Chapter 2355 – Advanced Mana Set Equipment

“Thirty percent is enough?”

Silent Wonder was confused by Shi Feng’s statement. Based on his tone, he seemed very confident in her success in becoming an Advanced Master Alchemist.

Not only did she need enough Proficiency Points for her promotion, but she also had to create a new Advanced Master Recipe. Unfortunately, creating an Advanced Master Recipe was multiple times more difficult than creating a Basic Master Recipe. It wasn’t simply a problem of mixing materials. The process also required magic arrays, which tested her ability to manipulate Mana.

Resources and hints weren’t enough for her to reach the Advanced Master Alchemist rank.

“I can’t guarantee it, but if you have a 30% chance, we should be able to boost that to 80% within the remaining time,” Shi Feng said, chuckling.

“Eighty percent?” Silent Wonder repeated in a higher-pitched tone, giving Shi Feng an incredulous look.

Creating an Advanced Master Alchemist was easier said than done. Even if the various superpowers’ alchemists generously offered her all of their research, she’d be lucky to increase her success rate by 10%.

Yet, Shi Feng insisted that he could help raise her success rate by a whopping 50%. If God’s Domain’s various Master Alchemists heard this, they’d laugh at Shi Feng for being an ignorant fool and a layman.

However, Shi Feng was no noob when it came to Lifestyle classes. He was a bona fide Intermediate Master Forger, after all, an existence that stood at the apex of God’s Domain’s forging industry. He was also one of the first players to become a Master Lifestyle player in God’s Domain. There were less than a handful of people who could claim they understood Lifestyle classes better than Shi Feng in the Candlelight Trading Firm.

You’ll understand when the time comes. For now, head to the Research Workshop and study the Droplet of Life Recipe. If you can master that recipe, it’ll definitely help you to create an Advanced Master Recipe,” Shi Feng said, ending the conversation rather than elaborate. The secret regarding the Primal Void Stone was too important. If information about the stones leaked, it would cause a huge commotion in God’s Domain.

The Advanced Master rank was a huge threshold for Lifestyle players. Over 90% of the Master Lifestyle players in Shi Feng’s previous life had been stuck at Intermediate Master rank due to the difficulty of the promotion.

Those Masters hadn’t lacked techniques, but simply hadn’t had the mental strength to succeed.

Rising through the tiers was the easiest way for players to improve their mental fortitude. The higher a player’s tier was, the stronger their mental strength would be, which was also why most of the top-tier Lifestyle Players of Shi Feng’s previous life had been high-tiered players as well.

Silent Wonder was only a Level 97, Tier 2 player. She’d still need quite some time to reach Level 100, not to mention complete her Tier 3 Promotion Quest.

Meanwhile, God’s Domain had very few items that could improve a player’s mental strength, and the Primal Void Stones were one of them. However, mainstream players in the past had only learned this secret after reaching Level 160.

When they had discovered it, the various superpowers had fought desperately to secure Primal Void Stones. From then on, Primal Void Stones hadn’t been treated as a simple Mana gathering tool. They had become a strategic item to improve combat and Lifestyle players, standards.

Although the Primal Void Stones only improved a players’ mental fortitude by 20% to 30%, it was a valuable boost. Players only received a slightly higher percentage when they reached a higher tier, after all.

If Silent Wonder didn’t have any issues with her alchemy techniques, she should have no problems reaching Advanced Master rank as long as she had adequate mental strength.

After sending Silent Wonder to the Research Workshop to study the Droplet of Life Recipe and while he waited for the Primal Void Stones to become available in the Shared Warehouse, Shi Feng began to select a few of Candlelight’s other Shops to promote to 3-star status. With White River City’s Candlelight Trading Firm now a 4-star Shop, he could upgrade five 2-star Shops to 3-star status, and after promoting Blue Bay City’s Shop, he had four slots remaining.

After much consideration, he chose the Shops in Dark Night City, Black Dragon City, Apocalypse City, and Twin Towers City. With 3-star Shops in these cities, recruiting Lifestyle players and collecting materials would be a lot more convenient.

With five more 3-star Shops, it wouldn’t be long before Zero Wing’s Lifestyle operations would rival that of the various superpowers. Once it did, the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce would be strong enough to rival the superpowers’ Chambers. Zero Wing would no longer need to rely on Stone Forest City’s temporary Residences as bait to lure Guilds into joining the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce.

