Chapter 353: Ways to Make Money, Market Price Fluctuations (5900)

Cao Xing nodded slightly. "I understand. Since breaking through to Master is difficult, there's no need to force it. Just continue working at your current pace."

Then, he looked behind him.

"These two little guys are called Sarle and Boudi. From now on, they will be here to assist you."

Harold and Putana exchanged a glance; they had naturally noticed the two little ones Cao Xing brought.

As for their Lord's request, it was impossible for them to refuse.

The dwarven blacksmith laughed. "Little ones, the forging trade is very tough. Can you hold on?"

"Not only must you endure the scorching heat of the forging furnace every day, but you must also swing heavy hammers repeatedly until your arms are sore and numb, without stopping."

"Besides that, you cannot rest after work ends. You must also study knowledge from various books and learn to distinguish the characteristics and quality of materials."

"Different ores have different hardness, toughness, and magical properties. Only by accurately identifying them can you choose the most suitable materials during forging to create the finest equipment."

Hearing this, the two young boys looked at each other, then nodded solemnly. "My Lord, we are not afraid of hardship. We will definitely be able to persist!"

They knew this was the most important opportunity in their lives to change their destiny!

Even if they had to work themselves to death in the smithy, they would persist!

Harold did not speak, but looked at the two children.

And Sarle and Boudi, after the initial shock and confusion, now met his gaze.

From their firm eyes, Harold seemed to see himself when he was young.

The same burning desire, the same persistence.

He nodded and said, "Good, then I will accept you."

"From today on, I am your Master."

"Remember, my name is Harold Iceberg."

Upon hearing this, surprise appeared on the faces of the two young boys!

Then, they knelt down simultaneously and bowed to Harold.

This time, Cao Xing did not stop them.

Because in their belief, becoming an apprentice meant completely following the master.

This was equivalent to a master-disciple ceremony.

After the ceremony, they were officially considered blacksmith apprentices.

Of course, this was their status within the territory.

To have their panels change, they still needed to master the [Basic Forging Mastery] skill.

However, with the [Artisan's Insight] talent of these two guys, which speeds up learning by 30%, starting out shouldn't be difficult.

After the ceremony.

Harold also nodded slightly. "Alright, come to my side."

Sarle and Boudi immediately scrambled up from the ground and stood respectfully behind Harold and Putana.

The dwarven blacksmith then looked at Cao Xing and said solemnly.

"My Lord, please give us new tasks. Should we continue to craft Nightmare Arrows, or forge equipment!"

Having just become an expert-level blacksmith, he was already eager to show his skills.

Cao Xing smiled and shook his head. "The Nightmare Arrows can stop production for now."

"I've obtained a batch of new materials this time. Take a look at the quality first."

After saying that, he took out all the saber-toothed tiger bones, their saber teeth, and the pelt of the leader-level saber-toothed tiger.

In an instant, the ground was piled high with snow-white tiger bones!

These tiger bones, including the few pairs of saber teeth nearby, radiated an extremely fierce aura!

The two blacksmith apprentices nearby felt waves of powerful blood energy rushing towards them, and their already pale faces turned even whiter, like paper!

And when the couple saw the bones and saber teeth on the ground, their pupils shrank suddenly.

They could both tell that the quality of these materials was extremely high!

Especially Harold.

His gaze was fixed tightly on the pair of huge saber teeth that were thirty or forty centimeters long on the ground!

"What amazing saber teeth. I can even feel a stinging power from them."

"The former owner of these saber teeth must have been extremely powerful!"

Cao Xing exclaimed, "You are right. This was a Tier 6 Leader-level saber-toothed tiger. The saber teeth contain a destructive power."

A look of realization appeared in Harold's eyes. "So that's how it is. To be able to obtain such precious materials, you are truly worthy of being our Lord!"

After speaking, he impatiently crouched down and began to examine the various materials from the saber-toothed tiger!

There were 10 saber teeth in total, 8 of which were Purple grade, and two were Golden grade.

But because of the special nature of the materials, these saber teeth contained the most powerful strength of the saber-toothed tiger.

After being forged into equipment, there was a probability of enhancing its quality.

In other words, Purple saber teeth had a chance to be forged into Golden equipment.

Golden quality saber teeth had a chance to be forged into Orange Epic weapons.

After checking, Harold exclaimed, "Not bad, these are all tiger bones of extremely high quality."

"If these tiger bones were forged into light armor, the defense would be extremely high!"

"With so many tiger bones, we can craft about thirty sets of Purple light armor."

