Chapter 64 - Visiting the auction house

With the team busy at the dungeon he would at the very least have an hour of free time. It is best if he would use this time to make a few equipment. As he reached the Forging association, he saw that there were some changes to it too.

It evolved from a two-story building to a three-storied one. Even the area occupied by it has also increased. It was obvious that the number of forging rooms would also increase as a result of the upgrade. The association was still congested with all the trade profession players, but it was still better than the situation before the upgrade.

Though a bunch of new players came into the town, they mainly focused on trading new recipes and designs with hardly any trade profession players from guilds. So, the number of trade profession players in the town increased by not enough to fill up the forging association.

He walked past the players waiting for the forging rooms and talked to the receptionist. He asked for the association head Kade and equipped his title Blacksmith Kade's in-name apprentice. She took him past to the third floor. There were no forging rooms on third floor.

Instead there was only a single corridor with two large doors at the left and the right of it and another small door at the end. The nameplate storage was on the left door and cooperative workshop on the right one. The receptionist took him to the door at the end of the corridor with the name, "Forging association, Blackrock town branch head, Jeremiah Kade."

She opened the door to inform Kade and a second later opened it to allow Shadow Tyrant inside. "Ah! Shadow my boy, I have been waiting for you. I hope that you have enough resources to impress me. With the recent developments a lot is being asked of me," said Kade as he entered the room.

There was the desk with all the designs on it. Right now, he had only refined iron ore, blackrock crystals and cougar fangs. He had no other resources. As he put down the fangs, iron ore and blackrock crystals, the expression on Kade's face plummeted.

"I am disappointed. I had expected more from you," said Kade picking up the iron ore and blackrock crystals. "I had hoped that you would be able to gather more than these. Some rare materials from beyond the hills. At least you got a pair of cougar fangs. I could make good use of these," said Kade as pointed to the desk

"You can check the design on the desk," said Kade. There weren't many available for the amount of resources he gave. He saw a few designs of level 5 but they weren't any better than the two he had.

There were others but they did not really interest him. He needed better item than iron ore and blackrock crystals for better designs. With nothing else that interested him he just bought another swift dagger for his second hand with coins. He was quite disappointed in himself for failing to get any decent designs.

Looking at his expression, Kade said, "If you aren't sure that you want these you can gather more resources and come for some other designs. I can give you forging association contribution points in return for these materials you are providing."

"That would be very helpful, Sir Kade. Thank you," said Shadow bowing to Kade. It would be a lot more useful in this manner. Forging association contribution points aren't easy to obtain, and they can be used buy designs and even used to rent forging workshops. One usually needs to do some kind of special quest or end up creating a new fine gold equipment to become a significant member of the forging association.

"Being your master and the head here, I can provide you contribution points. But I hope you will improve your talent and manage to gain reputation in the association," continued Kade. "I hope you would get better resources for me the next time you come. You can't make good equipment without good resources."

System: You have been given 120 forging association contribution points by Kade.

"Are there any other quests that would help increase my popularity at forging association or increase my contribution points," asked Shadow to Kade. Though he boldly asked it, he was afraid that Kade would be upset that he asked for other methods when he already could earn them by helping him. But he hoped that Kade being his master and with the current position he held, could point him towards something he can.

"Hmm, there are a few things that you can help the forging association with. There were a few new requests made to the association to create few items. You can gather the required materials or produce the items," said Kade. "But to be able to check them you need to be a bit stronger as a pre-requisite. Come back when you are stronger, and I will suggest something."

System: Attention! Can only check forging association quests after level 10!!!

With that notification, he understood that he couldn't do anything about it right now. He heard that once a person became an NPCs apprentice, he could get into the respective association of the trade profession. But it looks like there would still be restrictions and the membership of the association is only nominal. He probably had to do few quests to become a true member.

He could go and forge a few equipment in this time, but he did have only the Blackrock crystal and refined iron ores. He hadn't checked the auction house yet and with the knowledge he gained in his previous life, he could use a few more raw materials to create better equips.

With that thought he went into the auction house to check out what the players from other towns brought. Even though most of the materials would be common ones like ores and meat, with the entire light faction there would definitely be a few independent teams and player who would put in materials they obtained in their quests for sale.

He went to the auction house. The auction house would have items for sale throughout the day. One can directly check the interface to make bids. There would be a time limit to make bids and sometimes players could also provide a buyout amount for their items. Players could also put in items in exchange for other specific items.

There would be special auctions held occasionally for very rare items that are given to it. The system decides if the items provided by players are worthy enough for special auction and asks for the player to use item in special auction. The players could accept or deny. But most usually accept as the members attending special auctions tend to be ready to spend more.

Today was the launching day of the game and there would be no special auctions. So, Shadow didn't really have any plans to save any money and began to browse for materials. He couldn't find any materials. It looked like anything that was put for sale were being immediately taken.

The most frequent ones were still refined iron ore and blackrock crystals. It looked like these were still not sufficient for the demand. It made sense too. He only got the large quantity he managed to gain due to him being the first to explore both goblin camp and elite mode of cave of wargs. Else, he would also be fighting for these alongside them.

Though he couldn't get see any rare materials suitable for forging and blacksmithing, he did glimpse a few tools that he could probably use. These were broken tools which usually didn't held much importance at this stage of the game. Though they wouldn't be of much use at this stage nor players would notice it, they could be very useful.

