007: The Superpowered Automaton!

Page (1/3) [Shrinking Ring]
Dark gold, right-hand ring
Equipment requirement: None
Stealth Level +1
Additional effect: Can be equipped as a third right-hand ring
Additional effect: When worn, your body shrinks to the height of a goblin
Description: After becoming shorter, sneaking around becomes much easier.

This is the ring Morrowind wanted. It's a ring, just like the Rings of Power, and can be equipped during combat. Moreover, this ring doesn't take up two ring slots, which means Morrowind gets to wear an extra ring. However, as a special dark gold item, this ring only increases stealth level, making Morrowind even more elusive when sneaking. Its other effect shrinks Morrowind down to goblin height, which is about the same as a dwarf.

Morrowind's main reason for wanting this ring was to be able to shrink to goblin height, allowing him to control the superpowered Mech. This Mech could only be operated by players with a small physique; Morrowind could only pilot it by shrinking into a goblin-sized barbarian.

[Small Coin Pouch]: Random item. Open it to receive 3 to 5 special currency.

Morrowind had never opened this kind of random item before, nor had the Dwarf Paladin—otherwise, he wouldn't have let Morrowind pick one more item while taking three engineering blueprints for himself. Morrowind just wanted to see what these 3 to 5 special currencies would be. Auglas had many special currencies, but gold coins were the main medium of exchange, so they weren't counted as special currency. Anything worthy of a goblin engineer's collection definitely wouldn't be ordinary money.

System: You have opened the "Small Coin Pouch" and received 4 [White Gold Coins].

"Haha… I've struck it rich!" Morrowind felt his luck was off the charts this time, actually pulling white gold coins—the third-ranked special currency. Originally, Morrowind planned to roll dice with the Dwarf Paladin to pick items, but the guy was so obsessed with engineering blueprints that he didn't even bother.

"Fuck! Give me 2 of those white gold coins!" The Dwarf Paladin was getting envious. Morrowind had gotten so many good things, nearly equaling his own haul—how could that be?

"You chose the engineering blueprints yourself, the coin pouch is mine, why should I share?" Morrowind refused outright. Those 2 white gold coins were worth 100,000 gold; was he supposed to just hand them over?

"Fuck! If it weren't for me, how could you have gotten the superpowered Mech? That alone is worth more than a white gold coin. Without me, how could you have killed the goblin engineer? Now you have a quest, you leveled up to 31, and you're ranked second in the world!" The Dwarf Paladin rattled off a list of reasons, but Morrowind wasn't about to give in. Finally, the paladin played his trump card, "If you don't share, our partnership ends here, and you can forget about going to the treasure site later."

"One white gold coin!" No treasure site? Impossible! He was still planning to scam them out of the fourth treasure.

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"Deal!" The Dwarf Paladin immediately sent over the trade request. Scoring a white gold coin meant earning 50,000 gold. Besides, these white gold coins weren't something you could just exchange with regular gold; even Outres only had two.

After he’d snagged a white gold coin from Morrowind, the Dwarf Paladin dashed into the goblin engineer’s house. He looked around and, in the inner room, found an unfinished superpowered Mech.

"Good thing there’s one left!" If he hadn't found this Mech, Outres was ready to go to war with Morrowind.

The Dwarf Paladin busied himself, assembling various parts to complete the Mech. Since he wasn’t too familiar with the structure, he had Morrowind bring out his own Mech to use as a reference. About two hours later, he finally finished it and messaged Morrowind to log back in.

Morrowind had logged off to eat and rest; he had no intention of watching the paladin assemble the Mech—too dull. When he logged back in, he saw the Dwarf Paladin already seated atop the superpowered Mech, looking directly at him, as if ready to make a move.

Players cannot attack within the first five seconds after logging in; that’s the rule. Morrowind took advantage of this window to store the Mech away. If he didn't have the Mech remote control, the Dwarf Paladin might have stolen or dismantled his Mech.

"Try out the superpowered Mech for yourself, it works great!" The Dwarf Paladin held back; he didn’t attack Morrowind. He knew that if Morrowind wanted to run, he couldn’t catch him, and besides, Morrowind still had a forbidden spell scroll. For now, it was better to let him be.

Superpowered Mech!

Morrowind pondered and decided he should give it a try. First, he turned into a crow and left the goblin stronghold—the goblin patrols had respawned outside, and it was not the time to experiment. Out in the open, Morrowind summoned the superpowered Mech and put on the Shrinking Ring.

Shrinking to dwarf height felt odd; his field of vision was reduced, his shorter legs made him slower, and his shorter arms seemed to slow his attack speed. Perhaps all dwarves suffered these drawbacks, but for Morrowind, they were definitely noticeable.

