Chapter 146 - Royal Winged Ant Poison; Petrification
It was no wonder that men feared going shopping with a woman. Even with Fatty's robust and stout body, he was beginning to get a backache after accompanying Liu Lan on a walk.
"You're pretty strong," Liu Lan was especially satisfied with Fatty's performance.
"Oh," Fatty responded weakly.
"Alright, let's go back and rest," said Liu Lan. She drove Fatty back to his home after they went out for dinner.
"Since you look so tired, I won't stay and bother you. Goodbye! Don't forget to find me when you're online," Liu Lan was full of smiles. After speaking to Fatty, she closed the car door and sped off.
"Lil' Ye, who was that young miss? Your girlfriend? Not bad, she looks beautiful and seems rich as well. Young lad, I never knew you were this capable," Fatty's neighbor auntie unpredictably popped out from nowhere as usual.
"Alright auntie, don't make fun of me," Fatty made a pained smile and entered his house.
"Ahh, women are horrifying," Fatty heaved a long sigh as he flung himself upon his bed.
Finally free! Put on the helmet. I must make haste and make it big. Uwaahhh, Lord Fatty wants his hidden class!
When Fatty returned to Black Tortoise City, the city had been restored to its usual bustling state. After the previous battle royale, the majority of players dropped levels while very few profited from it, which made sense. If everyone got to benefit, the game company might as well go bankrupt.
Alright, let's not waste any time. My sole objective is to get the other three skill books and my hidden class enhancement after.
Fatty entered the bank and sorted out the equipment he recently acquired. In his inventory alone, the most valuable item was the Basic Elemental Earth Wood Walk, followed by the divine remnant Spatial Spoon. Next were the various Violet and Gold equipment he had acquired such as the Dryad Plate and the Sacrificer's Staff. Of course, the two pet eggs of the Fire Cloud King and the Dark Sacrificer were extremely precious as well.
Fatty placed the items he didn't require in the bank. As for the Earth Wood Walk, he decided to carry it with him after some serious consideration. Since he still had the usable Dark Sacrificer Soul Spark, he wouldn't drop the Earth Wood Walk book if he died. Speaking of which, it was a shame that Fatty forgot to harvest the Phantom Messenger's Soul Spark. Otherwise, he would have gained another powerful addition to his arsenal.
As his eyes happened to fall upon the Piranha Flower Poison, Fatty finally remembered his secondary profession. Pitifully, Fatty never once practiced his Blacksmithing and Alchemy skills.
"I require a formula to refine this poison. The question is, where do I get that formula, though?" Fatty pulled up the virtual forum and started to search through it. In it, he found one detailed description of the mob that dropped the recipe and another thread which listed the formula that the author had figured out themselves.
"It's best to buy some poison first," Fatty nodded to himself. He stroked his chin in thought and finished organizing his items, leaving the bank for the Auction Hall. Auctions became available ever since the update when Purple Bell reached level 30, but this was the first time Fatty tried it himself.
Many people were coming to and from the Auction Hall. Various screens listed the quantity, price, and current highest bid of the auctioned items. There were even screens which listed requests to buy certain things. The players only needed to touch what they wanted, and all of its information would be enlarged and displayed on the screen.
"Three Foulmouth Plants, starting price is 1000 gold coins each, and there is no maximum bid. Five strands of Sun Grass, starting price is 18,000 gold coins each, it also has no maximum bid. The heck, 18,000? You can sell a real sun for that price. What's this? Buying news on hidden class enhancements and only requires verification to ensure that the information is true, I am willing to pay 30,000 gold coins. Thirty thousand gold coins for a hidden class? You really think that anyone is idiotic enough to get low-balled like that?"
Fatty rabmled as he walked around the Auction Hall, seeing all kinds of weird things, as well as inquiries for items. There was even a player looking to buy an Elven pet. Everyone could assess that the player posting the petition was a pervert.
"Oh, there's one over here!" Finally seeing a formula, Fatty instantly zoomed in on it but was immediately disappointed.
Bruteforce Pill: STR +10 for 10 minutes. Cooldown: 60 minutes.
Cannot be stacked with the same type of medicine.
Ingredients: Earthen Wheatgrass, Great Bear Blood, Dried Ivy Vine.
Bidding Price: 8000 gold coins.
While the increased strength wasn't bad, +10 STR was too low of a boost to be worth it. It would be another question entirely if the stacking limit didn't exist.
Fatty continued to search for a recipe, and just as his patience was about to run out, after flipping through several hundred pages, his eyes shone brightly as he found something worthwhile.
Royal Winged Ant Poison: Causes paralysis. Can be smeared on a weapon.
Paralyzed target will lose all ability to act for ten seconds, during which the paralysis will not wear off even if the target is attacked.
Ingredients: Royal Winged Ant Venom, Gold Essence Orb, Flowingmoon Tungtree Fluid.
Bidding Price: Starting at 18,000 gold coins. Bidding ends in: 10 minutes.
The starting bid was 18,000 gold coins and had risen to 30,000 by the time Fatty had found it. It was probable that many bidders were gunning for its ability that allowed the paralysis to remain even if the one paralyzed was attacked.
