Chapter 27 – Gold Equipment

Su Mo switched to Lafu's account and asked the Boss monster chat group about the Dark Straits Pirates.

Coyote Chief Kado: Lafu, you're asking the wrong people; we're all inland Bosses and don't know much about the sea. Big brother Tiger knows a lot, have you heard about the Dark Straits Pirates?

Tiger King Angus: Don't talk to me, I'm depressed.

Coyote Chief Kado: Haha, big brother Tiger, it's normal to have both victories and defeats. @Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease, Honey Badger, Lord Pease, do you know about the Dark Straits Pirates?

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: I already told you not to tag me. Because of your interruption, two players ran away. I don't know anything about the Dark Straits Pirates, but I know someone who does. @Wave Chaser Becker! He's a dolphin and is also a Level 30 Boss like me.

Coyote Chief Kado: Big brother Pease, how do you know a Boss from the sea?

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: There's a sea to the east of Lancelow Plains. One day I met Becker and fought with him.

As soon as Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease said this, everyone started to laugh. They all knew that he liked to fight but had never thought that he would not even let off aquatic creatures.

Wave Chaser Becker: Ai, Pease you still haven't ranked up. What did you tag me for?

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: I wanted to ask about the Dark Straits Pirates; do you know anything about them?

Wave Chaser Becker: Goddamn, they really did give you a good nickname. As expected of the Honey Badger, you even dare to fight the Dark Straits Pirates.

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: Don't waste time, just tell me their location and numbers.

Wave Chaser Becker: They're near Kerni Fishing Port. If you walk half an hour along the shore towards the north, you'll be able to enter Dark Straits. There are many islands there, and they're filled with pirates. At the central island, Naviki Island, is where Pirate Captain Jack built his temporary palace, and he keeps many beauties he plundered from various places. Mm, his tastes are quite extensive, so there are even beautiful men.

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: Kerni Fishing Port, eh? That's not very far from Lancelow shoreline. What level is he?

Wave Chaser Becker: You'd best not think about it, no one knows just what level he is. According to my understanding, the owners of the surrounding islands are at least Level 30 or 40, and there are countless pirates there too.

Gray-Headed Wolf King Pease: I've been working at ranking up lately, but after I rank up, I'll definitely find Pirate Captain Jack to fight.

Everyone's attention was on the Honey Badger, and Lafu was once again forgotten. Su Mo did not mind being ignored; only by keeping a low-profile could he make a fortune.

Su Mo switched back to his own account and rode on his Snow Mountain Warg along the coastline.

Soon, he left the fog of the Kerni Fishing Area. With a mount, things were much more convenient, and less than 20 minutes later, Su Mo could see a dense group of islands.

It was quite simple to reach the islands: There were many pieces of rotting wood on the shore, and if a player tossed one into the sea and sat on it, the waves would bring the player to the islands.

Whether this was feasible in real life, Su Mo felt a bit doubtful.

After reaching an island, he soon met his first pirate, and he was in awe of the pirate's tanned muscles.

Err, the focus was not quite right.

It was mainly because Su Mo's skin was naturally quite white, and even though he had gone through a lot of training in the army, he was still unable to develop a tan. He was often mocked as 'little white face,' so he admired those with tanned skin.

A synonym of admiration was envy.

As such, Su Mo did not hold back and summoned Lafu. However, he soon discovered a problem—quite a big problem, which was that Lafu did not know how to take out the blades of his metal claws.

If Lafu did not use the blades, he would be better off without the metal claws.

After Su Mo killed this Level 30 pirate, he helped Lafu take out the blades of the metal claws.

This made Lafu feel incredibly confused, and it was unable to even walk properly, let alone fight. As a Level 25 Ranger, without his pet's help, Su Mo almost died at the hands of a pirate.

As such, Su Mo could only take off the metal claws.

It must be that the game developers had considered this and would not allow pets to casually put on equipment, or else Hunters' damage would skyrocket.

If pets could put on plate armor and hold a shield with their mouths, they would become even more invincible.

However, Su Mo could wait until he used Lafu's body and gradually got used to it. When that time came, Lafu's battle strength would increase by a lot.

The human and pet took a bit more than half an hour to finally kill 60 pirates.

The main thing was that each small island only had a few pirates, so they had to search island by island. Su Mo did not dare to go to the bigger islands, as Wave Chaser Becker had said that the big islands had bosses.

New World was quite different from other games in that it did not lack Bosses at all.

What it lacked were Bosses who dropped good things. There were leaders in such a poor and remote place? Su Mo did not believe that these pirate leaders would have anything good.

The main thing was that he could not beat them anyways.

After collecting his spoils, which were a few copper coins, a few potions, some useless items, and three White grade equipment, he had already suffered a big loss from this battle.

Luckily the EXP that the pirates gave was decent, more than normal Level 30 monsters.

Su Mo decided to grind here when he had the time. After all, there was a higher chance of humanoid monsters dropping blueprints, which were the most valuable things in New World.

He returned to Soni's smithy completely wet and tossed a bunch of pirate insignias in front of Soni Junior.

"Bring them here!" The blacksmith carefully examined each of them many times before picking them up and carefully depositing them in front of the memorial tablet at the center of the smithy.

He then quickly walked into a room and came out with a sky-blue long bow.

"This bow was made by my father in order to demonstrate to me how to make bows. Its stats aren't great, but I want him to taste the blood of those Dark Straits Pirate scum. As such, Hunter, help me hunt them."

"I promise I will!"

Su Mo hurriedly took the bow and looked at its stats. He was going to face a Boss that he did not even know the level of for this bow; life was hard.

Whale String Long Bow (Gold): Damage 42-88, Agility +3, Strength +15, Range +2, Special Effect: If Charged Shot is charged to the full eight seconds, the damage will be increased by 30%. Equipment requires Level 25, Durability: 33/33.

Mwah! Su Mo hugged the bow and kissed it.

Putting aside everything else, just the Charged Shot Special Effect made it worth it. Let alone a Pirate Captain, he felt bold enough to challenge Dryad King Alfred.

"Apart from this weapon, I can also provide you with arrows that I made myself," Soni Junior said as he took out an arrow.

Exquisite Condor Feather Arrow!

"How many do you have?" The more Su Mo looked at him, the more Su Mo felt that this little blacksmith was a good fellow.

"I can only give you one bundle per day, but you need to give me 200 pirate insignias." 

Soni Junior paused before adding, "As you kill more and more pirates, you will gradually become the public enemy of the pirates. They will send assassins to deal with you. If you go further, their leaders will even come searching for you. Would you be afraid if one day Pirate King Frances was waiting for you at your inn?"