Since the entire Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano had been completely cleared, Zhang Yanhang was not particularly eager for equipment that could increase his hunting efficiency.

Compared to that, he preferred to unlock new equipment that could truly enhance his strength, as this time he had merely fought Crotena, the God of the Sun at best at the Early Fifth Tier Stage, and it proved to be quite a struggle. Indeed, it nearly took using his Three-Headed Six-Armed Skill to win.

Speaking of the Three-Headed Six-Armed, it felt quite compatible with Longbo's Power. After all, two hands attacking together definitely had a lower chance of triggering extra attacks and the like compared to eight, and the probability—or rather, the efficiency—of triggering those effects would definitely increase significantly with eight hands compared to two.

But the focus right now was still on the treasure box, so after briefly contemplating, Zhang Yanhang quickly refocused on the Drop treasure box.

[Please choose the specific content of the "Drop Treasure Box (Crimson Iron Prince Ant)"]

[Item One: ?]

[Item Two: ?]

[Item Three: ?]

[Item Four: ?]

[Item Five: ?]

"This is still the first time I'm opening a Light Golden Quality Drop treasure box. Judging from the quality alone, the items I can unlock will definitely be outstanding, because even starting points would be Golden quality items, which could previously only be found in Ashen Treasure Boxes."

Moreover, although it was indeed only Golden quality when it was first unlocked, with the quantity of Crimson Iron Prince Ant Drop treasure boxes Zhang Yanhang obtained this time, as long as the quality of the new Golden quality equipment wasn't too poor—such as just passing the Golden quality score—it would definitely be easy to fuse into Dark Gold Quality.

If the score of the new Golden quality equipment that he would open this time was decent, it was even possible to directly fuse into a higher quality than Dark Gold Quality. Zhang Yanhang was quite looking forward to this.

[Item One]

[Option One: Crimson Marrow Blood Stab Broadsword, Quality Light Gold, Weapon]

[Option Two: 9000 Soul Points]

[Option Three: 18000 Soul Points]

"The first item slot, quite predictably, involved a choice related to Soul Points. However, I have finally reached the point where a single option can net a five-digit sum of Soul Points. Very impressive."

Zhang Yanhang had a premonition last time he opened a treasure box, and this time it came true. Any option could now net him eighteen thousand Soul Points, which in Raccoon City would need him to kill seven to eight thousand Zombies, even including the treasure boxes.

The total number of Ordinary Zombies in Raccoon City was only about five thousand, and even if all the other Zombie Dogs, Police Zombies, and the like were included, they would still not reach that number.

"As for this weapon... I remember that I seemed to have previously opened a Crimson Marrow Bloodthorn Greatsword, but that was Dark Purple Quality, whereas this Crimson Marrow Blood Stab Broadsword is Light Golden Quality. Strangely enough, a greatsword sounds much more impressive than a broadsword, yet its quality is a grade lower."

Of course, Zhang Yanhang wasn't concerned about the name. He just felt that Light Golden Quality weapons, once difficult for him to obtain, requiring him to rely on opening various Lord's Treasure Chests and Ashen Treasure Boxes, could now be casually found in ordinary monsters' boxes.

He didn't even want it, since he now had the All Four Elements are Void Pure World Fist at Dark Gold Quality, and such an item was meaningless to him; it wouldn't be used at all. It could only be said that his promotion in rank had been exceedingly rapid.

[Item Two]

[Option One: Large Crimson Iron Ant (Hell Ant), Quality B-level, Talent]

[Option Two: Large Crimson Iron Ant (Prince Ant), Quality B-level, Talent]

[Option Three: Mystic Steed Power, Quality C-level, Talent]

"The Talent Quality of a Third Tier Two-star Ordinary Monster Crimson Iron Hell Ant is B-level, and the Racial Talent of a Third Tier Three-star, which has the strength of a Third Tier Four-star Elite Monster, the Crimson Iron Prince Ant is also a B-level.

From that perspective, it seems that from Third Tier Two-star to Third Tier Four-star, they should all fall under the B-level Quality range. To attain A-level Quality Talents or above, one would definitely need to slay Fourth Tier or higher Monsters.

I wonder when I will encounter monsters that start with an A-level Initial Talent. If it's an A-level Initial Talent, just three are needed to promote to S-level, then nine more, making twelve Talents total, are needed to reach SS-level, after which the Talent could undergo a qualitative change..."

