Red Leaf Town was veiled beneath a gray, cloudy sky, with a bright full moon hanging overhead. The magic lamps along the streets illuminated the town.
Shi Feng had just logged on.
It was still nighttime in God's Domain. Most players were in the Trade District, making it quite crowded. Only a handful of experts ventured out to level up and hunt monsters.
Players had set up stalls all along the wide stone-paved streets. White cloths displayed materials needed by players in auxiliary professions and ordinary equipment. Buyers and sellers haggled with each other, sometimes arguing until they were red in the face over a single copper. The quiet streets from daytime had become a bustling marketplace.
System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the Auction House has sold. After deducting the fee, 5 silver and 31 copper have been deposited into your bag.
System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the Auction House has sold. After deducting the fee, 5 silver and 67 copper have been deposited into your bag.
System: The Guardian Armor you listed in the Auction House has sold. After deducting the fee, 5 silver and 98 copper have been deposited into your bag.
Shi Feng had barely taken two steps when a string of Auction House notifications sounded. He casually opened the system messages and was immediately startled.
The Guardian Armor was worth far more than Shi Feng had expected. He had thought it would fetch around 5 silver, but the bids had kept climbing. The highest one had already sold for 6 silver and 42 copper. All eleven pieces of Guardian Armor had sold for over 67 silver, instantly making him a wealthy man.
At this stage, even a single silver coin had tremendous purchasing power. A second-rate guild's entire pool of liquid funds amounted to only sixty or seventy silver. They couldn't collect too many copper coins from ordinary members early on, or it would hinder their future development. Only a first-rate guild might have over a gold in liquid funds, but spread across dozens or even hundreds of people, that amount still seemed small.
Shi Feng was now a bona fide tycoon.
By now, nearly all the players who had spent the day fighting outside had returned to town, carrying plenty of materials. Shi Feng naturally wouldn't let the opportunity pass. He found a spot with few people, spread out a piece of white cloth, and began setting up a stall to buy materials.
The highest-level players were probably level 4 now. Ordinary players were still level 2, while hardcore players might have reached level 3, so the materials on offer varied widely in quality.
High-grade materials were extremely expensive right now, so Shi Feng naturally had no intention of buying them. He could earn only so much by forging equipment on his own. Selling these pieces was merely a way to build up capital. Only with capital could he make big money.
"I'm buying Magic Essence at 6 copper a stack, stone materials at 10 copper a stack, and Sturdy Stone at 23 copper a stack!" Shi Feng shouted.
The players on the street heard him and gathered around.
"Boss, I've got ten stacks of stone materials. How many do you want?"
"I've got six stacks of Magic Essence. Do you want them all?"
"I have one stack of Sturdy Stone."
After a full day of hunting monsters, Magic Essence and stone materials were everywhere. Most people sold them to NPCs or kept them to practice their auxiliary professions. Sturdy Stone, however, was quite rare. It generally only dropped from Kobolds or Small Stone Monsters in level 3 zones.
A stack of Sturdy Stone contained twenty pieces and sold to NPCs for 20 copper. Using Sturdy Stone for forging was a little extravagant at the moment, and most guilds rarely bought it, so it wasn't worth much. But it would be very useful after players reached level 7. The level 7 monster zones would be full of unusual monsters, and fighting them wore down weapons quickly. When a weapon ran out of durability, it could break, and there was only about a 20% chance of repairing it. If the repair failed, it was ruined.
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 meant players grinding monsters wouldn't have to make special trips back to town to repair their weapons, saving them plenty of time and improving their grinding efficiency.
In his previous life, Sturdy Stone had sold like hotcakes, and Whetstones had risen in value at an astonishing rate. Plenty of forging players had made a fortune, and the Shadow Guild had avoided being fleeced by those profiteers. To level up quickly and secure an advantage, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and buy.
This time, it was Shi Feng's turn to make a fortune by stockpiling Sturdy Stone ahead of time.
After buying materials for over an hour, Shi Feng had collected more than eighty stacks of Magic Essence and over a hundred and twenty stacks of stone materials. Sturdy Stone was much scarcer, and he had only managed to buy twelve stacks.
His bag was nearly full.
Shi Feng had no choice but to make a trip to the bank vault and store everything there.
The bank vault came with 500 slots. Unlocking those first 500 slots cost 20 copper. The second expansion added another 1,000 slots and cost 50 copper. Every additional 1,000 slots after that cost 1 silver, plus a weekly management fee of 10 copper per thousand slots.
This expense was nothing to Shi Feng now. He immediately expanded the vault to 3,000 slots, which meant paying a weekly management fee of 30 copper.
After depositing all the materials, Shi Feng headed to the Auction House.
The Auction House served all the towns in White River City. There might not be many sellers of ordinary materials, but there should be some selling Sturdy Stone. The only issue was the price.
Still, compared to players reaching level 7 and gritting their teeth to buy Whetstones for their weapons, the cost was nothing.
When Shi Feng arrived at the Auction House, he noticed something strange: there were many more guild quartermasters than usual, each waiting inside. He had no idea what they were waiting for.
Shi Feng found a seat and opened the Auction House interface.
As he searched for Sturdy Stone, he heard the guild quartermasters nearby complaining to each other.
"How much longer do we have to wait? Why hasn't that Guardian Armor shown up yet? I need to buy it so I can report back!"
"You've only been here for three hours. I've been waiting for more than ten. You should've seen how fierce the competition was over that Guardian Armor. I heard several guilds took down a lot of rare field elites because of it and made an amazing haul. One guild even got plenty of equipment and skill books in the Dead Silence Forest thanks to the Guardian Armor. That's why everyone came rushing to buy one. Unfortunately, the last few pieces were snapped up right away."
"Tell me about it. Our guild couldn't regret it more. If we'd known, we would've spent 7 silver to get one, and we wouldn't have fallen so far behind the other guilds. Now the higher-ups have given us a strict order: if another one appears, we have to get it."
As the guild quartermasters discussed this, Shi Feng hadn't expected the Guardian Armor to have such an immediate effect.
So Shi Feng took out the remaining seven pieces of Guardian Armor with Power of Defense and quietly listed them. He set the starting price of each at 8 silver, 2 silver higher than he had originally planned. The guilds should still be willing to pay that much. As for the best piece, the Guardian Heavy Armor, he would sell it later, after the guilds had time to digest their purchases.
After listing the equipment, Shi Feng began searching for Sturdy Stone to see how many people were selling it in the Auction House.