Elowen, the leader of the explorer group, was walking down the familiar street when she noticed a small crowd gathered in one place. Her amber-colored eyes flashed with curiosity, and she decided to check what was going on.
As she approached, her Level 140 aura was noticeable, and many people turned to look. Thanks to her dryad nature, the essence surrounding her was not aggressive, but like a calming ancient spring lake.
Soone in the crowd recognized her. “Lady Elowen, are you here to check the new power equipnt sets as well?”
“Equipnt sets?” Elowen tilted her head, her antler-like horns following her gesture.
The man who recognized her, seeing the confusion in her eyes, smiled widely. “Lady Elowen, you might’ve been a bit busy hunting lately, right? A few days ago, a large fleet of rchants arrived, and today, they finished registering and have opened their shops.”
Elowen approached, standing by the man’s side as she looked at the entrance toward the Lignified House. The decorations at the front were quite peculiar, sothing she had never seen before. “How special can an equipnt set be? Compared to Leveling Equipnt, they should be far behind, right?”
In the Golden Sap Empire, equipnt sets were not new knowledge. There were plenty of them. However, equipnt sets that leveled together were a technology that Liu Shu had yet to develop. So, her leveling technology was good for individual pieces. However, at the sa level, they were weaker than an equipnt set with unique skills.
An equipnt set, as the na implied, was a combination of different treasures that created a resonance, bringing out hidden skills or passives.
The man shook his head. “While I admit that the leveling equipnt is quite economically sound, it is a few levels behind the new equipnt sets. Moreover, these sets are quite cheap with powerful effects. Look at this one.”
He shared so information, reflecting on Elowen’s .
***
[Wind Field Knight Set]
Set Skill 2 pieces: All Wind Aether Mana spells cost 20% less to cast.
Set Skill 3 pieces: You can take flight for 5 minutes at a ti. (1 Hour Cooldown)
Set Skill 4 pieces: All Wind Aether mana spells and attacks have a chance to create a that damages enemies for 10% of your stat per second for 5 seconds. (Cooldown 20 Seconds).
***
The set was made out of armor, underarmor, a weapon, and a necklace. Its stats were top-notch for the level, and it could be crafted with a fixed Level from Level 10 to Level 75.
Elowen couldn’t help but look surprised. Usually, a powerhouse could have equipped up to eight pieces of equipnt. An armor, necklace, amulet, two bracers, one earring, and up to two weapons.
The armor was not only tal armor, but also robes, leather sets, and similar.
Of course, this was just a rule of thumb. There was plenty of exceptional equipnt that could overco these limitations. Still, the equipnt needed to be connected to the user. So, the more equipnt, the greater the burden.
Therefore, the optimal number of equipnt before it started to cause a backlash was the aforentioned.
Elowen rubbed her chin. “I admit that the Set Equipnt is strong. However, there are plenty of other pieces of equipnt with equipnt skills, right? I still don’t understand why so many people are here.”
The man chuckled. “I knew Lady Elowen would see through this. The main reason for the large number of custors is that they are extrely affordable. Moreover, each piece of equipnt also cos with its own abilities. In this set, for example, the armor has a wind shield, the weapon can summon 2 small wind elentals, the necklace can cast a Wind Aether Healing spell, and the earring can give you a burst of attack speed.”
“Attack speed?” Elowen was stunned. “Raw, percentage attack speed?”
“Exactly.” The man chuckled. “Attributes that boost things like Damage, Attack Speed, Defense, and raw basic attributes are beyond rare. Yet, all these new sets have at least one of those attributes on them.”
This ti, Elowen couldn’t help but sigh. “If what you said is the truth… Things are about to change.” Then, she asked, curious. “Are there Level 140 pieces of equipnt for sale?”
“Plenty.” The man smiled. “They have up to Level 199 equipnt for sale. Only those pieces are a bit expensive. Still, most things are Profound Grade with so World Grade sets.”
“World Grade!”
Elowen exclaid again. Then, she thought to herself. ‘If I change to a set of A Tier equipnt, my strength will increase explosively. Once our group is fully equipped, we might be able to challenge the third trial in the .’
So, without a hint of hesitation, Elowen walked inside to buy.
For buyers, this situation was extrely good. However, for the locals who had developed steadily, this sudden outflow of custors crippled many of their operations.
However, these crafters didn’t react with envy or resentnt like the rchants first believed.
Cassian glanced at the new shops he opened and nodded lightly at the profits reflected in his eyes. He was not surprised nor happy. It was a matter of course for such things to develop this way.
