Chapter 1407 - Manatite Mine
Chapter 1407 – Manatite Mine
Upon hearing Melancholic Smile’s reminder, Shi Feng nodded in agreement. He, too, felt that now was a good time to hold the auction for Stone Forest Town’s private houses and Shops.
Although the Zero Wing Auction House was currently raking in money at a frightening pace, it would not be enough money to cover the various maintenance and construction costs of Zero Wing’s future city. Moreover, Zero Wing’s Guild Branch over at the Black Dragon Empire and Immortal Light over at the Apocalypse Empire both required considerable funds.
As the era of Mounts had already arrived, they needed to equip Guild members with Mounts as soon as possible to improve their leveling speeds.
Fortunately, Zero Wing had a Stable, allowing it to save plenty of money on Mounts. Only, with Zero Wing’s current funds, the number of Mounts it could afford was like a drop in the ocean when compared to the number of members in the Guild.
Following which, Shi Feng left the matter regarding the auction to Melancholic Smile to manage, while he returned to White River City to make preparations for claiming the Manatite Mine in the Sea of Death.
Currently, although Zero Wing was capable of earning a lot of Coins, its supply of Magic Crystals was grossly inadequate. Now, Shi Feng also needed to supply Magic Crystals to the Ring of Gospel, in addition to the three Magic Towers in Stone Forest Town. The number of Magic Crystals that the Battle Arena was currently raking in was just not enough to sustain such enormous expenditures. Not to mention, once Zero Wing’s city was completed, the Guild’s Magic Crystal consumption would definitely become even more frightening.
In God’s Domain, the various large Guilds all wished to construct as many cities as possible. After all, a city represented the generation of a massive amount of wealth, both Coins and Credits.
However, constructing a Guild city was easier said than done. To put it simply, while constructing a city was easy, maintaining it was quite difficult. The reason for this was a Guild city’s consumption of extraordinarily frightening quantities of Magic Crystals. Hence, in Shi Feng’s previous life, even first-rate Guilds could construct only a very limited number of cities.
Only the various superpowers that had occupied ore veins capable of producing Magic Crystals could easily maintain multiple Guild cities. Ordinary large Guilds would already be fortunate to be able to maintain a Small City.
Now that Zero Wing’s city was nearing completion, Shi Feng naturally had to make some preparations ahead of time.
…
White River City, Candlelight Trading Firm:
When Shi Feng arrived before the Candlelight Trading Firm’s entrance, he noticed that the situation at the trading firm had changed quite remarkably. Currently, there was a long line of Lifestyle players queued up outside the trading firm, many of whom had reached Intermediate or Advanced rank. Meanwhile, of the various Lifestyle classes present, alchemists numbered the most.
“The Candlelight Trading Firm’s test is simply too terrifying! Even an Intermediate Alchemist was disqualified!” a Level 10 player lining up to apply for Candlelight’s test exclaimed in surprise when he saw an Intermediate Alchemist walking out of the trading firm wearing a disappointed expression.
Although Intermediate Alchemists were not as popular as Advanced Alchemists among the various large Guilds, if they wished to join a Guild, the various large Guilds would still welcome them with open arms. After all, nurturing an Intermediate Alchemist was neither easy nor cheap.
Nevertheless, the Candlelight Trading Firm had actually rejected an Intermediate Alchemist without hesitation.
“Based on your level, you must’ve just recently entered White River City, right?” a Level 28 Basic Alchemist standing behind the Level 10 newcomer said. Chuckling, he continued, “There is nothing surprising about an Intermediate Alchemist getting disqualified. Previously, there were even Advanced Alchemists that got disqualified.”
“This can’t be true, right? Those are Advanced Alchemists we are talking about.” The Level 10 newcomer revealed a dubious expression when he heard the Basic Alchemist’s words.
