Chapter 2：Mechanical Alchemist

The sunset glow lengthened the shadow of the tavern sign. Inside, the stout boss was counting the unpaid drinks behind the counter, while his patrons drank ale and watched as a singer was singing lazily on the stage with a harp in hand.

"...when the first chapter of all legends is written, the so-called heroes are just like us."

Xiao Ling loved this poem by Hugh Heathley; it had a touch of the martial world. All heroes were equal, and the term 'hero' was just the honorific given to a person by a group of people. The so-called heroes were actually no different from ordinary people.

With a dog-tailed grass between his lips, Xiao Ling leaned against an old willow tree outside the small town of Vejin, spending the afternoon doing nothing. He had been busy mining recently, and he finally had time to rest for a while now. It was near dusk; the setting sun lazily sprinkled its orange glow on the small town, and the gusting night breeze was lifting yellow dust from the ground.

In the small town, men and women bustled about: some were mages and priests in robes, some were paladins in silver and white armor, some were barbarians, elves, or humans. They were all busy creating value for the game company.

They were either getting ready to set out or looking to form a team. Many were shouting loudly, making the whole town seem lively.

"Level-35 high-dps Fire Mage with a full purple suit seeking to form a team for the Ash Forest quest. PM if interested."

"Level-40 Barbarian Warrior, high defense and high HP, seeking to form a team for the Elasi Swamp quest..."

"Level-40 elite team needs a priest with 500+ in healing skill points, shoutout if interested."

Looking at these busy players, Xiao Ling was envious. 'When can I truly start leveling?' The thought of what he had experienced when he first joined the game depressed him. Of all classes, warlocks were unpopular; it was the most unneeded class for most of the major quests because its dps was never as good as that of a mage, and many of its control skills were only effective against a handful of weak monsters. When facing a boss, a warlock could only stare at it. Furthermore, it was a demon class. Apart from Brakada, NPCs elsewhere would not provide warlocks quests.

Although unpopular, there were still quests that required warlocks. Some skills of Demonic Warlocks, Destruction Warlocks, and Affliction Warlocks were actually very useful in these quests. If the player had good reflexes and decent equipment, a warlock could be as effective as a mage, a class that was claimed as the soul of the battlefield.

Moreover, these three warlock specializations were the gods of solo-leveling; the speed of them leveling solo was as fast as rogues, a class that was called the King of the Wild.

The Alchemist, also a specialization of warlocks, was a marginal specialization of the already unpopular class, and was further divided into Apothecary Alchemists and Mechanical Alchemists.

Apothecary Alchemists increased their power by making various elixirs. Their spell damage was very low, and could barely reach 80% to 90% of the spell damage of ordinary warlocks after imbibing the concoctions. However, the brews made by them were extremely expensive.

In Eddins, the capital city of Brakada, an Elixir of Empowerment made by a high-level Apothecary Alchemist could be auctioned for at least one to two thousand gold coins.

If Apothecary Alchemists were considered somewhat useful, then Xiao Ling's choice of mechanical specialization was the most useless one. After all, the spell damage of Mechanical Alchemists was only about 40% of that of ordinary warlocks.

The talent of Mechanical Alchemists was engineering, with which they could make mechanical puppets. Every Mechanical Alchemist could bring a mechanical puppet, which possessed a certain level of fighting strength. For example, the spell damage of a basic level-1 mechanical imp was about 80% that of a Mechanical Alchemist, which could make up for his weakness of low spell damage to a certain extent.

The combination of a Mechanical Alchemist and a mechanical puppet could produce the same spell damage as an ordinary warlock, and if the puppet's level was high enough, the specialization of Mechanical Alchemists was superior to any spellcasting class.

Xiao Ling had joined the game with this fantasy and even learned the four production professions of mining, alchemy, blacksmithing and engineering, getting ready to make his own mechanical puppet.

But, the fantasy was soon shattered. After a month, when many players had reached level-40 or above, begun to enter various dungeons, and put on Superior Rare or Epic armor, Xiao Ling remained at level-1.

Without mechanical puppets, Mechanical Alchemists were good-for-nothing and could not level up at all. But, making mechanical puppets was not that simple.

It took money to learn alchemy, and so did blacksmithing and engineering. All the money Xiao Ling earned from mining ore every day had been thrown into this bottomless pit.

In a month and a half, his four production professions had improved dramatically, but his level had not moved at all.

