Who said this card is outrageous?

Type: Equipment Card

Level: Tier 4

Grade: Green

Effect: Lightweight arm armor covering the hands and forearms; when worn, it slightly increases the power of the wearer's water-attribute skills.

Additional skill: Water Curtain

This is a fairly universal defensive equipment card that many classes can use, but it's best if you have the water attribute yourself.

When organizing teams to hunt down the murlocs before, Grandpa Mo had done some of these things, so Zhang Che was quite familiar with the process of making this card.

Due to its lightweight design, even if the attributes don't match, many mages with relatively weak physiques or rangers who require agility like to equip one.

Most importantly, its material requirements are quite broad. It uses the shells of fourth-tier extraordinary creatures as the main material to ensure that it is lightweight, and then adds a certain proportion of extraordinary metals to increase its hardness.

The remaining auxiliary materials were all of the third tier, and Zhang Che happened to have some on hand.

In fact, judging from the main materials required for the [Water Curtain Armor], its creator, even if not a native of Binhai City, must have lived in a coastal city for many years.

After all, in such places, there is no shortage of the shells of extraordinary creatures. In slightly deeper waters, there are quite a few shrimp, crabs, shellfish, and the like that have been corrupted to the fourth level by extraordinary energy.

There is absolutely no need to worry about a lack of materials. The fact that such a card recipe was included in the reward list is enough to prove the sincerity of Zhong Huaiyuan and the others.

……

Zhang Che read the recipe three times from beginning to end, making sure he knew every step by heart before arranging the materials one by one on the card-making table.

Drawing a fourth-tier card embryo is significantly more difficult than drawing a third-tier one. The patterns are more intricate, with more twists and turns, and it requires a higher level of stability in mental energy output.

He tried his best to regulate his breathing so that it didn't fluctuate too much, and then mobilized the liquid spiritual energy in his mental sea and poured it into the card-making pen through his fingertips.

The pen tip landed on the card blank, and he drew the patterns stroke by stroke according to the formula. The first few steps went smoothly. His basic skills had been honed to a solid level by Mo Yuncheng when he was a lower-level extraordinary being. Although the complexity of the fourth-order patterns was higher, it was still within his capacity.

But before he could be happy for long, the first card blank collapsed halfway through its creation, as the raging mental energy tore it to pieces.

However, Zhang Che was not discouraged. After failing twice more, he finally produced a perfect card blank on the card-making table, and he felt a little relieved.

He carefully placed the card blank aside and began processing the material.

The processing and refining of materials are relatively simple parts.

Zhang Che had already mastered the pretreatment of fourth-order materials under Mo Yuncheng's guidance. After all, there were only two things involved, and he finished it in no time.

After working for more than an hour, a card with a pale green glow lay quietly in his hand.

The arm armor on the card covers the back of the hand, wrist, and forearm, leaving only the fingers and elbow exposed, so it does not affect movement.

It is dark blue all over, with fine water ripple patterns on the surface.

Zhang Che examined the card several times, turning it over and over to make sure the patterns on the card were correct. Then, he channeled his mental energy into the card to activate it.

A pale green magic circle unfolded in the studio, and a pair of dark blue arm armors emerged from the circle, hovering in mid-air.

The surface of the materialized arm armor has faint, intricate water ripples that flow slowly, emanating a subtle aura of water-attribute energy.

Zhang Che reached out and took the arm guard, putting it on his right hand.

Because the equipment was a physical manifestation of his mental power, it fit his wrists and forearms perfectly, neither too tight nor too loose. He moved his fingers and felt no sense of restriction whatsoever.

Then he tried to inject a trace of spiritual power into the arm armor, and the water ripple pattern on the surface of the arm armor suddenly lit up, and a semi-transparent water barrier unfolded in front of him.

The activation speed of the water curtain skill was faster than he expected, almost instantaneous upon the injection of mental energy.

The barrier's stability and defensive capabilities were also quite good. He summoned Gatomon and used "Cat Punch" to smash the barrier more than a dozen times, but it didn't budge. Zhang Che, who was hiding behind it, only felt a slight tremor.

Then came the fourth level of attacks. Fitz attacked twice in a row before finally cracking the water curtain.

