Walking into the teleport point, Nie Yan was teleported back to Carol City. He turned into an alley, entered stealth mode, and after making sure no one was following, he twisted and turned several times through the alley until he reached Kadi's Blacksmith Shop.
Learning from past mistakes, he would absolutely never reveal the location of Kadi's Blacksmith Shop.
Nie Yan transported the bat fangs he had collected in batches and sold them to Kadi.
More than two hundred thirty groups sold for four silver coins. In just half an hour, two silver coins had turned into four, plus he’d earned over nine hundred experience points. Nie Yan glanced at his level—it was already at 5%.
After handing over all the bat fangs, Nie Yan went back to Moto Town to keep collecting bat fangs.
Seeing that Nie Yan came as promised, afraid he might leave again, the players swarmed up to trade.
Because of Nie Yan’s actions, Moto Town had become bustling and lively.
“Don’t rush everyone, I’m done buying for this morning, but I’ll come back around eight tonight to buy more,” Nie Yan sent out an ad to the players. With a whole day of grinding monsters, by evening those players would surely have gathered plenty of bat fangs.
Soon he’d collected over two hundred groups. The trading gradually slowed down, and then intermittently he collected over a hundred more. Seeing that no one else was coming, Nie Yan teleported back to Carol City.
Two thieves were sneaking along behind Nie Yan. With him buying up so many bat fangs at once, and acting as if he couldn’t get enough, it was hard not to attract attention.
Nie Yan noticed someone was tailing him and smirked slightly. A thief who could track him hasn’t even been born yet.
Nie Yan slipped into an alley, entered stealth mode, and quickly vanished.
When those two thieves came looking for him, Nie Yan had already disappeared without a trace.
“Where did that guy go？”
"Can't find it."
"Bro, what do you think that guy is doing collecting so many bat teeth？"
"Who the hell knows? Definitely not leveling forging skills—you wouldn't need this many bat teeth for that. He's still buying bat teeth this afternoon, so we'll check it out then."
The two thieves stood by the wall, chatted a bit, then turned and left.
Not far from where the two thieves stood, a figure slowly emerged from the wall—it was Nie Yan, who had stealthed and vanished. He was at most two yards away from the two thieves, yet they didn't notice him at all.
Watching the retreating figures of the two thieves, Nie Yan sneered coldly. Want to pry into his secrets? Wishful thinking. He wasn't stupid enough to expose Senior Blacksmith Kadi. He turned and entered the alley.
After trading over three hundred stacks of bat teeth to Kadi, the money in Nie Yan's backpack turned into seven silver coins. That much money was a huge fortune at the current level.
Nie Yan ran to Carter Town and Nightmare Town to buy bat teeth, then sold them to Kadi, pocketing twenty-six silver coins.
Nie Yan truly understood the meaning of the phrase "money rolling in."
"Tsk, that felt good."
Early-game money is crucial for a player's future development.
In his past life, that paladin earned nearly ten gold coins from this trade. Nie Yan found it hard to believe at first, but now he truly understood. Since those players knew Nie Yan was buying bat teeth at a high price, they definitely wouldn't sell them to NPCs anymore. He could make even more money later！
With money, his confidence was radically different. Nie Yan walked toward the largest auction house in Carol City, where the items up for auction were at least Bronze-tier equipment or higher, along with various rare skill books and materials. Most of the traders there were dungeon-raiding teams.
Nie Yan first bought ninety Fine Silk at a slightly lower price by the roadside, stored them in the warehouse for quest completion, then strode into the auction hall.
The largest auction house in Carol City was built quite majestically. Dozens of tall pillars inside the hall supported a massive roof. The entire hall spanned a hundred yards, looking like a magnificent temple.
Having been here countless times in his past life, Nie Yan found a corner seat in the auction hall with practiced ease, picked up the bidding controller, and began browsing the prices of various items on the magic screen in front of his seat.
Flipping through page after page, the various items on the magic screen were neatly categorized, allowing players to easily find what they wanted.
Nie Yan clicked on the Miscellaneous category. What was being sold here were common items for all classes, such as parrying daggers, small shields, backpacks, and more.
Each player could equip five backpacks. Backpack spaces came in sizes like sixteen slots, twenty slots, twenty-four slots, twenty-eight slots, etc. The larger the space, the higher the price.
Every player had a basic twenty-slot backpack. On the market, the price of a sixteen-slot backpack was as high as over a dozen copper coins, while twenty-slot backpacks were even more expensive. But for Nie Yan now, money was no issue.
Money spent could be earned back; letting it rot in one's pocket was the most worthless thing to do.
Nie Yan intended to use this money to equip himself with the perfect loadout.
In the vast auction house, there were only eleven twenty-slot backpacks up for auction. Each had a bidding price of around twenty copper coins. Nie Yan placed bids on four twenty-slot backpacks.
The twenty-slot backpacks slowly increased in price under Nie Yan's push, and he ultimately purchased four twenty-slot backpacks at a price of twenty-two copper coins each.
"Tailors sure as hell make money," Nie Yan couldn't help but think. However, to become a successful life profession, one needed connections. Joining a guild that continuously supplies materials allowed them to practice life skills without worry, and tailoring was no exception. Although many combat players also learned life skills, they could never match those dedicated to life professions.
