Chapter 36: Alchemy and Skills
Hang Yu: "What are the current resource reserves of the territory?"
Xiao Ba answered without hesitation: "Master currently has 1091 Abyssal Magic Crystals, 1225 units of Tier-One Material Essence, 462 units of Tier-One Material in stock, 2595 units of Tier-One Food in stock, 3400 Essence in reserve, and 16212 Abyssal Magic Stone Fragments."
Hang Yu stroked his chin and said: "Currently, the population of the territory is sparse, and players have ten times the drop rate, so materials and food are in surplus. The only thorny issue is still the Abyssal Magic Crystals."
Fortunately, there was an initial fund of 2000 Magic Crystals.
Otherwise, the early stages of territory construction would have been extremely difficult.
But 2000 Magic Crystals were merely a drop in the bucket for the development of a territory!
Hang Yu had already recruited 48 citizens and additionally hired 1 Forger, building a Forging Workshop at the total cost of 1410 Magic Crystals, leaving only 590 Magic Crystals.
Because he seized the Fate Stone of Hexi Village, he obtained 500 Magic Crystals from the Fate Treasure Chest, and the Hexi Village occupied zone would automatically produce 50 Magic Crystals every month, which meant earning 1-2 Magic Crystals per day, so the current balance was 1091.
Although this operation greatly alleviated the financial pressure of the territory, it still did not fundamentally change the deficit situation.
Ultimately, it was still because they were too poor.
He needed to make money!
There were usually two main ways for a Lord to obtain Abyssal Magic Crystals: first, by letting the territory’s citizens hunt Abyssal creatures; second, by seizing territories like Hexi Village and mastering the world's fate.
Although Hang Yu’s Calamity Army had a tenfold drop rate, given their current level and numbers, they still could not maintain the territory’s operation, so the best way to make money was to continue expanding and seizing more useful territories.
Hang Yu would personally step in when necessary.
The villagers of Hexi Village were familiar with the surrounding areas.
They could serve as guides and provide a lot of useful clues.
Hang Yu looked at the 1091 Abyssal Magic Crystals in his hand; he could not afford to be a miser and must spend them, since hoarding Magic Crystals earned no interest and generated no value. Only by turning them into population or buildings could they become effective.
In the early stage of a territory, apart from population-increasing buildings like Abyss Barracks, there were three types of buildings critically important to the territory, namely: Forging Workshop, Alchemy Workshop, and Skills Tower.
The Forging Workshop could provide equipment.
The Alchemy Workshop could provide consumables.
The Skills Tower was the place for the territory’s citizens to learn and improve their skills.
Since humans started with low levels and weak combat power, they particularly needed equipment, medicine, and skills to strengthen themselves. Now that Hang Yu had already built the Forging Workshop, he needed to quickly build the Alchemy Workshop and Skills Tower too.
He opened the Territory Construction menu.
He found the relevant information on the two buildings.
【Alchemy Workshop】: Construction cost: 400 Abyssal Magic Crystals + 500 Tier-One Material Essence!
【Skills Tower】: Construction cost: 200 Abyssal Magic Crystals + 400 Tier-One Material Essence!
That was not cheap at all!
If built simultaneously.
There would only be 491 Magic Crystals left.
Hang Yu hesitated briefly but decided to build them anyway.
Just like the Forging Workshop, the Alchemy Workshop would not become functional immediately after construction; it would need two to three days to recruit an Alchemist. The Skills Tower, being relatively cheaper, was not too much of an extra burden.
【Do you want to build "Alchemy Workshop"? Yes/No!】
"Yes!"
Hang Yu placed the Alchemy Workshop opposite the Forging Workshop, and with a large amount of Magic Crystals and Material Essence invested, the Alchemy Workshop was quickly summoned, and its related attributes were displayed.
【Alchemy Workshop】: Tier-One building, can be used to produce Tier-One potions, recruitment quota for Alchemists +2, current stationed Alchemists 0/2.
The recruitment task was handed over to assistant Xiao Ba.