However, due to the nature of the barrier itself, as long as it is not completely broken, Zhang Che only needs to input some mental energy into it to repair it.

This was a pleasant surprise for him.

Although the upper limit of the attacks that this barrier can withstand with Zhang Che's current mental strength still needs to be tested, at least in terms of feel, it is more solid than any defensive skill he used when he was at the third level.

I'm having a bit of writer's block...

As the title suggests, after the protagonist advances to the fourth tier, he will go to a new map, but this transitional plot is a bit difficult to write.

I originally planned to take advantage of the weekend to write something, but I was suddenly called to work overtime, and now I don't even know what I'm writing...

Today's update will have to be postponed for now.

However, I know it's not good to take a break during the first month after the book is published, so I will make up for the missed updates later. I hope you readers will understand.

Respectfully submitted by the author

Chapter 148 The Importance of Resources

Just as Zhang Che was about to continue testing the upper limit of the "water curtain's" defensive power, a sudden stinging sensation in his mind made him pause involuntarily.

It was as if something had gently tapped his mind, causing the entire mind to tremble.

Is my mental energy almost exhausted?

He glanced down and saw that the water ripple pattern on the surface of the arm guard on his left hand had become much dimmer, as if covered with a layer of dust.

After finding the cause, he quickly canceled the summoning of the [Flowing Arm Armor]. Only when the arm armor turned into light spots and dissipated, and his spiritual energy stopped draining, did he finally feel a little better.

Zhang Che leaned back in his chair, rubbed his temples, and sighed as he felt the dwindling amount of liquid spiritual energy in his spiritual sea.

After all, Zhang Che had only just advanced to the fourth rank, and his mental strength was not high enough. The reason he could normally activate and use green-level cards like the [Flowing Water Arm Armor] was because of the extra mental strength provided by that mental crystal.

But even this consumed almost half of his mental energy, not to mention the continuous consumption to maintain its existence and the mental energy consumed in repairing the damaged water curtain when testing its defensive capabilities.

Looking at the green alchemical patterns on the card in his hand, Zhang Che thought to himself that this meant he probably wouldn't be able to fuse fourth-tier cards anytime soon.

Based on his previous experience as a lower-level transcendent, he knew that the mental energy required to fuse cards was much greater than that required to create a single card. With his current mental energy reserves, he probably couldn't even sustain the fusion of a fourth-tier green card once.

I must improve my mental strength as soon as possible!

Fortunately, for a card maker, the most suitable and fastest way to improve mental strength is through card making. He had stockpiled quite a few low-level materials, and taking advantage of some free time recently, Zhang Che decided to use them all.

It's true that I've advanced to the fourth rank, but because there were two fourth-rank card makers in Binhai City a few years ago, the market for mid-level extraordinary beings has been completely taken over by them.

Unless Zhang Che can create better new cards, the fourth-tier cards he makes will basically only be for his own use.

Moreover, his friends were all lower-level extraordinary beings, the strongest of whom had only recently advanced to the third rank, so Zhang Che decided to make some suitable cards for them as gifts.

I'll give you a friendly price then.

That means Yu Renjia will probably be living off a woman again.

Damn it, why am I a little envious? I really want to be a kept man too!

Zhang Che thought with some resentment.

……

After successfully advancing to the fourth rank, although Zhang Che did not spread the news widely, as long as he continued to interact with people, that unique feeling was hard to hide from others.

Those who had previously come into contact with mid-level superhumans could almost immediately sense Zhang Che's difference.

As a result, Zhang Che received invitations from other mid-level superhumans in the city every day, and began to officially join this higher-level circle.

Of course, people like Zhong Huaiyuan, whom he knew but wasn't very close to, were just acquaintances who he accepted small gifts from.

The most in-depth exchanges were with Mo Yuncheng and Dean Xu Jing, respectively.

The former was Zhang Che's half-mentor, while the latter was his direct superior. Both were elders with whom he had a close relationship, so he didn't have many reservations when speaking.

Both of them started by congratulating Zhang Che on his successful advancement to the intermediate-level extraordinary and presented him with carefully prepared gifts.

