Chapter 10: Masterpiece

When Happy returned to the game, he gained a stack of silver notes, which were earned from fighting against the Ferocious Wild Wolves for an entire night.

The fangs and claws of the Ferocious Wild Wolves could be used to create hidden weapons that were of slightly better quality. They could also be ground into powder to create medicine. Its price was basically twice of the one made from a normal Adult Wolf.

They might be difficult to handle for normal players, but experienced players who knew the wolves’ attacks would actually spit at those “Ferocious Wild Wolves” and say that they were not fierce enough, and such was the case for Happy! The forest animals could not last long under his Shaolin’s Long Fist, and he did not even have a chance to use the Jinchuang Ointment.

At daylight, all Ferocious Wild Wolves vanished, leaving only Adult Wolves wandering the area below Cold Mountain Temple.

The normal wolves could not help Happy at all. At the seventh realm, Shaolin’s Long Fist was already strong enough to handle difficult tasks with ease. When Happy delivered a punch, the explosive power behind it was shocking, and with just two or three blows, he could crush a wild wolf’s bones. The value of the wolf pelts he gained were also less than a quarter of the wolf pelts he obtained at night. So if he continued, he would just be wasting his time.

Without any hesitation, Happy took the silver notes and went to a weapons shop in Gusu City.

…

The weapons in World of Martial Arts also had a system!

The iron weapons in the beginning could only increase the strength of an attack by a little. They would also wear down very quickly. It could be said after a single fierce battle, a player would need to return their weapons to the furnace and reforge or mend them.

The price of iron weapons was rather normal. They were priced from fifty taels of silver crumbs to one hundred taels of silver crumbs.

The more durable weapons and equipment were made from bronze. They would not increase the players’ attack by much, but their durability was their unique characteristic. They were solid and easy to use, so sword users would usually prefer bronze swords over iron swords. No one liked to mend their weapons all the time nor being given trouble during important moments.

However, the price of bronze equipment was much higher. They usually cost more than two hundred taels of silver crumbs, and those that were of better quality or made by famous blacksmiths would double in price!

Above bronze was refined steel, cuprite, and cold iron. Weapons of this grade had to be crafted by famous blacksmiths, and practically all the weapons had a name.

Just as the concept suggested, all the weapons created by famous blacksmiths could be considered the blacksmith’s brand, and branded goods… were naturally expensive. The price was also not something normal people could afford.

The lowest graded weapon (ninth grade) cost one thousand taels of silver crumbs, and superior first-grade weapons cost tens of thousands of taels of silver crumbs.

There were also divine weapons that were rumored to never have been possessed by anyone before!

Ganjiang Sword! Moye Sword! [1]

Heavenly Sword! Dragon Slaying Saber!

Fish Swords (There were five of them, and they were Wholesome Land, Pure Harmony, Defeater of Evil, Hidden in Fish, and Giant). [2]

Each divine weapon had extraordinary abilities, but no one knew exactly what they were.

…

Happy had five hundred taels of silver crumbs, so it was only natural that he could not buy masterpieces. He took a stroll through a weapon shop and stopped before one weapon with hesitation.

The lowest price for a bronze sword was two hundred and forty taels of silver crumbs, but what he wanted to buy was a pair of gloves. There were three types of gloves in the shop. One of them was made of iron rings and looked like something used by the antagonists in movies, so he decided against it. The other pair was made of iron silk and silver scales. It could increase his defense, and when he came in contact with weapons, the gloves would also increase his damage.

The last pair had a decent appearance as well. Its durability was greater than that of bronze weapons, and as long as Happy did not have to go up against higher grade masterpieces or divine weapons, it would be very difficult to damage those gloves.

But they were just too expensive!

Two thousand taels of silver crumbs…

There was no need to even think about the last item. It was a higher grade masterpiece, and it was known as Green Jade Shrouded in Heavenly Silk. The decorations on the gloves were extravagant, beautiful, and exuded a cold presence. With just one look, it was obvious that they were a masterpiece among masterpieces, so one could forget about buying them.

