After packing everything valuable, the way back will be more stressful. While it's two past midnight and players who didn't sleep, ragequit from the gankers, you never know. They launched repeated attacks on the Taji Market too, the thugs will be back.
With this much stuff, the character would even be a valid target for the first time in its existence. They already took all the progress away, if the loot is gone, there won't be a chance to go out in a blaze of glory either.
The guides on the side are too distracting.
There is so much to read up on, I'd be here long after the quest timer ran out going through all this, so focus on the urgent part. And that's the gear to buy on the market. DragonS recommends something heavy for the boss rooms, but there's a caveat.
[If you try to take it with a beginner party, even two-handed weapons can only scratch the surface. Level ten groups have skills to increase damage output, but newbies must brute force it. The problem is that the greatsword and the big axe have strength requirements.]
Oh, right, like that recurve bow. It's in the inventory too, and couldn't convince me if it's better to sell it or take it to the dungeon. Weapons needing strength tire out the avatar fast because the default stats are too low. They also wouldn't allow shields so they're a no-go.
Well, the boss is unbeatable anyway. It's one more thing to skip.
A two-handed sword is twenty gold even after a recent fifty percent drop in price, and five kilos. Who could even lift that thing? The basic great-axe is one less kilo and fifteen coins but he lists the improved version that costs sixty. No, that's a waste of money in this case.
He keeps easy clearing and survivability in mind, while I go as a last-ditch attempt to level up. There's no need to worry about the final boss, or which items are the lightest to allow space for extra loot. The only consideration is to gain enough Exp for the quest to clear.
This is why my list includes the experience booster artifacts.
According to Lilith from the Pharmacy's crew, they cost sixty to a hundred gold each. They come in different grades, and she had a mixed set. The Book of Knowledge is out of the question, it's crazy expensive and prevents you from using shields too.
The rest has a nasty stacking penalty without it, so it's a big dilemma how many of them to buy. The first gives a flat five percent bonus, the second only four percent on top, the third three, and the last only two.
It happened today and I forgot already, but she must have said different numbers. The market site pulls the descriptions from the system though, so that's the correct one. The max bonus this way would be fourteen percent for four items, or nine for two.
The current budget can afford exactly none, so let's sell stuff first.
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The Origin Market is still quiet, even more than usual. The night owls that were idling around all died and the rest must be wary of the gankers coming back. The blonde NPC is still at the corner by the Pharmacy, so if all else fails, I'll buy an armor set from her.
The guide recommends one with at least five resists, and since Tank's mail had two, that's insane. She sells one with three for fifteen and anything above that starts at a hundred. Okay, it makes no sense to drool at the prices before selling everything and knowing the budget.
Let's start with the Pharmacy, they changed the price again, right as I entered. The NPC sales girl who can only thank her name for me smiles, but still won't give a greeting in advance. Petra is alone behind the counter, the guy must be on an errand again.
"Hey, do you still buy rat tails?" The trading window opens up.
Something's off. It was thirty-three a few minutes ago and now it's four, why would they cut off a decimal? Wait, no. The coin's color is wrong next to the price. Instead of the orange shade of the coppers, it's grey. Are they offering four silver for each?!
"Here's three hundred and fifty-three." Don't think, Arnim, don't. Dump the whole stack on them before they realize the mistake. It wasn't one less decimal, it's an extra zero behind the number, holy shit. Petra takes the nasty mass of rodent appendixes and pays without delay.
"Thank you, this will help us make excellent potions." She keeps smiling and leaves a hundred and forty-one gold coins, and two silvers on the counter. Is this for real?! And that's not all. "For always helping with valuable ingredients, I'd offer another five percent discount."
Is this heaven? After all those disasters?
"Yeah, um, always a pleasure doing business with you." Act cool, don't blow it. It's already in effect, the prices update in the trading window. The avatar gets twenty percent off of every potion now. This came at the right moment as I'll need loads of them on the expedition.
A gold and four silver buys twenty vials with green, yellow, and blue liquids. Before the transaction's over, the buy offer for the rat tails disappears. They put out another one for forty coppers, proving that they fucked it up for real. Well, no refunds, haha.
They even gave me a discount after they paid a hundred gold more than they should have. This gives me a sliver of hope to buy decent gear, especially if the market is still volatile. The last items on the search bare were the Amulets of Knowledge, showing they indeed are.
Someone dumped three full sets on the Origin Market.
Rather than the usual sixty gold for each element, they all cost thirty-five. The previous dilemma of how many of them to buy is out the window. I catch myself sprinting to the marketplace and searching for each within the system.
A hundred and forty for the full set is a steal, there is no time to waste, and it's sold. Oh, shit. Now all the money the Pharmacy gave me by accident is gone. Easy come, easy go, this is like gambling. It's back to square one, buying gear that can do the actual fighting with no money.
The headset could suppress the cravings for a smoke, but gambling is too much even for SoniSung to handle. Oh well, there are ten swords and a bunch of bows to sell, it'll be fine. There are also more players returning to the market, most of them with a red name.
Wait, when did they get here?
Half the people, - apart from the NPC brokers, - have red names, and they all stare at me. Fuck, and the inventory isn't organized. It has nothing to fight with, except a battered shield buried deep somewhere. They didn't make their move yet, but this is the calm before the storm.
Not again, please. It was a terrible idea to sprint here with the character loaded. Six stamina left, and he's close to the forty-kilo limit. Okay, that's an easy fix, sell all the swords, and half the weight will disappear. That's an extra hundred gold again, cool.
What's less great is that now they're on the move. And they don't aim for the crowd in general. They are coming for me.