similar to that between the Extreme Sea Port and the Arcane Circle, the difference being that the former is closer, and the Necromancy Academy is located underground in Twilight Town, said to be accessible only to necromancers, a large underground city, but most of the townspeople don't know how grand it is, because they can't get in, and even some low-level necromancers don't know much, as the Necromancy Academy is famous for its cruel restrictions, and many things can't be seen without reaching the corresponding level.
In recent years, the necromancers have not been very friendly to the people of Twilight Town, and the relationship between the two is not particularly good, but after all, it is their territory, so they have to give the necromancers a certain face.
When Charlie mentioned the accommodation problem, this is a long-standing problem, the main reason being the scarcity of resources in Twilight Town and the huge population of apprentices.
Without enough economic strength, they can only choose to rent tents, ranging from 10 to 200 gold coins per day, the tent conditions are not much different, mainly depending on the location, the further in, the safer and more expensive.
They can also go to the shops to buy a set of tents, but there is no safe place left for them to choose from, they can only camp on the outermost edge of Twilight Town, the advantage being that it is cleaner and avoids the crowded environment.
Those with strong economic strength can stay in the inns of Twilight Town, but those places generally don't accept gold coins, only points, 30 to 80 points per night, which apprentices basically can't afford.
Many people use staying in inns as an adjustment and buffer for their adventuring career, going once in a while to clean themselves up inside and out, how often they go depends on their ability to earn points.
The jungle around Twilight Town is called the "Rotten Orchard", which was the early settlers' orchard, but later, for some unknown reason, the tree roots started to rot and decay, spawning disgusting worms, and it was gradually abandoned. The locals blamed it on the aftermath of necromancy, demanding compensation, and the division made compensation, but the orchard was completely abandoned, the worms are a type of scavenger, adept at acid spitting, and the danger level is generally moderate.
On the other side of the jungle is a farm called "Reagan's Farm", also with some historical years, abandoned due to the frequent spawning of vengeful spirits, and some apprentices risk their lives to stakeout to obtain the "Vengeful Spirit Powder", occasionally resulting in some murders, the danger level is moderate.
Going further out is the dense forest area, the true wilderness, depending on luck, there may be fierce predators lurking, which is quite dangerous.
Twilight Town has a public task platform, run on the mercenary model, serving as an intermediary platform between the employer and the mercenary, providing credibility guarantee. The team must complete tasks on this platform to earn apprentice points.
The tasks posted on the platform are of two types, one is the academy task, the other is the private task.
The former is subject to a rotating rule to avoid the situation of the strong bullying the weak, giving everyone a chance to receive academy tasks that match their strength.
Private tasks are more favored, especially those with good rewards, usually monopolized by some large teams, but the task platform recognizes objects, not people, whoever brings back the core certificate of the task can get the reward, so private tasks sometimes trigger a bloody storm.
Hearing this, Charlie's expression suddenly changed, pushing the scroll away and said, "Thank you all for the guidance, I have a bit of an urgent matter, the scroll is yours."
He then hurriedly left.
"Isn't this person a fraud? He left in such a hurry?!"
The pale-faced man pondered, "As long as the scroll is real, it's fine."