Draco had returned to his room in the super mini small world. He had spent an unholy amount of time fooling around with Rambunctious Buttlover and being a general nuisance, which made him feel extremely relaxed and content.
Now, it was time to begin his first task as the Guildmaster, which was to create weapons and armor for his new members. It wasn't his duty to make it for them per se but it would be better for him to do it now rather than later, and help the Tradeskill players manage their heavy duties.
After all, he had an extensive history in making huge amounts of weapons and armor for clients. It would be really easy for him to maintain quality when making these items for the players.
Draco took out Pair Dadeni, bringing out some materials for the crafting process as well. These materials were of the Common rarity, which was an extremely clever move by Draco since he would save costs by using Pair Dadeni's special passive skill.
Of course, the trade off was that his failure rate would be high, with only 1/3 of his efforts actually being successful. However, even with that, it was still too broken and unfair.
The cost of a Common material was about 30-50 bronze per stack. If Draco bought a stack of Darike Plants - which was the main reagent for the health potion - that would be almost a hundred of the material.
If he threw it into the Cauldron, it would evolve into its Epic equivalent, making it far more potent but far less manageable. If he used 3 Darike Plants to attempt a basic health potion, that would be barely 2 bronze spent, which was an inconsequential amount to him.
Draco was so wealthy that Bronze itself would kowtow to him in respect.
And with his Fire of War and Pioneer title, he had a default 35% chance to succeed regardless of the Rank of the item he was crafting. Since he a varying chance when crafting Epic potions, it depended on what he wanted to make.
An Epic potion that had milder effects and was generally simpler like the health potion had a 25% success rate for him, especially since he was in the Elite Rank now.
Something like the Dragon's Blessing would be a definite 0%. He would have to use very few Epic materials as well as pad the concoction with many Rare and lower combining agents.
With Pair Dadeni, everything was Epic whether you liked it or not. As such, the more he put in, the stronger his concoction would be, but the harder it would be to succeed.
Draco was here to practice and hope that he was successful every now and then.
As such, he directly began refining the Darike Plants, which took him very little time and effort due to his rebuilt body, his overpowered control of Worldly Energy due to being a Supreme-Ranked Dragon himself, his enhanced Control and his Elite Rank in Alchemy which meant he was one whole Rank above the Darike Plant.
Draco didn't only do those three. He filtered hundreds and hundreds of Darike Plants. These things were sold in all Rank 1 and Rank 2 shops and one should remember the special benefits of the Herald's Badge, which allowed him to take anything he wanted from any Rank 1 or Rank 2 shop for free.
As such, he had collected obscene amounts of Common reagents to be used for his training.
No, Draco had no checklist or plan here. He was literally going to toss these ingredients together and work with them. If they failed, too bad. If they succeed, they would be given to the guild members to use.
When everyone was sweating on how to gather Uncommon potions, Draco was planning to bathe his guild members in Epic potions. Honestly, being a member of Umbra was no different for being the son of the world's richest man. Life was just too good.
Draco finished filtering them and began grinding the Darike Plants into paste. He made sure to break them down to a state that resembled a liquid. He had to coalesce an alchemical set from Worldly Energy to do so, but this particular conjured equipment was extremely high quality.
As such, Draco ground all the Darike Plants down and began to mix them. He didn't mix more than three at a time because he wanted to see if the same quantity would be effective even though their rarity would be raised to the Epic level.
Draco didn't mix the whole stack in batches of three. Out of a hundred groups of Darike Plant paste, he only mixed five sets of three together, meaning that only 15 of 100 had been mixed.
Draco took one batch and began heating the Cauldron with the Fire of War. This flame was normally meant for Blacksmithing, but it worked well with Alchemy too.
Draco placed the Darike Plant paste into the cauldron and watched as it glowed brightly for second before transforming into something different entirely.
｢Viva La Vida – Material
Rank: Epic
Use: Alchemy｣
The new paste had gone from the typical blood red color of health potions to a slightly yellowish color. It sparkled and glittered with purity, making one aware that it was a special material that was extremely hard to find.
Draco took a deep breath and began the process of potionmaking.
When he had made the Parasitic Bane potion for the Wood Elf village, he had placed the materials in the Cauldron in their raw form, because tuning them to paste would make the concocting process extremely volatile compared to the former method.
Putting it in raw was like speeding in traffic while driving a 1996 Volkswagen, while putting it into the Cauldron in its paste form was like speeding through traffic with a Ferrari F450.
Of course, putting it raw made the process longer and more draining in terms of stamina and Worldly Energy control, but had a higher chance of success for those who were of a lower tier than Master Rank.
