Translator: SaltyTank Editor: SaltyTank
Soran’s wound was recovering steadily. After staying the night outside the city, he could already walk like a normal person. Only during vigorous activities did he feel slightly inconvenienced, but it was healing well all in all. If he did not carelessly re-open up the wound, it would completely recover in at most two days. It would only take a day to completely recover from this degree of injury if he had the ability Rebirth, which could be obtained by reaching 20 in Constitution; this was the one of the main reasons why Soran had been distributing points into Constitution.
In the end, treasure caves were low-level places for beginners. For some higher-ranked adventuring spots or underground ruins, the expedition might last over a month. Not only did adventurers have to spend time exploring the ruins, they also had to prepare themselves for accidents in the wilderness and even sabotage by thieves or other adventurers, which was why Constitution was a vital attribute.
For example, Soran once had a retarded wizard in his team who cast Blast Fireball in a narrow tunnel, causing the entire passageway to collapse. Even though all of them survived, as they all had advanced professions, it took them a whole week just to dig a path out from the rubble with their bare hands.
That was why people should stay away from brainless spellcasters; sometimes they were even more dangerous than monsters!
However, that was not the worst case — a retarded priest once cast Earthquake in an underground ruin. A large portion of the underground ruin collapsed, burying not only their precious loot but also the entire team hundreds of meters underground. The only survivor of the expedition was a dwarf warrior who had over 25 Constitution. After that incident, the priest was labelled the Mother of All Traps and became the nightmare of all players.
Thankfully, this sort of retarded behavior was limited to players only. NPC spellcasters were all masters who could even turn the tide of battle with a simple low-ranked spell, but they rarely joined hands with the players, let alone joining a player’s squad.
Before Soran went to pick Vivian up, he first had to visit a magic store in the city. The city entrances were heavily guarded, and outsiders had to be thoroughly inspected and searched before they could enter. The skinning incident had been gradually turning into a much more serious issue as time passed, but Soran knew it was just the beginning. He remembered that the skinning incidents were just one part of an evil ritual which ended up affecting the entire southern region, including six kingdoms, eighteen principalities, thirty-one city-states, and over three hundred cities.
It was the period when players learned the true meaning of helplessness; over two hundred thousand players were involved in the main storyline of the game, but only twenty of them made it through the chaotic period and became Legendary players.
Soran tried to recall his memories in detail in an attempt to deduce the current time period. The skinning incidents had just begun, and the ancient red dragon had yet to appear, meaning there was still over a year before the deities were forced to descend into the Mortal Realm as Saints. Taking other special incidents into account, there should still be roughly two years for him to train himself.
In two years’ time, a major incident should occur—the Goddess of Magic had fallen then in the game, causing the entire magic network to collapse. All wizards temporary lost their ability to cast spells due to the incident.
The Goddess of Magic was a powerful deity who controlled numerous magic networks across various planes, and she was the one who allowed wizards to utilize the networks for casting arcane spells. Unfortunately, she was also one of the first deities to fall during the period of disturbance.
Currently, there were a lot of wizards in the world; thus, there were magic shops in basically every city. It was not until the fall of the Goddess of Magic that the number of wizards dropped drastically. The magic network began to collapse as the Goddess of Magic could no longer maintain the network, causing wizards to lose their spellcasting ability. All wizards with an Intelligence of below 18 completely lost their spellcasting ability, while those with 18 to 20 Intelligence could only cast basic Level 0 spells.
Only those who had over 20 Intelligence managed to discover the laws of magic on their own, gradually recovering their spellcasting ability as they learned more about the world. However, they would no longer be casting spells with the help of the magic network, but rather with their own knowledge of magic and the world.
The magic network was convenient, but it also constrained the wizards’ potential. It was a double-edged sword; the network allowed wizards who lacked talent (below 18 INT) to cast spells easily, but also prevented powerful wizards (above 18 INT) from promoting to archmages.
From that day onward, the profession began to diverge into two extremes—extremely powerful and utter garbage—but that was something in the future. The magic network was still functioning properly right now, and all wizards could still transfer their mana to the network and borrow the powers of the goddess to cast spells. However, they had to refresh their memories of various spells frequently.
Soran was organizing the information regarding the incident in his mind, as the fall of the Goddess of Magic had a significant impact on the world, affecting numerous other planes as a side effect.
Only the strong ones who had reached over 20 points in the related attributes would be able to awaken to the laws of the world on their own and recover their spell-casting abilities. The day that the Goddess of Magic would fall was not far away; she was one of the first deities to fall, and all wizards would soon lose their spell-casting powers.
Most magic shops were actually quite inconspicuous, as wizards, like most spellcasters, did not like to communicate with average citizens or even people from other professions. Among the spellcasting professions, only priests were less arrogant and were willing to cooperate with others.
Soran gently opened the wooden door and entered the empty store. Only several enchanted equipment were placed on the counter, with no customers in sight. The items sold in the shop were simply too expensive for commoners.
