With that in mind, Ye Tianxie didn’t hesitate to pull a silver piece out of his pack — the level 10 silver Savage Bull Bracers, dropped back in Novice Village No. 60001 by a Frenzied Savage Bull that had evidently been eating far too much melamine and clenbuterol.
Whenever players traded with each other, or with NPCs, they could choose to hide the traded items and mute the sound, so that only the two parties involved could see or hear. When an appraisal trade was selected, the equipment was handed over to the Appraiser’s side to be appraised, and regardless of whether the appraisal succeeded or even happened at all, the item would automatically return to its owner after one minute — preventing an Appraiser who got his hands on a top-tier piece from simply bolting with it. On a successful appraisal, the fee was automatically paid to the Appraiser. If the client didn’t have enough gold on hand, the appraisal couldn’t proceed at all… Though of course, with a friend you trusted, you could simply hand the item over directly and not spend a copper.
The Savage Bull Bracers passed into the girl’s hands, and as she took them she couldn’t begin to hide the excitement on her face. Her body was too weak, and she had no friends to help her, so in this world she had chosen the Appraiser — the profession that could earn money with no capital at all. And today was her first day standing here, waiting anxiously. She wasn’t a professional player who knew every rule of the game world inside out, but she knew well enough that appraisable equipment was terribly hard to come by at this stage, and that even when it appeared, the great guilds with their vast forces had in-house Appraisers of their own… And yet she had, against all expectation, actually landed her first “job.”
“A level 10 silver item — the appraisal fee is 10 gold… Is that price all right?” The girl turned the silver bracers over in her hands and said it a little nervously. To her, spending 10 gold — gold that could be exchanged for a great deal of Huaxia currency — to appraise a single item was already a very high price.
“Mm. Go ahead.” Ye Tianxie nodded, offering her a faintly encouraging smile. A pity that with the tiger mask on his face, whatever expression he made was entirely invisible to her.
“All right, then I’ll begin.” The girl answered quietly, lowered her head, and holding the item in one hand, carefully cast an Appraisal.
Appraisal skill ranks worked like every other life profession’s: from low to high, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Immortal (Immortal Spirit), Heaven (Heaven-Severing), Divine (Divine Mystery), Holy (Holy Annihilation). The higher an Appraiser’s rank, the higher the grade of equipment they could appraise, and the higher their success rate. A Basic-rank Appraiser had an 80% chance to appraise a silver item, a 30% chance on a gold item, and a 0% chance on anything above gold. Furthermore, if the same item failed appraisal five times in a row, it was destroyed outright.
Ye Tianxie didn’t watch her cast the skill. His attention was fixed mostly on her eyes, probing for whatever it was in them that he had so suddenly become desperate to see. And it was then that he finally read the name of this girl, who looked no more than eighteen or nineteen — and the name sent an involuntary tremor through him.
Broken Heart of the Stars.
“There. It’s appraised.”
Her voice pulled his gaze back. He nodded and took the Savage Bull Bracers from the faintly excited girl’s hands, while ten gold coins transferred themselves automatically from his person into her pack.
Savage Bull Bracers: Silver-tier item. Requirements: level 10, melee class, Strength above 40. Bracers made from the hide of a Frenzied Savage Bull. Attributes: Defense +10. Strength +7. Constitution +7. Critical rate +2%.
By his count, this was the first time Ye Tianxie had seen the stats of a silver-tier item in the World of Fate. And silver-tier lived up to its name — not only did it carry four full attributes, but its Strength and Constitution bonuses alone comfortably exceeded the level 15 Resilient gauntlets dropped by the Little Raccoon chief.
“Thank you. If you have any other equipment that needs appraising in the future, you can—”
“I have quite a lot more that needs appraising. Are you willing to help?” Ye Tianxie said with a smile. He found he very much wanted to see this girl look happy… perhaps because he himself had once had eyes exactly like hers — eyes wary of and frightened by the entire world.
He produced the Battle Tiger Flame Armor and the Battle Tiger Boots dropped by the Amethyst Battle Tiger, and watched with real satisfaction as astonishment, disbelief, and excitement spread across her face.
“I… I’ll appraise them right away… These are a bit higher level, so it’d be 40 gold in total. Is that all right?”
A bit higher level… And as she said it, it struck her properly: these weren’t merely two extraordinarily precious silver items, they were two level 20 silver items. Level 20… when Xietian, the strongest man on the Level Ranking right now, was only level 15!
This person… must be one of the truly formidable ones, she thought quietly to herself.
