Fiery Guardian Armor

In Red Leaf Town, gray clouds hung in the sky, and a bright moon shone high above. The magic lamps along the streets illuminated the town in a brilliant glow.

Shi Feng had just logged in.

It was still night in God's Domain. Most players were crowded into the trade district, as only a very small number of experts would head out into the wilderness to level up and kill monsters.

On the wide stone-paved roads, players had set up stalls everywhere. On white cloths lay materials needed for support professions and some common equipment. Sellers and buyers haggled with each other, their faces turning red and necks straining over a mere copper or two. The streets, which had been desolate during the day, had now transformed into a bustling market.

System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the auction house has been sold. After deducting the handling fee, 5 silver and 31 copper have been deposited into your bag space.

System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the auction house has been sold. After deducting the handling fee, 5 silver and 67 copper have been deposited into your bag space.

System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the auction house has been sold. After deducting the handling fee, 5 silver and 98 copper have been deposited into your bag space.

Shi Feng hadn't even taken two steps before he heard a string of auction house notifications. He casually pulled up the system messages and was immediately startled.

The value of the Guardian Armor had completely exceeded Shi Feng's expectations. He had originally thought 5 silver would be about right, but he hadn't expected the subsequent bidding to climb higher and higher. The highest had sold for 6 silver and 42 copper. The eleven pieces of Guardian Armor had sold for over 67 silver in total, instantly turning him into a man of wealth.

At the current stage, the purchasing power of a single silver coin was astonishing. The entire liquid capital of a second-rate guild was only sixty or seventy silver coins; they couldn't charge their ordinary members too many copper coins to help them develop in the early stages, as it would affect their future growth. Perhaps only a first-rate guild's liquid capital could reach over a gold coin, but when that capital had to be spread across dozens or hundreds of people, it seemed very little.

Right now, Shi Feng was effectively a wealthy tycoon.

By this time, most players who had been fighting outside during the day had returned to the small town, and they possessed a massive amount of materials. Shi Feng naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass. He found a spot with fewer people, spread out a white cloth, and began setting up a stall to buy materials.

The highest-level players should be level 4 by now, while ordinary players were still at level 2 and high-level players might have reached level 3. Therefore, the materials being sold were diverse, ranging from high-grade to common.

The price of high-grade materials was currently sky-high, so Shi Feng naturally wouldn't buy them. Relying solely on his own forging to earn money was limited; selling this equipment was merely to accumulate capital, and only with capital could he earn big money.

"Buying a set of Magic Essence for 6 copper, a set of Stone Material for 10 copper, and also buying Sturdy Stone, 23 copper per set," Shi Feng shouted loudly.

Players who heard him on the street gathered around one after another.

"Boss, I have 10 sets of Stone Material. How many are you buying?"

"I have 6 sets of Magic Essence. Do you want them all?"

"I have one set of Sturdy Stone."

After a day of fighting wild monsters, Magic Essence and Stone Material were common, trash-tier items. People usually sold them to NPCs or kept them to practice their support professions. However, items like Sturdy Stone were very rare, usually only dropped by Kobolds or Small Stone Monsters in level 3 zones.

A set of Sturdy Stone consisted of 20 pieces and was worth 20 copper when sold to an NPC. Using Sturdy Stone for forging was a bit extravagant at the moment, and most guilds rarely bought them, so their value wasn't high. However, they would be of great use after level 7, as many special monsters would appear in level 7 monster zones. Fighting these monsters consumed weapon durability very quickly. If a weapon ran out of durability, it would break, and there was only about a 20% chance of repairing it; if it couldn't be repaired, it would be scrapped.

Sturdy Stone could be used to craft Whetstones, which not only added extra damage but also restored 5 to 10 points of weapon durability. This allowed many players grinding monsters to avoid having to return to town specifically to repair their weapons, saving a lot of time and increasing their grinding efficiency.

In his previous life, Sturdy Stone had sold like wildfire, and Whetstones had skyrocketed in value, allowing many forging players to make a killing. The Shadow Guild hadn't been spared from being fleeced by those profiteers; in order to level up quickly and compete for an advantage, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and buy.

In this life, it was Shi Feng's turn to make a fortune by hoarding these Sturdy Stones in advance.

After buying materials for over an hour, Shi Feng had collected over eighty sets of Magic Essence and over one hundred and twenty sets of Stone Material. However, Sturdy Stone was too scarce, and he had only managed to buy twelve sets.

Seeing that his bag was almost full, Shi Feng had no choice but to make a trip to the bank warehouse to store these items first.

The bank warehouse had 500 slots by default. Opening the first 500 slots cost 20 copper, the second 1,000 slots cost 50 copper, and every 1,000 slots opened thereafter cost 1 silver coin, plus a management fee of 10 copper per 1,000 slots every week.

This money was nothing to the current Shi Feng, so he opened it up to 3,000 slots, which would incur a weekly management fee of 30 copper.

After depositing all the materials, Shi Feng ran to the auction house.

The auction house was connected to all the small towns in White River City. There might be few people selling common materials, but there should be some Sturdy Stone available, even if the price was a bit high.

However, compared to players reaching level 7 and gritting their teeth to buy Whetstones for their weapons, it was nothing.

Upon arriving at the auction house, Shi Feng noticed something strange: there were quite a few logistics personnel from various guilds hanging around, all waiting inside the auction house. He wondered what they were waiting for.

Shi Feng found a place to sit down and pulled up the auction house's operation panel.

Just as Shi Feng was searching for Sturdy Stone, he heard the guild logistics personnel nearby complaining to each other.

"How much longer do we have to wait? Why hasn't that Guardian Armor appeared yet? I need to buy it so I can finish my assignment!"

"You've only been here for 3 hours. I've been waiting for over ten hours. You didn't see how intense the competition was for that Guardian Armor. I heard that because of this piece of armor, many guilds killed a lot of special elites in the wilderness and gained amazing rewards. Some guilds even obtained quite a few pieces of equipment and skill books in the Dead Silence Forest because of it, so everyone came here to snatch them up. It's a pity the remaining pieces of Guardian Armor were snapped up instantly."

"Tell me about it. Our guild is regretting it so much now. If we had known, we would have spent 7 silver coins to secure one, and we wouldn't have fallen so far behind those other guilds. Now, the higher-ups have given a death order: as long as one appears, we must secure it."

As the guild personnel discussed this, Shi Feng hadn't expected the Guardian Armor to have such an immediate effect.

Consequently, Shi Feng took out the remaining seven pieces of Guardian Armor with the Power of Defense and quietly listed them, with a starting bid of 8 silver coins each. The price was 2 silver coins higher than he had previously anticipated, but these guilds should accept it. As for the best Guardian Heavy Armor, he would sell it after a while, letting these guilds digest the current stock first.

After listing the equipment, Shi Feng began searching for Sturdy Stone, wondering if there were many people selling it in the auction house.