Chapter Twenty-Four: The Eastern Capital

To be honest, selling the cloak for ten thousand gold coins and half a million blue coins seemed rather cheap. This morning, even a green level ten cloak started at ten thousand gold in the auction house. The secretary paid fifty thousand gold coins for hers at a fixed price.

His blue silk cloak was much superior to the one the secretary wore; if he put it up for auction, it might fetch an even higher price. Yet Zhang Shan did not bargain with Windbell. First, the market was highly unstable. The secretary paid fifty thousand gold coins only because she was in urgent need; otherwise, she wouldn't have bought it for such a high price, and if auctioned slowly, it might only reach ten thousand or so, or even go unsold.

His silk cloak was a level fifteen piece of equipment. No one was in a hurry for it; the attributes were better, but it was harder to sell. So Windbell's offer was reasonable enough.

As soon as his return-to-town cooldown ended, Zhang Shan immediately began the casting process. At the entrance of the exchange, he traded the cloak to Windbell.

"I’ll transfer the blue coins when I log off in a bit."

"No problem. I’ll teleport to East Capital first and see if I find anything."

"Good luck."

After parting ways with Windbell, Zhang Shan teleported to the Transmission Hall in Dangyang City and selected East Capital as his destination.

Even though he'd known the teleportation fee beforehand, Zhang Shan still felt a pang of regret. The ten thousand gold coins he had just received were gone before he even had a chance to warm them in his palm, leaving him with only a dozen coins.

A flash of white light, and Zhang Shan was transported to East Capital, the residence of the Great Zhou Emperor.

System: Welcome to East Capital. As the first player to arrive, you are awarded +1 skill point.

System announcement: Player Sixpipe Bodhisattva is the first to reach East Capital, awarded +1 skill point.

Before he could even take in his surroundings, Zhang Shan was stunned by the system notification. Was there a skill point reward for being the first to reach the capital? And an official announcement, too? He was about to become famous.

As soon as the announcement appeared, the world channel exploded.

"Damn, the first to reach East Capital gets a skill point? If only I'd known, I would've gone! Lost a skill point, argh."

"Sixpipe really knows how to play—spends ten thousand gold coins for a sightseeing trip to East Capital."

"So what if it's sightseeing? If I'd known there was a skill point, plenty of people would pay for it."

"So here's the real question: Is there a skill point reward for the first to reach West Capital?"

"Not a chance. I’m already in West Capital and nothing happened. Whatever, I'll just wander around as a tourist."

"Such extravagance, truly impressive."

"Looks like we need to form a think tank and study the exploration mechanics of the new world carefully. Maybe there's more to discover and more rewards to earn."

"You guys are all rich—chatting here costs money. One gold coin is worth five blue coins, enough for my breakfast. Oh no, I lost tomorrow's breakfast money!"

Zhang Shan couldn't help but chuckle as he glanced at the world channel. The extra skill point was an unexpected gain. With this, he now had three skill points saved up. He hadn't leveled up Taming any further; he planned to hold onto his points for now, waiting in hopes of finding a powerful skill book later.

Stepping out of the Transmission Hall in East Capital, Zhang Shan carefully studied the city. To the north, a cluster of magnificent palaces rose in grand harmony, purple clouds swirling above.

That was surely the imperial palace, home to the emperor. He hadn’t seen Chu Kingdom’s palace yet, but here he was beholding the Great Zhou’s imperial residence. Its splendor was indescribable, far more awe-inspiring than any ancient palace shown in TV dramas.

Consulting the map, Zhang Shan located Master Lu. As a legendary craftsman, his location was easy to find—within the Great Zhou Workshop. East Capital was vast, and the workshop was far from the Transmission Hall, over on the eastern side. Fortunately, teleportation was available within the city. This feature of the new world saved players much footwork.

However, when Zhang Shan used teleportation, he found himself still in place.

What was happening?

He tried again—no movement. What was this? Was teleportation forbidden in the capital?

Checking the notification, he saw: Player level insufficient, cannot use teleportation in East Capital.

Damn, so teleportation had level restrictions? How was he supposed to manage this? The workshop was so far, it would take at least an hour to reach on foot.

Annoyed but resigned, Zhang Shan started running toward the Great Zhou Workshop. There was no point in arguing with the system. If it wanted him to run, he'd have to run; he couldn’t just go back—he’d have wasted his trip.

On East Capital’s broad avenues, NPCs of all kinds bustled in endless streams, carriages and horses everywhere, while Zhang Shan jogged through it all, occasionally passed by high-level NPCs in sedan chairs or on horseback.

Running was dull. How nice it would be to auto-play! But that was impossible.

Bored, he opened various chat channels as he ran. His guildmates were still leveling up, world channel saw the occasional big shot chatting, but the regional channel was dead silent—he was likely the only player in East Capital.

May as well browse the forums; that would make the time pass faster.

He entered the forums, flooded with countless paid and free posts, much richer in content than yesterday.

Many posts detailed monster maps, BOSS information, grinding strategies, profession skills, and more.

Zhang Shan opened a paid post introducing Hunter profession skills—ten copper coins, pocket change.

He was curious about Hunter skills. All he currently had were the novice skills Headshot and Taming; he hadn’t seen anything else.