"And that pile of Leader-level tiger bones can also craft five sets of Golden quality light armor."

Hearing this number, Cao Xing was stunned.

Isn't this tailor-made for his Dragon Blood Warrior legion?

Thirty sets of Purple light armor for the Dragon Blood Warriors below.

Five sets of Golden light armor can be given to Commander Bo Jie and the four Leader-level Dragon Blood Warriors.

In this way, the Dragon Blood Warriors, who are good at destruction and combat, can also have their defense greatly enhanced after wearing this light armor!

It can be said that another shortcoming of this troop type has been filled.

Thinking of this, a smile curled on the corner of his mouth.

Below, Harold was also excitedly examining the pile of materials, constantly making sounds of admiration.

He picked up a pair of saber teeth and asked excitedly, "My Lord, what do you think would be best to make with these saber teeth?"

"My current idea is to make them into daggers or spearheads; the effects would both be very good."

Cao Xing replied, "Let's use them all to forge spearheads."

It just so happened that he had many spearmen in his territory; those Dragon Blood Warriors and Centaur Spear-Shield Cavalry could all use them.

As for daggers, there was no shortage, after all, Sarah was currently using Epic-level daggers.

Cao Xing thought for a moment and continued, "Then, try to see if you can forge a pair of gauntlets with that Leader-level tiger pelt."

Harold took a look and replied directly, "No problem."

"However, this Leader-level tiger pelt is very large. I will only take the toughest parts, so it shouldn't take much."

Cao Xing nodded. "That's fine. You can have Putana send the rest to the Tailor Shop."

"Besides that, I have a blueprint here…"

After speaking, he took out the [Barbarian Round Shield Crafting Blueprint (Purple)] from his backpack and handed it over.

After Harold took it and examined it carefully, he replied, "The production process for this blueprint is quite simple. With sufficient materials, we can craft about twenty a day."

Hearing this number, the smile on Cao Xing's face grew even wider.

He instructed, "Not bad, then you can finish using the previous saber-toothed tiger materials first, and then start crafting these round shields."

"Oh right, craft them all for around Level 40."

"Understood!"

Harold was still in a state of excitement.

"By the way, My Lord, the arrows and net launcher devices crafted over the past few days are already in the storage box. You can go and take them yourself."

"We are ready to hurry up and get to work now!"

This dwarf had 100% enthusiasm for forging and books.

Cao Xing replied, "Good, you may begin."

Upon hearing this, Harold immediately took his wife and the two newly accepted blacksmith apprentices to start working.

The dwarven blacksmith looked at the two little ones and said, "You two go and collect those tiger bones first. Oh right, don't touch those saber teeth."

"Even though the owners of these saber teeth are dead, the residual ferocity is not something you can withstand."

Sarle and Boudi nodded solemnly and then quickly began to collect the tiger bones on the ground.

Cao Xing also turned and went to the smithy's storage box, taking out everything Harold had crafted over the past two days.

[Obtained: Nightmare Net Launcher (Purple) * 8]

[Obtained: Refined Nightmare Arrows (Green) * 5717]

[Obtained: Refined Nightmare Arrows (Blue) * 1123]

[Obtained: Refined Nightmare Arrows (Purple) * 492]

…

"Not bad, not bad. Over seven thousand arrows will definitely be able to trade for quite a few resources!"

"However, this should be the last transaction for Nightmare Arrows."

"Now that everyone's levels have improved, the bleeding effect of the arrows is not as powerful as before, so the price will decrease accordingly."

Cao Xing had prepared tens of thousands of spikes last time, but due to limited production capacity in the territory, a total of over ten thousand arrows had been crafted so far.

But that was enough; after all, these ten thousand-plus arrows had already brought him a massive amount of resources.

Since the current trading market was basically Survivors trading freely.

In such a chaotic and huge market, prices would certainly not remain constant.

Just like when they first entered this world, the most precious resources were food and cold-weather clothing.

At that time, a little bit of food could even be exchanged for precious skill books, or even Mithril, and weapons and equipment.

Now that everyone's territories had entered the development stage, many buildings and crafting items required precious materials like Mithril.

Therefore, the price of Mithril had risen accordingly.

This included Cao Xing's Life Potions as well.

Tier 2 Survivors generally had between 2000 ~ 3000 HP, and one bottle of potion could fill it up directly; you could say the effect was monstrous!

But now that most people had broken through to Tier 3, with HP between 5000 ~ 10000, the effect of Intermediate Life Potions was not as obvious.

