Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
By nightfall, Xiao Ling’s level rose by one again. Xiao Ling was awed as he saw his experience shooting up. Leveling with them was quick!
His level 13 experience bar was now half-full. If he handed in his quests of killing Scarlet Warriors and Scarlet Mages, he would level up again.
“It’s getting late. Let’s head back. We’ll rest for a while and go to the Boar Mine tomorrow,” said Tian Kuang.
“Alright,” Xiao Ling responded. The four of them began reading their Town Portal Scrolls. Four streaks of white light shot up. When Xiao Ling reopened his eyes, the four of them were once again in the inn in Tilia.
“I’ll auction off the drops.” Tian Fei took the dropped items and walked toward the Auction House.
Xiao Ling made some estimations. The Cobalt Gem aside, they should be able to sell their loot for at least 1,000 gold coins. As he expected, things were different when players had good equipment and skills. This was like an input-output equation. The more you put in, the better your equipment, the better your skills, the quicker you killed monsters, and the more items you would obtain.
Lin Fei removed five Cobalt Gems and five Verdant Gems from her personal vault. She passed them to Xiao Ling, and said, “These are the gemstones you wanted.”
“Thanks,” said Xiao Ling as he received the ten dazzling gemstones from Lin Fei. He entered a debt contract with Lin Fei in the name of Terhida, the god of Warlocks. The amount of the debt was 20,000 gold.
Xiao Ling was filled with emotion as he looked at the 10 gemstones in his hands. The goal which he had been striving for was near at hand. There was no way that he was not excited at this prospect.
Tian Kuang could tell by the look on Xiao Ling’s face that he was very excited. Tian Kuang was wondering what Xiao Ling intended to build. What item would inspire such excitement in Xiao Ling?
“We’ll be going to the Mercenary Guild to hand in our quest. Where will you go?” Tian Kuang asked.
“I’ll head back to my room. I’ll hand in my quests tomorrow,” said Xiao Ling. Xiao Ling’s ideas for building his mechanical gargoyle had a higher priority than leveling up.
“Very well, go on.” Tian Kuang knew that Xiao Ling wanted to build that item in his room.
Xiao Ling bid farewell to Tian Kuang, Lin Fei, and Tian Xin. Then, he went upstairs.
Looking at Xiao Ling’s receding back, Tian Xin could not help but ask, “Big Brother, can we really trust him? Is it worth it to sell our investment gemstones without profit to him?”
“His ability to learn skills of all three Warlock specializations and his Journeyman rank engineering alone are well worth us spending thousands of gold coins to keep him with us. He’s not much of a talker, but I can tell that he’s a good person. At the very least, he isn’t a money grubber. Also, we bought those gems at that price. Even though their value had risen, we didn’t incur any loss. Just think of it as doing him a favor,” Lin Fei explained on Tian Kuang’s behalf.
“My thoughts exactly,” Tian Kuang said with a smile.
“Since you both agree on this, I’ll say no more,” Tian Xian said with a defeated air.
Tian Kuang laughed and patted Tian Xin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Your big brother has never been wrong in judgement of a character so far. We can definitely trust Xiao Ling. Also, we won’t run into any conflict of interests with him. He’s not much of a socializer, and may not be a good friend, but he’ll certainly be a good teammate. However, I have the feeling that he’s hiding something from us.”
“Is it because of those 10 gemstones?” asked Tian Xin.
Tian Kuang nodded slightly. He looked toward Xiao Ling’s door, which was tightly shut. He had no idea what was going on in there. Tian Kuang suddenly remembered something as he said to Tian Xin, “No matter how curious you are, don’t go around poking about his private information.”
Tian Xin was taken aback. Why would Tian Kuang say this to him? He considered it before nodding and replying, “Okay.”
Tian Kuang knew that Xiao Lin was a man with principles. If they treated him as a friend, he would respond in kind. However, if they raised their guard against him and tried to find out more about him behind his back, Xiao Ling might very well draw the line with them and stay away from them.
“Alright, let’s go,” said Tian Kuang. He walked out of the inn.
Xiao Ling went into his room and closed the door. He took out the 10 gemstones and placed them upon the table in the center of the room. The 10 gemstones glowed luminously in the dark room, making it as bright as day.
The materials for building a mechanical gargoyle were not complicated per se. All he needed were 10 gemstones and two chunks of metal.
As for the process of building the mechanical gargoyle, that was complicated. There were two parts to a mechanical gargoyle. The main body structure was constructed with parts built from the processed metals, while the energy source was built from the gemstones.
The making of the processed metal parts was extremely complicated. There was a total of 53 parts to a mechanical gargoyle’s body. He would have to produce each in turn using transmutations circles according to the blueprint. There could not be any mistakes in their size, or else his previous efforts would all go down the drain. Fortunately, metals did not disappear during the crafting process. He could try again if he failed until he succeeded.
Mechanical puppets could be considered as cutting-edge technology on Endace Continent. Although mechanical gargoyles did not have high requirements for the individual parts, the attention to detail of the maker while making the various parts had a direct effect on the mechanical gargoyle’s strength. This was because the parts of the mechanical gargoyle would be put under immense stress while taking attacks during a battle. If there was any damage, the maker would have to deconstruct the mechanical gargoyle and fix it up. If the maker was careless while making the parts, the gargoyle would be fraught with flaws. It would be much more troublesome trying to fix it then.
There was also the issue of the mechanical gargoyle’s core, which was the part made from the gemstones. That was a crucial component. The energy which the mechanical gargoyle absorbed and released would be transferred by these gemstones. If the channels of energy transmission were not smooth, the mechanical gargoyle’s attack strength, attack speed, and agility would be greatly reduced.
Hence, the quality of a mechanical gargoyle produced by an Artisan rank expert engineer and a Journeyman rank engineering student, respectively, would be completely different.
The quality of a mechanical gargoyle was also graded with three ‘S’s. The gargoyle’s various basic stats and functions would be taken into consideration.
After producing the parts, the next problem to tackle would be assembling the gargoyle. He would have to integrate the various parts with linking glyphs, energy coupler glyphs, insertion glyphs, joint glyphs, and other mechanical alchemy glyphs to build a complete mechanical gargoyle. After that would be the finishing touches. He would have to apply fortification glyphs, protective glyphs, magic-resistance glyphs, and others on the mechanical gargoyle’s outer shell, vital parts, and parts which were prone to damage.
Xiao Ling’s capabilities were limited. With his Journeyman rank engineering knowledge, building an entire gargoyle was very difficult. Also, he could only apply rank 1 glyphs on his gargoyle, which gave it limited protection and fortification.