The 10 a.m. sunlight danced between the zigzagging, sloped mahogany roofs of Luojie City, casting its glow onto the rugged, durable white stone-brick walls. Both the brick walls and the mahogany roofs bore rough, pockmarked traces of erosion. This was the masterpiece of the Kana Plain’s corrosive dust climate. The wind erosion was like a tiny magical imp wielding a chisel, pervasive and omnipresent, leaving an etched roughness on people’s faces and every building.
Although Luojie City’s Alliance Array provided decent protection against the corrosive dust, this was only true under normal conditions. Under the extreme climate of the Demon Realm, even if twelve Alliance Mages worked desperately together to maintain the Shelter Array, they could not achieve complete protection. During a corrosive dust storm, the dust would still howl as it invaded the Shelter Array, battering against the tightly shut doors and windows of every household like an evil spirit, leaving etched marks on the walls and roofs.
Corrosive dust storms were frequent on the Kana Plain. Every storm was enough to suffocate any adventurer caught outside the city without proper gear and shelter. Because of this, protective gear such as full-coverage helmets, masks, thick scarves, or Magic Veils were almost essential for adventurers in the Kana Wasteland.
Randall still remembered his first experience with a corrosive dust storm. Thank the heavens he hadn’t been on a mission. Everyone hid in the adventurer barracks of Luojie City. The tightly locked doors and windows RATTLED violently against the howling wind, and everything outside was a frenzied reddish-brown, like the end of the world. Selena, the apprentice mage in their party, said that in the Barren Land, even the dust contained magical properties. This wasn’t ordinary wind erosion, but "magical erosion." Even a city built with Magic Arrays and magical materials struggled to resist the corrosive dust... unless they lived underground like the Demon Race. After all, this was by no means a habitable zone. Those willing to live here were brave souls who harbored the belief that "the greater the risk, the greater the reward," daring to fight desperately against the malice of the world.
Randall Rysk pulled his thoughts back from the etched marks on the roofs and white walls. This was his habit: constantly observing his surroundings, seeking every bit of useful information, and pondering the origin of every anomaly. Flipping through the contents of his small notebook, he habitually chewed on the end of his pen as he navigated the streets of Luojie City, heading toward the Alliance hall.
Uncle Robin and Uncle Carlisle had said that to deal with fierce human enemies like bandits, they needed a frontline melee unit, preferably heavily armored. He organized his thoughts, wondering with a headache, "If we add another melee Warrior unit to the party, our per capita share will drop significantly when dividing the loot and income. Will the teammates agree?"
He decided, "Then... I’ll just deduct it from my share." He wrote down the words "Voluntarily relinquish a portion of the bounty and loot to invite a melee unit into the party" in his notebook. Taking a little less and hiring an extra Warrior was always better than dying on a bandit extermination mission.
What else did they need? Food and rations for the road: 13 Gold Coins and 5 Silver Coins for five people? No, he also had to add the extra portion for that Warrior... Incendiary oil bombs were 30 Gold Coins each; he would buy five. A fire attack was the best choice for taking down a stationary camp. To assault the bandit camp, they had to have them... That would be 150 Gold Coins.
Demon-Extinguishing Torches were 15 Gold Coins each. Would buying 20 be enough? No, of course not. The journey to the Beast Bone Hills was too far, and making camp in the wilderness halfway was almost inevitable. Nighttime beast packs were especially dangerous, so they might need 25... That’s 375 Gold Coins. It was better to buy these and not use them than to need them and not have them on hand.
Healing Potions were priced at 13 Gold Coins a vial on the market—but Ruby, the Apprentice Alchemist in their party, could brew Healing Potions. Just buying the materials would only cost 4 Gold Coins... It really was a highly profitable industry. Of course, the quality of the Magic Potions Ruby brewed was much lower than those on the market, and the healing process came with the side effect of excruciating pain. Randall’s party didn’t have professional Temple Priests, healers, or Elf Enchanters, so they could only rely on Ruby’s Healing Potions and a little of Selena’s healing magic to barely maintain their endurance. Injuries were commonplace. Based on his experience, a medium-sized mission required at least 22 vials per person. For a single person, that would be... 88 Gold Coins.
Strong painkillers were 5 Gold Coins a vial on the market. These were used in tandem with Ruby’s excruciating Healing Potions during battles and treatments to prevent the severe pain from hindering their movements. Therefore, they also needed 22 vials per person. Calculating it all out, it wasn’t actually much cheaper than buying the market standard.
Magic Poison Antidotes were 13 Gold Coins a bottle on the market. There was an overwhelming abundance of poisonous flora and fauna in the Kana Wasteland, and Ruby didn’t yet know how to brew this relatively advanced Magic Potion. To be safe, they needed three bottles... Grinding Oil for maintaining Longswords and fermented brown wood oil for maintaining longbows would be 5 Gold Coins on the market. Stone Skin Potions were 82 Gold Coins a bottle. If they were going into melee combat against bandits and wanted to survive, this was almost indispensable. They had to buy at least three bottles...
Their arrows were mostly depleted during the last hunting mission, so they needed to purchase another batch. The mission bounty stated there were about 50 bandits. Doing the math, they would need roughly 50 Demon Quenching Arrowheads and 50 armor-piercing arrowheads...
Having roughly calculated the expenses in his head, Randall couldn’t help but sigh. He thought, "Maybe snatching up this bounty so easily was indeed a bit reckless." Being an adventurer was a precarious, money-burning profession. They relied on mission payouts, gathered materials, and the sale of loot to make a living. Without taking on bounties or doing explorations, there was no money to be made.