Adventurer of Many Professions

"Yeah, that's true. The deeper you go into the borderlands, the more unpredictable things get. It's safer with a powerful group... Plus, those groups give adventurers the opportunity to evolve their fighting styles. In a group, even if you're overwhelmed by a powerful monster, you'll have backup," another adventurer added.

"Exactly," someone else chimed in. "That's why so many adventurers with potential join the big groups, they get to grow and unlock their potential."

"But there are exceptions," another adventurer spoke up. "Take the 'Dragon's Fang' team, for example. They started off when they were still at the 'Porcelain' and 'Black Iron' levels, and now they've grown into a 'Gold-level' team. They've never joined a major adventure group, though. They've managed on their own."

"That's rare," the captain pointed out. "Most adventurers who want to push further and reach higher levels won't turn down the opportunity to join a more powerful group."

After a moment of consideration, one adventurer spoke up again, "It seems like if Luna doesn't want to join a big group and instead chooses a smaller team, she's going to have to settle. It's hard to find a team with her potential in Somar City."

"Yeah," another said. "Even if there are a few teams that could match her, most of them are already 'Gold-level'. The gap between her strength and theirs would be too wide. She'd only slow them down."

"And even if those teams wanted her, Luna might not be interested. After what happened with the 'Golden Lions', I doubt she wants to join a team that doesn't match her strength. She wouldn't want to waste her time fighting weaker monsters."

"Exactly," the adventurer concluded. "If she's not willing to join a powerful group, and there's no small team that matches her potential, she's stuck. She won't find a team that fits."

After a long pause, the adventurers were left with a sense of finality. It seemed like Luna was in an impossible situation, too strong for most teams, but too independent for the major groups.

Then, one adventurer had an idea. "Maybe she'll find something in the smaller towns on the outskirts. Somar's got a lot of major groups, but those border towns... they have smaller teams. They don't have big adventure groups like here, just small teams of four or five people."

"True," another agreed. "But even then, there's a catch. There aren't many adventurers with Luna's kind of talent in those towns. It's still a stretch."

"Speaking of small teams," one of the adventurers said, a thought crossing his mind, "I remember a rumor about a dual-class adventurer and an Explosion Mage in Wittes Town. Weren't they teammates?"

At this, the group grew quiet again, wondering if that rumor held any clues to Luna's potential next move.

At that moment, one of the five adventurers, who had been quiet until now, suddenly seemed to recall something and spoke up loudly.

The adventurers in Somar City, although primarily focused on their own work, often hear bits and pieces of news from neighboring towns. Caravans frequently hire adventurers to protect their shipments, and as a result, some of those adventurers pass along the gossip they pick up during their travels.

Most of the time, adventurers in Somar aren't too concerned with news from other towns. After all, the number of adventurers and the level of danger in places like Wittes can't even begin to compare with Somar, where the threats are far more serious. The news is often treated as little more than entertainment.

For example, the recent chaos in Wittes Town caused by the Black Wind Bandits was just a joke to Somar's adventurers. A single Gold-level bandit group, along with several Silver and Bronze-level groups, couldn't possibly stand up to the strength of any decent Somar adventure group. If anyone dared to attack adventurers on the road to Somar, powerful groups would not hesitate to wipe them out, no waiting for the Knights to intervene.

Since the establishment of Somar, bandits had learned to keep their distance. Initially, a few short-sighted groups tried to target adventurers, but after Somar's adventure groups set out on multiple punitive campaigns, those groups quickly understood the consequences of their actions.

While caravan robberies still occurred, no one dared to specifically target adventurers anymore. Robbing a caravan was about taking the cargo, but targeting adventurers meant stealing from people with the power to fight back.

But even though Somar's adventurers weren't concerned with the bandit activity, they still enjoyed hearing the latest exciting rumors from nearby towns. One particularly hot topic was the "Gas Team" in Wittes, which was on the verge of being promoted to a "Platinum Level" team.

This team was especially intriguing because once they were promoted, every member would become a Platinum-level adventurer. While Somar had many strong teams, there were still very few adventurers who had achieved Platinum status, making the "Gas Team" a notable exception.

