Sword Among Us

The effect brought by the third-echelon masterpiece Clear Abyss did not vanish immediately. Instead, ten people who had their wealth shoot past one hundred million appeared on the Rich Rank. Their wealth had originally only been at thirty million, but it suddenly rose to the hundred millions. Many people connected this to the Clear Abyss that was priced at 99,990,000 taels of silver.

There was not even a need to mention it.

There were plenty of people who were waiting for the miracle of the third-echelon Clear Abyss appearing again!

But unfortunately for them, the sword that had three brilliant colors surrounding it no longer appeared on the commission shop!

However, the event of the third-echelon Clear Abyss bringing out a few millionnaires served as a reminder to countless merchants and allowed many people to realize the astonishing benefits that could be brought by the Forge System!

One normal grade two masterpiece was no less than one million taels of silver. However, once it was refined thrice, it would reach an astonishing price of one hundred million taels of silver. The benefits would increase by several fold. It had to be said that this was indeed something that caused many people to go mad.

A great change happened in the game!

Countless people cast their gazes on the Forge System and ironsmiths.

“We’re a large guild and we are currently recruiting ironsmiths who are at Skilled Level and above. Those who are willing, come and search for…”

“Buying Beauty Melting Liquid for three thousand taels of silver, Golden Jade Liquid for twenty thousand taels of silver, and Jade Coagulating Powder for two hundred thousand taels of silver.”

“Recruiting grade five and above herbalists!”

Shouts that usually would not appear in the market rang out in the air. They rose and fell, and plenty of them came from members of certain sects.

“Buying Stones with Water! Price is negotiable!”

“Buying unakites! Those who want it, come up with an offer. Those who intend to increase the market price for unakites, don’t come here!”

“Buying various high-grade metal ores!”

Shouts like that could be heard all over Baokang. The miners and ironsmiths that people usually ignored in the blacksmith’s shops were now intercepted once every few steps. They were asked of their grade and level, especially ironsmiths who had certain weapons on them. They grew so proud then that they acted as if they were some bigshots in the area. Wherever they went, people would follow behind them, and some of them even had leaders from various sects following them.

“Do we have enough materials to increase the echelon yet?”

“Let’s go!”

“We’re aiming for the second echelon!”

Happy and Thunderous Battle led a group of miners from Beautiful Robes Faction through the streets in a hurry. They often heard dialogues regarding increasing the echelons of their weapons.

Happy could only say that he was absolutely speechless about how benefits blinded everyone’s sight.

Thunderous Battle scowled. “These people… refining a weapon is not easy. Those who are lucky can increase it, but those who aren’t are going to destroy them, and they will be losing all their weapons and materials. Even failing during the first echelon will cost them more than one million.”

The group nodded quietly.

Beautiful Robes Faction had actually tried to increase the echelon of their weapons before. The materials for the first echelon were rather cheap, which was why there were many attempts to push their weapons to the first echelon. But unfortunately, since the level of their ironsmiths was not high, the success rate was very low. They lost more than 50% of their masterpieces and only managed to create a few good weapons. When Happy learned about it, he asked them to stop.

Since then, no one had tried to increase the echelon of their weapons at random!

Most of the sects had to have been shocked so much by the third-echelon Clear Abyss that their heads became muddled. They intended to test their luck, but the success rate for a third-echelon weapon was only at 30%. Besides, the dangers in the early stages of the game made it clear that they would most likely only experience despair.

When they arrived at the town gate, forty or so petite and young girls appeared in front of Happy. One of them was Red Coral, who was someone Happy had met once before, and the other was a rather level-headed beauty. They regarded him with a look of interest.

There was no need for Thunderous Battle to introduce them. Happy could already tell that the beauty next to Red Coral was the clan leader of Black Rose Clan. The group of female players behind her were all members of the clan.

‘Sure is a nice sight,’ Happy thought while rubbing his nose.

“We meet again, Happy.” Red Coral walked over with a sweet smile. “Let me introduce my sisters to you. This is the clan leader of Black Rose Clan, Black Rose. We’re all your fans.”

“I’ve been looking forward to meet you.” Black Rose looked at Happy and wrapped her fist in her palm to greet him. She had the air of a wandering female heroine.

“Same to you.” Happy smiled and wrapped his fist in his palm to return the greeting. “I heard that you had your entire clan join Mu Clan and changed the unfortunate situation of it having more boys than girls. Thank you for regarding us so highly.”

“We’re each taking what we need, that’s all.” Red Coral’s expression became stern.

She did not dare forget Happy’s wild and domineering behavior while he was in the ancient tomb, along with his act of killing resolutely during the battle of Common Reed Bank. With Happy’s intelligence, there was no way he would not be able to see through her little tricks. It would be better if she was honest right from the start and told him everything.

“Happy, in truth, Black Rose has been thinking about building her own sect, but you must know that there are an increasing number of sects that are seizing resources in a frenzy right now. There are endless fights of various scales happening every day. Without great strength and fame, it’s impossible for us to retain any benefits. If we want to continue developing and becoming stronger, we must choose to join a sect!”

Happy nodded.

“It’s a pity that we’re just a semi-professional gaming guild, and all of us are girls. There are plenty of things that are inconvenient for us. We can’t attract truly powerful players to join us, and we don’t want to join some normal sect and end up becoming their affiliates.”

“Then, why did you choose Mu Clan? Mu Clan has just started, and compared to other sects, we don’t have any advantages to speak of.” Happy smiled and spread his arms.

“You should say that I chose you.” Red Coral’s gaze was firm, and she spoke honestly and fearlessly. “If you built a sect like any other person and sought hegemony, we would definitely not join you rashly. We don’t wish to be dragged into your quest for power. My big sister and I have to be responsible for our sisters. We don’t want to be fighting nonstop.”

She paused for a moment, and a strange fire lit up in her eyes. “But you managed to solve the two greatest problems that came from Thunderous Battle entering Baokang County Town within a day. Not only did you manage to make yourself a part of the upper chain of benefits in Baokang, you even optimized the land here! I simply can’t think of anyone who can affect your alliance within a short period of time.”

“You’re smart.” Happy smiled. “So, do you intend to quietly develop your own clan under Mu Clan’s wings?”

“Yes.” Red Coral stared at Happy with slight worry. “Even though it’s not quite right if I answer in this manner, but that’s indeed what I’m thinking. Don’t worry, as payment, all of us thirty or so sisters will give up all the resources we obtained over this period of time to the clan storage for free.”

“For free?”

Happy was tempted.

He swept a glance over the female players behind Red Coral. They had very serious expressions and seemed to have come to that decision before they came to meet him.

“That’s right, it’s for free. We have more than two hundred people in Black Rose Clan, and they are the sisters in charge of logistics. They are the ones with the highest level in terms of occupations in our clan. Consider this a bit of our payment for taking some of Mu Clan’s resources in Shennongjia.”

“Alright.” Happy nodded. As of then, a sect’s demands for resources was still great, because the entire game would soon officially enter a blowout period in which the players would push their weapons to reach multiple echelons. They had to accumulate enough resources so that they would not be left behind by that wave.

Black Rose and her sisters had appeared right on time!