Zhan Long

Chapter 20 – My First Earnings

Ca!

My Bramble Thorn Sword sliced through the neck of the Wild Wolf, and the latter fell to the ground with a stream of light. I didn’t even know how many monsters I had killed, but I was level 19, one step closer to the important promotion of level 20! At the same time, I collected many different cloth armors, but the defense that even the best cloth armor gave was incomparable to the powerful attacks of the Wild Wolves.

At the same time, I looked through my skill window. Up until now, it seemed like no one understood the concept on how to make their own skill. There was a simple reason for that. Everyone was bad. Well, to be honest, if custom skills were easily made, this game world would be in complete chaos right now.

After I carefully looked through the requirements for creating a combo skill, I realized quite a few things. A combo skill was a skill that effectively used attacks, defenses, dodges, and knock backs to force one’s opponent to be one step behind, making the opponent unable to defend or dodge. Afterwards, one’s attacks would easily land while the opponent’s would be weak and useless. Although I could do such complex combos in real life, in the game, the requirements for making a skill were a lot harsher. The power, angle, and timing had to be perfect, or else you would not be able to create your own skill.

……

While killing the Wild Wolves, I thought about the past. Even though I had trained under the old man for many years, the only technique that he passed down was very simple; it used attacks to suppress the opponent. In reality, he didn’t even tell me the name of the sword technique. Perhaps even he didn’t know himself, since there was no specific set of motions for this sword technique. Rather, it was more like a lot of attacking moves that were not correlated to one another.

Cha!

I thrust my Bramble Thorn Sword forward, and with a “Puchi” sound, it poked a hole straight through the Wild Wolf’s neck. Using the momentum, I slashed left, pulling the sword free and spun my body, landing a heavy and powerful strike on the Wild Wolf’s forehead. Stab, slash, and punch. Using that simple combo, I defeated mountains of Wild Wolves, but sadly, even after I used it countless times, the requirements for creating a new skill still were not met. I wondered why…

Well screw it, let me level up before thinking about it too deeply!

Also, I realized that the 3 attacks that I was using were all ordinary attacks, so even if they really triggered the requirements for making a new skill, the power of the skill wouldn’t be too strong. I should master the melee attacking skills in game, then combine two or more skills to make a custom combo skill. Of course, the combo would need a good finisher attack, because only then would my attacks be classified as dangerous!

While killing wolves, I kept on picking Seven-Starred Herbs. Soon, 3 hours flashed by. I even forgot to eat lunch! But, my experience was at level 19, with 94% completed. There only was 6% left until level 20!

……

My red, chaotic name had turned back to normal a long time ago since I had killed so many monsters. At the same time, I heard some walking sounds coming from the far side of the forest. More players, huh. It was a group of 5 players, all level 18-20. They looked at me from afar and then went on their way. I had no intention of bothering them either, so I grabbed my sword and left. There were over 3200 batches of Seven-Star Herbs in my bag, and that was the result of only one day of herb-picking! In fact, I had enough for me to get my alchemy level to 4, and with this, I should be the first alchemist to reach level 4!

Half an hour later, I returned to Ba Huang City and after I repaired my equipment, I sent Yue Qing Qian a message: “Qing Qian~ I’ve returned to the city now. I’ll wait for you at the Northern plaza entrance. If you want the weapon and the armor come quickly!”

Tick!

I received a message from Qing Qian, “Okay, I’ll get there in a minute!”

Whoosh!

In the distance, the bright flash of a teleportation scroll blinked, and the beautiful assassin appeared. It was Yue Qing Qian.

“Xiao Yao!”

She waved to me from afar, and quickly ran over. Waving her dagger, she smiled. “It seems like it’s time to get rid of my level 7 Black-iron dagger!”

Surprised, I stared at her, “Did you just…use a city return scroll?”

“Yep!”

“That’s, that’s 1 gold coin!” I said brokenheartedly.

Qing Qian flashed another charming smile, “Nah, one gold coin is nothing. [Prague] has over 2000 players near Ba Huang City killing monsters, which is enough to allow the top few hundred players to use money freely. Besides, Xiao Yao you are one of my precious friends, when you call for me, how can I not come?”

My face blushed slightly. “I really can’t bear it… Whatever, let’s trade!”

“Okay!”

Opening the trade window, I put in the Bloody Dagger and the green chestplate, while Qing Qian put in 7 gold coins. How generous, this [Prague] Guild was really rich!

I felt a bit curious, and asked, “Qing Qian, how many people are in your guild?”

She blinked her eyes, and replied with a smile, “There are currently 40 thousand people registered online, but a lot of people didn’t get the gaming helmet early, so there are only around 2700 people who entered the game, and they are all in Ba Huang City. Of the 60 thousand players who entered Ba Huang City, there are 2700 players from [Prague]!”

After she spoke, Qing Qian looked at me weirdly, “Xiao Yao, you should join our guild! Look, you’ve already angered those crazy people at [Wrath of the Heroes], and you’re all alone. If you join [Prague], we’ll go and eliminate [Wrath of the Heroes]!”

