407 Flatten Their Moral High Ground Firs (1/2)

The Guild of Mercenaries, Guild of Assassins, Guild of Rogues were all wealthy, or at least could make ends meet. The Association of Mages was even full of magnates.

Most of those guilds could accept contracts and they were very strong. Therefore, their members could find jobs anytime, providing taxes and revenues for their guild.

As for the Bards… Well, they weren't capable fighters, and they weren't as good at support as Priests. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no mercenaries would ever invite them on an adventure.

Besides, while their teammates were fighting life-and-death battles, the Bards would be singing and playing musical instruments behind them… Their partners couldn't be happy even if they won a battle.

More importantly, the enhancement of the Bards' performance was indiscriminate, which meant that the enemy would be buffed too.

Therefore, they were really not competent as teammates.

Only after the Bards learned ”Precise Push” at level five would they be able to enhance selected targets, but the problem was that the Bards could only level up slowly if they didn't take part in battles.

There were few Bards above level five. Even if they reached level five, they were still not as good as Priests of the same level, who were both sturdy and helpful.

Therefore, Bards could only spend most of their time singing for alcoholics in the taverns. To make more money, many Bards even learned dirty songs. Even so, a Bard could earn no more than fifty coppers a night in tips.

Sometimes, when the customers were too few, or too petty, they couldn't earn any money at all, and the tavern would only offer them a couple of coppers as a gesture of kindness.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible for a Bard to grow rich, and if they weren't rich, their guild couldn't have money either.

Poor people had few ambitions. That was the truth in most cases. Of course, there were always exceptions who built up an enterprise from scratch purely based on their own capabilities.

But those people were too rare, and Viki was clearly not one of them.

He had been dazzled by a payment of 150 gold coins for three months.

The headquarters of the Guild of Bards in Hollevin could only earn no more than twenty gold coins for a whole year with the taxes from the branches.

Subtracting the maintenance cost and the salaries of the staff, it wouldn't be bad if they had three gold coins left by the end of the year.

Green Shade was indeed a tricky organization, but definitely not as tricky as poverty.

Besides, it wouldn't be a head-on clash. Viki didn't think that it would be hard for the Bards to smear their reputation by singing.

Anybody would be touched by someone who thought they were capable when the whole world thought they were garbage.

Then, Roland discussed with Viki on how to delicately and gradually ruin Green Shade.

For example, they would make up some stories where human Druids appeared as neutral but ended up as obstacles for the protagonists.

Also, those human Druids would say philosophical things like:

”Trees and beasts are part of nature, but human beings are not. Human beings are the disease of this world.”

”A human's life can be compared to a seedling or a cub. Nature is merciful enough to let you log and hunt so that you can survive. But there is a finite quantity of wood you can cut and meat you can have, and you should die if you surpass that limit.”

”Nature is always right, and human beings are always vile.”

And so on!

Also, in many stories, the contradictions between the protagonists who tried to save people and the human Druids who were determined to protect nature were depicted.

For example, when a village suffered from a storm and many villagers were trapped in the flood, the protagonists were going to cut down trees and make rafts to save them, but the human Druids showed up and stopped them. Though the Druids were defeated in the end, a lot of time was wasted, resulting in the deaths of many villagers who could've been rescued.

Or, in order to save the hundreds of thousands of residents in a city, the protagonists set up a fire on a mountain to stop the demons, buying time for the evacuation of the residents and indirectly saving them.

But after the human Druids learned of it, they hunted the protagonists on account of their ruining nature.

They also conspired with demons and nearly killed the protagonists.

Similar incidents were mixed into the lore and the knight tales.

Besides, Roland didn't make them up. Similar things had been described in the intelligence he purchased from the Guild of Mercenaries and the Guild of Assassins, but few people knew of them.

What Roland asked the Guild of Bards to do was to bring those things to light.

Viki immediately declared that he would get the job done, and that there would be a huge difference in Hollevin within a couple of months.

Before he left, Roland said, ”If our cooperation turns out to be successful this time, we'll definitely come to you again if we're in need.”

”No problem.” Grabbing the bag of gold coins, Viki bashed his chest.

After seeing Roland off, he immediately asked his secretary to summon every person who had actual power in the guild and announced the big news excitedly.

”We've finally had a big deal!”

Viki was filled with hot tears at the meeting.