Bab 22: Forging
Editor: Atlas Studios
The Bloodthirsty Butcher was a dead human spirit. Its body was covered entirely in rotten flesh, with bones protruding out from the bloody pile. That was Gamon in monster form. He was once a young butcher, but he had slaughtered a Golden Wild Boar and was cursed by the devil. Hence, his flesh would rot every night and claws would grow out from his fingers. The next morning, his claws would be covered in blood. Gamon searched long and hard for methods to contain the curse and he finally found one. That method was killing beings of other races and species. Thus, he began to buy goblin and elvish slaves and slaughtered one every day in order to satisfy his craving for blood.
Last month, he had finished all of his savings from years before, and hence was tormented day in and out by the curse. This resulted in his half-crazed state now. He would kill whoever he saw.
The Butcher grabbed its cleaver from the wooden station, and its Attack Power increased by 20 points. Shouting in rage, it charged towards Lin Jie. Though its speed was not fast, the effect of the attack was very strong. Lin Jie dodged it narrowly and activated Army Obliteration.
-41!
-37!
-36!
Lin Jie did not dare to enter his Death Rage mode to attack that type of monsters. Once he hit his target, he retreated three steps and slid just nice past the right gap between the wooden station and the shop's walls. The Butcher gave chase, but its rotten flesh got stuck between the gap.
Lin Jie aimed several clever strikes at the Butcher's naked belly.
-58!
-56!
Attacking a critical area could allow one to inflict additional damage upon his target. The Butcher's weakness was in its stomach, which was exposed to Lin Jie right now!
Lin Jie took the chance and made use of it to deal several blows. On the other hand, with the use of Blade Aura Executioner, he was able to dodge the Butcher's attacks.
When the Butcher was left with 50% HP, it screamed and flung out its cleaver. The cleaver made a sharp turn in the air and landed stuck in the wall behind the Butcher.
Instant Teleportation!
The Butcher appeared in front of its cleaver, yanked it out and threw it at Lin Jie.
Lin Jie missed it narrowly as the cleaver landed where he had previously stood. After half a second, the Butcher teleported in front of Lin Jie and slashed the cleaver across Lin Jie's abdomen, causing more than 80 points damage.
The Butcher's mangled mouth moved ever so slightly, attempting to speak, but only the disgusting sound of gulping saliva was heard. It then hurled its cleaver down upon Lin Jie!
Ding!
Lin Jie activated Rebel's Fight to ward off the attack. Energy surged and welled up in his chest, and he retaliated with a loud roar!
Outraged Roar!
The Butcher's flabby muscles trembled, and it fell into a dizzy spell. Activating Havoc, coupled the counter-attacks using Rebel's Fight, Lin Jie made a deep thrust into the Butcher's disgusting stomach!
-128! (Critical Hit)
Army Obliteration!
-120! (Critical Strike)
-65
-134! (Critical Hit)
The light in the Butcher's eyes dimmed, and it fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
——'You have killed the monster lurking within the City of Light, you received City of Light Reputation 1 Point.'
If other players were to spend so much effort to kill an Elite and get such a return, a measly 1 point Reputation, they would surely be vomiting blood. Yet Lin Jie was still unable to contain his joy.
As he searched the Butcher's body, notification tones rang in his ears.
——'You received the Butcher's Cleaver'"
——'You received a set of unusable Land Deed.'
The Butcher's Cleaver belonged to the Dagger-type weapons that were mainly used by Bandits. It had a corrosive poison and could decrease the effectiveness of the target's armor. Bandits would greatly increase their efficiency in luring and killing monsters if they were equipped with it, but Lin Jie's eyes were fixated upon the other item—the Land Deed. This was Lin Jie's main purpose for this trip.
The Property System would be released in the game one month later. At that stage, the only way to get one's hands on property of any kind would be to negotiate for it with gold coins or complete certain tasks like helping to rescue some NPC's daughter. Only then would players be able to get land deeds from the NPCs.
However, looking at the way things turned out now, it was still rather hard to earn even silver coins, let alone a gold coin. Besides, all the NPCs, even for a little girl, would be a strong entity of at least Level 10. Who would need players to save them? All those circumstances pointed to a fact; it was impossible to get hold of any property in the beginning stages of playing the game.
