---Third POV---
The language barrier between them, already significant, deepened further.
Child could only give up.
Only after speaking did he realize how bizarre it was to ask such personal questions right off the bat. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he continued along the lines of what the other person had said.
"That's right. I need to know the specifics about this town. You've been avoiding the town's militia for a long time, right? You must be very familiar with the surroundings."
After some thought, he added another sentence, "And the kingdom, the church, and any major powers, anything you know about, feel free to share!"
Gaeman was a composed and calm individual. He had no doubts about this so-called rural mage. In a hoarse yet steady voice, he began to explain slowly, "Nary Town is located on the northeastern border of the Kingdom of Yoan, on the western bank of the rushing Volind River. Across the river lies the Principality of Elise."
"The two countries, Yoan Kingdom and Elise Principality, are vassal states of the Berrian Empire and the Gale Empire, respectively. The two empires have been in constant conflict due to differences in faith and ideology."
"As a result, the Kingdom of Yoan and the Principality of Elise are at each other's throats. However, the two nations fought a war over territory a few years ago and are currently recuperating, so there won't be any conflict in the near future."
"..."
He began recounting the history of the Kingdom of Yoan in detail. His narrative left the mage wide-eyed in amazement.
No, that wasn't what he wanted! He just wanted to know about Nary Town! What kind of person was this guy, anyway?
---
For just five sols, NeverShowOff and the others managed to exchange for three outfits made from resilient grasscloth fabric, successfully blending in with the local townsfolk.
Thanks to these cheap disguises, they no longer encountered any enthusiastic street vendors or persistent beggars on their way.
Their journey to the designated delivery location was smooth.
"The third shop inside Silver Shears Street, the Ship-Carriage Guild…"
NeverShowOff glanced at the mission details, then looked at the translated name on the sign to his left.
"This must be it!"
Lux's mouth twitched slightly. "Sure, I get it, but this guild…"
The three of them stood in front of a dilapidated, closed-down store. The sign hanging to the left was tilted, as if it might fall off at any moment. A gust of wind swept through the desolate street.
"Isn't this a bit too quiet?"
She was confused. With its shabby appearance, it didn't look like a guild, barely even a mom-and-pop shop!
Garble spoke up, "The details match the mission description. We shouldn't be mistaken."
"At least we won't have to wait in line. Let's just go in and find someone," NeverShowOff said.
Upon entering, the interior was even more run-down than expected. The only two wooden shelves were gnawed to bits by rats. The second divider on the right side was half-broken. The smoked meat and coarse salt on display seemed to have aged quite a bit.
In food-scarce Nary Town, it spoke volumes that these items hadn't sold.
He looked around the empty store and tentatively called out, "Is anyone here?"
"Yes, of course! Please wait a moment!"
From a small door at the back of the store, a young man with messy blond hair stumbled out, looking disheveled. He flashed a fawning smile at the three of them.
"Hi, I am David. How can I help you? Are you here to buy smoked meat or animal pelts?"
Lux eyed his half-worn boots. "Did you just get out of bed?"
It was late in the day, after all. No wonder the store wasn't doing well.
"Of course not!" David denied sternly. "I was performing my daily prayers!"
"…" Praying in his sleep?
Whatever he was doing didn't really concern them.
NeverShowOff took out ten sols. "We'd like to send a letter. Is this enough?"
"Send a letter?" David frowned in confusion. "We don't offer postal services here."
Lux glanced at the rat-prepped shelves. "Then what exactly do you sell?"
"Everything you can imagine!" David straightened his shoes and leaned enthusiastically on the waist-high wooden counter.
"The Ship-Carriage Guild spans every human nation. Whether it's rare magical artifacts or regional delicacies, you can find them with us! Even the magical herbs from the Elven Forest or ocean specialties from the Sea of Mist, we can procure them!"
"Oh, and our master, Alvier Silverwheel, is a close friend of the leader of the Gale Empire's premier mercenary group. If you want to issue a mercenary commission, we can help with that too!"
A torrent of unfamiliar terms left their translator device overloaded.
