Chương 31: Jade

Disbelief filled Ryan's eyes. From that single cast of the Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art, two things now lay in his hands. [Fire-Refined Gold Ingot (Hundred-Forged grade): A hundred-forged refined essence; one of the indispensable materials for forging Gold gear.] Disassembling the broken cuirass had given him three Hundred-Forged Fire-Refined Gold Ingots. But that wasn't what had stunned him. [Firegold War Armor Blueprint: On use, learn the forging method for the Level 20 gear Firegold War Armor. Use Level: 15] A Gold-grade blueprint, no less! As everyone knew, Heaven's Descent's drop rates were heartbreakingly low—and one of the main reasons players' gear gradually grew plentiful in the later game was the existence of blueprints. Learn one, and a player mastered a gear's forging method, able to make it independently; so long as you had the materials, you could, in theory, produce unlimited gear.

Yet who'd have thought the Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art could break a piece of gear down straight into a blueprint? The skill was downright monstrous. With Second Nature, Ryan could use gear and items five levels above his own, so without hesitation he used the blueprint. System: [Ding! Congratulations, you have successfully used the blueprint and mastered the forging technique for [Firegold War Armor]!] The blueprint dissolved into golden light and sank into him; in his Mystic Spirit Forging Art skill list, a new entry for forging Firegold War Armor appeared. [Firegold War Armor: Gold-grade gear. Materials required: Fire Turtle Shell ×50, Fire-Refined Gold Ingot ×5, Silver Fire Seed ×1] Now he need only gather these materials, find a forge, and craft the Firegold War Armor outright. With his materials incomplete, though, all he could do for now was savor the prospect.

He went on to use the Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art on the table's other broken pieces. System: [Ding! Obtained Fire-Refined Gold Ingot (Hundred-Forged grade) ×3!] System: [Ding! Obtained Firegold Greaves Blueprint ×1!] System: [Ding! …] A string of prompts later: five pieces of gear in all had yielded fifteen Hundred-Forged Fire-Refined Gold Ingots and a full five blueprints.

"Damn, this Mystic Spirit Disassembly Art… it gives a blueprint 100% of the time? That monstrous?" Disbelief covered his face. He'd assumed the skill merely had some chance to yield a blueprint through disassembly—but every single piece had given one. Excitement surged through him in an instant. What did it mean? It meant gold—heaps and heaps of gold. With this monstrous ability, he need never worry about scraping enough money together again.

"Master Lowe—I truly owe you my thanks!" Ryan murmured, then used all the blueprints. With that, he gained the full set of Firegold Set designs, plus a Gold War Crossbow blueprint. All these were Level 20 gear—meaning that if he forged them at Level 15, he'd never want for gear running dungeons. A rough tally: a full Firegold Set required 25 Fire-Refined Gold Ingots and 200 Fire Turtle Shells, plus 5 Silver Fire Seeds.

The blueprints spelled out where to get the materials: Fire Turtle Shells dropped from the Fire-Armored Turtle King, a Level 20 Silver Boss; Fire-Refined Gold Ingots came from refining gold ore; and Silver Fire Seeds were refined much like Bronze ones, except they required matching the flame's breathing rhythm 49 times or more, against just 36 for Bronze. But Ryan was only Level 10, so the materials could wait. The pressing matter now was getting his shop open.

And for that, he needed three things: startup capital, a clerk, and goods to sell. At present he had 300 gold and neither clerk nor goods—so some preparation was in order. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Right—I never got to spend the ten thousand Sunward Town points from killing the Boar King! Exchange them for some Level 10 gear, and I can cover the shop's stock needs for a while." At the thought, Ryan drew out his Sunward Token. [Sunward Token: Sunward Town's core token. On use, teleports you to the secret underground space of Sunward Town.] Hmmm— A faint ripple of space welled up before him, and the next second a blue-black spiral opened.

Ryan stepped through; the world spun, and when his surroundings cleared, he stood once more in Sunward Town's secret underground space. The vortex faded behind him. Without lingering, he found the rope he'd left earlier and climbed up. Back on the surface, he hurried to the central plaza. With Fane gone, a new village chief had taken office.

"Honored adventurer, is there anything I can help with?"

