The Almighty Ring

When Jiang Fei nodded his head ever so earnestly, Rosette Rose turned her back for a split second and rolled her eyes. If she had known Jiang Fei to be a man of sound reason, she would not have resorted to such un-ladylike behavior!

It was just another one of her tricks that she picked up after years of conducting business. Since childhood, she had been taught to weigh the effort and benefits. If it paid off, no place was too low for her to stoop. On the other end of the spectrum, Jiang Fei had been raised in an average family. Men at his age would choose honor and glory over benefits!

From Jiang Fei’s perspective, Rosette Rose was there to help him when he needed help the most. She had accepted him into the guild and had supported his heavy investments without second-guessing his decision.

Jiang Fei felt greatly indebted to her, so of course, he would return the favor. Like Rose herself, Jiang Fei was playing the game, not for the benefits in the game, but to take out most of the items from the game into the real world to complete his dream of becoming superman! He was, truthfully, not interested in any benefits in the game!

Both parties came from different backgrounds, so they viewed the same subject very differently. As it was, they eventually ended up at the same spot. Jiang Fei was happy, and so was Rosette Rose. Jiang Fei felt like he was making use of the girls, as he thought they were attracted to him. Rosette Rose needed him for his equipment crafting skills and had gotten him to stay in the guild.

“Alright. Now that everything is said and done. We are now a family. So tell us brother, what is your secret?’ said Rosette Rose. There must be a reason behind his high Luck and the ability to constantly produce Ascended equipment.

“Yea! Cutey brother! Do tell!” said Miaomiao, ensuring that Jiang Fei’s arm sank into her chest.

Jiang Fei fidgeted a little and thought up of a fake excuse.

“Erhm… It’s nothing really. Back in Beginner’s Village, I found and completed a hidden quest. As a reward, I obtained some Luck attribute and an additional skill. Every day, whenever I craft any Green tier equipment, the first 100 equipment would have a 100% chance of gaining an extra skill!”

Jiang Fei decided to fake a story and “blame” it on a hidden quest. He would never reveal the secrets of the ring. Once word got out, there was no way for him to hide it. Might as well tell them that the source of his “magnificent” power was a reward for a hidden quest.

“Ahh. I see. Now I understand why in the world you would choose Crafting.” Rose exclaimed. Jiang Fei’s “excuses” was actually dead on one of her many hypotheses of why Jiang Fei would end up being a Blacksmith. It was only natural, she thought, as she would have taken the same path if she had been in his shoes.

“Nishishishi! What did I tell you, Sister Xue! I found a big treasure trove! Sister Xue! How are you going to reward me? Nishishishi!”

Rosette Miaomiao had not idea just how important Jiang Fei was as a player. She knew he was special, but the grand scale of which eluded her little world. However, that did not stop her from demanding something from Sister Xue.

“Okay okay…” said Rose as she patted her head.

“I guess that you are the main protagonist in this scenario. Hmm… I remember you liking my limited edition bracelet. Tomorrow, it’s yours!”

“Yay! No backsies! Pinkie promise!” cried the little girl as she held out her little finger. That was just the reward she had in mind!

“You guys have fun. I’ll continue shopping for more Recipes.” Jiang Fei hurriedly extricated himself from the chair and left the room. Girl talk was too much for him. Before he left the room, Jiang Fei passed all his handiwork to Rosette Rose.

After leaving the hotel, Jiang Fei went towards the entrance of the city, the same place where he first bought the Corsair’s Breastplate Recipe. That place was a hotspot for small, player-run stalls. An auction was currently ongoing, but almost 99% of the players in the game were broke. They would rather sit for two hours than throw their hard earned money at something that would be discarded a few levels later.

After loitering for some time, Jiang Fei was left disappointed. Players at the city entrance were mostly selling materials. Pub players who picked up Gathering classes could never compete with players in Professional guilds. They could gather items quickly and pass it to the Crafters in the guild. If there was any excess, they would store them in the public guild storage.

Sadly, players without guilds had limited inventory slots. The bank storage system was too expensive to use and even more expensive to expand. In the end, they could only gather whatever they could for the day and sell them at the city entrance.

The last thing Jiang Fei needed now was materials. His previous batch of purchases had not even been used up. Rosette Rose had disrupted his crafting session.

At that point of the game, players could not solo a Leader tier boss. Most of the bosses around were targets of stronger guilds. Treasure Chests, on the other hand, boiled down to sheer luck. It was almost impossible for random players to farm for Recipes on their own. Jiang Fei had already been extremely fortunate to have been able to find the Corsair’s Breastplate Recipe in the public market!

“Argh… Might as well buy the whole set of equipment Recipes from the NPCs!”

Jiang Fei gave up finding for Recipes and decided to turn to the NPCs. If one went out of the city for an adventure, he needed solid equipment. Since there were no Recipes, Fine or higher, he was forced to resort to the lowest grade Recipes, White tier, from the NPCs.

“What a bummer! I can craft that almighty Corsair’s Breastplate, but I can’t even equip it!” Jiang Fei muttered under his breath as he made his way towards the Blacksmith Instructor.

There were two types of Leveling systems in the game, namely Character Level and Class level. Character Levels determined the attributes you gained, while also meeting the equipment’s Level Requirement. Class Level determined the skills you could learn, along with its potency.

Players could raise their Character Levels by slaying monsters or completing quests. That was the basis of almost all MMORPGs. Class Levels could be raised by repeated uses of the class-provided skill or completing Class specific quests.

Right then, Jiang Fei’s Character Level was Level 10, while his Class was only a Level 1 Beginner Blacksmith. Fortunately, that Level 1 experience bar was close to the brim.

…

With money, one could easily get by with life; after buying all the Green Copper series equipment Recipes, the Instructor praised Jiang Fei with a few words and rewarded him with another Recipe.

“Armor Shield”

Armor Shield (Enhancement Material, Normal)

Use: Grants a special skill on a Breastplate “Armor Shield.” Absorbs Physical Damage equivalent to 20% maximum Health Points. Last 20 seconds. 5 minutes cooldown. (Limited to Blacksmiths).

This skill was considered a class-specific perk. Any Profession class could obtain such an item from their respective Instructors, simply by purchasing and learning more than five different kinds of Recipes.

Blacksmiths aside, other Crafter classes had similar perks. Tailors could obtain a special Mana Absorption enhancement effect. Alchemists could obtain special flasks that allowed the concurrent ingesting of three potions, minus cooldowns.

These perks allowed Profession players to survive a little longer whenever they came under the assault of PKers until the NPC guards came to their rescue.