Chapter 24: Epic Equipment

From the tiny wooden barrel, only two glasses of a magnificent, amber-red wine were poured. One for Xiao Yang, and one for Redbeard.

Redbeard was impatient, yet his movements were incredibly cautious, resulting in a strangely awkward spectacle. Before the libation, the ritual had to be completed. Redbeard raised his oak mug high and bellowed:

"Drink this wine, may our friendship be as firm as the mountains!"
"Drink this wine, may our friendship be as firm as the mountains!"

As the final words left their lips, Redbeard couldn't wait a moment longer and downed his drink in one gulp. Instantly, his face flushed red—no, to be more precise, his entire body turned crimson. With a loud hiccup, a tongue of searing flame erupted from his mouth. Before he could utter another word, he slumped to the ground and went still.

He was out cold—instantly unconscious, sleeping as peacefully as an infant. This wine was truly formidable.

Xiao Yang opened his mouth, feeling a strange sense of anticipation. It might sound peculiar, but he was genuinely curious about the taste of wine brewed from the giant root of a Red Logan. He tipped the glass back, the liquid sliding down his throat. After a fleeting moment of heat, nothing else happened; the Pot of Greed had completely intercepted the essence of the Red Logan root.

The entire glass had been swallowed, and Xiao Yang hadn't even had the chance to savor the flavor. He felt a pang of regret, but that disappointment vanished instantly as a notification from the God’s Game popped up.

[Verification in progress. Pot of Greed is active. Stats significantly enhanced. Strength permanently increased by ten. Constant fire elemental resistance acquired, current tier: Minor. Racial verification in progress: Not of the Squamata order. Sub-dragon scales are shifting. Permanent trait acquired: Tough Skin.]

[Tough Skin: Increases base defense by five points; damage of one point or less can be negated.]

Redbeard was truly a fine mentor. His wine had not only saved Xiao Yang a fortune but had also granted him permanent fire resistance and the Tough Skin trait. Of course, such benefits didn't come for free; they were the reward for Xiao Yang's sincerity. Though he had lost the chance for an overnight windfall, he had gained a high-level, generous dwarven brother and a taste of Red Logan root wine, which could only be shared among friends.

Xiao Yang resolved to find some equally fine wine to share with Redbeard when he had the chance. The dwarf was snoring away, completely oblivious to the world in the Heavens Trading Zone. There was no need to worry about his safety; as a trading area maintained by the God’s Game, it offered ironclad security, despite the minor loopholes some might find. He didn't have to fear that Redbeard would be tampered with by other players while he slept.

Xiao Yang packed up his stall. He still had 300,000 spirit coins—240,000 from Redbeard and 60,000 from selling the zombie-meat boots and various other trinkets. He prepared to wander around, scout the area, and make preparations for the dungeon guardian raid. Before setting off, he sent a friend request to Redbeard.

...

Was 300,000 a lot? It was a vast sum—at least to the Xiao Yang of a week ago. But as he strolled through the Heavens Trading Zone, he had to admit that while the money looked substantial, it didn't go very far, or perhaps his standards had simply been raised too high.

Green-tier excellent equipment typically fluctuated between 10,000 and 100,000 spirit coins. For a novice player like Xiao Yang, who hadn't even reached level ten, a set of green gear would be more than enough, potentially lasting him until level fifteen. With a good build and a bit of frugality, some players even made green sets last until level twenty. If Xiao Yang were careful, his 300,000 coins would be enough to deck himself out in a full set of green equipment.

However, Xiao Yang’s attention was fixed entirely on blue or higher-tier gear. It seemed his time in hidden maps and his experience as a dungeon delver had spoiled him. With his current funds, acquiring a few decent pieces of blue equipment in this market wouldn't be easy.

Blue equipment ranged in price from 100,000 to an uncapped upper limit. This was because the gap between the worst and best blue gear was immense, and blue gear currently served as the backbone for most players. The low-end blue gear might be nothing more than a high-capacity water canteen, while the high-end pieces—like Redbeard's Lava Battle-Axe—remained firmly in the blue tier. If Xiao Yang were willing to put his Black Stone Prison set up for auction, it would undoubtedly fetch a sky-high price.

Equipment wasn't the only path to power. Many high-level players only possessed blue gear; they relied on classes, skills, techniques, followers, personal advancement, and the evolution of their abilities. Of course, the main reason was that better gear was simply impossible to obtain.

The tier above blue is Epic equipment. As the name suggests, such items are tied to an epic: either the item itself played a role in a grand legend, or the owner is a participant in one. Such items are acquired by surviving incomparable, massive campaigns and looting them from terrifying, indescribable Lord-class bosses, or by fully experiencing a sweeping, magnificent story that elevates one's gear in the process.

Elite monsters—special creatures born from the tangled powers of the God’s Game—could also drop Epic gear. However, these rare elites usually only appeared in planes newly infected by the God’s Game that were still in closed beta. In larger or grander campaigns, such elite monsters were nowhere to be found.

These stringent requirements meant that Epic equipment was almost never sold by players. It was the kind of item that money simply couldn't buy.