Yet it was different for the case of the Bloodthirsty Butcher. In his previous life, it had not been a secret that the Bloodthirsty Butcher would spawn land deeds, but the question was how to make use of it. Fortunately, Lin Jie was one of the players who knew what to do with the Bloodthirsty Butcher's unusable land deed.
Lin Jie left the shop to look for an old goblin in the Provisions shop. The old goblin owned the Provisions shop. Few people would visit the Provisions shop in the City of Light, as it was owned by a goblin. It was a widely known fact that goblins were shrewd in handling businesses of any kind. In the Provisions shop, one needed to pay an extra 2% service tax for buying things.
The old goblin put down the Engineering Watch he was holding and inquired excitedly, "Hi, my dear human friend, what would you like to buy?"
Lin Jie refreshed the shop's page. One could certainly buy a lot of provisions there. Sometimes rare items were up for sale too, but that was solely dependent on the old goblin's moods. Lin Jie noticed an item, white paper, and it was priced at one silver coin per bundle.
It was really just plain white paper. This type of stuff was normally only used by players as toilet paper when they had no choice but to do their business in the wilderness but was still particular enough to care about their hygiene. One could buy several kilograms of paper with a silver coin, yet it was so highly priced there.
One silver coin for a bundle. Lin Jie bought 10 bundles.
"Hahaha, you really have an eye for provisions," the old goblin commented with a bright smile on its face.
At that moment, Lin Jie took out the unusable Land Deed and spoke in a low voice. "The owner of this shop is dead, surely you will be interested in this, right?"
The old goblin covered the Land Deed with a book immediately, and whispered, "Human, you want to use a dead land deed in exchange for money? You underestimate the intelligence of goblins. I will buy for at most a silver coin…"
"Deal!" Lin Jie took the silver coin and walked out of the provision shop.
Goblins were natural talents at trading, but they had a common Achilles' heel; they were money-mad! The goblin would refurnish the shop once they got hold of the land deed, and then…
Lin Jie smiled to himself. He was very confident about the efficiency of goblins. At most in three days, Gamon's shop would be available for use.
Ding~
——'The summoning skill book for the water element you put up for auction was sold successfully at the price of 70 bronze coins.'
——'The Hunter's Forward Charge skill book you put up for auction was sold successfully at the price of 3 silver coins and 50 bronze coins.'
All the items which he had collected in the Soul of the Giant Demon dungeon were successfully sold. Lin Jie's bag was filled with 23 silver coins, coupled with the money he had leftover originally, it was enough to make up for a gold coin. That was a large sum of money!
If sold in the black market, one gold coin was worth the price of at least 1,000 dollars. Even if one had the money, they might not be able to find it in the market. For a long time in the future, the value of gold coins remained high and never decreased, maintaining the exchange rate of a few hundred silver coins to one gold coin. In fact, even after the game creators had decided on the policy that different type of coins could be used for exchanges and allowed free circulation of gold coins in the market, the value of gold coins had still increased multiple times. All these for the simple reason that gold coins had strong purchasing power!
A friend invitation popped up at this moment. Lin Jie clicked on it and was surprised to discover the invite was from Mighty Wings. "Are you the one selling the Slow Restoring Mana Potions?"
Lin Jie did not answer him.
"I know you are that person, or else you can't have the ability to get hold of so many potions." Mighty Wings let out a cold laugh, caught himself rapidly and coughed embarrassedly. He added on in a calm tone, "Fu Sheng, I guess we can be considered acquaintances made from an exchange of blows. Do you still have stock for the Slow Restoring Mana Potion? I want to purchase a few hundred bottles of the potion."
Lin Jie let out a laugh. Since he knew about Mighty Wings's pride, what were the chances that he would willingly ask Lin Jie for a favor in such a mild manner? Definitely zero. It must be upon the request of The Heavenly Shield. He must have somehow gotten wind that Lin Jie was selling the potions, and thus for this scene now.
"One gold coin for one bottle of potion. You name the amount you want, I will sell it to you." Lin Jie did not bother with being nice to Mighty Wings or the Ironwall Empire.
"You are truly audacious!"
Leaving those four words, Mighty Wings hung up on Lin Jie.
