The Almighty Ring

Recipe: Corsair’s Breastplate

Requirement: Copper Ingot x10, Iron Ingot x5, Ruby x1

Product: Corsair’s Breastplate (Physical Defense +30, Random Enhancement)

Some Recipes came with such detailed description. The finished product would not exactly be as stated. They often came with random enhancements in connotations. A sample may come with absolutely amazing attributes, or absolute shit. Either way, Jiang Fei was certain about the Recipe. The ring provided him with a 100% chance to add in an extra skill! Any such equipment would be worth a fortune! It was impossible for this Recipe to produce anything bad!

Using whatever gold coins he had left in his inventory, Jiang Fei went and scoured the market for materials. Just as he was about to head to the Blacksmith’s Workshop and get to work with the ring of miracles, a familiar trio called out to him.

“Yo! Little brat! Looks like you made it out of the Beginner’s Village!” Venomous Wolf smugly dissed Jiang Fei.

“Haha! Look at him! He’s a Blacksmith now! Yo brat! You’re dead meat!” Vicious Wolf was keen enough to notice the hammer hanging off Jiang Fei’s waist. War-hammers and smithing hammers were visibly different. Based on the differences of the two, Vicious Wolf had quickly concluded that Jiang Fei was no combatant!

“What do you want?” said Jiang Fei maliciously. He frowned at the trio. They were bad news.

Unlike other games, Dawn Break’s PvP system was a little more dynamic. Technically, there were no such things as safe zones. PvP could be initiated, anytime, anywhere. The only safe window a player had was the 20 seconds invincibility time when a player revived or loaded at a respawn point or a Teleportation Circle. Players could start attacking others at anywhere they wanted to!

However, there was a limitation to PvP. There was something called the Safety Level. There were 21 Levels of safety, from 10 to -10. All players started off with five points of Safety Levels. Every time PvP was conducted in an NPC controlled zone, or if you were the initiator of a fight, you would lose a Safety Level. If you kill another player, you would lose another two points to your Safety Level and be a target of NPC guards. Upon capture, all items, equipment, and coins would be confiscated. You would also be imprisoned for three days.

If the Safety Level dropped to zero, NPCs would place you under a trade embargo. If your Safety Level dropped beyond zero and reach the negative area, NPC guards would start a manhunt. Safety Levels below negative five would trigger an event — where your current city would issue a “Kill on Sight” reward mission to other players.

Naturally, Safety Levels could be regained and increased. Players could accept challenging quests to either redeem themselves or even further boost their Safety Levels. At Safety Level eight or higher, that player would be an Official of the city, granting access to waived service charges, special set equipment and others.

A player in the negative Safety Level zone would not be able to proceed like any other player. They could either head over to a Neutral city or join the Chaos City where robbers and Bandits roamed free.

Due to the sandbox nature of the game, many players had chosen to lead exciting lives of crime. They would enter a city, kill a player, and rob them of all their precious equipment. Before the NPC guards arrived, they would pass the stolen goods to a normal player and leave the city. As long as the stolen goods were high in value, those no-good players were willing to take the punishment and remain in prison! Losing all their lousy equipment was a worthy trade-off!

“Relax little one. We won’t touch you… Not yet. You’re still green behind the ears! Nothing but rubbish and junk metal. For now. Hehe. You’re not worth prison. Better watch yourself in the future. Just when you’re thinking of walking around in better armor, we’ll be right behind you. Lurking in the shadows, striking where it hurts most when your guard is down. Hehehe.” Hungry Wolf laughed menacingly. Long ago, he had been petrified by Jiang Fei’s cold stare. The situation was different then, and it was different now. Jiang Fei was a non-combatant! There was nothing to fear from a f*cking Blacksmith! What was he going to do? Test his knee-jerk reflex with that toy hammer?

“You dare?! This cute brother here is one of ours! The Rosette Knighthood!” said Miaomiao, leaping forward.

“HAHA! WHAT IS THAT PETITE LITTLE THING!”

“Good god! Not bad brat! You’ve learned the ancient art of cowering behind a lady! I’m impressed! Truly impressed!” said Hungry Wolf, guffawing like an actual wolf.

“Is that right? Mark my words, I’ll be seeing you in the future. It won’t be you lurking in the shadows…” said Jiang Fei as he tugged Miaomiao back. He knew that he was ill-suited for combat, but it did not mean that he could not protect a lady!

“Hoho! I’ll remember what you said, boy!”

“Take care, brat! I’ll be seeing your real soon!”

“Don’t forget to train your Levels, yeah? Work hard, practice your craft, and when you start producing some nice shinies, you can watch me pry them off your dead hands from your disembodied head — if your eyeballs are still intact, that is!”

As soon as they were satisfied, they laughed and left Jiang Fei alone with Miaomiao still in his arms.

Miaomiao turned to Jiang Fei and said, “Brother, don’t let them get to you! They’re just assholes!” Miaomiao had pointedly flung that last word at them, running in their direction for good measure. She turned back to Jiang Fei. “Don’t be disheartened by those creeps!”

“Not to worry! I’m fine. They’re not creeps! They’re clowns!” Jiang Fei laughed it off. Even though he was smiling and cheerful on the outside, he felt extremely unhappy for not being able to stand up to them. As a blacksmith, he would be a major disadvantage against a combat-class player. Jiang Fei glanced at the ring in his finger and thought to himself, “I’ve taken a hit for you! You’d best not let me down, little one.”

The ring glowed brightly in response, as if it was trying to comfort Jiang Fei. It behaved as if it was saying, “Worry not. Stick with me, and I’ll deliver the world into your hands.”

“Okay then,” said Miaomiao. When she was convinced that Jiang Fei was truly unfazed, she nodded her head in approval. The girl was only around 15 to 16 years old. She was still too young to understand how one would feel.

The two of them proceeded to the Blacksmith’s Workshop with Jiang Fei taking the lead. Jiang Fei went on with his usual routine. Furnace, ores into ingots, hammer.

The Corsair’s Breastplate was a Level 15 Green tier Recipe. Crafting the equipment would take a longer time than the Green Copper Wrist Guard.

A flash of green light, and a new equipment was born.

Sturdy Corsair’s Breastplate (Chainmail, Fine)

Physical Defense: +40

Equipped: Grants passive skill—Sturdy, increases maximum Health Points by 10%.

Level Requirement: 15

Jiang Fei’s first equipment crafted under Miaomiao’s supervision had lived up to the ring’s amazing ability. The equipment was Green tier and possessed an extra attribute. Its defense value was only 30% more than a similarly Leveled White tier equipment. Then, there was the passive skill. It turned the equipment into something else entirely.

“Here.” Jiang Fei stood up and passed the chain mail to Miaomiao.

“Wow! This is great! I’m sure second sister would love yo—it!” cried Rosette Miaomiao.

The game was still growing. It was not even in its pubescent stage. Everyone was either wearing White tier equipment, or nothing at all. Green tier equipment were rare. To obtain stronger equipment, one must kill a boss, or have a Profession player craft it for you. However, Crafters could not just make something out of thin air, even if they had an abundance of materials at their disposal. They still needed Recipes from the bosses! Eventually, it all came down to the boss. Taking on a boss required a complete party, and at the heart of it was a solid tank!

A tank, as the name implied, was a player who took the brunt of the punishment meant for the team. Hence, a good tank required high Health Points! The higher Health Points a tank had, the stronger he would be against high profile bosses. That was why Rosette Miaomiao had been so thrilled to see a passive skill that increased Health Points!