MMO: Pierce Heaven Til’ It Breaks

Li Yi returned to Shattered Frost City’s Auction House and found that there was no Fire Resistance Potions left, they were all completely sold out.

“500 to offer for a set of Fire Resistance. I’ll take as many as you have!”

“501 to offer for a set of Fire Resistance. I’ll take as many as you have!”

“Brother, don’t raise the price. Any higher and I’ll burst into tears.”

“If you and I don’t raise it, will the price drop?”

“Sigh.”

The Fire Resistance Potion was now the hottest selling item in the Auction House. Large-sized guilds were able to purchase in bulk with abundant funds but those players without guilds would not be able to afford these Fire Resistance Potions and their velocity in leveling up drastically dropped. The gap between having and not having potions was becoming wider.

Li Yi easily made forty thousand Gold Coins. Deducting the tax from the Auction House and capital, Li Yi made a net profit of eighteen thousand.

This time, Li Yi priced it at 800 per set and displayed 100 sets of Fire Resistance Potions.

He was now left with 70 sets but he was not prepared to sell the remainder. He needed to avail himself for leveling. 70 sets should be enough for him.

Li Yi mailed the 4 set of equipment dropped by Hua Feiwu to Holy Pure Eh. These equipment sets were supposed to be his.

Clearing a 50-persons Instance Dungeon, Li Yi went up another level. He was now at Level 19 with his EXP at 70%. He was almost reaching Level 20.

Li Yi browsed through the Auction House, seeking a Level 20 Skill Tome for Archers.

Once Archers reached Level 20, they could learn three types of great skills, which were Mislead, Silent Shot, and Pet Enhancement.

Muting Shot was a disrupting skill. It could mute the target, disabling spells of any kind for three seconds with a cooldown period of 20 seconds. This skill could be very powerful at certain moments. It was one of the required skills for a three-path Archer.

Mislead could also be powerful. By marking one target and attacking another monster, the monster would mistakenly think that the target was attacking it. Hence, it would go after the target. This tactic was also a signature skill of an Archer, an ultimate skill of diverting aggro.

Pet Enhancement was not too shabby neither. Pets would receive +10 on all attributes at each level up. This was one of the required skill of Beast King Path Archers.

All three skills were great but from Li Yi’s perspective, he was at a loss.

The way he spent his Skill Points was quite a mishmash, dabbling with all paths. He learned the skills of every path but was not that proficient with any one of the skills of these paths.

With the method he was adding up his points, if there were not large amounts of Skill Points for him to expend at a later time, then it would be the dumps.

Taking Repelling Arrow Skill from the Shooting Path as an example, this tactic used to beat off the target, increasing the distance between the Archer and target. It was also a CC skill ¹ but to learn Repelling Arrow Skill, the prerequisite was to add Aligned Arrow to Level 5. In other words, it was a must to spend 6 Skill Points to learn it to Level 1.

It was similar for Pet Enhancement. Without adding Pet Mastery to Level 5, one would not be able to learn this. The same would apply for other Path skills as each skill was linked to another skill. If skills points were not spent on a path, then one would not be able to learn any subsequent skill of respective paths.

In order to learn Repelling Arrow Skill, Li Yi had added Aligned Arrow Skill to Level 5. Now all that was missing were his level and a Repelling Arrow Skill Skill Tome (Level 21 Skill).

Out of the Level 20 skills, only Mislead did not have a prerequisite skill but it also did not have subsequent skills. It could be learned up to one level but the remaining two type of skills has prerequisites.

With Li Yi’s current Skill Points and mastering Mislead, he has to learn another.

The condition of learning Muting Shot was a Level 5 Freezing Trap.

Whether to first learn Pet Enhancement or Muting Shot, even Li Yi, a seasoned player found himself in a bind.

The two types were useful. Muting Shot could disrupt a target from casting a skill. He could clear Summoner, Scasa after learning this. Pet Enhancement came in handy too for better control of monsters with the addition of pet’s attributes.

To sum it up, his Skill Points were not enough.

Li Yi was stumped for a long time but came to the conclusion to buy all three Skill Tomes. He has yet to achieve Level 20. He would think about it once he gets there.

Amongst the three Skill Tomes, Pet Enhancement was the cheapest at only 200 Gold Coins. Muting Shot was bought at 1000 Gold Coins while Mislead at 1500 Gold Coins.

It was fortunate that many did not understand the value of Skill Tomes. Even though King of Pantheon was running for eight years, the price of Skill Tomes of any genre kept hiking up, especially Elementary-level Skill Tomes which valued at ten thousand Gold Coins.

There was no such thing as vendor trash in King of Pantheon so if one did not know the value of an item, it was best not to rush into selling it or regret would ensue.

These words were a hint given by the System to players when registering into the game.

Li Yi was currently experiencing this. He was familiar with the prices of almost every item so when he saw a bargain at the Auction House, he would not miss it.

Each time Li Yi entered the Auction House, he would emerge with a massive shopping haul. It could not be helped. Anyone who knew such items that will cost ten thousand at a later date was sold for mere hundreds would go crazy as him…

“How odd, even Refined Soul Stone, a trash that no one wants can run out of supply.”