Zhang Yanhang felt that it might take a very long time before he could find a new area with monsters that started with A-level Talents, considering that if the weakest Monster is Fourth Tier, then the Lord Monsters were probably approaching the Sixth Tier, while he was just barely able to fight Early Fifth Tier. Going against Sixth Tier was purely seeking death.

"The only Fourth Tier Monster I currently have access to is the recently vanquished Peak Fourth Tier Lord Monster, the Crimson Iron Queen Ant, and I wonder if an A-level Talent could be encountered in the Crimson Iron Queen Ant's Lord's Treasure Chest."

Of course, in addition to this, Zhang Yanhang was primarily curious about whether he could unlock any items related to the Flame God.

[Item Three]

[Option One: 1800 Soul Points]

[Option Two: 9000 Soul Points]

[Option Three: 18000 Soul Points]

"The third item slot has options related to Soul Points again. Even though it's just the second option in this Drop treasure box, a treasure box generally has three options related to Soul Points. If each option can reveal eighteen thousand Soul Points, then three combined could net fifty-four thousand Soul Points.

If it were me who had just entered Ashen World, I would certainly have never thought that someday, with the promotion in rank, just a small monster's Drop treasure box could give out fifty-four thousand Soul Points..."

Zhang Yanhang remembered that the Lord's Treasure Chest of the Third Tier One-star Lord Monster, the Goblin Chief Nu Shan, had, in total, only yielded forty thousand Soul Points. It could be said that just an insignificant little monster was already more valuable in terms of Soul Points than Goblin Chief Nu Shan.

Moreover, among all the treasure boxes Zhang Yanhang had opened before, only the Lord's Treasure Chest of the Third Tier Two-star Lord Monster 'Demon Pig Peppa' had dropped more soul points than the 'Crimson Iron Prince Ant'. Apart from 'Demon Pig Peppa', the 'Crimson Iron Prince Ant' could be said to be a solid second, crushing both ordinary monsters and other lord monsters.

Of course, this ranking was bound to be updated after he later opened the Lord's Treasure Chest of the Fourth Tier Four-star Lord Monster 'Crimson Iron Ant Queen'. At that point, the 'Crimson Iron Ant Queen' could easily take the top spot effortlessly.

[Item Four]

[Option One: Crimson Marrow Helmet, Dark Purple Quality, Equipment]

[Option Two: Crimson Marrow Headband, Dark Purple Quality, Equipment]

[Option Three: Flame God's Crown, Golden Quality, Equipment]

"Finally, options related to equipment appeared, and as expected, it's a golden quality equipment. However, I thought maybe I'd have to wait to open the 'Crimson Iron Ant Queen's Lord's Treasure Chest' to get something related to the 'Flame God'. I didn't expect it to come out directly from the 'Crimson Iron Prince Ant's Drop Treasure Box'..."

Zhang Yanhang noticed that the first two options were regular equipment of dark purple quality, such as the 'Crimson Marrow Helmet' and 'Crimson Marrow Headband'. However, the third option was suddenly a golden quality 'Flame God's Crown', which at first glance felt very special. It was worthy of something related to the 'Flame God'; it certainly had some presence.

"This 'Flame God's Crown', since it has 'Crown' in its name, must be something like a crown. My head slot is currently empty. As long as it drops, it should definitely be usable."

Zhang Yanhang's original equipment slot had been occupied by the 'White Ten-piece Set's Police Anti-riot Helmet', but now that the 'White Ten-piece Set' was completely obsolete, it would just need to be replaced when the time came.

But compared to such things, Zhang Yanhang was more interested in the attribute list of the 'Flame God's Crown', so he quickly opened the attribute list and started to check it out.

[Flame God's Crown]

[Quality: Golden]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: 'Ashen World', Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Large 'Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano', 'Nameless Blacksmith'.]

[Durability: 61/61]

[Defensive Power: 43]

[Additional Attributes: Power Effect +35%.]

[Usage requirements: Strength 55 points.]

[Score: 440 (Golden items score ranges from 351 to 440.)]

[Introduction: After helping Princess Cecilia Josephine return to the Kingdom, the Nameless Blacksmith became a revered Forging Master with his excellent and solid skills. He took responsibility for handling all the royal forging needs and order distribution, managing several outstanding forge masters under the Royal Workshop.

