Chapter 1 The Impending Storm

Not long after Shi Feng entered White River City…

The entire White River City region was in a frenzy. All the major guilds were the same, actively forming groups to grind monsters and level up, all thinking of entering White River City as soon as possible.

However, the higher the level of the monster area, the more problems they encountered. Not to mention the increasing number of players in the advanced areas and the infighting between the major guilds, the simple problem of weapon and equipment durability gave these major guilds a massive headache.

"Has the whetstone arrived yet? The elite team's weapon durability is almost at its limit," Ci Xin asked in the team channel.

"News just came that the blacksmiths are working overtime and have produced a batch, and are on their way here to deliver it," a ranger said.

"How many are being sent?" Ci Xin asked.

"Five stacks of whetstones, 100 in total," the ranger said in a low voice, sounding embarrassed.

"How can there only be 100? Didn't we purchase over five hundred sturdy stones?" Ci Xin's face darkened, looking very ugly. Their current elite team had over sixty people grinding monsters in the level 10 monster area. One whetstone could restore 3 to 7 points of durability, and 100 whetstones would be used up in just over an hour at most.

"Those five hundred sturdy stones have already been used up. We are also buying them in large quantities, but we can't buy any at all. Many players are using what they've mined to exchange with blacksmiths for whetstones. We've sent many new recruits to Darkmoon Valley to mine stones, but after the God Domain system upgrade, the production of sturdy stones has decreased a lot."

"Moreover, the dozen or so blacksmiths we've trained are all beginner apprentices. The success rate of making whetstones is not high. If they were intermediate apprentices, making whetstones would be much easier, and we wouldn't waste so many sturdy stones. But the improvement of blacksmithing skills is too slow. They are still far from being promoted to intermediate apprentices."

The ranger's explanation was full of embarrassment. Their guild had attached great importance to cultivating blacksmiths and alchemists a long time ago, but so much money and resources had been invested, and there had been no progress until now.

"Sigh…" Ci Xin felt more and more worried as he listened, and sighed deeply.

Only now did he realize the importance of blacksmiths. Although the guild had attached great importance to cultivating blacksmiths a long time ago, and had collected a lot of resources and invested a lot of money in training, he didn't expect blacksmithing skills to be so difficult to improve. If there was an intermediate apprentice in the guild at this time, then there wouldn't be such a shortage of whetstones now, right?

"I understand, let the elite team members use them sparingly, and try to reduce weapon contact with monsters as much as possible. This can at least slow down the loss of durability. But let the outer members increase their efforts to collect sturdy stones," Ci Xin said helplessly.

Just a whetstone made the dignified top-tier second-rate guild Assassin's Alliance so poor. Of course, it wasn't that they didn't have money, but that they couldn't buy sturdy stones, let alone buy whetstones. Even if a stack of whetstones sold for 10 silver coins, he would buy them without hesitation at this time, but unfortunately there were none for sale.

In fact, it wasn't just the Assassin's Alliance. The guilds of the entire Star-Moon Kingdom were extremely eager for whetstones, but it wasn't as tense as in the White River City area. The guilds in the White River City area were in dire straits. Weapon durability was dropping too fast, and they couldn't fight for long. But without weapons, how could they fight monsters? Such a big guild couldn't find a blacksmith who could produce whetstones in large quantities.

The average number of elite players in the high-level monster area in ordinary guilds in the towns exceeded thirty. In the entire White River City, the number of elite players in a third-rate guild in the high-level monster area exceeded five or six hundred. Second-rate guilds had more than a thousand people, and first-rate guilds had more than three or four thousand people. Not to mention the vast number of free players, it can be said that the demand for whetstones in the entire White River City area was very large.

However, now every guild was frantically rushing to level 10, and the price of sturdy stones rose again and again, reaching a high price of 1 silver and 20 copper coins per stack, but even at such a high price, they still couldn't buy any…

White River City, the City Hall.

Unconsciously, Shi Feng had been waiting for more than half an hour.

In the past half an hour, Shi Feng finally sorted out the information about White River City. This information was of considerable value to guilds that knew nothing about White River City.

This information was divided into two types, a simplified version and a deluxe version. After reading the simplified version, you would only have a general understanding of White River City, such as the large market held in White River City every three days, but there was no introduction to resource distribution. The deluxe version had a certain introduction, but it was also a general overview, such as which places were suitable for which occupations to level up, which places had more resources, and what resources were available. This was exactly what the major guilds needed most.

Originally, Shi Feng wanted to sell them to these guilds one by one to earn gold coins, but that was too troublesome, and what he needed most now was not gold coins, but Credits. After thinking for a long time, Shi Feng finally decided to sell them on the official website's forum, using Credits. The simplified version was specifically for free players, and the deluxe version was for guilds.

The simplified version sold for 300 Credits. With this simplified version, it was equivalent to buying a city guide, so you wouldn't be at a loss and do nothing after arriving in White River City.

The deluxe version sold for 20,000 Credits. It wasn't that Shi Feng was ruthless. Although these guilds would know this information sooner or later, they would spend a lot of time to understand it. According to Shi Feng's guess, it would take at least two or three days, and it wouldn't be as accurate as the information he provided. Two or three days was definitely extremely precious to the major guilds, so they naturally wouldn't care about the 20,000 Credits.

"Hunter, Lord Wiseman is waiting for you in the reception room. Please follow me," the beautiful clerk suddenly walked up to Shi Feng and said softly.

"Okay, please lead the way."

Shi Feng got up and nodded slightly, then followed the beautiful clerk to the reception room on the second floor.

Walking into the spacious and elegant reception room, the person waiting was a man in a silver-gray robe, well-dressed, holding a deep blue gemstone staff in his hand, about fifty years old, standing quietly by the window, looking at the scenery outside.

This person was Wiseman, the governor of White River City, and also a fourth-tier Great Magister, with a level as high as 200. He was definitely one of the strongest people in White River City. Even if Wiseman was standing quietly, Shi Feng could clearly feel the magic elements in the entire reception room gathering madly around Wiseman, forming a very weak magic domain, which made people feel greatly pressured.

This wasn't something Wiseman did deliberately, but unconsciously. This was the terror of a fourth-tier powerhouse. If Wiseman could use this magic domain, Shi Feng would probably be annihilated in an instant.

On the surface, Wiseman was only in his fifties, but his actual age was over a hundred years old. He was definitely an old monster.

"Young man, I heard you have a letter of introduction from Blackbeard?" Wiseman looked at Shi Feng with a smile and asked.

Hunters had considerable deterrent power for ordinary NPCs, but for powerhouses like Wiseman, the title of Hunter was meaningless. The identity of a fourth-tier class alone far exceeded the status of a Hunter.

"Yes, Mayor Blackbeard asked me to give this to you, sir." Shi Feng took out the letter of introduction and handed it to Wiseman.

After Wiseman took the letter, he didn't open it, but just sighed deeply, looked at Shi Feng and said, "What should come has finally come. I've been waiting for this letter for thirty years, but I didn't expect it to be a young man like you who came. Now it's time for me to fulfill that contract back then."