Chapter 69: The Greedy NPC

“Red Tide, recruiting brothers willing to share both good and bad times!”

“Spinach Alliance is recruiting experts! Our alliance already has twenty-two members, all with top-tier awareness and skills. Experts willing to develop and pioneer together are welcome to interview!”

“FFF Group is recruiting members. Those with girlfriends, get lost!”

…

Walking past a somewhat decent building, Chen Mo saw large groups of players shouting loudly.

This was the System Guild Great Hall in Shadow Main City. Establishing and joining guilds, as well as accepting guild quests, all happened here.

“Brother, want to join our Flying Feather Guild? Our Flying Feather Guild is different from those trash guilds. We are very strict in recruiting, only taking experts. The guild benefits are excellent!” A young man, seeing Chen Mo approach, brightened up and hurried over.

Although Chen Mo’s equipment had its glow hidden, the sharp-eyed young man could still tell that his gear was quite rare.

“Sorry, I promised to join my friend’s guild,” Chen Mo casually refused.

Hearing this, the young man had to give up disappointedly. He knew recruiting experts was hard and had intended to persuade him at length, but since Chen Mo had already promised to join a friend’s guild, there was no way he could convince him.

Chen Mo didn’t linger long. He noticed that all recruiting guilds had strict requirements. They either demanded excellent equipment or strong operational awareness. Ordinary players were simply not accepted.

But this was easy to understand.

The guild setup in Genesis was very different from other games. A newly established Level 1 guild could only hold 30 members. To level up the guild, they had to earn Guild Points by pioneering in the wild.

Upgrading from a Level 1 guild to Level 2 only required ten points, but currently, there were fewer than ten Level 2 guilds in the entire game.

The wild monsters were too strong, making pioneering extremely difficult.

The wilderness outside the city was divided by the system into Undeveloped Areas. These Undeveloped Areas were covered by white war fog. Even during the day, visibility was very limited, and at night it was even worse.

Each Undeveloped Area had a small Magic Array. Finding this Magic Array would summon the Area Elite monster for that region.

The Area Elite was very powerful and had different mechanics from ordinary monsters. Only the player who released the Area Elite and their party or guild could deal Damage to it. If others attacked, they not only couldn’t harm the Area Elite but also made it stronger.

Moreover, having strength alone wasn’t enough to kill the Area Elite. To kill it, players needed to obtain the Blood of Curse dropped by minor monsters in the same area.

The Blood of Curse was a special item. Although minor monsters in every Undeveloped Area had a chance to drop it, the Blood of Curse from different areas wasn’t interchangeable. Additionally, the Blood of Curse couldn’t be traded or stored. Every night at midnight, the system would reclaim any Blood of Curse dropped that day.

So, pioneering an Undeveloped Area was very challenging. It required not just strength but also luck.

However, successfully pioneering an Undeveloped Area yielded substantial rewards.

Besides earning Guild Points, all guild members received a large amount of Experience. Depending on the difficulty of the pioneered area, each person also got a piece of Blue Equipment or Green Quality equipment as a reward. Sometimes, they even gained reputation.

Of course, besides pioneering the wilderness, players could also pioneer Instance Dungeons. However, there were very few Instance Dungeons in the game, and pioneering them wasn’t simple either.

With pioneering being difficult, leveling up a guild naturally wasn’t easy. Therefore, every established guild refused to recruit players who looked good but were useless. After all, establishing a guild cost 10 Gold Coins, which was a significant amount of money.

After getting a general idea of Shadow Main City’s layout, Chen Mo took the opportunity to learn all the available secondary professions and auxiliary skills along the way.

Scouting, Gathering, Skinning, Alchemy, Fishing, Sewing, Smithing, Transmutation, Cooking, etc. The System didn’t limit the number of secondary profession skills a player could learn. For just 5 Silver Coins, a player could learn one.

Many players, like Chen Mo, learned every secondary skill available. However, after learning them, everyone quickly realized that mastering just one secondary skill was already quite an achievement. Trying to level up multiple secondary skills at once was nearly impossible.

