Translator: Hellscythe_ Editor: Hellscythe_
Shortly after Shi Feng entered White River City, all the players within White River City region entered a crazed state. The various large Guilds behaved in the same way. They all began forming teams to grind and level up, intending to enter White River City as soon as possible.
However, the higher level the monster areas they grinded in were, the more problems they encountered. Not mentioning the fact that more players explored the high-level areas, nor the matter of the Guilds competing and battling with each other, just the simple matter of weapon and equipment durability was already a huge headache to these various large Guilds.
"Have they still not sent the Whetstones, yet? The entire team's weapon durability is almost at its limit," Stabbing Heart said in the team chat.
"They just informed me that the forgers have just finished a new batch and are sending it our way," a Ranger replied.
"How many are they sending?" Stabbing Heart asked.
"Five stacks, a total of 100 Whetstones," the Ranger said in a soft and troubled tone.
"Why are there only 100? Didn't we buy over 500 Hard Stones?" Stabbing Heart's expression sunk, turning extremely ugly to behold. There were over 60 players in their elite team, and they all were currently grinding in a Level 10 monster area. Each Whetstone could recover 3 to 7 durability points on a weapon, and 100 Whetstones would only last them around an hour or so.
"They've already used all 500. We are trying to purchase them in bulk, but we simply can't find any. Many players are just paying forgers to turn their Hard Stones into Whetstones. We've already sent out many of our newcomers to grind for Hard Stones in Dark Moon Valley. However, ever since God's Domain's upgrade, the drop-rate of Hard Stones has decreased."
"Moreover, the ten plus forgers we've nurtured are only Basic Forging Apprentices right now; they have a very low success rate for making Whetstones. The success rate would be higher if they were Intermediate Forging Apprentices; we wouldn't have to waste so many Hard Stones. However, the increase in proficiency in forging is just too slow. Right now, they don't have enough proficiency points to become an Intermediate Forging Apprentices at the moment."
The Ranger's face turned awkward as he explained. Nurturing forgers and potionmakers had been very important to their Guild for some time. However, where would they find enough money and resources to invest in them? Until now, these lifestyle players had not supplied any advantages to the Guild.
"Hah..." Stabbing Heart let out a deep sigh. He grew worried as he listened to his subordinate's report.
Only now did he truly realize the importance of forgers. Although their Guild had started nurturing forgers from an early period, collecting plenty of resources and investing a great amount of money into their development, they never thought that it would be so hard to raise a forger. If the Guild had an Intermediate Forging Apprentice right now, they wouldn't have been so desperate for Whetstones.
"I understand. Tell the elite team members to use them sparingly, then. Try to reduce the contact their weapons have with monsters; that way, they can slow down the damage to their weapons. Also, tell the outer members to put more effort into gathering Hard Stones," Stabbing Heart said helplessly.
The lack of Whetstones had left a second-rate apex Guild like the Assassin's Alliance in such a poor state. Of course, this wasn't due to them not having money, but simply because they could not buy any Hard Stones, not to mention Whetstones. Even if a stack of Whetstones sold for 10 Silver Coins at the moment, Stabbing Heart would not hesitate to purchase it. Unfortunately, there were none to be found on the market.
