Chapter 1820 – Upgrading Silverwing Town

“An Advanced Smithy?” Melancholic Smile could not help her surprise when she saw the description of the design Shi Feng took out.

At this point in time, she was quite knowledgeable about Advanced Constructions.

Every Advanced Construction had functions that far surpassed their Basic counterparts. Moreover, they had their own specialties. However, designs for Advanced Constructions were extremely difficult to acquire.

Although Melancholic Smile was initially excited at the identity of the design, seeing the materials and space needed to construct the Advanced Smithy dampened her mood quickly.

The Advanced Smithy required not only 2,000 pieces of extremely valuable Mana Ore but also 1,000 Advanced Magic Cores and 500 Earthfire Crystals.

The Mana Ore required wasn’t too much of a problem, as Zero Wing had collected quite an amount during this period. As for the Advanced Magic Core, it was a rare material that could be obtained only from the Bosses of Level 50 and above Team Dungeons. However, the drop-rate wasn’t 100%, so it was extremely valuable.

On the market, one Advanced Magic Core sold for five Gold. A thousand Advanced Magic Cores would mean 5,000 Gold.

As for the Earthfire Crystal, it was even more valuable, as it could be acquired only in the fields, particularly mountainous regions with fiery environments. It was one of the main materials needed to produce high-ranking Fire Resistance equipment Although the market value of Earthfire Crystal was roughly five Gold, due to its rarity and the demand, it was almost impossible to find large quantities of Earthfire Crystal for sale.

Currently, Zero Wing had only a little over 600 Earthfire Crystals stockpiled. Spending 500 crystals in one go would deplete the Guild’s inventory.

Aside from the three aforementioned materials, the Advanced Smithy also needed 10,000 Magic Crystals to construct.

The total cost of its construction came to roughly 30,000 Gold.

Currently, Zero Wing was developing rapidly and needed to spend money on various fronts. If not for Zero Wing City, the Guild wouldn’t have been able to keep up with its expenditures. Hence, spending 30,000 Gold’s worth of rare materials to construct an Advanced Smithy truly wasn’t a wise course of action.

However, before Melancholic Smile could try to dissuade Shi Feng, he had already distributed the tasks to the Advanced Architects. He even had the necessary materials prepared already. All the 50 Advanced Architects needed to do was build the structure.

Although Zero Wing’s main force had suffered some casualties and lost 20-odd pieces of equipment in the battle with the two dark adventurer teams, the spoils of war they gained were far more valuable.

The members of Dark Hunters and Shadow Claw were experts among experts. They were all geared in excellent equipment that was only slightly inferior to Zero Wing’s.

However, while the quality of the equipment Zero Wing looted was indeed slightly inferior to the equipment it lost, the quantity easily made up for the poorer quality.

In total, Zero Wing had gained over 400 pieces of Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment and 60-plus pieces of Level 50 Fine- Gold Equipment.

After deducting the compensations and rewards given out, Zero Wing had still netted more than 10,000 Gold from that single battle. However, even if one had 10,000 Gold, they would be hard-pressed to acquire so many pieces of up-to-date top-tier equipment.

Although the profits from this battle were not enough to cover the construction cost of the Advanced Smithy, the Advanced Smithy served a great purpose.

As an Advanced Construction, it could elevate the prosperity and Popularity of a town by a significant margin.

At this point, Silverwing Town already possessed sufficient Basic Constructions and security to get upgraded into an Intermediate Town. Now, it just had to accumulate sufficient Popularity and prosperity.

However, constructing the Advanced Smithy wasn’t an easy task. Aside from Advanced Architects, it needed one player capable of drawing Advanced Magic Arrays because the Advanced Smithy required the inscription of many magic arrays.

For the following period, Shi Feng could be seen busily inscribing magic arrays onto the constructed walls and floors of the Advanced Smithy.

Someone looking at Silverwing Town from some distance away would notice that a section of the town’s outer area had suddenly been cordoned off and something big was under construction there. This situation immediately attracted the attention of many resting players.

Nowadays, Silverwing Town had already become the most popular town in the Ore Empire. Many Guild players seeking to grind in the Ore Empire or raid the Teleportation War Fortresses chose to rest in Silverwing Town. Even though the war fortresses in question were very far away from Silverwing Town, players still chose Silverwing Town over other Guild Towns in the Ore Empire.

One reason for this was the EXP buff that players could accumulate by resting in Silverwing Town, which would help greatly in leveling up. Another reason was the Battle Arena in the town.

However, contrary to expectations, the high Mana environment of Silverwing Town wasn’t the reason why its Battle Arena was popular. Instead, the main reason for its popularity was the fact that the town was now a hub for players originating from various kingdoms and empires. Due to this situation, experts from different countries could spar with each other. Being able to spar with a large number of different experts of the same combat standard was a tremendous benefit for experts seeking to improve themselves.

Now that Silverwing Town had already become the number one town in the Ore Empire, if not for the limited space, its player population could easily exceed 1,500,000.

“Damn! Silverwing Town is already crowded enough, yet Zero Wing is actually wasting such a large, empty space on another building.”

“That’s right! With the number of buildings in the town continuously increasing, the number of players the town can accommodate will keep declining. I’m not even sure if I can squeeze my way into the town tomorrow.”

The players resting in a nearby bar could not help but frown when they saw the stadium-sized structure under construction.

There were simply too many players trying to enter Silverwing Town right now. To make sure Silverwing Town operated normally, Zero Wing had made it so that players who weren’t Zero Wing members could stay in Silverwing Town for only ten hours a day. If players refused to leave the town once their allocated time was up, the NPC soldiers would either forcibly remove them from the town or outright kill them.

Yet, despite this restriction, Silverwing Town was still packed all day round. At this point, Zero Wing had limited the number of players allowed inside the town at one time to just 800,000. If latecomers wished to enter the town, they would have to wait for someone to exit it Hence, as more buildings rose in the empty spaces in town, the number of players allowed in would be reduced.

Time passed quickly. When Shi Feng finished inscribing the last magic array, eight hours had already elapsed. The 50 Advanced Architects had taken only four hours to construct the physical structure of the Advanced Smithy.

It’s finally done. Shi Feng sighed ruefully as he looked at the completed Advanced Smithy. Although the smithy had only three floors in total, it was over twenty meters in height.

The Advanced Smithy before him was definitely a cut above Basic Smithies, which were only four meters in height. This was something that could be seen from the building’s external appearance alone. However, the inside of the building was even more amazing.

As Shi Feng had personally inscribed every magic array, he had a general idea of the magic arrays’ abilities.

The Advanced Smithy could not only repair and produce custom-made weapons and equipment but also break down weapons and equipment and return to players some materials used to make those items. Players could then use the reclaimed materials for new weapons and equipment. Although the recovery rate wasn’t very high, it was still better than selling obsolete items to NPCs.

If he revealed this ability, countless players would definitely swarm to the Advanced Smithy to break down their obsolete weapons and equipment. Meanwhile, Zero Wing could charge a small fee for the service.

Good! Let’s get it running now! Shi Feng then called up the Advanced Smithy’s system interface and chose to open the building to the public.

In the next moment, the magic curtain surrounding the construction site disappeared, exposing the massive building to the public.

At the same time, the sound of a system notification entered Shi Feng’s ears.

System: Silverwing Town’s Popularity and security have fulfilled the requirements of an Intermediate Town. Do you wish to upgrade Silverwing Town?

Wonderful! Just as I expected!

Shi Feng could not help feeling joyful when he heard the system notification. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time now. He immediately chose to upgrade Silverwing Town.