He saw three such tools or items and immediately put bids for them. The first was the explorer's orb which can be used to map the surrounding up to a five kilometer radius two times. Usually when the player explores new places, the map updates around a 30-meter range. He couldn't believe that someone actually put this for sale.

It is an uncommon item found in fae territories. The only drawback with the tool was it wouldn't update the map with the various resources but only provide a terrain of it. It wouldn't even be found in other races. Probably some other race player put it in for the money to buy something else. He directly paid the buyout price of 50 silvers for it and got the orb.

The second was a dwarven metal detector. It had a range of up to 4 meters and can be equipped to one's hand like a bracelet. Though it was being sold, it didn't have many bidders. After a few repeated bids, it fell into his hands for a price 30 silvers.

It was mostly used by players to locate metals. Though the metal detector is mostly used for mining purposes. It also sometimes signals towards treasure chests. This is something that players wouldn't realize soon. Once, they came to know, these tools came to be used whenever exploring a forest or any unknown area.

The third was the most useful items, he had seen. Though it would be very well known for stealthy kills, it wasn't used by most due the difficulty in using it. It was a garrote, a bronze grade garrote of level 5. It would be very useful for choking monsters and even players. It would enable one to control as well as deal damage at the same time for a continued duration if used properly.

It was a well fashioned device consisting of two metal handles with grips joined by a thin metal wire. It was an assassin's weapon in the game. Also, garrotes were well known weapons which Balthazar had not only used in the game but also in his real-life. So using this would be a cinch for him.

[Wire Garrote] (Bronze Garrote)

Level 5;

Requirement: Strength: 35; Endurance: 15;

Damage = (2 * Strength +15) true physical damage per second of choke.

Special effect: Wire cut: Swiping the garrote while removing inflicts a bleed effect losing 20 HP per second for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Durability: 20/20;

But it had its drawbacks too. Without a garrote skill which isn't seen till now in the game, it would be impossible for any normal player to properly use it. Moreover, it had a low durability and the durability decreases when a player fails to use it properly or someone directs an attack on its surface.

Though most wouldn't know about the issue of durability, most players would be deterred by the first issue. But these didn't apply to Shadow. He immediately placed a bid of 20 silvers beating the previous bid by 10 silvers. With no one else interested in buying it he got it for a relatively cheap price. Most bronze items would be bid for close to 30 or even 40 silvers.

Apart from these tools he saw a recipe which wasn't being used by anyone. It was the alva's tincture. It had the description which told that the potion when mixed with the any food would put the person into a euphoric state. It was an extremely rare recipe.

This was more of a luxury item and hardly had any practical use. But Balthazar knew it could be used in a specific way which could be used to hunt. He could use it in a spray bottle used in herbalism players to induce a similar effect on monsters which would make it very easy to hunt. A single potion could be used for about 50 monsters and probably more if diluted.

Being a luxury item, it didn't look was anybody was bidding on it. At this stage, everyone was still focused on leveling up, only a few were using it just to enjoy and that kind wouldn't try and walk all the way just to register in a new beginner town. It still was stuck at the base price of 30 silvers. He quickly set his bid at the base price and there were no further bids on it making him the owner of the recipe.

[Alva's Tincture] (Basic Potion recipe)

Required Materials: Red moss x 2; Blue weed x 2;

Effects: Can be consumed with or without food to put you in a state of euphoria.

"Red moss! There are only found near dryad territory. I better put in few refined iron ores in exchange for the red moss. Else, I doubt I would be able to produce the potion," thought Balthazar as he put in 5 ores at the auction house.

He had already spent about 15 minutes at the auction house and hoped that he would get the Red moss quickly. Luckily, somebody bought out the ores for 20 red moss within a minute. He realized that the ores are probably in higher demand than he thought. On further thought, he only managed to get refined ores because of the tools that the team got from the goblin camp.

He was satisfied with his finds in the auction house and decided to leave it. He also needed a sprinkler to make use of the Alva's Tincture. He soon got it from one of the merchant shops in the town along with a few bottles of slowing poison.

With the new tools and potion recipe he got, it would be really easy to explore new areas and he hadn't yet explored one part of the town. It was the new area that appeared behind the town. It had a new barracks and a barracks indicated monsters in the area.

As he intended to explore a new area, he would probably end up with few new materials. He needed to empty a few more space in his bag so that he could fill up the new materials he found. "I could put in most of the materials like ores and crystals into the bank for now," thought Shadow.

With a shop in the marketplace, he might need to store more materials into the bank. With that thought in mind he went to the bank immediately and opened a storage space in there.

The bank provided rented storage space of 100 bag slots per month per account for the price of 10 bronze coins. For increase in the storage space, it was 10 bronze for every 50 bag slots. He made an account for himself for 100 bag slots.

He had 62 refined iron ores and 72 blackrock crystals in his bag which he transferred to the storage space. He also contacted Rudra and informed him of the account and gave him privileges to store and remove stuff. If he is handling all the trade profession player, it is always better to have a storage space to place materials and finished products apart from the ones he would put in display or in the shop.

Even though he had spent about 20 minutes after the town came up. He is sure that other than the locals most didn't even attempt to go to that part. Also, towns having a back area mostly had quests above level 10. Even if few locals didn't know, most of the one from other towns knew and few had already mentioned the general trends of the quests in the forums.