Chương 55: The Firegold Set

System: [Ding! Level up! You have reached Level 15!] Golden light bloomed over Ryan—Level 15 at last. The malicious PK had pushed his Killing Value past 1, 000; still far from the threshold to draw out the hidden NPC, but no matter—he need only kill another nine hundred players. Maliciously killing a player raised his Killing Value by 10.

At Level 15, Ryan farmed the Fire Turtle lair once more, completing the Fire Turtle Shells the Firegold Set required, and enhanced Fireball to Level 4, its power climbing another notch. Back in Dragon Blood City, he went straight to the backyard, lit the forge, poured gold coins into the furnace to smelt, and forged them into Fire-Refined Gold Ingots. [Fire-Refined Gold Ingot (Hundred-Forged grade): A hundred-forged refined essence; one of the indispensable materials for forging Gold gear.] These were forged through a hundred rounds of refinement—fine quality, each costing him a hundred gold. From disassembling the broken Firegold set earlier he'd gotten 15 Fire-Refined Gold Ingots, so he needed ten more to complete the materials. An hour slipped by, and after spending a full thousand gold, the ten Hundred-Forged Ingots were done. Then he spent nearly another hour refining enough Silver Fire Seeds, and finally let out a long breath.

"There—all the prep work's ready!" [Firegold War Armor: Gold-grade gear. Materials required: Fire Turtle Shell ×50, Fire-Refined Gold Ingot ×5, Silver Fire Seed ×1] The Firegold War Armor first! Materials laid out, he activated the Mystic Spirit Forging Art and bent to the work. The instant he did, a cool aura wrapped him; in body and mind alike he felt sublimated, his perception clearer than ever, his muscles brimming with explosive force. Clang, clang, clang… Hammer in hand, Ryan forged with full focus.

The 10x acceleration made his strokes fall blisteringly fast, and paired with the Mystic Spirit Forging Art, the two complemented each other—producing some nameless change. System: [Ding! Forging successful! You obtained the Firegold War Armor!] Dazzling golden light rose from the forge, and a brand-new gold-red cuirass appeared before him—its luster brighter, richer than the one the City Lord had worn. [Firegold War Armor (Gold Grade-3): A mighty cuirass fusing fire-essence and metal-essence. HP +3, 000, Stamina +1, 500, base attributes +50, Defense +400. Firegold Shield: active—on activation, condense a firegold energy shield around you to block damage; shield has 10, 000 HP, lasts 60 seconds, cooldown 30 minutes.] Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. His Firegold War Armor was a Gold Grade-3 piece!

For gear above Gold grade, a concept of grades came into play: the most ordinary had none, but as performance rose, gear was ranked from Grade-1 to Grade-9—the higher the grade, the stronger the stats within the same quality. His Gold Grade-3 Firegold War Armor and the System-rewarded Golden War Armor were both Level 20 cuirasses, yet the former's base bonuses were markedly higher. System: [Ding! Sign the equipment?] [Once signed, the signature effect triggers: weapons of your making cannot deal you any damage, and defensive gear of your making cannot defend against your attacks!]"You can do that?" Ryan paused, then signed the Firegold War Armor without hesitation. System: [Ding! Congratulations, signing successful!] Golden light flashed, and a small Gunn mark appeared on the cuirass, with a new line in its description: Forged by: Big Gunn.

That way, even if these pieces were sold and one day fell into an enemy's hands, fighting them would cause him no trouble.

"Strike while the iron's hot—let's finish the rest of the set!" Settling his mind, with his prior experience the forging went far more smoothly. After a full hour, the Firegold Set came off the forge—along with the successfully crafted Gold War Crossbow. The Firegold Greaves, Firegold Bracers, Firegold Helm, Firegold Boots, and Firegold War Armor—five pieces in all—sent Ryan's stats soaring. Under the set bonuses, his HP shot to 30, 000, Stamina to 15, 000, attack broke past 1, 500, and defense topped 2, 000.

Paired with the Gold War Crossbow's attack bonus, his attack leapt to 3, 000. If he returned to Hell-difficulty Ashan Castle now, he could stand and tank his way through with ease—no challenge at all. Beyond the across-the-board stat jump, the new gear granted several fine skills: [Searing Power: Passive. Adds fire damage to your attacks; a chance to burn the target for burn damage.] [Armor-Break Power: Passive. Adds metal damage to your attacks; a chance to weaken the target's defense, stackable.] [Searing Aura: Active. While active, deals 100 true damage per second to enemies in the aura's range; drains 100 Stamina per second for the duration.] [Assault Aura: Active. While active, grants allies in range +500 attack; drains 100 Stamina per second for the duration.] [Something from Nothing: Passive. Basic attacks have a chance to fire one extra arrow at no cost.] With these skills in hand, Ryan's strength rose greatly again—enough, now, to scrape by against the foes of the Northern Desert Domain.

Next was obtaining the item to break the level restriction on entering it. But first, a few things to do—chief among them, getting himself a powerful backpack. The Northern Desert trip would take three to five days at least, ten or fifteen at most; mailing gear back to Dragon Blood City the whole time would waste too much gold. Geared up fully, Ryan went straight to the Mercenary Tavern and posted a bounty. [Quest: Slay Big Gunn. Objective: Head outside Dragon Blood City and kill the red-named Big Gunn. Reward: 5, 000 gold. Once the target is slain, all participating players receive 10 gold!] A bounty this rich—he didn't believe no one would bite. Quest posted, he spent another 100 gold on a city announcement package. [Dragon Blood City Announcement: The Mercenary Tavern has posted a high-value bounty! Slay the red-named player "Big Gunn"! Claim the 5, 000-gold reward! On completion, all participants receive 10 gold!] [Dragon Blood City Announcement: …] […] Three announcements rang across Dragon Blood City, and every player's face changed.

"Damn! Who posted this bounty? That's incredible!"