Chapter 98: Advanced Mechanism Art

Chapter 98: Advanced Mechanism Art

Ren Yu went to the trading hall to collect the acquired materials, having adjusted the prices and quantities.

Afterward, she headed to the wooden cabin to collect rent. One tenant did not renew the lease, as he had obtained a residential permit and had settled down in the residential area.

However, the vacancy was easy to fill. The new tenant was referred by an acquaintance, submitted the materials, and happily moved in.

Once the teammates returned and gathered, everyone used items and disappeared into the entrance of the fourth vortex once more.

With experience, this time was much faster, ending the battle an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

The boss of the fourth vortex was hard to kill, but unlike the bosses of the previous three vortices, it wasn't as stingy. The drop rates hardly decreased, and the equipment dropped was excellent, including red equipment and rare accessories.

However, accessories didn't drop every time. The first clear dropped a necklace, the second dropped red bracers, and there was an unexpected drop of a Pet Spirit Elixir.

For these two reasons, the fourth vortex was worth farming repeatedly and for a long time, until all teammates had their advanced accessory sets complete.

Of course, the drop rate wasn't particularly high; no one knew how many runs it would take to obtain all the necessary equipment for everyone.

After this run, everyone went home to rest. Ren Yu piloted a delta-wing aircraft to Yang Valley, landed nearby, and headed to a relatively secluded cold storage facility. Familiar with the procedure, she operated the door and entered the cold storage facility, shivering immediately.

Since the apocalypse began, aside from being hit by ice-attribute skills, this was the first time Ren Yu had felt the cold.

She was a little surprised.

The cold air and mist filled the cold storage. It was unclear whether it was a game effect or if the equipment was still operational.

"It should be a game effect, right?"

Nowadays, there were no such things as power sources. There were only skill-generated lightning, and not even from players' skills.

It wasn't due to an ice-attribute bonus either, as there was no negative prompt, merely a physical sensation of cold that could be tolerated for a short time.

Ren Yu's gaze swept around the inside of the cold storage and finally found the faintly visible storage box through the thick mist. She walked over quickly.

Opening the box, she first saw 'ice blocks' neatly arranged on the panel, with stacks of 999.

The ice blocks took up most of the slots, and there were two rows of new materials, 'niter.'

Ren Yu was a little surprised. "Materials for ice production?"

They even provided materials.

Then her gaze swept to the recipe blueprint next to the niter: a recipe for making ice!

"They even gave a recipe."

But what was in the slot in the lower right corner?

It looked a bit like a map fragment icon, but it was different from the map fragments she had obtained.

Ren Yu touched it, and her eyes lit up upon seeing the content.

The haul was quite substantial this time.

It even provided a clue to a genuine fragment of the relic key.

"Black Water Pond!"

The Black Water Pond in the Chaos Dungeon—she had been there before, and it dropped a fake fragment.

The clue indicates there is a hidden cave at the bottom of the Black Water Pond, where a fragment of the relic key is hidden.

In addition to the clear clue, it also suggested she might find unexpected gains by exploring more around the Black Water Pond.

"I never expected another key fragment to be in the Black Water Pond."

However, the Chaos Dungeon had just ended, so she could only wait until next Friday.

But what would the unexpected gain be?

The last fragment of the key?

This wasn’t something you could figure out just by thinking. Everything would have to wait until the Chaos Dungeon opened on Friday.

She waved her hand and put everything from the box into her inventory, which immediately became packed.

The box in the ice vault was a 40-slot advanced storage box, half filled with ice, the rest with niter, one slot containing the recipe for making ice, and one slot holding a clue picture.

Her inventory had 80 slots and was already filled with various items, plus the gains from two vortex runs today, and now another 40 slots of items, making it feel full.

Ren Yu looked at the empty ice vault with some regret. If only she could take the ice vault with her, that would really be a huge profit.

Not to mention the ice vault, she couldn’t even take the storage box on the ground.

Ren Yu turned and left, not staying any longer, taking off and heading home.

Upon entering, she first went to the workshop.