Therefore, the price of Nightmare Arrows would also decrease accordingly.

But Cao Xing was not worried.

Without Nightmare Arrows, he still had new ways to make money, such as [Advanced Life Potion], or the meat of those powerful wild beasts.

With these things, he could pull out any one of them and continue to cause a frenzy in the market!

Cao Xing exclaimed, "This is the advantage of being ahead!"

"Things that don't provide much improvement for me are priceless, god-level items for ordinary Survivors, and they are willing to spend high prices to buy them!"

"Then, I use the resources obtained from these items to develop more rapidly. Thus achieving a virtuous cycle!"

Thinking of this, his mood improved even more.

Then, he looked at the attributes of the Nightmare Net.

[Nightmare Net Launcher (Purple)]

[Equipment Type: Special Equipment]

[Equipment Effect: Press the switch to launch a 7m * 7m large net, trapping enemies within a certain range.]

[Attached Special Effect: Nightmare Entanglement (Creatures trapped by the net will have their skin slashed by the sharp barbs on the net, which pierce deep into their flesh, causing Nightmare Toxin damage every second; the more they struggle, the deeper they will sink.)]

…

"Good stuff!"

Cao Xing exclaimed in admiration!

Satisfied, he put it into his backpack and then left the Blacksmith Shop.

"Clang!"

After the door to the Blacksmith Shop was closed, Cao Xing stood on the spacious street in the fourth ring area of the territory.

Compared to the nearly 30-degree temperature inside.

The temperature in the territory was -7℃; with a temperature difference of nearly 40 degrees, it made one shiver instantly.

Cao Xing's mind cooled down slightly, and then he thought: "Next, I need to go to the Tailor Shop."

"I still have many tiger skins, horse hides, and hundreds of sets of damaged clothing harvested from the Wangjiang Pavilion Legion in my backpack, all of which need to be processed by Yanni and the others."

"Then, I'll go to the Alchemy Workshop to check on Sabina and Francesca's progress."

For the past few days, Francesca had accompanied him to Lake Doron City, so the production of [Holy Water] had stopped.

The scale of the undead in that ancient underground battlefield was massive and their strength formidable; one had to be on guard!

So it was time to restart it now.

After doing all this, Cao Xing still needed to go to the [Tavern] to activate the recruitment function.

Afterwards, he would go to the Lords Manor to activate the [Shining Star] effect of the [Shining Throne (Orange)].

This special effect was said to be able to locate some precious resource points; it just so happened that he needed some large mining sites for extraction.

Then he would send people to investigate that Goblin camp to eliminate any hidden dangers.

And see if there was time to go to Merlind City; the shop that Yaskin spent 150,000 to acquire hadn't had the contract signed yet, and it had been dragging on for a few days.

It could be said that Cao Xing still had many things to do next.

Of course, he wasn't in a rush.

If it couldn't be finished today, doing it tomorrow would be the same.

Cao Xing had always been quite laid-back.

After all, his development progress was already far ahead of everyone else.

While thinking, he arrived in front of the [Tailor Shop].

Compared to a few days ago, the Tailor Shop had undergone a major transformation.

Because it had been upgraded to a high level, the entire building now covered an area of over 300 square meters and was nearly ten meters high.

Cao Xing pushed open the door directly.

"Creak!"

Before his eyes, a spacious space immediately appeared, filled with many workbenches, looking like a sewing workshop.

However, in such a large Tailor Shop, only two machines were running.

"Creak! Creak!"

The two young women extended their plump, long legs to operate the machines, working diligently.

Today, Xia Yanni and Elena had changed into form-fitting silk qipaos.

Which accentuated their curvaceous figures, making them look alluring and moving.

Their rounded buttocks sat on the stools, while their long, fair legs pedaled the treadles under the workbenches.

Every time they moved, the soft flesh at the base of their thighs and buttocks rippled like water.

Clearly, their attire was quite captivating.

However, because these two young women usually ate and slept inside the Tailor Shop and basically didn't go out much.

Wearing this didn't have any impact.

Seeing Cao Xing arrive, the two women instantly looked up, and surprised smiles appeared on their pretty faces.

"My Lord!"

"My Lord, you're here~"

They simultaneously stopped their work and stood up from the workbenches.

Then, they strode forward with their long legs and quickly threw themselves into Cao Xing's arms.

Cao Xing only felt two bodies with different scents pressing against him.

Four large, soft objects clamped onto his arms.