Unhappy, Happy could only walk away!

“A pawnshop?”

When he saw a building with the word [Pawnshop] above it, Happy suddenly had a thought.

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Pawnshops were places where people could get a huge sum of money in exchange for their items, which had to be repaid in interest within a short period of time, so good things always appeared in them. Incidents of valuable treasures ending up buried under a pile of junk always happened there, and the prices for those items would usually be much lower than in regular shops.

As long as a person’s eyes were sharp and they had luck, they had a chance to get good quality items that had come into the hands of the pawnbrokers because the original owners could not redeem their items within the loan period.

While thinking about it, Happy walked in with his five hundred taels of silver crumbs.

The pawnshop was different from the pawnshops during the Qing Dynasty. It had a huge section that was no different from one in a normal shop with all the items that had not been redeemed during the loan period. There were all sorts of items there: sabers, swords, medicinal pills, clothes, jade items, and even martial arts manuals. The shop had everything and sold it at high prices.

Happy looked over.

He ignored the useless jade items as well as clothes. He was not interested in medicinal pills either. He only looked at the weapons and martial arts manuals, but he still got nowhere. There was nothing that suited him.

Some of the items might be valuable, but once he added in the repair fees, he would end up with a similar price as in the normal shops. He would not have saved up on anything.

When Happy was about to turn tail and leave, two players dressed as workers hurried into the shop. They passed by him and quickly glanced at the items and prices on the counters.

They did not stay for long. A quick look was all they wanted before leaving.

It was a very inconspicuous thing, but players would usually not venture into places like pawnshops. It was also not very wise to put on a show of glancing at things quickly in this sort of place.

Happy’s footsteps came to a halt. When the duo left, he cast his eyes on an item that one of the people had examined for a longer period of time. Then, his expression changed.

It was a jade item!

There was an old jade on the counter. It looked incredibly normal, and it was placed among many other jade items. If it were not because of the duo’s strange actions that stirred up Happy’s curiosity and puzzlement, it would have been difficult for him to realize that there were some faint words carved on the jade slit ring.

In the world of martial arts, some of the older martial artists were worried that their martial arts would be lost or they would forget some words from their skills. Because of that, they liked to write down martial arts manuals or incantations on small jade pendants that could be easily carried around. Those jade pendants would only reveal their secrets in certain situations, and the jade before Happy was clearly one such item.

“I see.”

Happy smiled, looked away, and left.

While the price of the jade slit ring was similar to that of the other jade accessories and he could absolutely afford it, he would not have any money to spare once he bought it. Instead of buying a normal high-tier martial art that would be of little value to him for the time being, it would be better to spend his money on something more meaningful.

Happy did not believe that the pawnshop would not have noticed the jade’s value when it was very obviously used to pass down a martial art and pawnbrokers were all brilliant at their job.

There could only be two explanations for the low price then.

Either the value of the martial art on the jade slit ring was not high or parts of the incantation were missing!

By the looks of it, the two players had their eyes fixed on the “bait” cast out by the pawnshop, but Happy did not have any intention to be another stupid fish, so he turned around and left the pawnshop.

*****

“The boy didn’t fall for it!”

The two players walked out from behind the corner of the pawnshop with frowns on their faces.

As they watched Happy leave, they looked at each other in dismay.

“That shouldn’t have been possible.”

“We finally managed to trigger a slightly higher-level mission from the shopkeeper, the reward for which was one hundred taels of silver crumbs, but we didn’t manage to complete it. That boy is too stingy.”

Happy did not know that everything before had been a mission set up by the shopkeeper of the pawnshop. Because of his experience, he had unknowingly avoided the disaster of being scammed.

Translator’s Note:

[1] Ganjiang and Moye Swords: Made by a swordsmith couple who lived during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. A pair of swords were forged by and named after them. Known as the Swords of Love.

[2] Fish Swords: China’s most legendary swords are the ones made by Ou Yezi and his pupil, Ganjiang during the Warring States era, which are these swords plus all the ones mentioned above, and more. Read more here: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/chinas-legendary-swords.t3323/