Chapter 1595: Upgrading the Blacksteel Insignia

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1595 – Upgrading the Blacksteel Insignia

The moment Zero Wing City revealed its teleportation function, the city attracted many major powers’ attention. A large number of merchant players also considered conducting their business in Zero Wing City. Some of the Guilds in the several kingdoms and two empires bordering the Orc Empire even tried to ally with Zero Wing in secret.

The situation had completely exceeded Aqua Rose’s expectations.

All of these Guilds offered to sell Zero Wing Level 45, top-tier equipment at below market price in exchange for the right to establish a Guild Residence in Zero Wing City and a 20% discount on the teleportation fees. These Guilds were also willing to pay a portion of the teleportation fees with Magic Crystals.

Although mainstream players had already reached Level 40, they were still some time from reaching Level 45. Only the various Guilds’ elite members had reached such a high level, and because of this, Level 45 Fine-Gold Equipment and above was still extremely rare. Although the equipment was available on the market, these pieces usually cost far more than market value. Moreover, there weren’t many pieces available. Even if Zero Wing were willing to purchase the overpriced equipment, it wouldn’t secure many pieces.

Yet, these large Guilds had offered Level 45, top-tier equipment as payment. Aqua Rose had never expected this. If she accepted their offers, she’d solve the Guild’s shortage of funds and top-tier equipment. Furthermore, even after giving these Guilds a 20% discount on teleportation fees, Zero Wing would still make quite a bit of profit.

“Guild Leader, three first-rate Guilds and 11 second-rate Guilds have expressed interest in partnering with us thus far. If we agree, replenishing our top-tier equipment in the Guild Warehouse won’t be an issue anymore,” Aqua Rose said excitedly as she read the report in her hands.

Rather than Coins, Zero Wing urgently needed top-tier equipment for its war against Heaven’s Burial. Every time their players died, they’d lose a piece of equipment. Occasionally, Heaven’s Burial’s members even used some special methods to force players to drop more than one piece when they died. Generally, Zero Wing compensated its members with GCPs, and these members would then trade their points for replacement weapons and equipment from the Warehouse. Because of this, Zero Wing’s members were rapidly depleting the Guild’s stock of weapons and equipment.

If Zero Wing’s Guild Warehouse ran out of top-tier weapons and equipment for its members, Zero Wing’s GCPs would lose their value. If that happened, it would only be a matter of time before the Guild crumbled.

However, if Zero Wing could replenish its stock, Aqua Rose was confident that the Guild could continue to duke it out with Heaven’s Burial.

“There are so many Guilds seeking an alliance?” Aqua Rose’s report surprised Shi Feng. He hadn’t thought that the Four Towers of Elements’ teleportation function would be such an effective advertisement. “Alright. However, they have to pay 25% of their teleportation fees with Magic Crystals. Otherwise, no deal!”

While the Four Towers of Elements’s teleportation function was powerful, its operation cost a lot of Magic Crystals. If he allowed these Guilds to mass-teleport their members, the nine Mana Barrier Crystals would drain in the blink of an eye. Zero Wing did not have many Magic Crystals to spare. If these Guilds paid a quarter of their teleportation fees in Magic Crystals, they’d offset the additional cost. Zero Wing might even earn some Magic Crystal profit.

“I understand. I’ll begin the negotiations right away.” After Shi Feng agreed, Aqua Rose disconnected the call and contacted the various large Guilds’ Guild Leaders.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere among Zero Wing’s members had lightened considerably due to the city’s sudden popularity. Everyone’s confidence of defeating Heaven’s Burial renewed. They could easily imagine the future that awaited their Guild City, and there was no way it would lose to Heaven’s Burial’s Ancient Rock City in any aspect.

Similarly, Star-Moon Kingdom’s players had begun to change their minds about Zero Wing falling prey to Heaven’s Burial. They now thought that Zero Wing had some hope of victory.

