Chapter 092: Blindingly Impressive

Mage Legend

When reading this chapter, please first check the notice in the related works section at the top, beside the equipment post: Major Bug Rollback Announcement for Mage Legend! It explains the reason for this rollback. Then begin reading from Chapter 089. Because the revisions have brought enormous changes, to keep everyone from getting lost later, please skim through the chapters you have already read and get back up to the pre-rollback level as soon as possible. Thank you.

Also, in just a few hours, six favorites were lost. That hurts deeply, but it also moved me to see the readers who came early this morning to encourage me in the review section. I will work hard to keep updating and make sure you do not have to watch me wither away year after year.

If, among a pile of iron bracelets in a shop, one appears with a price tag of 2,145 gold coins, that means the bracelet has an extra bonus on its stats. It might have greater durability, or perhaps some additional attribute bonus. But low-tier accessories are generally not priced several times above their normal value. If, like the iron bracelet Lin Jia bought, it is listed at 2,145 gold coins, then something is obviously wrong.

When Lin Jia had been browsing the shop, he had not intended to click on a system-sold iron bracelet, the kind of low-level beginner gear. But after one mistaken click, he discovered that the bracelet was priced absurdly high. In a burst of curiosity, or perhaps a fevered lapse of judgment, he actually spent more than 2,000 gold coins to buy it. Yet when he checked the stats after buying it, he nearly fainted on the spot. What did it mean for an iron bracelet with no magic attribute to add three extra points? Lin Jia did not know. He only knew that he had become rich again.

At that point, his heart pounding like thunder and racing at a rate of 120 beats per minute, Lin Jia went mad and bought every strangely priced item in the system that exceeded the official price. His guess was confirmed. Any item in the shop priced above the normal range was either a top-tier piece or an overpowered item.

This discovery brought Lin Jia a full dozen or twenty exceptional pieces of equipment. Superpowered little treasures such as silver bracelets with agility +3 and magic +3, or iron bracelets with accuracy +2 and magic 0-2, were not common. But there were plenty of minor god-tier items with one or two extra points of attack, Taoist power, or magic.

There were as many as seven or eight bracelets with magic 0-2 alone, and even now a bracelet with magic 0-2 would fetch several hundred thousand on the player market. Not to mention an iron bracelet that also added a point of accuracy, with a required level of only 3. The iron bracelets that added Taoist power and attack were probably even more terrifying in price. After all, the gear used by Taoist and warrior players was several times more expensive than mage equipment.

After sorting through everything they had bought from the system shops in Mengzhong and Biqi, the brothers sat back on the sofa chairs, Lin Jia's heart still pounding at 120 beats a minute, unsure what to do next. Were these items sold into the shop by ignorant beginner players, or were they generated randomly by the system? Whatever the answer, Lin Jia had already decided that from now on, whenever he bought something from a shop, he would first check carefully for any unusually priced items. If he found any, he would buy them all.

Using his alternate account, Lin Jia transferred the slightly better pieces of equipment to Old Four and Big Brother, while the low-level non-shop gear under level 15 was handed to Lonely Wind and his classmates. They were left to remain in the two beginner villages and in Biqi Imperial City to sell the items. The level 10 to 15 gear in their hands could quickly be sold to new players entering the game, while the level 15 to 20 pieces could be hauled to Desert City in Mengzhong and handed over to the abandoned accounts that Lonely Wind had stored in the warehouse there, accounts left behind when his former classmates quit. After a few days, when players had leveled up, that would become another round of income. With more than a dozen warehouse characters full of goods, there would be plenty for Lonely Wind, that sales maniac, to sell for quite a long time.

As for the exceptional items Lin Jia had dug out of the shops, the ones with especially good stats would be worn by themselves, while the extras would become the kind of coveted branded gear that players dreamed of after some time.

It took a full few hours before the three brothers finally finished transferring all the low-level equipment in their possession. After giving Lonely Wind his instructions, Lin Jia and the others put on the fine gear they had reserved for themselves and prepared to return to Mengzhong to level up. At present, the brothers' equipment could only be described as outrageously impressive.

For example, Lin Jia replaced a pair of ebony bracelets with an iron bracelet that had accuracy +2 and magic 0-2, and a silver bracelet with agility +3 and magic 0-3. Apart from his level 22 class robe, he was almost completely dressed in rare, overpowered gear. Of course, the only thing a little eye-catching was that green hat.

Big Brother, meanwhile, replaced his old Daoist bracelet, which had defense 0-1, Taoist power 0-2, and attack 0-1, with a steel bracelet that had defense 0-1, magic defense 0-1, attack +0-2, and Taoist power +0-2. A bracelet with defense, magic defense, attack, and Taoist power was perfectly suited to a Daoist, who could fight both in close combat and at range. The added defense and magic defense made it an excellent piece of gear. Although its stats were only slightly better than the old Daoist bracelet, its price was easily twice as high.

Old Four had the best time of all. Lin Jia had found him a small bracelet with attack 0-3 and a bronze ring with attack 0-4, raising his attack by another two points. Although he had sacrificed one point of the lower end of the Death Glove's attack range, a warrior with little or no lower attack would probably still prefer a higher upper limit. Most important of all, the durability of this bronze ring was brand new. Unlike the bull-horn ring with attack 0-5 that could only be admired in a warehouse, this was a fine item that could actually be worn while leveling.

On the road from Biqi to Mengzhong, Old Four cut a dazzling figure. The small monsters along the way were all slain in single blows as he ran back and forth, and the exhilaration of killing everything in sight made him grin from ear to ear, to the scornful insults of Big Brother and Lin Jia, who called him a show-off.

Old Four did not care. He did not dare challenge higher-level monsters that might fight back; he could only bully these little creatures that died to a single strike. If his equipment lost durability, he would be heartbroken.

The three brothers did not dare stop as they followed the cliffs of Snake Valley all the way to the checkpoint leading into the Mengzhong continent. There, four guards armed with bows stood watch. The red-name status they had gained from killing earlier had long since faded back to white, otherwise even getting through this place would have been a problem.

Snake Valley was specially populated with Red Snakes, Tiger Snakes, and other small monsters. The experience was decent, and the lighting was especially good, so it attracted a huge number of newcomers above level 10 and below level 20. Since Lin Jia and the others had rushed straight to Mengzhong while still red-named, they had missed the stage of leveling in Snake Valley. But even if they had not gone directly to Mengzhong, Lin Jia probably still would not have chosen to level here. Being hopelessly directionless, he was not suited to surviving in a place with complicated terrain. If he got lost every time he went out to level, he would probably have broken down long ago.

That Tiger Snake was just unlucky. In Snake Valley, where countless newcomers had licked everything so clean that even the ground seemed polished, a Tiger Snake suddenly spawned right in front of the three brothers as they were about to pass the checkpoint, blocking their path.

Old Four gave a ferocious grin and shouted, "There is a road to heaven and you refuse to take it; there is no gate to hell and you force your way in. Prepare to die!" Then, howling as he charged forward, he brought down a single slash. The poor yellow-striped Tiger Snake probably had not even seen its surroundings clearly before it flipped belly-up and died.