He clicked in and—damn, it was a clickbait post, with only two or three skill descriptions. Did Hunters really have so few skills? Such a scam.

Taming, of course, Zhang Shan had himself. The poster noted that Taming skill books were rare, but finding the right monster to tame was even harder. Few players had succeeded, and most tamed pets were weak and useless.

The author specifically mentioned Sixpipe Bodhisattva from Dangyang City—Zhang Shan himself—saying his pet was not only adorably cute but had decent attributes. Many had seen him grinding monsters with his pet.

Ah, so now he was “someone else’s child” in the eyes of others—he felt a little happy about that.

Another skill was Frenzy, which increased attack speed. At level one, it boosted Hunter’s attack speed by ten percent; at level ten, by one hundred percent, lasting six seconds, with a five-minute cooldown.

A powerful burst skill, especially in PK. Instant double output—a hundred percent attack speed. Hunters already had faster attack intervals than other professions; using Frenzy made them even faster. If not stunned by control skills, in a damage contest with equal gear, who could match Hunters?

Despite only lasting six seconds with a five-minute cooldown, it was enough. Most PKs were decided in seconds—six seconds for the real man.

The last skill was surprisingly a passive. It seemed Hunters in the new world were designed with multiple passive skills, complementing his Passive King talent perfectly.

Eagle Eye: Increases vision, perception, and attack range. At level one, increases by two percent; at max, by twenty percent.

A super practical skill. Zhang Shan drooled over the description. It didn’t boost damage, health, or defense, but vision, perception, and range were crucial. Seeing farther and hitting farther, plus enhanced perception—no fear of ambush.

Spotting the enemy first gave you the choice to fight or flee—an excellent skill. However, the poster said this skill was extremely rare; only one skill book had appeared in the game, bought for a huge sum by some big shot, though the buyer wasn’t named.

Skills for other professions could be found in various posts. Magus Swordsmen, for example, didn’t seem very prominent yet, but someone had obtained the skill book Sword Dance, which attacked enemies all around—much stronger than Berserker’s Sweeping Strike.

Archers had Meteor Arrow, which stunned targets for five seconds, terrifyingly powerful, and could be cast from afar. Of course, it had a clear weakness: it couldn’t lock onto targets, so anyone seeing Meteor Arrow incoming had a chance to dodge—testing player skill and reflexes.

Rogues had three-second stun, which Zhang Shan had experienced, plus Swift Step—temporarily doubling movement speed—and Backstab, which increased damage from behind, with max level doubling the damage.

If any Rogue mastered these three skills, they'd be unstoppable—fast, high damage, and stun. But that was impossible; even with the skill books, there weren’t enough skill points to level them up, and without high skill levels, the boosts weren’t significant.

Guardian Warriors needed no introduction. The secretary from Windcloud Guild had Guardian Heart, now famous across the land after two system announcements. Fully leveled, it doubled health; just standing there, few would want to fight him—too tanky. Also, Shield Bash stunned for one second and forcibly drew aggro—a must for tanks.

Berserkers, a popular class, weren’t very impressive yet; only known skills were Charge and Sweeping Strike, with Charge shared with Guardian Warriors, not living up to the name. Presumably, stronger skill books hadn’t dropped yet—the game was only two days old.

Ice Mages had Freeze and Ice Star. Freeze stunned targets for three seconds; Ice Star was group slow, with max level reducing movement speed by fifty percent—very strong, especially in team PKs and useful in grinding. No offensive skills for Ice Mages had dropped yet.

Fire Mages had Flame Heart, a passive skill, boosting fire damage by fifty percent at level ten—insanely strong. With equal gear, this skill meant fifty percent more damage than others.

A terrifying passive skill, with no mana cost or cooldown. Passive boosts for Mages were the most frightening—some guessed Ice Mages would have similar skills, just not discovered yet.

Fire Mages also had Earthfire skill books, which, fully leveled, doubled damage—capable of one-shotting fragile targets, though mana consumption was high: two hundred at level one, two thousand at level ten, with a one-minute cooldown. A powerful output skill.

As for Taoists and Witch Doctors, not much to say. They had offensive skills, but nothing impressive yet. Windbell’s Lightning Summon was only equivalent to the Fire Mage’s novice skill.

These two classes mainly excelled at healing and resurrecting teammates. Especially resurrection—whoever learned it became invaluable.

Many players on the forums discussed how to obtain more skill points. Gaining one per level wasn’t nearly enough—a practical skill, especially for damage dealers, needed to be maxed. One skill required ten points; two skills, twenty. Reaching level twenty would take a long time, with leveling getting harder and harder.

Skill points could be obtained by first kills of orange or higher BOSSes. Aside from Windcloud Guild’s two orange BOSS kills, players in other cities had organized and succeeded, earning skill points, but the opportunity was rare—most players didn’t have the chance.

Some speculated that killing red BOSSes might grant skill points even if not first kill, but so far, no one had even seen a red BOSS.

The forums had many posts claiming to have found red BOSSes, but they were just clickbait—seeing large red dots on the map and guessing there might be a red BOSS. No one had actually seen one, as they were overwhelmed by hordes of minor monsters before getting close.

Another way to obtain skill points was triggering new mechanisms, like Zhang Shan being the first to enter East Capital, or Windcloud’s first to leave the novice village. These were even rarer, making skill points precious—one must use them wisely.