"Hello, Chief. I'm here to exchange some items." Ryan came straight to the point. He had ten thousand points, all to be turned into gear: a Common piece cost 10 points; Black Iron, 100; Bronze, 1, 000; Silver, 10, 000. Considering most players' spending power and needs, he spent 5, 000 points on 500 Common pieces, 3, 000 on 30 Black Iron pieces, and the rest on two Bronze pieces.

Gear exchanged, Ryan spent a gold coin to teleport back to Dragon Blood City via the array, then went to the city's civic hall, found the NPC managing human resources, and spent 100 gold to hire a clerk of decent quality. [Jade: Fallen heiress of a merchant family, with a gravely ill grandmother. Aptitude: B] A woman in a green dress came before Ryan and bowed.

"Master… hello."

"Your name is Jade?"

"Yes, Master." Jade answered softly.

"From now on, you're with me. Do well!"

"Jade understands." She kept her head bowed, not daring to meet his eyes—for some reason, an intangible charisma radiated from him, and she feared losing herself in it and leaving him a poor impression.

"No need to be so stiff. Work hard from here on, and I'll never treat you unfairly." Ryan's voice was earnest. He understood these NPCs' lot well enough—mostly people displaced from war-torn lands, seeking a living by listing themselves at a set price, hoping for a wealthy patron's favor. Put plainly, little different from slaves.

"Yes, Master!""'Master' grates on the ear. Just call me Boss from now on." Ryan frowned.

"Come, let's go take a look at the shop." Jade nodded gratefully and followed him to the not-yet-opened shop.

"I hear your family used to be in trade, is that right?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Then I'll hand the shop's business straight to you. Don't let me down." Ryan wasn't skilled in this area himself, and as the saying went, don't employ those you doubt, don't doubt those you employ. Having chosen Jade from the start, he meant to let her run the shop with a free hand.

"This… Boss, is that appropriate?" Jade was overwhelmed, scarcely able to believe it.

"What's inappropriate about it? I'm no good at commerce, so handing it to you is obviously the best choice." Ryan shrugged.

"But don't celebrate too soon—if you do poorly, I'll let you go! This is our shop's opening stock. Confident you can make a name for us?"

"Yes!" Jade cried out, excited, tears welling and brimming in her eyes. She was already grateful Ryan had chosen her—because in his clear eyes she could find not the slightest contempt or disdain for her, only expectation and recognition. That alone was enough to make her throw herself wholly into serving him. Lowly-born, she'd long been looked down upon; it had been ages since anyone valued her like this.

"Work hard. I hear you've got a grandmother in poor health—bring her to live at the shop today. A place this big shouldn't be too lonely." Ryan thought a moment.

"As for your wages, I'll guarantee you 30 gold; do well, and I'll give you a cut."

"Thank you, Boss! Please rest easy—Jade will give everything to running this shop, and make it the most popular shop in all Dragon Blood City—no, in all the Heaven Mystic Empire!" Moved by his regard, Jade wept, and in moments had dissolved into tears. Ryan said nothing, simply standing by in silence. Looked down upon for so many years, she needed to let it out—he wanted her to weep, to release all the grievance and indignation pent up in her heart over the years.

A girl, scorned by the world, still caring for a gravely ill grandmother—it was a hard road indeed. System: [Ding! Your conduct has caused an unknown change in your clerk Jade. Aptitude raised to A! Jade's favorability toward you has risen by 10, 000, now at "Loyal Unto Death"!]"This…" Ryan paused. He hadn't expected an act of simple kindness to earn such a return.

"Take this—10 gold, an induction bonus. Go quickly and find a doctor for your grandmother."

"Mm! Thank you, Boss!" Jade wiped the tears from her cheeks, smiling through them, and in that instant her radiance bloomed so brightly that even Ryan, no stranger to life's storms, found himself drawn in. Watching her run off at full tilt, the coin purse clutched in her hands, Ryan smiled from the heart. What does a person live for in this world? Nothing more than the happiness of those around them. Reborn, he had all the more reason to guard the people at his side, and never let his last life's tragedies repeat.

His gaze sank, his fists clenched, resolve filling his heart. The first step now: earn one billion Azure Coin.