Chapter 78: Alliance Proposal
Translator: Zenobys Editor: TheRealSeal
Early the next day, Zhang Yang practiced his usual boxing and long-distance running. All in all, it took slightly over and hour. He logged on to the game after eating breakfast.
First, Zhang Yang went through the Front and Main Wing Hardcore Mode dungeon raids with Drizzler and the others. After dismissing the team, Zhang Yang found a few news waiting for him when he returned to the Capital.
The Dominators, Sky High and Crimson Rage cleared the Marzerway's Lair Hard Mode this morning, The Main Wing Hardcore Mode is now defeated, keep the momentum going with the victories and attack the next wing!
Fatty Han was in a panic when he read the message and said, “Little Yang, we have to be quick. Otherwise, the First Clear Achievement of the dungeon raids will belong to others!”
“Don’t be so anxious. Only the five of us are above Level 20. Look at the levels of those guys from The Dominators, Sky High and Crimson Rage. The top five players are only at most, Level 17!” Zhang Yang smiled and he was not anxious at all.
The Dominators, Sky High and Crimson Rage were really strong guilds, as evidenced by them clearing the Marzerway's Lair Hard Mode without using any [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion]. Their capabilities were certainly impressive! However, they still needed the [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion] to clear the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore Mode!
In Zhang Yang’s past life, it had been made certain as many teams had been wiped out, without the aid of [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion]!
According to the ‘5-years game review’ article, all the strong guilds were unable to clear the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore Mode despite their best efforts. There were no further development for 17 days before the recipe of [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion] was found. [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion] had then started a burst of activity in the market. After a day, a party who called themselves “The Glory”, cleared the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore Mode!
The Glory was in Violet Star City, one of the main cities of China server. Each main city contained their respective set of area maps exclusively for those below Level 50, players of different cities would not interact with each other until then. Thus, Zhang Yang was not afraid of inadvertently altering the timeline via another butterfly effect in the other seven main cities of China region.
White Jade Castle was the only thing he needed to worry about because the progress of the game might be further affected due to his presence. He was worried that the second recipe of [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion] would appear earlier in the White Jade Castle!
If this is really happening, then the future he knew and the future that awaited him would be different!
“Noob tanker, if there is nothing else, I’m going to shop with my cousin!” Drizzler spoke in the party channel.
Zhang Yang smiled and replied, “Be careful, do not leave behind the one who has no sense of direction.”
Little Snow, annoyed by Zhang Yang, grit her teeth and the both of them disconnected from the game together.
Hundred Shots mentioned that he had spent too much time on the game for the last two days, so he also quickly disconnected from the game to spend some time with his wife and son. However, Fatty Han remained connected. Rather, he simply fired a quib at Zhang Yang before heading to the Massage Parlor for chicks.
“Hoes before bros…” Zhang Yang groaned, shaking his head while heading to the Auction House by himself.
Zhang Yang’s storage space was already full of [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion]. Originally, he thought of ceasing on his stocking up and initiating sales of the [Beginner Anti-Shadow Potion] when more players had turned Level 20, and were headed for Marzerway’s Lair Dungeon like how it was right now. He could have started saving up for his first set of equipment with a synergized cycle of buying ingredients, synthesizing, and then selling [Beginning Anti-Shadow Potion.]
Those plans did not account for him suddenly becoming Guild Master of the Lone Desert Smoke. Thus, he also gained the authority to manage the guild’s storage!
In ‘God’s Miracle’, the system would provide a collective inventory of 1000 slots when a guild was established. This was the guild’s storage. To expand the guild’s storage, a 1000 Gold coins was needed for second inventory, another ten times that amount for a third, yet another ten times of that for a forth, and so on. The cost would consecutively snowball into one million Gold coins for the final upgrade. However, each guild could only have ten storage inventories at most.
The Lone Desert Smoke’s storage was in a mess and it was full of trash like health recovering snacks, fish, tiger tooth, ores and etc! Zhang Yang shook his head, bemusedly ordering the guild to remove the trash.
