Chapter 38 – Boots of Swiftness (Gold)

Nie Yan’s train of thought suddenly diverged. It wasn’t only Sosil Valley. Similar situations had occurred during the future openings of other dungeons. For example, with the opening of Golden City, the prices of equipment with Dark Resistance +5 or higher increased by tenfold; when Specter Gorge opened, the prices of equipment with Focus +7 or higher increased by twentyfold. This sort of situation occurred frequently with the opening of a new dungeon, so by no means was a case like Sosil Valley isolated.

After going back in time there were opportunities to strike it rich everywhere, yet he had still worried about not making enough money?

Nie Yan arrived at the auction house and opened their catalog page. Within their alchemy section, he found a large amount of Black Phenol. Altogether there were a little over a hundred and eighty bottles for sale with each bottle selling for around two coppers. The current amount of uses this Black Phenol had were quite limited, which made them hard to sell and was the reason their price could not rise any higher. Nie Yan bought all one hundred and eighty bottles without the slightest hesitation. He then checked the subsection for Alchemy Recipes—fifty-six Black Phenol Formulas in total, each selling for twenty or so coppers. He bought all of these in one go as well.

At this point in time, Black Phenol was classified as a useless material. However, very soon, players would quickly learn of its value. The moment Sosil Valley opened, they would return to purchase Black Phenol only discover its price had already sharply increased to a nearly unimaginable level.

From then on, the market price of Black Phenol would stabilize at no less than ten coppers per bottle. Moreover, it could be frequently sold for higher.

When he finished purchasing what he needed from the auction house, Nie Yan began walking over to the personal storage. He planned to leave these items there until the day Sosil Valley opened. After all, it was too much trouble keeping them on his body.

Five Alchemists, each wearing a silver moon-shaped badge, strolled past Nie Yan. They paid him no heed as they passed by, seemingly enveloped in their own banter.

“How strange… I wanted to buy a Black Phenol Recipe to level up my Alchemy, but who would have they were sold out. I had no choice but to buy a Silver Phenol Formula instead.”

“How is that possible? How many people if any ever buy that kind of item? When I checked in the morning, there were still fifty or sixty formulas for sale in the auction house.”

“Why would I lie to you? If you don’t believe me, go check for yourself. Not only the formula, even the item itself was all sold out!”

“Indeed, that’s strange…”

When Nie Yan listened to the conversation of these Alchemists, the corner of his mouth couldn’t help curving into a slight smile as these several players walked by.

When he arrived, Nie Yan deposited all of the Black Phenol Formulas and bottles of Black Phenol inside his storage. Afterward, he purchased a few more consumables: Haste Scrolls, Strength Scrolls, Underwater Breathing Pills, etc… He then arrived at Tellak town through the transfer point and ran in the direction of Lake Rando.

There was still half an hour until the servers shut down. So if possible, he’d like to hand in the quest before going offline.

Nie Yan used a Basic Haste Scroll and increased his speed by twenty percent. After thirty seconds the buff would fade away. However, he would immediately use another one to maintain his high travel speed after the Basic Haste Scroll’s cooldown disappeared.

If word of Nie Yan’s actions were to spread, he would certainly receive a flurry of angry complaints from other players. The average player, even when encountering danger, wouldn’t be willing to rashly use a luxury item such as the Basic Haste Scroll. However, Nie Yan was simply using this scroll for no other reason than to slightly increase his speed so he could save a bit of time.

The Fishmen Village appeared at the edge of Nie Yan’s vision. However, as he neared, he discovered the village had been turned into ruins. There were Fishmen corpses littered everywhere. This was the work of Victorious Return. However, all of their members had already departed. Under the glow of the sunset, the broken down huts of the Fishmen Village appeared especially bleak. However, after the servers shut down, everything would respawn by tomorrow.

After clearing the Fishmen Village, at the very least, Victorious Return received ten pieces of Silver-grade equipment. If their luck was good, they may have even obtained one or two pieces of Gold-grade equipment. Additionally, they also obtained a large quantity of Fishscale Leather that was used to craft equipment.

Turns out the members from Victorious Return move pretty quickly… Nie Yan thought. He felt a slight sense of crisis developing in his heart. Though his enemies were great in number, the most important point was that even if he was developing on his own, their growth wouldn’t halt either!

After passing the Fishmen Village, Nie Yan dived head-first into Lake Rando and quickly swam towards Physician Blevins’ little island.

Around ten minutes later, Center Island was finally within his vision. When he gazed at the island, he could make out the lonesome figure of an elderly man off in the distance. He appeared to be fishing from the shoreline underneath the waning light of the setting sun.

I wonder what sort of reward I’ll obtain this time around… When Nie Yan thought of this, he couldn’t help but increase his pace.

“Youngster, you’ve returned. How are you doing with the task I entrusted you?” Physician Blevins asked, after seeing Nie Yan come ashore.

“Senior, I’ve gathered all of the materials you requested. These are the ninety Fine Silks Senior tasked to me to retrieve. I hope they are enough to aid in Senior’s task.” Nie Yan then handed the Fine Silks to Physician Blevins.

“At last, I’ve collected enough Fine Silk. It seems I can return to the Hilton Stronghold by the next day. The brave warriors at the stronghold will remember your kindness. Generous and benevolent adventurer, may the Holy Radiance bless you. The darkness will finally disappear and light will spread throughout the continent,” Physician Blevins replied in a hopeful tone as he stored the Fine Silks into his satchel.

「System: Your Influence in Hilton Stronghold has increased by 11.」

Nie Yan glanced at the system announcement that had just appeared. In certain regions, the higher a player’s influence, the easier it would become for that player to receive specific quests. Moreover, the player would also receive preferable treatment and discounts when purchasing items. When can I head to the HIlton Stronghold for a visit? I can’t let these eleven Influence points go to waste! Nie Yan couldn’t help but think.

“May God bless the brave warriors stationed at the stronghold,” Nie Yan acted in a sincere manner and replied with a prayer as well. This type of tone and speech when speaking to an NPC absolutely made a difference.

“These things can be regarded as a token of my heartfelt appreciation. Generous and benevolent adventurer, I wish you a pleasant journey.”

「System: You have received 16,523 experience points.」

「System: You have received Boots of Swiftness (Gold).」

Nie Yan thought he would receive three pieces of equipment as a reward for the quest, one for every twenty percent. He never expected in reality, he would only receive one. Maybe this was one of those quests that gave a better reward the more you handed in at once. Unexpectedly, the reward, this time, was a pair of Gold-grade boots!

He examined the properties for this pair of boots.

Boots of Swiftness (Gold)

Requirements: Level 5

Properties: Defense 19–21, Resilience +11, Movement Speed +12

Weight 2 lb

Restrictions: Thief, can be equipped by all factions.

It adds eleven points of resilience and twelve points in movement speed! What a good item! Every point of resilience increased health by two and slightly increased defense. Eleven resilience was an increase in twenty-two health and eleven defense. Moreover, the boots also had the property of movement speed +12. It was simply one of the best pieces of equipment you could get at the early levels.

I finally have a good pair of boots to use at Level 5.

Nie Yan stored the Boots of Swiftness into his bag. Afterward, he expressed his gratitude to Physician Blevins. When he checked his experience bar, it was already at ninety-seven percent. He would level up very soon!

There were still ten minutes or so before the servers shut down. He swam over to the nearby Water Spiders in the area and began killing. After ten minutes of nonstop training and ten spiders later, he had only risen to ninety-eight percent. It looks like I won’t be able to level up today. I’ll randomly kill a few mobs first thing tomorrow and I should be able to level up by then.

Ah… whatever, I’ll just get off now, Nie Yan thought. Since there was less than a minute remaining, it wasn’t enough time for him to kill another monster. Thus, he logged off and lifted the gaming helmet off his head.