Leaving the guild outpost, Chu Tian walked on the streets of Shengjing City.
The day had been wasted, and it was almost five o'clock.
However, he didn't plan to waste any more time, heading straight for the teleportation array to continue leveling up in the Greenhouse of Life.
Suddenly, a system notification chimed.
[Ding… System Notification: Encounter Quest – The Nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone, Progress 100%, Second Stage (Feeding) Completed.]
Chu Tian blinked, having forgotten all about this quest.
He had obtained the five-colored stone back then to complete the Druid's artifact fusion quest.
Now that he had the artifact, he had completely forgotten about the flying stone in his inventory.
When he first received this quest, Chu Tian had been curious for a long time.
He wondered if, after nurturing, a Monkey King might pop out of this thing.
By his calculations, this item had consumed over a hundred gold coins worth of ore.
That ore could have been exchanged for a piece of gold-tier equipment.
However, he had three five-colored stones that could be turned in for the quest, and in terms of value, he had already broken even.
Opening his quest panel, it displayed:
[The Nurturing of the Five-Colored Stone]
Quest Time Limit: 72 hours.
Quest Type: Encounter.
Quest Progress: Third Stage (Soul Infusion).
Quest Description: Teleport to the designated map, defeat monsters to obtain soul essence and infuse the five-colored stone with soul.
The introduction was equally brief.
It didn't specify how much soul to infuse or how many monsters to defeat, but it did add a time limit.
Even stranger was a clickable button next to the quest. This button was dynamic.
Upon closer inspection, it was a teleportation portal.
Could it be that he just had to click this portal?
Since he had to kill monsters, he needed to resupply.
He casually grabbed some intermediate potions from his own [Everything's Here Pharmacy].
Moving next door, he browsed the shelves again.
He discovered that the shop had started producing universal keys.
These keys were incredibly expensive when sold in the shop.
Chu Tian recalled the system shop prices: Bronze Key for 1 silver coin, Platinum Key for 1 gold coin, Gold Key for 100 gold coins, Dark Gold Key for 10,000 gold coins.
Buying keys to open chests was like gambling.
Especially the Dark Gold Chest key, which was daylight robbery by the system.
Opening a chest for ten thousand gold coins was outrageous; unless a special item dropped, even a dark gold equipment piece wasn't worth 10,000 gold coins.
However, in the world of Tiandao, chests were a one-time thing.
Once opened, they wouldn't respawn, and the items dropped from chests were generally fixed.
For others, it was gambling, but for him, it was like picking up goods.
This made Chu Tian's eyes light up. Previously, he had found the keys too expensive. Now, in his own shop, a Gold Chest key was only 60 gold coins.
He wondered what the manufacturing cost was.
Chu Tian quickly went up to the second floor, to the Enchanter's exclusive workshop.
He saw him tinkering with something inside from outside.
After knocking twice, the Enchanter didn't even look up, continuing his work.
Chu Tian waited for a while, getting a little impatient, but he didn't want to disturb him.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard: Bang…
Caught off guard, Chu Tian jumped and quickly looked back.
The door to the Enchanter's workshop opened, and he walked out.
"Boss, did you need something from me?" he asked, completely blackened, with only two white teeth visible as he spoke.
Clearly, the explosion sound had come from his room.
"Cough cough… It wasn't because I disturbed you that you failed, was it?"
The scorched smell wafting from the laboratory made Chu Tian cough.
"Uh…" The Enchanter paused, his face flushing. "No… no!"
His face was so black that Chu Tian couldn't see his blush, but he could hear his embarrassment in his tone.
To avoid crushing his confidence, he changed the subject: "I saw the shop put up universal keys! How much do they cost to make?"
The Enchanter first showed a question mark above his head, then reacted. "Universal keys, huh? They're quite expensive to manufacture, with a profit margin of only about forty percent."
"Oh!" Chu Tian heard this and realized they were indeed not cheap, but still cheaper than the system shop.
If he focused on opening Gold Chests, especially those that produced good items, he could still earn a lot.
He finally wouldn't have to envy the Thief's lockpicking skill anymore!
"Boss, do you want to open some chests?" the Enchanter asked curiously.
"Yeah, I know quite a few locations where chests spawn, and I've calculated that it can be profitable."
Chu Tian expected him to try and dissuade him from opening chests, as Tiandao had been running for over two months, and everyone knew how much of a rip-off opening chests was.
If it weren't for the Thief's lockpicking skill, people would generally dismiss treasure chests with disdain upon finding them.
They were too much of a scam; ten Silver Chests might yield one Platinum item at best, with the rest being common junk, and occasionally a Bronze one.
Other levels of chests were the same; they were all scams!
"Boss, here, this is for you!" The Enchanter pulled out a small item from his pocket and handed it to Chu Tian.
"What is this… Holy crap… You made this?" Chu Tian exclaimed in shock upon receiving it.
[Enchanted Universal Key (Unique) [Upgradable]]
Attributes: Can open all locks below Gold-tier, including Gold-tier.
Description: When picking locks, the lower the level, the shorter the decryption time required. The higher the chest level, the longer the decryption time. Any attack will interrupt decryption.
Usable Profession: None specified.
Crafter: Shang Da Hao Mei Dai Zhi
In the world of Tiandao, crafted items have the crafter's signature.
Once listed in the shop, items will also bear the shop's logo and name.
Holding this item, Chu Tian couldn't help but be shocked. A unique item meant there wouldn't be a second one on the entire server.
It was exactly what he had been dreaming of. Chu Tian felt like he could see countless treasure chests beckoning him.
"Well, after upgrading to Intermediate Engineer and learning the Universal Key crafting, I tried to make a Silver one.
Who knew that my Demonic Engineer talent would get inspired again, and I added a bunch of things. Later, I couldn't even remember what materials I added.
Unexpectedly, it succeeded, and this thing appeared! It was Silver-tier at first, and I upgraded it to Gold!
The frustrating part is that my current skills no longer have the option to craft normal universal keys, and I can't even craft another similar enchanted key because the crafting option is gone.
Now, there's only the upgrade option for this key, but thankfully, the recipe says it's a one hundred percent success.
To upgrade it to Dark Gold tier, it requires 5 Dark Gold Universal Keys, which is too expensive, so I can't afford it.
Since you're going to open chests, Boss, you should definitely profit with this!"
The Enchanter rambled on, and Chu Tian finally understood.
After successfully crafting the Enchanted Universal Key, all his other universal key crafting skills had disappeared due to his hidden Demonic Engineer profession.
This was a win!