Brushing this matter off, Lin Jie walked towards the Blacksmith's Shop in the City of Light. He had long formed enmities with the Ironwall Empire, and thus he did not care if he made further offense. In any case, the Ironwall Empire would meet its end in less than 20 days.
The owner of the Blacksmith's Shop in the City of Light was a human blacksmith named Blue. He had robust muscles, a healthy bronze-tanned complexion and often sat beside the forging furnace, working away intently with drops of perspiration dripping down his face. This manly posture had once attracted the attention of many beautiful bachelorettes, all sighing in pity at the fact that Blue was just a bunch of data but not a real man.
When Lin Jie stepped in, there were no customers in the shop as few people could afford to own weapon fragments.
"Hey, dude, what do you need?" Blue smiled and asked as he wiped away his perspiration.
Blue: Mid-level Blacksmith, Success rate of 47%, additional Attributes 30%.
That was impressive stats for a blacksmith, and definitely much better than the Orcs from the Tribe of Darkness which were really unskilled in the craft of blacksmithing. In his previous life, Lin Jie had once entrusted the task of making a weapon to an orc Blacksmith, and the results were terrible. Five sets of Mystical Dragon Iron had been forged into a giant metal lump which weighed more than 300 pounds. No one could lift it.
"I want to find your master," said Lin Jie in a calm voice.
The Shield of Courage required a blacksmith of high level to forge it. If the blacksmith forging it was just at mid-level, there would be a very high rate of failure.
Blue laughed merrily. "My master is not here at the moment."
Upon hearing that, Lin Jie made a swift and forceful attack. The Broken Blade sliced through the shop's wooden door, leaving a trail of vibrating air in the enclosed space.
Blue was incited. Instinctively, he snatched up a huge double-headed axe from the weapon rack. "What are you doing?"
"Blue, back off." A wooden door swung opened slowly, revealing a dwarf inside. He gaped briefly when he saw the force of the blade aura cast on the door and dismissed his disciple with a wave of his hand while greeting Lin Jie politely, "Lord Viscount, I apologize for the ruckus caused."
"Master!" Blue complained angrily, "this human is too much! What kind of weapons have I not forged before? These humans from the alternate realms are just…"
Before he could finish his words, Lin Jie placed the shards of the Shield of Courage one by one on the work table. Blue choked when he saw them.
"Come, you help me forge it." Lin Jie pointed at Blue and placed a gold coin on the table, determined to pursue this matter.
That was a little trick he kept in his sleeves all this while, and it could only be revealed now when Blue's master witnessed what happened. If Blue failed to forge the shield, Lin Jie could request his master to forge another equipment which was double the value of the shield, and even enjoyed a lifetime discount of 20% whenever he came back to forge other equipment.
The logic worked just the same as in a typical fantasy-martial arts novel. When the disciple was not steady enough and caused trouble, the master would have to help to clear up the mess. Then, the master would reprimand his disciple for being wrong, scold his disciple if he dared to rebuke and remind him of his teachings, etc.
Blue stood still and did not dare to make any noise. To forge high-level equipment as a mid-level blacksmith?
If he failed, both his master's and his favorability would definitely suffer huge decreases.
"Lord Viscount, I beg for your forgiveness," Blue apologized to Lin Jie.
Lin Jie smiled politely and said sincerely, "A successful blacksmith will never fear failure! Blue, I believe you will succeed." He pondered for a while, and added, "Even if you fail, I will not ask you to repay me."
Blue was touched by his words and bowed deeply to Lin Jie. He took the shards of the Shield of Courage, gritted his teeth and put them in the forging furnace.
Little did he know that Lin Jie was forcing back a series of sinister laughter secretly. 'Heh, heh, please fail faster, faster! I want my lifetime 20% discount! My equipment which is double the value of the shield! Ah, what should I request for? An entire Golden Armor Set? Or the Dwarvish Runes equipment? I heard that this Dark Iron Dwarf is able to forge Sub-Legendary equipment from their shards? OK, that's it then!'
After half an hour, Blue exclaimed in a surprised voice, "Yes!"
"What?" Lin Jie was dumbfounded.
Bab 23: Dead Fish Eye
Editor: Atlas Studios
Blue put out the fire in the forging furnace, and donning a pair of Anti-Demon Gloves, he took out a piece of burning hot-red shield from the furnace. The moment the shield's surface came in contact with the surrounding air, a loud hissing steam sound was heard.