Cao Xing naturally wrapped his arms around the two women's slender waists and chuckled: "What's the matter with you two today? So enthusiastic?"

Elena immediately chuckled: "My Lord, what are you saying~ When are we not enthusiastic to see you?"

Beside her, Xia Yanni said softly: "It's… it's because we haven't seen you for several days, and we were very worried about you."

"Little Sister Elena looked out the window every night, worrying that something might have happened to you…"

These two young women were both people who had lost hope once before.

Now that they had finally found their reliance in this territory, they had already regarded Cao Xing as their everything in their hearts.

After hearing this, Cao Xing grabbed their plump buttocks, one with each hand, "Rest assured, how could anything happen to me."

However, Cao Xing still had things to instruct them.

After cuddling with the two women for a moment.

Xia Yanni said softly: "My Lord… we have already repaired all those damaged clothes over these past few days."

"Also, Mr. Mel sent over the collected Cloud Yak fur, which we made into clothes, and they are all processed now."

Elena on the side added: "That's right, Sister Yanni and I used that silk fabric to sew many silk coats."

"These coats are very expensive~ The process is also very complicated; My Lord, you must make those merchants pay a high price before selling them~"

Listening to the two women's report, a look of gratification appeared on Cao Xing's face.

He stroked their hair, "Not bad, you have both worked very hard."

After receiving Cao Xing's affirmation, a look of joy, like that of a little woman, appeared on their mature faces.

"My Lord, let me lead you to the storage box first to take these clothes out~"

"Alright."

Then, Cao Xing came to the storage box of the Tailor Shop and took out all the clothes inside.

[Obtained: Cloud Yak Clothes * 28]

[Obtained: Repaired Linen Cotton Clothes * 1372]

[Obtained: Silk Coats * 84]

…

Seeing the quantity of these clothes, a smile appeared on Cao Xing's face again.

Just as Elena said, the value of this batch of clothes was very high.

Not to mention the other cotton clothes and coats, the most valuable item among them was naturally the Cloud Yak clothes.

According to market price, one piece was worth at least 1.5 million crowns!

In other words, these 28 coats alone were worth 42 million!

What a terrifying number this was, it went without saying!

Cao Xing had looted so many shops in Lake Doron City this time; even without counting the shop notes, it didn't amount to this much!

Of course, this kind of income could only happen once a year.

After all, the growth period of Cloud Yak fur is quite long; even in good living conditions, it takes a year to grow back.

However, as those cows give birth to new calves and the calves grow into adults.

The production of these Cloud Yak clothes in his territory would continue to increase every year.

Besides that, those coats and cotton clothes were also of high value.

In this extremely cold world, cold-weather supplies were always hard currency.

Whether trading with the natives or with Survivors, they could be exchanged for quite a lot of resources.

The Tailor Shop, just like the Blacksmith Shop and the Alchemy Workshop, if their functions could be utilized, could bring in considerable income.

Including the bakery, brewery, etc.

These seemingly inconspicuous buildings were actually quite important.

Then, Cao Xing put all the tiger skins, horse hides, and even the hundreds of sets of damaged cotton clothes from his backpack into the storage box.

"Yanni, Elena, I have put quite a few furs and some clothes that need repairing in here."

"Next, I'll have to trouble you again."

Elena chuckled: "My Lord, what are you saying? We don't know how happy we are to be able to contribute to the territory."

Xia Yanni's face flushed red, "I… I am too…"

"Then we will start working now, My Lord."

After saying this, they moved past Cao Xing, bent over to take the fabric out of the storage box one by one, and then checked the materials.

The two young women were bent over the box, their rounded buttocks facing Cao Xing.

Under the qipaos, one could even see the alluring curves.

Both Xia Yanni and Elena's buttocks were large.

Especially Xia Yanni; with her height of nearly 1.8 meters, her frame was naturally much larger than Elena's.

Bending over like this, it reminded Cao Xing of what the old people in the village said: millstone-sized buttocks!

They were truly huge!

As if they could suck a person's gaze right in.

Making one subconsciously want to grab them.

In fact, that was exactly what Cao Xing did.

He pressed his hands down, firmly gripping those plump buttocks.

The two young women's bodies trembled instantly.

"My… My Lord!"

"We… we still have to work…"

"With you doing this… we… we won't have the heart to work…"

Cao Xing laughed: "There's no rush."

The two women heard this and replied softly.

"Then… we'll listen to you, My Lord…"

In the Tailor Shop, a large amount of pheromones soon began to permeate…