Chapter 164 - The First Crisis

Cola was at a loss when he heard Shi Feng’s words.

Show the strength of Zero Wing Workshop?

Others had constantly targeted the three of them, so they had been hiding in Red Leaf Town all this time. They had no chances to leave town to grind and quest, and they were all only Level 7 right now; they were only slightly stronger than the average player. They had no chances of competing with the members of other Guilds at all. If this situation continued, their levels would, sooner or later, fall behind even the average players.

Is leader telling us to go level up? Cola grew excited at the thought of this possibility. This is too great! We’re being stifled to death by constantly staying in town. It would be fine even if we have to slaughter our way out.

“You three wait for me inside the Hotel in the Trade Area; I’ll be there soon,” Shi Feng did not further explain, only revealing a faint smile.

“Brother Feng, what happened to make you so happy?” Blackie curiously asked, seeing Shi Feng’s joyous smile.

“Something good. You two, stay here and continue leveling up. I’ll bring Cola and the others later on. After you carry them to Level 10, go to White River City to do some high-level quests,” Shi Feng said.

“Brother Feng, rest assured; now that I’m fully geared in Level 15 Bronze and Mysterious-Iron Equipment and possess Mavis’s Protection, carrying Cola and the others will be a breeze,” Blackie assured his leader. He was Level 13 right now and even had an Epic ranked staff. If he could not carry Cola and the others to Level 10 quickly, he might as well revert to playing with mud rather than play God’s Domain.

“When Cola and the others see our levels, they will be shocked. And when they see Blackie’s Epic ranked staff, the Mavis’s Protection, they will be stunned speechless. I am even eager to see their expressions,” Lonely Snow joked.

“That’s right! Cola and the others could not possibly imagine that, within just a short few hours, we went from hiding from Martial Union’s pursuit to reaching to Level 13. We’ve taken the top three rankings within the Star-Moon Kingdom and even possess an Epic Weapon now. Compared to before, it is like the difference between heaven and earth. If I were in their shoes, even I wouldn’t believe it,” Blackie grew even more joyful at the thought of the shocked expressions of Cola and the others.

“You guys...” Shi Feng helplessly smiled at the sight of his two teammates. Soon after, he took out a Return Scroll, teleporting to Red Leaf Town.

---

At this moment, there were a lot of changes occurring in Red Leaf Town as well. The number of players purchasing equipment in the Trade Area grew larger and larger, and an endless stream of shouts for purchase filled the air of the Trade Area. There were many new players walking around and looking at the stalls set up throughout the street, looking for required items and equipment.

---

Meanwhile, inside the Hotel at the Trade Area...

“I’ve previously asked you guys to collect Hard Stones, so just how many have you actually collected? Why is the number of Whetstones still zero?” Unstable Devastation’s expression turned grim as he asked; he abruptly stood up after taking a look at his subordinate’s report.

“Boss Unstable, under your commands, we desperately tried to purchase all the Hard Stones available. However, we’re not sure why, but Hard Stones are extremely scarce on the market right now. Moreover, they’re very expensive. After much determination, we only managed to collect slightly more than four stacks. However, our Guild has only recently started nurturing Forgers, so their success rate of making Whetstones is extremely low. So...” that subordinate timidly said.

Peng!

Unstable Devastation slammed his fist onto the table, snarling, “You bunch of useless wastes! I clearly notified you all of this matter long ago, and three or four hours have passed already. Yet, you guys couldn’t even produce a single Whetstone? How is the elite team supposed to level up this way? Why do I even need you guys here?”

“Boss Unstable, maybe the other Guilds have discovered the issue of their weapons deteriorating quickly? Maybe that’s why we only managed to purchase a few stacks of Hard Stones?” the Berserker, Five Rats, said.