He instructed it to select a cheap but reliable Alchemist from the job applicants.
Given the territory’s current financial situation, they could not afford high-level Alchemists, so it was best to recruit someone like Yan Ling—freshly graduated, with a clean background, steady personality, and trainable.
【Do you want to build "Skills Tower"? Yes/No!】
"Yes!"
Hang Yu placed the Skills Tower near the Lord’s Hall.
【Skills Tower】: Tier-One building, +5 Skill Learning Rooms, +5 Skill Training Rooms, +1 Skill Transmission Room.
A few seconds later.
The Skills Tower was built as well.
Hang Yu personally walked inside.
This simple stone tower had twelve rooms in total.
One slightly larger room was called the Transmission Room. It was a place for direct teaching, where Hang Yu could invite NPCs into the Transmission Room to teach their mastered combat skills to players.
Of course.
Not everyone could transmit skills.
One major prerequisite was that the skill must have been cultivated to the maximum level by the transmitter.
This was a very useful feature, meaning that players could learn desired skills directly from NPCs or even from each other without relying on any props.
In addition.
There were five Training Rooms.
And five Learning Rooms.
The former was a place for the territory’s citizens to train their skills and slowly raise the levels of existing skills. Hang Yu also allowed players themselves to use Essence to enhance and upgrade their skills.
The latter was for learning new skills. Each Learning Room had a Skill Stone Slot, and only by embedding a Skill Stone could the room function.
Both the Learning Rooms and the Transmission Room allowed players to acquire new skills.
Each had its own advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage of the Transmission Room was that no props were needed—only finding suitable parties was required. The disadvantage was low efficiency, allowing only one skill to be transmitted per day.
The advantage of the Learning Room was high efficiency and fast speed. The disadvantage was that a corresponding Skill Stone had to be embedded.
Hang Yu embedded the Skill Stones for "Qi Gathering Slash" and "Taiping Lightning Talisman" into two Learning Rooms' Skill Monuments, thus adding two new learnable skills to the territory.
【Qi Gathering Slash】: White quality skill, learning condition: Level Strength 18, initial learning requires 500 Essence.
【Taiping Lightning Talisman】: Green quality skill, learning condition: Spirit 30, initial learning requires 1000 Essence.
【Essence -500!】
【You have comprehended "Qi Gathering Slash"!】
【Essence -1000!】
【You have comprehended "Taiping Lightning Talisman"!】
Hang Yu immediately spent 1500 Essence to learn these two skills, as they were highly practical and could effectively enhance his strength.
Once a Skill Stone was embedded.
It could be used indefinitely.
Players could learn as long as they met the requirements.
Of course, Hang Yu made some modifications: in addition to consuming Essence, learning Qi Gathering Slash also required 400 Contribution Points, and learning Taiping Lightning Talisman required 800 Contribution Points.
In fact, compared to the value of these two skills.
This amount of Contribution Points was truly minor and negligible.
Hang Yu upheld the principle of "pluck a feather from a passing goose," but he did not exploit players to the extreme. As the saying went, sharpening a blade did not delay chopping firewood. He also hoped players could quickly enhance their strength, as only with greater power and higher levels could they create more value!
"Finally done!"
"Territory development has moved forward again!"
"Forging, Alchemy, Skills, all set!"
Hang Yu looked at the two newly emerged buildings in the territory with satisfaction. "Xiao Ba, how are the recent game reservation numbers?"
Regarding the feedback of Twisted Three Kingdoms on Blue Star.
This had always been of great concern to Hang Yu.
Because the better the feedback and the greater the sensation, the more players would make reservations, and the broader the talent pool and the better quality players the Lord would have to choose from.
Xiao Ba replied: "Reporting to Master, the reservation number for Twisted Three Kingdoms has exceeded 700,000!"
"What? It actually increased so much at once!"
Hang Yu immediately guessed that it must be because the details of the Hexi Village operation had been exposed by first test players.
Without hesitation, he logged onto the Starsea Forum to check out the latest updates from the players.