Unlike the last couple of times we traded, I generously put 50 gold into the trade window. The gold exchange rate dropped drastically from 100 to 80 RMB in just the last two days, and now it was only worth 70 RMB or so. Therefore, I didn't have any problems giving Lin Yixin 50 gold for her troubles. It was nothing compared to Silver-grade boots or Gold-grade weapon I had in my bag right now.

The Ghost Ice Soul was especially amazing. If I were to put the Gold-grade sword on sale, I was certain that it would sell for at least 5000 gold. It would be an unimaginable amount of money.

Lin Yixin’s mouth fell open when she saw how much I was offering her. It took her a while to say, “Lu Chen… I was just kidding. You seem way more serious than what I would normally expect from you…”

I smiled at her and said, “Help yourself, seriously. I’m really grateful that you saved me this time.”

“Oh?”

She blinked once, and a gleam flitted across her eyes. She moved closer and asked right next to my ears, “Tell me the truth. What exactly did the boss drop?”

I sucked in a deep breath. If I looked down, I could see the beautiful ravine between Lin Yixin’s “hills”, and if I breathed I could smell her youthful scent. Working hard to calm myself and my heartbeat, I said, “I got a Level 45 Silver-grade metal armor boots, a Level 50 Gold-grade two-handed sword, and a couple of Phantasmal Magic Stones. That’s all…”

“Ah?!”

Lin Yixin stared at me with widened eyes. She looked really cute like this.

“Silver... and Gold-grade?!”

Lin Yixin sounded very impressed. “Quick, show me their stats!”

“Sure.”

I showed her the stats of the equipment, and her astonishment grew even bigger. She murmured like she was stunned, “That sword is… amazing…”

“I know right?” I nodded.

It was at this moment Lin Yixin took two steps backward and held her dagger in a reverse grip. She smiled at me and said, “Lu Chen, aren’t you afraid that I will kill you and grab this loot for myself? You should know that a Gold-grade weapon will remain invaluable for a very long time to come. It’s practically a Divine Armament at this stage of the game~~”

But I was certain that she wouldn’t attack me, so I smiled and replied fearlessly, “Why would I? Do it if you can. I’ll just go to your dorms and take you as my compensation…”

“Geez!”

Lin Yixin rolled her eyes at me in exasperation and laughter. “Fine, fine. If there’s nothing else, I and my people will be leaving for a quest.”

“What quest?”

“We’re heading to Reflection Hills to kill an undead miniboss. That’s why I brought this many people in the first place. Normally, I alone am enough, you know?”

I glanced at the dozen or so players behind Lin Yixin and noticed that they were all Level 30 and above, after second promotion, and their equipments were pretty good. The look in their eyes also marked them as rare gaming talents. I couldn’t help but look at Lin Yixin again. Just how on earth did she manage to gather such a group?

“Beauty Yi, are you planning to establish a guild soon?” I asked.

She nodded. “Of course. How am I going to fight against Mad Dragon and Gods of Destruction without one? Even you have the Bloody Mercenaries workshop, don’t you? I’m the one who’s falling behind here.”

“Haha, how can my Bloody Mercenaries possibly compare to your group?”

Lin Yixin smiled and shot me a meaningful look. Then, she turned her back toward me and said, “Alright, we’re leaving. Take care and don’t die to a mob~”

Fuck, do I look like a noob who would make such a mistake?

I snorted, but Lin Yixin had already entered Reflection Hills. Her white outfit somehow made even someone of her stature look heroic. She truly was a beautiful, attractive and outstanding light wanderer!

I turned around and went on my way. It was time to turn in my own quest, and if I stayed any longer, the Mad Dragon guild would be all over me again. This was the early game, and no one had invincible gear. It might be possible to kill seven or eight people with skill and accumulated in-game advantages, but fighting dozens of people solo could only end in one way.

I reached the Night Creatures’ temporary camp and turned in the quest item. Seized by deep emotion, the old skeleton looked up and thanked the heavens. “O’ great and selfless Queen Sophia, your eternal light shall illuminate every corner of the continent!”

Ding~!

