Chapter 19: Equipment or Fashion?

His blacksmith level had reached 5, which meant he could now craft iron weapons and equipment. At this stage, he could finally make some basic armor pieces.

He could have made shields before, but with only four starting classes and none of them able to use shields, anything he crafted would just be decoration.

Before anything else, though, he needed to process the ore. He tossed the ore into the furnace, and a few seconds later, uniformly sized iron ingots appeared in the shop's storage.

A game was a game — even the most complex operations got simplified. Liu Kongkong was quite satisfied. If he actually had to process iron ore step by step in real life, he'd need a good while just to learn the basics.

He picked up one of the ingots.

By all logic, iron equipment and weapons should have much higher durability than wood or stone, though they'd also be considerably heavier. Could he use this to make a [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick]?

After all, the durability stat was adjustable — dumping all of it into attack should produce something terrifying.

And if he could enhance it further…

Right now, aside from tank-type players, most players had HP somewhere between 150 and 200. If the attack got a bit higher, one-shot kills might actually become a reality. Since [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick]'s damage scaled with Strength, Warriors were the most fitting class to use it.

Combining [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] with a Warrior's own Strength and the bonus from the [Heavy Strike] skill, one swing could take half the HP of a squishy class. Bump up the weapon's damage a little more, and it'd truly be equal-opportunity destruction.

After thinking it over, he decided to drop the idea. For one, his iron ore stockpile was low. He'd already sent some players out to mine, but they were here to play the game — the blacksmith quest was just a side quest for them. Who knew when they'd bother turning it in? Not everyone was like Lonely as a Song, hovering around him every single day.

Second, high attack damage didn't actually benefit him much. Price it too high and only those two suckers would buy any; price it too low and everyone would have one, and they'd all leave the Starter Village within days. Who would he make money off of then?

So he made a decision: from now on, he'd sell [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick +5] at most — 25 attack was already absurd — and like the original, it would be sold in limited quantities each day. As for the original version, those who could afford it didn't want it, and those who wanted it couldn't afford it. It was an awkward situation, so he'd simply discontinue it.

Playing a game and I'm acting like a damn game designer, having to control how fast players level up…

"Let me just forge a helmet first, get a feel for it." Liu Kongkong picked up his hammer. His thinking was simple: practice making masks and helmets, and maybe someday he'd craft an awesome helmet that hid his ID — then he could actually leave the shop!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Two minutes later, staring at the ugly iron bucket sitting in front of him, Liu Kongkong fell into deep thought.

[Unnamed] — Defense 7, Constitution 3, Durability 500, Equipment Level 5, Class Requirement: Warrior

Completely unremarkable stats. Before this, players in the Starter Village had been wearing forehead guards or cloth caps bought from the tailor's shop. By comparison, this holey bucket did have noticeably higher defense — but it was still far from what Liu Kongkong had envisioned.

It lacked a selling point. More precisely, there was no way to sell it at a premium. Enhancing it would naturally boost the stats, but that would also drive up material costs.

"Hm? Almost forgot about this."

Lost in thought, Liu Kongkong's eyes suddenly lit up — [Looks Are Justice]. He'd unlocked this skill earlier but hadn't used it yet.

If he could make this thing look good, doubling the price would be perfectly reasonable, right?

In all the games he'd played before, flashy, eye-catching cosmetic skins and fashion items had always been something many players chased after, and plenty of people were willing to pay for them. That was exactly why he'd chosen to unlock this skill in the first place.

Here he was, a blacksmith doing the work of the official cash shop. If he didn't make the money, who would?

Activate skill! Swing the hammer!

* * *

"This game has way too few quests. I spent two hours grinding just to make back the EXP I lost." Night's Gentle Chill and Ye Weinuan walked into the Starter Village together. The other members of their party were offline, but fortunately the two of them — one DPS, one healer — could level up just fine on their own. After two hours of grinding, though, their weapons were nearly broken, so they'd come to the storage to swap them out.

Ye Weinuan casually sold the pelts, teeth, and other miscellaneous drops to the general goods merchant.

"Why are you picking all that stuff up? They're all gray-quality items. It's not worth it for a few copper coins," said Night's Gentle Chill, baffled by what this woman was thinking. She'd been throwing around big money just a few days ago, and now she was fussing over this?

Ye Weinuan shot him a sideways glance. "Save where you should save, spend where you should spend. It's not like it takes any effort." She then took a bundle of potions from the potion shop owner. "See? Pick up a few things on the side and the potion money pays for itself. Money is earned one copper at a time."

"Pfft." Night's Gentle Chill's face showed a look of disdain, though inwardly he felt quite warm. Qin Ying's family was even wealthier than his, yet even so, she never spent money carelessly in everyday life — except when…

"Wow, Ah Ling, come look at this!"

"Don't use my real name in the game…" Night's Gentle Chill turned around helplessly to find Ye Weinuan standing in front of the blacksmith shop, waving him over.

What strange thing has this blacksmith come up with now?

He walked over curiously and looked down — and there it was: a silver mask gleaming with a metallic sheen in the sunlight. On closer inspection, its surface was covered in intricate thorn patterns, giving the whole mask a wild, fractured aesthetic. By comparison, the forehead guard he was wearing looked like a strip of torn cloth.

"Holy shit, that mask is cool as hell!" Night's Gentle Chill was stunned. He tapped open the equipment panel.

[Thorn Visor] — Defense 5, Constitution 2, Durability 500, Equipment Level 5, Class Requirement: Warrior

This thing was a level 5 piece of equipment?! And the stats weren't bad either! But the price… 1 gold? Why not just rob someone?!

Liu Kongkong kept his expression calm. This was just the bucket he'd reworked, but he hadn't expected that after using [Looks Are Justice], the equipment's stats had actually gone down.

Still, he was fairly satisfied with the finished product, and the price was quite reasonable.

"Honey, isn't one gold a bit expensive…" Spending over ten thousand real-world yuan on a level 5 piece of equipment with mediocre stats — was he out of his mind?! At least [A Lifelong Promise] had a special effect.

"It's a great deal — only one gold!" Ye Weinuan turned around.

"You already bought it?!" Night's Gentle Chill was taken aback. He looked at the laurel crown sitting atop her head — the same metallic sheen, blazing brilliantly in the sunlight…

This was Ye Weinuan's biggest weakness: the moment she saw something shiny, she lost all reason.

"It's obviously worth it. Look — it doesn't just add 4 defense, it also adds 2 Intelligence." Ye Weinuan shared the equipment panel with Night's Gentle Chill.

[Dawn Laurel Crown] — Defense 5, Constitution 1, Intelligence 2, Durability 500, Equipment Level 5, Class Requirement: Sorcerer

You couldn't exactly say it wasn't worth it — it did add some Intelligence, after all. But then again, 4 defense was basically the same as what the tailor next door was selling…

"Here, put this on." Night's Gentle Chill was still spacing out when a trade panel popped up in front of him. The [Thorn Visor] was already sitting in the trade slot. He checked the ID — Ye Weinuan.

You spent two gold on these two things…

"So that's exactly why I said — why were you picking up all that junk…" Night's Gentle Chill accepted the visor with a wry smile.