Chapter 130 – Collaboration (1/2)

Chapter 130 – Collaboration

When Nie Yan levelled in Black Gold Mines in his past life, he had required the cooperation of at least three other Level 10 or higher players, including both a tank and healer, to be able to bring down a single Zombie Foreman.

This time around, he hadn’t only come here to level, but also to try his luck at finding some decent Silver-grade equipment. Generally, Level 10 Silver-grade equipment would be slightly worse off in terms of stats to Level 5 Gold-grade equipment. If he were able to snag a piece of Level 10 Gold-grade equipment, then it would be even better. In addition, if equipment for other classes dropped, he would be able to sell each piece in the auction house for a sizable profit.

After three hours or so exploring the wide open rocky terrain of the mines, he managed to kill sixteen Zombie Foremen. From them, he was able to obtain a few decent items: several gems that he could sell for a good price and the fairly uncommon Berserk Pill Recipe. While moving around this area, he had also encountered two groups of players training in the area, both of which he took a long detour around since he couldn’t be bothered to deal with the hassle if a conflict were to arise.

As he sat down to recover his stamina, he opened up the notification window for his shop. After a quick glance, he could tell the shop was gradually going on the right track while under Bird’s supervision. Over the past few hours, he managed to hire over thirty Alchemists, who one after the other began producing goods. In this fashion, the variety of goods for sale in the shop gradually grew, so much so that even the Junior Magic Resonance Potion was already available for purchase.

While managing a potion shop, simply lowering the price of goods didn’t necessarily mean customers would flock over. Common consumables, for instance, Anti-Paralysis Potions, Antidotes, and so on, wouldn’t earn the shop much money. Since these items were readily available everywhere, it was hard to sell them for a good profit, and a business couldn’t simply raise their prices and expect players to still purchase from them. As for the comparatively uncommon items such as Magic Resonance Potions, Berserk Pills, etc… since their recipes were fairly hard to find, as long as the shop produced high-quality products while other shops couldn’t keep up in quantity, they would be able to see money flow in. Even if the prices of these items were set a little high, as long as they could afford it, players would nevertheless come to the shop to buy them.

The tactic of lowering your own prices to undercut the competition so you can attract customers was a foolish business practice. You would be purposefully lowering your own profits! In Conviction, the only way for a business to stand out was to procure and sell goods that weren’t available in other shops! In that way, as long as these items were readily available, even if you didn’t want your shop’s popularity to explode, it would do so anyways.

Nie Yan examined a breakdown of the shop’s sales. For now, Black Phenol and Black Phenol Recipes were still the best selling items. In the last few hours that he hadn’t checked up on it, the shop even managed to earn yet another twenty-five gold. Unfortunately, this sort of momentum would soon come to an abrupt halt because of his quickly dwindling stock. However, with the new potions and pills as a base, attracting a great amount of player attention, there was nevertheless still quite a bit of money to be made in the days to come.

Since the shop seemed to be doing fine on its own, Nie Yan stood up and continued seeking out Zombie Foremen.

During the time spent exploring the area, what seemed to puzzle him most was that he had yet to encounter a Sub-Elite Zombie. Although there was no guarantee, there was at least a good chance of him bringing one down.

And so, he spent the whole day training in the mines. By the time he went offline, he had filled up his experience bar by 57%, and his bag was filled with all sorts of items.

Back in the real world, Nie Yan spent the whole day at home studying and tempering his body. He was able to bring out his potential as a shut-in to its absolute peak. However, this was all for the sake of breaking out into prominence in the future while the foundations he laid in the game slowly grew.

While looking at the calendar, he recalled that this should be around the time when his parents would return. Just the thought of being able to see their faces once more made him feel quite sentimental.

As all the tragedies of the past involuntarily flooded his mind, he was overtaken by a mini panic attack. These memories were simply too much, and it took him a long while before he was finally able to calm down. Focus on the more important matters at hand, then deal with the rest later… he calmly reminded himself.

Time seemed to quickly fly by as he spent two days hunting Zombie Foremen in Black Gold Mines. On the third day, he finally hit Level 11.

“It’s about time I head back,” Nie Yan muttered as he looked in his bag. It was now filled to the brim with pieces of equipment. Almost all of them were Silver-grade save for one, a piece of Gold-grade Warrior equipment. He also saw the large quantity of ores, gems, and other miscellaneous items. At present, these ores and gems would fetch a good price on the marketplace, but if he waited for the playerbase to rise in level, then they would gradually diminish in value. Last but not least, he also found three recipes, two Berserk Pill Recipes and an Intermediate Health Potion Recipe.

Intermediate Health Potions were still quite rare as they had yet to appear on the marketplace. If he were to offer them up for sale in his shop, he imagined the players would probably go frantic over them.

Two days ago, Medusa’s Lair finally opened, and the demand for Anti-Petrify Potions rose accordingly, causing their price to skyrocket before finally stabilising at fivefold. Under Nie Yan’s guidance, Bird placed all of their Anti-Petrify Potions up for sale. Even though the demand wasn’t as explosive as the Black Phenol had been at its peak, they would still be able to make a considerable profit.

According to Bird, business was booming. Every day, an endless stream of players would flood into the shop to purchase potions, pills, and other goods. The shop was doing very well, so much so that its employees couldn’t keep up with all the customers, leading Bird to hire an additional two clerks to help with the influx, with Nie Yan’s permission of course.

Since business was so fiery, the Alchemists on the second floor were invigorated and exerted their uttermost effort in producing concoctions. For every concoction they produced and sold, they would be able to receive their share of the profits immediately. This form of encouragement proved to be extremely effective. They were practically producing concoctions non-stop as a steady flow of goods went down to the first floor. Since most of the items the shop sold were high-end potions, pills, and such, the earnings were equally astonishing. They were even making more than those Alchemists from the major guilds who received a twenty percent share.

Furthermore, following Nie Yan’s instructions, Bird spent an entire two gold to purchase several recipes for high-level concoctions along with the ingredients required to produce them. Thanks to this, the several Junior Alchemists under him were rapidly improving their Alchemy skill. Both Quiet Nannan and Still Grieving were close to promoting to Intermediate Alchemists while Bird had at long last achieved his dream of becoming a Junior Alchemist.