When everyone logged off, Fatty thought for a while before running to the Immecca Horde, where he had completed the Poison Dart Frog Quest.
He was currently at Level 19, and the EXP he could gain from killing the Poison Dart Frogs was very little. However, he did not go there entirely to level up but to farm for materials to craft the Slowdown Poison.
The drop rate of the Frog Poison Gland was not very high, so Fatty stayed in one spot to continuously farm. When he had some time in between, he would collect the Snake Spit Grass growing in the area.
It was common knowledge that it was extremely difficult for a Venomancer to level up. Fatty was good at Crowd Control but could at most deal with four monsters at any point in time. After all, it drained his mana when he needed to maintain the Miasma and Poison Sting toxin effects on all four monsters. Fortunately, the Poison Dart Frogs were not swamp boss monsters. Their health quickly dropped as a result of poisoning. Fatty took their last remaining health to gain EXP.
Even so, he needed to sit down and rest with every attempt he made as he waited for his mana to be fully restored. This situation did not occur frequently, however.
A Poison Dart Frog could only give Fatty around 40 EXP. After farming for more than an hour, he killed more than 60 Poison Dart Frogs, so an average of one frog was killed per minute. This increased his EXP to around 38%, which meant he was far away from being able to level up.
The players who were focused on leveling up were probably around Level 22 or 23 at this stage of the game. After Level 20, the calculation method of the EXP required changed.
Fatty's loot was not bad, as he had obtained around 10 Frog Poison Glands. Combined with the ones he had obtained previously in the Quest, he had obtained a total of 20 Frog Poison Glands. Only then did he start planning to leave.
Upon returning to Asgarod, Fatty ran to the potion store and purchased 20 empty bottles for 50 Bronze Coins each. He intended to craft the Slowdown Poison.
Poison Crafting was the same as Potion Crafting. Both processes required original ingredients and supplementary tools like the Potion Bottle. Also, there was a certain percentage of success when one was crafting.
Fatty, who had 20 pieces of Snake Spit Grass and 20 Frog Poison Glands inside his backpack, started crafting.
The Potion Crafting progress bar loaded quite slowly. The process was about 5 seconds slower compared to the forging process. When the first progress bar was filled, the system announced, "Potion Crafting has failed. You obtained 1 Poison Crafting proficiency point!"
Fatty was speechless upon seeing that the first attempt was a failure. However, he knew that this was very normal so he continued crafting.
System: "Potion Crafting has failed. You obtained 1 Poison Crafting proficiency point!"
System: "You have successfully crafted the Slowdown Poison and obtained 5 Poison Crafting proficiency points!"
System: "Potion Crafting has failed. You obtained 1 Poison Crafting proficiency point!"
The system continued to make announcements, although most of them informed Fatty that the crafting process had failed. It was only then that Fatty realized how frighteningly low the rate of success of Level 1 Poison Crafting was. He had used up 19 out of the 20 sets of ingredients, but he had only managed to craft 4 bottles of Slowdown Poison!
He was down to the last set of ingredients, so Fatty silently prayed. "I must succeed this time! I need to at least make a total of five bottles!"
Just as the progress bar was about to load completely, a sound indicated an incoming call. Fatty jerked in fright.
The last poison crafted was a failure. Fatty, who was extremely displeased, placed the blame on that incoming call.
"Who is it? Bastard, are you trying to kill me?" Fatty accepted the call and immediately started scolding the caller.
"Um… Brother Chicken, why are you so angry?" a quivering voice asked. The other party seemed to be afraid of Fatty's behavior.
Fatty was momentarily stunned. He looked at the name of the caller and realized it was a player called Create a Future. In fact, Fatty had helped him forge the first Superior Rank weapon, which had been a dagger, so he had added the player to his friend list.
"Oh, it's you! Sorry, I was not scolding you." Fatty was certain that this was about business. After all, Create a Future belonged to the "customer" category of his friend list.
As expected, Create a Future let out a sigh of relief and said joyously, "Brother Chicken, as promised, I am here to ask you to help me forge another weapon!"
"Oh?" A plan started to form in Fatty's head as he glanced at the time. It was almost 12 a.m, which was close to the point of day-night transition. Therefore, he asked, "What level of weapon are you looking for?"
"Level 20! A dagger too!" Create a Future replied. "I have collected five blueprints and five sets of materials. Ready to forge anything? Do you happen to be free now?"
Fatty was astonished. "You actually have five blueprints for a Level 20 dagger? It seems like you've gotten wealthy!"
"He he… It's all thanks to you, Brother Chicken!" Create a Future laughed in embarrassment. "You helped me forge a Superior Rank weapon, thus increasing my attack power significantly. Many people wanted to form a party with me upon learning that my damage is high. In the past two days, I have been teaming up with numerous impressive parties. That is why I was able to obtain these blueprints."
