MMORPG: The Almighty Ring
chapter-14

Chapter 14: The Lucky Blacksmith

“Gru…mm…Gru…mm… Smelting Complete. You have obtained 8 stacks of Copper Ingots! Smelting Experience +20!”

A total of 20 Copper Ingots were produced. Almost half of them had gone up in smoke as Jiang Fei’s Smithing skill was only at Level 1; A 60% loss.

“Ding! You have crafted an equipment—Green Copper Wrist Guard! Smithing Experience +1”

“Ding! You have failed the Smithing process!”

…

“Ding! You have crafted an equipment—Green Copper Wrist Guard! Smithing Experience +1”

“Ding! You have crafted an equipment—Green Copper Wrist Guard! Smithing Experience +1”

“Ding! You have failed the Smithing process!”

…

As the minutes ticked by, Jiang’s Fei spent more and more Copper Ingots in his inventory. As a result, the empty slots in his inventory had been replaced with equipment! Smelting was nothing like Smithing. While Smithing, failing to produce an ingot from the ore would still grant Jiang Fei experience points. Smithing, however, the materials would still be processed. Failures resulted in a wastage of materials, and it would not award any experience points.

After smelting eight stacks of Copper Ingots — a total of 1,600 Copper Ingots, he found that he was able to produce a total of 160 Green Copper Wrist Guards! It was a 50% success rate! Moreover, amongst the 160 Green Copper Wrist Guard, 20 of them were Green tier! That was a pretty good yield!

Based on the market prices, a Level 10 White tier equipment would cost roughly 20 silver coins. Green tier equipment at the same level would cost around 50 silver coins. To put it bluntly, Jiang Fei could sell all of his equipment for more than 40 gold coins. A total of 20 stacks of Copper Ore would only cost 20 gold coins. His profit margin was nearly 100%.

It did not sound like much, but these Profession players would not profit much from their labors, to begin with. The main reason was due to the rat race of increasing one’s Crafting level. Almost all Crafters at this stage of the game would have to invest heavily to gain levels. This once again proved that no Profession player could survive on their own — not without the help of a guild, at least!

Though their pockets would lighten as they leveled up, a good Recipe could switch the situation around. Their pockets would end up bulging at the seams!

…

Jiang Fei turned to the Temporary Storage at the Blacksmith workshop, slightly happier than before. Even though he was a Profession player, the euphoria and entitlement he felt then matched the elite players of the game. Still, having that many equipment was a problem. Despite being stackable, 140 of them had still taken up 14 slots.

“*Woosh*” The ring hummed.

Jiang Fei looked at the ring and finally realized that the ring had been flashing for a while now. It looked like it was hungry for those equipment that were threatening to give Jiang Fei more headaches!

“Haha! Good timing. I’ll let you have them!”

Jiang Fei quickly deposited all 140 White grade Green Copper Wrist Guards into the red slots of the ring inventory. Ironically, he was grateful for the functions of the ring. Most of his success had largely been due to the ring.

Jiang Fei took the 20 Green Grade Green Copper Wrist Guards and threw them into his own inventory before heading back to the Bank. There, he extracted the remaining 30 stacks of ores and deported the equipment.

30 stacks of Copper Ore could be smelted into 12 stacks of Copper Ingots. With that amount, it would be another wholesome metal banging practice for him. After what seemed to be half a day later, Jiang Fei had exhausted all the Copper Ingots in his inventory and managed to produce 200 normal White tier Green Copper Wrist Guard and 30 Green tier Green Copper Wrist Guard.

Even though roughly 100 White tier Wrist Guards had been fed to the ring, he still had plenty of equipment to go around.

“Sooo… How’s your day? Masters? Anything good?” As Jiang Fei leaned back for a breather, the girls returned from their “field trip.” They immediately checked up on their resident crafters.

