MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

“I made more than 300 weapons and only one of them was gold-colored. I gotta step up my game.”

“That’s already amazing enough…”

Snickersnee did not know how rare it was to forge a gold-colored equipment, but Li Yi knew very well.

Those famous Forgery Masters from the past life could not forge any gold-colored equipment at all when they were at the Intermediate Level. Most of the things they made were white equipment, with the extremely occasional blue equipment.

It was Li Yi’s first time seeing someone forge a piece of gold-colored equipment at the Intermediate Level, and a rare one at that.

Li Yi asked, “How long have you been doing the daily Thousand Hammers quest?”

“I do it every day, it’s not like I have anything better to do anyway. I do at least three thousand hammers a day, and my record is more than ten thousand hammers.”

Li Yi was speechless upon hearing this.

Anyone could pick up Forgery, but how many players throughout the whole game zone could do what Snickersnee was doing?

He did nothing else from day to night, either mining or hammering away. Anyone could keep at it for a day, but how many could stick with it every day?

Everyone understood how to do it, but when it came to the actual doing, only those OP players with exceptional determination would be able to climb up to the highest peak.

“Oh, yeah, I got a formula when I was fishing, and I don’t know how to use the Auction House anyway. Could you help me sell it? I don’t really care about the price.”

Snickersnee pulled a yellowing piece of paper from his Backpack and handed it to Li Yi.

An Intermediate-level Fury Potion Formula!

Li Yi burst out laughing. “There’s no need to put this formula on auction, this is the very thing I need right now.”

“Then just take it as a gift.”

Snickersnee wiped his sweat and started hammering again, clanging away.

“The drop rates for this formula are astoundingly low, they’re not available at the Auction House at all.” Li Yi gave it some thought and said, “How about this? I’ll give you 10,000 Gold Coins now and send you some more materials later…”

“10,000 Gold Coins…” Snickersnee was shocked, and he raised his gaze to look at Li Yi in disbelief.

Li Yi laughed. “10,000 Gold Coins is the lowest price. If you put this up for auction, I’m afraid you’ll get much more than this, because this formula is necessary for an Apothecarist to continue leveling up.”

Li Yi did not keep anything from Snickersnee, and he explained the value of the Intermediate-level Fury Potion to Snickersnee in detail.

Li Yi’s Apothecary Mastery was currently at 3,321/10,000. When one was between 3,500 to 5,500 points, the only formula that would allow Apothecarists to continue increasing their mastery was the Intermediate-level Fury Potion. Whether you wanted to or not, if you intended to level up, you had to use the Intermediate-level Fury Potion.

Snickersnee waved his hand continuously. “10,000 Gold Coins is too much, just give me 1,000 and that’ll do.”

“I’m already taking advantage of you. Take it, you’ll need money in the future when you try to level up your Forgery and mastery.” Li Yi gave Snickersnee 10,000 Gold Coins on the spot.

Putting aside the Intermediate-level Fury Potion Formula, just that Fine Gold Longsword alone should be worth more than 3,000 Gold Coins.

If Li Yi wanted to trick him or get out of paying him, Snickersnee probably would not have any complaints. After all, Forgery was just a hobby to him and he never planned to earn from it.

However, Li Yi had taken advantage of too many honest people too many times in the past life, so he refused to do that again in this life…

“Oh yeah, join my Guild. There’s a Smithing Workshop in my Guild’s Map, and you’ll get even more mastery points if you work in there.”

“Sure,” Snickersnee replied without thinking.

Li Yi invited him into the guild and then gave him the administrative rights of the Guild’s Smithing Workshop.

Snickersnee continued to mine, and Li Yi left him alone, leaving quietly. When he has walked more than 300 meters away, he saw the last Barren Leader.

The Barren Leader had three giant barren monsters around it. Li Yi thought it over and put a Hunt Target on one of the targets. He summoned the Mutated Small Wild Boar and had it use Mislead, whereas he shot out an arrow and immediately used Pseudocide, falling to the ground.

