RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 162

“Can I buy this. I want to learn it,” said Shadow as soon as he posted the description onto the team chat. The others looked at him weirdly while Tetsujin and Merlin actually slapped their foreheads at the question.

“What is wrong with this idiot? I thought he had realized the issue of keeping the guild and the team business separate,” thought Merlin.

“Didn’t you just have the same talk about the other weapon design?” asked Quiet Fire who had also been noticing them.

“Yes, that was for the guild. This is for me. I am going to learn it personally. I wanted to try out a transformable weapon. It would help me improve my forging skills,” said Shadow with a smile. He had already decided to learn it personally and had no intention of keeping it for the guild.

“Will try and create a few weapons personally if any of you want,” he added in order to tempt them.

“I am fine to give up my share, if you promise me a gold weapon,” said Tetsujing immediately giving up his rights.

“The same for me,” added Sultan. To these two, money wasn’t of much importance as a gold grade weapon. Especially, Tetsujin who had recently got a dark gold armor. With the gold grade weapon, he would become very strong. Even though he already had the gold great sword, it wasn’t the same as it was and two handed great swords or hammer which he had to hold at one end was harder to balance in a fight than a spear or the new weapon which he could hold at the centre of the weapon.

“But you do understand that the value of a gold design is much more. I don’t even plan to put it in auction house, but to sell it in the fight club. A gold design is rare enough that even the old administrators of the group will be extremely interested,” said Merlin. “It can be sold for a couple million credits. Even three silver designs could be matched up to it.”

Balthazar didn’t know what else he could offer for the forging design. If it had been a couple of hours before, he would have offered credits too, but he didn’t feel like using his money right now as he had just invested a lot of it. He realized that he needed to invest a lot more money in the game than he thought. He didn’t think of it before, but now he felt like he needed Robert to compensate him half of the 50 million credits that he invested for their project. He just didn’t ask it before, but with Robert already being given shares for it, he can try to borrow some money.

“Anyway, I still got about ten million left, and I can still negotiate with these guys,” thought Balthazar.

“Stop teasing him cousin, the design isn’t worth that much even to a guild,” said Quiet Fire from the side. She didn’t want to antagonize Shadow much. He does own a guild and it would be unwise to pressure him far too much even though he was a part of their team.

“Two million credits is possible, but a tenth of that is mine. Apart from that, I hope that half of it can be done in terms of coins or weapons, right?” asked Shadow. “I would even throw in another silver weapon design at least by tomorrow. Will transfer the million to you right now,” suggested Shadow.

“See,” said Merlin looking at his cousin. “It isn’t worth much to a guild, but he wants it as a forger not as a guild representative,” said Merlin. He had already understood that Shadow want to examine the weapon design as it was a gold equipment. He had already known that Shadow managed to create an original weapon design and examining higher grade equipment and experimenting on them was something that every forger did in a guild. He was a part of a guild before this game and understood the importance of a high-grade design to a forger player.

“Done, you can send the money now,” said Merlin.

“Ok. I will send you the 1 million. Remaining four hundred thousand, we can discuss how you want it,” said Shadow.

“Four hundred thousand?” asked Quiet Fire surprised.

“I am not counting my share along with Tetsujin and Sultans. We have our own agreement,” said Shadow.

Merlin was quite surprised when he heard it. A gold weapon is much more valuable than 2 hundred thousand. So, he was shocked that Shadow didn’t consider sending money rather than equipment. He also began to think that maybe Shadow had less money and suggested this.

“How about another one of those gold weapons and silver weapon design,” said Merlin greedily.

“I am fine with the gold weapon, but silver design is something I can’t say for sure right now. I would rather compensate in the form of gold coins,” said Shadow. He already knew that he was making a loss with the weapons that he promised, but he still wanted to make an amicable transaction. The weapon design he took was much more valuable than a simple gold design. He found it valuable because it is a modifiable weapon, which would have much more value than others. He could also use the design to construct similar other weapons which was the reason he wanted to buy it right now.

