Mountain Breeze

In order to find a suitable team of mercenaries, Dmitri and William acted together in the church's carriage.

Unlike the lively and noisy taverns and even brothels that one would expect, the place that Dmitri took William to was a high-class place called the 'Unrestricted Club', one of the high-class clubs that only the high society in Phoenix could hear about.

The doorman of the club saw a church carriage from afar, and the people coming out of the carriage were familiar guests Dmitri and an unknown friar, so he immediately greeted them warmly, politely asked William to register his name and then personally opened the door for them.

The interior of the club also maintained a decor similar to other private clubs, the only special thing was that even though it wasn't meal time, there were still many waiters pushing food carts back and forth.

It seemed that no matter which world the freelancers were in, they didn't have fixed meal times.

Making his way deeper into the club, Dmitry familiarly found a box that read 'MB', and after ringing the doorbell, a man of medium height and slim build soon opened the door for them and welcomed them in.

The mercenary team that Dmitri brought William to was called "Mountain Breeze", a small team with formal registration procedures and good mission completion records in the Mercenary Union.

They nominally belonged to the large mercenary organization 'Freedom Pact', which was the actual owner of this club.

Looking at the three men, one woman and a magic statue that were playing cards in front of him, Dmitri was about to open his mouth, but William sat down familiarly and asked enthusiastically, "Mind if there's one more person to play with?"

After playing a few rounds of cards, William roughly figured out the combat logic of these NPCs, so he stood up, turned around and said to Dmitri, "That's them, I'm satisfied."

Dmitri's mouth slightly opened wide, as if he wanted to advise William not to jump to conclusions so easily, but then remembered that it seemed that every seemingly easy conclusion William made was often correct, and closed his mouth again.

At this time, a man who was supposed to be the captain struck up a conversation with William and asked curiously, "Sir, are you so sure that we will accept your employment?"

William didn't say much, and directly took out a bag of gold coins and threw it between the still unpacked cards on the table, "My commission is exactly the same as Demetri's, you guys escort me to the surrounding mountains to gather materials, not more than one hundred and fifty miles at the most, not more than a week at the most, and I don't engage in combat... All matters are exactly the same. But I'll pay double."

Once again, Dmitri's mouth dropped open in surprise, tempted to ask William how he knew the contents of the commission between him and the mercenary team; could William be as receptive to 'divine revelation' as that Lord Bishop? The content of this revelation was too detailed, wasn't it?

Bringing his thoughts to a halt between some particularly blasphemous conclusions being drawn, Dmitri adjusted his mood and prepared to see how William was going to go over the top with 'Captain' Julian, only to find that the two parties had already shaken hands and were ready to go to the mercenary union office in the club to sign the contract.

William tapped a dumbfounded Dmitri on the shoulder, signaling him to stop gawking and move with him. Dmitri scrambled to keep up with him and the others and together they headed for the office belonging to the mercenary union.

Since he had never accepted or posted a commission here before, William first spent a few minutes completing the various registration procedures before entering the signing process.

For this kind of common commissions, the union had a backup template, and with just a little modification, it was a strict and detailed contract. After both parties confirmed that there were no mistakes, they signed the backup, the original remained in the mercenary union's archives, while William and the mercenary squad were each given a copy.

After signing the contract and obtaining a large sum of incoming money, Julian also relaxed a bit and jokingly asked about William, "Honorable Mr. Friar, do you still need us to introduce ourselves?"

William smiled back, satisfied that he got the person he needed for not much money, but he still responded, "You can call me William or Mr. Green. It's only been a short time, but I'd like to get to know all of you, and I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for us to work together in the future."

After that, William spent a few minutes briefly getting to know the people in the team.

First was the MT, Large Shield Sergeant Bartley, a small but strong man who used a large shield and short sword to protect his teammates against enemy charges.

Next is the caster, Arcane Wizard Mitchell, a practicing caster and the youngest in the team, William was a bit curious why he didn't go to the academy to further his studies, but out of politeness he didn't ask.

The somewhat silent lady was Mathilde the Puppeteer, and next to her was her puppet, which she called 'De kana'. William knew that the origin of the word was goblin language, and the meaning should be 'philosopher's desire', which made him feel like he had found a breath of fresh air in the generally poorly educated team of mercenaries.

The last one to be introduced was the team's apothecary and schemer, 'Captain' Julian, unlike teams usually captained by MT, this squad left the job of coordinating the team and communicating with the outside world to the most cunning and outgoing Julian.

After getting to know each other, the HP of this team was also presented in front of William, the levels of several team members were all around level 30, much weaker than those William had seen who were over level 40 and close to Extraordinary Order, but it was still enough for him to use.

The group returned to the box belonging to the MB squad and began to agree on the details of this mission.

William, who had prepared for this, took out a roll of map from his bag and spread it out on the already packed desktop, on the map a route was plotted, starting from Phoenix, following the river all the way upstream into the canyon, then from the canyon and then climbing up the mountain via some roads, passing through a few peaks which were marked out, and finally coming back to Phoenix from the other direction, the route was roughly somewhat like a shell shape.

Several people in the squad each assessed the dangers on the road, and agreed that William's published route was in line with what he had said at the time of his hiring, and that there didn't seem to be any particularly dangerous sections, so they readily agreed to William's proposed route.

William discussed with them about the possible dangers on the road, and listened to the advice of those who were familiar with the surrounding environment, and prepared in advance a tent for the night and antidote potions and other necessities.

After discussing the details of the operation, William left with Dmitri in the carriage.