The Dark Iron Dwarf transformed its torso to stone immediately and held the shield in its bosom.
After a full five minutes, the steam from the shield finally dissipated completely. The dwarf then placed the shield on the table and turned to scold Blue. "For Superior Smithing, not only do you need to be careful in the smithing process, but knowing how to best preserve the created equipment's attributes is also of utmost importance. Or else, the attributes of the equipment will decrease significantly. Do you understand?"
Blue nodded his head obediently, repeating it for a few times. "Yes, yes."
Putting on a straight face, he handed the shield to Lin Jie and bowed deeply. "Thank you, respectful Viscount. Please forgive my impudence just now. If you need to repair any equipment in the future, I will use my salary to pay for you."
——'The Blacksmith Blue from the Blacksmith's Shop's favorability of you has risen to Respect level. You can enjoy free repairing fees for your equipment at the Blacksmith's Shop by Blue till the maximum cap of 120 gold coins.'
Lin Jie raised his brows. 'Free repairing fees for equipment?' Moreover, the cap was set at Blue's maximum amount of savings—Blue was indeed a magnanimous chap.
'120 gold coins!'
Going by the market price now, Lin Jie could save up to almost a few hundred thousand dollars worth of repair fees!
The moment Lin Jie took the shield from Blue's hands, Blue's status changed to a High-level Blacksmith. That was an indication that Blue had completed the customer's request. There were not a lot of high-level blacksmiths in The New Age, and almost all of them had their own guilds or schools and were regarded as highly-esteemed advisors. Blue was only high-level Blacksmith still working at a shop. As such, the Blacksmith's Shop in the City of Light would be able to sell Bronze equipment from then on.
Shield of Courage (Gold)
Requires: Level 0, Strength 80.
Defense: 39 - 75
Health Points: +100
Endurance: +10
Block: +7%
Additional effect: Shield Strike
The Shield of Courage allowed its holder to gain the additional skill, Shield Strike. This was a skill like the Shield Strike ability of Shield Specialists, and also had the same attacking power, but the pros were that it existed as an independent skill in spite of the holder. In other words, if a Shield Specialist owned this shield, he would be able to activate two Shield Strike skills without having the limitation of cooldown period. Just imagine how strong would that be!
It was a pity that the Strength requirement of this shield was so high as 80 Strength points, which was definitely hard to obtain. Even if players owned passive skill books that allowed them to increase their Strength capacity, not many players would be able to get 80 Strength points. Moreover, the Skill column of every player had limitations. One needed to spend a lot of money just to forget one skill. To spend so much money only for brief moments of enjoying limitless Shield Strike benefits was definitely not reasonable.
The success rate of forging the Shield of Courage was around 35%. Even high-level Blacksmiths could not guarantee that they would be able to forge it successfully, let alone a mid-level Blacksmith like Blue. Lin Jie had deliberately requested for Blue to forge this shield in order to rip off the shop.
However, the shield was forged successfully and with excellent attributes. It even had 100 more Health points and 10 more Endurance points than regular Shields of Courage. If Lin Jie could equip himself with it, he would not be killed even with 10 people attacking him all at once.
"Are you using Blade Aura Executioner?" asked the dwarf. His name was finally revealed, Master Blacksmith Guran.
Lin Jie did not deny it and nodded his head in reply.
"Since the Wind Rider Sword Saint has appeared again, I guess it should not be far off for the others?" Guran shook his head and walked into the inner chambers, reminiscing the old days.
Lin Jie's eyes lit up as he had activated a mission. After exchanging a few words with Blue, he left the shop.
After Lin Jie left for about half an hour, a group of players walked into the Blacksmith's Shop and were astonished to see the Bronze equipment displayed. NPCs had the intelligence to discern players' levels. Thus, they would display the equivalent grades of equipment that matched the levels of most players in the game.
The attributes of equipment displayed in the equipment column of the shop were comparable, if not better than that of those in the auction house, but their prices were around the same. This piece of good news was spread among the players, and soon numerous players rushed to the Blacksmith's Shop in the City of Light and almost purchased all of the items on sale. Blue hastily put up the sign for limited purchases, and only put up a limited amount of equipment for sale each day.
