Li Xiang had a fortunate day today; every time he went to challenge the boss, he dropped at least three pieces of purple equipment. After completing the heroic dungeon five times, the equipment on all four team members underwent a significant change, especially for Qingfeng Daoist. Already adorned with a few pieces of purple gear, he now had a complete set after a few more rounds.
Different martial arts sects in the game had distinct weapons, such as the whip and insect flute of the Five Poisons, or the bow and hidden weapons pouch of the Tang Sect.
Wudang, however, was unique. Positioned as a sword cultivation sect, all three major disciplines wielded longswords. Specific suitability for each discipline was detailed on the weapons.
Wudang consisted of the Sword Sect, Qi Sect, and Tai Chi Sect. The Sword Sect could be understood as a high-burst melee swordsman, relying on the accumulation of sword intent for rapid strikes with instant-cast skills, delivering a powerful sense of impact.
The Qi Sect was a ranged profession, akin to a remote mage, inflicting long-range damage with sword qi. Their attacks had a long reach and inflicted high damage.
The Tai Chi Sect was rather special, focusing on a control-oriented playstyle of slow strikes turning fast. They relied on various formations like Bagua and Tai Chi to assist teammates, with many skills requiring channeling, making them susceptible to interruptions, demanding strong prediction and overall awareness.
Liuchuan couldn't discern which discipline Qingfeng Daoist was playing, even after observing for quite some time.
When he joined the team, he wore Sword Sect equipment. However, upon entering the dungeon, without Liuchuan's reminder, he switched to Qi Sect gear. Evidently, he quickly grasped Liuchuan's intention to use a ranged profession against small monsters. Among Wudang's three disciplines, Qi Sect was the only one suited for the current team configuration.
Qingfeng Daoist's comprehension ability reached a point where he didn't need the captain's instructions to instantly grasp team coordination.
Moreover, his knowledge of major guilds and battle teams was extensive. Li Xiang wasn't wrong when he called him a "Jianghu Bai Xiaosheng" (a person who knows everything in the martial world).
This Wudang was indeed not ordinary!
After five consecutive dungeons, Qingfeng Daoist quietly observed the Tang Sect's actions and commands. Liuchuan was also subtly paying attention to this new teammate's actions and awareness. While the level 30 dungeons had limited room for showcasing skills, the senses of skilled players were highly sensitive. After a few dungeons, both had a fair understanding of each other's abilities.
Completing five dungeons, with half an hour left until midnight, Liuchuan once again brought the group to the equipment market in Jiangling to find upgrades. Additionally, he traded all the unused equipment obtained from today's dungeon runs to Qingfeng, instructing him to sell them in his shop.
After a few hours, Qingfeng's shop was nearly sold out of blue equipment.
Liuchuan asked, "Daoist, do you want to upgrade the shop to level two? Do you have enough funds? I have some money here."
Qingfeng Daoist replied, "It's enough."
A level one shop had only one page with 16 slots for storing items. Upon reaching level two, it expanded to two pages with 32 slots. Continuing to level up, the highest was a level ten shop with 10 pages and a total of 160 slots.
After upgrading to level two, another manager could be added.
After numerous heroic dungeon runs, Qingfeng Daoist had already made a judgment about the Tang Sect's capabilities. Without hesitation, he directly added Liuchuan as a shop manager. A shop manager had permissions for handling funds, goods, and modifying prices, almost equivalent to the shop owner's authority, excluding the ability to close or upgrade the shop.
Adding managers must be done cautiously; in the old server, there were cases where careless hiring led to large shop funds being looted. Hence, Qingfeng Daoist's caution was entirely understandable to Liuchuan.
Qingfeng Daoist privately messaged Liuchuan, "Try putting equipment in the shop; the management password is 7963."
Liuchuan didn't hesitate and opened the shop panel, entering the password to log in as a manager. Indeed, he could now store items. Liuchuan quickly placed all the equipment from his bag into the shop and set the prices.
In the team channel, Li Xiang exclaimed, "Daoist, is this Clear Breeze Shop yours? Impressive, your reputation is now in the top three!"
Qingfeng Daoist replied with a single word, "Yes."