Ten minutes later, Zhang Yang had amended the guild’s storage management authority, Members had the authority to “Check”; Officers had the authority to “Check” and “Store” while the Vice Guild Master had the full authority to “Check”, “Store” and “Draw Out”.
In the future, the storages were only allowed to store equipment, consumable, gemstones and other valuable items. Guild members were allowed to buy the items using the guild’s contribution point. The level of wealth in a guild’s storage correlated to the capability of a guild, as both cause, and effect. The former was due to guild members being motivated when they see a storage full of valuable items!
Zhang Yang spent another 1000 gold coins for the second storage inventory and set the authority in a way that no one but the Guild Master alone could even “Check” the storage.
With the extra 1000 slots in a storage, certainly, Zhang Yang could grab all the [Brassica Weed] and [Ginkgo Flower] he wanted! The prices of these two herbs were dropping on last two days, as Zhang Yang’s purchases halted when his storage reached its limit. The prices of these two herbs would undoubtedly increase again as he resumes his bulk purchasing.
The majority of the Alchemy profession players believed that it was a prospective profiteer’s attempt to manipulate the market, so they decided not to buy any [Brassica Weed] and [Ginkgo Flower] even though the prices kept on increasing. Because of this, Zhang Yang easily stocked up on [Brassica Weed] and [Ginkgo Flower] without any competition. His materials secured, he went on to produce potions en masse, one after another.
After emptying the auction house of all the [Brassica Weed] and [Ginkgo Flower], Zhang Yang opened up the “Search” interface in auction house to check on the Alchemy and Smithing recipes.
On the Alchemy side, no recipes other than beginner leveled ones were on sale. There were, however, a few [Level 2 Whetstone] recipes and the prices ranged from 100 – 300 gold coins.
This [Level 2 Whetstone] recipe drop rate was high. Even though the price of 100 gold coins was considered rather high, Zhang Yang had the cash to spare, so without wasting time, he went ahead and bought the cheapest [Level 2 Whetstone] recipe. It arrived in his mailbox and he quickly learned the recipe.
[Level 2 Whetstone] (Consumable)
Use: Sharpens a weapon and increases damage by 20 points.
Although the damage increase wasn’t significant, it was still better than nothing. More importantly, this was the most cost-saving method of advancing the Smithing mastery from Amateur to Advanced.
Forming a [Level 2 Whetstone] required two [Green Copper Bars], so Zhang Yang looked at the price in the Auction House and he contacted Mining Specialist via private messaging, “Do you have time?”
After a while, Mining Specialist replied, “You! I haven’t heard from you for a few days now! I had believed that I have lost you to the other sellers. I would never have thought that you would be one of the celebrities in the First Clear Dungeon Raid Ranking!”
Zhang Yang said, “Nah, I’ve been busy with dungeon raids. I had no time to practice Smithing! I need a lot of [Green Copper Bar]s, do you have the stock?”
“Hmph, do not scorn a professional miner!” Professional Miner immediately replied and asked, “How many do you need?”
Two [Green Copper Bar]s were required to cast a whetstone and 1000 points of mastery required 2000 Green Copper Bars, so Zhang Yang wanted 100 stacks of Green Copper Bar. Zhang Yang replied, “Um, 100 stacks first!”
“Sheesh!” Professional Miner sent him a message with many ellipses and exclamation marks. After a while, Professional Miner said, “Hmph, you are always making things hard for me. 100 stacks of [Green Copper Bar]s… did you think they are as common as [Iron Bar]s? [Green Copper Bar] is a Level 2 Ore, besides, it does not have many spawn points and the southern area is full of monsters.”
“Okay, fine. Tell me directly, how many stacks you can give?”
“Hmph, it is a good thing that you came to me. If you went to someone else, it wouldn’t be half bad if they could provide you one to two stacks.”
“Stop the bullshit with the self-flattery. How many stacks do you actually have?”
“Seven stacks!”
It was not enough at all! Zhang Yang said anyway, “Okay, mail them to me! What is the cost per stack?”
“Ha ha, we have been trading for a while now and I’ll be upfront with you. How about 2 gold coins per stack?”
