Zhan Long

There were countless players around and in Ba Huang City. Outside in the forests, there were thousands if not tens of thousands of players fighting Vampire Bats and other monsters. Inside the city, there were countless players selling items.

A level 10 White trash-tier coat was selling for 5 Silver coins! I didn’t think anyone was going to buy that. After all, a coat with 5 defense really didn’t have many uses or retained its value, and money was so precious right now that one would’ve been better off buying some potions and raising one’s level.

There were quite a few people in front of the Pharmacies, Blacksmith Forges and Training Halls, but there wasn’t anyone on their way to the meet the lord of the city, other than me. It looked like everyone was busy trying gain an advantage over one another and weren’t planning to pay their respects to the lord.

…..

The blood red path to the city hall was guarded by soldiers wearing black armor that didn’t shine under sunlight. Inside the city hall was a sword-wielding general, the feudal lord of Ba Huang City. The Chinese server of only had three secondary cities and one main city, which meant he was one of the highest ranking officials in the Chinese sever.

I walked forward and courteously said: “My lord, I would like to become an adventurer for Ba Huang City…”

The lord who had a huge beard, with his hand on his sword, swept his eyes over me: “Young man, do you really want to become a member of Ba Huang? Are you willing to defend this city to your last breath?”

I nodded: “Yes”

“Good, come over here, you will now become a member of Ba Huang City.”

Paa. The lord’s hand, covered with a gauntlet, patted my shoulder. The strength that the hand used was far greater than my imagination. Under his pat, I winced at the pain in my shoulders but at the same time a familiar ringing sound rang beside my ear-

Ding!

System Notification: Congratulations, you have joined Ba Huang City as an adventurer and received the right to use recall scrolls for Ba Huang City. In addition, you have received Ba Huang City’s City badge – [Let the Blood Spill over Ba Huang] …

Shua!

A badge of a bloody battle knife appeared on my shoulder. I’m guessing that it was Ba Huang City’s unique badge. The badge granted a City Buff – [Let the Blood Spill Over Ba Huang]: Anyone who wore this badge would receive a 3% increase in attack and defense!

Hmph, choosing Ba Huang City as my home city had paid off. I wonder what effect the badges from Fan Shu City and Jiu Li City had. I would remember to ask Lin Wan Er and Dong Cheng Yue next time I saw them.

After registering as an adventurer of Ba Huang, I left the City Hall since there was nothing more to keep me there.

But right when I was about to leave the City’s gate to venture into the surrounding forest, a player yelled: “Buying a [Vampire Bat Illustration], I’ll pay good money for it!”

[Vampire Bat Illustration]?

I opened my inventory. Hmm, after killing more than 20 bats, I had found 2 illustrations. One, I used myself while the other one was sitting snugly in my inventory. Therefore, I went up to the player buying the illustration. He was about 20 years old, level 13 and his game ID was [New Moon Merchant Number 4].

I walked in front of him and asked: “My friend, why do you want to buy those illustrations?”

The merchant laughed: “It’s a business secret!”

“Is it really a secret? All you want to do is use the [Vampire Bat Illustrations] to catch some Vampire Bats and sell them as pets right?”

The merchant’s eyes narrowed: “Wuh? How’d you know?”

Now it was my turn to laugh: “Really? You thought that only you would think of that? Anyways, I have a [Vampire Bat Illustration], so how badly do you want it? If I think the price is right, I’ll sell it to you. If it’s not then I’ll just use it myself and catch some bats to sell. Then we’ll be competitors!”

As soon as he heard that I had an illustration, the merchant’s eyes lit up: “My good brother, do you really have the illustration? Our group of 30+ people has been killing Vampire Bats for 4 hours now and not even a single [Vampire Bat Illustration] has dropped! How good is your luck to have one already?”

I was shocked. Were the drop rates for the illustrations really that low? Was my luck really that good?

I took out the illustration and waved it in front of the merchant’s eyes: “Mm, you want this right?”

