Legend of Mir 2: Seeking the Truth in Marfa

Lujia Town.

There live all kinds of monsters and beasts here, including orcs, orc laborers, undead monks, necromancers, mountain giants, Zuma guards, fire womas, iron spiders, black spiders, as well as rare goblins and dwarves... They are all believers of Ornn, and they are used to calling themselves the Lu family.

It was already noon. It was still icy and snowy outside, but the Lu Family Tavern was bustling with activity.

Almost all the monsters in the town gathered in the largest tavern, drinking fine wine and pointing and discussing at the platform. On the platform was a long oval table made of white marble. Standing in front of the table was a tall harpy, and beside her was a short goblin a little over a yard tall.

"Entry No. 213, Flute of Alia: Increases the ranged attack damage of allies within a 12-yard radius by 10%!" the harpy announced loudly.

"Group buff effect, great stuff!"

"Increases damage by 10%, a top-tier attribute. 12-yard range is also quite good!"

"What a pity, there are no additional attack, life, and defense attributes, and it only works against ranged attacks."

"It's great to be able to achieve a group buff effect."

"I wonder how many points I can get?"

The monsters below the stage were talking about it.

The maker of the Alia Flute, the short green-skinned goblin on the stage looked expectantly at the three monsters behind the white jade oval table.

A rank 4 Zuma guard wearing black armor and holding an iron hammer, a nameless craftsman and a mute slave;

A 5th-turn dwarf with thick limbs and white hair and beard, Tok the Hand of Embers;

A tall rank 6 orc wearing animal skins, with the Flame Grip Rockbreaker;

These three are all old monsters. Their strength may not be very strong, but their status is very noble. They are members of the Lu family who have been favored by His Highness Ornn in the past hundred years, and are also the judges of this equipment competition.

The Lu Family crafts a vast array of equipment, hundreds, even thousands, of different types. His Majesty Ornn is very busy, and it's impossible for him to review every piece. Therefore, the Lu Family holds an equipment competition each month, selecting the ten best pieces and presenting them to His Majesty Ornn.

If these 10 pieces of equipment can gain the favor of His Highness Ornn, they can obtain endless honor and wealth; even if they fail to gain his favor, His Highness Ornn will select the first one among the 10 pieces of equipment and give rewards such as materials, gems, and reincarnation pills; and other Lu family members who did not get a ranking will also receive guidance from His Highness Ornn and will definitely benefit greatly.

Therefore, whether or not you can enter the top 10 is very important.

Finally, the three judges each gave their scores: 9 points, 8 points, and 8 points.

"Alia's Flute, total score 25 points! Currently ranked second." The host Harpy announced the result.

The goblin on the stage breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was only ranked second for the time being, and although there were many other equipment behind him, this score was already very good, and it should be no problem for him to enter the top ten!

The goblin walked down the platform with satisfaction. The harpy placed the Flute of Alia aside, behind a pale green crystal ball.

Equipment that has a chance to enter the top ten will remain on the platform for the time being.

An orc laborer walked up to the platform and took out the equipment he had made.

"Entry No. 214, Speed ​​​​Up Gloves: Increase attack speed by 15%." The harpy had just finished speaking when the monsters below started chatting again.

Xiaobai and Brook mixed in with the group of monsters, listening to the discussions around them.

"Tsk tsk, another top-notch item!" exclaimed the monk from the Temple of the Dead beside him.

"Top quality? It looks ordinary." Xiaobai couldn't help but say.

"You're new here, you don't understand! Equipment with a gain effect of more than 10% is considered top-grade." The monk from the Temple of the Dead explained.

"But, I just heard from other monsters that any piece of equipment worn by His Majesty Orn can increase his power by 20 to 30 percent."

"Hey, how can we compare to His Majesty Ornn? A 15% buff from the Lu Clan is already quite impressive. Did you know that the judge on the stage, Lord Tok of the Ember Hand of the Dwarfs, created a Scourge Bone Bell that increased lifesteal by 15%? That's how he won His Majesty Ornn's favor. The Scourge Bone Bell only buffs a group, while these Speed ​​Gloves only buff a single target, but it's still pretty good."

"Oh~ Is it particularly difficult to gain the favor of His Highness Ornn?" Xiaobai asked.

"Of course! We, the Lu family, hold an equipment competition every month, but in the past hundred years, only five adults have won the favor of His Highness."

"Oh~ Do you think there's any hope for the crystal ball currently ranked number one?"

"How could I know that?"

