Star Moon Kingdom,
While everyone was celebrating the Candlelight Trading Company's sale of level-fifty Mythril equipment, a massive wave of commotion also swept through the
The level-fifty Mythril Rank and Gold-grade equipment — even Dark Gold-grade weapons and armor — that had always been in short supply in the Zero Wing warehouse were now piled up in large quantities. The level-fifty Gold-grade and Dark Gold-grade weapons and armor, in particular, had every guild member itching with desire as they eagerly exchanged their points to claim them.
Level-fifty Mythril Rank weapons and armor weren't all that rare for the Zero Wing Guild. From time to time, the guild's major teams would bring some back and place them in the guild warehouse for members to exchange. Gold-grade and Dark Gold-grade, however, were extremely scarce — to the point where many of the guild's Tier 2 Class experts were desperately short on gear.
To get their hands on these Gold-grade and Dark Gold-grade weapons and armor, numerous guild members who were short on points pulled out every rare material they had acquired to trade in for guild points. This influx of rare materials instantly bolstered the guild's reserves while simultaneously raising the overall strength of its members.
Meanwhile,
Shi Feng knew exactly how powerful Basic Battle Gear was. Though it was only the basic variant, for the current player base it was perfectly timed. Once even an ordinary player equipped a piece, they would possess strength that surpassed an average expert. If a true expert equipped one, they might not be able to rival the very top-tier players, but they would come remarkably close.
This was precisely what the Zero Wing Guild needed most right now. If they could mass-produce it, the guild would go a long way toward compensating for its lack of depth, allowing Zero Wing to expand its influence at a rapid pace in a short period of time.
As for the crafting of the Magic-Breaking Crossbow, Shi Feng had left it entirely to Frosty Cocoa and the others. After all, as the guild leader, he had a mountain of work to deal with every day, plus plenty of personal matters that demanded his attention. He simply couldn't afford to camp out in the workshop crafting items all day. The Basic Battle Gear was the sole exception — it had to be made by his own hands.
Inside the silent Grand Forging Room, dense magical energy permeated every corner of the space. Shi Feng used the Philosopher's Stone to fuse several magic crystals into a single magic crystal gem, then took out the materials one by one and officially began crafting.
Smelting, extracting, inscribing…
In under five minutes, a pitch-black iron block resembling a Rubik's cube took shape before Shi Feng's eyes.
For a first-time creation, Shi Feng opened the system appraisal panel without hesitation. An appraisal bar appeared and began filling slowly.
Basic Battle Gear was a special item that could only be crafted by someone at the Master Blacksmith rank or above. The difficulty was immense — even a Master Blacksmith's success rate would not exceed fifty percent.
Finally, as the appraisal bar finished filling, a pleasant chime echoed in Shi Feng's ears.
System: Congratulations! You have successfully crafted Basic Battle Gear. Forging proficiency +5, experience +274,000.
"So this is what the crafted Basic Battle Gear looks like?" Shi Feng examined the stats of the Basic Battle Gear before him and couldn't help but click his tongue.
Basic Battle Gear could elevate the life force of any player below Tier 3 by an entire tier, increase magic skill completion by two percent, and lasted for twelve hours.
He was already well aware that Battle Gear could elevate life force. What he hadn't expected was that the Basic Battle Gear he had just crafted also came with a boost to magic skill completion — an effect that would be enormously beneficial to players.
The Basic Battle Gear he had obtained in the past had at most improved a player's defense. The better ones might boost attack power or movement speed. But the Basic Battle Gear he had just crafted offered a magic skill completion bonus. That effect was far more impressive than anything he had previously known from basic Battle Gear.
In the Divine Realm, the higher one's magic skill completion, the greater the power unleashed. It was also one of the key dividing lines between players — after all, the difference in damage output between ninety percent magic skill completion and a hundred percent was absolutely massive.
In PvP, this mattered even more. During high-speed combat, players engaged in rapid back-and-forth exchanges where a single second could determine the winner. A reduction in the difficulty of casting magic skills meant players could fight with greater confidence, significantly raising their margin for error.
At the thought of this, Shi Feng immediately set about crafting another batch.
After producing more than a dozen pieces in quick succession, Bai Qingxue suddenly contacted him.
"Guild Leader, we have a situation here in Lakeside City. A large group of experts has appeared out of nowhere — we have no idea where they came from — and they're hunting our guild members all over the wilderness. The death toll we've tallied so far has already surpassed five hundred," Bai Qingxue said with a headache. "These ambushers are all extremely skilled. The teams we send out are nearly wiped out every time. I've dispatched people to hunt them down, but they're incredibly strong, and our forces keep getting eliminated instead."
"Miracle Guild couldn't hold back any longer, huh?" Shi Feng heard her out and, weighing the intelligence they already had, concluded that Miracle Guild was the only possibility. He just hadn't expected them to strike so quickly. "Do you know how many of them there are?"
"Right now, we only know of approximately fifty thousand…" Bai Qingxue's voice carried a note of helplessness.
While the Zero Wing Guild had been developing well in the
"They mobilized fast!" Shi Feng clicked his tongue as well.
He understood that after the Battle of Jialna Island, Miracle Guild would never let him and Zero Wing off the hook. But Miracle Guild had just lost a batch of experts and Elites. Under normal circumstances, it would take considerable time to reorganize and mount a force against Zero Wing. Yet in barely any time at all, they had already assembled fifty thousand troops.
It had genuinely exceeded his expectations.
In his estimation, Miracle Guild managing to dispatch ten thousand or so troops in such a short window to harass them would have been impressive enough. Committing a massive force to attack Zero Wing meant leaving their other defensive fronts vulnerable to rival factions. Without thorough preparation, they shouldn't have been able to redeploy that many people on a whim.
"Guild Leader, what should we do now?" Bai Qingxue couldn't help but ask. "Do we fight, or not?"
Against Miracle Guild's army of fifty thousand, any battle would be brutal. And Miracle Guild, when they got serious, would be absolutely terrifying. The fighting would be devastatingly fierce and would burn through enormous quantities of the guild's resources. It wouldn't be surprising if Zero Wing's development ground to a halt. But if they didn't fight, being picked off in the wilderness day after day was equally unsustainable.
"We fight. And we're going to give Miracle Guild a massive surprise." Shi Feng thought of the Basic Battle Gear he had crafted, and a faint smile crossed his face.