Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“This is my greatest masterpiece, I believe it has the potential to even surpass Heroic standards!” said Nordilus as he strutted out his chest proudly. He was extremely confident in his work! However, after a while, he seemed to have remembered his situation, and quickly bowed down to Lin Jie, saying in a respectful manner, “My Lord…”

“Not a bad job,” Lin Jie cut him off and said, “You really wish to leave the Dark Shrine, don’t you?”

“Yes…” replied Nordilus, and he held his breath. He was extremely afraid now—should any of his words enrage this Lord Dragon Envoy, he would be done for on the spot!

Lin Jie nodded and said, “I see. I believe you are aware of the fact that within the laws pertaining to human beings from the alternate realms, there is one known as ‘following’. This means that you can sign a master-servant contract with human beings of the alternate realms, and while serving them, you will be able to increase in your own levels.”

“Yes, yes. Lord Dragon Envoy. Do you want me to follow your alternate realm’s human avatar?”

“No, your levels surpass my alternate realm’s avatar by far too much. Ultimately, this avatar is being restricted, and he can’t contract you.” A gleam of light flashed past the eyes of the Dragon Envoy which Lin Jie had transformed into, and he added, “In any case, your goal is to leave the Dark Shrine, so I am sure you won’t really be at ease if you follow me?”

Nordilus smiled, embarrassed. Indeed, he did not wish to be related to the Dark Shrine anymore.

Lin Jie gave a wave of his hands then and said, “Well, you stay in Saint Malo Town first, and help the Overlord rebuild the town. My avatar’s status within the Guild of Light is a Viscount, and he is also a Patrol Leader. It will be easy for him to assign you a commoner’s status. As such, you just need to concentrate fully on making the compilation of your experiences and skills now. After you are done with this task, I will strike up a contract with you using my alternate realm’s avatar. You can just tear up the contract as, and when you see fit, then you will be free.”

“Thank you, my Lord, thank you!” Nordilus was overjoyed. “I will definitely help to rebuild Saint Malo Town to the best of my abilities!”

Lin Jie acknowledged his comment with a slight nod. He removed his guise and reverted to his human appearance.

Lin Jie had arranged for Nordilus to stay at Saint Malo Town just so that he could make use of Nordilus’ abilities to reconstruct the buildings. After all, the abilities of players within the game were limited. To rebuild Saint Malo Town, one would ultimately need to depend on the system, or the system’s characters, to provide them the large amounts of materials and manpower needed for this task.

The monsters around Saint Malo Town were about Level 30 on average, and it was located very far from City of Light. To be honest, other than this demolished but strategically-placed town, no one would be able to find other places to take a short break around this vicinity. As such, it was not difficult to fathom how well the business here would be if the town was built up and transformed into a stopover place for travelers to replenish their supplies. One would daresay that Saint Malo Town’s business would remain prosperous for a relatively long period of time before other measures were put in place by the system!

However, all these were matters that could be considered later. Qiu Yuan was now busy allocating the townsfolk to reconstruct the town, and with Nordilus’ help, Lin Jie could be rest assured that no monsters would attack the town. Right now, Lin Jie had another matter to contemplate about: the Mechanical Gargoyle was made, but what about the Silent Killer?

‘It seems like I will still need to engage Blue’s help after all!’

At that moment, Zheng Ziliang was delightfully trying out the Mechanical Gargoyle, and he was ordering this iron bat-like fellow to fly around in the sky. There were about 15 Enchanted Man-Eating Cats following behind it, and each of them was about as large as a wild bull! With sharp teeth and their prancing skills, they were extremely difficult to get rid of.

However, the Mechanical Gargoyle made use of the advantage of being able to fly at high speed and left quite a big gap between itself and the Enchanted Man-Eating Cats. An azure halo spread out from its heart area, and a massive wave of energy exploded!

“Water Surge!”

-285!

-249!

-314!

Like how waves washed over a clean, sandy beach, all the Enchanted Man-Eating Cats decreased in their speeds after being struck by the attack, and numerous damage figures jumped up from their heads! Although the damage power of the Water Surge skill was just so-so, it had a short cooldown time and great speed-decreasing effects. This made the Mechanical Gargoyle able to kite a great number of monsters at a go! Zheng Ziliang commanded the Mechanical Gargoyle to fly around one round after another in the sky. After repeating this cycle numerous times, he finally managed to kill this entire batch of Enchanted Man-Eating Cats.

