Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1556 – 3-star NPC Merchant
“The Moon God’s Secret Journal!”
Everyone present was stunned momentarily when they heard Silent Wonder’s words, their eyes staring dazedly at the thick book on the stone table.
As long as one was an alchemist in God’s Domain, they would generally have visited a library and read up on matters regarding the alchemy world.
Most of the many introductory books on alchemy would mention the alchemy treasure known as the Moon God’s Secret Journal.
Among the numerous epic wars that the continent of God’s Domain experienced before, quite a few of them were over the Moon God’s Secret Journal.
Meanwhile, such a precious alchemy treasure was actually being offered as a benefit for the internal members of the Candlelight Trading Firm.
No wonder the three of them could improve so quickly. Realization dawned upon Silent Wonder as she turned to look at Dormant Twilight and the others.
At the same time, the benefits offered to Candlelight’s internal members also rendered her utterly speechless.
Shi Feng’s confidence in allowing even official members to compete for the top ten positions was understandable.
Meanwhile, Silent Aspiration’s eyes were practically glowing as he looked at the Moon God’s Secret Journal. He wished he could take a read through the book right this instant.
“I’m sure you all know how valuable this Moon God’s Secret Journal is. If you wish to read it, you’ll have to rely on your own abilities to do so. Any internal member can look for Melancholic Smile to learn Basic Secret Alchemy Techniques. Also, only after learning one technique completely will you be allowed to learn another. Each time you finish learning a technique, you’ll be given one opportunity to read through the Moon God’s Secret Journal. How many times you’ll be able to read through the journal will depend on yourselves.” Shi Feng could not help but chuckle when he saw the longing in everyone’s eyes. He then left the remaining matters for Melancholic Smile to deal with.
Upon hearing Shi Feng’s words, the Advanced Alchemists that had become internal members just now immediately ran up to Melancholic Smile, fighting over the chance to start learning a Basic Secret Alchemy Technique as soon as possible.
Had Shi Feng taken out the Moon God’s Secret Journal and shown it to them before the competition, they would have treated the journal as merely an alchemy treasure. They would not have had a clear understanding of its value. However, after watching Dormant Twilight and the others’ performance, they came to fully appreciate the power of the Moon God’s Secret Journal. Now, they hoped to grasp the knowledge stored inside the journal as soon as possible.
Just as Shi Feng was letting Dormant Twilight and the other two top three winners learn the Mana Enhancing Potion Recipe, Aqua Rose suddenly contacted him.
“Guild Leader, I just received a report stating that Heaven’s Burial has begun raiding the Orc Empire’s Ancient Rock City. Moreover, they’ve mobilized a considerable force. At this point in time, we estimate that Heaven’s Burial has mobilized over 100,000 elite members and 5,000 NPCs. By the looks of it, they are almost certain to capture Ancient Rock City,” Aqua Rose reported.
They dare raid an Orc city with just 100,000 elite players and 5,000 mercenaries?Hearing Aqua Rose’s words, Shi Feng could not help but fall into deep thought.Could Heaven’s Burial have some other insurance?
He might not have a clear idea of how powerful the cities in the Orc Empire were, but one thing he did know was that the cities located in neutral maps were not that easy to raid.
For example, even though the Secret Pavilion had obtained 15,000 NPC mercenaries from him, its chances of securing an Orc city were minimal.
After all, a city possessed a defensive magic array. Meanwhile, attacks at Tier 3 and below would do very little to deplete the energy of a city’s defensive magic array. In addition, the Orcs defending the city would definitely outnumber players by a lot. There were also Mythic monsters garrisoning the city.
Unlike the Mythic monsters found in Dungeons and out in the fields, a Mythic monster defending a city would receive a significant buff from the city’s defensive magic array. An army of 100,000 elite players was no different from a bunch of ants in the face of such a Mythic monster. The latter could annihilate the former with little to no effort.
In fact, even if the Mythic monsters defending the city did not make a move, the Orc army stationed inside the city would most likely be able to annihilate Heaven’s Burial’s army of 100,000 elite players easily.
Hence, by attempting to capture Ancient Rock City, either Heaven’s Burial’s upper echelon consisted of utter fools or the Guild had some other power they were relying on.
“Guild Leader, I heard that many first-rate Guilds are sending their own forces to take advantage of the situation. Should we poke our hands into the matter as well?” Aqua Rose did not have any positive feelings about Heaven’s Burial. In other words, their two Guilds were basically enemies. Now that Heaven’s Burial was trying to capture Ancient Rock City, Zero Wing naturally could not just sit out and do nothing.
“Forget it. Since Heaven’s Burial dares to take such an action, I’m sure they’ve considered this problem as well. For all we know, we might end up stepping into a trap they set up. Let the other Guilds have their fun. However, make sure to keep an eye on the situation there as well,” Shi Feng said, shaking his head. “Right, are you done sorting through the information on the NPC merchants yet?”