“You better believe it. Ever since the Candlelight Trading Firm revealed the new benefits it is offering to alchemists, it has become a sacred land for alchemist players. For your info, if you manage to become the tenth most-skilled alchemist in Candlelight, you will get to use Secret-Silver ranked alchemy tools. These are tools that very few Guilds in Star-Moon Kingdom possess. Moreover, this is the benefit provided to just the tenth ranking alchemist.
“If you manage to reach fourth place, you will get to use an entire set of Secret-Silver alchemy tools. Meanwhile, the first ranking alchemist gets to use an entire set of Dark-Gold alchemy tools.
“Due to these benefits, alchemists from all over Star-Moon Kingdom as well as from several neighboring kingdoms have come to join Candlelight. As a result, Candlelight’s criteria for alchemists have also increased significantly. You should feel fortunate that you are not an alchemist. Otherwise, as an Apprentice, I’m afraid you won’t even get through the first test.”
When the Level 28 Basic Alchemist spoke about the Candlelight Trading Firm, his eyes were filled with yearning. Inwardly, however, he also felt a sense of helplessness.
While the alchemists of the Candlelight Trading Firm received excellent benefits, the requirements to join Candlelight were proportionately difficult.
It seems that those alchemy tools are working quite well as promotional tools. Shi Feng could not help but smile when he overheard the conversation between the two Lifestyle players. I should find an opportunity to obtain high-ranking forging tools and engineering tools as well.
While the importance of Lifestyle players had grown during recent times, it had not reached a point where Lifestyle players were indispensable in the game. However, once mainstream players reached Level 50, the need for Lifestyle players would thoroughly reveal itself. At that time, the Guilds that controlled the most top-tier Lifestyle players would be able to dominate the trade market of God’s Domain.
Following which, Shi Feng entered the Candlelight Trading Firm and went straight to his personal Special Forging Room. He then took out the Titan Device Design from his bag and started examining it.
The Manatite Mine located on the island in the Sea of Death was very special. Originally, Shi Feng planned on capturing it only after Zero Wing’s entire main force had obtained their Tier 2 classes.
However, there was no need to do so now.
The Manatite Mine was located on an island called Karna Island, which had powerful monsters and an unusual environment. Not only was the island covered in the corrosive power of shadows, but the Mana density was also abysmally low. Due to this reason, initially, no Guild had attempted to capture Karna Island in the past.
Nobody could’ve imagined that such a low Mana density environment actually housed a Manatite Mine, something the various large Guilds had dreamed of obtaining.
An environment with extremely low Mana density would have a drastic impact on players’ combat powers. On Karna Island, players would be fortunate to be able to exert even 20% or 30% of their combat powers.
The monsters on Karna Island were already terrifyingly strong, to begin with. With the low Mana density environment factored in, even a team of Tier 2 experts would have minimal odds of capturing the island, much less a team of Tier 1 experts.
However, the Titan Device could be used to counter the problem of low Mana density, making it possible for Tier 1 experts to capture the island.
An Advanced Forging Design really is complex. No wonder even Master Forgers did not dare to casually attempt to produce the items recorded on one. Shi Feng could not help but take a deep breath after examining the contents of the design.
Originally, the success rate of producing an item recorded on an Advanced Forging Design was already very low. Meanwhile, the complexity of the Titan Device’s production method was above average even among Advanced Forging Designs, which would depress the production success rate further.
Based on Shi Feng’s initial estimates, if he tried producing the Titan Device as an Advanced Forger, his success rate would be only around 10%; he would be lucky to succeed once out of twenty tries.
Fortunately, he had upgraded Icarus’s Heart to Epic rank, so he could temporarily promote himself into a Master Forger.
Following which, Shi Feng used God’s Blessing and sacrificed 500 Life Force to extend God’s Blessing’s duration from one hour to two hours.
After activating God’s Blessing, Shi Feng did not waste time, taking out the Book of Forging and the necessary materials, which he had tasked others with preparing for him beforehand. He then began carefully forging the Titan Device.
…
Meanwhile, the auction over at Stone Forest Town had officially commenced.