Due to this incident, the prices of equipment put up for auction by players in the auction house decreased significantly. Many profiteers who had originally stocked up large numbers of equipment to sell off at high prices made huge losses and were nearly bankrupted.
At the same time, more players flocked to the City of Light. In fact, it was later made known that the traffic of players entering the City of Light had increased multiple times. In Lin Jie's previous life, the City of Light had originally been just a second-tiered small town. But now, it began to gain the popularity of players since Lin Jie's encounter at the Blacksmith's Shop. This was something he would never have expected.
Indeed, who could ever prevent the Butterfly effect from taking place?
———
The Rogaland Mountains were situated south off from the Autumn Waters Town, which was also known as the Town of Mages. It had lush scenery and healthy biodiversity, with many different types of herbs and medicinal plants. This was an ideal training ground for players who wanted to practice and refine their Potioneering skills.
Lin Jie followed various mountain trails and plucked several herbs along his journey. The most important aspect of perfecting Potioneering skills would be to accumulate herbs of all kinds. One would never know when each herb might come in handy.
Half an hour ago, the Autumn Waters Town had witnessed the arrival of large groups of players. Although those players seemed unrelated to each other and dispersed around that area upon their arrivals, Lin Jie was not beguiled. Those were players from the Ironwall Empire.
There was only one monster below Level 10 which would spawn the Guild Base Token, and yours truly here was now stepping on it—yes, in actual fact, the entire Rogaland Mountains was one huge monster. It was named the Mountain Giant. Giants moved at a very slow speed, but they generally had high HP levels and also strong attacking powers. However, they had a common Achilles' heel—they were afraid of Mana attacks.
Lin Jie had just finished plucking a medicinal plant when something shiny caught his eyes. It was a treasure chest, hidden within the midst of thick bushes not far off from where Lin Jie was standing, and hence was not easily spotted.
'Let's go!'
Lin Jie jogged over, rubbed his hands and prepared to open the treasure chest.
At that moment, he suffered a hard blow at the back of his head, and his body dropped to the ground.
That was due to Bandit's skill, the Stealth Hit!
The Stealth Hit could only be used when the player was not in battle mode. It would stun the target for 10 seconds, but once the target was attacked again, the dizzy spell would be lifted. This was a much-despised skill of Bandits, who would normally use it against others in the urban areas. Should they be irritated by the sight of particular players, they would use the Stealth Hit on them and stun them for at least half an hour.
However, that Bandit did not seem to have any intentions of killing Lin Jie.
Indeed, a dull-eyed bandit clad in a black catsuit and covered with a mask appeared in front of Lin Jie. He squatted in front of the treasure chest, took out a self-made key and started picking the lock. Bandits' Lock Picking Skill could allow them to open a treasure chest faster. Once they got more proficient at it, they could open any doors.
In Lin Jie's previous life, there was a guild known as the Astounding Magical Bandits which was made up of 25 Bandits. They had offered services which had caused havoc for many guilds by picking open the guilds' warehouses doors or worst, their money vaults.
That group of bandits had claimed that they abode by the professional ethics of Bandits—they would never steal from the vaults they helped to open. However, that did not mean the other members in the guild would not take the opportunity to pocket some gains when their guild's vaults were opened. It was a matter of time before discord was sown within the guild. In fact, some members had even kept watch near their guild's common vaults so they could nab some items when the common vaults' doors were opened. That eventually had led to the disbandment of many guilds, and Lin Jie remembered many opposing guilds had made use of this tactic to attack each other.
'This person… he seems familiar.'
Lin Jie furrowed his brows and tried to recall who this guy was. Meanwhile, the bandit stood up, panting from his attempts of picking the lock. It did not seem like the process went smoothly. The effects of Stealth Hit would be wearing off soon, so he made another Stealth Hit at the back of Lin Jie's head again…
Lin Jie felt like crying at his own fate. This was the tragedy of not having a skill to dispel abnormal effects.
The bandit picked away at the lock, stopped halfway through the process again to make another Stealth Hit at Lin Jie, then continued on his work. 10 minutes later, he received a notification.
"Dead Fish Eye, stop hitting me with Stealth Hit! I won't fight with you for the treasure chest!"
The bandit threw a surprised look at Lin Jie. He stood in front of him, twirling his daggers effortlessly in both of his hands; one dagger in the clockwise direction, the other in the counterclockwise direction. This action confirmed Lin Jie's suspicions.
