Chapter 23: Dead Fish Eye

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!’

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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.”