Hearing Lin Yu expose his lie at once, the werewolf stiffened for a moment, then continued bargaining as if nothing had happened. "Come on, gathering costs stamina too. Recovering stamina makes satiety drop faster, you know. Five portions for one copper coin, and I can't go any lower. Any less, and I won't even have enough money to buy black bread to recover my stamina."
"Eight portions for one copper coin. I can't go any higher."
After some fierce bargaining, the price of Vitality Grass was finally settled at seven portions for one copper coin.
Clearly, both parties felt they had gotten a good deal. The werewolf quickly pushed 140 portions of Vitality Grass in front of Lin Yu, swiftly accepted the 20 copper coins Lin Yu handed over, and promptly put them in his inventory.
After putting the Vitality Grass in his inventory, Lin Yu began looking for the next material he needed.
Next, Lin Yu spent another 50 copper coins on 50 Redblood Flowers, with 100 portions of magic-infused grass seeds thrown in for free.
After taking the needle and thread out of his inventory and putting them in his backpack, Lin Yu put the materials he had bought into his inventory, then flew off.
Next came the potions. Lin Yu planned to make three things: Simple Blood-Activating Potions, Vitality Powder, and Beast Lure Powder.
Lin Yu had chosen those three products based on the information he had gathered.
Lin Yu couldn't make Simple Blood-Activating Potions yet. He would have to wait until he could rent an alchemy workshop.
For now, Lin Yu could only make Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder, both of which were in high demand among players.
Vitality Powder restored one stamina point per second for 30 seconds after use, at the cost of greatly increasing hunger depletion for its duration. With Vitality Powder continuously replenishing their stamina, players could sustain long battles.
Beast Lure Powder attracted nearby herbivores when scattered in a spot. After eating it, the herbivores entered a state called Drunken Demon. Animals in that state couldn't run at all, making them easy for players to hunt.
The animal carcasses could then be turned in to the hunter NPC at the Hunter's Hut for money. The hunter's quests could be said to pay the most: turning in a single pheasant carcass earned 20 copper coins, while larger prey fetched at least one silver coin. Lin Yu had seen a forum post from someone who had successfully hunted a cow and received ten silver coins for turning it in.
The guide Lin Yu had seen at the very beginning was already outdated. The latest situation was that the hunter's quests had become money-making quests that newbies had to do, though they weren't suited to Lin Yu.
The players had explored Era at a rapid pace. In less than half a day, they had gone from being chased down and killed by monsters to treating ordinary wild beasts as little more than roadside fodder.
When the game had first launched, the players had known nothing about its mechanics. With no weapons, hunting monsters had been especially difficult. Often, a player could beat a monster, only for it to run away, wasting more than half a day's effort. More often, the player simply couldn't beat it.
Later, the players gradually figured out how to make their own equipment. Wild beasts were basically no longer a threat to them, and they began exploring Era's map. Before long, they discovered that the game had a complete ecosystem.
As players explored, they found that virtually all the wild animals found in real life could also be found in Era. Besides predators that actively attacked players, such as wolves, bears, pigs, and tigers, there were also herbivores like cows, sheep, mice, and rabbits.
Someone then discovered what Beast Lure Powder did. All they had to do was scatter it in one spot and wait for prey to take the bait. Herbivores didn't give much experience, only one or two points, but with Beast Lure Powder, they were easy to hunt, and their carcasses sold for a good price.
Fortunately, the monsters in this game respawned. Otherwise, at the rate the players were killing them, the beasts near the newbie village would have been wiped out long ago.
Trees, ores, and herbs respawned too. If they didn't, Lin Yu would have seen vast stretches of tree stumps rather than woods when he left the newbie village.
When players began exploring Era's map in earnest, one of them discovered a magical beast. While hunting, the player spotted a wild wolf several times larger than an ordinary one. The moment he saw it, he charged straight in with his wooden spear, only for the magical beast to kill him in a few moves.
Only after checking his death message did the player learn that it was a level-one magical beast called a Wind Wolf.
After the player posted his experience on the forum, the post quickly became a hot topic. Players heatedly debated what magical beasts were, and concluded that they were most likely the game's bosses.
Some players with top-tier talents began organizing parties to take down magical beasts.
After several failed attempts, the players began reviewing what they had learned.
The players discovered that many attempts failed not because they couldn't win, but because they ran out of stamina during prolonged battles. They began looking for a medicine that could quickly restore stamina during combat.
That was when Vitality Powder, a stamina-restoring medicine made using nothing but Vitality Grass, came to the attention of these players.
After purchasing enough Vitality Powder, a five-person party successfully took down a level-two magical beast, earning each member ten experience points.
Turning the magical beast's carcass in to the hunter NPC earned them 20 silver coins.
After that, more player parties gradually succeeded in taking down magical beasts.
By the time Lin Yu browsed the forum that morning, quite a few players had posted videos of their parties taking down magical beasts.
Back at the inn, Lin Yu entered his room.
He opened his backpack, took out the Vitality Grass and magic-infused grass seeds, and began making Vitality Powder.
At that moment, Lin Yu finally understood why players who had chosen combat classes bought Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder from logistics players instead of making the powders themselves, even though they could.
Making the stuff simply took too much time.
Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder took the same amount of time to make: one minute per portion. Top players basically took at least a hundred portions of Vitality Powder with them whenever they went out to grind monsters. Ordinary combat players might not need that much, but they would take at least fifty portions, right? And there was also the Beast Lure Powder they needed to bring. How long would it take to make it all by hand? They could have hunted several animals in that time.
Rather than spend time making it themselves, they were better off paying logistics players for the Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder they made.
The current market price for both Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder was five copper coins per portion.
Come to think of it, wasn't that still a little expensive?
After spending four hours at it, Lin Yu finally made 140 portions of Vitality Powder and 100 portions of Beast Lure Powder.
He stretched his stiff body, feeling as though his whole body was about to rust.
Remembering how he had wondered four hours ago whether Vitality Powder and Beast Lure Powder were too expensive, Lin Yu now wanted to give his self from four hours ago a beating. Were five copper coins expensive? Not at all. He had sat there for four hours and made only that much. In terms of time alone, five copper coins wasn't expensive in the least.
Sure enough, people couldn't empathize with their past selves.