CHAPTER 371: CHAPTER 16: RIP-OFF QUESTS

Yue Jinghua took a deep breath and pulled what she believed to be a harmless, extra-large smile, "Boss Helen, are you sure, this is the mercenary task you’re offering us?"

A stack of mercenary tasks, so rich in content and numerous in quantity, truly left Yue Jinghua awestruck.

This also indirectly reflected how extensive Helen’s personal networking skills were, dealing with everyone from the lowliest peddlers to the merchants, an impressive and complete variety.

The most outrageous one was to have Qin Dongting work as a night-time bartender at Helen Tavern for a month, with a compensation of 10 Mercenary Points, reportedly posted by a female mercenary.

The accumulation of mercenary points in the Eastern Continent is quite straightforward.

For Stone, Shell, Pearl, and Diamond levels of mercenary tasks, the corresponding individual mercenary points are 2, 10, 100, 500 respectively. (This shows the Blue Rank mercenary points, from Blue Rank to Yellow Rank, points are multiplied by 1x and 2x respectively, meaning the same Stone-level task, Blue Stone is worth 2 points, Yellow Stone 4 points, Red Stone 6 points, and so on.)

The corresponding mercenary levels that can accept these are One-star matches Stone Rank, two-star matches Shell Rank, three stars match Pearl Rank, Four Stars match Diamond Rank, and Unrivaled Tasks are for Five-star and above mercenaries.

As for the last category, the Unrivaled Tasks, due to their rarity, the points are generally market-based and can sometimes even reach tens of thousands of points.

Team tasks offer double the individual basis, and members can also enjoy the corresponding mercenary points.

This rule seems rigid, but there is a certain degree of flexibility. For instance, two One-star Mercenaries can form a group to take on a Blue Shell level task.

However, the Mercenary Branch also has clear regulations that no matter how many people there are, they can only skip one level at most. This means that even a large One-star Mercenary Group can only take on Shell level tasks at most, and it’s almost impossible to skip multiple levels to take on a Pearl Rank task.

Saying it’s almost impossible is because there are two exceptions that allow one to break this rule. One is the collateral method previously used by Luo and his group to obtain high-level tasks.

Another way is to recruit new members, absorbing higher-level mercenaries, thereby qualifying to take on higher-level tasks through the higher-ranking mercenaries.

Taking Yue Jinghua as an example, if she takes on a Red Stone Level team task, she can earn 12 team points and simultaneously gain 6 personal points.

Therefore, most mercenaries on Xuan Beast Ridge are affiliated with different Mercenary Groups, and the larger the Mercenary Group, the larger the number of mercenaries, which means access to even more mercenary tasks.

But the current problem is that "Second Generation Soldier" has multiple bad records and has been stripped of the qualification to take on team mercenary tasks, effectively becoming a blacklisted user.

So when Yue Jinghua questioned Helen with dissatisfaction, the age-ambiguous but still stunningly beautiful Boss Helen chuckled twice, "Are you saying you don’t want to take these tasks?"

"How could these be considered tasks," Yue Jinghua complained as she slapped the stack of task orders.

Irritating Task One: Collect a debt for the small town usurer Ollem for 1 point.

Irritating Task Two: Shear wool for the town’s wool farm, 1.5 points.

Irritating Task Three: Deliver a love letter on behalf of Farmer Uncle Watermelon to the female shop assistant at the grocery store, 1 point.

Irritating Task Four: Watch over the golden bull at the Bern Cow Farm on the high mountain, 2 points.

...

The most annoying task was: having Qin Dongting become a bartender at Helen Tavern for 5 Mercenary Points, which was allegedly requested by a female mercenary who adored him.

Yue Jinghua felt like vomiting three liters of blood. There were countless similar tasks, no wonder Helen had readily agreed to Yue Jinghua’s requests back then.

These minor tasks posted by the townspeople were too trivial, and the Five Saint Mercenary Branch had neither the time nor the inclination to bother with them, nor did any mercenaries wish to take on such thankless jobs. Therefore, they were handed to Helen under the guise of charitable tasks.

She couldn’t even hope for Shalman and Qin Dongting to make much progress, and with only a handful of people in the mercenary group, they were desperately short-staffed.

"If you don’t want it, forget it. Public support is important. It can help you make a name for yourselves and erase any bad reputation," Helen, seeing Yue Jinghua’s reaction, made as if she was going to take the tasks back.

"Wait--" Yue Jinghua had no choice, "I’ll take it, but with one condition. The points, for the bartending task, raise it to 10. Think about it, with Qin Dongting’s popularity, just standing there with his coffin face would bring you a hefty income from drinks. 10 points, it’s a good deal."

In the end, for an additional 5 Mercenary Points, Yue Jinghua left the tavern with a thick stack of task commissions.

To save time, Yue Jinghua adopted a system of distribution, with each person taking action separately and completing 5 to 6 tasks each.

Who would have guessed the first to refuse was Qin Dongting, "I won’t take it."

He didn’t say much, just took out the Mercenary Manual, pointing to a clause: "Out of respect for the personal rights of each mercenary, forcing a mercenary to accept a task they are unwilling to do is not allowed in non-emergency situations."

"Snap," Yue Jinghua slapped the Mercenary Manual onto Qin Dongting’s handsome face, leaned on the table with both hands, her face menacing like a procuress about to force someone into a disreputable life, "Don’t talk to me about rights. Rights and duties are parallel. What non-emergency situation? The team is about to go bankrupt, if this isn’t an emergency, you have no say in whether you take it or not."

Qin Dongting lifted his chin, at a 45-degree angle, his arms crossed over his chest, the implication clear, "That’s your problem, if you’re unhappy, feel free to dismiss me."

"Ha, you won’t listen to the captain, is that it? I’ll dock your salary, dock your points," she thought again, this guy was practically the king of negative points. As for the salary, it was said that the previous captain, Luo Compass, still owed him six months of pay.

Yue Jinghua’s eyes whirled around, and with a couple of sly chuckles, "Mr. Qin, that Mountain and River Fan of yours is quite something."

Qin Dongting maintained his posture but lowered his chin slightly, obviously, he was somewhat curious about why Yue Jinghua suddenly brought up his Spiritual Artifact.

"If I’m not mistaken, it’s a High-level Water and Earth Dual Attribute Spiritual Artifact?" Yue Jinghua had watched from the shadows on another day; during the battle between Qin Dongting and Yan Bao, Yan Bao’s punches were hard and fierce. Qin Dongting’s fan was gentle and flexible in contrast. The power of his Mountain and River Fan had not been fully unleashed.

Qin Dongting was too proud and extremely vain. His only weakness was that fan.

The fan, left to him by his deceased mother, was said to be his father’s Spiritual Artifact from years past.

In the world of weapons, fans were not considered the most top-notch, yet Qin Dongting always used a fan.

This Mountain and River Fan, rumored to be refined using the water from the Gula River and the stones from Li Mountain, was an excellent Spiritual Artifact for both offense and defense. In theory, it should possess four modes – two each for attack and defense, combining both Water and Earth Attributes.

It was uncertain whether it was Qin Dongting’s limited ability or an issue with the fan itself, but with Qin Dongting, the fan’s power was greatly reduced.

"You’ve only managed to bring out the basic Water Attribute ’Water Wall’ ability. As for the Earth Element’s offensive methods, you can’t perform them, can you?" Yue Jinghua watched Qin Dongting’s reaction closely.

Qin Dongting slowly turned his face around, their eyes meeting. He felt as though Yue Jinghua’s gaze was like a sharp blade, piercing right to his very soul.