Pride Quad

“Let’s go, it’s time to complete the quest!” Zhang Yang dragged Fatty Han in search of Army Captain Soren and completed ‘The Raid’ quest, obtaining a Black-Steel ring.

[Soren’s Appreciation Ring] (Black-Steel, Ring)

Vitality: +2

Strength: +3

Equipped Effect: Each attack triggers a fixed rate in healing your HP. Recovery rate will be 1% of the damage.

Level Requirement: 10

This would be the first equipment in the game that possessed the <Life Steal> effect. It’s too bad that the recovery rate was too low, and so was the trigger rate! It could not be helped since this was a General Quest’s reward; a ring as a reward was considered satisfactory and it’s always better than receiving nothing at all!

Hong!

A flash of golden radiance illuminated the area and Zhang Yang had risen to Level 11 with the 10,000 EXP reward from his quest.

He had thought that he would enter the Player Level Ranking but after he checked the board, he found out that those who were still Level 10 that morning had all reached Level 11. He was not in the ranking but thankfully the player who had ranked first was still Level 11.

“Fatty, I’m going to make the shield. Go level up yourself!” said Zhang Yang.

Fatty Han yawned and said, “I’ve only slept for 3 to 4 hours. I’m feeling sleepy again so I guess I’m going to get some sleep first!”

Zhang Yang peeked at the system clock and said, “F*ck! It’s going to be 6 pm! What sleep? Go have your dinner and come back online to play for a while more. Rest well at night and don’t burn the midnight oil anymore! You’re playing for such a long time everyday anyway, why would you stay up late?”

“Hmm, makes sense. Well then, I shall go kill some mobs now that I’ve just gotten these new weapons! Eh? Hold up! Someone just private messaged me!” He paused for a brief second and his face had immediately morphed into a perverted one. “Little Yang, a pretty babe wants to chat with me, so I’m not gonna bullshit with you anymore!”

Zhang Yang smiled and left for the Auction House.

To make an [Earthen Round Shield], he would need 100 [Iron Bar]s and 1 [Plain Copper Bar]. Zhang Yang did not have any [Iron Bar] in his inventory so he had to buy them from the Auction House.

The Auction House was where players trade, buy or sell items in the game. Every city would have them but different cities would not share the goods. Simply said, items put on auction in White Jade Castle’s Auction House could only be bought from the house itself, and players from other cities would have to travel all the way here if they wanted that particular item.

Once Zhang Yang entered Auction House, he loaded the search window and keyed in the keywords “Iron Ore, Iron Bar”. Tapping the search button, a whole page of results appeared.

Since the game was still in its early stage, all sorts of prices were set. Zhang Yang did a simple price comparison and auctioned for 15 stacks of [Iron Bar]s that had costed 50 silver coins for each stack, buying a total of 300 bars.

He then went to the mailbox and collected the [Iron Bar]s that were sent by the Auction House. After that, he went to the Smithery and placed 100 [Iron Bar]s and 1 [Plain Copper Bar] onto the cast. He then opened the crafting window and selected the [Earthen Round Shield] and tapped ‘Craft’. His character then moved on its own and picked up a hammer, a progress bar appearing below his avatar.

After 30 seconds.

‘Ding! You have crafted [Earthen Round Shield]. Your Crafting Skill has increased by 1 point!’

In ‘God’s Miracle’, crafting level could be categorized into Beginner, Amateur, Advanced, Professional, Specialist, Master and Grandmaster. Each level up required 1000 crafting points. NPCs would not teach players to craft any items and all of the items could only be learnt through recipes found by players.

The lower ranked recipes were easier to obtain but once a player had reached the Professional level and beyond, it would be extremely hard to obtain even one recipe that corresponded to the level. Furthermore, going from Professional to Specialist would require a player to craft items from Professional-ranked recipes. Nothing could be done if there was no recipe of that rank.

That was why even after 5 years in the game in his previous life, far too few players had managed to become a Grandmaster of Crafting.

Zhang Yang stroked the shield lovingly and swapped the old shield to equip it, raising his attributes by heaps.