However, putting it in as a paste made the process much shorter and less draining on the mind and body in the long term, but it had a much higher chance of failure if one was below the Master Rank.
Draco only dared to do this because his State of Being was so high, and because his physical and mental strength were nothing like ever before. He was more than superhuman at his current level.
Draco put in all his effort into keeping the concoction stable as he flooded with with Worldly Energy to transmute it into its final form. It took Draco less than an hour to finish this process, but he was noticeably shaken by the effort in doing so.
It wasn't easy to transform a Cauldron full of Epic materials into an Epic potion. Otherwise, Epic potions would be so widespread on the market that it wouldn't require one to break an arm and a leg just to get it.
Draco could only do so thanks to his expertise as a reincarnator. In his previous life, he was Master Rank in all his Tradeskills, which was the level needed to make Epic items without any penalties.
Another reason was his Control, his high State of Being, his Bloodline's power - through his rebuilt body and strengthened physical makeup - and his equipment, being Pair Dadeni itself.
As a Cauldron that was of the Epic Rank, it was naturally most suited to making Epic rank items. It would be a joke if it had the Reagent Improvement passive skill and could not handle such materials, even if one considered the active skill which balanced it.
Draco gathered the Worldly Energy and collected the finished potion into three bottles. Since the quantity and the reagents weren't high, the quantity of the potion wasn't much either.
However, it was canceled out by the sheer purity and quality of the finished product.
｢Angel's Kiss – Consumable
Rank: Epic (100% effectiveness)
Effect: Restore 100% Health, Mana, Stamina and Focus. Increase Health, Mana, Stamina and Focus regeneration by 50% for 1 hour.｣
The effects clearly highlighted why anything that was above Epic Rank in this game was chased so fervently by anyone of any level.
Items and equipment in Boundless were very strict about Rank differences. This dealt with both the Rank of the item and the Rank of the user.
If one looked at it, items from Common Rank to Rare Rank had stats like Attack Speed, Damage or Defense, and Effects that were very short and concise.
Yet items at the Epic Rank had no stats at all! They only had one passive skill and one active skill.
Items at Legendary Rank had two passive and one active skill, while those at the Divine Rank…
Draco wasn't too sure, because the Eyes of Caelo had been weakened due to the efforts of unlocking his bloodline. It was possible that they either had three passives and one active, or two passives and two active skills.
Either way, the problem with the Eyes of Caelo would be resolved when he Ranked up.
Draco had learned why items above Epic had no stats.
It was because they simply didn't need any.
They had almost unlimited raw power. It fell down to how much of that power the wielder could harness based on their Rank and how they abused the passive and active skills.
A potion like Angel's Kiss wasn't unique. Draco wasn't the first ever to make an Epic potion of the health category, or even of most categories, so it was already named by someone else.
Draco wasn't bothered by this, he continued to mix, grind and concoct Angel's Kiss potions. True to the statistics, he succeeded half of the time, with 50 potions out of 100 sets.
50 Epic potions out of a 100 sets of Common Materials!
This…
Shouldn't such a fellow be banned from the game?
This was too unfair! Too broken! Too overpowered!
Draco could literally pack up his armor and become a house husband who only crafted potions and armor for life. With Mjolnir and Pair Dadeni, he could rake in hundreds of thousands of Platinum in a day, much less a week.
He would become a worldwide phenomenon in the real world and the game world as he changed his platinum to real world cash. He could easily become a billionaire in the real world while still being endlessly rich in the game world.
Not to mention that his name would enter the lore of the Western Fantasy section of Boundless, as one of the greatest crafters among the Immortal Adventurers. In the thousands of years that Boundless would be active in the human world, he would be forever remembered.
This was the goal Tradeskill players were going after. Whether Happy Saint or any notable Tradeskill player in this timeline or in Draco's past life, they were all aiming to become abhorrently rich through their crafts, as well as immensely popular.
However…
Draco had much bigger plans for his life.
He wasn't going to stop in the Western Fantasy section of Boundless. He would explore every single world in Boundless that was in existence and yet to be added, acc.u.mulating all the power and resources he could before he transferred to another one.
That was why one Divine item moved Draco so strongly before, just like Legendary items, but it wasn't enough. It was nowhere near enough.
This was because when he transmigrated to another section, he would be 50% weaker than the natives there. It was not limited to him, but anyone who changed worlds.
A foreign Dragon cannot beat local snakes.
The same thing happened to Nakiu. He was a pinnacle cultivator and the only one to leave the Xianxia realm for this world in the history of Boundless. He had reached max level in everything, there being no way for him to progress further in their world.
But yet, in the Western Fantasy section he could be bullied by Hidden Powers like Richmond, who hadn't reached the level cap here due to various difficulties.