System Notice: You have completed the quest [Traitorous Blood Shadow Army]. You have gained 12000 EXP, 450 Reputation and quest reward: “Blood Shadow Bracers”!

……

This quest rewards equipment?!

Overjoyed, I opened my bag in a hurry and find a pair of blood-red bracers lying quietly in a corner. I took them out, checked their stats, pleasantly surprised to find that it was a Dark Steel–grade item!

Blood Shadow Bracers (Dark Steel–grade)

Defense: 35

Strength: +9

Level Requirement: 40

It was a pretty good item and much better than the Iron-grade bracers I was wearing. They gave 35 Defense and 9 Strength. Compared to 8 Defense and 2 Strength of my previous bracers… there was nothing to compare.

I equipped the bracers immediately, and my whole arm, all the way to my palm, was covered by blood-red armor. I was now a bonafide high-level warrior, and my Defense had increased drastically.

ID: Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand

Class: Undead Swordsman (Bronze Swordsman)

Level: 42

HP: 850

Attack: 173~312

Defense: 195

Magic Resist: 0

Reputation: 1780

Luck: 0

……

My total Defense was still lower than my Dark Wasp’s, but it was much better compared to most warriors out there. Those people were currently gathered at the forest camps outside Floating Ice City, shouting, “Level 30 high-DEF tank applying to be MT[1], 120 DEF, totez solid…”

I let out a sigh of relief and set my sights on Level 45 so I could put on the Silver-grade boots. This was probably the first Silver-grade to drop from a boss in Floating Ice City’s domain. This item was sure to make passersby want to PK me on sight. Of course, they wouldn’t know I had a Level 50 Gold-grade sword, else who knows how many people would hunt me to the ends of the world.

I took out a return scroll and crushed it. I wanted to go back to Floating Ice City and relax by making some Rank 5 Magic Consumables first!

Swhoosh!

The first thing I did upon returning to the bustling city was store the Stormy War Boots and the Ghost Ice Soul in the warehouse. Then, I took out a huge amount of food ingredients, made 50 Rank 4 Green Pepper Meatballs and reached Rank 5 Cooking!

After that, it was time to make some Rank 5 Consumables!

Braised Chicken. Requires: Chicken Meat x30, Salt x10, Green Pepper x15, Garlic x10. Restores 500 MP.

Salt could be purchased, I still have a lot of Green Peppers, and I just finished gathering a bunch of Garlic. The only food ingredient I’m lacking is Chicken Meat. For now, I guess I have no choice but to buy it from other players.

I walked to the center of the square and shouted, “WTB Chicken Meat, 50 copper each, or entire stack for 25 silver! Make offers now if you wish to trade. I only need 20 stacks!”

A group of foragers who had been waiting to sell their Chicken Meat since a long time ago immediately rushed toward me while yelling, “Buy my Chicken Meat or I’ll burn your whole goddamn family, fucker!”

I chose the foragers who looked pleasant to the eye and bought 50 stacks of Chicken Meat in one go. It was cheaper than expected—4 stacks for 1 gold—and in my hands, they were destined for much greater things. Rank 5 Consumables were worth a lot, to say the least!

Now that I have all the ingredients, it is time to cook!

Ding~!

System Notice: You have made Braised Chicken x1. Cooking Proficiency +5!

Ding~!

System Notice: You have made Braised Chicken x3. Cooking Proficiency +5!

Ding~!

System Notice: You have made Braised Chicken x1. Cooking Proficiency +5!

Ding~!

System Notice: You have made Braised Chicken x2. Cooking Proficiency +5!

……

I was shocked. As it turned out, there was a chance to proc 3 products per craft when Cooking skill reached Rank 5![2]

Ha! Haha! I’m rich! The ingredients were majority of the crafting costs, and this reduced my effective cost per product by a lot! I could finally mass produce Magic Consumables!

I observed the process carefully and concluded that the chance of getting 3 Braised Chickens was about 20%, chance for proccing 2 was about 30%, and half the crafts ended in a single product. All in all, it was incredibly worthwhile.