Lin Jie smiled and commented, “Well, it will be more efficient to just lure one monster each at a time, and then use the Fire Armor and the Mechanical Gargoyle’s clawing skills to attack the monster together. The Fire Armor is a great skill—other than having the ability to ignore up to 30 points of Physical and Mana Damage, it can reflect back that 30 damage points. Coupled with the 10% damage caused by the clawing skill, this is a fighting tactic which many Fire Mages cannot achieve no matter how strong they are!”

Zheng Ziliang scratched his head, and replied humbly, “Well, I have always seen how Mages level up using kite-flying skills. Since I can do so now, I can’t help but want to try it out by myself.”

Lin Jie finally understood where he came from then and nodded. He looked at the materials in his backpack and said, “You and Qiu Yuan can try to level up in this vicinity. There’s a minimal chance of these Enchanted creatures spawning the Demon Eye Skill Book, and it will be great if Qiu Yuan can get that. I need to return to City of Light first.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“See you soon.”

The two of them bade goodbye, and Lin Jie left.

Zheng Ziliang turned and looked at Qiu Yuan, who was full of sympathy for the poor kids of the destroyed town—she was now vowing that she would rebuild their homes for them—and shook his head, smiling. With a wave of his right hand, the Mechanical Gargoyle landed beside him after a great crashing sound. It had learned now that it could not land on Zheng Ziliang’s shoulders like other ordinary small pets, or else it might accidentally kill its master due to its heavy weight.

“Let’s go and kill those Enchanted creatures, and spawn a Demon Eye Skill Book for Qiu Yuan, shall we?”

“Creak-creak…”

“Do you understand what I am saying?”

“Creak, creak.”

“Okay, let’s just pretend that I never asked that question…”

————————

City of Light.

With the Black Dragon Head hanging up above City of Light, the number of players visiting City of Light increased by threefold! This greatly exceeded Lin Jie’s expectations—it seemed like the lure of a 10% increase in Stats was really too attractive! Coupled with the fact that the Epidemic Pond Dungeon would soon be released for play, the fact that players who chose to reside in City of Light would gain an additional 10% increase in Stats was simply too good to be true. After all, increasing in Stats was an essential factor if one wanted to get more gains and conquer more lands for their guilds.

The streets were overcrowded, and business was brisk. If this situation progressed further, City of Light would soon be able to upgrade its City level.

Lin Jie headed straight for the Blacksmith’s Shop. Business at Master Blue’s Blacksmith’s Shop was still good, but it wasn’t as prosperous as before. After all, the players had started developing their own sub-jobs. Regardless of whether in guilds or in teams, they would intentionally hire and grow potential blacksmiths and potioneers for themselves. As such, business for the NPCs was not as great. It was fortunate that Master Blue was high in levels, and thus, he wouldn’t need to worry about his livelihood, and there would always be work for him.

“I supposed I don’t need to queue today?” said Lin Jie smilingly as he walked into the Blacksmith’s Shop, placing the Dwarven ale he had prepared beforehand on the table.

Master Blue wiped his bald head and gulped down the ale in the bottle all at a go. “My Lord, no need to make fun of me, haha. In a few days, I daresay I will be out of job.”

“Your business’s not good?” quipped Lin Jie knowingly.

“Yes. There are many Blacksmiths among the human beings from the alternate realms who are in competition with me now. They are really clever, and are much more talented than me,” commented Master Blue with a bitter smile. “Ah, forget it, I can’t blame them anyway.”

Lin Jie asked in a low voice then, “Do you want to improve and advance your Forging and Smithing skills then?”

Master Blue’s eyes gleamed in surprise and disbelief, and he lowered his voice while replying excitedly, “My Lord, you have means of helping me achieve that?”

“Yes, I have!” Lin Jie’s words made Master Blue’s eyes widen in shock! He took out a book from his backpack and passed it to Blue.