“It’s going well for me. Sadly, the experience bar is a little on the slow side, but I’ve made more than 40 10-Slot Inventory Bags!” Jade Tinkerbell was the first to reply. Jade Tinkerbell was a Tailor. Her job was ideal for the beginning stages of the game. It was was a sure-fire way of making a stable profit. The reason due to the simple fact of how their wares would always be relevant in the market. One such ware provided additional inventory slots.

Players started off with five slots of inventory bags. In some of the earlier tutorials, the system awarded players with a 32-slot inventory bag. After that, Players were left to expand their slots on their own. However, due to the &[email protected]% system drop rate, not even 10,000 players would be able to farm one Inventory Bag. Hence, not only was the value of the Inventory Bag sky-high, its demand would never end.

“That’s wonderful! The sisters were complaining of not having enough inventory slots! Many of us had to return to the city to restock on potions!” Rosette Rose cried happily.

“How about you? Cutey Brother?” said Rosette Miaomiao. After claiming one Inventory Bag from Tinkerbell, she zoomed towards his general direction and came to a complete stop in front of Jiang Fei.

“Sadly, the things that I made would not be of much use to you! I’m a Blacksmith. There’s no need for you lot to grovel over me.” Jiang Fei snickered.

“What are you saying? Our little sister Miaomiao looked up to you!” All of a sudden, Jiang Fei heard a voice right behind him. He spun around in shock only to see a beautiful girl’s face. She was centimeters away from him!

“AIYAYAYAY! Sister Fox is a bully! I’ll wreck you!” Like a cat, Miaomiao hissed and jumped on Rosette Fox’s back.

“Hehe.” Jiang Fei could not help but snicker at their comical behavior.

No, comical might have been a little too harsh. They were more like a family and a close bunch friends. A bunch of girls sharing the same dream.

“All the equipment that I have crafted are in the public guild storage. Please help yourself.” Jiang Fei walked towards Rosette Rose and informed her of his progress.

“Thank you for your work.” Rosette Rose thanked Jiang Fei as she smiled in response.

“Wow! How–? There’s so many equipment! There’re even Green tier ones too!”

When Rosette Rose checked on the storage, she was shocked to see that many valuable equipment stored. 200 White tier equipment was more than shocking, but 50 Green tier ones as well? To put things in perspective, normal Blacksmiths could only produce around 100 White tier equipment at the expense of 50 gold coins. On the other hand, Jiang Fei had produced 50 Green tier equipment with so many White grades, at the cost of only 50 gold coins! The rate for producing Ascended equipment would typically be at 1%. If Jiang Fei were to produce 200 White equipment, he would have produced around three to five Green ones. Now, 50 of them were lying in the storage! What? How? The guy was a basically a money printing machine!

“It’s nothing much. I guess I was pretty lucky today!” Jiang Fei brushed it off, hiding the fact that it was all due to the ring’s mysterious properties.

“Haha! In that case, I wish you a lucky day, every day!” Rosette Rose said.

Even though the Wrist Guards were Level 10, their Green grades equated to a 130% basic attribute. Let’s not forget those bonus attributes! The Green equipment could last till Level 15. Level 15 equipment would not be as good as a Level 10 Green grade Wrist Guard. She was already Level 15, but that equipment would still serve as an upgrade.

What made Rosette Rose more than happy was the fact that Jiang Fei had produced more than enough for the entire guild. There were only 40 of them, and only 20 of them were Heavy Armor users. There was more than enough for each of them! It was a fantastic feat. In the span of a few hours, the player called Verdure Glider had provided the entire guild with enough Green tier equipment for every member. Jiang Fei’s achievement had made himself a valuable asset to the guild, in Rosette Rose’s eyes.

A Blacksmith with a high rate of producing Ascended equipment would most definitely bring the guild fortune and wealth. His produce did not yet seem like much, but in the latter stages of the game, a Violet tier Epic tier equipment and a Blue tier Fine equipment meant the difference between Heaven and Earth.