It took 50 MP every time I used the Cooking skill, so I quickly ran out of MP after several uses. But instead of waiting for my MP to regenerate itself, I ate a Rank 4 Consumable and continued synthesizing. I had made them myself, so I was free to use them however I liked.

I ran out of Chicken Meat ten minutes later, so I went out to buy more before getting back to work. The process repeated itself until I ran out of Green Pepper some time later.

Half an hour later, I finally used up all 37 sets of the Garlic I had gathered earlier that day. The cost of purchasing additional Green Pepper, Chicken Meat and Salt was shocking—a whopping 45 gold in total!

However, the result was well worth the cost. I now had 389 Braised Chickens in my bag, a wonderful Rank 5 delicacy that hadn’t even shown its face on the market yet!

There was basically no mage who would complain about a Magic Consumable that restored 500 MP in one go, but my real target market were the priests. Mages at least had Magic Recovery skill to recover MP when they hit Level 50, but priests had no choice but to rely on Magic Consumables. At higher levels, no one wanted a priest who couldn’t afford to sustain their healing output.

At the current stage, most priests in Floating Ice City relied on Rank 2 Glutinous Rice Balls—a Magic Consumable that restored 200 MP with a 60-second cooldown—to sustain themselves. Unless they used their MP frivolously, it was enough for most situations. Moreover, many foragers and cooks had hit higher ranks, so Glutinous Rice Balls were no longer the rare and precious food they had been a week earlier. They now cost 50 copper each, a paltry sum of money that was affordable to all but the poorest of players.

Naturally, my Rank 5 Braised Chickens weren’t meant to be sold to Level 20 priests. No, they were meant to be sold to high-level priests and mages at Level 35 or above, such as Dominating Mage God who had reached Level 42. There was no way he was able to keep up with his MP consumption unless he was being fed Magic Consumables of Rank 4 or higher!

Everyone in the Domination Clan seemed pretty rich. I’m sure they can afford all the consumables they could ever want.

I brought up the chat window and messaged Du Thirteen. “What are you doing?”

Du Thirteen replied, “Little Gui’s leveling… there’s a girl who’s also leveling nearby… you wanna come and take a look? She’s really fresh…”

“Get lost!”

I was a fool to expect better from Thirteen. I replied, “Come to Floating Ice City right away. I have a mission for you!”

“Okay, I’m coming right away!”

There was a flash of light from nearby. It was Du Thirteen teleporting over using a return scroll. Face flushed with redness, he asked, “So, what’s this new mission, Lu Chen?”

I brought up the trade window and selected Braised Chicken. “How much do you think this would sell for, Thirteen?”

“Ah?!”

Du Thirteen stared fixedly at the Braised Chicken and murmured, “My god, it’s a Rank 5 Magic Consumable. You’re crazy, Lu Chen. There are barely any Rank 3 Cooks in Floating Ice City, and here you are making Rank 5 Magic Consumables already… if I’m not mistaken, we can sell this for at least 80 silver each!”

I nodded approvingly and said, “You have a good eye. Right now, Rank 5 Magic Consumables are luxury items that only the richest can afford, and only the best priests and mages would use. Let’s use this to our advantage and sell them for a gold each! I’ve made a ton of Braised Chicken, and since you’ve been doing nothing this whole day, your quest is to sell everything I give you!”

I passed 350 Braised Chickens to Du Thirteen. I left a couple for myself just in case I might need them in the future.

Besides that, I also gave him a couple hundred Rank 4 pelts to sell, but unlike the Braised Chickens, I gave him freedom to set whatever price he chose. I also told him to sell them 20% below the market price so we could barter away our gold as quickly as possible. Gold would only continue to drop in value, and there was no point being too attached to it.

Du Thirteen was an expert in duping women and merchants, not to mention that he enjoyed the work. He happily made his way to the square to work his magic.

I smiled and prepared myself to level up to 45 in 24 hours. I wanted to equip the Silver-grade Stormy War Boots before anything else!

1. Main Tank

2. Programmed Random OCcurrence. This abbreviation refers to when a weapon or item activates with a "Chance on Use" effect