According to Defu’s knowledge, aside from their own group and the lone Wizard, Dragon Well Tea, there was also a team from Delicious Wind Goose.
However, their mission wasn’t to gather materials or explore information about job transitions...
It was to scout the way to the Royal Capital.
Annan wasn’t foolish; why would he bother sneaking through the underbrush himself when he had players who could scout the way?
He directly issued a set of tasks to Delicious Wind Goose, instructing them to infiltrate the Royal Capital with concealed identities and gather intelligence before Annan’s arrival. Annan would then issue new tasks and instructions based on their situation anytime—he had been able to remotely assign tasks since the "game update."
This was the first time he had used this feature.
Their team composition was also a light squad of four people.
But there was a bit of a problem with their team configuration...
Besides Delicious Wind Goose as the communication liaison and Jiu’er as the combat support, the other two players... were "Van Helsing," who had snuck into the Silver Baron Church when he first came to Roth Fort, and "Monster Teacher," who had recently entered the Silver Baron Church.
They both only possessed one Divine Art... because they had only obtained the first holy light imprint upon joining the church.
But what was impressive about them was that they had smartly used their only holy light imprint to purchase the "Eternal Youth" healing Divine Art, instantly becoming healers of a status comparable to national treasures, which was extremely rare.
Yes, within this group of players, there basically weren’t any who could heal... there were just two.
Van Helsing was a balanced Swordsman who primarily increased agility. His next goal was to complete the Church’s quest, obtain the next holy light imprint, and learn "Sharp Object" to try advancing to "Swift Sword Duelist" or "Challenger."
Yes, Van Helsing was still a level ten Swordsman with a secondary Priest class. He hadn’t met the advancement conditions in his last dungeon run.
As for Monster Teacher, he had already advanced and become a Transcendent.
As a healer and tank who focused on constitution and Parry, he planned to continue leaning towards the healing profession.
His current advanced class was "Shield Specialist Knight," the only advanced class among the players that allowed the wearing of plate or heavy armor, and he also possessed shield specialization.
If it weren’t for his healing ability, he would actually be the most orthodox main tank (MT).
In terms of defense alone, he was slightly superior to Yi Yi.
But Yi Yi’s advantage lay in being the sole agile tank who could block and parry, capable of defending without armor or shield.
Monster Teacher, on the other hand, had to carry his heavy armor and shield... the set of equipment was gathered through combined favorability with Delicious Wind Goose.
To carry all this gear, they even had to bring a horse—which was sponsored by Annan.
The only two healers available, who were also the sturdiest tanks, had both been assigned to this team.
They were joined by a "Swordsmanship Instructor," already trained in Basic Swordsmanship, Guard Swordsmanship, and Military Swordsmanship, with a versatile style, and a Berserker capable of the highest burst damage.
It was evident how much importance Annan placed on this direction.
This made the other solo players wail in agony: the dry areas suffering drought and the wet ones, floods...
But as long as they were familiar with Jiu’er’s combat style, they would realize...
Two healers might not be enough.
Just the "spellcasting materials" Annan prepared for them amounted to a total of forty silver coins.
These were travel expenses and, at the same time, healing potions...
At first, Delicious Wind Goose thought they had plenty of money and might even have some left over. After all, for four people including food, lodging, and hiring a carriage, it would cost about ten to twenty silver coins to get there.
When they first set out, they even discussed how to divide the remaining money once they reached the Royal Capital...
But they never expected that after encountering a group of bandits, they would realize that a full-power fight from Jiu’er would cost at least six silver coins to heal back to full. Including everyone else’s healing expenses, they almost used up half of it instantly.
After that, they didn’t dare let Jiu’er take action anymore.
If Jiu’er fought once more, this little bit of money probably wouldn’t last until they arrived at the Royal Capital...
So they simply disguised Jiu’er as a "runaway Royal Capital young lady who realized halfway she didn’t bring enough funds and was planning to return home," while the other three masqueraded as her playful butler, priest, and guard, successfully blending into a merchant caravan heading the same way.
Since they did have two people capable of Divine Arts for healing, and all four of them had delicate and tender skin, not resembling mercenaries or robbers... and since Jiu’er actually was a genuine young lady, Delicious Wind Goose’s assertions suddenly became highly credible. Through his negotiations, they managed to secure a carriage to themselves and could eat and stay for free, on the condition of providing healing (for a fee).
After this merchant caravan reached its destination, realizing this was a good tactic, Delicious Wind Goose quickly made contact with another caravan...
As a result, they ended up doing a no-spend travel live stream.
Delicious Wind Goose also had the gift of the gab. He chatted and gradually gathered some intelligence, making their identity covers even more detailed. As a result, the standard of their meals improved a notch, and several merchants from the second caravan even insisted on giving them some welcome gifts...
But anyway, this was much faster and safer than if they had made the journey themselves.
"So, goodbye, everyone."
Delicious Wind Goose said his polite farewells to the second merchant caravan.
They had officially left Beihai territory and arrived at Tars, the capital of Tars County.
Tars County had sixteen towns and was the northernmost and one of the smaller territories owned by Count Shelley. Heading south from Tars through four towns, they would see the northern suburbs of the Royal Capital.
Delicious Wind Goose had already found out that another name for Earl Philip Shelley was Philip the Chief Justice—the highest-ranking judge in the Kingdom of Noah.
And his brother, Sir Steward Shelley, was the Chief of Police of Noah.
And Tars was the location of the first prison of Noah, with extremely stringent security. That’s why many merchant caravans chose to stop here.
"But how are we going to get out of here? That’s another problem... It’s too close to the Royal Capital here, can we still use the previous excuse? Isn’t that too risky?"
At a desolate street corner, Van Helsing asked helplessly, "The monster teacher and I can go and stay in the local church, no problem getting in and out of the city. But what about you two?"
"We’ll find an inn first, get two rooms and settle down. Luckily, all our previous efforts weren’t in vain, and we still have enough money left over. Besides, we are already more than halfway there; we can just walk if need be. The public order here is rather good, so we don’t have to worry about being attacked like we were on the road before."
Delicious Wind Goose replied confidently, "We’ll stay for a couple of days, and I’ll go around with a new story and ask around... If we can get a caravan to take us into the Royal Capital, that would be perfect."
For some reason, Van Helsing felt somewhat uneasy.