It was slightly cheaper than those selling in the auction house! Zhang Yang replied “Deal” and ended the conversation.
Although he needed to compete with Floating Up, the demand of [Earthen Round Shield] was still high. But the price has not increased at all. Zhang Yang tried to place an entry of the [Earthen Round Shield] with an opening price of 1000 gold coins, but after bidding for a day, 600 gold coins was as high as it went, according to the other entries.
When Zhang Yang had led the team to Bangar Crypt Hardcore Mode during the last two days, he had obtained five [Refine Copper Bars]. Some [Refined Copper Bar]s from Fatty Han‘s team were also passed to him, so he had eleven [Refined Copper Bar]s in total! Zhang Yang sold the [Refined Copper Bar]s in the auction house and he took 1000 gold coins to store in guild’s storage as repair allowances for tanks and healers.
When Zhang Yang was about to go grind monsters for some experience points as a means to burn time before logging out for lunch, he received a friend request.
It was requested by The Dominators’ guild master, Humbly Gentleman.
Zhang Yang thought for a while and selected “Accept”.
“Ha ha, we intended to invite you to join my guild for about two days ago but we never thought that Lone Desert Smoke would have invited you first!” This time Humbly Gentleman did not send private message to Zhang Yang but spoke aloud via voice chat, “I am not trying to slander Lone Desert Smoke but they are just a second-rate guild. They will hold you back!”
Zhang Yang smiled and replied, “Which guilds did not start as second-rates?”
The same would have surely applied to The Dominators as well.
Humbly Gentleman laughed and said, “Originally, I had hoped to be able to convince you to give up on Lone Desert Smoke and join The Dominators, but it looks like there’s no chance of that happening now! Luckily, this was not the main purpose of me contacting you today. Otherwise, I would be in quite an embarrassing situation now!”
“Oh. Guild master Humbly Gentlemen, making any wagers again then?” Zhang Yang asked excitedly.
Humbly Gentleman could not help it, a lump that had never really went away reformed in his throat when he recalled losing 20,000 gold coins to Zhang Yang from the bad bet. It had left him in a slump for days! Although every player who turned Level 20 could unlock the gold coins exchange service, as long as the players had the money, they would never be in fear of experiencing gold coin shortages. However, it was not easy for a normal player to waste about 160,000 dollars in exchange of 20,000 gold coins in-game currency!
Although The Dominators was a sponsored guild and it was impossible for them to invest something with no return. Thus, these 20,000 Gold coins was paid by Humbly Gentlemen on his own so it was really made him miserable!
“It’s not anything like that” Humble Gentlemen forced a little smile and said, “We had an idea after trying the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode!”
“Oh?”
“Guild master Zhan Yu, I roughly understand the situation in your guild. There are only five people at or above Level 20 in your guild and at least three days are needed to make up a team of 20 members, each of them being Level 20 at least! In addition of that, a lot of equipment are also needed for the members before they are qualified to explore the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode!”
“With that said, do you have any good proposal?”
“He he, I did think of one!” Humbly Gentleman paused for a brief second and said, “The capabilities of the five of you are immense and I can gather another 10 guild members, fully equipped, who will be able to provide similar ability to the five of u. Isn’t it better if we work together to clear the Marzerway's Lair Hardcore Mode?”
Humbly Gentlemen was greatly unnerved as Sky High and Crimson Rage performed very well during the first clearance of Main Wing Hardcore Mode. Sky High and Crimson Rage were now in the fifth stage of Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode but The Dominators were still stuck in the third stage of Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode! If The Dominators continued being the way they are without searching for other solutions then they will surely lose the First Clear Achievement of Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode!
Humbly Gentlemen had given it deep thought at length, and he firmly believed that only Zhang Yang and his team would be able to help The Dominators win the First Clear Achievement Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode! Besides, he also knew that Zhan Yu was shorthanded for Marzerway's Lair Hardcore mode, and Humbly Gentlemen really needed a top professional player. With this combination, all of them will definitely be in a win-win situation!