“Coo— Coo—”

The giant barren monster that was shot immediately ran over to him, but the other three did not move at all.

Using Mislead and Pseudocide to corner the monster was the Archer’s specialty. If they wanted to play solo, this technique was a must-have.

As Li Yi fought, he ordered the Mutated Small Wild Boar to retreat, leading this giant barren monster away.

He had no other choice. Once the Mutated Small Wild Boar used its ultimate suicidal skill, that would come with an additional AoE Taunt effect. If he did not lure it further away and the Taunt spread to the other monsters, things could get really messy.

Li Yi finished off this giant barren monster with ease and obtained a few Copper Coins from it. After that, he used the same method to lure the other two giant barren monsters.

“Phoosh— Phoosh—”

The Mutated Small Wild Boar collapsed at the Barren Leader’s feet, and Li Yi ran in circles around it as he shot it with arrows, kiting it.

The Barren Leader’s SPD was extremely fast, so even if Li Yi ran and leaped, he still could not escape from its pursuit. Just as the distance between them was closing, Li Yi activated the Fiery Boots’ special skill and instantly increased the distance between them once more.

“Phoosh— Phoosh—”

By the time the Barren Lord caught up to Li Yi once more, its HP had also been emptied and Li Yi had not lost even 1 HP.

Li Yi reached out his hand to loot the boss and obtained a sparkling blue treasure map from the Barren Leader’s corpse.

“That’s pretty lucky, it’s a blue one.”

Li Yi’s expression lit up and he opened up the treasure map. The expression of joy on his face vanished instantly.

The King of Pantheon had many types of different Treasure Maps, with the most common being white-colored ones, followed by blue, green, purple, and finally, the most precious orange-colored ones.

The white-colored Treasure Maps could be dropped by white-named monsters and they had the highest drop rates, but the quality of the items you excavated was only average. Blue-colored Treasure Maps had decent drop rates, but the items you would get were much better than those from white-colored Treasure Maps. Green- and purple-colored ones were extremely rare, and the highest-grade orange-colored Treasure Maps were almost impossible to find. If you could get one, the reward you dig out would definitely not disappoint.

[Coordinates: 15786 22345. Location: Cursed Land.]

The treasure was somehow located in a Level 40 map, Cursed Land!

As soon as he thought of those insane curse-type monsters, Li Yi felt his body stiffen. If it had been a gold-colored Treasure Map, he might still be tempted to give it a shot, but unfortunately, the chances of getting something good from a blue-colored Treasure Map were just not that high.

All four Barren Leaders were dead, and it would take one to two days for them to respawn. Li Yi rubbed the Return City Stone and returned to Shattered Frost City.

The Auction House was as crowded as ever, and business was booming. Li Yi withdrew the money from his mailbox and began to browse around as usual.

Stocking up on all of the items that would become rare commodities in the future was part of Li Yi’s daily routine now.

Gems like Sky Blue Stones, Windstorm Stones, and Prismatic-colored Stones were the things that Li Yi liked to collect the most.

Most players did not understand their function and so sold all of these gems that they did not use at extremely low prices. It was only when the Gemcutter lifestyle class started gaining recognition that the prices of gems began to rise slowly. At the end of the inflation, they had all become as precious as actual gems, with prices so exorbitant they brought players to their knees.

He bid for and bought all of the cheap gems, but by the end of it, Li Yi had used up most of the Gold Coins he carried with him.

He earned money quickly and spent it quickly as well. Nevertheless, since King of Pantheon started, he had already taken out 300,000 bucks in cash and handed it to his parents.

Right now, he still had 20,000 Gold Coins on hand. Although there were still countless cheap items beckoning him from within the Auction House, he simply did not have the money for them, and so he had to ignore them no matter how much it hurt.

