Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 373 Let’s Do An Experiment

It had been twenty days since mining on the Mithril ore vein had begun. The progress was slower than what Ye Ci had expected. She did not know how long it took for Golden Era to gain their first Mithril ores in her last life, as it was a closely guarded secret of the guild.

That was why she instructed Jasmine and the Black Iron Dwarves to begin mining operations as soon as the defences of the fort were installed.

She did not expect the ore vein to take twenty day to yield its first batch of Mithril ores. When the mining first began, Ye Ci would ask about the progress from Bai Mo on a daily basis, but she ultimately gave up when she was not able to get the answer she wanted.

She resorted to simply waiting for Bai Mo to inform her when the Mithril ores were finally successfully mined instead to save herself the worry. She had begun to doubt herself about the Mithril ore vein when she continued to not receive news from Bai Mo.

And after so many days, Ye Ci had almost completely forgotten about the Mithril ore vein. Bai Mo’s good news came as a surprise to her. She immediately teleported back to Red Lake City, and flew towards the fort on dragonback.

Yolan had certainly lived up to her name as a Master Builder. The fort that she designed was greater than anything Ye Ci had ever seen in her last life.

Two teleportation stones were placed in the fort as an entrance and exit. The buildings within the fort were arranged in an intricate pattern that will confuse any attackers who have entered the fort for the first time. Ye Ci flew towards the northern end of the fort, where Upwards Ho! had set up a field headquarters. Not many were stationed within the five-storey building other than a few players and some NPCs.

It had become a habit of Ye Ci to be constantly wearing her hood when she reached lvl70. With her pet already dismissed, the players simply mistook her as yet another guild member. She quickly made her way to the conference room on the second floor, where Bai Mo and Timely Rain were waiting for her.

“This is the first Mithril ore that we’ve mined up. The quality is not that high, but it’s more enough to make a Mithril plating.” said Bai Mo as he tossed the piece of Mithril ore at Ye Ci, “Production of these ores are low, but the ores within the vein will slowly regenerate, which means that we will have a sustainable supply.”

Ye Ci eyed the stats of the Mithril ore before placing it back onto the table. She then looked at Timely Rain and asked, “There’s an issue that’s been weighing on my mind. How can we make sure that the miners that we send into the mines will not embezzle our ores?”

Timely Rain responded with a laugh, “I’ve thought about it as well, but apparently the developers had taken this into account. As the Black Iron Dwarves have partial claim to the production of Mithril ores, our miners would have to report themselves to the Dwarf in charge to receive a BUFF. Only a player with the BUFF would be able to mine up Mithril, and the player would then have to report back to the Dwarf in charge of the mine. Failure to do so would render the Mithril ore untradable and could not be removed from one’s inventory. We can then take stock of the production of Mithril from the Dwarf who was in charge.

The explanation from Timely Rain was able to answer a question that Ye Ci was not able to solve since her last life. With Golden Era controlling all the Mithril ore veins and with tens of thousands of players working in the mines, it was not hard to smuggle some of the ores out from the mines undetected. But Golden Era was still able to fully control the supplies of Mithril ores in the market. The answer to that question was finally revealed on this day.

Ye Ci went into silence after asking about the rate of production of the Mithril ores. And she spoke up after a short while, “Which dungeon are you all exploring at the moment?”

“The outer dungeons near the Silent City..”

“Oh?” Ye Ci thought for a short moment, “Are you talking about the Plains of Betrayal?”

“Yup. But we’re running into some difficulties. The monsters in that dungeon have high magical damage. It’s a lvl65 dungeon and we’re all equipped with lvl65 gear, but we’re having troubles with even the mobs.” said Bai Mo, “We can handle three monsters at a time in the 100-man dungeon, but anything more than that will spell death for our tank.” he grimaced at that thought, “I’ve brought up to thirty healers at this point, any more than that and we won’t have enough DPS. We can’t even reach the BOSS at this point.”

“How many squadrons from our guild are exploring this dungeon?”

“All four of them.” Bai Mo frowned, “But... I don’t think we can clear it.” and with that, he fell into a short moment of silence before finally speaking up, “But we have Mithril ores now. We can try making Mithril platings and equip them on our armor. It might help raise our Magic Resistance.”

“Do you know the progress of the other guilds?” asked Ye Ci after muttering to herself.

“They’re mostly at the Plains of Betrayal. I had a meal with Sir Ditty yesterday, and he was complaining about how his guild was stuck at that place. They couldn’t make it to the final BOSS.” Bai Mo shook his head, “These lvl65 dungeons have their difficulties increased by a lot!”

“If I’m not mistaken, we need five Mithril ore to make a Mithril shirt. How many players in our guild have the blueprint to make a Mithril shirt?”

“Seventeen.” replied Timely Rain, “The blueprint’s drop rate is not that bad. We have quite a number of them. Are you saying that we should make some Mithril clothes?”

“Yup.” Ye Ci nodded, “That’s how it is.”

“Won’t we be wasting a lot of resources?” Timely Rain shook his head, “Those are Mithril we’re talking about! A Mithril plate is Blue in quality, but a Mithril shirt is an equipment with White rarity with no additional stats.”

“Just try making one.” Ye Ci smiled.

Timely Rain and Bai Mo shared a look with each other. They did not know what Ye Ci was planning.

“If Mithril plating has Magic Resistance properties, shouldn’t Mithril Clothes have the same effect as well? Besides, an entire clothing made out of Mithril will cover more than a single plating.”

“......” Bai Mo and Timely Rain were both speechless.

Ye Ci stood up and smiled at Bai Mo, “Come on, cous. Just think of it as an experiment. Wear one when you head into the dungeon next time. It won’t kill you.” and she began walking towards the window of the conference room, “Don’t forget to tell me how it went.”

“Where are you going? Didn’t you just come back?” Bai Mo stared at Ye Ci’s back as she left.

“There are things that I have to tend to.” said Ye Ci. But she immediately turned around as if remembering something, and tossed the key to the Red Monastery Hidden Room to Bai Mo, “This dungeon has a lvl70 BOSS that deals poison damage. This is where I got the shield. If you can’t clear the Plains of Betrayal yet, you can try your hand in this dungeon.”

Bai Mo snatched the key out of the air and placed it into his pocket, “Oh? Do you have any walkthroughs for us?”

“The hardest part is at the third stage of the BOSS battle.” said Ye Ci after a short thought, and a mischievous smile appeared on her face, “It can spew poison in any direction, so those with low movement speed will find themselves in trouble.”

She then turned around again and waved at Bai Mo, “I’m leaving for real now. Oh, don’t forget to tell me how the experiment ends.”

And with that, she jumped out of the window and disappeared without a trace.

Ye Ci’s next destination was the Kira Mountain Range of the Southern Continent. But before her departure, she had to contact Green Hill’s Moon.

The man was professional in handling his business with everybody else, but when it came to Ye Ci, Green Hill’s Moon would happily kiss up to her, “Ah, look who’s here. If it’s not the great Gongzi You. What brings you here despite your busy schedule?”

“Since when are you so talkative?” Ye Ci frowned.

“No no no, I’m merely being courteous.” Green Hill’s Moon was in a good mood, “I’m a merchant, you see. It’s all about customer satisfaction.”

Ye Ci pursed her lips. She did not want to waste time on small talks with the man. He reminded her of something Fleeting Time once said: “Idiocy is contagious.”

“Can you help contact Lethal Poison For me?” she went straight to the point.