The blacksmith and alchemist had stopped their work, and the materials she had left for them were scarce and now depleted.

The blacksmith primarily worked with metal buckles and components of other equipment.

The alchemist crafted low-level health and mana potions.

She restocked low-level herbs and ore, allowing the two puppets to resume their tasks, and then went to check the other storage boxes.

She had previously arranged for Carpenter No. 1 to make a few more advanced storage boxes, which were now complete and placed.

She checked the progress of the two chef puppets. One was making dumplings. Ren Yu had it pause and instead put niter and water into the chef puppet’s storage box, assigning it to make ice, while transferring its original task to the No. 2 chef puppet.

None of these were urgent, so they could be done slowly in sequence.

She replenished the materials the puppets needed in their respective storage boxes, took out the finished products, and put them into her inventory. She then took the other empty boxes back to the warehouse.

The completed food items were stored in the appropriate boxes, and she grabbed a cake and ate it quickly. She also checked the finished equipment again. A few quivers had special attributes and were placed into different storage boxes from the regular ones. The attributes of other equipment were also checked. Those with good attributes would be priced higher at the Trading Hall.

Pajamas didn’t need attribute considerations, given their single function.

She also took out a batch of small mechanical devices to sell at the Trading Hall later.

She also had completed simple wooden houses. Ren Yu found the buyers on the list, sent them messages, and set the time and location for delivery and transactions.

She had also crafted several wooden horses, which she first delivered to Huang Chong.

After delivering the goods, she took all the equipment to the Trading Hall. She then returned to restock the carpenter puppets’ storage boxes with wood.

Ren Yu had a grilled fish with noodles and also enjoyed two desserts and a fruit. Afterward, she resumed processing the mechanical devices.

Over the next few days, everyone set out at 7:00 in the morning to clear minor monsters, and by 7:30, they entered the fourth vortex as scheduled, running it once. Whether they obtained the most desired accessories or not, they were free to pursue their own activities.

Jiang Xujie and the others went to the wilderness to gain experience and gather resources, while Xingkong continued to forge weapons.

Ren Yu traveled around the waters in various districts of City A, sending her ospreys into the water to work while searching for aquatic monsters.

Occasionally, she would also dive into the water to find kelp, abalone, sea urchins, large shrimp, and other seafood.

During this time, she obtained recipes for chilled kelp salad, kelp tofu soup, and garlic prawns from the aquatic monsters.

She also caught many fish and gathered some low-grade materials, but only one key fragment appeared, which turned out to be a fake.

It seemed they would have to wait until the Chaos Realm opened and check the Black Water Pond.

However, through her efforts during this period, Ren Yu reached maximum proficiency in her intermediate mechanical arts by Thursday morning. After finishing the fourth vortex in the morning, she flew to the Mechanic Sect.

She met the head steward for an evaluation and received some oral commendation, hearing words like how she truly lived up to being the senior disciple of the sect, a role model for her junior disciples, and such.

It was only verbal praise, though; the attributes of the title "Senior Disciple of the Mechanic Sect" weren’t enhanced. She was still better at understanding mechanical engineering, and the mechanical devices she crafted had better attributes than those of her juniors. She was also good at guiding her fellow disciples.

As for her junior disciple, she only knew of Xingkong, who didn’t need her guidance.

She wasn’t sure about the players in Huang Chong’s team who had learned to create wooden horses and whether they had joined the Mechanic Sect.

She didn’t know how to guide them either and would have to wait for an opportunity to figure it out.

After the polite conversation, Ren Yu received a new task and was given some mechanical devices by the head steward. These were devices she had already learned to craft.

The same devices, but the ones handed by the head steward were clearly more exquisite and of better quality than those she made herself.

It must have been due to the better materials.

In terms of craftsmanship, although they were crafted with skill enhancement, the head steward’s skills seemed more refined, making them more elegant.

This task also involved clearing nearby minor monsters, but it was different from before. They were required to use the mechanical devices given by the head steward during the fight, quickly setting up traps, and ensuring the minor monsters triggered them at least three times.

Each of the hunting clips, grappling hooks, plum blossom thorns, and flying needles had to be used more than ten times.

