As Xan crossed the city's gate, he found himself in a large street filled with people. The stone buildings on both sides of the road weren't very tall, and there was a small market stall in front of each one.

The merchants' voices and the discussion of the people filled the atmosphere. After walking for a few minutes, Xan began to hear music far away, so he decided to follow the sound out of curiosity.

After a few hundred meters, he found what looked like an inn with its door wide open. Xan could see from the entrance how a large group was celebrating something effusively.

Interested in what was happening there, Xan decided to walk through the inn's door. The first thing he felt as he entered the building was the strong smell of alcohol and grilled meat. No matter where he looked, he could see tables full of people partying like crazy.

The ground floor, where he was, consisted of a large room filled with tables, a bar counter, and a stage where a group of musicians played.

"You are new around here, right?" a woman said from behind the counter.

Realizing she was talking with him, Xan neared the counter and sat on a stool.

"Yes, I am. Is it like this every day? Or are they celebrating something?" he asked.

"Today at dawn, a group of cultivators had returned to town with the corpse of a high-stage magical beast that has been terrifying some remote villages. They decided to celebrate a great party with part of the reward they got from the quest." the woman replied.

"Quests? Is it something usual or only when there is an emergency to take care of?" Xan asked curiously.

"You are new around here if you do not even know that." the woman replied while laughing." If you go to the first floor, you will find a bulletin board with some quests. Most of them are dangerous, so I wouldn't recommend taking them if you aren't a cultivator, but there are others that even commoners can complete."

"Thanks for the information. I will go and take a look." Xan thanked the woman.

Without losing much time, he left the counter and went upstairs.

The first floor was similar to the ground floor. There were also a few tables, but there were no counters or stage, making fewer people be there than downstairs.

Instead, Xan found one of the walls filled with sheets of paper. When he neared to read them, he discovered they were the quests the woman had told him.

The quests asked for things like killing magical beasts, protecting a merchant caravan, or recollecting a certain amount of material. One of the things Xan was grateful for was that each quest had the recommended stage for clearing it, which allowed him to know which ones he could take and which he couldn't.

As he still needed to clean his dantian, most of the quests were out of the question as they were too difficult for him to do, but he still found a few recommended for commoners or stage zero and one cultivator.

'Recollect twenty-five Pale Purple mushrooms from the Murky forest... This one could be interesting," Xan thought as he looked over the quests.

According to the poster, even a commoner with a weapon may be able to do it if he doesn't go too deep into the forest, as the magical beasts are few and mostly harmless. And the location of the mushrooms was a forest nearby the fortress, which may be the same as what Rad was thinking of using to teach him.

Not only that, but they rewarded an energy coin for each pack of twenty-five mushrooms, which could help him amass some money to buy whatever he might need.

As for the other quests, they would require him higher cultivation, or they would have a worse payment, or both.

After checking all the posters, Xan left the bar and continued exploring the city for a few more hours, and even though he stopped at a few stores, he didn't purchase anything.

In the end, he decided to return to the fortress, as it was already late, and he had to continue cultivating. Also, he wanted to talk with Rad if it was possible, as he wanted to tell him about the mushrooms' quest.

After all, it could be his way to get out of the fortress at night.