Chapter 1 The Busy Shelter

Not long after Shi Feng left using the Return Scroll, the first district's shelter also became busy.

The large shelter could accommodate a massive surge in population. Many players in the entire Abyssal Realm wanted to join the first district and enjoy better benefits.

Screening invitations was also a considerable workload.

Furthermore, after being promoted to a large shelter, it wasn't like they could immediately purchase mounts. They also needed to build a Beast Taming Field, which required a huge amount of Soul Crystals. This would take a considerable amount of time to accumulate, requiring a shift in the focus of development.

After the first district's shelter was promoted to a large shelter, many guild forces in the Abyssal Realm began to covet it, wanting to replace it.

Although the first district used to have a good geographical location and strong overall strength, it was nothing to guild forces because they were free players and posed no threat. But now it was different. The Abyssal Realm's first large shelter had too much influence. Their medium-sized shelters had no advantage at all.

If they could replace the first district, they would not only eliminate a potential threat invisibly but also strengthen themselves. They wouldn't have to work themselves to death concentrating all the guild's resources to create a large shelter. The most crucial point was that the first district wasn't created by a guild force but was just a motley crew, so they definitely had an opportunity.

A win-win situation, why not do it?

For a time, many guild forces in the Abyssal Realm tried to sneak their people into the first district's shelter.

However, Qing Shuang and others knew this very well, but they deliberately ignored it and even charged exorbitant prices.

Because they weren't afraid of those who wanted to replace them.

They couldn't wait for the major guild forces to send people to deliver resources.

The fact that the first district joined the Zero Wing Guild was only known to a few high-level members of the first district and was not publicly announced. To outsiders, it just seemed that the managers of the first district were very united and had strength and luck.

Moreover, there were only so many guild forces in the Abyssal Realm, and everyone knew exactly which shelter belonged to which guild force, so everyone believed that the first district's shelter had not joined a guild force.

Under normal circumstances, shelter managers would welcome those who wanted to join the shelter because it could strengthen the shelter and provide Soul Crystals for the shelter. However, anyone who wanted to become a member of the first district's shelter, except for the shelter members they actively recruited, had to pay 1 Soul Crystal to join.

Perhaps the price was very high, but the players' levels had improved a lot, and the difficulty of obtaining Soul Crystals had also decreased significantly. This led to the value of Soul Crystals dropping a lot, more than two or three times compared to when Shi Feng first came to the Dark Cave. Now, even an elite team would have at least one Soul Crystal. They could gather six after working hard for seven or eight days, let alone the elite teams of guild forces.

They charged 1 Soul Crystal per person. Even if Qing Shuang and others recruited some of their own people, there would probably be as many as 50,000 vacant spots. Converting 50,000 spots into Soul Crystals would be 50,000 Soul Crystals. The 50,000 Soul Crystals from individuals were not comparable to the 50,000 Soul Crystals collected by the entire shelter.

It was like promoting the Lionheart Tavern. It only cost 500 Soul Crystals for an individual to invest, but it required 10,000 Soul Crystals to use the collective resources accumulated by the shelter, a difference of 20 times.

With 50,000 Soul Crystals, they could easily build a Beast Taming Field, not to mention build two buildings that provided specialties and promote them to two stars together. Then they could promote the Lionheart Tavern to three stars, further increasing the output of Hundred Fruit Nectar.

Shi Feng himself also returned to White River City with a large number of attribute gems and Hundred Fruit Nectar.

Attribute gems were very rare. Ordinary players were reluctant to embed them on equipment because if the equipment was scrapped, the gems would also be scrapped. They were generally used on top-quality equipment to be safer, so they could be exchanged for other top-quality equipment in the future.

Now, Tier 1 gems in the Abyssal Realm were cheaper, only costing 3 Silver Coins each, but in Star-Moon Kingdom, Tier 1 gems still cost 9 Silver Coins. Tier 2 gems cost 30 Silver Coins in the Abyssal Realm, while they generally cost around 1 Gold Coin in Star-Moon Kingdom, more than three times the price.

Shi Feng took 30,000 Tier 1 gems from Qing Shuang at once. These Tier 1 gems were secretly purchased from various shelters in the Abyssal Realm, or exchanged for using Light Stones. A group of 20 gems was 1,500 groups, worth a total of 900 Gold Coins. They almost filled his backpack. As for Tier 2 gems, he didn't take them because Shi Feng had the Alchemist's Treasure, the Philosopher's Stone, which could turn Tier 1 gems into Tier 2 gems. The success rate was much higher than going to an alchemist to synthesize them.

As soon as Shi Feng returned to White River City, he first went to the Candlelight Trading Firm.

The current Candlelight Trading Firm was the most bustling place in White River City. It could be said to be the commercial center of the entire Star-Moon Kingdom, gathering the most forgers and talented people from various life professions. All kinds of high-level goods made by players were displayed everywhere. As long as Star-Moon Kingdom had it, it was almost all available here. Because some exclusive formulas could not be obtained even by the Zero Wing Guild, they could not be produced. But even so, the variety of goods was already overwhelming for players, and they only hated that they had too few Gold Coins in their pockets.

In addition to Star-Moon Kingdom, thanks to Feng Qianyu's help, there were also branches of the Candlelight Trading Firm in the major cities of the surrounding other kingdoms and empires. They earned thousands of Gold Coins every day, which almost overwhelmed Melancholic Smile.

Such earning power far exceeded first-rate guilds and was only comparable to those super-first-rate guilds and super guilds. However, with the passage of time, super-first-rate guilds and super guilds would definitely surpass the Candlelight Trading Firm in earning Gold Coins because their coverage of God's Domain was too wide and they could obtain resources and channels that were far superior to the Candlelight Trading Firm.

Although the Candlelight Trading Firm could continue to expand, the Zero Wing Guild couldn't manage it because it didn't have the manpower and strength. This was also the gap in the foundations between guilds.

Fortunately, Shi Feng had been prepared for this. He wasn't the Guild Leader of a second-rate guild for nothing. From the beginning of entering God's Domain, he had been constantly thinking about how to improve the guild's foundation and had made a series of plans, which were now beginning to bear fruit.

Shi Feng took out the Philosopher's Stone stored in the trading firm's personal warehouse and came to his private advanced forging room to start synthesizing Tier 2 gems.

If he let an NPC alchemist synthesize high-level gems, he would not only have to pay a high handling fee, but the success rate would not be high. The success rate of synthesizing Tier 2 gems was at most 30%. It took four Tier 1 gems to synthesize one Tier 2 gem. If luck was bad, it would take twelve Tier 1 gems to synthesize one Tier 2 gem. But the value of Tier 2 gems was only ten times higher than that of Tier 1 gems, so it was not cost-effective to synthesize gems to make money.

However, the Philosopher's Stone in Shi Feng's hand had a 100% synthesis rate for Tier 2 gems. Just by synthesizing them, he could make the profit of the Tier 1 gems in his hand several times higher. Shi Feng naturally couldn't let it go.

However, Shi Feng's purpose was not to make money.

"Currently, Tier 2 gems are already the mainstream configuration of major guilds. If I want the Zero Wing main force to pass the hundred-man dungeon sooner, Tier 3 gems must become the standard," Shi Feng took out Tier 1 gems and began alchemical synthesis.