Ren Yu released her red-headed eagle, instructing it to follow but not fight, while she used Wind Evasion to dodge the monsters' attacks, focusing on using the mechanical devices to counter and ensuring the trigger count.

It was just a matter of time to complete, and it wasn’t difficult.

After finishing the combat task, she had to dismantle several pieces of equipment given by the head steward.

After the dismantling, she received some constructive feedback.

It wasn’t for nothing; her dismantling speed has improved.

Previously, it took her 50 seconds to dismantle a piece of equipment, but now it only took 30 seconds, improving her efficiency.

With that, the task officially ended, her mechanical arts skill advanced to the advanced level, and she obtained some advanced blueprints.

The damage of advanced mechanical devices was significantly increased.

The upgraded version of the intermediate grappling hook, now called 'Six-Clawed Blade', had a range of 15 meters, could inflict 110 damage, and had 23 uses.

The plum blossom thorn became the 'Plum Blossom Bullet', similar to the iron balls that the third steward used in the pre-task for creating wooden horses.

It looked like an ordinary iron ball, but when thrown, it exploded, releasing several plum blossom darts, inflicting multiple hits of 120 damage, with 23 uses.

The advanced hunting traps are better concealed once placed and automatically trigger upon being stepped on. The damage is increased to 120 points, with an additional 3 seconds of continuous damage. Uses: 23.

The advanced trap has a diameter of 2 meters and can trap the target for 5 seconds, dealing 120 points of damage. For 3 seconds after leaving the trap, the target's movement speed is reduced by 50%, with continuous damage over 5 seconds. Uses: 23.

The advanced hidden flying needles are more invisible with higher damage, dealing 120 points of damage and automatically sealing the target's pressure points, causing a 3-second paralysis. If skilled, multiple needles can be thrown simultaneously to hit multiple targets. Uses: 23.

New blueprint added: Advanced Six-tube Crossbow, a non-skill equipment that can deal continuous damage of 180 points six times. It is a handheld device.

Kite improvement technology adds mechanical operation settings to the existing kite device, enhancing its flight speed, altitude, and maneuverability in the air.

The improved kite no longer requires a certain height for takeoff and can be launched from a flat surface with a running start. Despite limitations, it is much improved.

Blueprint for a short sliding shield, a defensive mechanical device.

It is a non-skill equipment but can be used to block skill attacks and allows short-distance low-altitude sliding by stepping on the air. It is faster than the kite but cannot sustain low-altitude sliding for long distances, with a sliding range of 20-30 meters, requiring periodic landings to re-slide. Its advantage is that it is easy to control and can flexibly change directions in the air, making it suitable for navigating through forests.

The last blueprint is Ren Yu's favorite, the puppet-making blueprint.

After learning, one can make basic-grade puppets that can assist with some low-level life skills but cannot fight.

Ren Yu was very satisfied.

She immediately learned all the blueprints and first modified her kite, flying around the courtyard several times.

With a running start from flat ground, she slowly ascended after running for about 5-6 meters.

The attribute improvement was significant.

Maximum altitude: 1100 meters, maximum speed: 100 km/h, but it still cannot be used in combat while flying.

"Very good, very good!"

Mechanical arts have great potential.

The next level after advanced mechanical arts is 'Master of Mechanical Arts,' with more stringent conditions, raising the proficiency requirement from 1000 to 50000 points.

However, advanced mechanical devices also give higher proficiency. Small devices give 5 points, kite modifications give 3 points, and puppets, despite the long creation time, only grant 15 points.

Ren Yu was already very satisfied.

She practiced using the modified kite and found a high-level monster area to land and kill monsters.

She was just short of the experience needed to level up.

Before nightfall, she reached peak level 29 and returned to the city to complete the breakthrough mission.

This was the special challenge for dual main professions, defeating level 19 elite monsters, which she completed easily.

After the challenge, Ren Yu leveled up to 30, gaining 4 free attribute points, two skill slots, and four skill books as rewards.

However, she could not yet select the level 30 skills.

