novelraw Chapter 200-2: Soul Secrets – The Fire Never Dies, the Chain Blade Calls to the Underworld (2)
Chapter 200-2: Soul Secrets – The Fire Never Dies, the Chain Blade Calls to the Underworld (2)
In the game, weapons were always worth far more than armor, sometimes one or two times as expensive, even for gear of the same tier…
For a moment, he even entertained the idea of using the blacksmith to craft equipment for others and turn a profit.
As far as he knew, no Apostle within the organization had acquired forging skills, since the cursed game’s restrictions prevented anyone from obtaining a shell similar to a blacksmith.
“It’s just that, if I want to do this, I’d have to get other Apostles to hand me their blueprints and extremely valuable materials so the blacksmith can forge.”
“That would require the organization to act as a guarantor… Right now, I’m still a small fry. Such a lucrative business is bound to draw attention. If there’s a New World mole in the organization, exposing myself could be disastrous.”
After much hesitation, Lin Xun ultimately gave up on this tempting idea.
There were safer ways to make money…
The day the New World held its Offering Ritual was fast approaching, and he would soon become Wen City’s proxy agent. When that time came, lining his pockets would be effortless.
After snagging the weapon blueprint for free, he headed straight to the Book of Trade.
If he could find a skill book to improve the blacksmith’s forging technique, he might avoid paying the forging fee again.Unfortunately, this time he was likely to fail in mooching…
Lin Xun searched the Book of Trade for quite a while but couldn’t find any skill book of the sort. There were only a few extremely low-quality Forging Technique Enhancement Scrolls sitting there unsold.
“Well, of course. These enhancement scrolls only strengthen skills you’ve already learned. They’re useless to Apostles, so no one buys them, makes sense. At best, they’re just gifts for NPCs…”
“Looks like if I want to craft the weapon, I’ll have to pay the forging fee…”
He searched for the forging material Umbilical Cord of the Molten Mountain Phantom.
There were only a handful of such materials listed in the Book of Trade, with the lowest asking price at 140,000 Spirit Essence.
Lin Xun considered briefly, then bought it.
His inventory still contained a mountain of useless equipment. The highest-quality among them were the Rare+ grade weapon and robe of the Grand Scholar; the rest was trash belonging to Bachelors and Scholars.
As for the Epic-grade Stored Spell Treasure Ring, it was far too useful, Lin Xun had no intention of selling it.
He tried putting the Grand Scholar’s Advanced Spellcasting Ring and Association Grand Scholar Robe up on the Book of Trade.
The cursed game suggested a price of 30,000 and 10,000 respectively, a bit below what he’d expected.
As an Apostle about to enter fifth difficulty, a ‘veteran,’ in a sense, Lin Xun already knew the general market value of low-grade gear.
Rare+ weapons topped out around 50,000. Thirty thousand was the lowest going rate.
“These two pieces aren’t bad at all, and a mage’s gear is usually pricier than a warrior’s. Why is the valuation this low…”
He glanced at the detailed description of the two items and instantly understood.
Both pieces granted bonuses and resistances tied to knowledge-type skills, in other words, they were exclusive equipment for the World of Omniscience.
In other game chapters without any knowledge-type skills, their practical use dropped dramatically, so their low price made sense.
He simply put all the surplus equipment he carried up for sale.
“I’m about to be ripped off by this cursed game anyway, selling some gear to get a bit of my Spirit Essence back isn’t unreasonable, is it?”
If every piece sold at the listed price, he would rake in nearly 120,000 Spirit Essence.
He returned to the Book of Craftsmen and paid the Spirit Essence to craft the weapon.
[Crafting equipment…]
[Equipment crafting successful!]
Unlike the blacksmith’s hammering process, the Book of Craftsmen’s forging function instantly displayed success.
[You have obtained Chain Blade – Call of the Underworld (Epic+ grade weapon)!]