“Incredible, you really do have it. Brother, how much are you going to sell it for? Please, please sell it to me!”

“Make your offer!”

The merchant nodded and raised 5 fingers: “50 Copper Coins!”

I smirked: “Alright, I’ma go fight some monsters. Bye!”

“Wait, wait…” The merchant hurriedly tugged my sleeve: “Even if we can’t make a deal, we can still be friends right? Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. If you aren’t satisfied with this offer, we can still discuss it right?”

I smiled, the merchant took my bait. I also held up 5 fingers: “This price…”

“You don’t mean… 5 Silver Coins!?”

“Yes, 5 Silver Coins. You have 30+ people killing Blood Sucking Bats right now and each person should be able to get about 1 Silver Coin’s worth of drops in 1 hour. Your people should have made about 30 Silver Coins. Even though you guys have gotten 30 Silver Coins, none of you have a single Illustration. So the real question is, why am I not selling this illustration for 50 Silver Coins? But since this is our first time trading, I’ll leave the price at 5 Silver Coins, take it or leave it.”

The merchant whose face paled after my speech, immediately said: “Yes yes yes. I’ll take it. 5 Silver Coins right?”

After opening the trade window and trading with the merchant, my inventory was one [Vampire Bat Illustration] lighter and my purse was 5 Silver Coins heavier.

…

After selling the illustration, I immediately headed to the general store. After flipping through a couple pages in the catalog, I finally found what I was looking for before, when I looked through the recipes in [Alchemy] –

LV -1 [Grass Fruit Pill]: Recovers 50 mana.

Needs 3 Grass Fruits, 1 Empty Bottle

LV -2 [Silver Leaf Pill]: Recovers 100 mana.

Needs 4 Silver Leaf Herbs, 2 Refined Water, 1 Alchemy Furnace

LV -3 [Seven Star Pill]: Recovers 200 mana.

Needs 3 blades of Seven Star Herbs, 3 Refined Water, 1 Alchemy Furnace

…..

Both Alchemy Furnaces and Empty Bottles were single use items, which meant that they would be consumed after I created the pill. So I decided to buy 100 Empty Bottles because after refining 100 Grass Fruit Pills, I should be able to get to level 2 in [Alchemy] and at that point, there wasn’t much meaning in continuing to make Grass Fruit Pills. Each of the Empty Bottles cost 2 Copper Coins so the combined cost of the 100 Empty Bottles was 2 Silver Coins. The Alchemy Furnaces however cost 20 Copper Coins. The price was ten times the price of an Empty Bottle! After buying 10 Alchemy Furnaces, I switched my focus to Monster Seals, they were 1 Silver Coin each. I bought 2… and surprise! I was out money.

This time, I went out of the Eastern gate of Ba Huang City. In front of me was a sunny forest, Clear Rainforest. The rainforest, which surrounded Ba Huang City, had a variety of low level monsters. The majority of the monsters were small animals or bugs that wouldn’t cause much damage. It was the perfect place for level 10-20 players to raise their levels. It was also where I was about to make a lot of money!

I rushed into the rainforest, my feet crushing countless flowers and grass. My first goal was to collect Grass Fruits and raise my [Alchemy] skill to level 2. A level 1 Grass Fruit Pill can recover 50 mana which footed the mana for 5 uses of [Hemostasis] but the cooldown for the pills was 30 seconds which meant that I wouldn’t be able to use Hemostasis to its full potential (Author never says what the cd is on Hemostasis but from this it’s assumed to be less than 6 seconds).

Inside the forest, there were plenty of Grass Fruits lying around but before I could pick them, I had to kill the Vampire Bats that “guarded” these precious herbs. Whatever, the bats gave precious experience which was always welcomed.

Ka Cha! (Common sound effect in Chinese for beheadings)

The Vampire Bat that, moments ago, so valiantly rushed at me was now dead at my feet. With its death, a golden light shone over me, I was level 11!