The Stealth Hit was deactivated. The bandit kept a close watch on Lin Jie's hands. As long as he made any actions, he would immediately activate his Crowd Control skills to manipulate this guy!
"Rawr!"
Outraged Roar!
Dead Fish Eye's eyes rolled back in his head and fell into a dizzy spell. He regained consciousness after five minutes and saw Lin Jie beaming at him. "Ha, we are even now."
Dead Fish Eye snorted beneath his mask, squatted down and continued picking open the treasure chest.
Lin Jie made no movements and waited quietly at the side. In his previous life, Dead Fish Eye had been a famous personality. He had been given the nickname of 'Kind Grim Reaper', and he had a legendary lone ranger. Though he had been the most well-known bandit in The New Age, Dead Fish Eye had kept a low profile. He had only gotten his nickname because although he made a series of astonishing achievements, he had never killed any players without good reasons during the five years he had played the game. He had only been interested in opening treasure chests. If other players wanted to snatch his treasure chest, Dead Fish Eye would make use of his skills, equipment and all sorts of unthinkable tools to put them under his Crowd Control spells until they begged for pardon.
Other than that, Dead Fish Eye also had a strong sense of righteousness. Should he witness something unfair, he would cast his Crowd Control skills upon the evil-doers, which would make them unable to go anywhere for at least two to three hours. His Crowd Control abilities had the power to prevent one from going offline or move anywhere.
The most famous of his stories was one involving a small team from the Kingdom of Glory. That particular team had tried to clear players off a map, and Dead Fish Eye had used his Crowd Control skills to freeze them and their numerous supporting members who came over to rescue them for hours, without giving a damn to his own HP levels. They had only been released from his control spells after Eighteen Massacres had rushed over in person to help them.
As such, all players had guessed that the entirety of Dead Fish Eye's skills and possessions must have been made up of Crowd Control and passive skills which helped to increase his HP levels. Along with that, he must also have equipment which had independent Crowd Control attributes. How else would he have been able to conduct such a grand Crowd Control feat?
As for his nickname of the Grim Reaper, it had been gained from his spectacular feat at the Castle of the Sky map. During the sixth year of playing the game, it was announced that there was a Legendary Treasure Chest at the Castle of the Sky, and of course, it had attracted the attention of Dead Fish Eye. Every player had equal opportunities to get the Legendary Treasure Chest, and almost all the players who were nearby the Castle of the Sky had laid their eyes on it and rushed over immediately. Chaos had ensued, and due to the obstruction of a second-class guild, Dead Fish Eye had been unable to get his hands on the treasure chest. In his rage, he had wiped out hundreds of players from that guild and hence landed himself with the infamous alias of "Hundreds Killer".
Unafraid to fight for justice, abilities tested and proven true—that would be the 'Kind Grim Reaper' Dead Fish Eye for you.
Lin Jie would never have recalled this person if he had not been held under his control spells for so long.
Creak-
The treasure chest opened finally. Dead Fish Eye took out his gains satisfactorily, pondered for a moment and threw a gem to Lin Jie.
Augmenting Gem: It is used to enhance your equipment. If the enhancing process is unsuccessful, there is a fixed chance that your equipment will be damaged or decrease in grade.
Lin Jie owned a few pieces of augmenting gems. He knew that the market price of one augmenting gem would be as high as five silver coins, and that was considered expensive.
"I don't know you," Dead Fish Eye held his fists and saluted to Lin Jie, "but I owe you a favor. If you need me, just message me, and I will help you once."
Lin Jie smiled. "Oh, I have something that will require your help now."
"Shoot."
"The Ironwall Empire is trying to kill an Overlord…"
Dead Fish Eye knowingly nodded his head, and replied calmly, "I get it. We will kill them together. I will be in charge of attacking the Overlord and the items spawned will belong to me." His tone sounded like this arrangement was a sure bet.
Lin Jie shook his hand. "No, I will be in charge of killing the Overlord, and I get the items spawned."
Dead Fish Eye's pupils shrank and seemed surprised. "You can kill an Overlord?"
Lin Jie nodded his head earnestly. "I can. I am just afraid you are not up to it."
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
200+ Peringkat
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