While Aqua Rose negotiated the contracts’ terms with the various Guild Leaders, Shi Feng had finally learned how to craft the new Advanced Magic Array and had begun to forge the Conqueror’s Armor.

Although Zero Wing had solved its money and equipment problems, it still wouldn’t be easy to defeat Heaven’s Burial and Blackwater.

Shi Feng didn’t even think that his current Guild could do anything to the two Guilds. The difference between their expert counts was just too massive, not to mention financial strength. If Zero Wing wanted to end this war of attrition, it would have to rely on the strength of its Guild members.

In fact, this was God’s Domain’s infallible truth!

Otherwise, Guilds wouldn’t pay so much attention to nurturing their experts.

Now that I’ve learned how to draw the magic array, I need to find a way to improve my success rate. Although it is somewhat wasteful, I’ll have to upgrade the Blacksteel Insignia.

When Shi Feng had tried to forge the Conqueror’s Armor and saw his theoretical success rate, he steeled himself and made his way to White River City’s bank.

Forging the Level 50 Fine-Gold ranked Conqueror’s Armor would be even more challenging than forging Level 50 Dark-Gold Equipment. Despite his status as a Master Forger, he only had a theoretical success rate of 18%. Even with his various support tools, he only increased that success rate to around 28%.

Although it seemed relatively high, he’d be fortunate to succeed once out of every five attempts to produce the armor. This was due to the Conqueror’s Armor’s complex forging process. Unfortunately, the required materials weren’t cheap, and each attempt would cost around 50 Gold. With that kind of money, he could already purchase a piece of Level 45 Fine-Gold Equipment.

Because the required materials were also rare and difficult to obtain, he also had a limited number of attempts.

Shi Feng simply couldn’t bear to forge the Conqueror’s Armor with such a low success rate.

If he had to craft the armor, he’d have to reach a 30% success rate at the very least.

His only solution was the Holy Grail’s Power of Evolution, which he could only use once every ten days.

Shi Feng quickly arrived in his own Large Private Warehouse and carefully retrieved Zero Wing’s greatest secret weapon—the Holy Grail.

He had planned to save the Power of Evolution to upgrade items with special abilities to Epic rank, but he couldn’t care less right now. He immediately retrieved the Blacksteel Insignia and scanned it with the Holy Grail.

Suddenly, purple fog leaked from the Holy Grail and enveloped the Blacksteel Insignia. The system soon notified Shi Feng of the evolution cost.

...

System: Are you willing to permanently lose 1,000 HP to evolve the Blacksteel Insignia?

...

What? This thing actually requires 1,000 HP?

Shi Feng was astonished.

The Blacksteel Insignia was currently Fine-Gold rank. Even if he evolved the item, it would only become Dark-Gold rank, yet the evolution cost was as high as the cost of evolving the Holy City’s Emblem.

Losing 1,000 HP was no trivial matter. It was the equivalent of losing 50 Endurance permanently. Even a Tier 2 player would have to level a few times to make up for this loss. Moreover, the evolution’s success wasn’t guaranteed. There was still a chance of failure.

But Shi Feng did not hesitate long before he clicked ‘Agree.’

He might have decided against evolving the Blacksteel Insignia in the past, but now that he had the Dark Iron Bloodline, things had changed. The Bloodline provided some additional Basic Attribute points with each level-up. Moreover, the bonus would grow as he reached higher levels. He could recover the lost 50 Endurance very quickly.

After Shi Feng agreed to the evolution, the Holy Grail’s purple fog wrapped around him. Immediately, Shi Feng’s maximum HP fell by 1,000. Meanwhile, the Holy Grail radiated a purple glow as it absorbed the Life Force. Following which, plumes of purple fog seeped into the Blacksteel Insignia.

Suddenly, the Blacksteel Insignia released a blinding glow that enveloped the Private Warehouse.

This should mean it succeeded, right?

Shi Feng’s heart pounded as he stared at the Blacksteel Insignia in his hand.