Both silver pieces were appraised without a hitch and returned to Ye Tianxie.
Battle Tiger Flame Armor: Silver-tier item. Requirements: level 20, melee class. Soft armor made from the hide of an Amethyst Battle Tiger, possessing tough resilience and a degree of lightning resistance. Attributes: Defense +50. HP +50. Strength +12. Constitution +12. Lightning resistance +5%.
Battle Tiger Boots: Silver-tier item. Requirements: level 20, melee class. Battle boots made from the hide of an Amethyst Battle Tiger; tough and light. Attributes: Defense +30. Strength +9. Agility +9. Evasion +9. Movement speed +12.
Level 20 gear was no use to him yet, and there had been no need to have it appraised at all. He hadn’t brought it out for the appraisal. He’d brought it out for the girl. He put the two pieces away and drew out the three level 15 silver items dropped by the Undead Sovereign in the Skeleton Cavern, passing them across. “Could I trouble you to appraise these three as well?”
Three more silver pieces, of a kind most people never even laid eyes on. The girl stared at him for a long moment before remembering to take them. “…Three items, that’s 45 gold in total… Is that all right?”
“Mm!” Ye Tianxie answered, still smiling.
The three silver items were appraised, and Ye Tianxie tossed them casually back into his pack. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he took out two items glinting faintly gold. “Can you appraise gold equipment?”
The girl’s expression simply froze; for a long moment she couldn’t process it at all… Gold equipment. She was looking at gold equipment. Right in front of her.
“I… I can try.” She was doing everything she could to stay composed, but her voice still caught. Even someone on their very first day in the World of Fate would understand exactly what gold equipment meant to players at this stage… And this man had not only produced a frankly lethal quantity of silver items, he had now produced gold ones. Two of them!
Even a complete novice would have concluded, without a shadow of doubt, that the person standing in front of her was no ordinary figure. And not ordinary by a considerable margin.
At her current Appraisal rank, her chance of successfully appraising a gold item was only 30%. Whether it was from holding something so precious or from fear of failing four attempts, a certain tension crept into her expression. “The fee for gold equipment is higher… The Undead Spear would be 45 gold, and the Undead Cloak, being special equipment, is more expensive… 90 gold.”
A hundred and thirty-five gold all told. Already an enormous sum.
“Mm, go ahead. It doesn’t matter if you can’t manage it — there’s a shop right behind you with a 100% success rate,” Ye Tianxie said, smiling.
“Mm… thank you.” She answered him under her breath, and began appraising the two level 15 gold items — the Undead Spear and the Undead Cloak dropped by the Undead Sovereign. The slight tension inside her was still visible in the way she moved.
First attempt: failure. Second: failure. Third… success. The girl let out a quiet breath. The Undead Cloak, meanwhile, she got on her very first try. The tension on her face gave way to a very faint smile as she returned both items to Ye Tianxie.
What would gold-tier stats look like? Full of anticipation, Ye Tianxie looked down at the two freshly appraised pieces in his hands.
Undead Spear: Gold-tier item. Requirements: level 15, Warrior class. A spear steeped in the breath of death; on striking, it unleashes a terrifying undead power. Attributes: Attack +70. Strength +18. Attacks carry an additional 30–50 death-type damage. 5% chance on attack to inflict 3–5 seconds of Confusion. 1% chance on attack to trigger instant death.
The Undead Spear was a spear taller than a man, wreathed in a dark, grim aura. Two attributes, one on-hit bonus, and two additional effects that almost never appeared and were terrifying in their consequences. Worthy of gold-tier indeed. If this spear were ever put on display, there was no telling how many Spear Warriors would lose their minds over it.
Undead Cloak: Gold-tier item. Requirements: level 15, any class. A cloak holding the power of death and of lightness, and seemingly some measure of mysterious netherworld force as well. Attributes: Defense +30. Agility +10. Constitution +8. Death-type resistance +10%. 5% chance on attack to trigger the “Netherworld” effect: for three seconds, the body becomes an illusory shade, immune to all physical attacks.
Cloaks, being a special equipment type that almost never dropped, actually carried lower attribute bonuses than gear in other slots, prized as they were for their rarity. For a gold-tier item, the Undead Cloak’s attributes weren’t especially high. But the “Netherworld” effect it carried sent a surge of excitement through him… Once triggered, it granted three seconds of immunity to all physical attacks, and the trigger chance was a full 5%. Three seconds was short — but in a great many situations, three seconds could save a life and turn a fight around.
(End of Chapter 122)