Beast Emperor’s shadow loomed behind Heaven’s Burial. In a field battle without the aid of defensive structures like the Magic Tower, dealing with a swarm of Evil Beasts and Evil Demons would be very difficult. At the very least, Zero Wing currently still lacked the means to contend against an army of monsters in a frontal confrontation.
In fact, Heaven’s Burial’s goal in attacking Ancient Rock City might not be the conquest of the city at all. It might very well be an attempt to lure the various large Guilds into a trap and turn their members into resources for Beast Emperor to create even more Evil Demons. After all, the Black Dragon Empire’s Evil God’s Temple had already been activated. If Beast Emperor wished to nurture powerful Evil Demons, he would need a large number of sacrifices to do so. Meanwhile, hunting for players the normal way would take a very long time. If he could gather a large number of players in a single location at the same time, with the said location even being in a neutral map… Just the thought of it horrified Shi Feng.
Now, the only thing Shi Feng could do was improve Zero Wing’s power as quickly as possible. He was confident that so long as he developed Zero Wing City properly, be it Heaven’s Burial, Beast Emperor, or the Blackwater Corporation, none of them should even dream of shaking Zero Wing’s foundations by even the slightest.
“I understand. I’ll have Flying Shadow and the others head over to take a look.” Aqua Rose nodded. “As for the NPC merchants, I’ve already compiled a report on their details. I’ll send it over to you now.”
Following which, Aqua Rose disconnected the call and sent the statistics report on the NPC merchants to Shi Feng.
Why are there so many of them?! Shi Feng was stunned as he looked through the information Aqua Rose sent to him.
During the short amount of time Zero Wing City had been open, over a thousand NPC merchants had actually come seeking to do business in the city. This number exceeded even that of the NPC merchants Shadow had managed to lure in with its main city.
Although the majority of the merchants had low potential and were only 1-star NPC Merchants, there were still over two hundred 2-star NPC Merchants seeking to do business in Zero Wing City. With this amount of 2-star NPC Merchants, Zero Wing City could already rival the main cities operated by first-rate Guilds in the past.
These are…3-star NPC Merchants?! As Shi Feng reached the end of the list, he noticed that the symbol representing the NPC merchants had transitioned from two stars to three stars. How is this possible? Zero Wing City was just constructed recently, yet 3-star NPC Merchants are visiting it already?
If the Guilds in the past were to find out that 3-star NPC Merchants visited Zero Wing City almost immediately after the city’s opening, they would definitely die of envy.
In God’s Domain, there was a qualitative difference between 2-star and 3-star NPC Merchants. Although there was not much of a difference when it came to the kinds of products both types of NPC merchants sold, when it came to potential, a 3-star NPC Merchant surpassed their 2-star counterparts by leaps and bounds.
An NPC merchant’s star-ranking determined not only the quality of the items they sold but also the development speed of the Shop purchased by the said NPC merchant.
Shops operated by NPC merchants were different from those operated by players. Players had to either complete extremely difficult team quests or obtain the corresponding Promotion Orders. In contrast, NPC merchants did not have to go through such troublesome procedures. Instead, the promotion of their Shops relied entirely on their sales volume.
After a Shop achieved a certain sales volume, the Shop would get promoted automatically. Meanwhile, the higher-ranked an NPC merchant was, the greater the sales volume they were able to achieve, allowing them to get their Shops promoted much more quickly. When an NPC-operated Shop got promoted, it would start selling much more valuable items—which, in turn, would help attract more players to the city the Shop was located in.
Meanwhile, on average, the promotion speed of a Shop operated by a 3-star NPC Merchant was double that of a 2-star NPC Merchant. If a city possessed a sufficiently large player population, the promotion speed could even be two or three times faster.
Hence, the various large Guilds in the past would do everything they could to attract a 3-star NPC Merchant to their cities.
In the past, Shi Feng had only ever heard of 3-star NPC Merchants taking the initiative to visit the main cities operated by Super Guilds—and never for cities of lower standards. As a result, the large Guilds had to compete over the 3-star NPC Merchants found in the various major NPC cities or wandering out in the fields.
Meanwhile, not just one 3-star NPC Merchant was seeking to do business in Zero Wing City right now, but two instead.
Thinking up to this point, Shi Feng immediately contacted Aqua Rose.
“Aqua, think of a way to have these two NPC merchants stay in the city. I’ll head over immediately.”
In God’s Domain, NPC merchants would stay for only a certain period of time when visiting a city. They would not remain in the city permanently unless given a positive response to their request to do business. If he were to let these two 3-star NPC Merchants get away now, the next one would be long in coming.
After saying so, Shi Feng called upon Youlan and had her teleport to Zero Wing City’s Guild Residence with him.
