A farming master in Stardew Valley

Chapter 113 Balance
"Okay, I'll make it hard!"

Giving Ma Long a thumbs up, Lyon continued to fill out the registration form.

After filling it out, Lyon handed it to Malone. Malone took a quick look at it, made sure there was no problem, and put it away.

"Okay, the paperwork is complete. Regardless of whether it passes the review there or not, I have recognized your identity as an explorer. So, Leon, welcome to the Explorers' Guild."

Ma Long stepped forward and patted Leon on the shoulder: "Although Jill and I can still protect Stardew Valley for another ten years, the future of Stardew Valley will probably still rely on young people like you. I am optimistic about you."

"Are there any benefits such as distribution of standard equipment for joining the club?" Lyon shrugged, not intending to pay any attention to Malone's empty promises.

"No, if you want to purchase equipment, you need to spend money to buy it, but you have to pay the membership fee first." Ma Long shook his head, then extended his hand first.

Lyon looked at Ma Long speechlessly, but still took out a 20G banknote and put it in Ma Long's hand.

"Take a look. Although you need to buy everything, I'm the one who makes the decision. I can give you a 20% discount on your first purchase of equipment."

After receiving the money, Marlon immediately took out a thick illustrated book and handed it to Leon.

Leon took it and opened it. He looked at the contents and found that there were no weapons listed in the book, only armor, shields, rings, and other protective gear. (The game itself has no armor or shields, only shoes, which is a setting for the game.)
However, considering that Malone knew the information that he possessed galactic weapons, Lyon was not too surprised.

"Is there a weapons procurement catalog?" After asking Malone tentatively, Leon noticed that the book in his hand had become thicker, and Malone just pointed at the book without saying anything.

After flipping through a few pages again, Leon noticed that weapons and equipment that he had not seen before also appeared in the book.

Sure enough, in addition to the unchanging catalogs provided by the legitimate merchants in the town, these catalogs selling special goods have added some special and changeable abilities, such as the product catalogs of traveling merchants, and now it seems that the product catalogs of the Explorers' Guild are the same.

However, after looking through it for a while, Lyon closed it because the prices of these equipment were a bit expensive. Even the cheapest iron weapon started at 500G, and jewelry such as rings started at 2500. Lyon could not afford this price at all.

"I have a question about wearing the ring. Can I ask you, President?"

After returning the catalog to Marlon, Leon spoke.

"You want to ask if it's possible to have rings with special powers on all ten hands?" Malone guessed Leon's question before Leon asked.

"Don't be surprised. Many new explorers have explored this question before. I'm used to it. I can tell you clearly that you can wear ten rings, but whether you can fully utilize the capabilities of all ten rings is hard to say."

"What do you mean?" Leon asked curiously.

"For example, the small magnetic ring you're wearing right now can attract lightweight objects within a two-meter radius. If you were to wear ten small magnetic rings, the range wouldn't increase to 20 meters. It would only be around eight to nine meters at best."

Ma Long pointed to the small magnetic ring in Leon's hand as an example: "If you only wear five rings, it is possible to increase the suction range to about eight meters. So the more rings you have, the stronger it is."

"Because of the mutual interference of special energies?" Leon speculated. "Yes, you summarized it very well. That's roughly what you mean." Malone looked at Leon in surprise, then praised him.

"If I wear other types of rings after wearing a magnetic ring, will they interfere with each other?" Lyon continued to ask.

"It depends on the quantity. Generally, we only carry two rings, and then reserve other rings with special abilities to replace when needed. If you only wear two rings, even if you wear a flame ring and an ice ring, which can give weapons elemental attack abilities and have conflicting natural properties, there will be no interference with each other, and you can ensure that the special effects of the rings are 100% utilized." Ma Long gave another example.

"Why haven't I seen this kind of ring in the catalog?" Listening to Malone's examples of two rings, Leon felt envious just by hearing the description. After all, he had never seen this kind of ring that gave weapons elemental attacks in the game.

"That's a rare commodity." Ma Long rolled his eyes and said, "I don't have any myself. I'm just telling you this to give you an example."

"I see." Leon felt regretful when he heard this. If he could really buy this kind of ring, he would have to buy one even if he had to save up all his money. After all, the ability of elemental enchantment sounded very powerful. The important thing was that weapons with this effect would definitely be very cool.

"Equipment is ultimately external. Only by sharpening your combat awareness and experience can you become stronger." Hearing Leon's regret, Ma Long reminded Leon seriously.

"Ah."

Lyon nodded without any expression. Malone was not sure whether Lyon had listened or not, so he had to change the subject.

"By the way, now that you've seen the monster in the mine, what are your thoughts?"

"Very weak." Leon thought for a moment and replied.

"Indeed, but the further you go down, the stronger and more bizarre the monsters' strength and methods become. You have to be careful about this," Ma Long warned.

"I have another question. Will the monster leave a corpse after death?" Leon asked.

"No, all the dead monsters will return to their own world in the form of energy. Haven't you killed a lot of slimes?" Marlon looked at Leon in confusion and asked.

"I'm asking this question because I've killed and witnessed them weathering away." Leon explained, "After these monsters die and return in the form of energy, the cleaned-out mines will likely see the same type of monster reappear."

"Yes, because the spatial rift hasn't closed, and the underground mine system is not static, you've reached the fifth floor this time, and you should have already broken a lot of ore in the mining areas on floors 1-5. But if you go down the stairs to the mining area on the first floor, you will find that the mine you go down to the same location may be completely different from the mine you have experienced before."

Ma Long said with a somewhat helpless expression, "Until now, the Explorers' Guild hasn't figured out the exact cause of this situation. Almost every underground mine is like this. Ultimately, we attributed this problem to Yuba's design for this world, so that miners can obtain endless ore in the mines."

"If there is too much ore, wouldn't it easily cause inflation? But I don't think the price of ore sold by the blacksmith is too cheap?" Lyon asked doubtfully.

"Because the process of mining ore is very difficult, and no matter how much ore is mined, it cannot keep up with the consumption of minerals by various industries. Moreover, some discarded ores and items made from them will be discarded and integrated back into the earth and return to nature, just like those monsters that have been killed. This is the balance rule established by Ba."

(End of this chapter)