MMORPG: The Elementalist

Honestly, the loot Qin Ruo retrieved from the Graveyard of the Gods had been the source of his happiness as well as torture for the past few days.

Legendary Equipment, Pet Eggs, Magic Skill Books, Enchantment Gemstones, and Mana Core… Setting those things aside, he was still dazzled by the abundant Dark Gold Equipment in his storage.

Previously, it was difficult to obtain even one of them. He never expected that a chance event would allow him to stuff his Vault full with Dark Gold items.

Violet Orchid had brought him a pair of Legendary Frostplain Greaves and two Dark Gold Aquamancer Class Equipment. She also hinted at Brother Da and Gold Digger Babe to avoid equipping Dark Gold Equipment before their level improved. In addition, Little Apple and iLittle Arrow also opted not to put on high-tier equipment for the time being. So, Qin Ruo had run out of ideas on how to deal with the excessive spoils lying in his vault. Furthermore, a large part of it did not actually match the Job Class of his current party members.

“Why don’t you bring it to the Trading Hall in Moonrise City?” Violet Orchid suggested to Qin Ruo.

“Trading Hall?” His expression darkened as he had obviously never heard of the place.

That was when Brother Da interjected, “Oh, the Trading Hall? It’s a new type of trade. It was launched just three days ago. A bastard by the name Casanova created it. He formulated a new trading policy and patented it through the H&G headquarters. His trade aims to profit by charging a commission from sellers who use the Trading Hall. Players like us only need to bring our equipment there, provide details, our target price, and set the period of consignment. Whoever visits the Trading Hall can then check the consigned goods based on the systemized categories.”

Thanks to Brother Da’s in-depth explanation, Qin Ruo gradually understood how the Trading Hall operated.

The Trading Hall depended greatly on the game’s recording system. It would automatically record the attribute of the consigned goods and match it with the existing database. That way, a storage vault or sale list would no longer be required. The merchant could effortlessly sort out the different types of equipment and price tags simply by utilizing the system’s algorithms.

Once a customer found his or her desired item and offered a price higher than the one set by the seller, the transaction would be completed automatically by the system again if no counter-offer was proposed after a period of time. One percent of the transaction fee would be absorbed by the system as commission and fifty percent out of the one percent commission would be distributed to the Trading Hall.

Besides, the Trading Hall also provided service to players who did not wish to sell their high-tier equipment in the form of gold coins. The player only needed to pay a certain amount of service charge and the Trading Hall employee would then provide the most professional equipment query service. Once the equipment that fit the player’s requirement came into sight, the Trading Hall would immediately notify the seller. This would go on until the seller was satisfied with the equipment, and authorized the trade by paying the processing fees that corresponded to the equipment price.

“Bravo!” Qin Ruo complimented sincerely. ‘In this world, some people earn through physical effort, some through professional skills, while a rare group earns using their wits. The latter is certainly the most powerful as they have complete dominance over the former two groups!’

A Merchant was commonly known as the dullest non-combat class in the game world. It relied on the business acumen of an individual player to calculate cost-profit and earn a living in the virtual world.

What Casanova had done was unprecedented. He easily earned a fortune by intelligently drafting out a unique policy never seen before. Although the 0.5% commission seemed to be a little low, the Trading Hall business was completely monopolized by its creator. In other words, no other Merchant Class player would be able to emulate his success or compete with him.

What was more impressive was the fact Casanova deliberately put the game system’s algorithms into the mix. That indirectly tied the Trading Hall to the H&G corporation. It was not difficult to imagine that with official support, the trade was going to develop exponentially soon. Once it spread to the entire Mythical Continent and reached every single player in that virtual world, the 0.5% processing fee would become an astronomical amount.

***

Though amazed, Qin Ruo did not dwell on it for too long.

After all, not everyone enjoyed such a life. Qin Ruo, for instance, was the kind who preferred stability and was less adventurous in nature. After he agreed to Violet Orchid’s suggestion, he transferred the Pet Eggs into the Sharing Column for Little Apple, iLittle Arrow, and Gold Digger Babe to choose. Meanwhile, he took a closer look at the three new equipment in his backpack.

