Chapter 22: Forging

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.

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“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.