However, to give the Candlelight Chamber of Commerce a competitive edge and earn a fortune from it, it would need more than a lot of Lifestyle Players. Candlelight would also need a large variety of valuable, useful products.

It seems it’s time to research these forging designs, Shi Feng thought as he glanced at the ancient, sealed parchments in his bag.

Aside from weapons and materials, the Sunset King had dropped 14 designs and recipes, and every one of them was Master rank. The most valuable of them was the Droplet of Life Recipe, but following that were the six forging designs for an Advanced Mana Set Equipment[l].

The Crimson Sunset!

The Crimson Sunset set was only a Tier 2 Advanced Mana Set Equipment and couldn’t compare to Level 100-plus Dark- Gold Set Equipment, but it was still far stronger than what current players had access to. As an Advanced Mana Set Equipment, players could also rely on the equipment up to Level 120. Its Basic Attribute bonuses were just as significant as that of Level 100-plus Fine-Gold Set Equipment, and it would be more than enough for Tier 3 players to rely on until they reached Tier 4 at Level 120.

Shi Feng then left the reception room and found an empty Basic Meditation Room to start the Crimson Sunset’s production.

Initially, he had wanted to give the designs to Melancholic Smile and the others, but since they were still busy with the Crimson Dragon Flying Ship’s parts, they didn’t have the spare time to forge the Advanced Mana Set Equipment. Moreover, unlike other Master Forgers, Shi Feng no longer needed to create a new forging design to become an Advanced Master Forger; he needed Forging Proficiency.

Fortunately, crafting Set Equipment was the fastest way to earn Proficiency Points, especially if one crafted Mana Set Equipment.

Sure enough, a Mana Set Equipment’s production process is really complex. It’s no wonder why only a few superpowers had managed to produce their own Mana Set Equipment in the past. After reading through the Crimson Sunset Design, Shi Feng took in a deep breath.

The Crimson Sunset was several times more complex than a pre-Level 100 Dark-Gold Set Equipment. The forging techniques were particularly demanding. Shi Feng could only think of three Master Forgers in Candlelight that could handle the techniques. Most importantly, players would need incredible mastery of magic arrays. One would, at the very least, need to be an Advanced Magician even to attempt drawing the necessary magic arrays.

No other Master Forger in the trading firm was capable of drawing the Crimson Sunset’s arrays. Even Shi Feng had to spend five hours to learn them.

Now that I’ve grasped the basics, it’s time to start the actual production. However, the material cost is vicious. Any other Guild would likely despair at the very idea of paying these costs. Shi Feng revealed a bitter smile as he examined the required materials for the Mana Set Equipment.

The Crimson Sunset’s main materials were Mana Stones and Magic Crystals. A single production attempt would cost 40 Mana Stones. If Shi Feng hadn’t been able to rely on the Philosopher’s Stone, he’d only be limited to a few attempts.

Even so, producing the Crimson Sunset would still cost him a lot of Magic Crystals. He was relieved that the Guild had found a Manatite vein. Otherwise, this design would simply be too expensive to use.

Once Shi Feng verified that he had everything he needed, he began to forge the Mana Set Equipment.

He would have to forge the Crimson Sunset’s six parts simultaneously. It was so demanding on a player’s mental strength that even if a weaker player learned the process, they wouldn’t be able to use it. Fortunately, Shi Feng’s mental fortitude was already relatively high, and after his promotion to Tier 3, it had become even stronger.

During his first attempt, his magic array’s quality hadn’t been high enough, and the process had failed before he had finished half of it.

On his second attempt, due to physical imperfections, the system deemed his product a total failure.

The results of his third attempt were nothing but scrap metal, as well.

In the end, Shi Feng had failed six times in a row, losing enough materials to make his heart ache.

Please let me succeed this time! Shi Feng prayed as he gritted his teeth.

Nervously, Shi Feng appraised the Crimson Sunset before him. If this attempt failed as well, he’d have to give up on the set.

As Shi Feng clicked the ‘Appraise’ button, the six pieces of crimson equipment on the stone table lit with a dazzling, colorful glow. At the same time, the room’s Mana flooded to the equipment pieces.

System: Crimson Sunset has been successfully forged. Forging Proficiency increased by 180 points. Obtained 1,200,000 EXP.

System: Blacksteel Insignia’s effect triggered; Crimson Sunset’s Attributes increased.