Liuchuan chuckled, "Now that I'm a manager too, let's all make money together. Master, if you don't understand this, go practice your skills."
Li Xiang muttered, "..."
Feeling scorned, Li Xiang scratched his head in silence.
On the other hand, Wu Zewen earnestly volunteered, "Need help with business? I can assist you guys."
Liuchuan couldn't help but laugh.
This small wealth enthusiast seemed to get interested whenever economic matters were involved!
Li Xiang chimed in, "Exactly, exactly! The Five Poisons is exceptionally good at math; he's the best at calculations!"
Qingfeng Daoist said, "A level two shop can only have two managers. I'll add you when the shop reaches level three."
After saying this, even Qingfeng Daoist was a bit surprised. How did he inexplicably trust these three people? They had known each other for less than three hours, probably because of that Master being a bit naive. He didn't seem like a cunning scammer.
Li Xiang completely failed to notice that he received another "naive" evaluation and happily said, "Making money together in a partnership feels great!"
Wu Zewen also seemed interested in doing business. After carefully examining the shop's transaction records, he analyzed, "In the early stages, everyone levels up quickly, and blue equipment binds immediately upon equipping. They need to be discarded after wearing for three or four days, with low cost-effectiveness. Purple equipment, on the other hand, doesn't bind and can be traded again, but the prices are high. Ordinary players can't afford them, but there are many wealthy players in the game who pursue equipment quality and are willing to spend money on purple gear, right?"
Liuchuan agreed, "Exactly. There are quite a few big spenders in this game."
Wu Zewen suggested, "I noticed that Daoist's shop only has blue equipment. This might make wealthy players not even bother checking Clear Breeze Shop, as they won't be interested. Over time, they might just skip over the shop name, which isn't great for future development. I think you should include both blue and purple equipment, maintaining a 3:7 ratio. It won't affect the flow of goods in the shop and will attract the attention of high-end players looking to buy purple gear."
The academic achiever always presented well-reasoned arguments.
Liuchuan, after reading Wu Zewen's serious analysis, couldn't help but smile and sent a thumbs-up, saying, "Wife is right."
Qingfeng Daoist: "..."
Calling him "wife" at every turn, is he under some strict marital control?
Liuchuan grinned, "Daoist, let's go with what the 'wife' said. Put all the purple gear in; our shop aims to target the high-end materials market. Starting to slowly attract the attention of big spenders is the right move."
Qingfeng Daoist had no objections and promptly priced and added all the recently obtained purple gear to the shop.
While conversing with teammates, Liuchuan quickly searched the marketplace, buying a batch of needed purple gear. He then traded different pieces to Wu Zewen and Li Xiang.
Li Xiang was surprised, "Why spend money on buying? We can just grind a few ourselves..."
Liuchuan explained, "Don't forget; we're aiming for dungeon records. In the evaluation of dungeon performance, equipment score is a crucial factor."
Qingfeng Daoist added, "Exactly. If we can set a record, the rewards will be very generous. In the early stage, the time is tight, and the level 30 Named Sword Pavilion dungeon will probably be abandoned in about a week. So the sooner we get purple gear, the better for selling."
Wu Zewen quickly calculated, "At this upgrade speed, in three days, we'll surpass level 35, and Named Sword Pavilion won't have any rewards left."
Liuchuan smiled, "So, let's use these three days to earn some money first!"
***
Midnight arrived quickly, and a new day began.
The dungeon entry attempts in the upper-left corner were indeed reset, and Named Sword Pavilion's attempts were back to 5. Liuchuan included the two Wudang members, Moon Grass, and Shy Grass, forming a team at the dungeon entrance. He sent trade invitations to them.
Moon Grass was pleasantly surprised, "This purple gear is for us?!"
Liuchuan said, "A gift for you all. You work hard in dungeons, and you deserve some compensation. Can't let you go empty-handed."
Moon Grass happily accepted; the equipment from the Tang Sect captain was exactly what he needed.
Heartbroken Grass, being a guild leader, remained quite composed. Low-level purple gear didn't stir much reaction from him.
After organizing at the entrance, Liuchuan said, "Alright, let's get ready to enter. For setting records, every second counts. Stay focused, as our coordination was pretty good just now. Let's try to set a record on the first attempt; there are additional rewards upon refreshing records."
