"As expected, it's locked." Shi Feng walked up to the Dark Gold Rank treasure chest and found that the purple-gold chest refused to open no matter what he tried.
He then took out the key he had just obtained.
With a creak, the purple-gold chest opened, and multicolored radiance spilled forth from within, bathing an area several hundred yards wide in its glow. Had he opened it out in the wild, such a commotion would have attracted numerous players eager to fight over the loot. But this was the Lost Land—only Shi Feng and his two companions were here, so there was no worry about anyone else discovering it.
After the multicolored light faded, Shi Feng reached into the chest and found that the contents were surprisingly few.
There were only three items in total. Two were equipment pieces, both Dark Gold Rank, and one was a blacksmithing design manual.
The two Dark Gold Rank equipment pieces were the Crystal Armor and the Swift Boots.
Crystal Armor, plate armor, chest slot, Dark Gold Rank, required level 20, restricted to Swordsman class. Required 120 Strength, 140 Agility. Defense +212, Strength +24, Agility +21, Endurance +20. Equipped with the passive skill Spirit Burst: each time the wearer takes damage, Strength and Agility increase by 2%, stacking up to 5 times, lasting 15 seconds.
The base stats on this piece were quite solid, but the real draw was the passive skill. A fully stacked Spirit Burst effectively granted a 10% boost to Strength and Agility. For a player with sufficiently high base stats, that was practically equivalent to wearing an extra piece of gear. The only catch was that it required taking five hits to fully stack, which made it of limited value in boss fights but absolutely dominant for grinding mobs and PvP.
Swift Boots, leather armor, foot slot, Dark Gold Rank, required level 20. Required 90 Strength, 130 Agility. Defense +143, Strength +20, Agility +26, Endurance +18, Movement Speed +10, Evasion +7. Equipped with the passive skill Swift Foot: movement speed increased by 12%, Agility increased by 8%.
For the Assassin and Ranger classes, Agility was by far the most important stat, with Strength a distant second. These boots pushed Agility to the absolute extreme—no other Dark Gold Rank boots at level 20 could come close to this level of Agility bonus.
As impressive as both pieces of Dark Gold Rank equipment were, they still didn't fully justify the Dark Gold Rank chest.
The true value of the chest lay in the final item—the blacksmithing design manual, and a Gold-grade one at that. A design manual was different from a blueprint. A blueprint could only craft a single piece of equipment, but a design manual could produce an entire set.
This blacksmithing design manual could craft a full set of Dragon Scale equipment at level 20—a total of six pieces. All plate armor classes could equip them.
Previously, Shi Feng had spent over a hundred gold to purchase the Gold-grade Radiant Shield blueprint from the Black Wing Auction House. But the value of the Radiant Shield blueprint was nowhere near that of the Dragon Scale set, because the latter was a Gold-grade set.
In the entire Star Moon Kingdom, no guild yet possessed a Mythril Rank set, let alone a Gold-grade one. The value of such a set was practically incalculable.
If he could produce several sets of Dragon Scale equipment and equip every plate armor class member of the guild's main raid team, the sheer intimidation factor of walking down the street in a full set would be immense. Players from other guilds would probably tremble at the sight alone. Just imagining it sent a thrill through him.
However, crafting the Dragon Scale set was extraordinarily difficult. Since it was a set, the crafting difficulty was on par with producing Dark Gold Rank equipment.
Shi Feng was currently only an Advanced Blacksmithing Apprentice. If he didn't seriously improve his blacksmithing level, attempting to craft the Dragon Scale set would be no different from throwing money into the water.
He would need to advance to at least an Intermediate or Advanced Blacksmith before he had any real shot at crafting the Dragon Scale set.
"After I get back, I'll definitely need to focus on improving my blacksmithing level." Shi Feng looked at the Dragon Scale design manual and began forming a plan.
He then handed the Swift Boots to Huo Wu. Huo Wu had already reached level 19 and was not far from level 20. Shi Feng kept the Crystal Armor and the Dragon Scale design manual for himself.
After a brief rest, the three of them stepped into the crystal passageway.
The crystal corridor stretched on endlessly, its end nowhere in sight. The magical elements inside were incredibly dense—so dense that they were visible to the naked eye, shimmering like an aurora. It was a breathtaking sight. At the same time, a buff appeared on each of them: all magic damage increased by 300%. That alone said volumes about just how concentrated the magical elements were in this place.
Without quite realizing how much time had passed, Shi Feng and the others followed the corridor for over an hour before finally arriving at the base of a mountain range.
The moment the three of them laid eyes on the massive mountain, they froze in their tracks.