Zhou Heng's pupils contracted.
He had wondered why the Black Bear Guild had paid only copper coins, not silver, for resources worth 150,000 copper coins. So there had already been a trick to it.
Zhou Heng was certain the Black Bear Guild knew this information.
That meant the ceramic shard among the three items he had looted was definitely no ordinary item.
Looking at the voluptuous woman, Zhou Heng smiled and said,
"Miss, that isn't the current market price!"
"I'll offer no more than 5,000 copper coins for this common-grade Experience Book."
Zhou Heng believed she was smart. Once he named that price, she should understand what he meant.
The voluptuous woman froze for quite a while when she heard Zhou Heng's offer.
Only after a long moment did she give him a meaningful look.
"Five thousand is indeed the market price, but Little Bird Town is remote. Shipping costs money too."
"Seven thousand copper coins, final offer. An honest price for young and old alike."
Zhou Heng did not haggle further over this. He took out a silver coin and handed it over.
"I know the current Black Market rate is 100,000 copper coins. Sorry for the trouble, but please exchange this for copper coins."
The voluptuous woman rolled her eyes at Zhou Heng and said in a cloying voice,
"Little fellow, now you're being unreasonable."
"The Black Market is the Black Market. I run a legitimate business here."
"Besides, Little Bird Town doesn't have a Black Market."
"If you're serious about selling, I can offer at most 50,000 copper coins. Not a coin more."
Although 50,000 copper coins was less than 100,000, Little Bird Town had no Black Market, and he could not leave this starter village either. An exchange rate of 50,000 met Zhou Heng's expectations, so he stopped arguing and agreed.
"All right. That amount it is. Deal."
[Silver coins -1] [Copper coins +50,000] [Obtained skill "Experience Book"] [Copper coins -7,000] [Obtained health potions x100] [Copper coins -5,000]
Looking at the Experience Book he had acquired, Zhou Heng did not linger. He turned and left with his supplies.
"Quite an extraordinary little fellow."
The voluptuous woman watched Zhou Heng leave, stretched languidly, and spoke without turning her head.
"Old Matron, you gave him the badge he's wearing, didn't you?"
"Judging by him, he doesn't seem in any hurry to finish before nightfall tomorrow."
An aged, hoarse voice sounded from the back of the general store.
"Isn't that even better? It means he picked up on what I meant~"
The voluptuous woman rested her cheek in her hand and leaned against the counter as usual, displaying her beauty to those outside.
"Old Matron, how often do those players on Blue Star update their textbooks again?"
"Captain, once every three years."
"What a greedy bunch. They've already attained immortality, yet they still refuse to give ordinary players any power. Perhaps that's why they still haven't completed the first expansion."
"Sometimes, greed really is an original sin."
"Go get ready. I want to see just what is hiding behind the scenes. A bunch of useless trash, daring to covet the glory of our Sword of Light!"
Zhou Heng returned to the Blazing Flame Spring and began another round of collecting and evolving.
But compared to yesterday, there were many more players at the Blazing Flame Spring today, all there to collect Blazing Flame just like Zhou Heng.
"So this is Blazing Flame? Not bad, not bad. It isn't hard to collect at all~"
"Too bad we don't have enough health potions. Otherwise, we could go a little deeper."
"I've been in there. You lose health faster inside. Unless you're some rich young master, you simply can't withstand it."
"Forget it. Let's just collect it here. We have to hand in 1,000 units before tomorrow night."
Zhou Heng gave the area a quick scan and found that all the players were level 3 to level 5. Those who came here at level 1 like him were practically nonexistent.
But no one paid him any attention. After all, the players were not here to show off, humiliate others, or cause trouble. They were here to farm resources and complete quests.
Zhou Heng passed the others and headed deeper inside.
[You are affected by the Blazing Flame Spring] [Health -1]
The temperature was higher deeper inside than it was on the outskirts.
But Zhou Heng paid it no mind. Watching the changes in his health, he cast Flame Gauntlet and began absorbing Blazing Flame.
[You absorbed Blazing Flame] [Flame Gauntlet is changing] [Change failed] [You absorbed Blazing Flame] [Flame Gauntlet is changing] [Change failed]
[You absorbed Blazing Flame. Flame Gauntlet changed and evolved on its own] [You obtained "Flame Gauntlet" (Simple+++)] Flame Gauntlet Quality: Simple+++ Consumes 3 mana to cover both hands with a layer of fiery substance, negating fire-element damage below 25 points. Lasts 10s. After 10s, continuously consumes 1 mana per 4s. Cooldown: 20s Learning requirements: None
Each skill could have at most three plus signs as its suffix. That meant Flame Gauntlet only needed to evolve once more to become a common-grade skill.
"Keep going. At this rate, it should finish evolving tonight."
Zhou Heng took a deep breath, suppressed his irritation at repeating the same action, and continued absorbing Blazing Flame...
Night fell. Sometime after three in the morning, Zhou Heng successfully absorbed enough Blazing Flame to evolve Flame Gauntlet into the common-grade skill "Burning Rage."
Burning Rage Quality: Common After casting this skill, your entire body will burn with rage. Consumes 30 mana. Attack speed +1.0/s, movement speed +2.0 m/s, attack +5. Consumes 300 mana. Attack speed +2.0/s, movement speed +4.0 m/s, attack speed +20. Debuff: After the skill's duration ends, lose 100 or 1,000 health per second for 20s. When health falls below 100 or 1,000, 1 health is forcibly retained. Duration: 15s Cooldown: 30s Learning requirements: Upgrade "Flame Gauntlet" by absorbing Blazing Flame.
"An excellent skill."
A smile appeared on Zhou Heng's lips.
Among the common-grade skills he knew of, this skill was definitely one of the most powerful.
It was even powerful enough for its user to disregard the side effects that lasted a full 20s afterward.
There was no helping it. The 1.0/s attack speed and 2.0 m/s movement speed were simply too good.
The textbooks listed the five hardest attributes to improve in the world of "Boundless Endless."
Attack speed, movement speed, true damage reduction, holy damage reduction, and chaos damage reduction.
Given that they ranked alongside true damage reduction, holy damage reduction, and chaos damage reduction, it was easy to imagine how difficult they were to improve.
Imagine two players fighting in the wilderness, one with an attack speed of 1.0/s and the other with 2.0/s. The former would likely take a hit before even making a move.
And that single hit was often enough to be fatal.
After learning "Burning Rage," Zhou Heng took out the skill book "Experience Book."
Experience Book Quality: Common Gain an additional 10% experience for every creature defeated, up to a maximum of 10,000 experience. (0/10,000) Learning requirements: None
For a player to advance from level 1 to level 11, those ten levels required 100 + 200 + 300 + 1,000 + 2,000 + 3,000 + 10,000 + 20,000 + 30,000 + 100,000 experience, totaling 166,600. This calculation applied to every ten-level span. In other words, as far as the upper limit of experience coefficients in "Boundless Endless" went, the highest total he knew of was 166,600.
That might seem like a lot of experience, but it actually wasn't. With a little diligence, reaching level 11 would be quick.
Closing his attribute panel, Zhou Heng was filled with anticipation.
He wanted to see how long it would take him to reach level 10 using the movement techniques and combat techniques he had learned at school, paired with the Great Sun Divine Bow (Fake).
If possible, it would be best to grind his way to level 10 before the Black Bear Guild corrupted the Deepwater Flood Dragon Worm.
Before you continue