This bottle of Spring-Returning Dew was simply far too powerful. It was absolutely a life-saving trump card.

Lin Er carefully tucked it into his pocket.

He raised his head and glanced at the sky. The sun had not set yet. Because he had completed the gathering task so quickly, there were still two or three hours until nightfall.

Right now, only the letter delivery and escort tasks remained and those would have to wait until tomorrow.

The letter delivery was easy enough. He had heard the sender was writing to his wife, so all he had to do was deliver the letter to a village woman in the destination village.

His legs were fast, so it would not take much time.

Escorting the bamboo, on the other hand, would be more troublesome.

Lin Er could not help looking at his hands. Both were empty. He had no weapons or equipment at all.

Although Ellie had reminded him that the bamboo being escorted was not valuable and the client only wanted peace of mind, so there would basically be no danger, he still needed to pay a bit more attention to bears.

But showing up with no weapon at all was hard to justify to the client.

At the very least, he had to bring a sword. He needed to look the part.

Thinking this, Lin Er headed down the main street and soon arrived in front of a blacksmith shop.

At a glance, all kinds of blades, swords, hammers and axes filled the place. Two mannequins served as the storefront sign, wearing plate armor as a display, armed to the teeth and looking imposing.

Many young people who looked like adventurers were inside picking out weapons. The owner, whose body was covered in muscles, was greeting them with an eager smile.

‘If this were a cultivation world, I’d eat it raw!’

Lin Er could not help wanting to complain about his system. It had told him at the start that this was a cultivation world and fooled him badly.

He came back to himself, took a quick look around the shop and chose the weapon he needed.

One kitchen cleaver, 6 Ear-of-Wheat Coins.

One dagger, 2 Workshop Coins.

One longsword, 9 Workshop Coins.

At these prices, he could not even afford a kitchen cleaver.

Lin Er had only 5 Ear-of-Wheat Coins and 1 Workshop Coin on him.

He was planning to save them for dinner and lodging tonight.

So he could only turn around and leave, giving up on buying a weapon.

Lin Er understood now. The bounties the Adventurers’ Guild gave him paid so little it was frightening, probably barely enough to keep someone fed.

He was only Qi Refining Level 1 and still needed to eat and sleep like an ordinary person. Without money, it really would not work.

It seemed that even with the extra rewards from the system, he still needed to raise his badge level as soon as possible and take bounties with slightly better pay.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Lin Er wandered the street for a bit, getting more familiar with the environment of Blackstone Town.

When it was almost dark, he went into a tavern called the Shattered Sword Tavern, spent 1 Ear-of-Wheat Coin to book a private room on the second floor for the night, then spent another 1 Ear-of-Wheat Coin to buy a Veteran’s Set Meal.

The Veteran’s Set Meal consisted of two pieces of black bread, baked beans and vegetable soup.

There were even wood shavings in the black bread. The taste was hard to put into words.

* * *

The next morning.

Because Lin Er went to sleep early, he woke up before dawn.

After packing up his clothes, he spent 1 Ear-of-Wheat Coin to buy two white breads and gnawed on them.

Luckily his body had been cleansed and refined, so his teeth were very strong. Otherwise, he really would have cracked his front teeth.

After eating his fill, Lin Er headed straight to the city gate.

As soon as he arrived, he saw a carriage parked at the gate, loaded with bundles of short bamboo strips that looked extremely heavy.

Lin Er took out his badge to greet them and met the client for this job—Burns.

He was tall and thin, his face full of wrinkles, but his eyes were sharp and capable.

Burns looked him over. When he saw that Lin Er had no weapons or equipment at all, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

He knew the bounty he posted paid very little and that it was basically impossible for high-level adventurers to come.

But at least someone should bring one or two weapons. If they ran into a bear or bandits, they could not just go in with bare fists.

If Lin Er had been a bronze-badge adventurer, Burns could at least talk himself into it, but he was only black iron.

Showing up like this was practically freeloading.

The local Adventurers’ Guild was seriously rude.

Looks like he still could not save money.

Lin Er also noticed Burns’s subtle look. Right now, he could only shamelessly push through.

“Boss, when are we leaving?”

Burns sighed and said, “We paid the city exit fee. We’re leaving right away.”

Lin Er nodded and took a look at Burns’s personnel setup.

Burns, as the boss, was also serving as the driver. Beside him were two hired hands who looked like farmers, holding short spears and occasionally helping with loading and carrying.

Soon, after Burns paid the city exit fee, the group slowly left the city.

There was only one empty seat on the carriage, so Lin Er could only take turns walking with the two hired hands.

As the sun rose, the cool morning weather gradually became hot.

Sitting on the carriage was fine, but walking was another matter. Sometimes the carriage would sink into mud and they would have to help push it out.

In just half an hour, the carriage had already gotten stuck six times.

One hour passed.

Finally it was Lin Er’s turn.

Burns turned his head and said, “Kid, you’re up.”

Lin Er waved his hand and said, “No need. I’m not tired yet. Let the uncle next to me get on instead.”

He turned to look at the hired-hand uncle beside him. The uncle already had sweat on his face and had just used a lot of strength pushing the carriage.

Burns was a little surprised, thinking Lin Er was being young and stubborn on purpose.

He had not expected Lin Er to be very useful anyway, so he did not insist, calling the other hired hand onto the carriage so they could preserve more stamina.

After receiving the hired hand’s thanks, Lin Er gave a small nod.

It was not that he was just being polite.

This level of walking was like taking a stroll. It was nowhere near enough to drain his stamina.

Although riding the carriage was also nice, he had noticed that because the road was uneven and the carriage had no suspension, it bounced visibly. If he sat on it, his butt would probably be bounced off.

Lin Er did not dare sit on it and would rather keep walking.

The morning passed quickly.

The two hired hands had already rotated many times.

Because the farther they got from Blackstone Town, the worse the road became, they were drenched in sweat and panting heavily.

Burns turned to look at Lin Er and found that Lin Er was not sweating at all and was not even breathing hard, strolling along like he was out on a picnic.

‘This was absolutely not an ordinary person.’

There was no longer any disdain on his face like at the start.

“Kid, are you really black iron?”

Lin Er answered while walking, “Yes. I registered just yesterday.”

‘So that was it.’

Some adventurers had strength below First Tier but were still stronger than ordinary people and when they registered, they would also be classified as black iron.

However, they would form teams, allowing them to accept higher-level bounties to hunt magical beasts. The pay was much higher than this and they could also increase their elemental power.

The young man in front of him had probably been fooled by the Adventurers’ Guild because he was a newbie, which was why he had taken this low-level bounty alone.

It was not like Burns could say that he was a sucker who liked taking low-level bounties.

Burns suddenly understood.

The local Adventurers’ Guild really was not very polite.

Although Burns had unexpectedly gotten a good deal, he still found the Adventurers’ Guild’s behavior contemptible.

Burns said, “Kid, help me escort the goods to the village. When you go back, you can find people to team up and take higher-level bounties. The pay will be higher.”

Lin Er shook his head and replied, “We’ll see. I still have to deliver a letter afterward.”

Burns froze and asked, “Kid, don’t tell me you took several low-level bounties?”

Lin Er answered casually, “Yeah. I took three yesterday and even put down 1 Workshop Coin as a deposit.”

Burns’s mouth twitched even harder.

This Adventurers’ Guild in Blackstone City was shameless.

They latched onto one person and squeezed them.