How much time had passed? At first, Xiao Hua was interested in counting the days, but now he couldn't be bothered. His mining skill had upgraded to Advanced, his character had leveled up to Level 45, and Xiaohei had leveled up to Level 31. Checking the system time, if it was accurate, he had been mining for 37 days!
Xiao Hua was now 100% certain that Urg was taking advantage of him. Sulfur ore was incredibly hard to obtain, and the probability of finding it was highly unstable! His initial idea of getting sulfur ore with a 5% chance using the Andes Pickaxe was laughable. It took him half a month to upgrade his mining skill from Intermediate to Advanced, during which he barely mined 50 sulfur ores. After upgrading his mining skill, on good days, he could mine dozens or even hundreds of sulfur ores, but on bad days, he might only get a dozen. Probably no one else in the game, except for someone as idle as him, would have the patience to keep mining.
Xiaohei had grown a little, becoming fatter and cuter, but at Level 31, it was still completely useless against the monsters. One attack from a monster could kill it. Once, Xiao Hua forgot to command Xiaohei to stay, and the little guy bravely ran to help Illusion kill a monster, only to be slapped away and die, returning to the pet slot.
There was no NPC in the town to revive pets, and Xiaohei revived after 24 hours. Unfortunately, the loyalty he had built up to 76 points dropped by 10 points, which broke Xiao Hua's heart. Loyalty was difficult to increase, but higher loyalty had its benefits. For example, after reaching 60 loyalty, swallowing equipment sometimes reduced hunger by 2 points instead of 1.
After this incident, Xiao Hua made sure Xiaohei stayed put and only waited for experience. The recent system update had significantly reduced the experience needed to level up, and combined with the previous bonus experience for Chinese players, even though he shared experience with Xiaohei and didn't kill many monsters, their levels still increased considerably.
While Xiao Hua's character was mining, he controlled Illusion to kill monsters. Xiaohei, with its fat body, blinked its big, watery eyes pitifully, occasionally bumping into Xiao Hua's pants.
"Damn! Are you hungry again? I just fed you not long ago. Wait a bit!" Xiao Hua said irritably.
Xiaohei's intelligence had improved with its level, and upon hearing Xiao Hua's words, it obediently stopped bumping into him and stared at Xiao Hua with hopeful eyes.
Xiao Hua quickly killed the monster, walked over, and pulled out a large object from his backpack, placing it on the ground. Instantly, a large smelting furnace appeared. This wasn't just any furnace; it was a high-tech product Xiao Hua had bought from a system NPC for 100,000 gold coins. It could automatically manufacture equipment or allow players to manually craft equipment using hammers and other tools.
Not many players who learned crafting skills actually crafted things themselves. The system didn't intend for players to learn crafting in-game. Players could lazily place the required number of ores into the furnace according to the crafting recipe, and the system would automatically create the equipment, but there was no guarantee of success.
If the number of ores was incorrect, the crafting would definitely fail, resulting in junk white equipment. Even with the correct number of ores, the success rate was uncertain and depended on luck. Manual crafting was different; true craftsmen always crafted manually. In the game, unlike real life, crafting more often led to insights and improvements, generally resulting in more successful attempts. However, creating exceptional items still required skill and luck.
Xiao Hua had no intention of upgrading his crafting skills, but the recent system update was harsh. Ordinary monsters no longer dropped equipment or gold, only a new item called "Black Crystal," and occasionally "Blood Crystal." Both items were labeled as quest items, so Xiao Hua kept them. Over the past month, he had collected nearly 20,000 Black Crystals and 2,000 Blood Crystals, which could stack without limit.
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Xiaohei's consumption level had increased to Tier 2 after consuming nearly a thousand pieces of white equipment, allowing it to consume green equipment. While it could still eat white equipment, it now required several pieces to reduce hunger by 1 point and no longer increased loyalty. The system shop's refresh rate for white equipment was problematic, refreshing only once a day. Unable to find a better solution, Xiao Hua bought a smelting furnace and some low-level weapon crafting recipes from the appropriate NPC, allowing the furnace to automatically craft equipment.
