All that remained was the Bronze equipment. Bronze equipment was still in demand but practically unavailable on the market, though the stats on the two pieces dropped by the Silver Wolf King were actually about the same as the Black Iron equipment dropped by the level 20 bandits. After some thought, Wu Shaozhen listed both pieces at 60,000 each again, and they sold instantly. The buyers probably hadn't even checked the stats; they must have bought them the moment they saw "Bronze."
Wu Shaozhen looked at the two remaining pieces, [Black Bear King Boots] and [Graphite Helmet]. One had dropped from the level 17 Black Bear King, and the other from the level 20 stronghold chief. Both had excellent stats. He was considering whether to put them up for bidding or list them at their previous sale prices.
What Wu Shaozhen didn't know was that most of the players in Jinling City were eagerly watching the Auction House at that very moment. This was the first time they had seen Black Iron and Bronze equipment being sold in such large quantities.
Just then, Wu Shaozhen's private chat window chimed.
Xue'er: "Did you list all that equipment in the Auction House?"
Dustseal: "Yeah. What's up?"
Xue'er: "..."
Xue'er: "Got any more?"
Dustseal: "You still want more?"
Xue'er: "Yes."
Then she realized their conversation sounded a little suggestive and immediately added, "I only want Bronze equipment. Do you have any?"
Wu Shaozhen thought for a moment, then sent screenshots of the remaining two pieces' stats. As it happened, both could be used by any class.
Xue'er: "How much?"
Dustseal: "Same as before. 160,000 each."
Xue'er: "Okay."
The trade was quickly completed. Curious, Wu Shaozhen asked, "Beautiful, does your family own a mine or something? How are you so rich?"
Xue'er: "Yes, so you can work with me long-term."
Dustseal: "Couldn't you be a little more modest?"
After turning all his unwanted equipment into money, he had earned nearly another 900,000 in one go. Wu Shaozhen was in an excellent mood. Glancing at the chief's house, he walked inside out of curiosity. What had kept this guy from coming out even after all his underlings had died?
The house was spacious inside, but sparsely decorated. Beyond the main hall were several rooms, and he could faintly hear crying from one of them.
Wu Shaozhen walked toward the sound and opened the door. Two women with disheveled clothes and tear-streaked faces stared at the doorway in terror.
Wu Shaozhen surveyed the room and finally understood why the chief hadn't let anyone come up. He really knew how to enjoy himself. A threesome? So I interrupted his fun. No wonder he acted like he had a blood feud with me.
Looking at the two women's disheveled clothes, he figured they were village girls the chief had abducted from somewhere. They were fairly pretty, too. The guy certainly had an eye for women.
"All right, hurry home. I've already killed the Chief of Black Wind Stronghold," Wu Shaozhen told them.
"..."
Neither woman reacted. They still looked terrified.
"Uh, you don't believe me?"
Wu Shaozhen could only repeat himself, louder this time.
At last, the two responded. One woman asked timidly, "R-really?"
"Why would I lie to you? Just go outside and see for yourselves. Hurry up and leave. If you don't go now, you might not be able to." Wu Shaozhen wasn't sure whether the bandits here would respawn. If these two women kept dawdling, they really might lose their chance to escape.
The two women straightened their clothes and cautiously headed outside...
A few minutes later, they ran back in and dropped to their knees before Wu Shaozhen.
"Thank you for saving our lives, young hero. Thank you... thank you..." The women wept as they kowtowed. They had thought their lives were over, that they would spend the rest of their days as that demon's playthings. They had never imagined they would have a chance to escape.
Their reaction left Wu Shaozhen flustered. He quickly helped them up and said, "All right, all right, you don't need to thank me anymore. Just hurry home."
It took him a while to calm them down. Then one of the women suddenly said, "Benefactor, I know where that demon hid his treasure."
"Really?" Wu Shaozhen's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected a hidden bonus.
"Quick, take me there..." Wu Shaozhen urged.
"Please follow me, benefactor." The woman led Wu Shaozhen toward one of the rooms.
It looked like a storeroom, with all sorts of clutter tossed about haphazardly. Honestly, if he had been searching on his own, he would have taken one look at a place like this and given up.
The woman tapped and knocked around the room. A little later, a stone door suddenly opened in one of the walls, revealing an entrance wide enough for one person.
"Pretty fancy!" Wu Shaozhen was a little surprised. The mechanism was so well concealed that he hadn't noticed a thing before.
"Benefactor, that demon put all the money he plundered over the years into the chest inside. You'll see it once you go in, but only he had the Treasure Chest Key," the woman said.
"Oh?" Wu Shaozhen suddenly remembered the key that had just dropped. He had assumed it was for the treasure chest on the Treasure Map, but now it seemed it belonged here.
Wu Shaozhen stepped inside. It was a tiny room containing nothing but a large chest.
Excited, Wu Shaozhen walked over. Seeing that the treasure chest was locked, he took the key out of his inventory and tried it. Sure enough, it opened right away.
The moment he opened the treasure chest, Wu Shaozhen was nearly blinded. The room had been extremely dim, but when the chest opened, a blaze of golden light left him unable to keep his eyes open.
It took a moment for his vision to recover. Looking at the glittering gold coins filling the chest, Wu Shaozhen nearly drooled.
"I'm rich..." Wu Shaozhen began loading them into his inventory without hesitation.
After quite a while, he finally emptied the treasure chest. His inventory showed that he now had 673 gold coins. He had only had 161 before, meaning this single chest had contained over five hundred gold coins. Wu Shaozhen was overjoyed. Good thing he had come inside, or he would have missed out on all this.
Although players' ability to earn money had increased dramatically as they entered the main city and grew stronger, causing the value of in-game currency to plummet, the current exchange rate was still ten copper coins to one yuan. That meant one gold coin could be exchanged for 1,000 yuan, so over five hundred gold coins were worth more than 500,000 yuan.
"Man, gold coins are depreciating so fast. Should I sell some?" After thinking it over, he decided against it. He felt gold coins would have plenty of uses later, and it wasn't as though he needed that 500,000 anyway.
After putting away the gold coins, he noticed an orb at the bottom of the chest and quickly picked it up to inspect it.
[Magic Orb]: Continuously restores Mana while carried. Restores 2% per second.
"..."
Holy crap, this effect is on par with a divine artifact! It doesn't restore that much, but it's constant, which means it works during combat too. I'd never have to worry about running out of mana.
But it's a bit wasted on an Assassin like me. If I sold this to a Mage, it'd fetch an astronomical price. What should I do? Sell it or keep it?
I'll use it myself for now. It's really hard to put a price on something like this. Once I get more skills, I might start running short on mana too.
Seeing that there was nothing else in the room, Wu Shaozhen walked out, thoroughly satisfied. When he found the two women still standing outside, he asked, "Why haven't you left yet?"
The two women looked hesitant. One of them said, "Benefactor, could we trouble you to escort us home? We're from Liu Family Village, ten kilometers from here, but getting there means passing through Tiger Roar Forest. There are lots of fierce tigers there, and the two of us aren't strong enough, so..."
So that's why. Fine, I might as well see this rescue through to the end and count it as a good deed. Without them, I wouldn't have gotten all those gold coins anyway. Wu Shaozhen was in an excellent mood, so he readily agreed.
Before you continue