The six entered the dungeon together, and suddenly, a line of large text appeared in the center of the screen:
"I heard that Red Maple Villa has dispatched a mysterious assassin to infiltrate Named Sword Pavilion. Fellow warriors, please be extremely cautious!"
Li Xiang exclaimed, "Is this encountering a hidden quest?"
Liuchuan, somewhat speechless, had just planned to set a record and now encountered a hidden quest. Today, their luck was indeed extraordinary.
In heroic mode dungeons, there's a 5% chance of triggering a hidden quest. Once activated, the entire heroic dungeon's gameplay and storyline would change accordingly. It entirely depended on the players' luck and was an unexpected bonus.
Different from regular dungeon bosses, where you could revive and continue after a wipe, a hidden boss could only be challenged once. If the team wiped and couldn't defeat the boss, the dungeon would fail, and the hidden boss would disappear. The rewards from a hidden boss were much richer than those from regular bosses. The difficulty level was also higher. Hidden bosses not only dropped purple gear but also precious materials, making them more valuable than purple gear.
"I heard that Red Maple Villa has dispatched a mysterious assassin to infiltrate Named Sword Pavilion. Fellow warriors, please be extremely cautious!"
The large text in the center of the screen flashed three times consecutively.
Liuchuan said, "Encountering a hidden quest means we can't set a record. Let's think about how to deal with this boss first."
Li Xiang asked, "I've never encountered one; don't you know how to deal with it, Captain?"
Liuchuan sweated, "I forgot."
.....
The probability of encountering a hidden boss is indeed very low, only 5%. It means that you might encounter one after running the dungeon around 20 times. Typically, by the time you've run it 20 times, everyone has leveled up and moved on to the next dungeon. So, encountering it once during the novice stage is considered exceptionally lucky.
Liuchuan might have encountered it once or twice a few years ago, but after such a long time, he had forgotten what the hidden boss in Named Sword Pavilion was all about.
In the game's setting, Red Maple Villa is a neutral force in the martial arts world, supposedly a camp of mysterious assassins founded by enigmatic individuals. Players can pay to post bounties here to hunt down their enemies, and capable players can also accept these bounties to help assassinate targets. Successfully killing the target earns a bounty reward. Red Maple Villa acts as an intermediary for assassins, collecting fees from players and being strictly money-oriented.
The enigmatic nature of Red Maple Villa, being both good and evil, led to many hidden bosses in the game's dungeons being their assassins. These assassins might come to kill players or assist players by directly eliminating the dungeon bosses.
In short, the magical place that is Red Maple Villa remains a mystery to everyone.
After a moment of silence, Liuchuan suggested, "Why don't we pause for a moment and search for a strategy on Baidu?"
Qingfeng Daoist said, "I remember how to fight this boss."
Liuchuan straightforwardly said, "Then Daoist, you take command."
Qingfeng Daoist explained, "This assassin is sent by Red Maple Villa to kill the Blood Robe Sect steward. He will first kill the first and second bosses, and then, because we are witnesses, he will kill us to silence us. What we need to do is follow him and help him kill the two bosses first. Finally, we just need to defeat him."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Liuchuan then said, "How about we take a break and search for a guide on Baidu?"
Clear Breeze Daoist continued, "Unfortunately, our team lacks a healer. This assassin is a squishy target and can easily be killed by the bosses. If he dies from the bosses' attacks, we'll have to go back to the initial plot, and the hidden quest will fail."
The most frustrating thing in the world is not being unable to encounter a hidden boss but having a hidden boss right in front of you, and you can't fight it.
No healer indeed presented a challenge...
After a moment of silence, Liuchuan suddenly grinned and said, "Who said our team lacks a healer? We have a divine healer in our team."
Clear Breeze Daoist sent a question mark, "Where?"
Li Xiang was also puzzled, "Divine healer?"
Liuchuan chuckled, "Wife, quickly switch to healing mode, prove to everyone that you are a divine healer."
Wu Zewen nodded calmly, "Sure."
Everyone was almost dumbfounded!
There's actually a healer here?!