"What do you think? I think you have a very good vision, big brother." Xiaobai flattered.

The monk in front of him was only at level 3, but this was the Lu Family Town, so instead of talking about strength and only considering the forging level, it was reasonable to call him "big brother."

"Hehe, you actually figured it out. To be honest, although my blacksmithing skills are average, when it comes to appraising equipment, I'm not bragging, but I really have a keen eye!" The monk of the Temple of the Dead was very happy and started to talk. "This crystal ball can detect unknown areas every 10 minutes. Although the interval is a bit long and the maximum range is only 1 yards, it's still a very remarkable auxiliary equipment. The key is that this kind of detection equipment is rare, so I think it has great potential!"

"Really? I thought so too, brother. We think alike!" Xiaobai praised. In fact, he and Brook also thought the equipment was good and would go talk to the owner to see if they could buy it.

"Hey, brother, although you've just arrived in our Lujia Town, I see that you have great talent and strength. You will definitely become an outstanding Lu family member in the future! Let me tell you, in fact, the most difficult thing for us Lu family members is not to gain the favor of His Highness, but to become His Highness's disciple. Unfortunately, even the five judges only received the title and were unable to become His Highness's apprentices."

"Your Highness doesn't have any apprentices? There are so many Lu family members, and he doesn't like any of them?"

The monk at the Temple of the Dead shook his head and sighed, "Your Highness has very high standards. How could ordinary people be so discerning..."

"Oh~"

Xiaobai was chatting away as the results for the speed glove on stage came in, ultimately placing 8th, not bad. But the orc laborer shook his head and smiled wryly as he walked off the stage. He had a lot of gear to show off later, and he knew his speed glove would soon be squeezed out of the top ten.

One by one, the Lu Family members took the stage to showcase their crafted equipment. This equipment competition had begun at 9:00 AM, with Xiaobai and Brook watching from below. They had to choose a piece of equipment that had the best chance of winning Ornn's favor, and then find a way to purchase it.

At 5 p.m., as the competition drew to a close, a Flame Woma walked onto the stage with confidence.

"Entry No. 586, Flame Cloak: Increases defense by 1000 points and deals 1000 health points/second of damage to enemies within a 4-yard radius."

As soon as the harpy finished speaking, there was a burst of exclamations from the audience!

This is a top-tier piece of equipment that not only increases defense but also deals area-of-effect damage! Ultimately, the three judges gave it scores of 9, 9, and 8, for a total of 26 points, still failing to surpass the first-place Crystal Ball's 27 points.

The monk from the Temple of the Dead beside him explained: "While the Flame Cloak has dual attributes, its range of 4 yards isn't wide enough, and its damage per second of 1000 isn't very high. It might be useful against small monsters, but against monsters with millions or tens of millions of HP, this amount of damage is rather useless."

Xiaobai and Brook also agreed. Some even felt it was not as good as the Aria Flute, but it had dual attributes after all, so if used on low-level monsters, it would still be very effective.

In the end, a total of 600 pieces of equipment participated in the competition this month. The first place was still the Crystal Ball, the second was the Flame Cloak, the third was the Flute of Aliyah, and the following were the King's Crown, the Heroic Mask, the Magic Pendant, the Recovery Ring and other equipment.

After the competition, the top ten Lu family members took back their equipment, and the other monsters also dispersed.

Xiaobai immediately sought out the crystal ball's owner, a fifth-rank Orc witch doctor. When Xiaobai offered a high price for the crystal ball, he was flatly rebuffed. Even when Xiaobai raised the price to 500,000 gold coins and added 100 gems, the witch doctor remained unmoved.

The 5th-rank witch doctor was incredibly confident in his work. He firmly believed that His Highness Ornn would definitely take a liking to this crystal ball. By tomorrow, not only would he win first place, he might even earn His Highness's favor. He had even considered banning his title, so there was no way he was selling the crystal ball now.

Xiaobai and Brook couldn't do anything to him. They couldn't just kill him, could they? During the competition just now, everyone in the Lu family knew that the crystal ball belonged to this 5th-rank witch doctor. Now, even if they wanted to kill him and steal the crystal ball, it wouldn't work.

It seems that buying equipment is not an option. I don't know how to forge equipment, and I can't buy good equipment. What should I do?

They both possessed a number of artifacts. Any one of them could definitely crush the crystal ball, but they couldn't reveal the artifacts. Most importantly, they weren't forged by them, so they couldn't be used as entries.

Brook thought about it and now there was only one way left.

Xiaobai chased after the three judges who had not gone far.