Translator: Hellscythe_ Editor: FluffyGoblyn

The reconstruction of the five branch Shops completed fairly quickly.

Only ten minutes after Shi Feng chose to upgrade them, the five 1-star Shops evolved into 2-star Shops.

Although the number of items that the Shop could sell had not changed, it could accommodate far more Lifestyle players. The additional space was more than enough for the 1,200 Lifestyle players the Candlelight Trading Firm wanted to recruit.

God’s Domain was already developing faster than Shi Feng had expected.

When Shi Feng had first obtained the 3-star Shop Promotion Order, he had not intended to recruit so many Lifestyle players. At most, he had planned to recruit around five or six hundred players. However, after the game’s fourth evolution, items became more complicated to produce, and this, in turn, would impact production speeds.

After the system upgrade, Melancholic Smile had calculated the statistics of everyone’s production speed within the trading firm.

To put it simply, the more advanced an item was, the more its production speed had been affected.

For common items such as Whetstones, production speed had experienced roughly a 15% reduction. As for items such as Advanced Whetstones, their production had slowed by around 20%. In other words, if a Lifestyle player was capable of producing five Advanced Whetstones within a certain time before the system upgrade, then now, they were only capable of producing four Advanced Whetstones within the same period.

As for items that only Intermediate Forgers or higher could craft, such as the Strengthening Device, their production speed had decreased by roughly 40%. Before the system upgrade, the Candlelight Trading Firm had not been able to produce many Strengthening Devices each day; now, the item’s output was pitifully low. Unfortunately, Shi Feng had already agreed to hand over ten Bronze Mounts and 2,000 Strengthening Devices to the Secret Pavilion within five days, as well as the rest of the items within twelve days after the system update completed.

If he failed to do so, not only would he have to return the ten black cards he had received, but he would also be out of the items he had already paid.

Hence, Shi Feng was very short on time.

If he wished to increase production speed, he had two options: increase his current workforce’s success rates or grow his workforce.

As there was a limit to how much he could raise a Lifestyle player’s success rate, his only viable option was to bolster his workforce.

However, Shi Feng did not have much hope of nurturing a large batch of excellent Lifestyle players from the new recruits.

Rather, he wanted the new Advanced Apprentices to take on the workload of the firm’s Basic Forgers, while the Basic Forgers would take on the Intermediate Forgers’ work. In turn, the Intermediate Forgers would take care of the Advanced Forgers’ workload.

This way, he would have a higher chance of completing his task within the allotted time.

Following which, Shi Feng explained his plans to Melancholic Smile and had her begin preparations. After all, it would not be easy to sort so many people in a short time.

“Guild Leader, I’m afraid that this will be very difficult to accomplish. Even with the help of the Special Workshop, Cocoa, Uncle Ironheart, and I only have a 40% success rate with the Strengthening Devices. Even if the firm’s Intermediate Forgers have the help of the Special Workshop, they will only have, at most, around a 15% success rate. With such a low success rate, we’ll be lucky if we break even, let alone make a profit.” Melancholic Smile was very familiar with the success rates of the trading firm’s forgers as she usually analyzed the trading firm’s statistics.

Although a 15% forging success rate seemed relatively high, when one started the actual work, they would most likely fail ten out of ten tries.

Based on her analysis, only with a 20% success rate would a forger have a chance of succeeding once out ten tries. Only after reaching a 25% success rate would a forger notice a qualitative change. Once a forger reached that milestone, they would generally succeed once or twice out of ten tries.

If they allowed Intermediate Forgers to produce the Strengthening Device, they would be pushing their luck.

Cream Cocoa, who stood beside Melancholic Smile, nodded her agreement. After a long period of research and experimentation, she decided that, as long as the system-calculated success rate was below 20%, she would give up on making the item. After all, her chances of successfully crafting the item were too low. Even if she did produce the item, the firm would only take a loss. Wasting money was one thing, but wasting resources was another thing altogether.

The resources in God’s Domain were limited. The materials required to produce advanced items were even rarer. It would be foolish to produce an item without guaranteed success.

“Look at this,” Shi Feng said, chuckling as he retrieved a fist-sized, aqua-blue ingot and placed it on the table.

Immediately, Melancholic Smile and Cocoa were stunned.

The Mana the ore faintly emitted was actually denser than the Mana from the Magic Crystal.

When the two forgers clicked to read the item’s introduction, their jaws dropped.

“Guild Leader, where did you get this?!” Melancholic Smile locked her eyes with Shi Feng’s, excitement evident on her face. “Do you have a lot of them?!”

Mysterious Flames were extremely rare in God’s Domain. They were so rare that, even after a long investigation, Melancholic Smile had not found any clues leading to a single Mysterious Flame.

She only knew about Mysterious Flames to begin with because of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame in the Candlelight Trading Firm’s Special Workshops. Shi Feng had left behind this Mysterious Flame. However, after one obtained a Mysterious Flame, they could only place it in up to three Workshops.

If not for the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, they would not have reached a 40% success rate with the Strengthening Devices.

However, the Mana Source Ore was the perfect item to make up for their lack of Mysterious Flames.

The Intermediate Mana Source Ore Shi Feng had revealed could grant an ordinary flame the effects of a Tier 3 Mysterious Flame. The only downside was that, unlike true Mysterious Flames that could be used indefinitely, the ore was only effective for 30 minutes.

With the aid of a Tier 3 Mysterious Flame, the Intermediate Forgers could at least reach a 25% success rate with the Strengthening Devices. If they had a large stock of Intermediate Mana Source Ore, these Intermediate Forgers could definitely produce the Strengthening Devices. Currently, the Candlelight Trading Firm had close to 20 Intermediate Forgers, more than their Strengthening Device Forging Designs. If they allowed three Intermediate Forgers with the highest success rates to learn their three remaining forging designs, they could double their production team.

Meanwhile, if the three of them utilized the Intermediate Mana Source Ore, their success rate might even exceed 50%. Including the Basic Meditation Room’s effects, if they forged Strengthening Devices nonstop, they might achieve a production volume of more than 700 devices. Rather than suffering a slower production rate due to the system upgrade, they could significantly increase their production. They could absolutely hit the target Shi Feng had requested.

“Relax. I have enough for your needs.” Shi Feng nodded, laughing. He then took out a table-sized design and unfurled it. This was none other than the Bronze Engineering Locomotive Design that he had purchased from Sinned Heart. “Melancholic, you’re the most familiar with the trading firm’s people. Look for a few trustworthy engineers and alchemists and work with them to produce this item.”

After glancing at the design and its name, Melancholic Smile was thoroughly stupefied.

Cream Cocoa stared at the design as if she were looking at a priceless treasure, her eyes sparkling brightly.

Although the design before them was an engineering design, the manufacturing procedure involved three classes: engineers, forgers, and alchemists–the three major Lifestyle classes. Moreover, the manufacturing procedure required a lot of its crafters. The Engineering Locomotive was far more difficult to manufacture than the Strengthening Device. One mistake could lead to failure.

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