Chapter 36: Newbie Contractors, Your Daddy Has Arrived
Inside the exclusive room, Su Xiao sat cross-legged on the bed, holding two treasure chests in his hands, both of Epic rank. One of them was dropped by the big boss, Zechariah.
As an "Lucky King" with a Luck Attribute of up to 8 points, temporarily reaching 12 points, Su Xiao was fairly confident about opening these chests.
With a *pop*, a cigarette was lit, and the Lucky King status was activated. Su Xiao first opened the chest dropped by the Black Abyss Wyvern.
[You have opened the Treasure Chest: Epic (5%).]
[You have obtained Black Dragon Claw (Legendary Material).]
[You have obtained Black Dragon Fang (Epic Material/Consumable).]
[You have obtained Black Dragon Eye (Legendary Material).]
[You have obtained Black Dragon Hide (Legendary Material).]
[Black Dragon Fang]
Origin: Black Abyss
Quality: Epic
Type: Material/Consumable
Effect: Can be added when enhancing a weapon, increasing success rate by 10% while boosting weapon attack by 2–4 points.
Rating: 648 points (Epic item rating range: 530–700 points.)
Description: The evil dragon roars!
Selling Price: 328,000 Paradise Coins.
...
Su Xiao was not surprised by the chest's yield; he had only killed a wyvern, so opening the chest wouldn't produce items like a Dragon-Slaying Sword or a Black Dragon Codex.
With the Lucky King status running out, Su Xiao opened the chest dropped by Zechariah.
[You have opened the Treasure Chest: Epic (20%).]
[You have obtained Chain of Universal Love (Legendary).]
[You have obtained Advanced Alchemy Knowledge: Plant Harmony Chapter (Epic).]
...
[Chain of Universal Love]
Origin: Black Abyss
Quality: Legendary
Category: Pendant (Jewelry equipment is a rare item)
Durability: 107/107
Requirements: True Stamina attribute of 99 points or more, and extremely high plant affinity.
Effect: Universal Love (Active), consumes 50% of max Health Points, allows fusion with any large plant, gaining its abilities during the fusion period.
Note: This skill has a cooldown of 107 hours.
Rating: 470 points (Legendary equipment rating range: 400–530 points.)
Description: When you are loving enough, plants will choose to help you too.
Price: 220,000 Paradise Coins.
...
Seeing the description of [Chain of Universal Love], Su Xiao felt it was useless to him. The concept of "universal love" clearly had nothing to do with him.
[Advanced Alchemy Knowledge: Plant Harmony Chapter]
Origin: Void
Quality: Epic
Category: Knowledge-type Skill Scroll.
Prerequisites: Alchemy Pharmaceutics Lv.20, Alchemy Biology Lv.20, True Intelligence attribute of 90 points or more.
Effect: Allows mastery of the Plant Harmony Chapter (enables the creation of permanent enhancement potions).
Rating: 700 points (Epic item rating range: 530–700 points.)
Description: Knowledge... is power.
Price: 1,000 Paradise Coins (Knowledge-type scrolls have a lower selling price).
...
Su Xiao's heartbeat quickened because he noticed the phrase "enables the creation of permanent enhancement potions." He knew exactly what that meant.
[Yes/No to master Advanced Alchemy Knowledge: Plant Harmony Chapter.]
"Master."
As soon as Su Xiao spoke, a massive surge of information flooded into his mind. Fortunately, his physique was strong enough; otherwise, this alone would have knocked him unconscious.
[You have unlocked Advanced Alchemy Knowledge: Plant Harmony Chapter.]
[You have mastered Plant Harmony Chapter Lv.1.]
[You have unlocked a new formula: Vitality Potion.]
[Vitality Potion: Each creation requires 300 Mana Points, consumes materials: Soul Essence, Source-less Spring, Vitality Source, Heavenly King Flower Juice, Life Polymer Substance C, Life Polymer Substance T, Ridin+, and a Crystal Vial.]