As for the title of Forging Master, the Nameless Blacksmith didn't care much. All he knew was that monopolizing all the royal forging orders was a great deal—he could make a handsome profit. With this in mind, he adopted a sustainable strategy of draining the pond to fish more fiercely, increasing the demand for materials tenfold, regardless of what the royal family wanted him to forge.

However, at the end of the month, when the Royal Workshop was tallying costs, the Nameless Blacksmith found that the forging costs during his first month of management had significantly decreased compared to the previous manager. Moreover, after using his forged items, the royal members all praised him. They said he was indeed a master of his craft, not in name only—his creations were of superior quality to those of his predecessor.

The Nameless Blacksmith racked his brain but couldn't figure it out. He was already exploiting resources sustainably, charging ten times the material cost for each item forged, yet the previous manager still managed to profit more. Was there some special profit point about the Royal Workshop he hadn't noticed? Or should he be charging twenty times the fire loss? Charging nineteen times the additional material cost for every item forged?

What puzzled the Nameless Blacksmith even more was why the items he made without much effort, simply following the royal members' requests, were still praised for their quality. Just how bad was the previous manager's forging skill?

Because of his superior forging skills, the Nameless Blacksmith's fame gradually increased. Some nobles beyond the royal family began to seek his services to forge their items. He didn't refuse and accepted all requests—after all, whom he made money from didn't matter, did it?

With the word-of-mouth of numerous noble clients and a wealth of five-star reviews, the Nameless Blacksmith's reputation spread far and wide. Six months later, one day, the kingdom's strongest Hero approached the King, seeking to forge the most powerful new weapon to defeat the Demon King. The King readily agreed and immediately summoned the Nameless Blacksmith, the strongest Forging Master in the kingdom.

"I originally thought that this Flame God's Crown should be related to God of the Scorching Sun, Crotena, but how come it was still forged by the Nameless Blacksmith? Moreover, when the God of Sun, Crotena first appeared, she seemed to be calling out for Makarov all the time, implying there must be some relation between them that I don't know about.

Or perhaps, there's a piece of the storyline that I haven't seen yet."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the storyline involving the God of Sun was probably from the late stage of the plot. At least for now, when he checked the Flame God's Crown's introduction, he couldn't find anything about the God of Sun. It must be because the Nameless Blacksmith had not yet encountered the God of Sun during this period.

He would probably meet her in a subsequent plot after some unexpected events because it just wasn't possible to bump into the God of Sun all of a sudden while comfortably staying inside the palace, right? That would be too absurd.

"By the way, in this story segment, the Nameless Blacksmith, Makarov, was clearly trying his utmost to make money, yet he still couldn't catch up with his predecessor. No wonder the Nameless Blacksmith had an easy time infiltrating the kingdom's high ranks.

Probably the King thought that, being at rock bottom already, things could only go up, thus he switched to the Nameless Blacksmith. As it turned out, the King gambled correctly; the Nameless Blacksmith's money-making skills honestly couldn't match the previous manager's, and due to subpar money-making strategies, the costs were greatly reduced."

Zhang Yanhang thought that everyone has their expertise, the Nameless Blacksmith's forging skills might have reached the peak, but he was significantly inexperienced in money-making. Even with all channels in his control, he didn't know how to utilize them properly.

Even though Zhang Yanhang didn't have much experience in that area, he at least knew about the classic Fire Dragon Burning Warehouse tactic.

For example, moving all the materials out of the warehouse in advance and pretending there was a fire, claiming everything was destroyed, then reporting double or triple the actual losses.

Or, reporting the actual losses, awaiting funds approval, and then moving pre-removed items back, thus pocketing a sum out of thin air without needing to find a sales outlet.

Of course, Fire Dragon Burning Warehouse is just one type of euphemism that has spawned countless variations. It doesn't have to involve fire; you could have thieves steal the goods and then report multiplied losses, or claim due to old storage the materials became collectively defunct, or...

Besides, apart from Fire Dragon Burning Warehouse, one could also outsource work. For example, subcontracting the upcoming but unfinished or unwanted orders at a price slightly above cost to other workshops, making a net profit of eighty or ninety percent without lifting a finger.

There are countless similar examples, and Zhang Yanhang could go on for days without end. However, these kinds of tactics carry a high risk when exposed, as they could easily lead to being beheaded by the King. That's why adopting a steady approach like the Nameless Blacksmith, charging nine times the materials' profit for each forging, is also a good option—it's safe and stable.

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