THE STRONGEST THUNDER SWORD, VOLUME 6 - Season 10 Episode 9

After the female receptionist accepted the purple-gold token and confirmed that there were no problems, she looked at Shi Feng and said, “Sir, if you wish to promote your Shop to 3-star status, you still have to pay an additional 3,000 Gold reconstruction fee.”

Without hesitation, Shi Feng handed 3,000 Gold over to the receptionist.

Previously, he had been busy with setting up a teleportation point. There had also been the matter of the Mutated Dragon. Back then, he simply had no time to check how much he had earned from the Blackwing Auction House.

Although Shi Feng had spent 20,000 Gold to purchase the Engineering Locomotive Design from Sinned Heart, the 5,000 Strengthening Devices he sold at Blackwing City had made him a fortune.

After deducting all the miscellaneous fees, he currently had close to 30,000 Gold Coins sitting in his pockets right now. If those first-rate Guilds were to learn of this, they would definitely be green with envy.

In truth, Shi Feng had never imagined that the Strengthening Devices would be so welcome; the final 1,500 devices sold at a minimum price of 13 Gold 15 Silver. The Combat Guilds at Blackwing City had gone nuts over the devices.

It’s a pity that the number of people who can produce the Strengthening Device is limited. Otherwise, with just the Strengthening Device, I could probably earn enough money to construct a city, Shi Feng sighed inwardly.

While the Strengthening Device Forging Design itself was already extremely rare, the forgers capable of producing the item at a profitable rate were even rarer. As a result, the number of designs he had on hand was much more than the number of forgers he had who were capable of producing the item right now.

As players reached higher levels, their chances of obtaining the Strengthening Device Forging Design would rise. As the number of Strengthening Devices on the market increased, its price would definitely fall. By then, it would be very good if he could sell one for eight or nine Gold. In another few months’ time, even selling a Strengthening Device for five Gold would be an extravagant dream.

After Shi Feng paid the fees and completed all the necessary procedures, as soon as he walked out of the City Hall’s entrance and was about to head back to the Guild Residence…

A commotion broke out among players on the street.

“Did you hear? The Candlelight Trading Firm’s Shop has transformed again!”

“Transformed? Could there be a new product?”

“No, that’s not it. The entire trading firm itself has undergone a transformation! Before, it was only a five-story building. Now, it is seven stories tall! Currently, it is only second to the NPC-operated Starstreak Trading Firm in terms of floors!”

“What? Aren’t the number of floors for Shops fixed?”

“That’s right! That’s why everyone suspects that Candlelight’s Shop has been promoted to a 3-star Shop!”

“What!? Even the Black Dragon Empire had a 2-star Shop appear in its imperial capital only recently! How can the Candlelight Trading Firm possibly upgrade to a 3-star Shop so quickly?!”

News of the Candlelight Trading Firm obtaining a 3-star Shop spread like wildfire. Very quickly, every Guild in the entire Star-Moon Kingdom had found out about it.

This incident completely offset the depression and silence brought on by the abyssal monsters.

“Just what is Zero Wing thinking?”

“The abyssal monsters have already started to spread throughout the entire kingdom. White River City is even under siege right now. To upgrade a Shop in White River City to 3-stars, isn’t Zero Wing throwing good money after bad?!”

“Doesn’t Zero Wing know that players have already begun migrating to other kingdoms and empires? Rather than constructing a 3-star Shop in a city with a rapidly decreasing population, they might as well construct it in a small city in the Black Dragon Empire.”

When the various Guilds received this news, their first reaction was to comment on Zero Wing’s foolishness.

Meanwhile, the Guild that was the most excited about this news was naturally Overwhelming Smile, Zero Wing’s long-time rival; some Guilds that wished to overtake Zero Wing also got a kick out of this development.