“Are you selling or buying?”
A man of considerable age sluggishly glanced at Soran. The man was wearing a pair of glasses while holding a thick book in his hands as he lifted his head.
“If you’re selling enchanted gear, I’ll appraise it for you. If you’re looking to buy something, feel free to look around.” The man spoke in a cold voice.
Magic stores were set up by the Wizards’ Alliance and were present in most major cities. A wizard of at least Grade 2 was stationed in each shop, with them being transferred to different cities from time to time. Currently, the Wizards’ Alliance was still quite powerful and influential, but that was about to end as they would lose their influence along with the Goddess of Magic’s fall. The magic stores were frequently robbed during the period when the wizards lost their spellcasting abilities, but that was still a suicidal act right now.
Seemingly knowing Soran’s profession, the old man warned him, “Don’t try anything fishy here. All the items are enchanted with magic traps.”
Everyone knew rogues had dishonest hands, but Soran did not intend to try stealing anything in front of a Grade 3 Wizard who had Level 10 Sage/Level 10 Wizard as his profession. Soran pulled out the pair of Snake Demon Swords from behind his back and placed them in front of the old man.
“Eh?”
The old man glanced at the pair of longswords and showed an awed expression. “Igneous rock?”
He lifted a sword up with much effort and touched the blade with his fingers. Wizards had relatively low Strength when compared to other professions, and only those who had reached the Realm of Legends could enhance their own Strength with special rituals. The old man retracted his fingers as he finished his inspection of the weapon. “Who would forge swords with such material? Such a waste!”
Without asking the origins of the pair of swords, the man glanced at Soran and named his price, “80 Gold Derahls each.”
Magic stores had their own channels through which they could sell items regardless of their origins. As long as it was Rare equipment, the stores would buy it even if it was stolen goods—wizards would never reject the opportunity to earn more money.
“120 Gold Derahls.” Soran knitted his eyebrows after hearing the old man’s offer. “This weapon is forged with igneous rock! According to the rules of weapon pricing, the prices for giant swords can fluctuate by up to fifty percent. I don’t care if you resell the swords as weapons or materials, but they could net you 200 Gold Derahls at the very least. They could even be sold for up to 300 Gold Derahls if transported to the northern regions or the plains. That’s many times higher than the price you’re offering.
“80 Gold Derahls is simply too little. I might as well sell them to the Rogue Association.”
“Hoh, you know the industry well. Fine, 120 Gold Derahls it is.”
A 2.2-meter-tall stone golem tottered from behind the counter after the old man lightly rung a bell. The golem, which was created through alchemy, lifted the Snake Demon Longswords and exited the store through a back door, but soon returned with an inconspicuous pouch in its hands.
The old man opened the multi-dimensional bag and poured a pile of shiny gold coins onto the counter. The pile of coins split into two uneven portions as he drew a line in the air with his finger, the smaller pile returning into the multi-dimensional bag while the larger pile stopped in front of Soran.
Mage Hand; it was a rather convenient skill.
Just like every other wizard who had great power and wealth, the store owner was also rather arrogant, as he continued reading without paying Soran heed after saying, “Feel free to look around, and let me know if you would like to buy something.”
The 240 Gold Derahls he’d just earned weighed around 12 pounds (approximately 5 kg), and carrying them around was inconvenient and could even hinder Soran in battle.
“I’ll buy a low-grade multi-dimensional bag,” Soran said as he pushed a hundred gold coins from his pile on the counter toward the store owner.
The wizard nodded as he took the hundred gold coins and removed a small bag from a drawer behind the counter. “Make sure not to break it.
“It’s enchanted with protection magic of the lowest tier. It won’t break under normal circumstances, but the items will all spill out if damaged.”
Soran nodded and transferred the 140 Gold Derahls on the counter into the bag. Low-grade multi-dimensional bags had a capacity of one cubic meter and an opening of half a foot, meaning they could only store small items.
The bags might be damaged in battle, losing their storage ability as a result. The internal space would then collapse, and the stored items would be forced out of the bag, with some even becoming lost in dimensional gaps.
It wasn’t just multi-dimensional bags though. Non-Legendary equipment had a considerable chance of getting damaged. Even Soran’s Ogre Strength Gauntlet might be damaged in battle and lose its effects; it might even be damaged beyond repair if overused.
With the deal done, Soran quickly left the store and walked toward the smithery near the main plaza. He needed a curved sword, but Rare ones were pretty much non-existent in southern regions; Soran had to make do with a standard Military-grade used curved sword for now.
“Negotiations successful!”
“You have successfully raised the price of your equipment through negotiations!”
“Diplomacy +1, Appraise +1.”
*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her
*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao
*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique
*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall
*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake
*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill
*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel
*[Noodles]: made of wheat
*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice
*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet
*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap
