Chapter 6 Freedom

(I wrote it wrong earlier; the Chapter of Freedom is Chapter 6. Wo Niu messed up again.)

Vanish is a superb skill for a Thief to stay alive. In his previous life, Nie Yan was often able to turn defeat into victory or escape unscathed during several major battles because of Vanish. As for Sacrificial Strike, Nie Yan now had 360 health points. Thirty percent of that was about 100 points. This meant that when Nie Yan used Sacrificial Strike, he had a 50% chance of dealing 200 damage, a 20% chance of dealing 300 damage, a 10% chance of dealing 500 damage, and a 20% chance of it being dodged. In terms of single-target damage, this skill was quite terrifying.

Sacrificial Strike was a high-level Thief skill with a cooldown of two natural days. The time was a bit long, but such a powerful skill was bound to have some restrictions, just like Elemental magic and Holy magic, which had relatively long cooldowns. There was also the Divine Arbitration skill on Nie Yan's Chapter of Courage. This skill, which took ten natural days to cool down, still wasn't ready! Ten natural days for a cooldown meant it could only be used a maximum of 36 times a year.

With Divine Arbitration, Sacrificial Strike, and Vanish, Nie Yan felt that he was getting closer to the third Chapter of Order, but now wasn't the time.

After adding his stats, Nie Yan saw that his Strength was already 83. After learning the five passive skill books that added Strength from Banishing Fox, and then adding a bit more Strength, he would be able to equip the Sogoth Shadow Boots.

"How's it going on your end?" Nie Yan sent a message to Tang Yao.

"Still grinding. The Arcane Sprite's experience is up 67%. Damn it, leveling is so hard. I'm about to die of boredom after grinding for two days. If I were leveling myself, I could at least reach Level 10 in two days," Tang Yao complained dejectedly.

"Arcane Sprites are indeed harder to train. Just hang in there for another day or two," Nie Yan said with a smile. This kind of monotonous leveling was indeed a torment for someone as active as Tang Yao. However, Tang Yao's temperament really needed to be tempered.

"I understand," Tang Yao said dispiritedly. It shouldn't be just a day or two, but at least three days or more. Being able to level up to Level 10 or higher in two days here was an opportunity he didn't want to miss. If he wanted to come here to grind monsters in the future, he would have to pay a teleportation fee of 20 silver coins, and without the Skeletal Kodo clearing the way, he wouldn't be able to reach these dunes at all.

"You continue to level. I'll head back first. You brought a Return Scroll, right?"

"I did. It's okay, you can go first."

"Alright then, I'm leaving."

Nie Yan found an open space and began reading the Return Scroll. After a flash of white light, he returned to Calore.

"Did you find Backstab and Eviscerate?" Nie Yan headed towards the auction house, sending a message to Banishing Fox.

"Found them. Where are you now? I'll have someone deliver them."

"In front of the Calore Auction House."

"Okay, they'll be there in five minutes at most!"

Nie Yan stood in front of the Calore Auction House. Soon, a player from the Holy Roman Empire found him and requested a trade, placing the seven skill books on the trade window.

"This is what our guild leader asked me to give you."

"Give this thirty silver coins back to your guild leader," Nie Yan said, trading thirty silver coins to him.

"Okay, sure." After the Holy Roman Empire player took the money, he said goodbye and left.

Nie Yan looked at the skill books. Backstab and Eviscerate were both offensive skills with decent damage. He had too few offensive skills at the moment and needed to find some to enrich his arsenal. Then he looked at the remaining five skill books.

Savage Strength, Wild Power, Strength Amplification, Restless Power, and Warlock Power totaled five books. Savage Strength granted +6 Strength, Wild Power +5 Strength, Strength Amplification +5 Strength, Restless Power +5 Strength, and Warlock Power +6 Strength.

Even though passive skill books that granted less than +8 Strength were rare, they weren't expensive. Thieves didn't have a high demand for Strength, and the Strength bonuses from these skill books were too limited. However, with Nie Yan collecting them, the cumulative effect was different. After learning these five passive skill books, Nie Yan looked at his own Strength value, which had reached 110. He was still 20 points away from 130.

This was easy to solve. Nie Yan entered the auction house and sat down in a corner.

First, he gathered all the anti-petrification potions and equipment on the market, then opened the gem section of the auction house. Various gems were displayed before his eyes, a dazzling array of options. He searched for Strength gems and immediately hundreds or thousands of items appeared.

They were all Grade 1 Strength gems, each increasing Strength by only 3 points. It cost about 3 silver coins to have a gem artisan socket a Strength gem onto a piece of equipment. Under normal circumstances, players were reluctant to spend this money, because equipment became obsolete too quickly. They were afraid of wasting good equipment by socketing it with Strength gems, and they didn't think it was worth it to socket bad equipment. As a result, the players' demand for Strength gems greatly decreased, so the price of Strength gems was somewhat low, only 3 silver coins.

Nie Yan spent 24 silver coins to buy eight Strength gems, then ran to the gem artisan and socketed the Strength gems onto his gauntlets, pauldrons, leggings, and leather armor, two gems on each piece of equipment.