He had to keep some cash on hand. Otherwise, one day he might see something extremely valuable sold at an extremely low price, only to find that he did not have the funds to buy it. If that happened, there would be nothing he could do no matter how much he regretted it.

One Gunman stood at the entrance to the Auction House and checked his mailbox, his expression gradually growing more pained.

He had made a loss again.

Out of the 100 items he had put up for auction yesterday, not a single one was sold, and they were all returned to him. He had spent a large sum on the processing fees and did not earn anything in return, resulting in a loss of several dozen Gold Coins.

“I’m making a loss every day, what a waste.” One Gunman wanted to cry but did not have the tears to spare.

Li Yi walked up to One Gunman and poked him. “Blood Crystal Grass, 500 Silver Coins for one sprig. Hundred Color Flower, 1 Gold Coin for one. I’ll take as many of these two herbs as you can get your hands on, and this offer is for the long term.”

One Gunman’s eyes instantly lit up, and he rushed into the Auction House at the fastest speed he could muster…

The Intermediate-level Fury Potion required three herbs, namely Ebony Cane, Blood Crystal Grass, and Hundred Color Flower.

Li Yi had a sufficient store of Ebony Cane, but he was severely lacking in the Blood Crystal Grass and Hundred Color Flower.

When he got home, Li Yi refined more than 30 sets of the Intermediate-level Fury Potions. Just like that, he had cleared out his stock of Blood Crystal Grass and Hundred Color Flowers.

Sif, dressed up in a very special outfit, stood there like a statue. Her pretty little face was covered with worry, and she would occasionally let out a sigh.

“I was kidnapped by the Black Dragon Ferrian and fortunately managed to escape when it was sound asleep. However, somehow I’d gotten lost and was tricked by a few shameless humans, leading me here. Now, I suffer such a humiliation. O Great Elven Goodness, why do you put me through this torture?”

Sif’s attitude was gradually changing from her initial determination to her current passivity.

It would be soon, soon enough. Not long from now, she would offer that mission.

Looking at Sif’s condition, Li Yi made a deduction.

He went to Pinnacle of the Fire and carried a group through Heart of the Fire. Li Yi was now at Level 30.

He glanced at the rankings. Old Li Flying Dagger was still in first place and was currently already at Level 32.

As expected, he lived up to his title as the Level-grinding Maniac. Whenever he was online, he did nothing else but grind, grind, and grind some more…

“What’s the point of grinding levels like that? You won’t get to play anything, and you’ll be dead tired in the end.” Many players did not understand it at all.

“What would you know? This is called finding joy in other things. You’re not him, so of course you wouldn’t know that sort of fun.”

The discussions about Old Li Flying Dagger kept going on. Everyone had their own opinion about him, but one thing was certain: everyone acknowledged his title, that of the Level-grinding Maniac.

There were many changes in the other ranks. People like Nirvana Inaction, Orchid Elf, and Joly Pure Eh had long since dropped off the chart, and the ones that took their places were the familiar names that Li Yi knew from the past life: players such as Lonely Semi City, Heartless Fish, Peerless Green Jade, and the like.

Although his reset in this life had changed a lot of things, most events were still happening as they did before, without any changes.

Now that he was at Level 30, there were even more skills he could learn. However, Li Yi had always been rather short on Skill Points, so he had no choice but to choose the most practical of the many new skills.

[Weakness Break: Passive Skill. For every level increased, you will gain 10 STR and 5% Crit Rate. Also, a hidden effect will be activated at Level 20, ignoring the target’s DEF by 5%.]

Ths skill did not have a point prerequisite for learning. That was why all Archers, regardless of path, would always choose this skill.

Li Yi cleared out the unnecessary items from his Backpack, filled it with 200 bottles of Intermediate-level Red-Blue Potion, and set off.

Now that he was Level 30, the SPD of the little white horse could no longer satisfy him, so it was time he got another mount.

At Level 30, there were two places that could award mounts.

World Map: Wild Beast Plain.

Level 30 Dungeon: Frost Valley.