NOVPUBChapter 102: Chapter 104 Trading and Forging_1
Chapter 102 -104 Trading and Forging_1
[You approached and touched the ‘Book of the Craftsman’, triggering a resonance between your weakly-wandering soul and the book.]
[You are now able to use the forging function of the ‘Book of the Craftsman’.]
The forging process in the game includes manufacturing, reinforcing, enchanting, repairing, dismantling, and so on.
The ‘Heavy Metal Plate Armor’ and ‘Bio-Nano Armor’ in your item slot are both damaged.
Lin Xun tries to click on the repair button to see how many soul points are required to repair the equipment.
The result showed that it would cost 80 soul points to repair the Heavy Metal Plate Armor, which was quite cheap.
To repair the Bio-Nano Armor, however, would cost an astounding 1600 soul points.
“This is outrageous!”
Lin Xun was left exasperated by the game’s rigid rules.
If it costs this much to repair rare equipment, wouldn’t the selling price be sky-high?
He subsequently opens the shell tab, where the Law Knight’s shell has already been remodeled in the day.
Seeing that his soul strength had just recovered in the evening, he decided to remodel the Blacksmith’s shell without any hesitation.
[You have possessed the shell of the ‘Forsaken Blacksmith’.]
The blacksmith’s forging skills are limited, and the ‘Master Forging Skills’ can only be effective on equipment of the Epic level and below.
Fortunately, one of the two pieces of equipment is at the Ordinary+ level, and the other is at the Rare level.
Using the blacksmith’s ability to work on repairing both pieces of equipment.
[You used the ‘Master Forging Skills’ to repair the ‘Heavy Metal Plate Armor’…]
[You’re missing the required repair materials —— 2 ‘Cast Iron Blocks’.]
[You used the ‘Master Forging Skill’ to repair the ‘Bio-Nano Armor’…]
[You’re missing the required repair materials —— 1 ‘Micro-Nano Robot Pack’, 1 ‘Honeycomb Tantalum Titanium Alloy Exoskeleton’.]
The good news is that the blacksmith surprisingly has the skill level of a scientist and can repair high-tech equipment.
The bad news is that both pieces of equipment need specific materials for repair.
Lin Xun gives it some thought and then clicks on the ‘Book of Trade’.
[You approached and touched the ‘Book of Trade’, triggering a resonance between your weakly-wandering soul and the book.]
[You are now able to use the ‘Book of Trade’s trading function.]
[As you are currently in the third chapter of difficulty, the ‘Book of Trade’ will only display items at or below this difficulty.]
The in-game trade function has its limitations. For example, in Lin Xun’s case, playing at the third difficulty level, he cannot purchase equipment or items from the fourth difficulty level.
However, rules are dead, but humans are alive.
One of the advantages of being an official apostle is evident here.
There’s a large section on the Apostle Forum called ‘Item Requests and Trades’, where you can perform offline transactions via the forum to bypass the game’s limitations.
All registered apostles are entitled to this privilege.
Offline trades do carry some risks, so if apostles want to trade but don’t wish to take on such risks, they can ask for official intervention.
The supervision team of the Apostle Council steps in to act as a middleman. The two apostles involved can complete the transaction without having to meet face to face.
Of course, this intermediary service comes with a fee…
But as an official Apostle, Lin Xun is not charged an internal handling fee and can enjoy this service for free.
After clicking on the ‘Book of Trade’, a slew of text pops up.
There are many categories of items including equipment, props, materials, scraps, special items, special souls, and so on.
The game conveniently provides search, filter, and sort functions, which is a blessing for big spenders.
Lin Xun starts to browse the in-game equipment prices.
Ruined equipment can be considered worthless.
Common and Excellent levels of equipment range from a few hundred to four or five thousand soul points, which is reasonable.
However, once it gets to a Rare+ level of equipment, prices start to skyrocket.
Moreover, Lin Xun noticed that weapon prices are generally higher than those of armor.
In the entire trading panel, there is a decent amount of Rare level equipment, but there are only a few Epic level pieces, and their prices are outrageous.