Garble glanced skeptically at the shabby store sign to make sure they weren't standing in some grand central shopping district.
"You're saying you can get all that stuff?"
"Of course, not!" David's lack of guilt was astonishing as he puffed out his chest.
"That's the privilege of the Ship-Carriage Guild's headquarters. This is just a small branch that hasn't heard from HQ in nearly thirty years. Nary Town is remote and underdeveloped. Even if we had great goods, how many people could afford them?"
He muttered under his breath, "If it weren't for my past mistakes, I wouldn't be stuck here either…"
His voice trailed off, too low for Garble to hear clearly.
David quickly reverted to his ingratiating demeanor, smiling as he called out, "But you three seem different, you must be adventurers exploring the Great Oak Forest, right? Need anything? We've got meat from fierce birds and wild beasts on the forest's edge, delicious and fresh! As for the other items I mentioned, we can submit a request to HQ if you're interested!"
Lux looked at the long-dried jerky on the shelves, her eyes full of doubt. "Fierce birds, wild beasts?"
Unwilling to listen to more of David's exaggerated sales pitch, NeverShowOff interrupted, "No need. We're just here to send a letter. The person who directed us here said he mailed a letter recently through your guild. If your branches are connected, taking a letter along your route for some extra cash shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Garble, struck by a sudden thought, quickly chimed in, "He told us the mailing time didn't matter, and there's no return deadline either."
As soon as the words left his mouth, David's expression changed subtly, the smile on his face dimming slightly.
"Is that so? Let me check."
He pulled out a ledger made of papyrus from a drawer on the shelf behind him. The rough, yellowed pages had only a few scattered transaction records.
"Indeed, such a customer came by, and twice, no less…"
Closing the ledger, he forced a smile.
"My mistake. That customer brought in quite a lot of sols, almost enough to cover our monthly earnings."
"We can make an exception to send another letter for him. May I see the letter?"
NeverShowOff and Garble exchanged glances.
Using an animal-hide pouch, they retrieved the letter from their game inventory but didn't hand it over immediately.
NeverShowOff pressed it against the counter with one hand. "You said he came by twice. When was that? And what's his name?"
David's eyes lit up with a sharp gleam as he discerned the shape of the wax seal on the envelope.
The silly grin on his face vanished instantly. He reevaluated the three individuals before him with a serious expression.
"This is not the place to talk. Follow me."
He slapped a broken panel on the side of the counter.
Bang!
The doors and windows slammed shut, plunging the room into pitch-black darkness. Using their enhanced night vision abilities from a recent level-up, the three players could see him silently moving toward the back.
NeverShowOff carefully tucked the envelope away.
"Let's go. Follow him."
Behind the counter, a narrow staircase led directly underground.
David stood at the bottom, holding a torch. Without hesitation, NeverShowOff grabbed another torch hanging on the wall, lit it, and followed.
The underground space was vast.
They followed him through twists and turns, narrowly avoiding getting lost, thanks to him pausing occasionally to wait for them.
At one particular turn, Garble silently calculated their distance from the shop above.
"Seven hundred and eighty-eight, seven hundred and eighty-nine... Has he tunneled through the entire street?"
Lux's eyes widened. "So it wasn't just bragging, this guild is actually loaded?"
NeverShowOff glanced back at the pitch-black tunnel behind them.
"To bring us to a place like this, it seems he considers us allies."
"Allies?" Lux's initial excitement turned into confusion.
"But didn't Viktor say there were fewer than ten Sentinels left in the outside world?"
According to the game's storyline, the Sentinels sought out players because their revival seemed hopeless.
"They might not be Sentinels themselves, but their leader could be," Garble speculated. "Otherwise, Viktor would've been dead and buried ages ago, given how badly injured he was."
NeverShowOff added, "Maybe even his ashes would've scattered by now."
David overheard their peculiar language and grew increasingly confident in his suspicions about their identities.
Still, certain tests had to be conducted. He opened the door to a dimly lit room.
"We're here. Follow me inside."
The room wasn't large. Other than a square stone table in the center and a few quill pens, it was practically empty. The three players hesitated at the door, cautiously surveying the space.