“That’s a high possibility. After all, it isn’t only our Guild leveling up in high-level monster areas. However, Hard Stones aren’t exactly rare, and they can be obtained from Level 2 monster areas or above. Moreover, normally nobody touches those things, so there should be a huge stockpile available in Red Leaf Town right now. There should also be plenty of players selling them on the Auction House. We also discovered this matter fairly quickly, so even if the other Guilds have taken action, it is impossible for them to buy them all out immediately!” Unstable Devastation nodded, then shook his head again. He could not make any sense of the situation.

After they started hunting Ye Feng’s party, they discovered that the durability of their weapons fell extraordinarily fast. In the beginning, they paid no attention to it, only focusing on leveling up and their search for Ye Feng’s party. However, before they found Ye Feng, their equipment and weapons were already close to scrap. Without a choice, they had to give up their search for Ye Feng, returning to town to repair their equipment.

Although the journey back wasted a lot of time, the elite team’s equipment was extremely precious. If they did not repair it all in time, resulting in their equipment turning into scrap, the Guild would suffer an irrecoverable loss. Moreover, without the equipment, they would also have no way to grind and level up. Thus, they needed to return and repair their equipment.

After repairing their equipment, Unstable Devastation began hearing complaints from his subordinates. The repair fees were too expensive, they said. The cost of repairs had nearly depleted all the money they had. As for classes that wore plate armor, they were even forced to borrow money from others for the repair fees.

This situation dumbfounded Unstable Devastation.

These players were all elites amongst elites. Normally, they carried a lot of money on their persons, and they were considered wealthy. However, their wealth was not enough to cover the fees.

Unstable Devastation quickly discovered the crux of the problem. The lower the remaining durability of a piece of equipment was, and the higher the level of the equipment was, the more expensive the resulting repair fee would be. Grinding high-level monster areas greatly depleted equipment’s durability. Making a trip to-and-fro from town to these high-level areas also required them to waste at least two to three hours. Moreover, they could, at most, stay for three to four hours at these high-level monster areas before they needed to return to town to repair their equipment. This meant that they had to spend almost half their time in God’s Domain just traveling.

As a result, the time needed for a single level-up almost doubled.

If they could negate the travel time, their leveling speed would surpass the other players.

When Unstable Devastation thought of this crucial matter, he immediately instructed his subordinates to look for a solution to this problem. The resulting solution was the Whetstones. Although this item could only repair a small amount of durability of a weapon, even that small amount was enough. Compared to equipment used for protection, a weapon’s durability decreased at a much greater rate. If they used Whetstones to repair their weapons, the total cost would be much less than repairing it at the Smithy. Hence, Unstable Devastation quickly ordered his subordinates to purchase Whetstones. However, they quickly discovered that forgers did not normally create this item as its cost was simply too high. Moreover, Whetstones normally did not sell at all.

Unstable Devastation could only take a step back once again, and instead, choose to purchase Hard Stones, the materials required to make Whetstones. Hard Stones were also relatively cheap items. They were mainly used to create Whetstones and certain engineering components. Each stack was only around 30 Copper Coins, and there were 20 in a stack, which meant that they could make 20 Whetstones from a single stack of Hard Stones.

However, Unstable Devastation had received even more shocking news. If they could not purchase Whetstones directly, then so be it. However, how could Hard Stones be difficult to purchase as well?

In reality, it wasn’t just Martial Union who had discovered this problem; the other Guilds had also discovered this issue. By the time they tried to purchase Hard Stones, they suddenly discovered that, be it the Auction House or the stalls in town, there were only scarce amounts of Hard Stones remaining. It was far from enough for the forgers in their own Guilds to create Whetstones with.

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Elsewhere, Shi Feng had just set foot on the main street of the Trade Area. He watched as the various large Guilds tried to purchase Hard Stones at a high price; they purchased each stack for 80 Copper Coins. The price of Hard Stones had more than doubled. Immediately, Shi Feng felt an intense joy in his heart.

The moment he had long awaited had finally arrived.

However, this was only the beginning. He still wanted to add oil to the fire, causing the price to soar sky-high.