“Yeah, even Sky Blue Stone, Windstorm Stone, Prismatic-Colored Stone, these stones that women used as ornaments were bought off.”

“There’s really a lot of rich fellas.”

“There’s really a lot of rich fools.”

“Just too many…”

Now Li Yi who was a person who really knew the ropes. In the eyes of these players who similarly knew the ins and outs, he was a fool. What these proficient players did not know was that it would not be long when they would be popping their eyes out from buying back these trash items that they once placed insignificant value upon.

Li Yi used the ten thousand Gold Coins that was left over for the shopping spree.

Inventory No. 1 was full so he spent 200 Gold Coins to purchase Inventory No. 2 and it was full. He then spent 500 Gold Coins to buy Inventory No. 3 and 1000 Gold Coins to buy No. 4…

Li Yi filled up ten inventories with those cheap bargains yet the space was still insufficient…

“Looks like I’ll need to buy a big place.”

Li Yi helplessly shook his head and reluctantly left the Auction House.

If he was not interested in leveling up, he could just spend the day at the Auction House and become super rich in King of Pantheon.

Li Yi cleared a few daily quests. It would be just a little bit more of Reputation Value to reach Recognition.

If he were to achieve the first kill in the Party-level Instance Dungeon, then he would be able to buy a mount now. Such a shame, it was so close and yet so far.

‘Platinum Hand, I’m becoming more and more curious about you.’

Just a tad more and he would achieve Recognition. Li Yi did not feel like just logging off now. He gave it a thought before deciding to seek the Quartermaster of Shattered Frost City.

“Are you really donating 5000 Gold Coins to erect city walls?” Quartermaster was pleasantly surprised.

“Yes,” Li Yi earnestly nodded.

Donating money to fix the city walls could bring up Reputation Value of major cities by 1000 points. Any players could run this quest once a day but each time, the expenses would double.

[Congratulations, your Reputation Value has achieved Recognition in Shattered Frosty City.]

He finally received Recognition in Shattered Frosty City after spending 5000 Gold Coins.

“Hero, is there any way I could be of assistance?” Quartermaster looked at Li Yi with respect.

“I wish to buy a horse…”

The Quartermaster of human major cities only sold horse mounts. Li Yi was not left with many choices.

“Please select.”

Quartermaster took out a herd of horses’ heads for Li Yi’s selection.

Reputation mounts were not expensive at only 20 Gold Coins. The supposed selection referred to the choice of colors.

“White horse.”

It has to be white. He was never a Prince Charming on a white horse in real life, now he could play it to his heart’s content in the game.

[Congratulations, you have obtained a horse. Beginner-level Horsemanship automatically learned.]

Li Yi hit the button with one hand and puff, with a blow of white smoke, a white warhorse appeared beside him.

Riding the white horse with a gallop, countless private message flooded in, to the point Li Yi was drowning in them as a result from his eye-catching display.

“Brother… How did you get your mount? Could you tell me, please?”

“Dear brother, where did you buy your mount? Could you let me know?”

“Are you selling your mount? I offer 20 thousand Gold!”

“100 Gold for the horse-buying quest!”

…

His inability to keep up with the replies had Li Yi between laughter and tears. He really had forgotten that it was currently the newbie’s era. Even the appearance of a warhorse, the most common mount would drive anyone crazy.

Li Yi had only ridden a semi-round in Shattered Frost City when he dismissed his warhorse. He still had matters to attend to. He could just ignore PMs but his line was crossed once many of the players started chasing after him on foot.

“I rode a quest horse earlier. The horse will disappear once the quest is completed. If you wish to ride one then head south of the city and look for Groom Zhang for the quest.”

Li Yi had to belabor the point in order to dismiss this group of insistent people.

Li Yi escaped to the Castellan’s residence and arrived at a soldier recruitment center.

King of Pantheon was not just a plain killing game. The degree of freedom in this game was relatively huge. One could choose to be a merchant or even a chef. Everything was possible in King of Pantheon.

Li Yi’s current choice was to be a soldier of Shattered Frost City, in preparation for a future official position.

In order to become a soldier, it was required to fulfill one requirement which was a major city Recognition.

“Pledge your life to defend Shattered Frost City!”

After an impassioned oath, Li Yi has an additional title of City-Defending Soldier on top of his head.

He finally sorted it out…

“Recently, a gang of brigands often mugged passing cargos just out of Shattered Frost City. As a member of Shattered Frost City’s army, the quest of vanquishing brigands falls on you.”

Recruitment Officer assigned a quest to Li Yi.

Li Yi rejected.

As a soldier, one could receive daily quests but Li Yi was tired out from clearing a dungeon. Therefore, he was in a rush to take a break.

Li Yi chose to log off.

Logging out countdown, 10, 9, 8…

Once the offline countdown reached 5, Li Yi received a PM from a friend. It was from Fire Ice.

“I’ve been ambushed… Please save me.”