Chapter 113 – Emerging Strength

This is going to be a headache… Shi Feng couldn’t help but feel his head hurting when he finished looking through the Abyssal Star Advanced Workshop’s information.

If he was merely dealing with an ordinary Advanced Workshop, he could’ve recruited Lifestyle Players without worry. However, with the presence of the Sage’s Rooms, he had to be extra careful when recruiting Lifestyle Players. If handled poorly, the Abyssal Star Advanced Workshop might bring an end to the Abyssal Star Ancient City.

However, Shi Feng didn’t mull over this matter for too long. Since he had already picked up this hot potato, there was nothing he could do but wait for Zero Wing’s mercenary alliance to grow sufficiently strong.

Setting aside the Sage’s Room, the Abyssal Star Advanced Workshop had another amazing function. More specifically, all Advanced Workshops had this function—recruiting Lifestyle NPCs.

Depending on an Advanced Workshop’s popularity, it could even recruit Master Lifestyle NPCs. Meanwhile, Master Lifestyle NPCs should be enough to cope with the demands of the current Miniature Ancient World.

After walking up to the Workshop’s front desk, Shi Feng activated the Workshop’s recruitment function. Then, in less than two hours, applications from NPCs began appearing before Shi Feng one after another.

Amazing! This Workshop has only opened recently, yet there are already Master Lifestyle NPCs applying to join!

Shi Feng couldn’t help but be flabbergasted when he looked through the system message bar.

Normally, an Advanced Workshop would not attract any Master Lifestyle NPCs as soon as it opened. Applications from Master Lifestyle NPCs would only start appearing a few days after the Workshop’s opening. Moreover, only one or two would appear.

Yet, now, in just two hours, the Abyssal Star Advanced Workshop had already received applications from more than ten Master Lifestyle NPCs. One of them was even a Master Forger. In addition, this Master Forger was only asking for 100 Gold per day, which was only half of the standard price on the main continent.

With this, I won’t have to get Blackie to recruit Master Forgers and Alchemists.

After looking at the long list of applications, Shi Feng chose to hire all 15 of the Master Lifestyle NPCs that applied. Of these NPCs, 14 were Basic Masters, while one was an Advanced Master Forger.

Thankfully, I already have the designs ready. Otherwise, these NPCs are going to bankrupt Zero Wing.

Shi Feng couldn’t help but sigh ruefully as he looked at the total cost of hiring these 15 NPCs. Each of the 14 Basic Masters cost 40 Gold per day to hire, while the Advanced Master cost 100 Gold. In total, it cost 660 Gold per day to hire these 15 NPCs. In the Miniature Ancient World, even third-rate Guilds would have difficulty supporting a daily expenditure of 660 Gold.

Firstly, unlike on the main continent, income sources were incredibly limited in the current Miniature Ancient World. Guilds did not have any Guild Towns or Cities to provide them with large amounts of Coins. Right now, the only way Guilds could earn Coins reliably was by selling equipment and having Guild members do quests.

Secondly, although the various Guilds had sent many players into the Miniature Ancient World, everyone was just starting out here. Thus, everyone had significant daily expenditures. If not for players being allowed to bring 1,000 Gold with them when they entered the Miniature Ancient World, the various Guilds would probably be dead-ass poor right now.

Meanwhile, after the NPCs Shi Feng hired arrived at the Workshop, Shi Feng approached a white-clad old man. Then, he took out the Ancient Mana Equipment Set Design he had obtained from the Ancient Demon Court and asked, “Master Horn, how likely are you to succeed in manufacturing this set?”

Horn Selent, an Advanced Master Forger. On the main continent, even the king of a kingdom would treat him with courtesy.

“A Mana Equipment Set?” Horn caressed his white beard and fell into thought as he looked at the design. Then, after some time had passed, he said, “Roughly 40%.”

“Forty?” Shi Feng nodded in satisfaction when he heard the old man’s answer. The Ancient Mana Equipment Set was extraordinary. If he had a player of the same rank produce it, their success rate would probably be under 30%. “I’ll leave this design with you, then, Master Horn. I’ll also have the other masters assist you as much as they can.”

With the Sage’s Room’s effects, Horn’s success rate should increase past 50%.

It cost 1,000 Magic Crystals and 100 Gold’s worth of other materials to produce an Ancient Mana Equipment Set. If the production success rate was over 50%, each set should only cost 2,000 Magic Crystals and 200 Gold to produce. Even if this standardized Ancient Mana Equipment Set was slightly inferior to the sets obtained from the Ancient Demon Court, they were still far stronger than Dark-Gold Equipment Sets.

Currently, what Zero Wing lacked most were weapons and equipment. Although Su Qianliu’s Thousand Flow adventurer team had brought in many Epic Weapons and Equipment from the main continent, there still wasn’t enough to equip everyone in the Guild. After all, even top-tier first-rate Guilds could not fully equip all their experts in Epic Weapons and Equipment. They could only acquire enough to gear their main force members at most. Moreover, most of these Epic Weapons and Equipment were individual pieces rather than sets.

