Absolute Death Game-Chapter 222 - 12: Runes Exhaust Three Generations, A Magical Treasure Ruins A Lifetime
"You want to learn Refining Treasure?" Xuanxu Zi looked at Xiao Buli with a hint of surprise and asked.
Xiao Buli replied, "Indeed, I hope Master can grant me this favor."
Xuanxu Zi stroked his beard and chuckled, "Hehe, what’s there to grant or not to grant? If you want to learn, I’ll teach you, but you must think it over carefully. Refining Magical Treasures is no easy task. Compared to other Professional Skills, it’s easy to learn but hard to master. Crafting each Magical Treasure requires a significant investment, and it’s not guaranteed to succeed.
If you don’t have enough resources, it’s better not to try rashly. In Penglai Immortal Realm, there’s a saying—Runes impoverish three generations, treasure crafting ruins a life. I was once a renowned figure in the Immortal Realm, yet almost bankrupted myself crafting Magical Treasures to the point of having to mortgage even my cave dwelling. You better think it through."
Xiao Buli had already steeled himself for challenges, but upon hearing Xuanxu Zi’s words, his heart still sank slightly. However, he was determined to engage in high-end activities; after all, the role of Magical Treasures in reality couldn’t be compared to that of high-level equipment.
He typed again, "I hope Master can grant me this favor."
Xuanxu Zi replied, "All right, I’ll teach you then."
System prompt: You have learned the Professional Skill, Refining Magical Treasure. You can check this skill in your Skill Bar.
Xiao Buli opened the Skill Bar and was delighted to see the skill.
Refining Magical Treasure LV1: By processing heaven and earth treasures and infusing them with mana, you create wondrous artifacts with magical properties. The higher your skill level, the higher the success rate of crafting Magical Treasures. Crafting a Magical Treasure of each quality level will increase this skill to the next level.
It seems like leveling this skill might not be that difficult, as long as one crafts a Magical Treasure.
However, upon glancing at the commonly used materials for Refining Magical Treasures, he was stupefied.
The materials to craft different Magical Treasures are varied and generally fall into three categories. The first includes various essences, such as Metal Essence, Wood Essence, Water Essence, etc. Metal Essence can be obtained by disassembling blue-colored or higher-quality equipment.
Wood Essence can sometimes be acquired while harvesting herbs, and other essences like Water Essence can be extracted from elemental creatures. The essences required for a single Magical Treasure typically range from a few to even dozens.
The second type of material is premium-grade, such as Mysterious Iron, Refined Gold, Fusang Wood, Spirit Communication Stone, etc. These can be obtained through professional skills like mining, lumbering, and tailoring, but they are also valuable and difficult to procure.
The last type is the most critical: Energy Crystal Cores. These can only be found in powerful elemental creatures or in special beasts with unique abilities, such as the Fire Elemental Crystal Core dropped by killing a mutant Fire Spirit and the Shadow Crystal Core dropped by a Shadow Leopard.
After reviewing the materials, Xiao Buli planned to buy blueprints. Blueprints are sold separately, and each can only be used once. He checked and found that there were three kinds of level-one Magical Treasure blueprints available from Xuanxu Zi.
Shadow Cloak (Blueprint): This miraculous cloak allows you to hide in the shadows, effective only when you remain motionless.
Materials needed: Shadow Crystal Core×1, Shadow Silk Pouch×3, Shadow Essence×3.
Windstride Boots (Blueprint): Tap the heels to lift yourself slightly off the ground, increasing Movement Speed by 10 points for 5 minutes, usable once per day.
Materials needed: Wind Crystal Core×1, Qi Hua Wood×2, Earth Essence×2.
Amulet of Light (Blueprint): Generates a light source to illuminate the path ahead of you.
Materials needed: Light Crystal Core×1, Diamond×1, Gold Ingot×1.
Xiao Buli thought that these low-level Magical Treasures really seemed quite underwhelming, with only the Boots of Swiftness being somewhat useful. The Shadow Cloak was only effective when one stood still in the shadows, which was of little significance to him, and the Amulet of Light was essentially just a flashlight.
However, no matter how underwhelming, he still needed to craft them; otherwise, he couldn’t produce higher-grade Magical Treasures.
Since crafting just one Magical Treasure could level up the skill, he chose the one that suited him best—the Shadow Cloak. He already had a Shadow Crystal Core, so he only needed to find the Shadow Silk Pouch and Shadow Essence. The only good news was that level-one Magical Treasure blueprints were very cheap, costing only 10 Contribution Value points.
Xiao Buli still had a few dozen points left, so he bought a blueprint for the Shadow Cloak.
After buying the blueprint, Xiao Buli turned to Xuanxu Zi and asked, "I plan to make a Shadow Cloak, may I know where I can obtain the Shadow Silk Pouch and Shadow Essence?"
