"A success on the first try — my luck really is something else." Shi Feng heard the system notification and allowed himself a faint smile.
The Arc Shield had been upgraded to Dark Gold rank, and as a result, its name had changed as well.
Shi Feng immediately began examining the silver-white crescent-shaped shield on the anvil, eager to see what kind of stats this newly forged Shield of Solitary Light possessed.
Arc Guardian.
Shield. Dark Gold rank. Required level: 15. Strength requirement: 110.
Defense: 550. Block rate: 39%. Strength +21, Endurance +30, Dodge +10.
Passive Skill I — Sound of Life: Each time damage is taken, gain one stack of Life Force, increasing maximum HP by 3% and healing received by 2%. Lasts 1 minute. Stacks up to 10 times.
Passive Skill II — Refraction: Triggers once every 25 seconds, negating a single instance of incoming damage.
Active Skill — Arc of Time: Saves the user's current state. After 9 seconds, restores the saved state. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
"The Arc of Time skill is absurdly powerful," Shi Feng marveled. "No wonder the other stats didn't increase much — with just this one skill alone, it's more than worthy of Dark Gold rank."
Saving your current state meant that even if you died within the next 9 seconds, you'd be restored to exactly where you were — including every skill you'd used after the save point. That was even more formidable than invincibility. The only drawback was the long cooldown, but if such a game-breaking skill had a short cooldown, this Arc Guardian wouldn't be Dark Gold rank — it'd probably be Epic rank.
He already had one Arc Guardian, but Shi Feng wasn't satisfied. He wanted to craft more.
He produced four more in a row, but the results weren't great. Two failed entirely, not even reaching Bronze rank. One hit Mythril rank, and only one reached Gold grade.
Still, that success rate was pretty impressive. Out of five attempts using Rune Gold, one had come out Dark Gold rank, one Gold grade, one Mythril rank. He'd keep the Dark Gold Arc Guardian for Ke Le — that way, tackling the 15-man team dungeon Castle of the Demon shouldn't be a problem.
Just as Shi Feng was about to continue forging more Arc Shields, a knock came from outside the forging room.
"Come in."
The wooden door opened, and in walked a beautiful blonde woman — Shi Feng's assistant, Anna.
"Sir, an adventurer named Shui Se Qiang Wei says she'd like to see you. She claims you made arrangements in advance. She's waiting in the third-floor conference room," Anna reported respectfully.
"All right, I'll head over shortly." Shi Feng nodded.
He'd been expecting Shui Se Qiang Wei to arrive around this time. Getting through a teleportation gate was instantaneous — the hassle was gathering all the manpower, getting everyone up to speed, and sorting out future plans. That sort of thing always ate up time.
In the large conference room on the third floor, Shui Se Qiang Wei sat with over a hundred of her subordinates, all of them quiet, chatting among themselves about everything related to Shi Feng.
These people weren't low-level by any means. The weakest among them was level 13, and the rest were all level 14 — they'd qualify as elite members even in a top-tier guild.
Every single one of them was Shui Se Qiang Wei's trusted confidant.
Before they'd come here, none of them had dared to believe that anyone would actually spend three hundred gold to transport all of them here. Whoever did that was either absurdly wealthy or completely insane.