For the average expert in first-rate Guilds, they’d be fortunate to have two or three pieces of Epic Equipment.

Meanwhile, the eight-piece Dark-Gold ranked Ancient Mana Equipment Set was inferior only to eight-piece Epic Equipment Sets. In some cases, the Mana Equipment Set excelled even more than Epic Equipment Sets. If he could equip every Zero Wing member with a set, Zero Wing’s overall combat power would definitely skyrocket.

Afterward, Shi Feng joined Horn and the other masters in producing the Ancient Mana Equipment Set.

Shi Feng wasn’t just a Tier 6 Sword God in the past. He was also a Grandmaster Forger. Although he was only a Basic Apprentice Forger with zero Lifestyle EXP right now, he still remembered all the forging techniques he had learned in the past.

While Shi Feng might not be able to produce the whole set by himself, he could still help in producing some parts of the set. It was especially true when it came to refining metals and Magic Crystals. These tasks didn’t require Lifestyle Levels and relied entirely on technique.

Meanwhile, with the techniques Shi Feng had honed, he achieved a 60% success rate when refining, which was 10% higher than the NPC Masters. This, in turn, increased the overall production success rate of the Ancient Mana Equipment Set by a little.

In just two days, Shi Feng and the NPCs had successfully produced 50 Ancient Mana Equipment Sets. Shi Feng had also leveled up from 105 to 106 thanks to all the parts he had produced. His leveling speed was not at all inferior to players grinding out in the fields. In addition, he had leveled up twice in his forging standard, going from a Basic Apprentice Forger into an Advanced Apprentice Forger. Now, he was only missing a few more proficiency points to become a Basic Forger.

However, in producing all these Ancient Mana Equipment Sets, Shi Feng had also exhausted Zero Wing’s stockpile of Magic Crystals. If not for the large number of NPC Merchants contributing 70,000 Magic Crystals and 20,000 Gold in rent these past two days, Zero Wing would’ve long since gone bankrupt.

Just when Shi Feng was about to continue crafting some parts to level up into a Basic Forger, he suddenly received a call notification. Meanwhile, the caller was none other than Mysterious Moon’s Zhuo Yalin.

“Seeing as you are contacting me now, did something happen over at the Darkmoon Outpost, Miss Nightingale?” Shi Feng asked when he saw the tired look on Zhuo Yalin’s face. According to his agreement with Zhuo Yalin, there should still be two days until the battle for the Darkmoon Outpost began.

“Something has indeed happened,” Zhuo Yalin said with a bitter smile. “I’m afraid we will have to cancel our previous agreement, Mr. Black Flame. World Domination has just moved into Hundred Flow City and laid claim over every map that drops the tokens for the Darkmoon Outpost. First-rate Guilds like Mysterious Moon stand no chance against it…

“Of course, Mysterious Moon will still compensate you with 10,000 Gold.”

Ever since the God’s Domain Association’s temple trial, the entirety of God’s Domain had undergone a massive change. Every leveling spot in the Miniature Ancient World had also transformed into a battlefield between the various powers.

Originally, Zhuo Yalin thought that Mysterious Moon stood a chance at securing the Darkmoon Outpost since only a few first-rate Guilds were competing for it. However, after World Domination moved into Hundred Flow City, all of her plans had become a joke.

Currently, although Mysterious Moon still retained its hold over some of its leveling spots, every map that dropped the Darkmoon Token had become a forbidden zone thanks to World Domination. Although Mysterious Moon had collected over 60 Darkmoon Tokens thus far, that wouldn’t be enough to secure the Darkmoon Outpost. This was because the closer they got to the day of the competition, the higher the drop-rate for the Darkmoon Tokens would become. If World Domination monopolized all of the token maps for the next two days, it would have a huge advantage in numbers during the competition.

“World Domination has come to Hundred Flow City?” Shi Feng wasn’t particularly surprised to learn about this news. The rewards the God’s Domain Association offered were incredibly lucrative, so it wasn’t strange for even the various superpowers to make a move. “Miss Nightingale, forget the compensation. How about making a deal with Zero Wing?”

“A deal?” Zhuo Yalin was a little confused as she looked at Shi Feng. “May I know what kind of deal, Mr. Black Flame?”

“It’s a huge pity to just give up on the Darkmoon Outpost now. The Darkmoon Outpost is the nearest resting point for Level 110 maps. We’ll need to wait one whole month if we give up on the competition this time. How about we work together to secure it?” Shi Feng asked. “Of course, once we secure the Darkmoon Outpost, I want half of the Shops, including the only Large Shop in the Outpost. I also want half of the Outpost’s revenue. What do you think?”

Zhuo Yalin couldn’t help but look at Shi Feng in disbelief when she heard his words. “Mr. Black Flame, don’t tell me you…plan on attacking World Domination?”

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