Frostplain Greaves

Legendary tier

Defense +40

Magic Defense +27

Water Elemental Damage +10%

Water Elemental Condensation Speed +10%

Water Elemental Magic Effect +8%

Fire Element Damage received reduced by 20%

Water Element Damage received reduced by 50%

Increase max MP by 50

Increase max HP by 200

Lengthened Status Effect: Chilled for one second

Requires 28 Strength

Requires 28 Agility

Requires 100 Intelligence

Level Requirement: 45

Limited to Aquamancers

Bladefrost Gauntlet

Dark Gold Tier

Defense +28

Magic Defense +18

Water Elemental Condensation Speed +8%

Water Elemental Magic Attack +5%

Water Elemental Magic Effect +5%

Intelligence +8

Passive Skill: Snowblade Burst; 5% chance to trigger this skill in normal Magic Attack; a Snowblade with Magic Attack 40 will be summoned to inflict Hidden Damage on the enemy.

Level Requirement: 40

Limited to Aquamancers

Iceris Cape

Dark Gold Tier

Defense +30

Magic Defense +18

Water Elemental Condensation Speed +8%

Water Elemental Magic Attack +7%

Fire Element Damage received reduced by 10%

Water Elemental Damage received reduced by 10%

Increase max HP by 200

Level Requirement: 40

Limited to Aquamancers

Although the Legendary Equipment did not have outstanding attributes, it did provide two prominent advantages.

It provided a 20% reduction in approaching Fire Element Damage. Combined with the Iceris Cape’s 10% resistance and Aquamancer’s passive Fire Resistance trait, he could basically ignore Pyromancer attacks during a battle with this equipment set on.

Prolonging the Frozen Effect for one second was very practical too. It was especially useful against Boss monsters, whereby the extra second often decided the outcome.

The Bladefrost Gauntlet and Iceris Cape were handpicked by Violet Orchid as well as Slayer’s Heart from their Bauhinia League marketplace, so no doubt, the two items matched Qin Ruo’s taste very much. Besides the enhanced Condensation Speed, the Snowblade Burst was a rather great passive to have too.

He was only slightly disappointed that he could not put on the Frostplain Greaves just yet, as the level restriction was 45 and above.

***

On the surface, Qin Ruo already had a full set of Dark Gold Equipment when he put on the Bladefrost Gauntlet and Iceris Cape The Greaves and Boots were covered by his Dark Gold Robe*). With the new gear on, Qin Ruo looked more daunting than ever.

In the process of changing, the new masters of the three Pet Eggs were decided. The outcome was just as Qin Ruo had expected.

The youngest Gold Digger Babe and iLittle Arrow picked the Three-tailed Terratoise and Darksteel Snowsnail respectively. They tacitly left the most promising Lethal Balrog to Little Apple.

“Okay, get ready everyone. Little Apple and both of you, bind with your Pet. After that, go and stock up on some potions. We’ll go to the Trading Hall together later. This is only the second day after the event ended, so this should be the peak period of people selling off their high-tier equipment. We should go and check it out. Perhaps we can get some good stuff out of it.”

“True that!” Qin Ruo nodded eagerly. He was still wearing two Gold Tier Equipment, and he could not wait to replace them with Dark Gold ones. After all, he had almost perfected all of his Water Element Spells to either Master or Advance Tier, plus he had successfully assimilated most of his skills. It was about time to boost his Defense and Attack with the help of some equipment.

However, Qin Ruo’s primary target to trade his two Legendary Equipment, Darkscale Skelewing Rope, and Helm of Storms remained. If he was allowed to trade for a high-tier Aquamancer Class equipment, he would even be willing to offer the Thunder-Type Divinity he had in possession.

Fusion with Divinity was not elemental specific. Any player was free to fuse with any type of Divinity. More than six Tier 5 Supreme Champions from both the Angel and Demon Factions had already fused with Divinity thus far. Despite that, Qin Ruo still subconsciously felt that it was best to fuse with Divinity of the same Element type.

Those players who had fused with Divinity of different Element types so soon were indeed formidable now and even jumped to become the strongest among the Tier 5 Supreme Champions. However, they may, at some point, regret such an impulsive decision in the future.

Qin Ruo still had ample time left, so he was not rushing it.

Right then, he was looking forward to visiting the Trading Hall. He wondered whether there was anything in there that could tempt him to splurge on.

*The Dark Gold Robe worn by Qin Ruo was dropped by the Vampire Leech

Blackwater Magic Robe

Dark Gold tier

Defense +33

Magic Defense +22

Water Elemental Damage +8%

Water Elemental Effect +10%

Physical Damage received reduced by 5%

Increase max HP by 150

Level Requirement: 40