"What do you want?" NeverShowOff asked, eyeing him, whose demeanor had shifted dramatically.
David interlaced his fingers, leaning on the stone table.
"You're looking for someone, aren't you? A knight in silver armor, with brown hair and blue eyes?"
Edgar!
The two quests were connected after all.
Suppressing his excitement, NeverShowOff pressed further. "You know where he is?"
"Not until I confirm your identities," David replied, his expression sharp and unyielding.
"Match the code on the stone table, and we can continue this conversation."
"Code?" Lux whispered. "Did Viktor mention this before we left?"
"Definitely not," Garble replied.
They came this far. Even though they had zero clues about the code, the three decided to at least take a look at the first half of it.
NeverShowOff volunteered to go in, while the other two stayed at the door in case it was a trap.
They watched as he approached the stone table with a serious expression, only for his face to twitch moments later.
"Are you sure this is the code?"
"Absolutely," David confirmed. "Only those who can solve it are part of the organization."
He discreetly observed NeverShowOff's expression, finding it oddly hard to read.
The man didn't look clueless or confident, his face displayed a mix of emotions that he couldn't decipher.
"Don't tell me you can't solve it?"
"Uh... probably?" NeverShowOff's expression grew even more complicated.
On the stone table, the "code" read...
---
In Nary, there exists a mysterious crystal called the "Time Crystal."
Its energy E(t) changes over time t according to the following function: E(t) = t³ − 6t² + 9t + 1.
Derive and analyze the monotonicity of this function.
Find the derivative E′(t).
Determine the intervals where E(t) increases or decreases.
---
"Seriously?!"
The code was a calculus problem?! What kind of code was this?!
He drew a sharp breath. After trying to process the question for a few minutes, his brain felt oxygen-deprived.
Three minutes later, he gave up entirely, clutching his head as he stumbled back.
"I can't. Someone else has to try."
David didn't understand but allowed it.
"Fine."
He knew the code changed every ten days and that decoding it often took time, so switching people was normal.
Outside the dimly lit room, the two waiting players rushed over when NeverShowOff returned.
"How did it go? Any luck with the code?" Lux asked nervously.
"It's possible... but also impossible," NeverShowOff replied, looking utterly defeated.
The two blinked in confusion.
"What does that even mean?"
"Just go look at it yourselves," he said flatly.
Half an hour later, all three players slumped against the stone table, looking as though they'd aged a decade.
"Help... someone save us..."
"Why do I have to learn calculus just to play a game..."
Sigh...
After half an hour of fruitless effort, they fully understood the meaning of: If you don't know math, you don't know math.
NeverShowOff adjusted his position, wincing slightly.
"I'm just a gaming content creator who's been out of school for years. It's normal for me to struggle. But what about you two?"
Lux stared blankly at the ceiling. "I studied humanities to escape math."
Who would've thought she'd dodge it in college, only for it to catch up in a game?
NeverShowOff turned to the other player.
"And you? Didn't military school teach academic subjects?"
Expressionless, Garble replied, "Since my dad stopped nagging me, academics haven't been a priority."
"...We should've brought Child with us."
"Wouldn't matter," Lux said, utterly resigned. "He's still in high school."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
A single college-level calculus problem had utterly defeated them.
---
Achoo!
Child sneezed on the street.
Rubbing his nose, he muttered, "Who's bad-mouthing me?"
Gaeman paused, turning his obsidian-like eyes toward him inquisitively.
Child waved it off. "It's nothing. Keep talking."
Gaeman nodded and resumed leading him through the narrow alleyways, his raspy voice providing commentary.
"Fire Tongs Street is near the wealthy district. The crowd here is the most diverse in town. The only mercenary tavern in the area is also located there. If you're looking for someone or seeking confidential information, that's the best place to start."
As they neared the wealthy district, the muddy roads transformed into neatly paved cobblestone paths.
With Gaeman guiding him, Child easily found a tavern called The Angel's Kiss.
Unfortunately, as he approached, he spotted thick black smoke rising from its direction. A crowd had already gathered nearby, pointing and murmuring about the source of the smoke.