“Fine,” said Merlin as Shadow immediately learned the design and checked the steps of its construction. The detachable part needs to be a lot stronger than the other parts, where the copper ore is being used in combination with iron. “So, this is how it is made,” thought Balthazar as he went through the steps.

“Now, shall we attempt the hell mode?” asked Merlin excited to get the first clear of the hell mode too.

“We at least need some consumable and rest, brother,” said Tetsujin who had been very tired using his gold great sword. “Why don’t we give ourselves some time to rest and prepare?” he suggested.

It was clear that he wanted to give some time for Shadow to try and make the new weapon he had learned and was using this as an excuse. But they all agreed that they needed some rest as they had to maintain a high level of concentration for some time and would probably not be able to get much results if they attempted the hell mode now.

“Yes, it would be best if we upgrade some of our armor too. Why don’t we browse through the auction too? We do have another design and a few items to sell,” said Quiet Fire.

“Yes, we also need to see how our recruitment is going on,” added Sultan.

“Yes. Recruitment. Let us see how many are interested in our team. We just got a first clear in the name of Blazing Fury. It is best if we use it to our advantage now,” said Merlin.

The whole lot of them channeled their hearthstones to return to the White Heart City. Shadow separated from them and went to the bank. He had acc.u.mulated more than a couple thousand gold from his dungeon administration rights.

He collected some money from bank and contacted Rudra and Slaine, but they were both attempting the dungeon. So, he told them that he would compose and send them the dungeon guide soon. He went to the shop to meet up with Lizzie and Hammer.

At the shop, he found Lizzie and Hammer discussing something together. They seemed to be discussing something very seriously in a private room at the back of the shop. He would have waited usually for them to finish up, but he was in a hurry as he didn’t have much time.

“Can I have a word, Lizzie?” he asked her.

“You! Yes. What is it?” she asked. “By the way, how did you find out about the trader profession?”

“I overheard some people talking. Why?”

“Because, it is quite a weird one. It is actually provided by the city hall instead of a trader NPC. I haven’t seen a profession like this before. It awards experience for a good sale. The system generates a pair of values for every item that I sell. A min value to be sold based on its cost and the difficulty of creating it. This is close to the minimum that we have. The other is better estimate a bit higher than the previous one. If I sell it for more than that amount, I get experience from just selling stuff. So, all rare commodities, etc., I can just sell and get experience from the shop,” she explained.

“Haha, this is made for you then,” said Shadow.

“Don’t get too happy. I actually lose proficiency and experience if I sell it for a rate lower than the minimum. The profession isn’t permanent, yet and I need to complete some trader quests before the city hall makes it permanent. I don’t even know if the license can be used in other cities or not,” said Lizzie.

“I doubt you would have much issue with that. The rate at which the shop is operating would make things a lot more easy for you,” said Hammer. “And holding an occasional auction would make it much easier. Doesn’t it?”

“Ya. It is a rare profession. I doubt one would be very successful without having the support of a guild. It will surely be valid in other cities too. I doubt that they would limit a profession to a city or kingdom. So, just try it out. It is not like it isn’t useful, right?” asked Shadow. He already knew that the trader profession is linked through auction houses and it is common throughout the game. The profession would actually teach the players various bargaining techniques, sales of assets and so on. This would be very useful when a guild own multiple properties or rents to NPCs or wants to rent from NPCs.

“It would allow me to get decent bargains from other NPC merchants too. It already has its uses,” said Lizzie nodding her head. “Why are you here?”

“Yes. Give me a couple of seconds,” said Shadow as he pulled out the design of vambraces from his bag and gave it to Hammer along with some gold. “There is a silver weapon design going to be auctioned by Merlin Grimlock,” he said. “Make a buy out as soon as you see it and learn it.”

“He is selling it auction house. I hoped that they would sell it at our shop. I just had a chat with Quiet Fire about it a few minutes ago. She told that she has a few items to auction for me,” said Lizzie.

“Ok. You guys talk it out among yourselves,” said Shadow. “First, tell the guild members to hold off on the dungeon, if they are enthusiastic. I will provide the dungeon guide in a few minutes need to sort it out.”