“This is… a Handbook!” Blue flipped opened the book and saw Nordilus’ exact words about his experiences in Forging and Engineering. Ultimately, the logic worked the same for both skill sets, and Blue could see straight away what a great help this book could provide him with!

“These, these… Oh my, all these are extremely marvelous ideas, superb indeed! My master has always told me that I need to abide by the rules and the only way for me to get forward is to have more practice. Yet, even though I forge so many items day in and day out, I have always found it hard to advance my skills. Now, this book is just… Thank you so much, my Lord, I have always longed to learn some over-level skills!”

Ding~

—’The favorability of Blacksmith Blue towards you has increased to Esteem!’

Lin Jie smiled. This was why he wanted to record down Nordilus’ exact words! One needed to understand how the system worked: only when one recorded down every single word by the NPCs, would these notes be acknowledged as a Handbook. These notes would lose all effects even if Lin Jie missed out a single ‘a’ word!

Taking notes was indeed a skill.

Lin Jie patted Blue’s shoulders. “Well, I am not just giving you this. I have another huge task for you!”

Lin Jie placed the Weighted Concentrated Dark Ore, Heart of Magma, Ten Millennia Frozen Ice, Golden Silk Wood and lastly, the Exodus Bone Dragon’s skeleton on the table. Each time Lin Jie took out one item, Blue’s eyes would widen further. His eyes nearly popped out when he saw the Exodus Bone Dragon’s skeleton.

“My Lord, you… surely, you are not trying to forge a Sub… Sub… Sub…”

“Yes, Sub-Legendary equipment!” Lin Jie completed Blue’s sentence and handed the blueprint for the Silent Killer to Blue. He then patted heavily on Blue’s shoulders.

“But my Lord… Even if I manage to learn all the theories in this Handbook, the success rate of me forging Sub-Legendary equipment will still not be more than 1%! You should ask my master to help you with this task. Though he is much stricter than I am, he…”

“Oh, I have faith in you! I believe you will surpass your master one day!” said Lin Jie in a serious voice. Leaving the blueprint and all the materials with Blue, he turned and stepped out of the Blacksmith’s Shop suavely, leaving behind a majestic, dazzling back.

“Thank… thank you.” Brimming with tears, Blue hugged the materials as he gazed after Lin Jie.

Ding~

—’The favorability of Blacksmith Blue towards you has increased to Admire! You can enjoy 25% off all expenses at City of Light Blacksmith’s Shop. When you engage Blue to help you forge equipment, there will be an additional 5% success rate, an additional 5% Double Attributes and additional 5% Luck included in your completed equipment.’

Ding~

—’You have not paid the required 30 gold coins for this transaction. This amount will be automatically deducted from you the next time you step into the Blacksmith’s Shop. For every hour you delay your payment, an additional 5% penalty fee will be charged.’

“Damn, I can’t even get off with not paying for once!” Lin Jie was absolutely dejected to see this notification.

‘Argh, I had spent so much effort to plan for my leaving so that it could make me look the suavest, most artistic and impressive. I am just left with being accompanied by a BGM 1 ! Yet I still can’t fool this darn system!’

Lin Jie’s mouth twitched, and he took a step back weakly inside the Blacksmith’s shop. The system calmly took away the gold coins Lin Jie held in his hands.

No matter what, it was considered extremely cheap to forge Sub-Legendary equipment for just 30 gold coins! Lin Jie couldn’t help but recall a fateful scene in his previous life—he had tediously gathered the best ingredients from all around the lands to brew the tastiest wine and handed it carefully over to a certain blacksmith. That blacksmith had gulped down the wine in delight, given an energetic shout, and—forged all the Sub-Legendary Shards which Lin Jie had gathered painstakingly into a great metallic palette.

That fellow was none other than Blue’s master—the Earth Sword Saint. As such, Lin Jie would never harbor any thoughts of engaging the Earth Sword Saint to help him forge equipment in this life again.

‘In any case, since his obedient disciple has such high favorability for me, if I can make Blue my own NPC one day…’ Lin Jie toyed with this idea, and was smiling distractedly when he bumped into a Warrior donning a metallic helmet with a huge crash!

“Oh, it’s been so long since we last met, Fu Sheng!”

And that person was none other than Baili Changcheng!