Mining: Artisan rank, expertise rating 307/500

Alchemy: Expert rank, expertise rating 175/300

Blacksmithing: Journeyman rank, expertise rating 102/150

Engineering: Apprentice rank, expertise rating 47/50

The only achievement Xiao Ling was proud of was his rank in mining and alchemy. At present, he was the only one who had reached artisan-rank in the mining profession in the whole server, and there were only two expert-rank miners, who would take some time to become artisan-rank miners.

As for the alchemy profession, there were only three people who had reached the Journeyman rank, and Xiao Ling was the only one who had reached the Expert rank.

If anyone could keep digging for a month in the apprentice mine outside Brakada, work more than thirteen hours a day, and be as lucky as Xiao Ling to find three pieces of amethyst in succession, he might also become an artisan-rank miner.

If anyone could risk failure and throw three pieces of amethyst into a smelting furnace without hesitation, and successfully smelt them into amethyst bars, they might also become an expert-rank alchemist.

But, no one had such good luck, and no one dared to do so.

With the professional certificates given by the system, Xiao Ling could get a good position in any major guild and receive an enviable salary, but that was not his ambition. His goal was to be the number one player in the game, not the number one player in the production professions, but the number one player in terms of level and strength.

If it were not for his artisan-rank mining and expert-rank alchemy professions, he would have deleted his character and restarted from scratch, and his situation would not be as bad as it was now.

Xiao Ling brushed the smooth surface of the amethyst bars with a hand as if he were caressing his lover. The dazzling light emitted by the smelted bars was his hope.

Amethyst: level-3 Rare ore, can be used in alchemy, blacksmithing, and engineering.

It was said that a piece of unsmelted amethyst ore was sold for 2,000 gold coins in the auction house of Brakada, and only one was found so far. Xiao Ling sighed with emotion about his luck. He had been digging hard in the apprentice mine that day when he found a lilac ore. Then, after digging with a shovel three times in a row, he was stunned by a series of prompt tones and the fact that his rank of mining had jumped directly from Expert to Artisan. Later, he was extremely excited by the three purple ores in his pouch.

They were all Rare ores!

Ores were divided into three qualities: Common, Rare, and Epic, and each quality was divided into five grades. Common ores were quite common, Rare ores were few, and level-3 Rare ores were even more scarce. Xiao Ling had not seen a Rare ore above level-3, let alone an Epic ore.

What would happen if amethyst bars were crafted into a mechanical puppet?

Three amethyst bars were enough to craft a mechanical puppet!

But, there were problems he needed to solve first. He could only craft the most basic mechanical imp after his engineering had reached the rank of Journeyman. He estimated that it would take another 3,000 gold coins to do that. Moreover, after he attained the rank, he would also need to purchase the blueprint for crafting the mechanical puppet. A blueprint of a level-2 mechanical imp was sold for 2,000 gold coins in the market.

In other words, if Xiao Ling wanted to craft a mechanical imp, he needed at least 5,000 gold coins.

'That is 5,000 gold coins!' Xiao Ling rolled his eyes. After mining for more than a month, not counting the value of the three amethyst ores, he had made only about 3,000 gold coins, and that was also because of luck. It was possible for an artisan-rank miner to earn only ten gold coins after mining for one whole day. After all, mining had a lot to do with luck.

A common journeyman-rank miner could earn about twenty gold coins a day while an expert-rank miner could earn fifty. As for the artisan-rank, no one had counted it yet. Xiao Ling estimated that he should have no problem earning more than one hundred gold coins a day.

It also meant that he had to spend another month or so mining before he could craft a mechanical imp. But by that time, most of the players would have probably reached level-50 and above.

Xiao Ling glanced at the rankings of the human world. At present, the highest level was a Barbarian Warrior named Kuang Long, who had reached level 49, leaving everyone far behind. The second place was a Priest named Huawu, who was only at level 47. But, it was not easy to climb up the second place as a female Priest. He speculated that she should be a Shadow Priest; otherwise, she could not have leveled up so quickly.

Compared with them, Xiao Ling was a little ashamed. He tried to go out and grind, but he could not even defeat the Normal skeletons in the Skeleton Forest outside the small town of Vejin. Moreover, he was used to being alone, had no friends, and disdained being a low-level player who provided additional experience to others. Even if he were willing, because of his class and weak strength, no one would want to form a team with him.

A Mechanical Alchemist without a mechanical puppet was a good-for-nothing! Xiao Ling had finally acknowledged that. So, no matter what price he had to pay, he had to craft himself a mechanical puppet!