Chapter 679 - The Weapon that Ended an Era
Inside an Advanced Forging Room of the Candlelight Trading Firm:
Under Melancholic Smile’s instructions, the Candlelight Trading Firm’s most skilled Alchemist and Engineer immediately made their way to Shi Feng’s forging room.
“Take a look at these for now, and tell me how confident you are at manufacturing these items,” Shi Feng said. He then passed two separate designs to the Alchemist Nine Coasts and the Engineer Ocean Smile.
The two people hurriedly nodded in response, not daring to act sloppily at all before Shi Feng.
Nine Coasts was the only Intermediate Alchemist of the Candlelight Trading Firm, whereas Ocean Smile was the only Intermediate Engineer of the Trading Firm. In the past, both these people had boasted great achievements and had managed to set foot into the realm of Masters.
Back then, even Shi Feng, the Guild Leader of a second-rate Guild, had to treat them with great respect.
Yet, now, these two people were very nervous while conversing with him. There was no hint of the arrogance they usually displayed when dealing with other Lifestyle players within the Firm. They were just like two obedient little kittens as they earnestly studied the designs Shi Feng had passed to them.
However, this reaction of theirs was unavoidable. Black Flame was simply too preeminent.
In the entire Star-Moon Kingdom, not a single person did not know about Black Flame. He was a great character standing at the peak of Star-Moon Kingdom. But at this very moment, such a great character was actually standing right before them and was asking the both of them to perform a task for him. How could they not get flustered?
After the two nervously studied the designs, surprise surfaced in their eyes. The designs Shi Feng had passed to them were just too frightening.
“Guild Leader, with how complicated this alchemy array is, even I have only around a 10% certainty of manufacturing it. If I can advance to an Advanced Alchemist, I might be able to raise the success rate to…20%?” Nine Coasts said anxiously.
“What about you?” Shi Feng turned to look at the Engineer, Ocean Smile.
Ocean Smile stuttered, “F-Five…percent…”
“Five percent, is it?” Shi Feng frowned slightly.
When Ocean Smile saw such a reaction from Shi Feng, he nearly collapsed on the spot.
After some pondering, Shi Feng still gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, then. From now on, I’ll permit you two to use the Special Forging Rooms continuously, so focus all your attention on producing these items.”
The designs he had taken out were actually parts of the Magic Device Design that he had obtained from the Dark Shrine.
As the weapon that ended the era of Demons and Gods, the difficulty of manufacturing it was extraordinary. Normally, even Master-level characters had low success rates in fabricating the components of the Magic Device, what more of individuals who were not Masters?
Meanwhile, he was responsible for producing the Magic Device’s core component. However, with his current standard as an Intermediate Forger, manufacturing it was still beyond him.
“I need to raise my Proficiency.” Shi Feng could not help but sigh as he looked at the design, which comprised over twenty pages. “Sure enough, a Magic Device isn’t that easy to produce.”
However, without a Magic Device, he did not dare to travel to the Top of the World.
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The outer area of the Stoneclaw Mountains:
In a forested valley surrounded by mountains, lights from Spells, sparks, and Light Stones were visible in the vicinity.
Ever since Stone Forest Town opened to the public, the Stoneclaw Mountains had become the hunting grounds of expert teams. Even in the dead of night, the number of teams passionately grinding in the Regional Dungeon did not decrease in the slightest.
The various teams were grinding for Magic Crystals and equipment day in and day out.
Magic Crystal was the standard currency used at the Divine Colosseum. Since the Stoneclaw Mountains was a Level 30 to Level 49 Regional Dungeon, the equipment that the monsters inside dropped naturally ranged between Level 30 to Level 45. Moreover, the quality of the equipment dropped at the Stoneclaw Mountains was just slightly inferior to those dropped in large-scale Team Dungeons. Only, the amount of equipment that a Boss inside the Stoneclaw Mountains dropped each time was very small.
Now that Zero Wing had claimed the fame of clearing a Level 30, 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeon, there was no longer any point in Guilds competing over the First Clears of other Level 30, 100-man Team Dungeons. Shifting their attention to competing over Team Dungeons that were over Level 30 was more beneficial.
After all, reaching Level 30 was only a small milestone for players, and Zero Wing had merely gained a little advantage from this achievement. There were still milestones at Level 40 and Level 50. Hundreds of Levels awaited them. The competition over Level 30 large-scale Team Dungeons was just the beginning.
Meanwhile, the Stoneclaw Mountains was the best location for training and preparing to compete for the First Clears of future large-scale Team Dungeons. Not only could they level up quickly at this place, but they could also gain a hefty amount of Magic Crystals. Most importantly, they could obtain a lot of high-level equipment here in short order.