Lin Xun tried to put the ‘Yellow Bishop’s Robe’, a Rare+ level robe, on the ‘Book of Trade’.
The game suggested a price of 25,000 soul points and asked whether he wanted to list it at this price or adjust it.
Lin Xun blinked his eyes, feeling as if he had hit the jackpot overnight.
He then clicked on ‘No’.
Next, he tried to put his most awesome ‘Thunder Dragon Staff Spear’ up for sale, and the game gave an outrageous price immediately.
Lin Xun had to count the zeroes several times to confirm that 170,000 soul points was the correct number and not a system bug.
You must understand that he only had about 27,000 soul points in total at the moment, and that already included all his soul point items.
“It seems the drop rate of equipment in this game is pitifully low.”
The soul points that Lin Xun had accumulated from the three difficulty chapters were enough to buy only one piece of Rare+ level armor. If he wanted to buy a weapon, he would need to add another ten or twenty thousand.
In the game, elite monsters and bosses generally drop soul points, but seldom drop equipment, which leads to persistently high equipment prices.
Lin Xun searches for the materials he needs, and the text display shows the results immediately.
The materials he needs are all available, and they cost slightly less than the repair fees.
Moreover, next to the price of each material, the game provides an estimated price and rating, so there’s no need to worry about getting scammed.
Lin Xun considers that the Ordinary+ level Plate Armor is too lousy, as the Bio-Nano Armor can completely replace it.
He decides to only repair the ‘Bio-Nano Armor’.
He spends 1200 soul points to purchase the two required repair materials.
The blacksmith starts to hammer away at the repairs.
[You successfully repaired the ‘Bio-Nano Armor’!]
“Great, it would’ve cost 1600 soul points to repair this at the ‘Book of the Craftsman’, but now I’ve only spent 1200, saving a total of 400 soul points.”
Lin Xun adheres to the tradition of being a man who values precision and thrift, equating to an effective householder.
He returns to the ‘Book of the Craftsman’, clicks on the ‘craft’ option, and then selects ‘make’.
[Do you want to manufacture equipment for the current shell?]
The ‘Book of the Craftsman’ customizes the manufacturing service according to shell needs and lets the apostle choose the equipment type before finally manufacturing a blind box.
Lin Xun chooses the Earth Giant’s shell and then selects ‘weapon’ from the list of various equipment types.
[Based on your current materials, a manufacturing blueprint is being generated…]
[‘Primitive Ancient Tree Giant Branch’+ ‘Subspecies Dragon Tooth’+ ‘Black Giant Worm Fang’+ ‘Wolfhound Fang’ + ‘Advanced Regulatory Magic Array Chart’ (which you do not yet possess)]
[Based on the above materials, plus 20,000 soul points, you can manufacture a weapon suitable for this shell. The quality of the manufactured weapon will be ‘Epic Level’.]
“The manufacturing cost is 20,000? That’s daylight robbery!”
At this moment, Lin Xun wishes more than anything that the blacksmith could forge Epic level equipment.
As he is unable to manufacture due to lack of one of the materials, he heads to the ‘Book of Trade’ to check.
Fortunately, the item called ‘Advance Regulatory Magic Array Chart’ is available for sale.
However, there are only two pieces in the trading panel, one is priced at 13,000, and the other at 12,000.
Seeing the game’s estimated price is 11,000, and the rating indicates this is an Epic level material,
Lin Xun intended to save a thousand, but the ‘Book of Trade’ doesn’t support haggling with the seller. The listed price is the selling price.
He felt rather vexed as he would need to spend 12,000 on buying the material, plus a further 20,000 for labor costs, to have the equipment made.
That totals 32,000 soul points, which leaves him with a shortfall of 6,000.
“Do I have to sell equipment for soul points?”
Lin Xun rubbed his temples while browsing through the items in the ‘Book of Trade’.
Suddenly, an item called the ‘Scroll of Forging Skill Enhancement’ caught his attention.
