Chapter 997 - Cast Steel Armor Kit
The alliance between Blackwater and Heaven's Burial had a huge impact on Star-Moon Kingdom's players.
Originally, Heaven's Burial's influence in Star-Moon City rivaled that of the Star Alliance. Now that it had joined hands with Blackwater, who had annexed Ouroboros, it took control of Star-Moon City. Even the Star Alliance would not dare to challenge Blackwater and Heaven's Burial.
Almost all of the high-resource maps within the Star-Moon City region had fallen under the two Guilds' control. If anyone unaffiliated to these Guilds trespassed in these maps, regardless of whether they were there for monsters, Field Bosses, or herbs and ores, they would run the risk of falling prey to these Guilds' players, dying upon discovery. As a result, the other Guilds now struggled to survive in Star-Moon City.
To independent players, though, nothing much had changed. To begin with, they never visited high-resource areas as these maps always belonged to some Guild. Normal leveling spots were their bread and butter. Moreover, even if Heaven's Burial and Blackwater had joined hands, the two Guilds wouldn't have enough manpower to occupy every map.
The various large Guilds were trying to monopolize high-resource areas because they could send their members there to level quickly, maintaining their Level advantage. At the same time, they could harvest plenty of raw materials. Large Guilds had no interest in monopolizing normal areas.
Aside from obtaining Ouroboros, the Blackwater Guild had annexed many other large Guilds as well.
In one night, Blackwater had taken control of nearly 30 NPC cities in Star-Moon Kingdom.
When Aqua Rose notified Shi Feng of the news, he, too, had been surprised. He had never expected the Blackwater Corporation would actually be this swift and decisive. Moreover, it had annexed so many Guilds without self-imploding. The corporation's Guild could still function in an orderly manner. In fact, it had already begun to recruit new members in the various NPC cities. Usually, a Guild needed to spend quite some time to stabilize its rule after taking over an ordinary NPC city before it could begin its recruitment. Even Zero Wing was no exception.
The fact that the Blackwater Corporation had achieved such a feat showed just how frightening its foundation was.
This sudden development gave Aqua Rose a massive headache.
Just when Zero Wing had earned its title as Star-Moon Kingdom's number one Guild and was about to expand, in came a giant like the Blackwater Corporation. Blackwater even publicly declared war on Zero Wing, stating that it would not rest until only one of their Guilds remained.
Sadly, this was only the beginning. Their Guild members were dying like flies in the fields. As Blackwater grew stronger, field battles between Zero Wing and Blackwater's members occurred more frequently. This would definitely affect their Guild members' leveling speed.
However, Blackwater's actions had not particularly surprised Shi Feng.
In the past, despite the Blackwater Corporation joining God's Domain so late in the game and with only half of the strength it had during its peak, it had nurtured its Guild to become a Super Guild. The main reason for its success was its powerful foundation. It also had an advantage that other corporations lacked.
Now that the Blackwater Corporation had joined God's Domain at its peak, this performance was no surprise.
While Shi Feng rested at the top of the staircase, Aqua Rose contacted him again.
"Guild Leader, a short while ago, Blackwater's Blackwater Trading Firm and Heaven's Burial's Heavenly Trading Firm have begun to drop their prices. They have also introduced two new, highly-competitive products. One is the Cast Steel Armor Kit, and the other is the Mana Mixture. Although they aren't selling these items in high quantities at the moment, many of Candlelight's customers have begun to turn to the two trading firms for products," Aqua Rose reported worriedly. "Should we lower our prices as well? After all, we have more Advanced Lifestyle players than these two firms combined. Our production cost is slightly lower than theirs."
Within these two short days, the Blackwater Corporation had rendered Aqua Rose speechless.
Every move the corporation made disregarded cost. Blackwater was simply using overwhelming force to deal with Zero Wing. Now, it had begun to move on the Candlelight Trading Firm. If Zero Wing lost this revenue source, it would only be a matter of time before it fell to the Blackwater Corporation.
Now that she was in this predicament, Aqua Rose had to admit that, while Guilds with starting capital were amazing, Guilds with both strength and capital were incredible.
Blackwater even produced its own armor kit and potion. Even the Candlelight Trading Firm's Advanced Lifestyle players hadn't accomplished this.
The Cast Steel Armor Kit was much stronger than the Basic Strengthened Armor Kit. Each Cast Steel Armor Kit increased Defense by 180 points. It could rival already rival the Intermediate Mana Armor Kit. As for Basic Attributes, it increased roughly the same amount as the Basic Strengthened Armor Kit. However, the Basic Strengthening Armor Kit could not replicate one aspect of the Cast Steel Armor Kit.
Damage reduction!
With each kit that players bound to their armor, they could reduce the damage they received by 1%. As players could bind a maximum of three kits, one could gain a maximum of 3% damage reduction.
Although 3% did not seem like much, the kits would perform magnificently against Bosses. An MTs' ordinarly Passive Skill only provided 5% damage reduction. Unfortunately, such Passive Damage Reduction Skills were extremely rare and precious. These Skill Books easily sold for 10 Gold or more.
However, even at that price, these Skills were hard to find; Guilds and Workshops normally kept these for their own use. After all, unlike weapons and equipment, Skills would never be outdated. Many Skills were still useful after players reached Level 200; unless, of course, players found a stronger replacement. However, doing so was easier said than done.
As for the Mana Mixture, it was invaluable to magical class players.
When consumed, the Mana Mixture increased a player's maximum Mana capacity by 10% for two hours. While the potion did not possess a Cooldown, its effects would not stack.
Mana was magical classes' second life source. The importance of being able to raise one's Mana capacity by 10% went without saying. Healers, in particular, would increase their healing abilities by 10% with a 10% Mana boost. They could last longer in Dungeons.
With the revelation of these two products, Candlelight instantly lost nearly half of its customers…
The Candlelight Trading Firm wasn't worried about a price war. The two exclusive products, however, posed a huge threat. In addition, with the Blackwater Trading Firm and the Heavenly Trading Firm working with each other, their Shops covered far more ground than Candlelight. With this, the increase in their market share would be even more frightening.
"Do you know their prices?" Shi Feng asked casually.
These two items had also appeared in God's Domain in the past. However, they hadn't appeared this soon. Heaven's Burial had relied on these items as trump cards to take control of Star-Moon Kingdom.
In this life, Shi Feng hadn't expected Heaven's Burial create these items so soon.
"Currently, they're selling each Cast Steel Armor Kit at 1 Gold, 50 Silver, while one bottle of Mana Mixture costs 12 Silver. Moreover, as they created these items personally, they can produce as many designs and recipes as they want. As more people learn these designs and recipes, their production volume will increase," Aqua Rose said.
"They're selling them so cheaply?" Shi Feng's curiosity grew.
He clearly remembered that these two items had sold for a considerably high price in the past. Heaven's Burial hadn't been so consumer-friendly.