“Hahaha! Zero Wing is done for this time! It won’t be able to rise back up even if it wanted to now!” Initially, when Feng Xuanyang received news of the Candlelight Trading Firm’s promotion, he had been both shocked and envious. Overwhelming Smile had yet to possess even a single 2-star Shop up to now, yet the Candlelight Trading Firm already had a 3-star Shop. Shortly after, however, he started gloating over Zero Wing’s misfortune.

If not for the invasion of the abyssal monsters, the fact that the Candlelight Trading Firm possessed a 3-star Shop would have indeed dealt a heavy blow to Overwhelming Smile’s Overwhelming Trading Firm.

With the Special Workshop of 2-star Shops as an example, even a fool could imagine just how many more additional benefits a 3-star Shop could bring. Even a meager increase in the number of Special Workshops would still greatly enhance the Candlelight Trading Firm’s ability to nurture Lifestyle players.

In the current God’s Domain, economic battles between Guilds were becoming increasingly important. This change in trend also led to Feng Xuanyang loathing Youlan to the extreme. He deeply regretted not contesting for the rights of the Overwhelming Trading Firm, allowing Youlan to obtain them, instead. Right now, Youlan was already a very important figure in Underworld; even he had to treat her with respect.

Before Shi Feng even walked into Zero Wing’s Residence, he could already hear the merriment coming from inside.

Just moments ago, Melancholic Smile had even directly contacted Shi Feng to report every functionality of the Candlelight Trading Firm’s new 3-star Shop, her voice bubbling with excitement.

Although the building itself had increased by only two floors, the difference between the functions of a 2-star Shop and 3-star Shop made Melancholic Smile think that she was dreaming.

That was right: dreaming.

In order to develop itself, the Candlelight Trading Firm had recruited many Lifestyle players. Some of the new hires had very good potential. The only thing they lacked was experience. Unfortunately, the Candlelight Trading Firm had only five Special Workshops. With three rooms reserved exclusively for Melancholic Smile, Cream Cocoa, and Roasted Ironheart, only two were left for the others to use in turn and increase their production experience.

With this, the amount of time allotted for each Lifestyle player was not calculated in hours or days, but in minutes. Generally, a Lifestyle player with good potential would have roughly 30 minutes to learn and train inside a Special Workshop, once every several days.

Now, they had a total of 12 Special Workshops. Aside from the three reserved, they now had nine Special Workshops for those with excellent potential to use. This would increase their efficiency over fourfold.

Finally, there was the Basic Meditation Room, which was what truly shocked Melancholic Smile.

Out of curiosity, she had spent 300 Magic Crystals to activate the room. Although the price was indeed costly, the effects of the room left her speechless. While inside the Meditation Room, her mind experienced a calm like never before. In that calm state, even the most complicated production procedures became very simple for her. As a result, her production success rate had risen by roughly 10% while her production speed had improved by at least 30% as well.

Although this improvement might not seem like much, to Lifestyle players like herself who frequently produced items, this improvement was extremely staggering. Currently, items that could raise production success rate by just 1% were selling for astronomical prices; something that could offer an increase of 10% would be priceless. There was also the improvement in production speed.

Not to mention spending 300 Magic Crystals a day, even spending 500 crystals would be worth it—so long as the Meditation Room was used to produce high-value items. If it were used only for items such as Advanced Whetstones, they would never be able to make up for the cost of using the room.

Shi Feng only gave some simple instructions regarding the Meditation Rooms and Special Workshops. At the same time, he also had Melancholic Smile start recruiting more Lifestyle players from the general public.

The fourth evolution of God’s Domain was not as simple as it appeared to be.

Rather than the combat system, the Lifestyle production system was the part that had truly evolved. Soon, Lifestyle players would play a pivotal role in God’s Domain, just like combat players.

Otherwise, a Master Forger wouldn’t have attained such a high standing in society in the past, to the point where even the Guild Leader of a second-rate Guild like himself had to treat them with respect. Back then, even the members of Shadow’s board of directors had treated the Guild’s Master Forgers like their own babies.