Chapter 166: Spatial Pouch

Hearing An Qisheng say that even divine craftsmen could not forge divine artifacts at present, Zhang Shan found it hard to believe.

If new divine artifacts could never be forged again, how were the players supposed to play the game in the future?

They surely couldn't rely entirely on repairing damaged divine artifacts. How many of those could they possibly get? It would nowhere near be enough.

"Then when will our human race be able to forge new divine artifacts?"

Zhang Shan asked An Qisheng.

This was a game, after all. Since life professions could be advanced to the rank of divine craftsman, it made no sense not to allow the forging of divine artifacts.

"Once the tide of fortune reverses, it will naturally become possible. Now that the human race is rising and growing strong once again, I suppose it won't take too much longer."

Fine. In other words, it would be possible once the players' levels came up. Why make it sound so mysterious?

To put it bluntly, it wouldn't be until the late stage of the game. In the early stages, red equipment was considered top-tier for players.

Only a tiny handful of lucky individuals had any chance of acquiring spirit artifacts and divine artifacts.

It seemed that getting An Qisheng to forge a set of divine jewelry for him right now was completely out of the question.

He had better honestly figure out how to repair this damaged ring instead.

"Master, do you have any idea when this ring can be repaired?"

"This Ring of the Sky Hawk is far too severely damaged. To restore it, a very heavy price must be paid."

A heavy price? Surely it didn't mean he had to pay even more money, did it? Zhang Shan was unimpressed. Had this beggar-master's eyes turned entirely into money slots?

Whatever. As long as it could be repaired, money didn't matter. Zhang Shan had no particular need for money right now anyway.

He had already exchanged seventy million blue coins, which was more than enough to buy a house and cover his future living expenses.

He didn't have any grand dreams either, nor did he plan to go into business or anything after he stopped playing games in the future.

For him, money was enough as long as it sufficed. You can't take it with you when you die, and you certainly don't bring it with you when you're born.

From now on, he would basically make money in the game and spend it in the game, living a carefree life playing within the virtual world.

"Master, what else is needed to repair this ring?"

"First of all, the divinity of this Ring of the Sky Hawk has almost completely drained away. We must use multiple materials filled with divinity to reactivate the ring's divinity. Secondly, a vast amount of auxiliary materials will also be required."

An Qisheng handed a list of materials to Zhang Shan.

True to his expectation, the list was densely packed with hundreds of items. Zhang Shan even found many items on the list that clearly appeared to be construction materials.

What the heck? Why would you need construction materials to repair a ring? Out of these hundreds of materials, just how many were private items smuggled in by this divine craftsman bigwig?

Was this going to be a rhythm where he would get heavily fleeced by Zhang Shan?

However, what other choice did he have? Who told him he didn't possess this craft himself?

The list alone required five divine materials, which would instantly empty all of Zhang Shan's inventory.

As for the other hundreds of materials, Zhang Shan hadn't even heard of most of them, and he had no idea where to buy them.

He would have to ask An Qisheng. Perhaps this bigwig was just like Grandmaster Lu from back then.

With great influence and connections, he might introduce a discounted material merchant, saving him a good number of gold coins.

"Master, with so many materials, do you know where I can buy them? And about how many gold coins will it cost?"

"Oh, you can just casually find any of the largest material shops, and you should be able to buy all of them. Add these materials together, and less than ten million gold coins should be enough."

Damn it, what a bold statement from this bigwig. Less than ten million gold coins?

Had he forgotten that just a moment ago he was still a beggar? How did his tone become so grand in the blink of an eye?

Fine, when someone is under the eaves, they have to bow their heads. Zhang Shan prepared to ride his horse to get the materials.

Suddenly, he remembered that An Qisheng was previously a beggar with no fixed residence. Where was he supposed to find him after buying the materials later?

"Master, after I buy the materials, where should I look for you?"

"I plan to rebuild my alchemy laboratory on the east side of the Mage Tower. Later on, you can just look for a place called An Qisheng's Alchemy Room over there."

As soon as An Qisheng finished speaking, he used a teleportation skill and vanished on the spot.

Holy cow, a divine craftsman is truly awesome. To actually be able to use teleportation within Western Capital! Poor Zhang Shan could only slowly trot along on his horse.

After An Qisheng left, Zhang Shan checked his quest panel and found that, aside from the ever-present Demon Subjugation quest, there was now a new quest called "Damaged Ring," and the next step of the quest was to purchase the materials.

It was fortunate that this was a game; if it were in real life, Zhang Shan would have suspected he was being scammed.

Once the quest was activated, things would be easier to handle. He just needed to follow the prompts step by step.

He had to find the largest material shop in order to buy every single item on the list.

Using the map search function, Zhang Shan located a place called the Divine Mage Material Shop.

With a name as mighty as that, they surely must have all the materials.

He would go to this one. If they couldn't gather everything, the worst-case scenario was just going to another material shop to buy the rest.

Since he had already spent five days traveling, a little more time wouldn't make much difference.

Riding a horse was certainly fast. Although it wasn't as exhilarating as An Qisheng's teleportation, it was still far quicker than running on his own two short legs.

Before long, Zhang Shan arrived at the Divine Mage Material Shop.

He handed the material list to the shopkeeper.

"Boss, do you have all the materials on this list?"

"Mr. Hunter, our shop has the most comprehensive inventory of materials in the entire Western Capital. Whatever materials exist in Western Capital, we have them here."

Fine, your shop is awesome.

"Then take a look for me. How many gold coins in total will the materials on this list cost?"

After glancing at the list for a moment, the shopkeeper quickly quoted a price.

"Twelve million gold coins."

With that, he handed the list back to Zhang Shan. Zhang Shan noticed that next to each material on the list, a column for prices had been added.

Some cost only a few copper coins, while others cost tens of thousands of gold coins. The crucial point was that he needed more than just one of each material.

Some materials were required in small amounts, just a dozen or so, while others—especially the construction supplies—required tens of thousands of each.

This was undoubtedly private cargo smuggled in by An Qisheng.

To rebuild his alchemy laboratory, this divine craftsman bigwig had completely abandoned his shame and was determined to fleece Zhang Shan for all he was worth.

Buy them he must. After handing twelve million gold coins to the shopkeeper, Zhang Shan suddenly realized that his backpack simply couldn't hold this massive amount of materials.

What was he supposed to do about this? Surely they wouldn't expect him to buy them in batches and deliver them to An Qisheng one by one, right?

He had no idea if there was a home-delivery service in the game.

"Um, boss, these materials are a bit too numerous, and I can't carry them all at once. Is there any way you can arrange for someone to help me deliver them to a designated location?"

"Oh, Mr. Hunter, there's no need to go to all that trouble. Given that your consumption in our shop has reached ten million gold coins, we can present you with a special item."

Having said that, the shopkeeper handed Zhang Shan a small cloth pouch.

"The materials you purchased are all inside here. Please check them."

What the heck could be so awesome that it could hold hundreds of different materials?

One had to know that Zhang Shan's backpack only had ninety-five slots and could hold a maximum of ninety-five types of items.

Zhang Shan took the small cloth pouch and checked its attributes.

Spatial Cloth Pouch: Upon use, expands the backpack capacity to one thousand slots.