[Chain Blade – Call of the Underworld (Epic+ grade weapon): Forged with the Corrosive Spine of the Stinger Serpent and the Legendary Thunderbeast Mammoth’s Tusk as the blade, infused with the essence of the Multicolored Poison Powder Gland and Star Bone Corrosive Acid Sac. The bone-and-flesh chains intertwining the Overlord Behemoth’s Tentacle and the Blackthorn Demon’s Spine form a mighty weapon imbued with exceptionally potent corrosive toxins.]
[An unusual power refined from the Overlord Behemoth’s Tentacle grants this chain blade incredible mystical abilities.]
[Equipment Trait – Serpent’s Touch: These paired chain blades are exceedingly difficult to wield as a set. However, the bone-and-flesh chain connecting their hilts contains a twisted instinctive awareness that helps the wielder perfectly adapt to the weapon.]
[When the bone-and-flesh chain bears an irresistible pulling force, it will not break. The instinctive awareness will autonomously retract the chain blade.]
[The Umbilical Cord of the Molten Mountain Phantom grants this weapon two forms.]
[The first is the Chain Blade form, in which the chain’s ends root into the user’s forearms. If the shell possesses a toxic bloodline, this weapon’s attack power is increased.]
[The second is the Call of the Underworld form. When the shell uses a transformation-type skill, the chain blade transforms into the Call of the Underworld, rooting itself into the user’s back and becoming a chained ballista.]
Lin Xun was left utterly dumbstruck.
This enormous block of weapon description contained only one thing he could read between the lines, utterly overpowered.
If the Epic+ grade label on the weapon had been covered up and he were asked to guess its quality, he would definitely have thought this weapon was of Legendary grade.
Lin Xun hurriedly placed the weapon onto the Book of Trade to see how the cursed game would appraise it.
The cursed game directly offered a top-end suggested price of one million Spirit Essence for an Epic+ weapon.
“In other words, if I put the chain blade up in the auction channel or sold it within the organization, the price would rise by a huge margin…”
“Damn! I am absolutely becoming a blacksmith! Not even Jesus himself could stop me, I swear!”
Lin Xun uncharacteristically cursed aloud.
He lit a cigarette and took quite a while to calm down.
To become a proper blacksmith, the Corrupted Blacksmith in his shell slots was obviously not up to the task.
His top priority was still to find a powerful blacksmith shell so he could realize his grand ambitions.
He moved the weapon into the Primordial Hermit’s equipment slot.
[You have equipped Chain Blade – Call of the Underworld (Epic+ grade weapon)!]
[You have grown stronger!]
The Hermit shell’s compatibility was at 83%. If he could raise his soul talent by two more levels, the compatibility would exceed 100%, and without even devouring a dragon bloodline, this shell would be on par in quality with the Earth Giant and the President of the Direct Vision Association.
If he could find a dragon race in future chapters, this shell’s potential would be limitless.
Lin Xun opened his inventory. The Aberration’s Newborn Egg was still being digested and had yet to yield any divinity.
The remaining materials were the Source of Crystal, Lubricating Slime of the Child of the Stars, Star-Embellished Carapace, and Legendary Thunderbeast Mammoth’s Chitin Carapace.
The Book of Craftsmen indicated these materials were more suited for crafting armor, but their quantity was insufficient for forging.
It recommended collecting more materials before proceeding to craft equipment.
Among them, the Child of the Stars materials were of excessively high quality, while the Source of Crystal was too low in grade to be used in forging. (The Source of Crystal was dropped by the Crystal Golem in the tomb of the Assassin Master Ezio, in the Blood Sun World.)
Lin Xun thought it over and decided there was no rush to craft armor.
Even the weakest divine beings, like the Child of the Stars drained of power, would drop divine-grade materials. It was perfectly reasonable that they couldn’t be forged together with mundane materials.
His inventory also contained the Dried Spirit Essence of the Child of the Stars, which could be used for equipment awakening, a perfect pairing with that material.
He still had over five hundred thousand Spirit Essence on hand, so naturally he intended to spend liberally to strengthen himself.
He casually listed the low-quality Source of Crystal for sale as well.
In just a few chapters, a new instance would begin. Thinking about it, he couldn’t help feeling a bit excited.