In terms of raw stats, Richmond was nowhere near a monster like Nakiu. But due to the suppression of the world, Richmond could beat Nakiu like the fellow was his grandson.
The important point to note was that killing Nakiu was out of the question because of his other acc.u.mulations. He could only be bullied and beaten around at best, but as his level in the Western Fantasy section grew, he became more and more resilient.
This was why the Hidden Powers were so depressed and scared that they barely came out anymore.
Draco would be put through the same thing. Even though he couldn't die as an Immortal Adventurer, it would still be very uncomfortable and stifling to be beaten like a dog by the various top masters of other realms.
So the stronger he could make himself while here, the easier time he would have building a foundation in the new world.
Draco continued to make Angel's Kiss potions with single-minded focus. He didn't pause for even a second to rest as he continued the process of filtering, grinding, mixing, concocting and then collecting.
The number of successful potions continued to climb slowly, from 50 to 100. From 100 to 150.
Since it took an hour for every attempt, Draco was burning time like crazy. It took him just about 2 days to reach this number, which was a lot of time lost.
This was the tradeoff for crafting anything that was high Rank. One could not escape the time cost unless they had a high Rank in the Tradeskill in question.
Draco decided to stop here as he sighed with exhaustion. He had gone nonstop for two whole days, which was still immensely draining even if he had a super body now.
He collected all the Epic potions and placed them in the Guild Shop. He once again sent out a broadcast to his guild members about the new addition, posting its stats and its price there for all to see.
He even paid to have it sent out worldwide, to any Umbra member who was on the Cario Continent at this time.
He priced it at 300 UPs per bottle, which was 0.6% of the actual market price for Epic weapons or items. He might as well have given it out to his members and not wasted time with such a farce.
If the members of the Tradeskill Association heard that Draco was selling Epic potions for such a price, they might just rush out and beat him to death with baguettes.
However, there was a deeper meaning to all this.
Firstly, his costs for making these potions was non-existent if one didn't count time wasted. He would lose nothing selling it at such a price and in fact, his profit percentage was 100%!
Secondly, Draco did not need money, he needed resources. Money was not a problem with the Rank 7 Shop, but resources were.
Thirdly, he would be able to attract even more players to Umbra. Players already l.u.s.ted over joining Umbra in any capacity, but when seeing such items being sold in the guild, they would become like rabid dogs as they tried to join.
Finally, and most importantly, the guild members of Umbra were elites who were loyal to the guild to an extent, and very hard working. They had been given quests that would reward them with precious UPs that could be used in the guild and outside of it.
It had so much value and utility because it couldn't be lost or stolen and it could get them things that raw gold could not buy. Things like training from the Tradeskill teachers in the lower floors, unique items sold in the guild as well as special perks when purchasing on the outside.
However, if a player worked hard to finished as many quests as on the board, they could earn around 200-500 UPs every month. With such an amount, they would slowly be able to buy more and more, having less enthusiasm to earn more UPs, but rather to invest their current UPs and let it make more of itself in the banks.
This was a similar conundrum to someone who was rich but didn't have much interest in buying miscellaneous things. His money would acc.u.mulate to higher and higher amounts but his productivity would reduce as he began to live off the interest his principal would make.
However, if the fellow had something to spend on that was expensive but extremely useful to him…
He would become like a feral boar. He would do anything and everything to earn more money in order to buy what he needed.
It was the same thing here. When the combat players saw the Epic potion in the Guild Shop, they were so shocked that some started having various mental seizures and reactions.
They weren't ignorant noobs who would complain about the price being too high. These were elites who had done their research and were very astute when it came to matters surrounding gaming and this game in particular.
They understood that the Guildmaster was the one who made the potion since his name was attached to it, and he was selling it cheaply to them because they were his guild members.
The smarter ones could assess that Draco was placing the carrot before them, telling them to finish more quests, much more quickly and they would have endless benefits before them.
There would never be a case where they would be unable to spend their UPs on what they wanted. In fact, it was likely they would never truly have enough UPs in their lives.
The only way was to…
"Work like a dog! If the Guildmaster wants me to work like a dog for him, then fine! I shall do it!"
This was roughly what all the members of Umbra said to themselves or thought in their heads as their eyes glinted with seriousness and madness.
Once again, a mad and fervent atmosphere surrounded the guild as the players rushed about to complete quests. Umbra was lively as ever, with the way Draco subtly manipulated his members to be the best they could be.
......
At this time, Draco smiled as he saw a form begin to coalesce in the room of Riveting Night, the first Vice Guildmaster.
"Welcome back, Eva."