[Player: Zhan Yu]

Level: 11

HP: 790

Defense: 64

Strength: 86

Dexterity: 32

Luck: 2

Melee Damage: 102 – 110

Attack Interval: 2 seconds

64 Defense! Zhang Yang laughed. With such a high Defense value, not many players would be able to penetrate his defense at the moment! His 790 HP could allow him to stand still and it would still take half a day for someone to kill him!

He then proceeded to utilize all his materials and crafted two more shields. After that, he went to the mailbox and mailed one of the shields to Crimson Fire via cash-on-delivery. He then put the other shield up with a minimum bid of 400 gold coins and without a buyout price for a day on the Auction House anonymously.

It was about 6.30 pm when he had wanted to log off and have his dinner but he was interrupted by a private message notification sound.

“Buddy, I have a lot more [Iron Ore]s here. If you would like to buy more of them, you can contact me directly and I can give you a lower price!”

Zhang Yang checked and saw that the message was sent by someone named ‘Professional Miner’. He immediately recalled that it was the person whom he had bought the [Iron Plate]s from in the Auction House. Auction Houses would usually charge a 10% service fee, so most players would want to establish direct transactions with regular customers to cut their cost.

Realizing that he would need a large amount of [Iron Plate]s to craft shields, he would indeed need a stable supplier. Zhang Yang then replied the message saying, “Eh, I would require 10 to 20 stacks of [Iron Plate]s daily. Can you guarantee the constant supply?”

“Haha, My name is Professional Miner. 10 to 20? If you want several times more than that amount, I could also dig them up for you!” Professional Miner replied smugly.

“Very well. What’s the price?”

“It depends on how many you want.”

“Um, let’s make it 100 stacks for now!” Zhang Yang simply gave a number. That amount would allow him to produce only 20 shields anyway so it was not that much.

“Sheesh! What’s with that amount!” Professional Miner drew in a shaky breath.

“Haha, you said you could do it!” Zhang Yang laughed as he replied.

“Hehe, 100 stacks are too much. I only have 30 stacks for now!”

“Okay, 30 stacks it is! Name your price!”

“Um, how about 48 silver coins per stack?”

Professional Miner had auctioned a stack for 50 silver coins in the Auction House and the 10% service fee would have cost him 5 silver coins. Therefore, the price offered now was cheaper by 2 silver coins which Zhang Yang thought was acceptable.

Zhang Yang replied instantly, “Very well, mail them to me via COD. I’ll be logging off to have dinner now!”

“OK, let’s be friends. It’s easier to keep in touch!”

Zhang Yang easily accepted the friend request and logged off.

Taking off his gaming helmet, Zhang Yang let out a long breath. After laying down for such a long period of time, his body felt rather stiff. He stretched in his room for a bit before heading to the kitchen to prepare his dinner. He logged back in after having a simple meal.

The email notification indicated that he had new mails so Zhang Yang went to the mailbox and retrieved them. The first one was about the [Iron Ore]s from Professional Miner. 14 gold coins were deducted after Zhang Yang selected ‘Accept’ as the transaction was via COD. 30 stacks of [Iron Ore]s were then added into his inventory. The second mail contained 500 gold coins that the system had sent over after Crimson Fire retrieved the shield.

Zhang Yang sent a message to Fatty Han, asking him to complete a quest together but Fatty Han rejected him saying that he wanted to chat with the pretty girl and did not have time for him.

“Hoes before bros, what a douche!” Zhang Yang shook his head, he had wanted to bring Fatty Han along for a special quest but since that fatty could not be counted upon, Zhang Yang would just ignore him.

Going out of the city and heading eastward, he was blocked by 4 players who prevented him from walking further.

Floral Shorts, Prideful Precepts, Prideful Babysitter and Kindling Chest Hair – the Pride Quad.

“F*ck you, noob Warrior! I’ve said it before. If you didn’t add us back into the party, I’ll kill you back to Level 0!” Prideful Precepts glared at Zhang Yang, gritting his teeth.

Oh, how infuriated they were after Zhang Yang had kicked them out of the party! They then discussed and decided that they would not let this matter rest and must make Zhang Yang pay for his arrogance! Therefore, they had waited at the dungeon entrance to gang up and beat Zhang Yang up once he came out.

However, what had greeted them after waiting for so long was the red-text laden server announcement!