My heart leapt at the benefits of joining, but I quickly dispelled that thought. “Nah, it’s fine. I’ve already been accustomed to being alone. Moreover, I am not used to being ordered around, so let’s just leave it as that…”

But Qing Qian continued, “Look. You are at level 19, and you’re almost at level 20. You can get promoted soon! When you learn the true healer skills such as [Heal] and [Therapy], you would become one of the most important players in our guild…”

I laughed, and was unable to hold it in, “Now now, don’t try to convince me anymore, or else I’ll think you’re selling insurance… ”

She laughed as well, “Fine, I’ll leave it as that. Are you planning to start making some Seven-Star pills?”

“Yep. Are you going to stay here and watch me make the pills, or will you come back in a while?”

Sha!

Qing Qian pulled out the Bloody dagger from her waist, waved it a bit in front of my face, and smiled, “The attack on this dagger is pretty high, I’m going to go out the city to kill a few monsters. When you’re almost done brewing up your potions, send me a message, then I’ll come find you. How’s that?”

“Perfect.”

……

Seeing Qing Qian leave the city, I immediately went to a material store and bought a whole bunch of refined water and alchemy furnaces. Level 3 pills costed 3 bottles of refined water and one alchemy furnace, a total of 50 copper coins, or 0.5 silver coins. But, every pill could be sold for 5 silver coins. This was an absurd amount of earnings! My chance to make big money was here!

I opened up the alchemy window, and finished creating a pill~

System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!

System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!

System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!

System Notification: You have successfully created [Seven-Starred Pill] x1, [Alchemy] familiarity +1!

……

I got a pretty good feeling when I saw my alchemy level continuously rising. After nearly two hours of pill making, I finally stuffed my inventory full of Seven-Star Pills, and the system also popped up with an alarm to tell me my reward for my hard work!

“Ding!”

System Notification: Congratulations! Your [Alchemy] level has risen to LV-4, and since you are the first player to reach [Alchemy (LV-4)], you are rewarded with 4000 experience points, and charm +2!

Shaa!

A stream of light fell upon me, and I automatically leveled up to level 20. I finally reached the level where I could get promoted!

Putting all my points in strength, I felt like a completely new person~

[Xiao Yao Zi Zai] (Healer Trainee)

Level: 20

Attack: 126-137

Defense: 64

Health: 290

Mana: 260

Charm: 7

……

As I continued creating more pills, I sent Qing Qian a message. When she came flying in from the north door, holding the Bloody Dagger, I had almost finished using up my materials.

“Finished?”

“Mm. So you want all 3000 pills?”

“Yep, wait a moment, let me grab some money….”

“Okay!”

A few minutes later, a level 21 male elf player, grasping a longbow, came flying down. It seemed like he had already been promoted to an official archer. He took out a bag of coins and threw it to Qing Qian. At the same time, he observed me and smiled, “So this is the person, the healer swordsman that you’ve been talking about, Qing Qian? Quite a person huh…”

“Hello….”

“Okay, I’m leaving now, my team still needs me!”

He tightened his grasp on the longbow and stomped both feet on the ground. Instantly, he flew up and out of the city. Impressive, the specialty of the elves really was something, they could both fly and run…

……

I opened up the trade window, and separated the 3000 pills into 5 separate trades. 600 pills per trade. Qing Qian also carefully gave me 30 gold coins per trade, which equaled a grand total of 150 gold coins! When I finally finished the trades, my total balance was also around 150 gold pieces. When I bought the alchemy furnaces and bottles of refined water before, I had spent around 15 gold coins, now I had earned it all back in one go.

Looking at my satisfied face, Qing Qian laughed a bit, “Xiao Yao, now you are probably the wealthiest person in the entire Ba Huang City. How are you going to spend all this money?”

I paused before continuing, “Isn’t there a currency market or something in ?”

“Ah? You want to sell the gold coins?”

“Yep, the selling prices are the highest right now!”

“True.” Qing Qian smiled a bit. “Looking at the current market, 1 gold coin can bring you about 20 Yuan (~3.2 dollars) or so. These 150 gold coins can bring you quite a bit of money huh. Do you really have an urgent need of money right now?”

I shamefully nodded my head, “Yep, I have an urgent need of money right now. In my little friend group, I am nicknamed the “Penniless God”….”

“Pfft.. Well then “Penniless God”, I wish that you prosper eh?”

“Mm, okay….”

……

After she received the pills, Qing Qian didn’t leave, but instead she tilted her head and looked at me, “Xiao Yao, you’re already level 20, how about you go get your promotion quest! I’ll even help you finish the mission!”

I gave it some thought and replied, “Nah, it’s fine. I’m pretty confident in my own abilities. If I really do need help, then I’ll call you at that time. You are the deputy chief of [Prague], I don’t really want to trouble you.”

“Ah, that’s fine then.”

Qing Qian spun around and left, while I logged onto the official game website. I entered the “Treasure Grove” section, which was the virtual and reality economy market. Naturally, there were people who were selling gold coins. I scanned across, and I found out that there were people selling 1 gold coin for 30 Yuan (~4.8 dollars)! I was not going to be that greedy, so I posted an offer of 100 gold coins for a price of 2500 Yuan (~400 dollars) for them. Hopefully someone would buy them!

……

Clapping my hands, I thought it was time to get promoted! The level 20 healer skills were waiting for me!