Xuanxu Zi was always ready to answer any question. "The Shadow Silk Pouch can be obtained by killing Shadow Spiders. These demon beasts live in the pitch darkness of the underground or caves, they move without a trace, are extremely ghostly, and have a preference for eating human brains. Be very careful if you plan to kill Shadow Spiders.
As for the Shadow Essence, it can usually be obtained with a certain probability when disassembling equipment that has the prefix ’Ancient’."
(Equipment with the ’Ancient’ prefix?) Xiao Buli vaguely remembered that his follower had a skill called ’Antiquing’ which could add the prefix ’Ancient’ to the front of equipment. He wondered if this forged equipment would work.
However, since that follower had been assigned to the Xuanwu Group, he had not seen him again, nor did he know whether he was still alive. If there was a chance to visit Nine Dragons City, it might be a good idea to look for him. But before that, he should first deliver the equipment in his bag to them.
As he thought this, Xiao Buli opened the map. After such a long time exploring, many areas on the map had already been uncovered. He had also shared a guild’s internal map once. The terrain around Nine Dragons City—Mystic Hollow Palace—Dahuang Village was basically clear.
One day’s walk to the west from a crossroads in the Misty Forest would bring you to the Black Mountain Range, and Black Stone Village was a small village at the end of the mountain range.
Xiao Buli estimated that it would take about a day to reach by horse. As he set off, he wondered how the others were doing with their playing.
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"Phew, finally done!" Han Wenhuan looked at the large piece of land he had just cleared, feeling a sense of accomplishment. What made him even happier was that he had finally grasped the Long-handled Weapon Mastery. He had understood the first level of Long-handled Weapon Mastery simply by farming the land to level three.
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If he could farm the land to Max Level, perhaps the Long-handled Weapon Mastery could reach level three as well.
Excited at the prospect of mastering the martial image of a general wielding a long blade, Han Wenhuan remembered the many nation war games he had played. However, players were undisciplined and disorganized, and it was often difficult to apply his tactical and strategic knowledge in those games.
Moreover, there was a big gap between games and reality; it wasn’t uncommon for RMB players to dominate with their gear. His most vivid memory was of the grand battles in Jiuzhou Domination, which had left him feeling quite frustrated. Now, he finally had a chance to show his prowess.
With that in mind, he began to clear the next patch of land.
Meanwhile, Xiao Ge was also feverishly harvesting a large crop, wielding a giant scythe that was taller than a person. Despite working for so long, why hadn’t he mastered the One-handed Sword specialization yet?
Just as he was pondering this, a system prompt suddenly appeared on his screen.
System Prompt: After a long period of harvesting labor, you have discerned ’Alien Weapon: Scythe Mastery’.
What? Xiao Ge was taken aback. It wasn’t One-handed Sword Mastery? He looked at the giant scythe in his hands, which required two hands to wield and indeed seemed quite different from a one-handed sword. He thought about asking Xiao Buli, but decided against it seeing the latter’s focused demeanor. Well, Scythe Mastery it is, he thought.
It wouldn’t be too bad to become a reaper if the specialization didn’t work out, although he wasn’t sure if there was a related profession.
As he thought this, he continued his harvesting work.
"Checkmate, General!" The old man snapped the artillery piece towards Gu Shaobang’s commander with a slap, his face showing no excitement, rather an unusual tension. After all, he had been defeated by Gu Shaobang in five or six consecutive games.
"Wait a moment! Let me think." As Gu Shaobang typed in the game, he entered the same chess moves into a computer next to him. On another computer, his opponent was a chess program. After a short while, the program responded—left chariot checkmate, removing the enemy’s cannon.
That was it, Gu Shaobang thought to himself. Without the computer’s help, he’d never have noticed such a move.
He replicated the move and checkmated the old man.
"Damn it, to think that I, the Chess Elder, have remained undefeated in the chess world for more than four decades, only to be consecutively defeated by you recently. This is unbearable...arghhh...."
Gu Shaobang typed: "Stop your whining, old man. We agreed before that if I lost, I’d serve you as a scholar for ten years, and if you lost, you’d teach me how to throw Fireballs."
The Chess Elder said: "That’s not just some trick. Fine, fine, a bet is a bet. Since you wish to learn it, I’ll teach you, but let me be clear, the Flame Spirit Curse comes from remnants of ancient witchcraft described in ancient texts, and the consequences of practicing it are unknown. Don’t come to regret it later on."
Gu Shaobang typed: "How could I possibly?" He thought to himself that it was only a basic Skill learned in a Newbie Village; what could possibly go wrong?
Li Shuren strolled around the village and arrived at the northern gate, where many artisans were building a palisade. Outside the fence, a mountain road led deep into the northern mountains, and someone looking like a militia captain was supervising the work. However, the name suggested that the person was a player—Qin Dahai (Militia Captain).
Li Shuren grew curious, wondering whether players could serve as guards, too. This seemed worth a chat. While thinking this, he approached Qin Dahai. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
