Training his Trade Skill was quite boring. It took approximately three or four Goblin Mining Helmets to gain one EXP point. Three hours later, he had only increased his Advanced Trade Skill by six levels.
Now that he had reached level 180, the Goblin Mining Helmet didn't reward him with any EXP, so he needed a more advanced blueprint.
Lu Li threw more than twenty of the finished helmets into the warehouse, marking them to be one point each. He was basically giving them away for free.
These Goblin Mining Helmets weren't that precious, but they could be sold for a dozen gold coins.
There were many higher-level blueprints in the Guild's Warehouse, which gave Lu Li a decent selection to choose from. It didn't matter whether the item itself was good or not, as long as he had the materials required for it.
However, in the end, he was disappointed.
Engineering was one of the hardest Trade Skills, partially because it was very dangerous - you were constantly at risk of harming yourself. Another reason was of the expensive material requirements. To create the Goblin Mining Helmet, he needed to smelt ore and sew leather, which were Casting skills and Tailoring skills respectively. What was worse was that he needed to learn all these different things as a Thief, whereas a Mage would be better-suited for this…
The last reason was because of the blueprints and materials.
Ruling Sword had more than 400 Casting formulas and more than 700 Tailoring blueprints. In comparison, there were only 33 Engineering blueprints.
Moreover, among these 33 blueprints, 80% of them weren't suitable given Lu Li's current Engineering level and he didn't have the required materials for the remaining 20%.
The materials used for Engineering were relatively complex and were often the products of Mining or Herbalism.
For example, Lu Li needed a piece of red Malachite for this rifle. However, the rifle was a terrible weapon. If someone had a Malachite, they could sell it for quite a high price. Why would they waste it on crafting the rifle?
The only blueprint that was suitable required Lu Li to be level 190. This meant that he had to increase his Trade Skill by another 10 points.
The Goblin Mining Helmets were now useless in completing this task.
After thinking for a moment, he dismissed the idea of going to the Exchange Hall. He could already imagine how poor the blueprints there would be. It was better to ask Shen Wansan for some help in this matter.
"Engineering Blueprints… Are you planning to upgrade your Engineering Skills?" Shen Wansan asked in some surprise.
"Yeah, but there aren't any blueprints. Let me know if there are any at a good price."
The gold coins that Lu Li had in his backpack had almost all been spent upgrading the Workshop and the Warehouses. However, he and Shen Wansan were old friends, so he could just borrow the money for now.
"It's not about the money. Why did you learn Engineering? That's the worst Trade Skill," Shen Wansan said bitterly.
"Old Shen, do you think that the game would design a completely useless Trade Skill? Especially if the Trade Skill is so difficult to train?" Lu Li asked back.
"Well, for now, the projected income is by far the lowest," Shen Wansan responded. Although he couldn't refute him, he maintained his point of view.
"In a few months, you won't be saying this anymore Old Shen. You should just give me any blueprints you have, since you won't be using them anyway," Lu Li said, not intending to explain further. He couldn't tell people why he knew so much about Engineering's future.
By the time everyone was aware of the importance of Engineering, he would probably be an Engineering Master.
Lu Li didn't need to study Alchemy because he had numerous Alchemists under him like Sesame Rice Ball. He also wasn't in a hurry to learn Forging as he had the Casting Hammer which gave him a high success rate.
Lu Li valued Engineering the most because there would be many Engineering items in the future that couldn't be traded. You would have to make those for yourself.
"I have seven engineering blueprints here. Let me know if they're of any use. Otherwise, I'll throw them away."
Shen Wansan had a good relationship with Lu Li, but he wasn't arrogant enough to tell Lu Li how to live his life. After giving his two cents, he moved on.
Lu Li looked at the blueprints that had been sent to him and chose two of them.
Gnomish Cloaking Device - this gave the user a short-term Stealth ability which lasted for 30 seconds and had a cooldown of 60 minutes. It could only be used in non-combat situations.
This was quite useful, but 30 seconds was too short and it couldn't be used in battle.
However, many players were already using this item as it had the potential of saving them in certain situations. The most important thing was that this blueprint required an Engineering level of 180, which was exactly what Lu Li needed.
The only drawback was that the main material required was Mithril.
Of all the ores currently available to the players, Mithril was the most precious. It was likely that making use of this blueprint would cost many coins.
The other blueprint was for a Self-Destructing Sheep.
The Self-Destructing Sheep was more practical than the Gnomish Cloaking Device as it served the same purpose as Ivy's Bomb. The player could direct the mechanical sheep into a group of monsters and detonate it. However, it was more expensive than Ivy's Bomb and only tycoons had the luxury of using it.
The Self-Destructing Sheep required an engineering of level 190, which placed it just ahead of the Gnomish Cloaking Device.
The other blueprints were either lower than level 180 or had materials that were very difficult to acquire. Lu Li eventually gave up and stuck with these two.
The main materials required to make the Gnomish Cloaking Device were Mithril and Emerald. The secondary materials were Moonstone, Topaz and a fuse.
The production process was divided into two parts. The first step combined 'Mithril' and Moonstone to make a 'Winding Sychronous Gyroscope'. More materials were then added to make the Gnomish Cloaking Device.
Lu Li divided a Mithril ingot into one large and four smaller portions, then took the large portion and smelted it.
The smelting process didn't turn it into a liquid, but softened the surface so he could engrave the markings he needed for the main body of the Gnomish Cloaking Device. This step was the key to success and would take the longest time.
Lu Li engraved the engineering markings and followed a similar process for the other small parts.
After the pieces had been processed, the next step was to assemble them.
It was necessary to combine the five parts with certain runes that locked together correctly. If there was an error in the locking process, there was a possibility that the creation of the Gnomish Cloaking Device might fail.