For comparison, the Golden Lion Group in Somar was a Gold-level team, consisting of 32 adventurers, but only eight were Gold-level. The rest were either Silver or Bronze-level. A "Platinum Level" adventure group, on the other hand, would have only a handful of Platinum adventurers, there was a distinct gap between the levels.

The Golden Lions had taken on the mission to suppress the "Green Tree King" with hopes of being promoted to Platinum. The idea was that with the promotion of the adventure group, all the members would level up as well, Gold-level members would become Platinum, Silver members would become Gold, and Bronze would rise to Silver.

However, the promotion process was more than just a formality. To be promoted to a Platinum-level adventure group, even the weaker members had to show promise. For example, Luna, the Ice Wolf Clan warrior, was still a Bronze-level adventurer. She hadn't completed enough tasks to qualify for promotion to Silver yet, but she would still be promoted if the Golden Lion Group succeeded in their mission.

This promotion system was designed to ensure that no weak links slipped through. A Platinum-level group would never accept a weak adventurer, because the group needed to be strong across the board. The Golden Lion Group's failure in their mission to defeat the Green Tree King, though, showed that even the strongest adventurers weren't guaranteed success in such a dangerous endeavor.

Even a powerful adventure group like the 'Golden Lions' hasn't been able to reach the 'Platinum Level,' so it's easy to understand just how difficult that achievement is. In a large city like Somar, with a population of 50,000 to 60,000 adventurers, Platinum-level adventurers are incredibly rare, there are only a handful of them. And those who have reached this level are typically part of the top-tier adventure groups.

Platinum-level adventurers are the crème de la crème, attracting attention wherever they go. As a result, adventurers in Somar City closely follow any news about the 'Gas Team' in Wittes Town, as they are considered the most likely to be promoted to 'Platinum Level.' This team is particularly notable because it also boasts a rare 'female elf' among its ranks.

Whenever adventurers from Somar visit Wittes, they make sure to gather any new information about the 'Gas Team' and bring it back to brag about it to their peers. The most recent buzz was when the 'Gas Team' took down an adult 'Ogre,' which sparked a lot of conversation among the adventurers in Somar.

But there's another team in Wittes that has been garnering attention from Somar's adventurers, aside from the 'Gas Team.' That would be the duo of Raymond, a dual-class adventurer, and Sylph, an Explosion Magician. Initially, when news of a new Explosion Magician emerged from Wittes, it didn't draw much interest in Somar. While Explosion Magicians are powerful, they don't immediately live up to their full potential.

The reason is simple: Explosion Magic consumes an enormous amount of magical energy. Without high 'Magic Affinity,' an Explosion Magician might struggle to cast the spell, or could only cast it once before running out of magical power. Therefore, until an Explosion Magician has developed their abilities enough, they are no more effective than a regular magician for most teams.

However, despite these limitations, many top-tier adventure groups were still keeping an eye on Sylph. The reason? The potential of Explosion Magic is enormous. Even though the initial range of the spell might be small, its sheer destructive power is formidable, capable of dealing with even the strongest monsters.

For high-level teams, having an Explosion Magician in their ranks could be a game-changer, especially when fighting powerful monsters. Explosion Magic is meant for large-scale threats, not the minor creatures that most teams handle, so it would be wasted on smaller tasks.

When these top adventure groups heard about Sylph, they were eager to recruit her, but they also learned that her teammate, Raymond, was just a regular fighter. That wouldn't have been enough to dissuade them from trying to recruit her, until they found out that Raymond had recently awakened the 'Warrior' profession. Now, Raymond was a dual-profession adventurer.

Dual professions are an incredibly rare phenomenon in the history of adventurers. While not every dual-class adventurer becomes legendary, even the least successful ones have achieved a high level of skill and potential. When top adventure groups heard that Raymond was now a dual-profession adventurer, they immediately reconsidered. Poaching Sylph and Raymond together would be a challenge, especially because both were still relatively inexperienced.

At their current level, the duo wouldn't be much help against the Gold-level monsters that top adventure groups typically face. They would only hinder the group's progress. And, naturally, Sylph and Raymond wouldn't have been interested in joining a group at their current level of strength.