She needed to complete additional tasks for the leaders of the Gunner and Archer professions to activate the level 30 skills.

It was unclear whether she could activate both the Gunner and Cannon Wielder skills or only one at a time.

Ren Yu first visited the leader of the Gunner profession and, through a series of steps including dialogue, observation, and practical training, successfully mastered 'Crossing Rays.'

The skills of the Divine Gunner cannot be learned simultaneously.

One must be chosen.

After level 30, the two branches of the Gunner class can no longer use each other's skills.

It's likely the same for Mages; before level 30, they can dabble in both, but at level 30, it becomes a dividing line.

Ren Yu then went to complete the Archer skill quest and mastered 'Meteor Arrow.'

All are area-of-effect skills with extremely high damage.

Crossing Beams, when cast, seem chaotic and uncontrolled, but they accurately hit all targets within a certain range, dealing 120% critical damage and inflicting a 5-second Severe Wound effect. Under this effect, continuous bleeding occurs, causing a minimum of 100 points of damage per instance, and the target cannot use healing items or be cured/purified.

It's like a mini ultimate move.

Meteor Arrow is also a large-scale area-of-effect skill, dealing 120% damage. Using Rain of Chaos before Meteor Arrow increases the damage by an additional 10%. If Rain of Chaos triggers a freezing effect, casting Meteor Arrow will enhance the freezing effect, causing at least 80 points of continuous damage.

Not bad.

Anyway, it's better to fill the skill slots even if they're not used than to leave them empty.

Even after equipping these two skills, there are still empty slots.

After level 30, the skill levels span wider; there are no skills at levels 35 and 40, so the next skill can only be learned at level 45.

After learning the skills, Ren Yu took out a purple-quality wooden horse from her inventory, removed the tack from the blue wooden horse, and installed it. She then tapped a specific spot on the horse's neck, and she found herself sitting on the saddle as if by magic.

This is a feature of the purple-quality wooden horse, allowing one-touch mounting.

"Wooden Horse (Uncommon): Mount, with the talent 'Triple Speed Burst,' lasting 15 minutes, cooldown 40 seconds; talent 'Mid-Range Leap,' instant teleportation of 30 meters (direction controlled by the player), cooldown 30 seconds; talent 'Leap I,' allows you to leap over some ravines or obstacles, you'll appreciate its usefulness when sprinting through the forest; using 'Triple Speed Burst,' it can move at speeds up to 300; without 'Triple Speed Burst,' the movement speed is capped at 180, durability 1000, allows mounted combat, can be ridden starting at level 30.

The purple-quality Wooden Horse was tall and majestic. Despite being made of wood, it had a metallic texture and a faint purple glow, making it look very impressive.

Ren Yu used only the finest materials for this horse, avoiding any common wood.

Riding out of the safe zone, she got used to the speed of the purple-quality Wooden Horse in the forest, and practiced using Mid-Range Leap and Leap I.

Leap I allowed her to jump about ten meters, reaching heights similar to the trees in the forest, and there was no jolt or impact upon landing.

Moreover, wind resistance was barely noticeable, which was the part Ren Yu was most satisfied with.

After galloping freely in the wilderness for a while, she checked in with her teammates to find their locations. Except for Xingkong, who was in the residential area, the others were grouped up to farm monsters. They weren't far, so she rode over to gather their kites, modifying them right there.

With her teammates nearby, she didn't have to worry about being attacked.

Additionally, she had summoned the Shark Steward, a pet stronger than most players.

After completing the modifications on their kites, she said, 'Let's start a bit earlier tomorrow and try farming the fourth vortex.'

Suiyin and the others were eagerly anticipating, taking the modified kites and flying around the woods, getting used to the new controls.

'Too agile,' said Suiyin, 'You can fly directly out of that trap.'

They could also try dodging those vines.

Li Jiao and the others started testing the flight too. She was more looking forward to the cliff map section. Although air combat wasn't possible, if timed right, she could avoid the lion's attacks.

'Thanks, sister, it's so smooth!' said Li Jiao."

Jiang Xujie and the others were darting up and down in the forest, having a blast.

