Chapter 386: Ice Soul Steel (2/2)
Required Materials: Ice Soul Steel x100, Soulstone x10, Cyanfire Gem II x5
Required Skill Level: Master Forging
……
I was speechless for a time. What is this? A 3-star Outstanding Spirit-grade shield blueprint?? This couldn’t be too far behind Gui Guzi’s Titan Barrier, right? However, there was another issue—I had literally never heard of these materials before. What was that Ice Soul Steel? Or Soulstone? At least I knew what a Cyanfire Gem was, but Rank 2 versions of these cost at least 100k RMB per piece. They were incredibly expensive to say the least!
That being said, if I could forge this shield successfully, then it was absolutely worth the effort. Gui Guzi’s Titan Barrier was a 4-star Outstanding Spirit-grade shield, and it was worth at least 5 million RMB if we put it up for auction. After all, god-tier equipment like that was priceless before it became outdated!
I shot a glance at the assassin before asking, ”Where did you get this high-rank blueprint, brother? Not bad at all!”
The assassin chuckled. ”You have a good eye for value, brother. I stole this blueprint from a Spirit Rank boss—yep, that’s right, the same Desert Giant King that was killed by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! I had used Steal on the boss since the beginning, and I would’ve gotten even more stuff if the boss wasn’t killed so brutally.”
Ah, I had read about this before, although I never paid it too much attention. All assassins had a skill called ”Steal”, but it only worked on mobs. It only yielded gold, blueprints, and miscellaneous items. There was a miniscule chance they could steal equipment as well. Even so, his good karma must be off the charts that day to steal a blueprint like this from the boss!
I nodded. ”How much do you want for this?”
The assassin’s eyes gleamed cunningly as he smiled. ”1 million or no deal!”
I rose back to full height and laughed. ”Are you kidding me? Did you mistake this blueprint for the actual equipment? I’m not even sure if it’s possible to forge this equipment, and you want 1 mil for a piece of paper? Thanks, but no thanks!”
I turned around and walked away without any hesitation.
As expected, the assassin called out to me before I could take the fourth step. ”Wait, brother. There’s no need to sour a relationship just for a failed deal, and what’s that saying again, a good deal is a deal well done, so let’s do this properly, shall we? How much are you willing to give for this blueprint?”
I gave him a smile before lifting five fingers. ”This is the most I can give you!”
”500k?” The assassin’s mouth fell open. He looked like he couldn’t wait to say yes.
I sneered. ”Cut the act. 50k, and not a yuan more!”
”You!”
The assassin licked his lips and struggled with himself for several seconds. In the end, he nodded while looking like he was about to cut his arm off. ”Fine, the blueprint is yours for 50k!”
I held the blueprint in my hands after the trade was complete. I acted tough in front of the seller earlier, but the reality was I had no idea if I could convert this blueprint into an actual shield, and in just three days’ time.
I took a while to calm myself down and focus my mind. Time to get to work.
The Rank 2 Cyanfire Gems weren’t a huge problem. They were rare, but not impossible to buy. The other two materials were a different story, however.
First, I brought up the official database and searched for the term ”Soulstone”. It was a type of Rank 9 ore, meaning that I could probably get it from a high-rank Miner.
I immediately contacted Xu Yang and asked him, ”Hey man, I need some of the Rank 9 ore called Soulstone. Can you get it for me?”
”Sure!” Xu Yang agreed without hesitation. ”I hit Rank 9 Mining just four days ago. You need it for something?”
”Yeah. Can you get me 10 Soulstones?”
This time Xu Yang took a while to reply. ”Rank 9 ores can be found at the peak of Dragonbone Mountain Range, but as you are aware all the mobs there are between Level 130 and Level 140. If I go there alone I will probably die.”
”Understood. Contact Li Chengfeng and bring a priest with you. Just like I mentioned earlier, I want you to gather 10 Soulstones for me. Tell Li Chengfeng that this is a guild quest and he’ll go with you!”
”Got it!”
Xu Yang messaged Li Chengfeng on the guild channel, and as expected the dragon warrior agreed immediately after hearing that it was a request from me. A short while later, I got word that the priest who would be accompanying Xu Yang and Li Chengfeng was Moon Dew, the other high-level priest in our guild besides Murong Mingyue. That was good. They shouldn’t have any issues surviving and gathering 10 Soulstones even if they ran into a Level 140 shadow-rank mob.
Now all that was left was the Ice Soul Steel.
Unfortunately, the term didn’t exist no matter where I looked under the Ore category. Given no choice, I decided to try something different and searched for the term ”Ice Soul” instead. A list of similar terms entered my view—
Ghost Ice Soul: Sword-type weapon
Ice Soul Grass: Rank 10 herb, can be used to craft Rank 10 Health Potions
Ice Soul Cloud: High-rank dagger-type weapon
Ice Soul Giant: A stoneskin-type creature that mostly lives in Cold Ice Canyon to the south of Dragonbone Mountain Range
……
The last search result caught my eye. Ice Soul Giant? It looked like a high-level mob. Could it drop Ice Soul Steel? After all, Ice Soul Steel wasn’t an ore that could be extracted by a miner. That had to mean that it was the item drop of a mob, right?
I made up my mind there and then. Cold Ice Canyon, here I come!
I had heard of Cold Ice Canyon. It was a frigid place with super high-level mobs that were far beyond the ability of the average players to combat. There was even a rumor that Mad Dragon had sent a hundred-man party into Cold Ice Canyon, but every last one of them was murdered by the mobs.