He rubbed the tip of his curved ram horn and smiled coldly. “Now… resentnt will overflow. From locals, right? Once they begin harassing us, we can use the legal system in place to push them even further. Soon, so of them will file for bankruptcy, and that’s when I open my banking system. At first, it will be easy to get loans and pay them back. But, as ti passes, so people will helplessly fall further and further into their red numbers…”
With that in mind, Cassian called for one of his secretaries and gave him a few pre-prepared docunts. “The second soone causes trouble, rember to use these rules. I’ve read the local law book, and it’s quite easy to take advantage of.” He was actually sowhat confused at this. “Do they not see the loopholes in so of the laws? Or…” His intelligent eyes flashed. “They don’t dare challenge the bottom line of whoever set these laws.”
While he said that there were loopholes, it was not entirely true. The set of laws was honest, easy to digest, and easy to apply. Bureaucracy had very little hand in the market, and where it touched, it was because those markets could cause instability in the empire. Moreover, the places where the governnt poked around were never suppressed, only controlled so that they didn’t devolve into monopolies and similar dead ends.
What Cassian ant by loopholes was that these rules could be changed very easily if taken “up to interpretation.” Just with a few wordplays, Cassian was quite sure that he could exploit the legal system, and no one would be able to say anything.
He was not the only one; the other 27 rchant chains were also quite confused at this set of laws.
Of course, when they read the one that basically said. “Please, be honest and do not twist laws up to interpretation.” Every single one of them ignored it, as such a “law” could be easily taken advantage of.
It existing or not changed nothing during legal battles. After all, both sides could claim that their own interpretation was the original intent of the law.
Of course, fully exploiting these laws since the very beginning was nothing but a rookie mistake. First, adapt and make sure not to create a precedent that could later be used against them.
Later, when their influence reached a certain power, they began twisting and bending so of the laws very subtly to make sure their progress didn’t stall. Finally, once you earned a practical monopoly, laws were nothing but a set of words that, ultimately, ant, “rules for thee but not for .”
Liu Shu, while developing her own things, also kept an eye on Ceperet, the Moon, and Nualis. Vorathen was still too new for these large rchants to care, so besides a few superficial links for future expansions, they put in no effort there.
Among the three, surprisingly, the Moon was the hardest market to pierce for the aliens. The reason was that the insectoids living there were not unaware of their thods. So, they could counterattack in many fields.
Out of respect for Liu Shu, they had naturally never dared to use the tricks the rchants currently used.
Of course, tricks could never allow for such rapid expansion. The true detail that made them so prominent so quickly was the quality, thods, and services that far surpassed the current Golden Sap Empire standard.
So, just around half a year after their arrival, the market shifted completely, with many famous brands and businesses being quietly swallowed and changed by the new arrivals.
Liu Shu observed everything silently, never stepping up. After all, during these six months, the rchants adhered to her rules and principles, leaving locals unable to complain about anything. They were crushed, honestly, and in a direct confrontation.
Even if soone wanted to drag them in front of the law, the result, even if Liu Shu herself presided over the court, would be a big and fat “not guilty.”
The population, accustod to the Golden Empire’s shifting nature, didn’t care about the old businesses. If they fell, so would sigh in reluctance for a few monts and then move on to find sothing better.
The ability to adapt of locals, for the first ti, hurt local businesses the most.
But… this was not a faulty design on Liu Shu’s part. To put it simply, if soone asked, Liu Shu would answer with, ‘It’s not a bug; it's a feature.”
Why?
Liu Shu looked at the “failed” locals and didn’t see resentnt in their eyes. Accustod to the Golden Sap Empire’s fierce competitiveness, their eyes were blazing like hunters who had seen worthy prey.
When Liu Shu saw their expressions, her lips couldn’t help but arch. During this half a year, Liu Shu never gave her blessing to the aliens, not even once.
So of them even converted to her church with honest hearts after seeing the grand World Tree’s figure, yet not even those people received her blessings.
Liu Shu acted as if these new people didn’t even exist, and naturally, the also ignored all of them, even when there were quite a few who could receive their blessings.
‘If Mommy says that they are not good, then they are not good!’
Aionthra, sitting on her throne, peacefully caressed the roots that surrounded her. Her eyes were languid, and a faint smile arched her beautiful lips. “Things are going exactly as you predicted, Mother.”
Liu Shu gently caressed her daughter’s face. “Isn’t this what you also predicted? You are so clever, baby~.”
Aionthra squinted in delight. Being praised by Liu Shu had beco one of her most cherished monts. Because, she knew, Liu Shu would not praise her just because… unless she asked for it, of course. Aionthra was quite sure that if she asked Liu Shu to pat her head while praising her, Liu Shu would never refuse and instead pamper her to the heavens.
However, without a prompt from her, Liu Shu always praised her children when they did sothing worth praising. She didn’t overshoot their achievents; she steadily pushed them forward along the path they chose.
This attitude is what made Aionthra completely and utterly in love with her Mother. Of course, love on a familiar level. Aionthra admired her mother as nothing more than a mother, yet nothing less than that!
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