"Keep practicing, I'll go back and make some more good stuff," Ren Yu said with a smile, not holding back. "Come on, hand over your ore materials. If you've got any, throw them over."

The "good stuff" she was referring to wasn’t puppets. After all, she was the one who owned advanced puppets. This time, she meant shields, which she found particularly interesting.

"Boss, what good stuff are you being so mysterious about?" Jiang Xujie asked after landing his kite and walking over.

Ren Yu smiled and said, "You'll know once it's done."

After collecting the ore materials from the others, she returned to the residential building.

Xingkong had been crafting weapons at home.

Ren Yu had left a message for him, and just as she returned to the residential building, Xingkong arrived at the door and handed over the kite.

After modifying the kite, Ren Yu began creating the shield, choosing metal as the material.

It took twenty minutes to make one, and two hours to complete the entire batch. Ren Yu tested it out in the yard, and it was indeed very easy to handle.

Gliding, turning, ascending or descending within a limited range, and even making sharp turns were all very stable.

This shield could also be worn on the shoulder and used by simply taking it off, without conflicting with the swordsman’s or blade master’s shield.

When the teammates who were out fighting monsters returned, they gathered at Ren Yu's house, and she gave one shield to each of them.

Everyone was extremely curious and flew around Ren Yu's yard, practicing dodging each other.

Especially Suiyin and Jiang Xujie, who were particularly fond of it and went wild with excitement.

After her teammates left, Ren Yu continued to craft mechanical devices, this time making advanced Six-Claw Flying Blades, Plum Blossom Bullets, and traps.

She worked until the early hours of the morning before resting in her bedroom, only to wake up at 5:30 AM, ready to form a team. Before long, her teammates sent their join requests.

It was Friday again, the day when the Chaos Dungeon opened. However, they decided to tackle the fourth vortex first. This time, they would clear the path while having fun with the kite, and after finishing, they would still have time to return to the residential house to rest and recover their state before entering the Chaos Dungeon.

During this run at the fourth vortex, the kite had been reinforced and enhanced by the shield. The group cleared the level smoothly, finishing twenty minutes faster than the previous day. They returned home to rest for a while before heading out to the construction site.

Over the past week, including the first clear, they had dug up two pieces of accessory equipment. For this type of equipment, the drop rate was considered quite high. If they could maintain this rate, it wouldn't take too long for everyone to collect high-level accessory equipment.

It was a hope they could see.

When the Chaos Dungeon opened, Ren Yu was teleported in and immediately took off, flying to Peaceful Town to appraise the Tear of the Sea God and obtained a Pet Spirit Elixir.

As expected, she won the first appraisal prize again and received a clue from the NPC: a fun little item at a designated location.

Ren Yu headed to the coordinates and acquired the 'Eternal Torch.'

The description only said it could dispel darkness and provide warmth, with no indication of it being a decorative item, so Ren Yu temporarily stored it in her inventory.

The first prize didn't take up too much of her time. Ren Yu wandered around, collected some resources, and then opened the map to plan her route. Using the kite item, she took off and observed the elite monsters or resources below while keeping an eye out for merchant appearances, leisurely flying toward Black Water Pond.

Along the way, a seemingly insignificant person knocked her down from the air, only to die immediately afterward.

Ren Yu retracted her kite and went to collect the drops from the fallen opponent, looking at the corpse on the ground and saying, "How courteous, making me come down to pick up these items."

The opponent had dropped a decent item—a scroll, which Ren Yu gladly took.

Not far away, there were some cuttable elite bamboos. After cutting them down, Ren Yu noticed several tender elite bamboo shoots. Her eyes lit up, and she rushed over to dig up two before an ice ball hit her, draining most of the ice mage's mana and causing them to let out a scream of pain. A fishing rod shot out from Ren Yu's sleeve, striking the opponent and taking 30% of their health.

Realizing they had encountered a tough opponent, the person quickly swallowed a healing potion, preparing to flee. However, Ren Yu used Ghost Binding to seal the opponent's skills and continued attacking them while she turned back to continue digging bamboo shoots.