Chapter 157

The mystery of the elixirs that made Ming Hu so excited was this: elixirs.
Sigh
Setting down the elixir, Ming Hu looked inside once more. There were five types of elixirs inside: strength, agility, stamina, intellect, and wisdom.
“It’s a little expensive, but…”
You need 10,000 Merit Points to purchase elixirs here. However, purchasing elixirs at the Exchange requires 40,000 Merit Points. The difference was a whopping 2.5 times! Compared to the elixirs at the Exchange, the elixirs here were expensive.
“But… There’s no limit to what you can buy.”
Of course, Ming Hu preferred this place, which was 2.5 times more expensive, because unlike the exchange, which had a limit of 10 per day per type, there were no restrictions on purchases. Even though it was expensive, Ming Hu liked the fact that there was no limit on purchases. Ming Hu opened his character window.
Nationality : Helioca [Empire]
Age: 22 Occupation: Blood Knight/Strong Smith
Reputation: 676000 Achievements: 54442970
Levels: 256
Life: 3176050
Mana: 11420
Blood pressure: 1573
Strength : 157330 [15733(+7200)] Dexterity : 165 Constitution : 607(+500) Intelligence : 10 Wisdom : 311
Dexterity: 319
He looked at his stats and muttered to himself.
“Well. I suppose we should start with the meager stats?”
Other than Strength, the other stats were very poor. It’s not that they look poor because they’re stronger, it’s that they look poorer compared to strength, but even if they weren’t strong, the other stats were definitely poor.
“Well…”
Ming Hu trailed off and opened his inventory.
“You have to use what you have.”
In my inventory, I had a pile of elixirs for each of the stats I purchased from the exchange every day. He found this place and held back to consume them all at once. Ming Hu began to take the elixirs, remembering the long hours of patience he had endured.
[You have taken the Elixir of Strength, permanently increasing your Strength by 10].
.
.
[You have taken the Elixir of Wisdom, permanently increasing your Wisdom by 10].
After taking all the elixirs, Ming Hu opened his character window once again to check the information.
Nationality : Helioca [Empire]
Age: 22 Occupation: Blood Knight/Strong Smith
Reputation: 676000 Achievements: 54442970
Levels: 256
Life: 3431050
Mana: 51420
Blood pressure: 1663
Strength : 166330 [16633(+7200)] Dexterity : 1665 Stamina : 2107(+500)
Wits: 1010 Wisdom: 1311
Dexterity: 319
“It’s down.”
The Wisdom and Wisdom on the same line slid downward. Ming Hu muttered to himself as he looked at his stats.
“By the way… you look less anemic now.”
Before she started taking the supplements, her stats were very poor. But now that he had taken the elixir, he was not. Ming Hu turned his gaze away from the character window and looked at the elixirs.
“But it should be a net 2,000 or so, right?”
The stats were no longer meager, but their high power made them look relatively meager.
“34 Agility, 40 Strength, 99 Constitution, 69 Wisdom. Combined…”
After calculating the number of elixirs needed to make 2,000 stets and the amount of merit, Ming Hu exclaimed in disbelief.
“2.42 million? That’s all it costs?”
Ming Hu checked his Achievements. His current merit is 54.44 million. Even if you use 2.42 million merit points, you still have 5.02 million merit points.
“T-Then if I put all my remaining merit into power…”
Of course, he had to buy equipment for both pets, so he didn’t plan on investing all of it in power, but Ming Hu did the math just in case.
“520,000…”
Ming Hu checked his power stats in amazement, realizing that if he invested all of his remaining merit points in strength, he would end up with a power increase of 520,000.
His current strength stats are over 6,000 with 160,000 stats. He thought it was really high, but now that he’s seen his strength increase through imagination, Ming Hu realizes that his strength is not high at all.
Sigh
Ming Hu turned his gaze to the elixir.
“Let’s start with… Let’s start at two thousand.”
As planned, Ming Hu purchased and took the Elixirs of Agility, Stamina, Intellect, and Wisdom in order. He looked at the Elixir of Strength and muttered to himself.
“…How much do you want to buy?”
I was worried about how many supplements I should buy.
* * * * *
After leaving the warehouse, Ming Hu walked to the forge, opened the pet window, and looked apologetically at Prominus and Karot in the pet window.
“…I’m sorry.”
What does it mean to be sorry? After saying he was sorry, Ming Hu closed the pet window and opened the character window to check his achievements.
Nationality : Helioca [Empire]
Age: 22 Occupation: Blood Knight/Strong Smith
Reputation: 676000 Achievements: 2970
Levels: 256
Vitality: 13855050
Mana: 85020
Blood power: 6865
Strength : 686530 [68653(+7200)] Agility : 2005 Stamina : 2507(+500)
Wits: 2000 Wisdom: 2001
Dexterity: 319
He had less than 3,000 points left. Ming Hu lowered his gaze from Gong Gong Dao and checked his vitality and strength.
“…Hmph.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Ming Hu muttered to himself as he closed the character window.
“The equipment is… Buy next time.”
Ming Hu did not buy Prominence and Karot’s equipment. He considered it, but when he realized the power gains, he couldn’t bring himself to spend his merit points elsewhere.
