Chapter 61: Alchemist Association
Five days went by in a flash. Li Wei swung his sword as he took away the last HP of the muscular goblin in front of him. "Finally! I now have 40 goblin blood," exclaimed Li Wei as he picked up the items dropped by the goblin. Goblin blood actually could not be collected by normal means. The player needed to have an "Empty Vial" in order to collect it but Li Wei was already prepared for that.
Li Wei spent most of his day hunting goblins in the dungeon to collect Goblin Blood while his evening was dedicated to training techniques. Goblins were much stronger than him at level 14-15. While he could usually fight a goblin in a one vs one, they often walked into groups which made it hard for Li Wei. In the end, he teamed up with some players he found at the dungeon. This was the reason it took so long to collect the 40 Goblin Blood; he could not monopolize all the items for himself and had to share with nine other players. Many players already started to attack the 10th floor of the dungeon. He often met parties of the Fleeting Clouds Sect and joined them temporarily; on two occasions, he even joined Cai Wenji's party.
The latter was delighted to have Li Wei join the party; this way, they could improve their coordination. Unfortunately, even with Li Wei joining, the party was not complete since Bright Sun chose to stop hunting and focus all her attention towards cooking. A few days after exchanging contribution points with Li Wei, the beautiful priest ended up upgrading her profession to Grade 1 Cook. She became the first Grade 1 Cook of the Cai Family. Even in the entire Fleeting Clouds Sect, there was only another Grade 1 Cook which showed how rare this achievement was at this stage of the game.
During that week, even when he shared his exp with his party, Li Wei leveled up twice and was now at level 14. His Myriad Sword Dance also reached level one, giving him access to [Sword Storm Dance]. It was an extremely practical skill especially since it did not differ much from Li Wei's usual fighting style. While training, he would alternate between the right-handed and the left-handed version of the technique. It was essential to get used to both hands since he wanted to use two blades and the technique was meant for only one at a time. He slowly gained some insights into the technique, but it was not enough yet to improve the technique. The Myriad Sword Dance felt very familiar to Li Wei. He quickly mastered it, pushing the completion rate to 95%. He would often lose himself while practicing and would end up with 99% Fatigue most of the time.
If he had the choice, Li Wei would naturally choose to train more but unfortunately, he was limited by the fatigue system. After hunting during the day, he would already end up with an average of 50% fatigue. That barely left him with enough to train his techniques if he wanted to be back to zero fatigue the next day. The room he was currently staying at the inn would normally reduce his fatigue by 75% after one night of sleep. In the end, since he wanted to practice all his techniques well, he had to rely on the Prosperity Hall to lower his fatigue. He was not as rich enough to go to the higher floor. For his personal consumption, the ground floor was more than enough, lowering his fatigue by 25%. The food excellent, and he would often go there for breakfast, taking advantage of the buff in stats to hunt goblins more efficiently.
After just a week, most of his gold was already gone and he was left with only 53 gold now. Naturally, all the gold was not spent solely on food. Part of the gold went towards improving Li Wei's equipment. Now, all his equipment were Peak Grade 1 with the exception of the [Tear of Fairies] and his enchanted ring which was merely a low-quality Grade 1. He did not change it yet since he liked the spell, [Earth Wall] that was bound to it.
After leveling up, Li Wei naturally invested his stat points in Dexterity. He started to find his stats quite unbalanced, but he chose to stick to his original plan. His Character stats were now:
Name: Seven
Race: Human
Level: 14 (5297/50000)
Class: Warrior
Profession: Grade 1 Fisherman
Title: None
HP: 120/120
MP: 100/100
Strength: 14(+3)
Dexterity: 21(+2)
Vitality: 9(+3)
Intelligence: 7(+3)
Wisdom: 9(+2)
Stat Points available: 0
Skills: [Cleave], [Strengthen], [Weapon Throwing], [Howl], [Blade Draw], [Gliding Steps], [Myriad Sword Dance], [Impale]
Fatigue: 48%
Impale was another skill that he recently acquired. Li Wei exchanged some contribution points at the Warrior Association for the skill. It cost 4000 Contribution Points, but it was a powerful skill.
[Impale (level 0)]
Thrust the user's weapon towards a target, damage +25
Mana cost: 20
Cooldown time: 20 seconds
Overall, Li Wei was quite satisfied with the way he spent the week. When he looked at the leaderboard ranking of the city, he stood in the top 1000. So far, only 10 players reached level 15 at Algate City but these players all came from the three big guilds and obtained a lot of resources from them.
Having finally collected all the goblin blood he needed, it was time to return back to the city. It was still three hours before the start of the night cycle, but Li Wei chose to go back now since there was a place he wanted to visit: the Alchemist Association.
...
"Hello sir, may I help you?" asked a receptionist to Li Wei. The latter just arrived at the Alchemist Association and was immediately greeted. He was surprised to see that the receptionist was actually a player and not an NPC. The receptionist was simply a poor player trying to obtain some Contribution Points from the Alchemist Association by acting as a receptionist. Similar tasks were available everywhere, but Li Wei never bothered to check the quests available and so, he was not aware of it. In fact, many players already integrated into the society. Everyone did not like to go to out to hunt monsters and found other ways to earn a living peacefully. Many guilds even sent some players to take important positions to help them develop.
"Hello. I would like to speak to the Alchemist Moody Writer," answered Li Wei.