"120 Black Iron Ores, 100 Fine Iron Ores, 50 Iron Ores..." Xiao Hua skillfully grabbed a handful of ores from his backpack and tossed them into the furnace, then continued mining.
When the furnace automatically crafted equipment, players could wait nearby, and the system allowed them to do other things, but if they were distracted, there was a 90% chance of failure, resulting in white equipment. The skill experience gained from success and failure varied greatly, but Xiao Hua's goal was mining, so he didn't care if the crafting failed. Regardless of the outcome, the equipment would be used to feed Xiaohei.
The furnace started rumbling, and two minutes later, a piece of equipment emerged.
"Bad luck, it's a green item." A unidentified item appeared in his backpack, indicating a successful craft. If it failed, he would have received white equipment. Successful crafts resulted in unidentified items, and the same recipe could produce equipment with slight variations in attributes. Xiao Hua identified the item, which turned out to be a green Level 19 weapon. His current weapon crafting skill was still Intermediate, so he could only craft low-level weapons.
He threw the equipment to Xiaohei, who happily pounced on it. Xiao Hua then tossed another batch of ores into the furnace and continued mining.
...
"Damn it, finally got enough!" After another ten days, Xiao Hua finally mined 1,000 sulfur ores. His character had leveled up to Level 46, and Xiaohei had reached Level 32.
During these days, Xiao Hua unexpectedly discovered that his weapon crafting skill had upgraded to Advanced. He also uncovered a secret in the town: the Master Weapon Crafter offered quests. Completing these quests earned task points, which could be used to purchase recipes for purple equipment from the Master!
Crafting recipes were different from crafting blueprints. Recipes were like formulas; once learned, players could craft equipment according to the instructions, but there was a chance of failure. Success didn't guarantee a purple item. Crafting blueprints, on the other hand, always produced the specified equipment upon success.
In general, equipment crafted from blueprints was rarer. Equipment of the same name was always of the same tier. When players crafted using recipes, they would always get the same type of equipment, but the tier could vary, ranging from a high-tier exceptional item to a low-tier common item, depending on luck.
Reflecting on the town's peculiarities, Xiao Hua suddenly realized that this town might be a treasure trove! With ordinary monsters no longer dropping equipment, the value of armor and weapon crafters was evident. The purple equipment recipes, and possibly even higher-tier recipes, in this town were undoubtedly a huge treasure!
Hasamo Town.
"Great! Wait a moment, I'll refine the snake-repelling sulfur powder for you!" Urg nodded satisfactorily, taking the 1,000 sulfur ores from Xiao Hua and entering a room Xiao Hua couldn't see.
Once again, it was proven that NPCs had speed hacks when away from players. A few seconds later, Urg emerged with a yellow vial containing a half-full tube of yellow powder.
"Here you go, this is the refined sulfur powder. As long as you use it, the snakes on that path will not come near you! However, be cautious. The effect lasts for 30 minutes, but don't attack the snakes during this time. If they become enraged, even the sulfur powder won't deter them. Also, if you get covered in snake blood, the smell of the sulfur powder will be masked, and it will lose its effectiveness!" Urg warned.
System Prompt: You obtained "Strong Sulfur Powder"!
Strong Sulfur Powder: Refined from a large amount of sulfur ore, this powder repels all snakes and insects. Even the most powerful snakes will not dare to approach you. Effect lasts for 30 minutes.
Thirty minutes was more than enough for the path.
Thanking Urg, Xiao Hua mounted his steed and rode toward the canyon where the Medusa Snakes were.
At the entrance of the canyon, Xiao Hua used the Strong Sulfur Powder and cautiously approached the snakes. To his surprise, as soon as he got close, the snakes that normally attacked on sight automatically moved away, clearing a path for him!