Jumbled
Deciding that Prominence and Karot’s equipment would be bought next, Ming Hu headed to the forge.
“I’ve got about 800 left… I need to get at least eight million.”
There were only 800 elixirs of strength left. Ming Hu wanted to save up enough merit to purchase the remaining power elixirs.
“Oh, right.”
As Ming Hu walked to the forge, he opened the quest window on a whim and saw the quest he had received from Count Dremen.
“13 days to go.”
There were 13 days left to complete the quest. There was still plenty of time, and he planned to raise his Prominence there, but that wasn’t on Ming Hu’s mind at the moment.
“This is also a meritocracy reward, but they won’t give you much, will they?”
Currently, Ming Hu earns hundreds of thousands of Merit at a time from crafting quests. However, the Orc Extermination quest from Count Dremen doesn’t seem to give you as much merit as crafting quests, no matter how many orcs you kill.
“Let’s just get it done.”
Deciding to call it a day, Ming Hu stopped by the forge and received a quest from Nerfai before heading toward the warp gate.
“Ugh! Hello, Myung-hoo!”
Once at the Imperial Palace entrance to the Warp Gate, Ming Hu turned to see who had greeted him at the sound of a voice. It was Heimer who greeted him.
“Hello.”
Ming Hu gave a slight bow to Heimer and the group of user smiths clustered behind him as they walked off into the distance.
“Where are you going to get the ingredients?”
After greeting him, Ming Hu looked at the Soldier NPC walking beside Heimer and said, “I’m sorry. Heimer then smiled bitterly and said, “I’m sorry.
“Oh, no, that’s not it, we’re in a fight with a guild.”
“What? Shibi?”
I thought he was going to get ingredients, but that wasn’t it. Ming Hu was puzzled, but Leto quickly spoke up.
“Yes, the Twin Axe Guild.”
“…The Twin Axe Guild?”
Ming Hu frowned slightly at Leto’s words. Heimer looked at Leto as if to ask him what he was talking about, but Leto remained silent in the face of Heimer’s glare.
“I’m not sure, but I think they keep killing us because we’re blacksmiths, and if we go outside right now, they’ll be waiting for us… We’re not official blacksmiths, and we’ll die without soldiers, so we hired soldiers for protection.”
“Oh. I see.”
Ming Hu nodded at Leto’s words. He thought to himself.
“So… remember when that user named Ramus told you to be careful?
I remembered something Ramus, a user I had met in City of Ogres, had said. He remembered Ramus telling him that the Twin Axe Guild was plotting against him. Ming Hu looked at Heimer, Leto, and the user blacksmiths looking at him and said, “I’m sorry.
“That’s good, because I just happened to have something to see them about.”
“Yes?”
“Uh…?”
Heimer, Leto, and the User Blacksmiths were a bit taken aback when Ming Hu told them that there was business to attend to at the Twin Axe Guild.
“See…you need to see something?”
Leto was particularly puzzled, especially since he had told Ming Hu himself. Leto had only wanted Ming Hu to be aware of the situation and hadn’t expected to see him at all.
“There you go!
Given the relationship between Ming Hu and the Twin Axes Guild, this was never going to be a good thing. Leto thought it was a good thing.
“Sure, just dismiss the soldiers first. You’re on your way anyway, I’ll protect you.”
Ming Hu said.
“Ah…yes.”
Heimer quickly dismissed the soldier at Ming Hu’s words, and the soldier clinging to his side began to walk back the way he came. Ming Hu turned away from the disappearing soldier and looked at Heimer.
“Can you invite me to a party?”
“Yes!”
At Ming Hu’s words, Heimer quickly extended a party invitation, and Ming Hu was able to join the party.
“Wow… That’s some level.”
“256… I thought you only made stuff… Lancers.”
Upon joining the party, Ming Hu’s level was revealed, and the blacksmiths looked at his level as it appeared. Ming Hu smirked at the smiths’ reaction.
“You go ahead, I’ll go a little ways off.”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
At Ming Hu’s words, Heimer, Leto, and the others exited through the entrance with bright expressions on their faces. Ming Hu followed behind, glancing around.
“Is that them?
Sure enough, in the distance, a few harsh-looking figures wearing the guildmark of the Twin Axes Guild began to approach.
“Huh? Isn’t that the same asshole who was flirting with Ji-yeon?
Seeing the approaching Twin Axe Guild members, Ming Hu frowned as he stood at the front and watched the approaching user. It was obvious that the player approaching from the front was the one who had been nagging Jianye to join the guild at the Dorden Expansion Headquarters.
‘Good catch. You asshole.’
Ming Hu thought so, and waited for the Twin Axe Guild to attack the blacksmiths who had joined his party.
“What are you doing?
But they just kept following, not attacking. That’s when it happened. Heimer began to run faster, and the members of the Twin Axe Guild, who hadn’t attacked, but merely followed, threw their axes at Heimer, who was running behind them. It didn’t take long for the axe to strike Heimer in the back, and a message began to appear.
[Party member ‘Heimer’ was attacked by user ‘Bobobo’].
[Enter hostilities with the party of user ‘Bobobo’].
[Killing a hostile user in a preemptive strike does not increase your offender count].
[Reduces death penalty by 50% if killed by a preemptive strike].