NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Recruiting a Forging Master
【Would you like to construct a "Forging Workshop"? Yes/No!】
"Yes!"
Hang Yu did not hesitate.
The importance of equipment to the army needed no elaboration.
Even considering it purely from a gaming perspective, it was absolutely essential.
In online games, there were never any shortages of hardcore players who would grind for months for a single piece of equipment, nor of super whales who scrimped and saved in real life but spent lavishly in games.
Game equipment was a crucial element in enhancing the gaming experience.
It was also a nuclear-powered harvesting machine for players!
It could greatly improve the efficiency of harvesting players!
A few minutes later.
The Forging Workshop was summoned.
【Forging Workshop】, a Tier-One building, used for forging Tier-One equipment, allows recruitment of +2 forging masters, current permanent forging master number 0/2.
It was a two-story stone-brick building, with a work area and a living area inside. The work area housed three forging furnaces, and the living area contained several separate rooms.
Outside, there was a small warehouse for material storage, along with a display platform for showcasing finished equipment.
It appeared rather simple.
Even somewhat crude.
However, the building could be redesigned and renovated.
Because in territory buildings, appearances and decoration did not matter at all; what truly mattered was the building’s core. As long as the core was not destroyed, even if key facilities and functions were damaged, they could be repaired at any time by consuming Abyssal Magic Crystals and materials.
In other words.
As a game with extremely high freedom.
Players could completely modify the territory’s environment and create more comfortable and luxurious houses.
However, at this stage, with the population being scarce and precious, Hang Yu did not intend to use players for construction.
The Forging Workshop was merely a set of facilities and a venue.
The ones truly responsible for forging and producing equipment were the forging masters.
The territory's units did not include production professions, so if one wanted forging masters, they had to be hired from the Land of the Stars.
The Land of the Stars had a vast number of citizens who had not awakened as lords, as well as many lords who had lost their territories in defeat.
These individuals usually no longer had the chance to become lords themselves but could still grow by attaching themselves to other territories.
There were many ways to seek attachment.
Some were through military force, some through internal affairs, and others through production.
Among them, production was the lowest-threshold and most numerous option, because as long as one mastered a craft—whether forging, alchemy, or formation enchantment—they could be hired by various lords, obtaining generous rewards and achieving personal growth.
With the Forging Workshop established.
Forging masters could now be recruited from the Land of the Stars.
Since Hang Yu’s territory was just starting, he could not afford highly skilled or famous forging masters.
There was no need for a public recruitment drive; he could simply open the forging master job-seeker list and pick a satisfactory candidate from there.
There were tens of thousands of job postings.
【Level 20 Red Feather Tribe Forging Master, has served over a dozen lords, capable of forging blue-grade equipment, requires a guaranteed minimum monthly salary of 2000 Abyssal Magic Crystals!】
【Level 15 Six-Armed Dwarf Forging Master, skilled craftsmanship, rich experience, masters forging of over a hundred common equipment styles, current contract about to expire, requires a guaranteed minimum monthly salary of 1500 Abyssal Magic Crystals.】
【Level 11 One-Eyed Green Goblin Forging Master, three years of work experience, has forged thousands of pieces of equipment, requires a minimum monthly salary of 1000 Abyssal Magic Crystals.】
【……】
In the Abyss, tiers were related to levels: Level 1–10 was Tier-One, Level 11–20 was Tier-Two, Level 21–30 was Tier-Three, and so on.
A Tier-One Forging Workshop could only recruit Tier-One forging masters.
Those above Level 10 could be directly ignored.
"Xiao Ba, filter out forging masters that meet the territory's recruitment standards for me."
"Yes, Master." Xiao Ba immediately filtered out the majority of the data, leaving only Tier-One forging masters currently seeking employment.
Their basic salary demands generally hovered around three to four hundred Abyssal Magic Crystals.
So expensive?
It was a bit over budget!
Hang Yu asked Xiao Ba to further filter the options based on price, then carefully reviewed the detailed profiles of several hundred forging masters, finally selecting one who seemed reasonably satisfactory.
