Chapter 1160: Hermit’s Real Job

“You fool! Aren’t you a Blacksmith? How can you not know the Black Crystal?”

Even Vainglory started mocking w.a.n.g Yu emotionlessly when w.a.n.g Yu expressed that he did not know what the Black Crystal was.

w.a.n.g Yu clenched his fists and asked, “Little boy, what did you just say?”

Vainglory quickly changed his stance and shouted, “I said I am a fool! This has nothing to do with you!”

Everyone, “…”

At the same time, Fearless explained, “The Black Crystal is a mineral that can extract an equipment’s additional attributes.”

In the history of online gaming, equipment had always been of the utmost importance. Therefore, forging equipment became the most important craft of a player.

As a history maker, <

> had put in a lot of effort and thought into designing the secondary job aspect of the game.

Blacksmiths in <

> were not only capable of the most basic forging, adding or embedding of gems. They also had one more unique set of skills which was the recombination and refining of attributes.

Recombination and refining meant finding a carrier to extract the attributes needed by the player and then putting it on another equipment.

And the Black Crystal is the carrier mineral to extract the equipment’s attributes.

This type of plaything belonged to the later stages of the game where players reached the maximum level attainable. Moreover, ordinary players wouldn’t be able to afford this.

One must know that recombination and refining of equipment was a skill unique to a Forgemaster. As of today, there was a decreasing number of high-level Blacksmiths, let alone Forgemasters.

This was also why Blacksmiths in the game knew that they were far behind on their gaming levels but still kept working so hard to improve their blacksmith skills.

After all, only those with high enough levels would be able to learn all the skills.

Of course, w.a.n.g Yu was a Forgemaster which meant that Spring Halo didn’t need to find anyone else to do the job for him.

“I see!” After Fearless said that, w.a.n.g Yu rubbed his chin, “I’ve never heard of this mineral before so it must be really rare, right?”

“This…”

The moment w.a.n.g Yu mentioned this, the originally excited Spring Halo immediately quieted down as if a bucket of cold water was poured over his head.

w.a.n.g Yu was right. While some of the pure minerals and materials needed for forging might be rare, they were still available with a sufficient amount of gold. Spring Halo was not lacking in gold so he was still able to afford to spend on them.

However, an item like the Black Crystal was an existence in the legends.

Just like what w.a.n.g Yu said, ordinary players hadn’t even heard of such an item, let alone looked for it. It was an item even money couldn’t purchase.

Also, the reason why ordinary players couldn’t afford to recombine and refine equipment was mainly because of the material needed. They were all so expensive!

This was why everyone said making equipment was one of the top ten hardest jobs of online gaming.

Fortunately, while w.a.n.g Yu didn’t know much about materials, he still had a brother who specialised in this industry.

“Haha!” Seeing Spring Halo’s devastated and defeated looks, w.a.n.g Yu smiled faintly as he hit his own chest and said, “Brother Spring, don’t worry about it! I can help you ask about the materials.”

Following which, w.a.n.g Yu immediately pulled open his friend list and send Evil Rampage a message, “Are you around? Are you around?”

“Say it!”

Replying within seconds was the greatest respect one could give the other party. Even though Evil Rampage’s tone was direct and slightly rude, he had a lot of respect and admiration for w.a.n.g Yu.

“Do you have any refining materials? Do you have any refining materials?” w.a.n.g Yu asked repeatedly.

After a full ten seconds, Evil Rampage finally replied, “What did you ask earlier?”

“I asked if you have any refining materials?” w.a.n.g Yu asked.

“The earlier sentence.”

“I asked if you’re around.”

“I’m not around! Thank you!” Evil Rampage replied decisively as he said with affirmation.

“Hey!” w.a.n.g Yu raged, “Do you want a beating?”

“Big Brother!!” After being threatened by w.a.n.g Yu, Evil Rampage cried out, “Can you find someone else to scam?! Do you really think refining materials are like roadside cabbages? I’m telling you I don’t have! I don’t have anything!”

“Fine! Why are you even shouting?!” w.a.n.g Yu scolded and asked again, “What about the Black Crystal? Do you have it?”

This time, Evil Rampage was stunned for half a minute before pleading, “Big Brother, I think it is better for us to talk about refining materials.”

“…”

w.a.n.g Yu was speechless as he asked, “How much for refining materials?”

“What do you mean how much…” Evil Rampage replied, “Refining materials are not something I can dig out from mines. I have to go to the PVP arena and use PVP points to exchange for them. I have over ten thousand transactions every minute so where do I have the time to find such items for you?”

“PVP points to exchange…” w.a.n.g Yu nodded, “What about the Black Crystal? How do I get it?”

Evil Rampage thought about it for a while before answering, “I don’t know the exact details! I think you have to complete some quest but I’m telling you the extraction of attributes is by chance. You have to be extremely careful when you extract, otherwise, you are going to cry when you waste it.”

“I got it!” w.a.n.g Yu casually closed the chat.

F*ck! Spring Halo’s broken staff only had one attribute so there was nothing to be left to chance.

When Spring Halo saw how w.a.n.g Yu suddenly ‘came alive’, he hurriedly asked, “So? Did you manage to get the materials?”

“It seems like we have to complete a quest for the Black Crystal,” w.a.n.g Yu repeated the message sent by Evil Rampage.

“Quest?” Spring Halo questioned, “What quest?”

w.a.n.g Yu shook his head, “I don’t know about this but let’s just see what happens in the future.”

“Alright!”

Spring Halo could only nod his head helplessly.

An item like the Black Crystal was simply too rare. Regardless of how impressive w.a.n.g Yu was, he was still not a GM so he couldn’t possibly have anything he wanted. Spring Halo was never going to push someone to the edge for his own matter.

…

After completing the Evil Dragon Lair, w.a.n.g Yu rose to Level 60. Upon his return to Twilight City, w.a.n.g Yu went straight to Hermit’s alley.

After Level 60, a player will be able to learn the job’s ultimate move.

Martial Savant’s job ultimate move was [Shadows Chain Kick] which w.a.n.g Yu had already learnt. Because of the unique characteristic of w.a.n.g Yu’s Martial Artist job, w.a.n.g Yu would be able to learn all the ultimate moves of the different branch jobs of a Pugilist. Besides [Shadows Chain Kick], w.a.n.g Yu would be able to learn Qigong Master’s [Qi Condensing Soldier].

However, ultimate moves couldn’t be learnt by simply spending some gold. In order to learn [Qi Condensing Soldier], w.a.n.g Yu needed to find his job mentor to accept an ultimate job quest.

In the small alley, it was a rare sight to see Old Man Hermit not being all drunk and wasted. Instead, he was leaning against the wall and exposing himself to the sun. There was still a broken bowl beside him and he looked no different from a beggar.

After controlling his urge to toss a few gold coins in Hermit’s bowl, w.a.n.g Yu quickly walked towards Hermit and bowed respectfully, “Teacher!”

“Move, move, move!” Hermit didn’t even lift his head as he shook his hand and said, “Don’t block my sun!”

“F*ck…” w.a.n.g Yu was slightly taken aback as he tossed a few coins into the bowl.

“Dang!”

The moment the gold coins landed on the bowl, Hermit lifted his head.

w.a.n.g Yu suddenly realised that this old man’s official job is a beggar while his hidden job is a job mentor…