Every time I fought a Vampire Bat, I would carefully check if it was a level 1 bat. If it was a level 1, I would have sealed it without hesitation. After all, no one had a pet at this stage and any pet, even a pet that had stupidly low stats like a Vampire Bat, would’ve sold for huge amounts.

Unfortunately, lady luck didn’t shine on me and no level 1 Vampire Bats appeared.

After an hour of collecting Grass Fruits, I found a quiet spot in the forest and began to refine the Grass Fruits into Grass Fruit Pills. After emptying my stock of Empty Bottles, my [Alchemy] skill had reached level 2!

…..

I stood up, taking a look at my status, I realized that I was level 12. Now that my [Alchemy] skill was level 2, the new goal would be to gather Silver Leaf Herbs, so that I could increase my [Alchemy] level even higher.

Even though I could see piles of fully grown Grass Fruits, I didn’t have any interest in the Grass Fruit now that my [Alchemy] skill was level 2. I slowly moved forward, carefully searching the ground for Silver Leaf Herbs. After searching for about 20 meters, I discovered the first batch of Silver Leaf Herbs. With a silver glow, they hid under shade of the surrounding trees. Unexpectedly, they were actually easier to find than I had imagined!

Without a worry in the world, I walked forward, smiling at my fortune. But right when I was about to collect the Silver Leaf Herbs, a bird’s screech sounded above me, and suddenly a silvery light dived towards me.

Puuu!

Blood sprouted from my forehead, a sneak attack!

“71!”

The treacherous attacker? A bird that was clad in silver. Even though its body was very small, the damage dealt to me was proof that its attacks were exceptionally ferocious. Its beak, which looked like it was plated in silver, made me wince just by looking at it –

[ Silver Feathered Bird ] (Ordinary Monster )

Level: 15

Attack: 55-80

Defense: 19

Health points : 550

Skills: [Silver Feather Strike] Description: The Silver Feathered Bird is one of Clear Rain Forest guardians. These metallic birds have an outlandish speed and extremely strong penetration attacks. Their persistence in guarding the Silver Leaf Herbs make countless herb pickers curse and hate them.

……

Quickly snapping out of my trance, I slashed at the Silver Feathered Bird, striking it in its flight and causing 112 points of damage. I realized that even though the bird’s offensive power was quite high, its defense was insufficient, which meant that while it could kill quickly, it could also get killed quickly.

Jie Jie!

After the Silver Feathered Bird was hit, it chirped angrily and quickly rushed at me twice. The damage and pain from its attacks were on a level that I had never experienced before, even while fighting the Bramble Thorn Bear King. I had to use 3 consecutive [Hemostasis]es for me to barely stay alive. Luckily, I was a sword practicing healer. For a common swordsman with my level and equipment, even having 2 lives would’ve been insufficient for him to kill a Silver Feathered Bird.

Puu!

I thrust my sword. It caught the Silver Feathered Bird’s body squarely and took away the final slivers of its health.

Paa Ta!

A pile of Copper Coins dropped on the ground. Wow, there were 11 Copper Coins. These level 15 monsters were perfect for leveling. They gave a generous amount of money and a decent amount of experience.

……

After placing the Copper Coins in my purse, I squatted down and started to collect the Silver Leaf Herbs. After finishing, I ventured further into the forest.

This time, because of my scary encounter earlier with the Silver Feathered Bird, I searched for Silver Feathered Birds each time I saw a Silver Leaf Herb. If two Silver Feathered Birds attacked me at once, I would’ve died without a doubt. My life was definitely more important than a Silver Leaf Herb.

After half an hour of searching, fighting and collecting, the sky had turned dark. It had become night in the game!

I looked up, appreciating the intricacy of the game when suddenly a silver flash appeared between the trees Oh great, another Silver Feathered Bird. But when I looked at the Silver Feathered Bird’s level, I involuntarily shuddered, it was a level 1 sealable Silver Feathered Bird!

[Silver Feathered Bird] Level: 1

Description: Sealable