"Moody Writer? One second please. I will see if he is free," answered the receptionist.
Moody Writer was one of the few Grade 1 Alchemists of the city. Compared to most of his fellow colleagues, he did not belong to any guilds right now and relied on his own efforts to level up his profession. Before, when he tried to join the big guilds, he was roughly rejected. Even mid-tier guilds kicked him out immediately. But in the end, he succeeded in becoming a Grade 1 Alchemist by himself and now, all the guilds were furiously chasing after him. However, Moody Writer did not forget the previous treatment he was given and in turn, he rejected the offers of the guilds.
He was now working for himself at the Alchemist Association. He had quite a good reputation among the players since he was one of the few Grade 1 Alchemist from who they could buy items. Most Grade 1 Alchemists belonged to guilds and would not trade with normal players.
"Excuse me sir but Moody Writer declined meeting you. He is in the process of refining a batch of important pills and cannot be disturbed," politely answered the receptionist.
"Really? In that case, can you tell him that I might have something that can help him level up his profession?" asked Li Wei.
"Leveling up a profession? Really sir? Does such an item exist?" asked the receptionist with a glimmer in his eyes. He himself was an alchemist and was naturally interested.
"I said maybe. I am not sure, but can you relay my words to Moody Writer?" asked Li Wei.
"Mmm. You should first present to me the item. I cannot disturb an alchemist for such a reason without evidence! If I do so, I might cause him to fail his pill production!" righteously answered the receptionist while making a hand motion, hinting at Li Wei to take out his item.
The latter frowned. He clearly knew that the player in front of him wanted to acquire the item for himself or in the worst scenario, he might spread this information to his guild. Above the shoulder of the receptionist, was a small transparent badge but unfortunately, Li Wei did not recognize it.
"In that case, I will wait here for Moody Writer to finish his batch. Please tell him that," said Li Wei as he turned back and walked towards a couch.
"Please wait brother. Is there a way that we discuss among ourselves? You see, I am very interested in the item you are holding. Name a price!" declared the receptionist. He panicked for a second as he saw Li Wei's behavior and went straight to the point.
"Oh? You are interested? Very well, my price is simple, one of each stat increasing Grade 1 and Grade 2 potions plus 20% on the future sales of the product! What do you think?" asked Li Wei.
"What? Brother, this is too expensive! I don't even know what item you have but I seriously doubt that even Moody Writer will accept such a price," answered the receptionist.
Stat increasing potions were as their name suggested, potions that could improve a player's stat. It was quite an expensive potion that the players at the top of the leaderboard all used. Li Wei himself used one at Algate City: The Body Strengthening Potion he obtained from Elder Jari. The cost of the materials of the potion only cost about 8 gold but yet, these potions were all priced at about 100 gold. It was a complete rip-off but still, many players chose to buy them. The high price was due to their availability. Less than ten alchemist players could craft them right now and so, they took advantage of that to increase the prices to that level. Even the different associations and the Fleeting Clouds Sect were offering them for exchange but that was against 1500 Contribution Points.
These potions could only be used once but players could use their stronger versions afterward. For example, Li Wei consumed the Grade 1 Body Strengthening Potion and obtained 1 point in Strength. If he was to drink that potion again, there would be no effect. However, he could drink the Grade 2 Body Strengthening Potion to further increase his strength.
"This is the price I set. If you cannot accept it, then please relay my message to Moody Writer!" politely answered Li Wei. He did not really want to trade with the receptionist and so, immediately placed a high price to push him away. Li Wei did not just want a simple trade; what he wanted right now was to build a relationship with an independent alchemist. He did not want to rely solely on the Fleeting Clouds Sect and so, decided to start building a few relationships here and there.
The receptionist's face hardened. He was very interested in the item since he only had a mediocre talent for alchemy and if he could level up his profession, that would mean a lot to him. However, he did not know if it was a scam, especially since the player in front of him did not want to show any items before signing a contract.
"Brother. Don't make things difficult for me. You know that I can simply not say anything to Moody Writer and he would not know anything that happened here. You could stay here and wait but that would be in vain since he lives at the Alchemist Association and rarely goes out," said the receptionist. According to what Li Wei said, he should be in possession of a sort of recipe. Considering the price, it should even be a unique recipe. If he was the one to obtain it, then his status would immediately rise.
"Really? Do you think you are the only receptionist here?" asked Li Wei while pointing at the other receptionists who were dealing with other players. Some of them were players while others were still NPCs. "Besides, don't forget that I can report your behavior..."
Hearing that, the receptionist became furious, he started grinding his teeth, thinking of some ways to go around this but in the end, he could only go back to his counter and start messaging Moody Writer. He was just an employee right now and what Li Wei said was true. He could act freely to some extent but if he was reported, then the higher-ups would look into the matter and he might get some trouble. In the worst case, he might even get expelled from the association which will result in him wasting two weeks of his time at the association.
As Li Wei expected, he did not have to wait for long before Moody Writer replied. It was said that the players who focused on their professions were usually obsessed with them and would do anything to level them up.
"Moody Writer is still concocting his pills but he says you can go in for now. Here's a guest badge. Please go to room 291" drily answered receptionist.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
nikostar
nikostar This is supposed to be chapter 61... For some reasons, the chapter I posted earlier this week does not appear even if it says published on my interface...
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