Godly Hunter

Greedy NPC

"[Red Tide] Recruiting brothers-in-arms willing to stick together through thick and thin!"

"[Spinach Alliance] is recruiting pros! We have 22 members, all with excellent reflexes and gameplay awareness. Come for an interview if you want to expand your horizons!"

"[FFF Squad] recruiting members! Those with girlfriends can get lost!"

… … …

Chen Mo passed a building in decent condition and saw a mass of players shouting their offers.

This was Shadow City Guild Hall. Setting up a guild, joining a guild and accepting guild quests were all done here.

"Bro, do you want to join our guild? Flying Feather Guild is different from the other rubbish guilds out there. We are strict in our recruitment requirements and only accept pros. Our guild is very prosperous!" A young man saw Chen Mo and his eyes lit up before he quickly walked to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo had hidden the glow of his equipment but this young man could still tell that his equipment set was quite rare.

"I'm sorry, I've already promised my friend I'd join his guild." Chen Mo rejected the offer.

When the young man heard Chen Mo's words, he gave up on recruiting him. He knew it was not easy to get pros to join and he had planned to try to convince Chen Mo but if Chen Mo had already promised his friend, nothing he said could convince him.

Chen Mo did not linger but he found that all the guilds recruiting had strict requirements. The candidates had to have either very good equipment or excellent gameplay awareness and reflexes. The guilds did not want ordinary players at all.

It was easy to understand why their requirements were so high.

Setting up a guild in GENESIS was very different from other games. A freshly-made guild can only have 30 members. If the guild wanted to level up, its members needed to go out beyond the city walls and unlock zones to get Guild Points.

A guild needed just 10 Guild Points to get from Level One to Level Two. However, the total number of Level Two guilds in the entire game had not gone above 10 yet.

The monsters outside were too strong, making unlocking zones very difficult.

The wilderness outside the city had been divided into zones by the system. These yet-to-be-unlocked zones were enveloped by a white fog, which severely limited one's visual field, even during the day.

In each of these locked zones was a small magical formation. When a player finds this magical formation, he can unleash the Elite monster of the zone.

Zone Elite monsters were very powerful and had different battle settings from normal monsters. Only the player who unleashed it and his present party members or guild mates could attack it. If others attacked it, they would not be able to harm it. Conversely, their attacks would make the Zone Elite Monster become even stronger.

Being strong didn't mean that you could kill the Zone Elite Monsters either. You needed to gather Cursed Blood from the smaller monsters in the same zone to kill the Zone Elite Monster.

Cursed Blood was a special item. There was a small chance of it dropping from monsters in the locked zones but every zone required different Cursed Blood. The Cursed Blood was also untradeable and cannot be stored. Furthermore, the Cursed Blood dropped during the day would be returned to the system every night at midnight.

This was why unlocking zones was very difficult. You needed luck on top of strength.

On the other hand, if you managed to unlock a zone you would reap quite a few rewards.

Other than earning Guild Points, all guild members would receive a large amount of EXP. Depending on the difficulty level of the zone, every person could also receive a piece of Blue Grade or Green Grade equipment, and Prestige was sometimes awarded too.

Of course, maps could be unlocked too but there were not many maps in GENESIS and it was not as simple to unlock them.

Naturally, it was tough to level up a guild when unlocking zones was so difficult. That was why the guilds that had been formed did not want any useless members. It cost 10 gold coins to make a guild and this was not a small sum.

Chen Mo went about learning some secondary and supplementary skills as he familiarised himself with Shadow City's layout.

Investigate, Harvesting, Skinning, Medicine brewing, Fishing, Sewing, Casting, Alchemy, Cooking - the list went on. There was no limit on what supplementary skills players could learn; you just needed five silver coins.

There were many players who did what Chen Mo did but they quickly found that it was tough enough to hone one skill till it became moderately useful. Levelling up several skills at the same time was almost impossible.

All the secondary skills used up Strength. Investigate, Harvesting and other supplementary skills used just a little Strength. Skills which produced items like Medicine brewing and Cooking used up a lot of Strength. Every player's Strength was limited so once it was all used up, the player had to rest and recover.

Most people learnt Investigate, Harvesting, Skinning and Cooking - skills that did not take much time and made things more convenient for themselves.

Chen Mo had no intention of levelling up his supplementary skills; he only wanted them in case he had need of them.

However, not all secondary skills could be learnt so easily. A player on the forums had shared that the Jewellery Shop boss in the three main cities would teach you a special skill after you talk to him and bribe him with one gold coin.

Chen Mo was curious, so he went to the Jewellery Shop.

"Boss, why are these lousy jewellery pieces so expensive?"

"Yeah, it's ridiculous!"

Before he could enter the shop, Chen Mo heard some players complaining.

When he entered the shop to take a look, he was struck dumb.

There were several pieces on jewellery in the shop but Level 13 White Grade Jewellery already cost 108 silver coins. The pieces of Blue Grade jewellery were 588 silver coins each. There were only five Green Grade pieces and those were 18 gold coins each. The single Purple Grade Jewellery had a price tag of 188 gold coins.

You call this doing business? More like daylight robbery!

Players fresh from the beginner villages usually had just a few silver coins. Between players, the prices of equipment depended on the attributes. White Grade was a few to a few tens of silver coins; Blue Grade was 10+ to tens of silver coins; Green Grade five gold coins or thereabouts; Purple Grade prices depended on where you looked for them and market prices.

"Scram! Don't bother me, you penniless beggars! Don't buy if you don't have money!" The Jewellery Shop boss was a fat and balding middle-aged man. He glared fiercely at players who complained.

"Damn it, let's kill this guy if we get the chance!"

The group of players were very offended at being scolded by an NPC, but they did not dare to act rashly. They could only curse him in their hearts.

This was the main city and City Guards patrolled the area. Attacking an NPC was like courting death.

Chen Mo found it surprising how the main city NPC, when compared to the beginner village NPC, seemed so much more human-like.

The group of players left and Chen Mo stepped forward.

"Boss Boboa, I hear you know a very special skill. Can you teach it to me?" Chen Mo spoke quietly.

"Get lo- No, no such thing. Don't listen to gossip!" Boboa was about to scold Chen Mo too but when he saw him, he paused and stopped mid-word.

Chen Mo found it a little odd. This dialogue was not the same as what he had expected. Maybe this was due to his favour points?

He had 15 human favour points and 10 honour points on top of that. Boboa's attitude change could be because of these two attributes.

"Don't worry, Boss Boboa. I will not tell anyone. Here, this is a token of my respect!" Chen Mo slid a gold coin over to Boboa.

Boboa's eyes lit up right away when he saw the gold coin. He swiftly picked it up and whispered, "The teaching of this skill has been banned but I'll teach you since you're so sincere. Remember - learning this skill has nothing to do with me!"

System prompt: You have learnt the skill "Decomposition" from Boboa!

Decomposition (Novice level): Break down equipment into one or several types of materials for refining.

That's right. The skill you could get from Boboa was the pain-in-the-ass skill "Decomposition".

This was not a secret on the forums but not many were willing to spend one gold coin to learn a skill like this.

The materials which you could get using this skill were too basic and not even enough to make 10% of the equipment you decomposed. Equipment was so expensive and decomposing one meant losing one - there was no making money on this.

Chen Mo did not use Decomposition after learning it. However, his main purpose in coming here was not to learn Decomposition.