Mo Yuncheng gave him a handwritten notebook containing his card-making insights, filled with his experiences and lessons learned in fourth-tier card making over the years; Xu Jing gave him a fourth-tier blue area-of-effect skill card, [Extreme Cold Ice Curtain], which combines damage and control, and when paired with the water-type cards in Zhang Che's hand, it can even freeze the opponent.

Zhang Che was naturally extremely grateful.

Then came the topic of future plans. Both of them unanimously suggested to Zhang Che that there was no need to stay in Binhai City any longer, and that they needed to go to a place with more resources to make their path to extraordinary success smoother.

The reason is simple—resources. This is semi-public information that only those who have advanced to the mid-level transcendent realm, or those whose close friends and family members have reached the mid-level transcendent realm, can know.

In any case, the time that Earth has truly undergone the baptism of extraordinary power is less than four hundred years. Even if countless rifts have overflowed with extraordinary energy, such a transformation involving an entire world certainly cannot be completed in a short time.

This has created a fatal flaw on Earth's native planet—a scarcity of high-level supernatural resources.

After hundreds of years of development, the most that can be said about Earth today is that it has no shortage of low-level, or lower-level, extraordinary resources.

After all these years of natural selection, species that have survived in the wild, whether animals or plants, have basically all undergone a certain degree of transformation. Even ordinary species that humans have preserved and reproduced specifically for the purpose of eating meat have shown a tendency to evolve into extraordinary creatures.

However, once they reach the intermediate level of extraordinary beings, the number that Earth can sustain begins to decline significantly.

While there are plenty of mid-level extraordinary resources to be found in the wild, they are not enough compared to mid-level or higher-level rifts.

The latter's resource production rate is at least ten times that of the former. Many resources that require special searching to find on Earth are practically everywhere in the rifts. To exaggerate a bit, in some high-level rifts, even a random rock picked up from the roadside is better than most materials found on Earth.

After all, except for a very few special cases, the higher the level of the rift, the higher the level of the other world it connects to, and the higher the variety and quality of the extraordinary materials.

Still in the Adventurers' Guild's card warehouse, Mo Yuncheng sat opposite Zhang Che and earnestly said to him: Actually, the proportion of humans on Blue Star who advance to the intermediate level of extraordinary is not as low as Zhang Che imagined. It's just that most people, after advancing, if there aren't enough resources near their original city, will choose to go out and explore to places where it's easier to obtain resources corresponding to their level.

This is the situation in Binhai City. Actually, it's already quite good, but most of the high-quality extraordinary resources are tied to water systems, which has forced some people who have advanced to the mid-level extraordinary level to leave here and go to other places for their own future development.

Those who are willing to stay are either those who feel hopeless about their future and are preparing for retirement—like Mo Yuncheng himself; or those who have been appointed and will leave after a few years—like Lu Chen from the Adventurers' Guild, Xu Jing from Binhai University, and Lin Ruoxi.

Chapter 149 Trouble Comes from the Mouth?

The three people here are basically all here because they have accepted missions within their respective factions. When the deadline comes, someone will naturally come to relieve them.

Firstly, it's to better cultivate talent, and secondly, it's to help protect the city so that the territory that humans have worked so hard to conquer won't be taken away.

“Before Xu Jing and Lin Ruoxi, the two fourth-tier extraordinary individuals at Binhai University were the previous deans of the Warrior Academy and the Mage Academy, respectively.” Mo Yuncheng picked up his teacup and took a sip. “They both left three years ago to take over their posts.”

"Xu Yatou and Lin Ruoxi's terms are less than two years, and then we'll have to bring in new people."

The city guards are an exception. Most of the mid-level superhumans among them are locals, and they only recruit from outside when they are short-handed, since they are responsible for protecting the peace of the city.

Because if they weren't locals, they might abandon the city if they encountered real danger.

Similar incidents are not without precedent.

The gifts given to everyone after Zhang Che advanced to the fourth rank were mainly intended to help newly promoted individuals accumulate some initial capital.

After all, most newly promoted fourth-tier superhumans do not yet have the ability to hunt for resources outside, so they are in a sense sticking together for warmth, and this mostly happens among people they know.