Meeting Bell Again

Liu Xuan asked him about it on the spot.

To learn leatherworking, he first had to pay Parker ten silver coins. That would make him a leatherworking apprentice in the Parker family, giving him the right to study under him.

Parker would then take out his father’s notes and show him the leatherworking recipes he was currently qualified to learn.

However, he would only be able to see the required materials and the attributes of the finished products. The actual crafting methods would cost extra.

Once he chose the recipe he wanted to learn and paid the corresponding tuition, Parker would turn to the most important section of the notes and read the crafting instructions aloud.

That was the crucial step.

He had to hear Parker finish reading them himself before he could learn how to make the item. And Parker had to read directly from the notes—if Liu Xuan repeated the same instructions to someone else later, they would be useless.

In short, no money, no learning!

What Liu Xuan was most interested in were the few pieces of Monster Salamander Leather in his possession. So, while they were making their way back, he tried to get closer to Parker.

“Little brother, I happen to have a few pieces of very rare leather called Monster Salamander Leather. Could you tell me what they can be used to make? If the products are good, I’ll come learn leatherworking from you.”

Parker hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Normally, I wouldn’t be allowed to do that. But you’re the Hero of Orenburg, so I’ll make an exception and tell you.”

As he spoke, he pulled a leather-bound notebook from his waist pouch and began flipping through it.

After a while, he looked up in surprise. “Your Monster Salamander Leather really is a rare material. Even my father never saw it in person. He only learned about a few of its uses from my grandfather.”

He turned the notebook around so Liu Xuan could read it himself.

Salamander Cloak

Requires: 4 pieces of Monster Salamander Leather

Quality: Epic

Required Level: 20

Specific attributes depend on the leatherworker’s skill.

Effect One: Grants the ability to breathe underwater.

Effect Two: Increases swimming speed underwater by 100%.

Salamander Leg Armor

Requires: 4 pieces of Monster Salamander Leather

Quality: Epic

Required Level: 20

Specific attributes depend on the leatherworker’s skill.

Effect One: Grants the ability to breathe underwater.

Effect Two: Grants an active skill, Water Jet: Fires a burst of water from the leg armor, dealing 500 magic damage to enemies hit. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Salamander Backpack

Requires: 1 piece of Monster Salamander Leather

Quality: Epic

Specific capacity depends on the leatherworker’s skill.

Effect One: Grants the ability to breathe underwater.

Effect Two: Automatically picks up loot within a five-meter radius. The range stacks with each backpack equipped.

Monster Salamander Leather could be made into three different items in total, including the backpack, and all three came with the same special effect: underwater breathing.

As for their other properties, comparing the two pieces of equipment first, the cloak provided increased swimming speed underwater, which might prove useful someday.

The leg armor, meanwhile, came with an active skill. Liu Xuan couldn’t use it because of his class, to begin with. Besides, 500 damage was completely meaningless to him.

And judging by the description, the skill sounded rather undignified to use.

So between the two, the cloak was the better choice.

Compared with the backpack, however, the backpack also had an automatic pickup effect. That function was incredibly practical.

Although the range was a little small—four backpacks together would only give him a radius of twenty meters—it still sounded decent. Given Liu Xuan’s usual method of grinding monsters, loot often ended up scattered over a wide area.

Still, something was better than nothing. A twenty-meter automatic pickup radius would save him a great deal of time.

After all, it was only an Epic-quality backpack. Having two special effects was already extremely impressive.

And unlike what the leatherworker in the novice village had said, the backpack’s capacity was not fixed at twenty slots.

According to Parker, the equipment and items crafted by NPC leatherworkers like themselves had essentially fixed attributes.

But if players like Liu Xuan, whom they called “apprentices,” crafted them, the attributes of the equipment and items would fluctuate depending on their skill and proficiency.

Generally speaking, however, there would be a minimum value.

The twenty slots mentioned by the novice village leatherworker represented the minimum capacity, because his skill level was not particularly high.

According to the notes, if the Monster Salamander Leather was given to a truly capable leatherworker, it could be made into a backpack with as many as thirty slots.

After comparing everything, Liu Xuan felt that making the backpack was still the better choice.

The cloak offered more attributes and the increased swimming speed, but one benefit was merely possibly useful, while the other was certain to be useful—and immediately so.

Naturally, he chose the latter.

Once Parker saw that he had finished reading, he snapped the notebook shut, refusing to let him look at it any longer.

Liu Xuan couldn’t help asking, “If I learn leatherworking, how long will it take me to reach the skill level needed to make this Salamander Backpack?”

He didn’t ask how much it would cost. He could definitely afford it.

Although he had just obtained Money Offensive and wanted to save wherever possible, he was willing to spend money when it was necessary.

“Time? That’s hard to say. You’d have to start with simple items and gradually get the hang of it before you could make something this difficult. Even with good comprehension, you’d need to craft at least a thousand other items and pieces of equipment before your skills were polished enough to begin making this.”

The moment Liu Xuan heard that, he knew leatherworking probably wasn’t meant for him.

It would take far too much time. Most likely, someone would have to give up combat entirely and specialize in a life profession.

So he sent Zhang Meng a message.

“Old Meng, how are things on your end?”

“Nothing to worry about. No, actually, it’s too easy. Your aura is insanely overpowered. We just gather the monsters together, wait for their armor to drop into the negatives, then rush in and kill them with a few slashes. It feels amazing.”

“I found the son of a high-level leatherworker. From now on, we can pay him to learn leatherworking here. But this profession takes a lot of time, so we may need to train some dedicated life-profession players. If nothing unexpected happens, blacksmithing, tailoring, alchemy, and the other professions should probably be learnable too.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I know some people who never liked fighting in the first place. They only did it because they had no choice. We can arrange for them to switch to life professions.”

“Good. I’ll bring the leatherworking information back as soon as possible. We should arrange someone quickly—I have something I want crafted. I’ll cover the cost of their training.”

……

There was no need for Liu Xuan to personally escort Parker back to Orenburg.

A small group of people met them on the road and took responsibility for bringing him there.

Before this, there was no way they would have dared to send just a few people to Orenburg. The journey was far too dangerous.

But now that they had the global Destruction Aura, it was safe enough.

Most monsters were dangerous because they dealt too much damage.

As long as you could kill a monster before it killed you, there was no danger.

Liu Xuan’s destination was an abandoned village to the south. He planned to level up there for a while.

The village stood along the Orchid River, but it was a long way from the bridge they usually used to cross the river. After crossing the bridge, he still had to travel west for quite some time.

When he finally arrived, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure lying motionless in the muddy ground outside the village.

He was wearing a suit of battered armor and a square helmet made of wood.

Wasn’t that Bell?