【Level 5 Flame Fox Tribe Forging Master, a recent graduate from the Thirteenth Forging Technology Academy of the Land of the Stars, proficient in crafting various Tier-One white-quality equipment, also minor in Level 3 Cooking, capable of preparing meals for the lord, diligent, sensible, and obedient, with a salary demand of only 150 Abyssal Magic Crystals per month.】
"This one's not bad!"
"Fresh graduates like this are cheap, useful, and obedient."
Hang Yu decided to send her an offer.
Recruiting subordinate personnel was different from recruiting vassal troops.
If the latter were absolute loyalists, utterly selfless and without personal will, then the former were more like the relationship between employer and employee.
These Starsea citizens skilled in a particular craft were technically working for a lord, but the relationship was relatively equal, and both parties were bound by strict contracts.
Recruitment was a matter of mutual consent.
Even if the other party accepted the offer, they could not descend instantly; they would need some time to make preparations.
This was also one of the reasons why Hang Yu had been eager to complete the construction of the Forging Workshop—he needed to allow time for recruitment and waiting for the forging master’s arrival.
At that moment—
【Player "A Sword Comes from the West" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +95, Abyssal Essence +250……】
【Player "Black-Eyed Rui Ge" has fallen. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +182, Essence +400……】
【Player "Street Slayer" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +125, Essence +250……】
【Player "Ye Li Meng" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +138, Essence +400……】
【……】
【Player "Lone Boat" has died. Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments +152, Essence +400……】
Strange.
Hadn’t they formed a chicken-slaying team to get revenge?
There were a lot of them this time, and even several Level 3 players—there was no reason for a total wipeout!
Hang Yu immediately investigated the situation.
The players had been extremely cautious, even cunning, this time.
Before challenging the boss, they had made a lot of preparations.
Black-Eyed Rui Ge and a player named Lone Boat were responsible for luring the monster. Black-Eyed Rui Ge’s skills were beyond doubt, and this "Lone Boat," a ranger player, though low-key and silent, was no less skilled than Rui Ge.
With the cooperation of these two experts, the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken was soon lured to a small forest ambush site and captured on the spot by a large net woven from vines.
The Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken's most troublesome abilities, aside from breathing fire, included flying.
Now that it had lost its mobility.
It was as good as crippled.
The players swarmed in and quickly beat it down to critical health.
The battle should have ended quickly without suspense.
However, something unexpected happened.
The Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken, heavily wounded and near death, went into a frenzy, unleashing a flame shockwave with a radius of two to three meters.
Not only did it shred and burn the restraints binding it, but it also severely burned several players nearby, causing them to become briefly stunned.
It seized the opportunity to counterattack.
With its rage boost, the range of its flames expanded by fifty percent.
The players were huddled together and had no time to retreat, instantly engulfed by flames, losing several core combatants at once.
Even at this point—
The players still had a chance.
After all, the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken was already on the verge of death.
"Dear god!"
"Run!"
The players became overly nervous and panicked, abandoning their equipment and fleeing, thus missing their final chance.
In the end, they were wiped out by the rebounding chicken.
Hang Yu instinctively covered his face.
This loss was just too embarrassing!
He felt there was really no need to deliberately recruit fresh rookie players anymore.
When even an elite small monster could thrash players to death, this bunch was simply born to suffer!
Player group wipes were not always due to lack of strength.
More often, it was due to lack of intelligence and poor operation.
Take this time for example—Black-Eyed Rui Ge and the others had no idea that the Snake-Tailed Flame Chicken would go berserk when near death, releasing a flame shockwave with a radius of several meters, which caught them completely off guard.
A Level 3 elite was already the weakest of bosses.
In the future, when facing even stronger wild Abyssal monsters and demonized Famous Generals of the Three Kingdoms, the complexity of their skill mechanics would be ten or even a hundred times that of this little chicken boss!
Not to mention, many of them would also retain their intelligence and possess rich combat experience, making battles far more complicated.
In such circumstances.
Simply testing abilities and mechanics.
Would inevitably require paying the price of countless deaths.
Watching the players get slaughtered by the chicken and flee in complete disarray, Hang Yu laughed with great joy!
"How much ‘wheat’ did we harvest this time?"
Xiao Ba: "We collected a total of 4850 Abyssal Essence Points, 3032 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments, 12 sets of materials, and 10 sets of food ingredients!"