Chapter 132 - Evolution Crisis
After Shi Feng chose to bind the Ice-Blue Devil Flame…
Suddenly, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame started transforming. The small flame within Shi Feng’s palm momentarily burned fiercely, wrapping Shi Feng’s entire palm. Shi Feng immediately felt a scorching heat surrounding his hand as if he had just dipped it into boiling water.
Previously, he was unable to feel the high temperature of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, and only now did he truly experience its heat. Although he tried to store the flame back into his bag, no matter what he tried, there was no reaction from the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
Instead, a binding loading bar appeared, slowly increasing.
Successfully fused 3%... 4%... 5%...
Isn’t it a binding? Why did it turn into a fusion? Looking at the green colored fusion bar, Shi Feng felt a sense of unease. He could barely endure just the pain he currently felt. However, the temperature of the flame constantly rose, while the fusion rate of the flame was extremely slow. If this situation were to continue, Shi Feng would, sooner or later, die from the pain alone.
Just when Shi Feng had called out the pain perceptionsystem’s interface, intending to turn off all his senses of pain, his flaming hand no longer felt hot. Instead, he felt a cooling feeling on his palm as if it submerged in ice-cold water.
Is the fusion complete?
Shi Feng took another look at the fusion bar; it showed 8%, still very far from reaching 100%. However, since it was no longer hot, Shi Feng gave up the notion of turning off the pain perception system.
However, another moment later, his flaming hand grew colder and colder as if it were inside an ice-cube. Shi Feng could not help but shiver at the chilling temperature.
Just when he was unable to endure the cold any longer, the flame surrounding his hand turned hot once more. In such a way, the flame constantly alternated between hot and cold. Shi Feng was also able to understand the reason for this phenomena. Just like its name, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame possessed both ice and fire attributes. However, Shi Feng no longer wished to endure torture by the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, so he chose to turn off the pain perception system.
System: During the fusion process of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, if pain perception falls below 20%, fusion will fail and cause a fixed amount of damage to the player. Are you sure you want to turn off the pain system?
“Crap!” Shi Feng could not help but curse at the despicable system.
The system was clearly trying to toy with him. Moreover, it did not mention what sort of damage the ‘fixed damage’ was.
The fusion progress was already at 30%, so he couldn’t just give up halfway. Helpless about the situation, Shi Feng could only tune down his pain perception from the original 40% to 20%. That way, he could, more or less, bear through the suffering.
However, things were far from over. After the fusion bar reached 50%, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame started spreading throughout Shi Feng’s entire body, turning Shi Feng into a flaming man. Shi Feng’s entire body burned with a deep blue flame, just like the Ghost Rider.
Compared to the Ghost Rider’s flame, however, the flame burning Shi Feng’s body was much more pure and dazzling. Even the ground below his feet started showing signs of melting.
The floor of the Forging Room had undergone special strengthening techniques specifically to resist high temperatures. The floors of the Forging Room were much stronger than even a Secret-Silver Weapon. However, this floor could still not withstand the flame surrounding Shi Feng’s body. One could just imagine the frightening temperature that was emitted by the flame.
Right now, if someone were to attack Shi Feng using a Bronze Weapon, the scorching flame would, most likely, melt the weapon before it could even come near Shi Feng.
Fortunately, Shi Feng had long since familiarized himself with pain. He had also adjusted his pain perception down to 20%. Otherwise, he really could not endure the ever-changing temperatures of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
After enduring the same process for twenty minutes, the fusion of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame finally completed.
System: The Ice-Blue Devil Flame has been bound as Player Ye Feng’s personal belonging.
System: Fusion of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame completed. After undergoing the tempering of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, player’s physique has improved. Strength +10, Endurance +10, Agility +10, Ice Resistance +20, Fire Resistance +20. Able to fully control the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
Even this is possible? Shi Feng was shocked.
Ignoring how valuable the Ice-Blue Devil Flame was to Forgers, Shi Feng did not think that it could even improve a player’s physique after fusion. Shi Feng had effortlessly obtained 30 Attribute Points and 20 points in both Ice Resistance and Fire Resistance. Resistance was extremely hard to obtain in God’s Domain, and a single point increase would have a large effect, not to mention an increase of 20 points. Such an increase was enough to instill despair in many mage classes. If fire magic could originally deal 100 damage to Shi Feng, right now, it would be good if could even deal him 30 damage.
Shi Feng then chanted a name in his mind, a deep blue flame appearing in the middle of his palm. This was indeed the Ice-Blue Devil Flame. Following Shi Feng’s thoughts, the flame freely moved about, growing and shrinking.
[Ice-Blue Devil Flame] (Tier 2 Mysterious Flame)
Can be used in battle to increase damage by 20%, and an additional 40% damage to ice or fire attributed skills. Simultaneously, it increases the success rate for Potionmaking, Forging, and Cooking by 10%.
These Attributes had completely surpassed Shi Feng’s imagination.