He was not explicitly praising Fatty but Fatty still felt proud upon hearing that.
What exactly was a forging expert? Someone capable of creating an expert player through one's weapons or armor.
Upon hearing how high the damage of a player was, one would be envious. After asking, they would know that it was because the player's weapon damage was very high. Consequently, they would learn that the weapon had been forged by xxx and would thus naturally start to imagine obtaining a high-quality weapon by finding the same forger.
This was a very subtle form of advertisement. Imagine if the well-known people in the Chaotic Era were all using the weapons and armor you had forged. There would thus be no need to intentionally advertise, for the customers would swarm to you instead! Similarly, money would flow your way!
Evidently, Create a Future was an exemplary example of the above scenario. He had gained some reputation because he had been using the Superior Rank weapon Fatty had forged for him.
With that thought in mind, Fatty started to attach importance to cultivating Create a Future. He could become the signboard for Fatty's business!
Therefore, Fatty agreed without thinking. "I'm free. Why don't you wait for me at the blacksmith? I'll be there soon."
Create a Future happily replied affirmatively and headed to the blacksmith. After placing the four bottles of Slowdown Poison inside his backpack, Fatty slowly strutted over.
The blacksmith shop was still filled with people, and Create a Future had been waiting for some time.
"Brother Chicken, you're here!" Create a Future smiled and said, "Name your price for forging all five blueprints!"
Fatty eyed him in surprise. It seemed that he had benefited a lot over the past two days. When he had forged the Level 10 dagger, the forging cost had been 2 Silver Coins and Create a Future had been forced to borrow money from people. On the contrary, he now did not seem to care about the price.
Good equipment = good party; good party = good equipment + high profit. Fatty was aware of these equations. Apparently, Create a Future had made use of the Superior Rank equipment to profit.
Since he was so rich, Fatty could easily extort… No, name a price…
"Hmm…" Fatty replied, "Everyone else needs to pay 6 Silver Coins for a Level 20 weapon. You have five blueprints and we are acquaintances, so I will charge you 5 Silver Coins for one!"
Fatty was lying through his teeth, for his forging proficiency had only just reached a level that would allow him to forge Level 20 weapons. He had yet to actually forge a Level 20 weapon, so there was no way anyone would have asked him to help them forge one.
Of course, one would know what this so-called "friendly price" actually was…
However, Create a Future was quite a big-shot now, so he agreed without thinking. "Okay! 5 Silver Coins it is, Brother Chicken! I shall leave it to you!"
"Alright! Let's go!" Fatty nodded and calculated the time again.
Many players came to the blacksmith shop to forge weapons every day. Those who wanted to accept orders and increase their proficiency would constantly keep an eye on the request list at the blacksmith shop, hoping that some requests without a specific forger in mind would appear.
Due to the large number of people who learned to forge, the competition was intense. As a result, players who put up requests would offer very low prices. For a Level 10 forging request, the highest offer was around 10 Bronze Coins and the lowest about 1 Bronze Coin. The price for Level 20 equipment was slightly higher, as there were currently very few people who could forge them. The price was thus about 1 Silver Coin each.
However, such requests rarely appeared given the lack of players who could forge them. Similarly, very few players could obtain Level 20 weapons, armor blueprints, and materials.
Most players who wanted to snatch up requests to improve their proficiency were shocked when they suddenly saw the forging request for 5 pieces of equipment for 5 Silver Coins each.
"Oh my god! A 5-Silver-Coin request! It's for 5 pieces of equipment? Who is so rich?"
A player exclaimed, attracting the attention of even more players. This forging price was astronomical for the players who were used to seeing prices of 1 or 2 Bronze Coins.
"F*ck! It is actually for Level 20! I can't forge that! What a pity!"
"Even if you could, you couldn't accept it! Didn't you see that the forger has been appointed?"
"Who is Chicken Sugar? Is he so impressive to be offered a request for 5 Silver Coins?"
"Ah! I remember now! That fella was the one who forged the two Superior Rank weapons! Holy sh*t, why is he coming again? Isn't this akin to trying to usurp our business?"
The players discussed the matter both jealousy and curiously. Create a Future was quite high-profile. While he was surrounded by so many people, he shouted arrogantly, "That's right! It is Big Brother Chicken Sugar! Previously, he helped me forge a Superior Rank dagger, so I sought him out again!"
The players' interest was piqued so they surged over, intent to see what kind of equipment would be forged.
However, our protagonist started breaking out in cold sweat. Fatty was under immense pressure. Create a Future's shout had forced his hand. If he failed to produce high-quality weapons, his reputation would be ruined!
"High-profile? Go to hell!" Fatty could not help but silently ridicule Create a Future. "Are you trying to put me on the spot?"