[Effect: After drinking/injecting, permanently increases Stamina attribute by 2 points (this potion is effective only for Stamina attributes below 20 points; repeated use is ineffective and will cause poisoning).]
...
From the perspective of a Fourth Rank contractor like Su Xiao, the Vitality Potion was actually not that impressive. But one must not forget, this was only the formula for "Plant Harmony Chapter Lv.1." As this ability improved, the permanent enhancement potions Su Xiao created would become increasingly powerful.
Moreover, the Vitality Potion was not without a market. If Su Xiao started mass-producing this stuff to raise the proficiency of "Plant Harmony Chapter Lv.1," he would become the dear daddy of all First Rank contractors. Even if those newbies had to sell everything they owned, they would find a way to buy a bottle.
After sorting through the items from the chests, Su Xiao handed [Chain of Universal Love] to Beini and Bubu Wang to sell. As for the pile of Black Dragon products, except for [Black Dragon Fang], everything else was bundled and sold to Lide, who was willing to buy materials at a decent price.
Currently, Su Xiao needed a large sum of Paradise Coins for liquidity. He planned to moderately upgrade the "Plant Harmony Chapter Lv.1" ability. Undoubtedly, finished Vitality Potions would sell well, but this also required significant capital. Su Xiao had no interest in making one bottle and selling it immediately.
Secondly, this capital would later be used to repair an Epic-rank sniper rifle, provided that sniper rifle actually arrived.
Beini could probably sell for around 500,000 to 600,000 Paradise Coins. After all, that Legendary equipment was too bizarre; for a very few, it was a treasure, but for 99.9% of contractors, it was utterly useless and would only get them killed faster.
As for the Black Dragon products from Lide, he offered a price of 860,000. Since it was just a pile of materials, this price was already decent.
After searching through his storage space, Su Xiao found a potion: [Polymerized Sub-Acid Enhancement Potion]. This Legendary potion was best suited for selling to Second or Third Rank contractors. So, he contacted the Divine Emperor, as they had many Second or Third Rank members.
After some haggling, [Polymerized Sub-Acid Enhancement Potion] was sold for 890,000 Paradise Coins. After waiting about half an hour, Beini quickly sold [Chain of Universal Love] at a rock-bottom price of 490,000 Paradise Coins. This brought Su Xiao's assets to 2,290,000 Paradise Coins, making him exceptionally wealthy.
However, the Vitality Potion, besides consuming 300 Mana Points, cost nearly 28,000 Paradise Coins per bottle to produce. Su Xiao seriously doubted whether First Rank contractors could even afford it. Considering the benefit of 2 Stamina points for newbies (whose highest attribute was around a dozen points), if Su Xiao sold it for 30,000 per bottle, those newbies would likely grit their teeth and buy one.
Undoubtedly, as long as the level of Plant Harmony Chapter Lv.1 could be raised, it would become one of the major sources of income in the later stages. Moreover, when joining any faction, the ability to create permanent enhancement potions would grant considerable influence.
Su Xiao entered the Alchemy Laboratory, exchanged Paradise Coins for materials, and began creating Vitality Potions. However, he quickly discovered that creating permanent enhancement potions was extremely difficult.
If the difficulty of creating recovery potions was 3, then the difficulty of concocting permanent enhancement potions was at least 70 or higher.
Sweat dripped down Su Xiao's temples. On the experimental table, rows of test tubes either bubbled *gurgle gurgle* or were as still as solids. Unknowingly, he became engrossed in creating permanent enhancement potions. It was very difficult, but the process was incredibly interesting and also very expensive.
Separation, concoction, dilution, and finally, with a *crack*, a bottle of emerald-green potion exploded in Su Xiao's hands. Drops of the potion dripped from the tips of his hair.
Out of 7,326 Mana Points, only 150 remained. 672,000 Paradise Coins had gone down the drain. Su Xiao had not successfully created a single Vitality Potion, but he felt he was already fast. As long as he could create the first bottle and gain at least some basic experience, subsequent creations would not be this difficult.