After hearing Melancholic Smile's reminder, Shi Feng nodded, thinking it was about time to start the auction for the private residences and shops in Stone Forest Town.
Although the Zero Wing Auction House was currently generating income at a staggering rate, it would still take considerable time to accumulate the funds needed for the various maintenance costs of city construction. Moreover, Zero Wing's branch in the Black Dragon Empire and the Eternal Light shares held in the Heaven's Dawn Empire both required massive amounts of capital at the same time.
Not to mention that the mount era had already arrived. Rapidly popularizing mounts was an absolute necessity, but this was a crushing burden for any guild. Yet no guild could afford not to do it — faster mount adoption would boost guild members' leveling speed by a significant margin.
Fortunately, Zero Wing possessed the Beast Pens, which saved quite a bit of money compared to other guilds. Still, facing so many guild members, Zero Wing's current funds were merely a drop in the bucket.
Without hesitation, Shi Feng handed the auction matters over to Melancholic Smile to manage and headed back to White River City to prepare for the assault on the Source Iron Vein.
Although Zero Wing could now earn a fair amount of gold coins, its supply of Magic Crystals was severely lacking. Stone Forest Town alone had three Mana Towers, and on top of that, the Ring of Blessings — a massive Magic Crystal consumer — was in his possession. The Magic Crystals earned from the arena were a pittance, to say nothing of the even more terrifying consumption that would come once the city was completed.
In the Divine Realm, every major guild wanted to build as many cities as possible. A city represented enormous wealth — not just gold coin income, but also Credit Point revenue.
However, building a guild city was far easier said than done. Simply put, building was easy but maintaining was hard. The root cause was that guild cities consumed Magic Crystals at a horrifying rate. Even first-rate guilds from Shi Feng's previous life had been limited in the number of guild cities they could establish.
Only the superpowers that had seized various Magic Crystal-producing veins could conveniently build numerous guild cities. For ordinary major guilds, simply maintaining the consumption of a single small city was already an achievement.
Now that the city construction was nearing completion, he naturally needed to prepare ahead of time.
White River City. Candlelight Trading Company.
When Shi Feng once again arrived at the entrance of the Candlelight Trading Company, he noticed it had undergone considerable changes. Large numbers of crafting players were lined up at the front entrance, including quite a few intermediate and advanced Class crafters. The largest group in line was alchemists.
"The Candlelight Trading Company's assessment is terrifying — they're even eliminating intermediate alchemists!" a Level 10 Divine Realm newcomer who had come to sign up for the assessment exclaimed in surprise, watching an intermediate alchemist walk out.
An intermediate alchemist might not be as valued by major guilds as an advanced one, but saying you wanted to join would have any guild agreeing without hesitation. After all, cultivating an intermediate alchemist was no easy task.
Yet the Candlelight Trading Company had eliminated one just like that...
"Judging by your level, you must have just arrived in White River City," a Level 28 junior alchemist beside him said with a smile. "Eliminating intermediate alchemists is nothing — they've eliminated advanced alchemists before."
"You're kidding. Advanced alchemists..." The Level 10 crafting newcomer's jaw dropped, clearly wearing a 'you're pulling my leg' expression.
"Don't be so skeptical. Ever since the Candlelight Trading Company introduced new benefits for alchemists, it's become a holy grail for alchemists everywhere. You have no idea — just becoming the tenth-ranked alchemist in terms of crafting technique at the Candlelight Trading Company means you can use Mythril Rank alchemy equipment. I doubt there are many guilds in the entire Star Moon Kingdom that possess such things, and that's only for tenth place."
"If you rank fourth or higher, you get a full set of Mythril equipment, and first place gets an entire set of Dark Gold Rank alchemy equipment."
"It's got alchemists from the whole Star Moon Kingdom — no, from several neighboring countries — itching to come. That's why everyone's lining up to register, and the Candlelight Trading Company's standards for alchemists have risen accordingly. You should count yourself lucky you're not an alchemist, or you'd probably not even pass the first round of assessment as a mere apprentice."
The Level 28 junior alchemist's eyes lit up with longing whenever he spoke of the Candlelight Trading Company, though a fair amount of helplessness lingered in his heart.
The benefits for alchemists were excellent, but meeting the Candlelight Trading Company's requirements was no easy feat either...
"The alchemy equipment bonuses really are something." Shi Feng listened to the two of them talk and couldn't help but smile faintly. "Looks like I should find an opportunity to get some more advanced forging equipment and engineering equipment."
Crafting players weren't particularly important at the moment, but once the mainstream player base reached Level fifty, the demand for crafting players would become fully apparent. Whichever guild controlled the top-tier crafting players would dominate the Divine Realm's trading market.
Shi Feng then slipped quietly into the Candlelight Trading Company and headed straight for the special-grade Forging Room that had been kept empty all along. He carefully retrieved the Titan Magic Equipment design blueprint he had obtained from the Frozen King and began studying it intently.
The Source Iron Vein within the Sea of Death was located on a small island with a very peculiar geographic position. Originally, Shi Feng had planned to wait until all of Zero Wing's main raid team members had advanced to Tier Two before attempting to conquer it.
But that was no longer necessary.
The small island housing the Source Iron Vein was called Karna Island. Not only was it guarded by incredibly powerful monsters, but the island's environment was also highly unusual. Shadow energy corrosion was everywhere, and the mana density across the entire island was appallingly low. Because of this, no guild had ever attempted to seize Karna Island.
Yet no one had expected that this island with such pitiful mana density would contain the Source Iron Vein that every major guild dreamed of obtaining.
A player's combat power fluctuated dramatically in environments with low mana density, much like how it shifted in high-density areas. Low mana concentration affected players even more severely — on an island like Karna, being able to exert twenty to thirty percent of one's normal strength was already considered good.
The monsters on the island were already terrifyingly strong, and with players limited to only twenty or thirty percent of their combat power, even a Tier Two expert team had slim chances of success, to say nothing of a Tier One team, which stood absolutely no chance.
But the Titan Magic Equipment could overcome the mana density problem, making the impossible possible.
"These advanced forging blueprints really are complex. No wonder even in my previous life, only Master Blacksmith-level players dared attempt to craft them." After carefully reading through the blueprint's contents, Shi Feng let out a deep breath.
The Titan Magic Equipment was an advanced forging blueprint to begin with, and items produced from advanced blueprints had notoriously low success rates. Among advanced blueprints, the Titan Magic Equipment ranked in the upper tier of difficulty — its success rate spoke for itself.
Even by Shi Feng's initial estimate, with his level of skill as an advanced blacksmith, the success rate would only be around ten percent. In actual crafting, out of twenty attempts, not one might succeed.
Fortunately, he possessed the Icarus Heart necklace, which could be upgraded to Epic rank and forcibly elevate him to Master Blacksmith status.
Shi Feng immediately activated Divine Blessing, sacrificing 500 points of Life Force in a single offering to extend its duration from one hour to two hours.
With Divine Blessing active, Shi Feng wasted no time. He took out the materials he had prepared in advance along with a Book of Forging and began the meticulous crafting process.
Meanwhile, at Stone Forest Town, Zero Wing's auction had officially begun.