They had felt angrier after seeing that! If Zhang Yang had not kicked them out from the party, they would have been part of the glorious feat! These 4 players had not even reflected on the reason of their expulsion but had piled all their fury and blamed it on Zhang Yang. This had further steeled their will to ‘punish’ Zhang Yang.

After Snowy Death and the rest of the party had exited the dungeon, they had waited for another period of time yet Zhang Yang was nowhere to be found. Prideful Precepts then realized that Zhang Yang must have used a Teleportation Reagent! They then rushed hurriedly back to the city and with such coincidence, stumbled upon Zhang Yang in their journey!

Zhang Yang smirked, “With just you bunch of useless douches?”

“Useless your ass! Why are we still talking shit with him?! Wreck the guy!” Kindling Chest Hair held his hammer tightly with his eyes locked on Zhang Yang.

“Yes, roll him over! If he’s not killed back to Level 0 today, I can’t stomach this insult!” Floral Shorts said as he used <Stealth>, disappearing from their sight.

Prideful Precepts had started to cast a <Fireball> while Kindling Chest Hair had wielded his hammer and rushed towards Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang waited patiently with his arms crossed, sneering.

“Noob Warrior! Just die!” said Kindling Chest Hair as he dashed over, swinging his shield and tossing it towards Zhang Yang.

“<Shield Toss>!”

‘Pah!’ A damage text floated above Zhang Yang’s head, ‘-1!’.

‘Ding! You are under attack by Floral Shorts and his party. You have 10 minutes to counterattack!’

After the system notification rang in his ears, Zhang Yang’s gaze turned cold, revealing his lethal aura.

According to the game’s rules, whenever a fight occurred between players, the first to attack would be identified as the challenger by the system and marked with a red name tag. The other party would then be given 10 minutes to counterattack unrestrictedly. A red-tagged player would drop 2 levels if they were killed regardless of whether the deed was done by players, monsters, or even NPCs!

Zhang Yang had not initiated the attack solely because he had wanted the system to identify them as red-tagged challengers!

At the same time, Floral Shorts had emerged from his stealth mode and appeared behind Zhang Yang, slashing him with two swords.

‘-1!’

‘-1!’

Unable to penetrate Zhang Yang’s 64 points of Defense, Floral Shorts could only cause a pitiful 1 damage.

“Shit! How is this noob Warrior’s skin so thick!” Floral Shorts asked surprised.

‘Dang!’ Kindling Chest Hair’s hammer landed on Zhang Yang yet he too could only deal a pathetic ‘-1’ damage.

‘-36!’

Prideful Precepts’ fireball had also landed on Zhang Yang and had finally dealt damage that was not too shabby.

Defense could only reduce physical damage, it would be ineffective against magical damage.

Zhang Yang scoffed and used <Charge> towards Prideful Precepts, stunning and slashing him with his sword, causing a devastating ‘-103’ damage that was one-fourth of his HP in an instance.

“F*ck me! How is his damage so high?!” screamed Prideful Precepts. “Babysitter, heal me!”

At this time, both Floral Shorts and Kindling Chest Hair had come back, raising their weapons to attack Zhang Yang.

“<Block>!”

‘-70!’

‘-82!’

<Block> reflected damage text floated across Kindling Chest Hair and Floral Shorts’ heads simultaneously.

‘-204!’

‘-210!’

‘-209!’

‘-190!’

‘-20!’

The <Horizontal Sweep> had caused high damage on the Pride Quad and triggered the necklace’s <Shadow Rage>, reflecting on Zhang Yang’s current target, Prideful Precepts.

“What the hell, this guy isn’t human at all!”

“Babysitter, heal me!”

“F*ck off, me first!”

‘-166!’

Zhang Yang flicked his wrist and bashed his shield on Prideful Precepts. <Shield Bash> dealing incredible damage, sent Prideful Precepts whose HP was not even 100 points, straight to resurrection spawn point. He did not even give Prideful Babysitter any opportunity to heal him.

‘Ding! You have killed Prideful Precepts!’

‘-99!’

Zhang Yang swung his sword and slashed Prideful Babysitter, simultaneously activating <Force Strike> and dealing ‘-101’ damage.

‘Ding! You have killed Prideful Babysitter!’

In an instant, only Floral Shorts and Kindling Chest Hair with their 146 HP and 428 HP were left!