Night Ranger

Two days later, Black Dock Harbor, inside Furnace Fire Tavern.

It was bustling with activity as adventurers came and went. The smell of alcohol and tobacco filled the entire lounge.

Everyone was talking about a rare event announced by the South Wizard Alliance.

It was a wilderness clearing order!

There hadn’t been a wilderness clearing order in 50 years.

The return of something that hadn’t appeared for a long time would naturally attract a lot of attention.

In East Coast, 80% of the adventurers were carefully reading the contents of that sudden wilderness clearing order.

Some words inside caught their attention!

Gold mine, treasures, new harbor!

Furthermore, the salary was pretty high. Everything was crazily enticing Jewel Bay’s adventurers.

That group of delinquents was already unsatisfied with killing Tritons in the shadow sea and killing mounted bandits.

The the wilderness clearing order came out and was immediately popular.

Furthermore, this clearing order was issued by all the guilds at the same time!

This meant that the Overlord who released this was someone with a huge background!

In a short time, White River Baron Marvin’s past achievements were brought to light.

He made his name at the Battle of the Holy Grail, was possibly Masked Twin Blades, and his relation with the Three Ring Towers’ Hathaway was vague...

A series of originally unknown achievements were spread through the East Coast.

Rumors about Marvin, and his continuous improvements.

The small White River Valley also began to be known by the entire East Coast.

In a short two days, Marvin received more than three hundred responses.

Those were simply adventurers signing up. A large number followed the map in the clearing order, passing through the Spider Crypt to go to White River Valley.

These people wanted to make it big. If it was under Marvin’s lead, they might really be able to open up a new territory south of the Shrieking Mount Range, and improve their standing.

Moreover, a gold mine was mentioned on the wilderness clearing order, along with Lord Marvin’s intent of building a new Harbor.

The entire East Coast was talking about it.

...

‘Regardless of which world, it’s still important to use relations.’

Marvin was sitting in Furnace Fire Tavern, looking at everyone chatting about the wilderness clearing order. He was somewhat pleased.

If not for Hathaway using her connections, Marvin wouldn’t have been able to apply for wilderness clearing order this fast.

With this comprehensive decree, Marvin could publicly recruit qualified people in Jewel Bay.

At dawn, he released the recruitment requirements, as well as announcing a relatively high salary.

The current White River Valley was too poor, and could only rely on Marvin to maintain it. Thankfully he still had that huge amount of money he got from Black Jack.

200 Wizard golds were already enough to use for a very long time, not to mention what he received after looting the Hidden Granary and the rather considerable harvest at the Scarlet Monastery.

Several days later, a group of craftsmen arrived. These people included stonemasons, carpenter, tailors, and so on.

He signed a simple long term hiring contract, and then he first sent that group of people whose strength was unknown back to White River Valley.

As for those adventurers who were ready to join in the wilderness clearing, Marvin wouldn’t hire them all.

He could only pick a part to directly hire, while the others could only follow behind if they wanted to try to get some benefits.

If the situation asked for it, they could even become Marvin’s cannon fodder.

The world was this cruel. Marvin was fully aware of his own ability. He could only barely protect a small group of the people.

In any case, the release of the wilderness clearing order greatly promoted the influence of Marvin and White River Valley. Everything began crazily moving along.

Madeline sent two patrol as support, and the Silver Church also arrived right on time.

What surprised people the most was that Hathaway sent a corps of 2nd rank Wizards.

More and more people left for White River Valley to try to earn a living.

Although Marvin was now sitting in Black Dock Harbor, he could imagine how lively White River Valley currently was.

The arrival of the adventurers would inevitably lead to the development of other businesses, such as taverns, restaurants, brothels...

But Marvin had no plan on opening a brothel in White River Valley for now. If they wanted to vent their feelings, they would have to go to River Shore City, which wasn’t far anyway.

‘With Constantine and the newly strengthened guards, the law and order shouldn’t be an issue.’

‘On top of that, the Wizard corps will soon arrive. According to Hathaway’s letter, these people would listen to Wayne’s directives. Those adventurers shouldn’t dare to cause troubles.’

He was sitting on the chair, very satisfied by the effects of this wilderness clearing order.

There were three more days until the official gathering.

But there was a reason he still wasn’t on his way back.

‘Lola.’ Marvin sat in the Tavern, calmly waiting.

...

According to Marvin’s investigation, and like Anna had said, there were a lot of well-informed people in Black Dock Harbor and they hadn’t seen Lola.

Everything clearly indicated that this girl ran away with the money.

But Marvin felt something was suspicious.

He hadn’t found Little Tucker.

At that time, Lola was travelling together with him. The young Halfling also hadn’t appeared in Black Dock Harbor. This was intriguing.