“Rudra already did that. He sent a notification as soon as the announcement of you clearing it came out. Haven’t you been checking the guild chat?” asked Lizzie.

“Too much of talk going on in it now. I have muted it and not really a fan of scrolling upwards to check the messages. You must regulate that chat to important things only,” said Balthazar. That was one of the most important things required in a guild. When, a guild is growing, it usually gets hard to maintain this kind of regulations, but if one fails to do so, the chat becomes useless later on in the game and useful information tends to get submerged by a lot of friendly chatter.

“Ya. Slaine was also complaining of the same. People are bit more enthusiastic than we have expected,” said Lizzie in agreement. “It is hard to curb down their excitement.”

“Did you guys set up the guild warehouse, yet?” asked Balthazar.

“Oh! Isn’t that a bit too hard?” asked Lizzie as she realized what Balthazar’s suggestion is going to be. Slaine had already suggested that they restrict the members who are using guild chat for trivialities to not be able to use the warehouse.

“You need to have some hard and strong rules. Else, the members wouldn’t calm down. Especially under these circ.u.mstances. It is necessary,” said Balthazar. This rule is used by a number of first-rate guilds.

“Second, how is it going in the Blackrock Town?” he asked.

“It is quite peaceful actually. The town actually upgraded to an intermediate town. We have a decent amount of control over the tow. The Sirius Imperials have joined their forces with us and we are presenting a united front to any player from Foedus Rex,” said Lizzie.

“What about the exploration of the Blackrock mountains,” asked Balthazar.

“Brick is leading that. We went quite far into the mountains, behind the portal for the Cave of Wargs. They reached a level 15 area with a bunch of new monsters, but we didn’t find any mine as you had suggested,” said Lizzie.

“Keep looking. It is actually best, if we calm down till the mass quest ends,” suggested Balthazar. “What about the path to Jarko Town?”

“We are exploring along the map you gave. Found that Welog town as shown in the map, but it will take some time to get uptil Jarko. We are actually pushing it a bit. It is a level 15 area already and we are just trying to improve our reputation at Welog town.”

“That is good. It is good to have a decent reputation in the places along the way. Any other big guilds in the vicinity?” asked Balthazar.

“No. Most other guilds tend to interfere with us. Foedus Rex is concerned with the mass quest. Perennial Light is leading this, and he says that it is going quite peacefully as most player are currently overly concerned with the mass quest. It does give a chance of giving quite a few good equipment,” said Lizzie. “It is much more interesting to guilds and independent players than exploration currently. We best use this option for these two days.”

“Ok. That mass quest actually ended up providing us an advantage,” said Shadow. “How about the trade route and caravan designs. Talking about designs, did you meet with Earthly Researcher.”

“We checked with most of our sources for the caravan design. Found nothing, yet. Earthly, he is a bit full of himself, but a worth addition,” said Lizzie a bit annoyed. It looked like she didn’t really like the engineer.

“Ok. He is not important. I got another engineer in mind. I got a friend who is using the nickname Lizzie Bizzie. I actually contacted her to meet Rudra for the creating a training environment. He might mostly introduce her to you to help him with management of the training environment and similar things. She is a good engineer and it would be good if you can get her to join the guild,” said Shadow. As Lizzie was mostly handling the business aspects of the guild more than Rudra, he decided it is best to also let her be aware and examine Ellie’s efforts.

“Ya. He told me of her. I will see if I can talk to her about this too,” said Lizzie. “Is training really that important?” she asked.

“Ya. It is. You will soon realize it. Stick to the trader profession. I think that you would have the best chance to get a hold of caravans from the trader profession,” said Shadow. “Last thing, do you have any copper ore mined?”

“Copper ore? I think Hammer has some. He actually took charge of all resources and materials that might be required for forging,” said Lizzie.

“I did find a copper ore in the auction house, but it was a rare find. Didn’t find any designs to use it and didn’t want to experiment without more of them,” said Hammer.

“You know who put it on sale?”

“Some guy called Hunter 1. They seem to be a group called Hunter squad. I have already asked, if they could find more of them, but they asked for double the price. So, I befriended them and didn’t continue with the conversation,” said Hammer.