Once inside the Mech, Morrowind began to operate it. He’d never used engineering tools like this before; it took him a long time just to figure out the controls, and even making the Mech walk felt clumsy. He wasn't familiar with the controls at all—making the Mech move as smoothly as his own body would take time.

"Haha, I’m way better than you!" The Dwarf Paladin came charging over in his own superpowered Mech. His engineering skills made him much more adept at mechanical controls than rookie Morrowind.

"What kind of ultimate moves does this Mech have?" Morrowind was still unfamiliar with the Mech. If there were no special abilities, it probably just attacked with its hands.

"There are plenty: you can use the superpowered chainsaw on its back, the left-hand gatling gun, the chest-mounted laser cannon, long-range charges, and short-range flight. But the chainsaw, gatling gun, and laser cannon all consume mechanical energy, which can only be replenished using white gold coins through the mechanical energy conversion barrier. So don't use them recklessly. For other energy sources, you can just use regular gold coins, it's simpler." The Dwarf Paladin specialized in engineering and claimed to be the top engineering master in the game; he knew these machines inside and out.

White gold coins as an energy source? Now Morrowind understood why the goblin engineer dropped them—they were meant to power the Mech. This machine was an absolute money-eater. Checking the energy levels, Morrowind saw only 500 left, with a max of 1000. Kinetic energy also maxed at 1000, with 800 left, but that was easily topped up with gold coins.

"This is a money-burning machine, so ordinary people simply can't afford to use it! Why not sell it to me? I’ll give you two white gold coins for your superpowered Mech." The Dwarf Paladin was very interested in Morrowind's Mech since he couldn't make one himself. If it weren't for finding an unfinished Mech earlier, he would have destroyed Morrowind’s.

Two white gold coins?

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Morrowind considered it for a moment but decided against it. This kind of superpowered Mech was a rare find; it might come in handy later. Besides, he now had three white gold coins and wasn't short on money.

"No, I’ll keep it and get used to it," Morrowind rejected Outres' offer. "Have your people arrived?"

"Four are here already. I’ll go meet them first—wait for my signal." The Dwarf Paladin had contacted four people and was just waiting on two more.

Morrowind continued practicing with the Mech. With nothing else to do, he might as well get more familiar with it—another tool in his arsenal.

The Monk and the others were still grinding levels. Warlord had reached level 30 and entered the large map, but he died soon after and logged out. He simply wasn’t prepared; it was easy to get wiped out. Warlord was all about reckless offense and hadn’t realized how dangerous the big map was. Dying and logging out was normal. After dying a few times, he’d get used to it—there was no shortcut.

More and more players would hit level 30 and enter the large map, but they’d also die quickly. The dangers of the big map weren’t something ordinary players could handle. High-level players like Morrowind and the Dwarf Paladin were rare—they could pull off things others couldn’t.

While most people were just thinking about how to survive in the brutal, law-of-the-jungle world of the large map, the Dwarf Paladin and his group were already plotting how to get ahead and stay at the cutting edge. This fourth treasure was the perfect way to get ahead of everyone else.

"Crow, everyone’s assembled here. One of them, a Japanese player named Takato, has an invisibility magic ring. Make sure to help me take his ring when the time comes." The Dwarf Paladin spotted Takato’s magic ring during the gathering. The Dwarf Paladin also had a magic ring; normally, the two would have fought on sight. But for the sake of the fourth treasure, they both kept the peace.

The others hadn’t expected to encounter two magic ring owners, and now they were thinking about how to loot those rings for themselves. Whoever got the rings would become the new ring bearer.

Help you? Morrowind caught a hint in the Dwarf Paladin’s words—wasn’t he just planning to devour the ring himself? But for now, Morrowind still needed the Dwarf Paladin to get him close to the treasure, so he replied, "Alright, this magic ring is yours this time; next time, the ring is mine."

"No problem!" The Dwarf Paladin knew exactly what Morrowind was thinking but didn’t say anything. Cooperation was necessary for now. Who would actually get the ring would depend on their own abilities.

Takato! Morrowind had said before that, upon entering the big map, the first thing he’d do was take Takato’s magic ring. He hadn’t expected to run into him here—it seemed the ring wouldn’t last much longer. Morrowind had to get into the fourth treasure’s location. Although he knew the general layout, he didn’t know the exact spot, since he hadn’t paid attention back when the treasure had already been emptied.

The six players who possessed the incomplete treasure map fragments gathered to combine them into a complete map and began searching for the fourth treasure. Morrowind, in crow form, followed carefully, keeping his distance to avoid detection. With the Dwarf Paladin among them, he had nothing to worry about.

"There are four thieves following you—be careful!" Earlier, the Dwarf Paladin had given Morrowind several True Sight Eyes, and Morrowind had placed two along the path, spotting four thieves, all players from the Japanese region.

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