Training his Trade Skill was quite boring . It took approximately three or four Goblin Mining Helmets to gain one EXP point . Three hours later, he had only increased his Advanced Trade Skill by six levels .
Now that he had reached level 180, the Goblin Mining Helmet didn't reward him with any EXP, so he needed a more advanced blueprint .
Lu Li threw more than twenty of the finished helmets into the warehouse, marking them to be one point each . He was basically giving them away for free .
These Goblin Mining Helmets weren't that precious, but they could be sold for a dozen gold coins .
There were many higher-level blueprints in the Guild's Warehouse, which gave Lu Li a decent selection to choose from . It didn't matter whether the item itself was good or not, as long as he had the materials required for it .
However, in the end, he was disappointed .
Engineering was one of the hardest Trade Skills, partially because it was very dangerous – you were constantly at risk of harming yourself . Another reason was of the expensive material requirements . To create the Goblin Mining Helmet, he needed to smelt ore and sew leather, which were Casting skills and Tailoring skills respectively . What was worse was that he needed to learn all these different things as a Thief, whereas a Mage would be better-suited for this…
The last reason was because of the blueprints and materials .
Ruling Sword had more than 400 Casting formulas and more than 700 Tailoring blueprints . In comparison, there were only 33 Engineering blueprints .
Moreover, among these 33 blueprints, 80% of them weren't suitable given Lu Li's current Engineering level and he didn't have the required materials for the remaining 20% .
The materials used for Engineering were relatively complex and were often the products of Mining or Herbalism .
For example, Lu Li needed a piece of red Malachite for this rifle . However, the rifle was a terrible weapon . If someone had a Malachite, they could sell it for quite a high price . Why would they waste it on crafting the rifle?
The only blueprint that was suitable required Lu Li to be level 190 . This meant that he had to increase his Trade Skill by another 10 points .
The Goblin Mining Helmets were now useless in completing this task .
After thinking for a moment, he dismissed the idea of going to the Exchange Hall . He could already imagine how poor the blueprints there would be . It was better to ask Shen Wansan for some help in this matter .
"Engineering Blueprints… Are you planning to upgrade your Engineering Skills?" Shen Wansan asked in some surprise .
"Yeah, but there aren't any blueprints . Let me know if there are any at a good price . "
The gold coins that Lu Li had in his backpack had almost all been spent upgrading the Workshop and the Warehouses . However, he and Shen Wansan were old friends, so he could just borrow the money for now .
"It's not about the money . Why did you learn Engineering? That's the worst Trade Skill," Shen Wansan said bitterly .
"Old Shen, do you think that the game would design a completely useless Trade Skill? Especially if the Trade Skill is so difficult to train?" Lu Li asked back .
"Well, for now, the projected income is by far the lowest," Shen Wansan responded . Although he couldn't refute him, he maintained his point of view .
"In a few months, you won't be saying this anymore Old Shen . You should just give me any blueprints you have, since you won't be using them anyway," Lu Li said, not intending to explain further . He couldn't tell people why he knew so much about Engineering's future .
By the time everyone was aware of the importance of Engineering, he would probably be an Engineering Master .
Lu Li didn't need to study Alchemy because he had numerous Alchemists under him like Sesame Rice Ball . He also wasn't in a hurry to learn Forging as he had the Casting Hammer which gave him a high success rate .
Lu Li valued Engineering the most because there would be many Engineering items in the future that couldn't be traded . You would have to make those for yourself .
"I have seven engineering blueprints here . Let me know if they're of any use . Otherwise, I'll throw them away . "
Shen Wansan had a good relationship with Lu Li, but he wasn't arrogant enough to tell Lu Li how to live his life . After giving his two cents, he moved on .
Lu Li looked at the blueprints that had been sent to him and chose two of them .
Gnomish Cloaking Device – this gave the user a short-term Stealth ability which lasted for 30 seconds and had a cooldown of 60 minutes . It could only be used in non-combat situations .
This was quite useful, but 30 seconds was too short and it couldn't be used in battle .
However, many players were already using this item as it had the potential of saving them in certain situations . The most important thing was that this blueprint required an Engineering level of 180, which was exactly what Lu Li needed .
The only drawback was that the main material required was Mithril .
Of all the ores currently available to the players, Mithril was the most precious . It was likely that making use of this blueprint would cost many coins .
The other blueprint was for a Self-Destructing Sheep .
The Self-Destructing Sheep was more practical than the Gnomish Cloaking Device as it served the same purpose as Ivy's Bomb . The player could direct the mechanical sheep into a group of monsters and detonate it . However, it was more expensive than Ivy's Bomb and only tycoons had the luxury of using it .
The Self-Destructing Sheep required an engineering of level 190, which placed it just ahead of the Gnomish Cloaking Device .
The other blueprints were either lower than level 180 or had materials that were very difficult to acquire . Lu Li eventually gave up and stuck with these two .
The main materials required to make the Gnomish Cloaking Device were Mithril and Emerald . The secondary materials were Moonstone, Topaz and a fuse .
The production process was divided into two parts . The first step combined 'Mithril' and Moonstone to make a 'Winding Sychronous Gyroscope' . More materials were then added to make the Gnomish Cloaking Device .
Lu Li divided a Mithril ingot into one large and four smaller portions, then took the large portion and smelted it .
The smelting process didn't turn it into a liquid, but softened the surface so he could engrave the markings he needed for the main body of the Gnomish Cloaking Device . This step was the key to success and would take the longest time .
Lu Li engraved the engineering markings and followed a similar process for the other small parts .
After the pieces had been processed, the next step was to assemble them .
It was necessary to combine the five parts with certain runes that locked together correctly . If there was an error in the locking process, there was a possibility that the creation of the Gnomish Cloaking Device might fail .
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