Seeing the system notification, Shi Feng smiled slightly. After making over four hundred high-grade whetstones, he had finally advanced to Intermediate Blacksmith Apprentice. However, he still needed 3,000 proficiency points to advance to Advanced Apprentice, which was impossible in a short time.
Shi Feng checked his experience bar. He was now Level 9, 94% of the way to the next level. He only needed 6% more experience to break through the Level 10 barrier. With just a bit more effort, he could break through.
In the Divine Realm, players received a significant boost to their stats every 10 levels.
The first level 10 milestone marked the player's ability to go to the city. They could not only purchase resources unavailable in towns but also access more advanced quests, making it much easier to earn money. They could even buy cheap Bronze Equipment in the city, though this depended on luck. Furthermore, players could use Teleportation Gates to reach high-level monster areas without spending too much time traveling, quickly getting to areas for Level 10 and above monsters, among many other conveniences.
Moreover, entering the city was when the game of Divine Realm truly began.
At that time, players from dozens or even hundreds of towns would gather in the city. A single city would have at least over a hundred thousand players. White River City was the fifth largest city in the Star Moon Kingdom, and the number of players gathering there would exceed a million. This was when Guilds could fully consolidate their forces in the city, unleashing their true strength. This would make the competition between Guilds even fiercer, nothing like the peace of now. They would fight over every resource.
This was how virtual games worked. Resources were limited. There were only so many best resources and leveling spots in a city, but the number of players was enormous. If you wanted to level up fast and improve quickly, you had to compete. If you didn't have the strength, you would be eliminated.
Small Guilds simply couldn't survive in the cities, let alone independent players. All the high-level resources and good leveling spots were snatched up by the big Guilds. Small Guilds and independent players could only huddle in places with poor resources.
So, being able to go to the city earlier meant much less competition.
However, it wasn't just about going early. The more advantages you had before going, the better your situation would be. For example, going to Blackwing City. An ordinary player going there would just be looking around. It would be a complete waste of time. But for a senior executive of a big Guild, it was completely different. Besides exchanging information, they also had the money to purchase a large number of items not available in other cities. This provided more than just a marginal improvement for the Guild.
Right now, Shi Feng's level was definitely the highest in White River City. It would take others at least two or three days to catch up to his current level. He wanted to use this time to further expand his advantage, allowing the Zero Wing Workshop he was building to secure a foothold in White River City.
"This is Rune Steel! It really is a treasure." Shi Feng took out the blue metal block brimming with magical energy from his bag, filled with delight.
In his previous life, many Blacksmiths had fought until they were bloody over a single piece of Rune Steel. Even if they bought it, they would treat it like a treasure and never use it lightly.
And now, he had obtained ten pieces.
Rune Steel. Gold-grade consumable. When used in forging equipment below Level 50 Gold-grade, it increased the success rate by 10%. It had a certain chance to improve the equipment's quality by one rank, up to a maximum of Gold-grade.
Rune Steel was far superior to Hundred-Refined Steel in every way, let alone its ability to improve equipment quality.
"Hahaha, with Rune Steel, my chances of forging the Silver Dawn are so much higher!" Shi Feng had previously gathered all the materials for crafting the Silver Dawn from the Auction House. Combined with what he had collected previously, he could only make sixteen Silver Dawns. The cost for each Silver Dawn was over 37 Silver Coins. Even an elite squad would have to run Hard mode small dungeons five or six times to earn over 37 Silver Coins. This was why Shi Feng chose to advance to Intermediate Apprentice before forging the Silver Dawn.
Afterwards, Shi Feng took out the design for the Silver Dawn, clicked to learn it, and began crafting the first Silver Dawn.
Without the Ice Blue Demonic Flame, the success rate was only 32%. Adding the Ice Blue Demonic Flame made it 42%. If he used Rune Steel, it would be 52%. An Intermediate Blacksmith Apprentice having a half success rate in crafting a Mythril Rank weapon would leave even a Master Blacksmith dumbfounded. This was because even a Beginner Master Blacksmith only had a 30% success rate in creating Mythril equipment. A 50% rate was a level that only a Grandmaster could achieve.
After carefully reading the instructions on how to forge the Silver Dawn, Shi Feng began refining the materials. First, he used the Philosopher's Stone to refine the materials to a high purity. Then, he put them into the Ice Blue Demonic Flame to smelt, waiting for the materials to fuse. With Shi Feng's 100% control over the Ice Blue Demonic Flame, the fusion of the materials was quite excellent.
However, Shi Feng did not rush to add the precious Rune Steel.
The first time was meant to familiarize himself with the forging process. Moreover, he only had ten pieces of Rune Steel, each worth over 1 Gold. They were incredibly rare. Using them now would be a complete waste. If any other Blacksmith saw this, they would probably curse Shi Feng for being shameless and cough up three liters of blood.