Setting aside the fact that Team Dungeons in the outside world had Cooldown times, which greatly restricted the production volume of top-tier equipment, players also took time to adjust when switching from one Team Dungeon to another. Players would waste a lot of time when going through this transition. However, Regional Dungeons were different. These had no Cooldown time for entry. As long as one had sufficient strength, they could come here to grind for Level 30 or above top-tier equipment at any time. It was very efficient.
Guilds could build up a massive advantage for raiding 50-man and 100-man Team Dungeons in the future.
Precisely because of this reason, various large Guilds had frantically dispatched their members to the Stoneclaw Mountains.
“Boss, this Lord dropped something,” the Star Alliance Assassin responsible for picking up the loot said excitedly.
Meanwhile, the Lord lying beside this Assassin was a Level 35 Half-orc over three meters tall. Scattered around this Half-orc were many Elite Half-orc and Special Elite Half-Orc corpses, their total number exceeding 100.
When Red Feather, who was resting underneath a large tree, heard the Assassin’s words, joy surfaced on his face.
“Bring it here and let me take a look at it,” Red Feather said hurriedly.
Although the Stoneclaw Mountains would drop plenty of Level 30 and above equipment, most of these were Level 30 Common Equipment.
“Boss, this is a Level 35 Fine-Gold longbow.” The Assassin passed the weapon to Red Feather excitedly.
“It’s a really good bow. It’s slightly better than a Level 30 Dark-Gold longbow. Willow has lucked out this time. As long as she reaches Level 35, she can immediately replace her current weapon,” Red Feather said enviously after appraising the Attributes of the longbow.
He and his team had been grinding in the Stoneclaw Mountains for quite some time now. However, the loot of the Bosses they killed was far from ideal. The majority of the Bosses dropped only Level 30 Secret-Silver and Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment. Very rarely would they drop Level 35 Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment.
“However, we wasted a lot of time on this battle. If not for the majority of our team’s weapons being Fine-Gold rank, fighting these monsters might even have been dangerous.” Red Feather still felt somewhat fearful when he thought back to the battle just now.
The monsters of the Stoneclaw Mountains were generally stronger than the monsters found outside. The Chieftains were only somewhat weaker than the Lords of the outside world. The Lords here were even more powerful; in terms of combat power, they could rival even the High Lords of the outside world. Only their HPs were at normal standards.
As for the Level 35 Lord ranked Half-orc their team faced just now, most of their melee weapons failed to even scratch the Lord. Only Fine-Gold Weapons or above could cut through the tough skin of the Half-orc Lord and chip away at its combat power.
In fact, Red Feather’s team wasn’t the only one experiencing such headaches. Any team that came to grind in the Stoneclaw Mountains found themselves facing similar problems. Every battle in the Regional Dungeon would greatly exhaust a team. Players who used Secret-Silver Weapons were even forced to use Whetstones to recover their weapon’s Durability after fighting just one battle. Otherwise, their weapons were sure to break in the next engagement. As a result, the teams in the Stoneclaw Mountains could not fight continuously over long periods of time.
“Boss Red, Elder Purple Eye’s team has encountered one Lord and six Chieftains. They are in urgent need of backup right now.”
“Purple Eye’s team is too unlucky to have actually encountered so many monsters. Everyone, follow me immediately.”
Shortly after Red Feather’s team began resting, Purple Eye, who was also one of the Star Alliance’s top combatants, sent a request for help. Red Feather had no choice but to respond. Even if the standard of Purple Eye’s team was very high, there was no way her 100-man team could take on the equivalent of one High Lord and six Lords of the outside world simultaneously. Not to mention, there should also be plenty of Elite and Special Elite monsters.
However, the problem plaguing the various teams was actually making the Candlelight Trading Firm in Stone Forest Town a fortune. Whether it was Whetstones or Advanced Whetstones, none of the Guilds had initially planned to purchase these items from the Candlelight Trading Firm. However, the consumption of these items was simply too voracious. Their own production was insufficient. Hence, the Guilds had no choice but to purchase these items from the Candlelight Trading Firm.
Due to this reason, the entire Candlelight Trading Firm was extremely busy since several hundred Whetstones might sell at any given minute.
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Meanwhile, during the time the various Guilds were scrambling over the Stoneclaw Mountains, Shi Feng cooped himself up inside a Special Forging Room, frantically producing Intermediate Mana Armor Kits and continuously increasing his Forging Proficiency.
For four whole days, Shi Feng did not sleep or rest, spending all that time madly raising his Proficiency. He only stopped when the sound of a system notification entered his ears.
Meanwhile, Shi Feng’s Level had also increased rapidly during this period. At this moment, he had already reached Level 32. His leveling speed simply left one speechless.