After spending nearly fifty silver coins, Nie Yan's Strength finally reached 130. After this series of Strength enhancements, his Strength had reached a height that ordinary Thieves of his level could hardly match.

He smoothly equipped the Sogoth Shadow Boots. This amazing piece of equipment greatly increased Nie Yan's stats, and combined with the Shadow Dance skill, his survivability was greatly enhanced.

He glanced at the boots on his feet. The streamlined design was accompanied by elegant and simple runes, emitting a dazzling but not ostentatious halo, adding a touch of mystery to this legendary item fragment.

Nie Yan hid the glow of the Sogoth Shadow Boots and moved around in them. Not bad.

Equipping such good equipment at Level 10 was unimaginable for ordinary players.

It would be awesome if he could wear a full set of legendary equipment someday, Nie Yan thought. However, legendary items were too rare and hard to come by. In his previous life, when Nie Yan was Level 120, the official *Conviction* website released data stating that there were over 50,000 pieces of legendary equipment scattered throughout the Atlantean Continent, with about 10,000 pieces in the Greenland Empire. However, less than twenty pieces had fallen into the hands of players. There were many fragments, but few people could collect them all. The so-called godly equipment circulating among players were only sub-legendary items or legendary item fragments.

Nie Yan walked towards the pharmacy in the eastern part of Calore. He wondered how things were at the pharmacy.

A few minutes later, Nie Yan arrived at the pharmacy. Occasionally, only one or two players came and went, all of them with relatively good equipment. They should be the ones sent by the major guilds.

"Hello," Incelas said, greeting Nie Yan quickly.

Nie Yan nodded in response and looked at the pharmacy's income. There were already 28 gold coins in the account. With the opening of the new dungeon, the attention of the major guilds would shift from Sothas Valley, and the popularity of Black Fenol Potions would gradually decline. He would sell as much as he could next, and sell all the goods as soon as possible.

"Yesterday and the day before, Mr. Low-Key Nan Nan, Mr. Still-Heartbroken... when they saw that you were preparing to hire alchemists, they all came to ask if you were here. But I couldn't contact you." Incelas recited a long list of names, as many as sixty or seventy people, all of whom had come to apply to be alchemists.

Although Nie Yan's pharmacy had just opened and only sold one kind of potion, the popularity of Black Fenol Potions shocked the players with the connections and financial resources of the owner of the Starry Night Pharmacy. So when they saw that Nie Yan was preparing to recruit alchemists, many alchemists came to join him.

Nie Yan was a little surprised that there were so many people. He looked at all the names and couldn't help but be moved.

Still-Heartbroken: Apprentice Alchemist.

Low-Key Nan Nan: Apprentice Alchemist.

...

He counted a total of sixty-seven people, twelve of whom were already Apprentice Alchemists. Among them were many familiar names from his previous life. Still-Heartbroken and Low-Key Nan Nan, eight years later, had assets of over 100 million. Although they weren't as famous as Bird Plume, they were also top-tier figures among alchemists. Now that the game had just started, they probably hadn't found an employer yet. As for the others, there were also many famous alchemists.

If he called these alchemists in for questioning, it would certainly reveal that he was the owner of the Starry Night Pharmacy. There were certainly people with ulterior motives among these alchemists. But if he continued to cower, he would definitely not be able to accomplish anything. Nie Yan thought for a moment and called Bird Plume over. Among the people around him, Bird Plume was trustworthy, and it should be no problem to hand the store over to him to manage. By pushing Bird Plume to the forefront, he could hide behind the scenes and direct the Starry Night Pharmacy.

Nie Yan removed some people with too poor of a reputation from the list, and then sent messages to the remaining people one by one, asking them to come to the Starry Night Pharmacy for an interview.

A total of ten Apprentice Alchemists and twenty-six Alchemist Apprentices received Nie Yan's message. Even if he could only hire half of them, it would be very good.

As for the more famous alchemists from his previous life, such as Low-Key Nan Nan and Still-Heartbroken, he had to recruit them at all costs!

Nie Yan thought for a moment. It would cost five gold coins to upgrade the pharmacy to Level 2. After the pharmacy was upgraded to Level 2, the pharmacy space would be expanded, and there would be a second floor, which was specially opened for alchemists to concoct potions. The alchemists could have their own exclusive laboratories, and they would not be allowed to carry potion items out of the building, which would be convenient for management, so as to prevent some alchemists from embezzling.

In this way, even if he hired some alchemists with poor character, he would not have to worry.

Nie Yan thought for a moment and made a decision. If he seized the time to develop the pharmacy now, then the pharmacy would become a golden goose, constantly earning money for him. Five gold coins was not much for him now.

System: Are you sure you want to upgrade the Starry Night Pharmacy to Level 2? This upgrade will cost 5 gold coins.

Yes!

The Starry Night Pharmacy became even more magnificent. The two-story building stood out in this area with only low-rise buildings. Even in the entire Calore, there was currently no Level 2 shop!

~~ Today is the new week, please recommend and ask for monthly tickets. If you rise by one, you will add more, but the monthly tickets have been overtaken by one. Wo Niu is depressed... Today is still 12,000 words, and the outbreak asks for monthly tickets and subscriptions!!!