After a period of short consideration, Fatty placed a bid of 35,000 gold coins.
Soon enough, Fatty was outbid when someone offered 38,000 gold coins.
Fatty made no move after his first bid. The real competition only occurred during the last few seconds of the bidding.
Ten minutes, nine minutes… Time slowly ticked away until there were only 60 seconds left until the bidding ended.
Fatty entered a frighteningly high number of 50,000 gold coins that could rival the appraisal fee of the Spatial Spoon.
The whole hall seemed startled at this as the sound of discussion became a great deal softer. Many determined players had to shake their heads at this price. Fifty thousand gold coins were equal to over a million RMB. Only the very rich could afford all this just for a potion formula.
There were a few members of various guilds who were disheartened as well but gave up after careful deliberation. The Royal Winged Ant Poison finally went to Fatty for the price of fifty thousand gold coins.
Naturally, Fatty didn't have that many gold coins on him after having the Spatial Spoon appraised. Nevertheless, he had just sold the Guild Establishment Token for several tens of millions of RMB, so it didn't hurt to throw some of that into the game.
When exchanging two million RMB into gold coins, a 5% fee was applied. Star Fantasia was indeed killing people without any violence purely through this fee alone.
As soon as Fatty finished paying, the system notified him that the recipe was sent to his inventory. Fatty took a glance and chuckled when he saw it. Not wasting any more time, he quickly walked out of the Auction Hall.
"Fatty, where ya at?" Liu Lan's voice sluggishly rang out from his communicator as soon as Fatty exited the hall.
"Auction Hall Entrance. Why did you log in so late?" Fatty casually replied. He was wondering if he should collect the ingredients for the poison or obtain the other skill books first.
"With all that sweating after running around for a day, of course, I had to clean up first. Hurry to the bank; I have something good to show you," Liu Lan mysteriously smiled.
"What good thing can you possibly have…" Fatty muttered. He quickly arrived at the bank where he saw Liu Lan waiting with a valiant pose.
"Did the walk today make you happy?" Liu Lan asked instead of talking about the mysterious thing she had mentioned.
Obviously, Fatty couldn't say that he wasn't happy, so he "happily" rambled on about how extremely delighted and honored he was to accompany a great beauty like Miss Liu on a walk.
Liu Lan rolled her eyes at Fatty but was seemingly pleased by his shameless lying. She took out an earthy-yellow skill book, "Doesn't your pet have the Earth Attribute? I got this for you."
Fatty received the book and was instantly dumbstruck.
Petrification: Pet skill. Petrifies the opponent into a stone statue. The status wears off when the opponent is attacked. Duration: 60 seconds.
Cooldown: 600 seconds.
Can be learned by Earth-Attribute pets.
The skill duration was a staggering 60 seconds! Typically, a crowd control skill only remained for 10 to 20 seconds. For this skill to legitimately last for an entire minute, its value could even rival some high-rank skills.
"Where is this from?" Fatty asked as he scanned the book thoroughly before tossing it at Wheat. With a yellow glow, a new skill appeared in Wheat's skill bar.
"A member of my guild got this when they fought for the Guild Establishment Token," Liu Lan explained.
"Shouldn't everyone be scrambling to get this?" Fatty asked dubiously.
"Clearly. I originally wanted to give it to the player who contributed the most during the boss fight, but then I remembered your Wheat. Heehee. So I directly placed it in the guild's storage and exchanged my guild contribution points for it. How's that? I really treat you well, don't I?" Liu Lan said smugly.
"That's just plain jobbery. Be careful. Your guild members might revolt," Fatty jabbed and asked, "How much do you want for this skill book?"
"I said it's for you, so no need to pay," Liu Lan smiled charmingly. "Like it?"
"Of course," Fatty nodded honestly. "It's too valuable. I'm ashamed to have it for free."
"Heh, saying you're ashamed after you've already used it," Liu Lan kicked her leg on the floor. "Consider it payment for accompanying me on a walk."
"So I'm a sugar boy now?" Fatty was upset, but quickly followed up, "If I can get such good stuff from accompanying a pretty girl on a walk, I'm willing to do that every day."
"Heh, you aren't so against it now?" Liu Lan rolled her eyes at Fatty and asked, "Now that the Wind God Guild has the first Guild Establishment Token, who knows where the next one will be. It's so boring. What are you gonna do now?"
"Fight mobs," Fatty showed Liu Lan the Royal Winged Ant Poison formula. The latter's eyes gleamed with a strange light when she read it.
"Wow! The paralysis doesn't wear off even when attacked. You can end a big boss if you bring enough of this potion," Liu Lan was delighted.
"Hehe, it's just so-so. It won't do against a Celestial boss like Lei Ting, but it can help in killing a standard Gold boss with one person alone," Fatty bragged.
"Then what are ya waiting for? Hurry and gather the ingredients," Liu Lan quickly dragged Fatty.
"Do you know where the Royal Winged Ant is?" Fatty didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Of course… not," Liu Lan was completely nonchalant, "Be that as it may, I can search the forum. If that doesn't help, we can buy the info from the All-Knowing Sect, silly."