Astral Apostle

In most towns, at least one tavern that specialized in the business of Mutant Beast Hunters. It was the main gathering place for hunters in the area. Apart from basic functions, like providing drinks, it also included intelligence exchange, bounty issuance, and recruitment of teammates.

When a hunter arrived in a new town and wanted to quickly integrate into the local hunter circle, the Hunter's Tavern was a must-see place. The tavern would record the list of local hunters who had been active for a long time. Then, lords and the hunters could inquire about new people in the area.

The White Plains Town Hunter Tavern was located at the edge of the town. It was not very eye-catching and was a place that ordinary residents rarely passed by.

When Zhou Jing and Barong arrived at the Hunter Tavern, it was quite deserted. There were only four or five hunters drinking quietly.

Sensing Zhou Jing and the other two enter, the hunters in the tavern looked over.

"Hey, isn't that Barong? Where's your axe?"

"How long has it been since you last appeared? I thought you were already shit out by mutant beasts."

"There are two new faces. New hunters?"

Many people greeted Barong.

The hunters in the tavern basically were those who lived near White Plains Town for a long time, so everyone more or less knew each other.

Weiss was also in the tavern and greeted the two of them.

Barong casually replied with a few words and brought Zhou Jing to the bar counter. He knocked on the wooden table, making two loud rapping sounds.

The boss behind the bar was looking down at his account book. When he heard the noise, he looked up at the three of them.

"Barong, how long has it been? If you hadn't come, I would have crossed out your name."

"I had to recuperate during this period of time and also took the time to nurture a good seedling."

Barong laughed and pointed at Zhou Jing. "Take out the name list and let him write his name."

"A new hunter?"

The boss looked at Zhou Jing and took out a black leather book from under the bar. He opened up one of the pages, and Zhou Jing saw dozens of names written in various handwriting, some of which were crossed out.

Looking further down the list, Zhou Jing saw Barong and Weiss' names.

Barong explained, "This is the name list of the local hunters. If they are active near White Plains Town for a long time, their names will be written here. The hunters who died in battle or have been missing for a long time will have their names crossed out. Didn't I tell you before that there are still more than 30 active hunters around White Plains Town? It was calculated from here."

Zhou Jing said, "The workshop should have the same record, right?"

"There are some over there, but they mainly count the number of hunts—the prey submittted to them. It's not as specific as the tavern here." Barong explained.

Zhou Jing nodded and realized that there were small black dots behind each name. Some had one, while others had two.

"And this little black dot is?"

Before Barong could say anything, someone interrupted.

"This is the number of enhancements for each hunter."

Zhou Jing turned around and saw that the hunters in the tavern had all gathered around him with their glasses in hand.

When these hunters heard their conversation, they all came over to curiously size up Zhou Jing, this new face. The one who interrupted was Weiss.

Barong added, "Yes, the number of black spots determines how many enhancements a hunter has gone through. This way, when the lord gathers people or when other hunters seek teammates, they won't misjudge the strength of the team."

It felt as though with this world's simple concept, they rarely hid their true strength in this aspect…

Zhou Jing thought to himself as he looked at the list from the beginning. He realized that among the hunters around White Plains Town, the highest record was two enhancements. There were only three people in total.

It seemed that having a Second Enhancement was already quite rare. He wondered if it was because White Plains Town was remote.

Zhou Jing thought for a moment and pretended to speak casually.

"Speaking of which, are enhancements equivalent to the hunters abilities? How can one be considered a veteran hunter?"

He did not forget that one of the life objectives of this Astral Apostle was to become a veteran Mutant Beast Hunter.

What he needed to figure out was how this "veteran" was certified.

Weiss was cheerful and talkative. Hearing his question, he smiled and explained.

"Haha, after the empire was established, we set up an evaluation system for mutant beasts and hunters, making it easier to see the standards of the two. Although we freelance hunters are not as particular as the empire's hunters, this method is indeed quite useful."

Zhou Jing looked over. "What exactly is it like?"

Weiss took a sip of wine and said casually, "You should know the four danger levels of the mutant beasts, right? They're ranked according to the degree of threat to the hunter. They're low, medium, high, and fatal."

"This I'm aware of." Zhou Jing nodded. Barong had explained this before.

Another life objective of the Astral Apostle was to kill a "high-risk mutant beast."

Weiss said frankly, "Just like the danger level of mutant beasts, the Terra Empire divides hunters into four corresponding levels: official hunter, veteran hunter, elite hunter, and legendary hunter."

The standard was clear and coincidentally corresponded to the danger level of the mutated beasts… The official hunter was someone who had completed their First Enhancement and had also completed a successful hunt. If one completed the strengthening but did not succeed in hunting, they would only be classified purely as a Mutant Blood Warrior.

A veteran hunter would have undergone their Second Enhancement and had killed a medium-risk mutant beast.

Elite hunters need to finish their Third Enhancement and have records of them killing high-risk mutant beasts… As for legendary hunters, they had undergone their Fourth Enhancement and had slain a fatal-risk mutant beast before.

Zhou Jing's heart skipped a beat.

Eh, in that case, this apostle's [Life Objective] did not seem to be that difficult after all.