In his previous life, he had never received any information regarding Mysterious Flames being capable of increasing a player’s battle prowess. It was also impossible for the Mysterious Flames to only increase a player’s battle prowess in this life. Hence, the only possibility was that the players who obtained Mysterious Flames did not leak a single word about it, silently enjoying the fortune.
Just the Mysterious Flame’s ability to increase the success rate of Forging and Potionmaking was sufficient to send all the major powers in God’s Domain into an uproar. If the information about it being capable of increasing a player’s battle prowess leaked, the competition over Mysterious Flames would become much more intense. Forgers and Potionmakers would have no chance to obtain a Mysterious Flame for themselves at all.
Mysterious Flames were always said to give the greatest benefits to Potionmaking and Forging, but in Shi Feng’s view, Elementalists who learned Potionmaking were the ones who gained the greatest benefits. Originally, an Elementalist’s damage was very frightening. They were like human cannons. If they were to receive an upgrade to their ice and fire attributed skills, it would leave others speechless. In addition, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame originally increased its user’s damage by 20%, which meant that an Elementalist who had the Ice-Blue Devil Flame would have their damage output increased by 60%. The Elementalist possessing the Ice-Blue Devil Flame could easily kill an MT of the same level with the same quality of equipment in just two or three moves.
Although Shi Feng was not an Elementalist, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame still provided a relatively large increase to his battle strength.
With the Ice-Blue Devil Flame, Shi Feng felt that the future development of his skills should be more directed towards the fire or ice attributes. That way, he could reap the greatest benefits from using the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
Following which, Shi Feng took out a pile of Hard Stones and started making Advanced Whetstones, increasing his forging proficiency.
The success rate for making an Advanced Whetstone was 60%, with the possibility of increasing proficiency by 1 point with each success. Although the increase was not as much as when he made Bronze Equipment, the time needed to make an Advanced Whetstone was much shorter. Shi Feng only needed to burn the Hard Stones in the Ice-Blue Devil Flame for a short while, followed by a couple of knocks from his hammer; then he would have completed an Advanced Whetstone.
If Shi Feng were to make Glimmer Chestplates, he would not be able to sell them for a lot of money. After all, there were various Guilds currently selling that item. On the other hand, making the high-level Bronze Equipment and Mysterious-Iron Equipment from the Forging Designs he bought from Stonehammer Town was not very efficient. It would be much better for him to just upgrade to an Intermediate Forging Apprentice, increasing his success rate a little earlier. At that time, it would not be too late for him to start using those Forging Designs.
Meanwhile, while Shi Feng made the Advanced Whetstones, tension rose throughout the entire Red Leaf Town.
However, it was not only due to the matter of Shi Feng and Martial Union placing a bounty on each other. There was also the crisis after God’s Domain’s evolution.
Due to the difficulty of the monsters in the wild increasing, the large influx of newcomers, and Shi Feng’s stock clearance of the Auction House, the prices of items rapidly increased. Within a short two hours, the prices of items had already doubled, causing many players to voice out their complaints.
Originally, the money they earned within a day was small. They also needed to buy many items they needed in the wild, such as food and beverages, Return Scrolls, and such items. There were also the Regeneration Potions and Mana Recovery Potions. However, the prices for all these items had suddenly skyrocketed.
Amongst the items with inflated prices, the highest was equipment. Previously, 20 Copper Coins was sufficient for a player to purchase a piece of Level 2 Common Equipment. Right now, they would need 40 Copper Coins to do so. As for Bronze Equipment and higher, the increase in their prices was even greater.
However, without good equipment, how could they hunt monsters? Hence, the majority of the players right now all held the thought that they had to obtain a good piece of equipment no matter what, even at the cost of saving up the money meant for potions. With good equipment, they could easily look for a party to join. Their efficiency of killing monsters would also rise as a result, and it was only a matter of time before they earned back their money.
As a result, the prices of equipment constantly rose.
Similarly, this phenomenon caused plenty of players, who were wealthy in real life, to purchase Coins using Credits for purchasing equipment, causing the price of Coins to skyrocket, too.
Looking at this situation, the players in Red Leaf Town became even more attentive towards the bounty put out by both Shi Feng and Martial Union. The players, who were previously uninterested in participating, started to take action. There were many experts who began searching for Shi Feng and his teammates, and there were some who set their sights on Martial Union.
“Forming a party to hunt Ye Feng’s party! Must be Level 6 or above, with a complete suit of Bronze Equipment! Those who fulfill the conditions, please gather at my location!”
“Forming a party to hunt members of Martial Union! Must be Level 5 or above! Those who wish to make a quick buck, don’t miss this chance!”
Meanwhile, there were plenty of players shouting out party recruitments in the plaza of Red Leaf Town. However, their grinding targets were no longer monsters, but players.
Suddenly, Shi Feng and Martial Union’s game of hunting lured the players throughout all of Red Leaf Town.