Staring at the ancient-looking design booklet in his hands, Shi Feng remained silent for a long time, still unable to believe that the Ice Dragon Heiswitt had actually dropped an airship design diagram.
Generally speaking, flying mounts in the Divine Realm were already incredibly rare. Simply owning an ordinary flying mount was enough to show off in front of others and attract the envy and jealousy of countless players—it was far more valuable than an epic-grade weapon of Level 100 or above.
And airships went without saying. Even the most basic airship could match a Transcendent-grade flying mount in speed, carry up to a hundred players, and wield combat power at the peak of Tier 3, making them true aerial dominators.
However, airship technology was monopolized by the Divine Realm's major powers, and ordinary players had no way to obtain it. Even after constructing an airfield, all they could do was rent flying vessels from various kingdoms and empires—renting an actual airship, a weapon of aerial warfare, was nothing more than a pipe dream.
As for the idea of obtaining airship technology simply by killing a boss, he had never even heard of such a thing in his previous life.
Normally, to obtain airship technology, one would need to raid the headquarters of a powerful Divine Realm faction, or forcibly steal it from the major kingdoms and empires. Both approaches were extraordinarily dangerous.
Of course, there was an even safer method: having players create it themselves.
But for a player to create an airship, the requirements for each sub-class were extremely demanding, and it required enormous amounts of time and resources to research. Even superpowers would find such costs difficult to bear, so most of them simply purchased airships instead.
Purchasing an airship was considerably easier than obtaining the technology. Sometimes you could buy one from the black market, and if a faction reached sufficient standing, they could also make a purchase—though the price and limited quantity would make anyone cough up blood.
The simplest method Shi Feng knew of for buying an airship was to hold the rank of Duke within a kingdom, which would allow you to purchase one airship for 80,000 gold coins—and only one. To acquire more, you generally had to try your luck competing on the black market.
But on the black market, the currency used wasn't gold coins but ancient gold coins, which were far harder to earn, and the final price was unknowably higher than 80,000 gold coins.
And now he had merely killed the Ice Dragon Heiswitt, yet it had actually dropped airship technology. If the great superpowers of his previous life learned of this, they would probably have hunted the Ice Dragon to extinction.
Shi Feng couldn't help but open the detailed data of the airship design diagram, wanting to see what grade it actually was.
Crimson Dragon Airship Design Diagram. Capable of producing one standard-model airship. Maximum capacity: 100 players. Peak Tier 3 combat power. Equipped with eight magical cannons and one magic crystal main cannon. Minimum crew: six. Primary construction materials: 1,000 units of Titan Silver, 10,000 units of Void Essence Iron, 2,000 Magic Crystals, 100 Magical Spirit Stones.
"As expected—it's the most basic airship." Shi Feng studied the displayed data, secretly lamenting.
If it had been a Bronze Rank airship, then dominating the entire Cold Spring Forest would be no issue at all. After all, a Bronze Rank airship possessed standard Tier 4 combat power, which posed an enormous threat to Tier 3 players. If a Bronze Rank airship went all out, even he himself could be at risk of death.
Airships weren't monsters—they lacked the agility of flying creatures and didn't have a plethora of magical skills. The so-called Tier 4 didn't mean the airship's attack power merely reached Tier 4; rather, every single strike carried the force of peak Tier 4. Otherwise, how could it contend with Tier 4 monsters?
Under the assault of a Bronze Rank airship's ten-odd Tier 4 peak magical cannons, even a Tier 4 expert would have to take a detour—unless they possessed a Tier 4 legendary flying mount and could overpower the Bronze Rank airship with speed and attack power. Otherwise, in the air, running was the only option.
But after thinking about it, Shi Feng felt he was being a little greedy. Even a standard-model airship was something countless superpowers dreamed of. A Bronze Rank airship was pure fantasy.
"A thousand units of Titan Silver, a hundred Magical Spirit Stones… building an airship is really brutal." Shi Feng glanced at the required primary materials and couldn't help but click his tongue.
Titan Silver was a byproduct ore found only rarely alongside Titan Essence Iron deposits, and Zero Wing had only managed to gather around two thousand units so far. Magical Spirit Stones were even more precious—they were ultra-rare ores that could only be obtained from mining Second Sequence veins, and their rarity was no less than that of Seven Luminaries Crystals.
After tallying up all the materials, the production cost alone came to 50,000 gold—many times more expensive than crafting a Bronze Rank War Puppet. Still, compared to becoming a Duke in a kingdom just to purchase one, it was considerably cheaper.
But he had to admit—you got what you paid for.
Compared to a Bronze Rank War Puppet, the utility of even a standard-model airship was vastly superior. With only peak Tier 3 standard combat power, it could carry a hundred players and fly wherever it pleased. Moreover, an airship featured rest and recovery functions that flying mounts lacked—even though this rest and recovery was weak, it was extremely valuable on Level 100 neutral maps. And its formidable defensive power meant there was no need to fear even Tier 4 legendary flying monsters; one could easily escape.
"Guild Leader, you look so happy—what good drops did that boss give us?" Hei Zi asked curiously, noticing Shi Feng's excellent mood.
"See for yourselves." Shi Feng smiled, hiding the airship design diagram, and displayed all of the Ice Dragon Heiswitt's drops for everyone to see.
"Holy crap! Legendary-grade materials!"
"There's also a Level 100 Mythril Rank equipment design diagram!"
"This Gold-grade Frost Set is incredible!"
Everyone's eyes lit up as they examined the boss drops. Perhaps the boss hadn't dropped a single epic-grade item, but no one was stupid—they understood all too well the value of quasi-legendary materials and legendary-grade materials, which were supreme ingredients for crafting epic-grade items.
On top of that, the Ice Dragon Heiswitt had dropped seven pieces of Level 100 Dark Gold-grade equipment and over thirty Level 100 Gold-grade weapons and armor. This would allow quite a few people to see significant improvements. In particular, the Frost Set dropped by the Ice Dragon Heiswitt—it was merely a six-piece Level 100 Gold-grade set, yet its attributes outperformed Level 95 Dark Gold equipment by nearly three full tiers.
Any Elementalist wearing this set could easily dominate experts under Level 100 decked out in full epic-grade gear.
After that, Shi Feng had the team conduct an internal auction. In the end, the Frost Set went to Yi Luofei. In terms of attribute strength, only Shi Feng—with his legendary-grade material fragment and several epic-grade items—Ke Le, and Zhao Yueru could surpass her slightly; everyone else fell well short.
Once the equipment auction concluded, Shi Feng led everyone directly back to White River City.
Everyone's levels had reached 100, qualifying them for the Tier 3 job change. Naturally, there was no reason to keep grinding in the Cold Spring Forest any longer. Besides, over a dozen members of the team already had the strength to tackle the Tier 3 job change missions immediately—wasting any more time would be a shame, since Tier 3 classes were the true backbone of the Divine Realm at this stage.
After sharing his Tier 3 job change experience with the group, Shi Feng let everyone go about their own business. Those who wanted to prepare could prepare, and those who wanted to change jobs could go do so. As for himself, he headed for the Adventurer's Association in White River City.
"Honored Bronze Legacy holder, how may I assist you?" the beautiful elven attendant in the reception room asked, looking at Shi Feng.
"I'd like to submit the quest for subjugating the Ice Dragon Heiswitt in the Cold Spring Forest."
As he spoke, Shi Feng produced a massive silver-white dragon horn from his backpack—one large enough to fill the entire table. This horn was the proof of slaying the Ice Dragon Heiswitt.
The moment Shi Feng submitted the subjugation proof, a rapid string of system notifications rang in his ears.