Neither the city guards nor the informers working in the gray areas had seen a Halfling enter the city.

What’s more, a Halfling walking into a human city would definitely attract attention. If he truly arrived at Black Dock Harbor, how could he not be found?

Thus, Marvin concluded that Little Tucker and Lola most likely never made it to Black Dock Harbor.

Something must have gone wrong on the way.

...

The mood of the lively tavern became even more agitated with the dancer’s dance.

Marvin was calmly sitting in a corner.

Not long after, a waiter slowly walked over. "Mister, the Gerbera Beer you ordered."

Marvin thanked him with a nod and took the plate.

There was indeed a cup of alcohol on the tray, but there also was a slip of paper stuck under it.

An eye was drawn at the end of that slip of paper.

"Putting on a show," Marvin snorted. He spread out the piece of paper, exposing the contents inside.

[Clairvoyance]. This organization covered all of Feinan. They would very rarely be unable to find information about any given matter.

But they were expensive and had very harsh requirements. Not everyone could be their customer.

Marvin had repeatedly tried to look for a Clairvoyance middle-man, to see whether they could find traces of Lola or not.

After all, he still didn’t believe this girl would cheat him again because of the money.

He had a feeling.

...

On the piece of paper was written a group of illegible words.

‘Two Wizard golds for the name of a ship, it’s more than enough,’ Marvin mumbled.

He remembered what was written on the paper, crumpled it into a ball, left from from the back door and threw it in the gutter.

‘The Southie?’

Marvin recalled a bit of information about this ship.

The ship looked like a common merchant ship on the surface, but it was actually a slave ship, secretly buying and selling slaves.

The South Wizard Alliance adopted an indifferent attitude toward this. After all, the prosperity of the Six Pearl Harbors was based, to some extent, on the slave trade.

The message from Clairvoyance message was clear. They found Lola, and she was now staying in the Southie.

It seemed that on the way to Black Dock Harbor, Little Tucker and Lola met with mounted bandits. These bandits regularly cooperated with the slave dealers.

They killed the adults and sold the children and pretty women. Lola was kind of a beauty, so she would be good high grade slave material. Little Tucker was a Halfling, a rare species, so these two were mostly likely still alive.

Marvin was convinced that the resourceful Lola should be able to preserve her own life for the time being. But she might not be able to trick them for long.

So he decided he would take a look at the Southie tonight.

He heard information from the dock are that the Southie was anchored in the Black Dock Harbor’s 7th berth.

They would rest and reorganize in Black Dock Harbor for three days and then head through Bass Harbor before going to the North.

The Southie should have many experts, perhaps including a 4th rank, but there should definitely not be a Legend.

Thus, Marvin made sure to be awfully careful.

When he arrived at the dock area, it was already very late in the night.

Most sailors shouldn’t be on the boat right now, instead carousing in low-grade brothels. Living on the sea was painful and endless. They rarely landed, so when they had shore leave, these guys would certainly want to vent their feelings.

There might be even more rules on a slave boat, making sure more people stayed behind.

But Marvin wasn’t afraid.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with life on a boat. Players starting in the area around Jewel Bay would have gone on warships several times, or at least run into trade ships.

The Southie was a medium sized sailboat with at most 200 slaves. This meant that there would be more or less twenty people guarding.

‘Usually, there should be an expert overseer. The captain himself might not necessarily be on the boat.’

Marvin didn’t use Stealth, directly using Demon Hunter Steps instead, disappearing from the dock and jumping onto the deck.

The few sailors standing guard were lost in thought and Marvin slipped past them. They didn’t feel anything!

This was the strength of a Night Walker.

‘I hope Lola and Little Tucker aren’t hurt.’

‘Otherwise...’ Marvin thought, his killing intent increasing.

He wordlessly opened the ship’s cabin and proceeded along the narrow path.

Everything was pitch black.

He went down two levels and used Stealth to sneak around the guard, arriving at the 3rd floor.

On the 3rd floor there were some trade goods. But Marvin knew they only included cotton and other such items with light weight.

The true "goods" were still in the double layer below.

He found a spot from where he could see a light through the cracks in the planks.

‘Hmmm? How could there be light?’ Marvin was curious.

He gently pressed his ear against it and used Listen!

The next second, a familiar voice echoed in his ears, "... And it’ll be absolutely safe."

"Trust me, isn’t that hateful captain overworking you enough? He can’t even satisfy your simple demands, he doesn’t have the qualifications to serve as your captain!"

"We will quietly act tomorrow night. No one will care about the change in captain of the Southie... Everyone has to keep it a secret. Plotting a rebellion is a huge accusation after all."

"If we fail, everyone will lose their heads."

Marvin opened his eyes wide from shock.