Nie Yan wasn't reduced to becoming a life profession player.
Having spent one and a half silver coins, Nie Yan flipped to the page dedicated to selling thief items.
His eyes scanned, searching for things of interest; as long as they were useful, he bought them without hesitation, even if a bit pricey, he didn't care.
+3 Agility Bronze Soft Leather Leggings, +2 Strength Bronze Azure Leather Armor, +2 Balance Bronze Horsehide Boots, +3 Strength Bronze Silver-Edge Dagger. Nie Yan spent a high price to buy four pieces of level 0 Bronze equipment. His gear was completely renewed, all Bronze equipment. Each of these four pieces could bankrupt an ordinary player. If not for earning so much money from that task, Nie Yan truly wouldn't dare spend like this.
After equipping, he checked his weight load—sixteen pounds, still in light load state, not affecting actions.
Nie Yan also bought three thief skill books. The first was a passive skill, Stealth Enhancement, granting an additional +3 bonus to stealth and concealment; the second, an attack skill, Stun, stunning the opponent from the front for 3 seconds, with the target not waking upon attack, cooldown 30 seconds; the third, Muffled Strike, stunning the opponent from behind for six seconds, but the target wakes upon attack, cooldown 60 seconds;
These three skill books are the Thief's level 0 basic skills, but each one costs as much as twenty copper coins on the market. Thieves are very poor in the early game, a pair of poor brothers alongside Mages, because buying skill books nearly drains all their money.
Thieves can't do without skill books, yet each book is so expensive. They have to live frugally, scrimping and saving just to buy skills. Sometimes they have to make do with shabby equipment. Those Thieves who are relatively well-off in real life have no choice but to spend real money on trading platforms.
Only by enduring this tough period and buying their skills can Thieves truly show off the power of their strong control class.
Before his rebirth, Nie Yan had to endure this step by step as well, but now, he easily crossed that hurdle.
After learning the three skill books, the skill bar became much richer. Nie Yan scrolled through the skill book page to see if there were any other skill books for sale. A rare skill book caught his eye.
Skill Book： Block.
Skill Description： Use a dagger to parry an enemy's physical attack.
Skill Activation Requirements： Action （requires a weapon）
Skill Cooldown： 30 seconds.
Usable By： Thief, Warrior, Paladin (any faction can use it).
Nie Yan would never forget this skill book, the dream of many melee classes. It is a treasure of melee classes. No matter the time—whether in combat or PvP—blocking is practically a life-saving skill.
The Block skill drops from demon-type monsters, with a probability no higher than one in a hundred thousand.
In his previous life, out of a hundred level 60 melee players, only one or two had learned Block. Its value was only slightly lower than Vital Strike.
No matter what, buy it！
Nie Yan glanced at the current bid—two silver coins—and it was still climbing, with each bid increasing by at least 50 copper coins.
Most of those bidding on rare skills are wealthy players, or the bigwigs of teams and guilds. Most of the time, they don't mind spending a few extra silver coins for a skill book.
Two silver fifty copper, three silver, three silver fifty copper...
The heated bidding for the Block skill caught the attention of players.
"It's a rare skill！"
"No wonder it's so expensive."
Three silver coins—the earnings from a team clearing a normal Tier 3 dungeon are only around three silver coins, at most five.
No one raised the bid for a long time. If no one bid within ten minutes, the Block skill book would go to the current bidder.
"Four silver." Nie Yan raised the bid once. He was determined to get this Block skill.
"Four silver fifty copper." Someone, unknown, raised the bid again.
A price like that was enough to intimidate the vast majority of players.
At times like this, it’s all about who’s willing to throw more money around. “Five silver coins.” Nie Yan raised the bid again; he still had plenty of ways to earn, so a bit of cash didn’t matter.
“Damn, who’s that rich? Come on, it’s just a Block skill book.”
The crowd of players was already murmuring among themselves—a Thief skill book going for this kind of price was insane.
“So many rich people out there.”
A long time passed without anyone raising the bid. It seemed that guy had been scared off by Nie Yan’s offer. Ten minutes later, the Block skill book landed in Nie Yan’s backpack.
Learned the Block skill book, then Nie Yan spent thirty copper coins to buy a bottle of rogue-specific poison for coating daggers, usable three times, which reduces the opponent's defense by 10% after poisoning.
After purchasing, most of the equipment he had previously obtained was sold off. Nie Yan still had sixteen silver coins left in his backpack.
With so many new skills added, given Nie Yan's familiarity with Thief skills, he didn't even need to practice to use them smoothly, and his strength skyrocketed all at once.
Compared to when he first entered the game, Nie Yan was much more confident. With his gaming experience from his past life, he could map out his future development path and follow it.
Nie Yan used the silk in his backpack to craft ten bandages just in case. He also bought some bread and other things to restore stamina. And he prepared a backpack full of low-grade instant recovery potions and slow recovery potions.
Intermediate Combat Bandage Skill： Skill Proficiency 10/500.
Where to level up next？ Nie Yan immediately came up with a few leveling spots, all very suitable for Thieves.