Chapter 6 Umbrella of a Thousand Mechanisms
Why is Ye Xiu's skill selection for Lord Grim so laughable?
First, the low-level phase passes quickly, and meticulous skill allocation during this stage is entirely unnecessary. Many players leave their skill points entirely blank, opting to get carried to level 20 for their class change before bothering.
Second, while players below level 20 are meant to experiment with all classes, most have a general direction in mind from the start—mage, swordsman, or gunner? But Ye Xiu's skill build? It spans across all classes. True, there are no restrictions on learning skills before level 20, but there are restrictions on *using* them—due to weapons.
Take the Sharpshooter's "Aerial Bullet," for example. If you're holding a Blade Master's sword, there's absolutely no way to use it. So, with a skill build like Lord Grim's, you'd need to carry weapons for every single class type in your backpack, constantly swapping them out—a massive hassle. Going through all this trouble just for the initial 20 levels? That's just asking for misery. Unless, of course, you're playing a "Freelancer."
What's a Freelancer? Simply put, it's a character without a class. But that was a thing back when the level cap was 50. Once the cap was raised and class awakening quests were introduced, the Freelancer playstyle vanished. Today's players, seeing Lord Grim's skill setup, wouldn't think of Freelancers at all—they'd just laugh.
Ye Xiu, however, seemed completely oblivious to this. Lord Grim currently only had a basic Bronze Sword, and after learning his skills and passing by the general store, Ye Xiu even had him sell this sole weapon.
Then, he walked straight to the storage chest in the warehouse, opened it, and inside lay a single piece of equipment.
An account capable of transferring servers should be a blank slate—meaning experience, currency, inventory, storage, and even the mailbox should all be empty.
Yet, this account, Lord Grim, which had just transferred to the Tenth Server, had smuggled an item into its storage.
No one knew how this happened, but it all seemed to be within Ye Xiu's expectations. He knew he would find this item here. However, at the moment of discovery, there wasn't a trace of joy on Ye Xiu's face; instead, it was filled with sorrow. The right hand moving the mouse trembled once again, a rare occurrence. The last time was when he lost One Autumn Leaf; this time, it was when he was about to retrieve this item.
The cursor moved over.
Thousand Chance Umbrella, Level 5.
Weight: 2.3kg, Attack Speed: 5.
Physical Attack: 180; Magic Attack: 180.
That's it. So simple it didn't even have bonus attributes, practically a plain white weapon.
But the text color of "Thousand Chance Umbrella" was anything but white—it was silver.
In Glory, equipment tiers are indicated by text color: orange, purple, blue, green, and white. White gear has no bonus attributes. Green gear is mostly transitional quest rewards. Blue gear drops from dungeon bosses or certain quests and is the most common mainstream equipment. As for purple and orange gear, they are high-end items, requiring either luck or money—something outstanding to have a chance at obtaining.
The silver text of Thousand Chance Umbrella didn't belong to any of these five colors. If Chen Guo were awake right now and saw this, she would be shocked. Silver is the exclusive color for self-made equipment. Self-made equipment is a major feature of Glory—it's not about the in-game crafting skills, but rather using the game's equipment editor to create gear, considered high-end content.
There's a widely circulated saying in Glory: "Self-made equipment isn't necessarily the strongest, but the strongest equipment is always self-made."
Self-made equipment is the existence that can surpass epic-tier orange gear. In the professional league, every club has a dedicated team researching self-made equipment and investing funds into its development. The Battle God, One Autumn Leaf, wielded a self-made silver weapon—the spear, Evil Annihilation! It was a renowned weapon in Glory, one of a kind, absolutely unique.
The nature of self-made equipment makes it hard to replicate; every piece is unique.
However, it could be a unique masterpiece surpassing epics, or it could be unique trash.
So, what about Thousand Chance Umbrella? Was it trash or a top-tier item?
If Chen Guo were awake, if she understood weapon attributes, she could judge immediately.
Top-tier. Thousand Chance Umbrella was a true top-tier item, a masterpiece surpassing same-level orange weapons, just like Evil Annihilation. 180 Physical and Magic Attack—equivalent to a Level 10 orange weapon, and almost the highest attack across all class types. But weapons with the highest attack are usually heavy and slow. Thousand Chance Umbrella's weight wasn't high, and it had a normal attack speed of 5. Even compared to Level 10 orange weapons, this alone was enough to win decisively.
But its drawbacks were also obvious: Thousand Chance Umbrella only had base attributes, with no bonuses. Furthermore, Level 5 was a fleeting level, one that would become outdated in the blink of an eye.
Ye Xiu, however, didn't mind, because he knew this Thousand Chance Umbrella was truly a work of genius. After countless experiments and failures, being able to create this Level 5 Thousand Chance Umbrella was already a great success. The characteristic of self-made weapons is that once the concept and method are mastered, they can be continuously upgraded. So self-made weapons don't become obsolete; with the equipment editor, they can be constantly improved.
Ye Xiu gently took out the Thousand Chance Umbrella and placed it in Lord Grim's hands. "Let's begin," he murmured softly, then controlled Lord Grim towards the beginner village dungeon, Green Forest, as if Lord Grim had heard his words.
Green Forest was a 5-player dungeon, requiring Level 5 to enter. Scores from players above Level 10 were invalid, meaning they couldn't compete in various leaderboards. Since new players were randomly distributed, even though many had come together to explore, they couldn't gather immediately. Outside the dungeon, random groups were the norm. The moment Ye Xiu arrived with Lord Grim, he received several invites. Ye Xiu didn't scrutinize much and joined a team that was only missing one member.
"We're full, we're full!" Ye Xiu had just joined when he saw the captain, Mid-Moon Sleep, shouting in the team chat.
"How do we distribute loot if a hidden boss appears?" Ye Xiu asked.
"Wow, quite ambitious!" From Mid-Moon Sleep's casual remark, it was clear this person wasn't a complete newbie—at least he didn't ask what a hidden boss was.
Hidden bosses only appear when entering dungeons in a team mode, and the system notifies players the moment they enter. Hidden bosses are generally tougher than the dungeon's final boss and can drop items or equipment that normal bosses wouldn't.
Someone of Ye Xiu's top-tier professional caliber could easily solo clear this minor dungeon. He joined a team specifically for the hidden boss that only appears in group play. Because he needed the materials dropped by that hidden boss—materials essential for further upgrading the Thousand Machine Umbrella. Ye Xiu knew clearly that compared to leveling up Lord Grim, upgrading the Thousand Machine Umbrella was an even more challenging task, and he decided to start working on both fronts from now on.
For low-level dungeons like Greens Forest, even the best equipment quickly becomes obsolete, so it holds little value. Apart from experience, the most appealing aspect here would be the materials dropped by the hidden boss—materials that never become outdated. Even in old servers, high-level characters would come to Greens Forest to guide new players into triggering hidden bosses for these materials.
Zhong Ye Mian clearly understood this too, so he promptly announced the loot distribution plan for the hidden boss: "The stuff that drops from that thing is all money! Once it appears, we’ll all roll the dice!"
"Fine." It had to be this way—keeping good loot for oneself? This was a random team, with no justification for that.
"Alright, if everyone’s ready, we’ll enter the dungeon." Zhong Ye Mian typed out the message, and after receiving everyone’s confirmation, they entered the dungeon.
Ye Xiu had been talking to Chen Guo sitting beside him earlier, so he hadn’t been using his headset. He now picked it up and put it on. Just as they entered the dungeon, a voice exclaimed inside, "What the hell, what kind of luck is that? We mention the hidden boss and it actually appears?"