All secondary skills consumed Stamina when used. Auxiliary skills like Scouting and Gathering used less Stamina, while skills that produced items, like Alchemy and Cooking, used more. Each player had limited Stamina; once depleted, it could only be recovered by resting.

Therefore, most people learned Scouting, Gathering, Skinning, and Cooking—skills that didn’t require too much time and were convenient for themselves.

Chen Mo had no intention of leveling up his secondary skills; he just learned them for potential future needs.

However, not all secondary skills were easy to acquire. Some players exposed on the Forum that if you talked to the shop owner in the jewelry stores of the Three Major Cities and bribed him with 1 Gold Coin, he would teach you a special secondary skill!

Curious, Chen Mo went to the jewelry store.

“Boss, why are these trash jewelry pieces so expensive!”

“Yeah, ridiculously overpriced!”

Before even entering the store, Chen Mo heard several players complaining angrily.

Chen Mo walked in and was instantly speechless.

There were quite a few jewelry equipment pieces in the store, but even Level 13 White Equipment jewelry cost 108 Silver Coins. There were over a dozen pieces of Blue Equipment, each priced at 588 Silver Coins. Five pieces of Green Equipment were priced at 18 Gold Coins each. One piece of Purple Equipment was labeled at 188 Gold Coins.

This wasn’t selling equipment; it was practically robbery!

When players left the Starter Village, they usually only had a few Silver Coins. In player trades, White Equipment, depending on Attributes, cost a few to over a dozen Silver Coins. Blue Equipment cost dozens of Silver Coins. Green Equipment cost around five Gold Coins. Purple Equipment prices varied based on the part and its value.

“Get out! You bunch of paupers, stop bothering me! Take it or leave it!” The jewelry store owner was a middle-aged bald Fatty. Hearing the players around him, he glared fiercely.

“Dammit, if I get the chance, I’ll sneak attack and kill this guy!”

Being scolded by an NPC, the group felt extremely displeased but didn’t dare to cause trouble. They could only curse under their breath.

This was the Main City; city guards patrolled outside regularly. Attacking an NPC was suicidal.

Chen Mo, however, was secretly surprised. He felt that compared to the NPCs in the Starter Village, the NPCs in the Main City seemed more human-like.

As the group of players left, Chen Mo approached.

“Boss Boboer, I heard you know a very special skill. Could you teach it to me?” Chen Mo whispered.

“Get out… That’s not true! Don’t listen to rumors!” Boboer started to curse but stopped halfway after glancing at Chen Mo, seemingly taken aback.

Chen Mo found it a bit strange. This dialogue was different from what he had learned. But after thinking, he guessed it was related to his Favorability.

He had 15 points of Human Race Favorability and 10 points of honor. Boboer’s different attitude was likely due to these two Attributes.

“Boss Boboer, don’t worry. I definitely won’t tell anyone. This is a small token of my respect!” Chen Mo quietly handed over one Gold Coin.

Seeing the Gold Coin, Boboer’s eyes immediately lit up. He swiftly took it and said in a low voice, “Originally, this skill was forbidden to teach. But since you’re so sincere, I’ll teach it to you. But remember, if you learn this skill, it has nothing to do with me!”

System Notification: You learned the skill “Dismantle” from Boboer!

Dismantle (Novice Level): Dismantle equipment to obtain one or several main raw materials for crafting equipment.

That’s right, the skill learnable from Boboer was this troublesome Dismantle equipment skill.

This was no secret on the Forum, but few would spend 1 Gold Coin to learn such a painstaking skill.

The raw materials obtained from dismantling were too pitiful—less than one-tenth needed to craft the same piece of equipment. With equipment so expensive now, dismantling one piece meant losing one piece, with no hope of making money in sight.

Chen Mo learning the Dismantle skill was useless to him. However, learning the Dismantle skill wasn’t his main purpose for coming here.