The sun gradually set in the west, and the crimson sunlight shone over the boundless golden desert, adding a touch of tragic grandeur to the scene, as brilliant as if a vivid, heavy-colored oil painting had been splashed across it.

So beautiful it felt like a dream, William Carter could hardly imagine such a spectacular sight existing in the desert, and couldn’t help but stop to take it in.

Beauty is always fleeting.

This dazzling palette lasted only a few dozen minutes before the sun set, and the sky quickly turned dark. The darkness came so fast that in just a moment, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

In such darkness, grinding monsters was a dangerous thing, so William Carter had no choice but to return to the city.

After logging off in the city and taking off his helmet, the in-game night coincided with dawn in the real world. Yet in this wooden shack, the light was still dim, with only a couple of mischievous rays of sunlight peeking through some cracks in the roof.

Lily had already gone to school, but there was still hot food in the pot. William Carter stood up to stretch and noticed a note left on the table.

“Comrade Lily has gone to school, the food is in the pot, there’s roast duck on the plate, Comrade William Carter must work hard.”

There was even a smiley face drawn at the end of the note.

Seeing this note, William Carter thought again of Lily’s lively and adorable smile. He served himself some food and ate in silence, reminding himself that he needed to work hard—not for anything else, but for this little sister who had been closer than blood and by his side for more than ten years.

After eating, William Carter put on his helmet and entered the game once more.

It was nighttime in the game, so grinding monsters was out of the question. Besides wandering around the city, what else could he do? Then I’ll spend more time getting to know the game, William Carter thought.

William Carter wandered around the city for a while and found that all the players were busy honing their life skills. Almost every player had learned one or two life skills, such as metallurgy, forging, engineering, and so on—all of which could be practiced at night.

Learning a couple of life skills to make money wasn’t a bad idea, William Carter’s eyes lit up.

What skill should I learn? Maybe I should check the forums, William Carter thought. He logged out of the game and used his helmet to access the game forum, browsing through players’ insights on the Legend of Enzes.

From the players’ comments, alchemy was the most suitable for rogues. Alchemy was divided into two branches: the first was orthodox alchemy, which could produce various buff potions, healing potions, and antidotes; the second was toxicology, which could make poisons and various negative-effect potions.

Rogues often coated their daggers with poison to increase attack damage and inflict negative statuses on enemies, so naturally, they needed alchemy. Learning alchemy not only allowed you to make poisons for your daggers, saving on daily expenses, but also to make healing potions, saving money on buying health potions.

After careful consideration, William Carter decided to learn alchemy. Who knows, he might have to rely on this skill to make money in the future. Since he was learning alchemy, he’d naturally have to learn herbalism as well—self-sufficiency would make life a bit easier.

William Carter read a few more player comments about alchemy, then entered the game again. Once in the game, William Carter learned alchemy and herbalism. Luckily, both skills were cheap, costing only five silver coins each. Checking his inventory, he still had twenty-one silver coins left. Besides the silver coins, there were also five pieces of white-tier equipment for other classes.

He wondered how much he could get for selling these white-tier items to NPCs. William Carter went to an NPC shop to ask, and found that these white-tier items only sold for five or six copper coins each. William Carter was a bit reluctant to sell them—maybe some players outside needed this gear, and as long as he priced them higher than the NPC shop, it would be fine.

William Carter walked out to the street market and found that only a handful of players were setting up stalls to sell equipment. Their method was simple: lay out a rag on the ground and place the equipment on it. There were no city guards in Tabak Town.

There were plenty of players browsing the stalls, but very few actually buying equipment.

William Carter went over to take a look and was startled to see that each piece of white-tier equipment was priced at over ten silver coins—no wonder no one was buying. Looking at the neighboring stalls, some had prices of eight silver coins, but still, no one was buying.

Could equipment really be that valuable? William Carter thought about it. Although he was only level three, that was already considered high among ordinary players—most were only around level two. They hadn’t killed many monsters, so not much equipment had dropped. Many people wanted to buy some gear at the night market to boost their defense, making it easier to grind monsters during the day. With demand up, prices naturally went up too.

William Carter calculated the drop rate and figured that pricing these items at five silver coins each was already the limit. Those asking for over ten silver coins were just hoping to fleece a few gullible players.

After thinking it over, William Carter grabbed a rag, set up his own stall, and priced each piece of equipment at six silver coins. As soon as William Carter set up, many players came by, but no one made a move. Some seemed to be whispering among themselves—six silver coins might still be a bit expensive.

“Hey brother, can you go a bit lower on this robe?” a young Elemental Mage asked, pointing at the cloth armor robe on the stall.