Chapter 17 (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Life skills were set in almost all games for a very simple reason. This was a means for players to earn money and survive, so it was essential. Unless one was a son of the game’s chairman, solely relying on killing monsters and earning money from items was a heaven-defying stat, the kind that obtained a pile of artifact weapons from killing one monster. In that case, one did not need to learn about life skills…

A game like the Chaotic Era did not limit the number of life skills. In other words, as long as the player was willing, they could learn all life skills. However, nobody would be stupid enough to do so. It was not easy to be proficient.

After all, every life skill had a proficiency requirement that needed to be met before it was upgraded. If a player learned all the skills, the proficiency required by those skills could be exhausting, so the best way was to do the best.

Every mainstream life skill would have a corresponding set of raw materials and gathering skills. Mining needed to be learned for the forging skill, for example. How would a player forge their weapons without ores? Also, skinning skills were required for the tailoring skill. Potion making was matched with learning about herb gathering skills, blacksmithing with learning about smelting, gem crafting with learning about gem cutting, enchanting with learning about inscriptions, and so on.

To be honest, Fatty had a hard time choosing which life skills to learn because when he had just reached Level 10, he had learned Poison Crafting. After learning that, he’d realized that this was a skill similar to learning about potions. When crafting potions, he needed corresponding formulas and materials. If he wanted to upgrade this skill’s level, he would have to wait until he was fully proficient.

This way, it would be akin to a life skill that he had learned in advance. Based on the principle of life skills, which was that quality counted more than quantity, it would be better for him to learn another herb-gathering skill. However, Fatty felt that being a potion dealer seemed somewhat strange because the customer target group was too concentrated and he could only sell to the Thief Class. Although the number of Venomancer players was smaller, the prices would be relatively firm, and no one could guarantee that he would sell anything…

The class with the widest customer base in the game still had to be the forging profession. A player did not need to have tailor-made armor, accessories made by a jeweler, alchemist-made special support potions, enchantments made by an enchanter, or a restoration potion from a pharmacist. However, nobody could survive without weapons!

Unfortunately, precisely because the forging target group was so wide, simply too many people learned this profession in the game. Even when Fatty had played a Berserker in the past, he had also learned the forging skill. At first, he had just been envious of the players who had their own forged high-quality equipment. He had dreamed that one day, he could have a weapon with his own name on it, which would make others envy his weapon. Thus, he had learned that skill.

After learning it, he had realized that being a forging personage was not simple. The game’s explanation for the forging skill was that the higher the skill and proficiency, the higher the chances of forging a weapon with good stats! However, in fact, because the Weapon Crafting Blueprints were hard to obtain, this resulted in a costly market value. Fatty had been in this plight in the past, so how much money could he use to purchase the blueprints to increase his forging proficiency?

The less money he had to raise his proficiency, the fewer people would find him to ask him to forge their weapons. This was considered a vicious cycle. Players would find the personages who forged the highest-quality weapons and then others who learned the forging skill. However, the players who forged no quality weapons would be somewhat miserable. They could only forge when they needed to save on expenses. Some players couldn’t even bother to learn the forging skill because they couldn’t forge a better weapon after obtaining the blueprint. Instead, they went to find those personages to ask them to forge weapons for them…

As a result, many players in the later stages regretted their ignorant life skill choices. One by one, they turned to learning other life professions from square one…

Fatty had learned about this in the later stages. Theoretically, he could learn other life professions if he wished to avoid such a phenomenon. However, he couldn’t help but hesitate when he had the chance to reconsider his choice.

This was because, after he had learned the forging skill with his Berserker in the past, although he hadn’t become a famous forging master as he had wished, he had still had a forging heart. In this accidental situation, Fatty had discovered a secret that he hadn’t known!

Forging was a very expensive profession. At the time, Fatty had lost a family fortune and used his remaining 40 Gold Coins to purchase four Level 40 Sword Blueprints and four sets of corresponding materials he had needed. Then, he had started forging. First, he had increased his proficiency. Second, it had been quantity over quality. He’d wanted to see whether he could have a chance to forge a highest-quality weapon.

When the first three swords had been forged, they had all been Normal Rank weapons. While Fatty had been mourning, the fourth sword forged had turned out to be a good one!