This crappy ring actually requires advanced jewelry crafting skills! Upgrading from intermediate to advanced is nothing like going from beginner to intermediate, where you could just casually buy some cheap copper or iron ore and hammer away. After intermediate, you’re dealing with precious ores like silver and gold—not only are they expensive, but they’re also rare on the market. In other words, using mining skills to rush to advanced is totally unworkable. The only way is to painstakingly craft all sorts of junk rings and cut all kinds of worthless gems, slowly grinding up your proficiency step by step.

　　Oswald laughed and said, “Leveling up to advanced skills might be a very long process, but you don’t need to worry about the gem materials. My shop may be small, but it has everything you need. However, for some metal materials, you’ll have to figure out a way yourself.”

　　Your shop seems to have everything, but when Jack Carter saw the price tags, his face turned pale. Rushing from beginner to intermediate costs 500 gold coins—that’s already more than an average player can handle in the early or mid-game. What about going from intermediate to advanced? Jack Carter could hardly imagine. Most importantly, Jack Carter had never studied jewelry before and wasn’t interested in it. The guides only covered leveling jewelry to intermediate. So what’s the most efficient and cost-effective way to go from intermediate to advanced?

　　Jack Carter immediately logged out and opened the game’s website forum.

　　No experience guides for upgrading jewelry crafting to advanced? How could there not be? Keyword search—found it!

　　“Why won’t the jewelry crafting trainer teach me jewelry skills?”

　　“Where is the jewelry crafting trainer in Goldshire?”

　　“I’m leveling jewelry, looking for long-term miner partners, honest people only.”

　　……

　　All these useless posts? Jack Carter decided to make his own help post: “Looking for expert advice on shortcuts from intermediate to advanced jewelry crafting.” Thinking about all the in-game mishaps from not showering, Jack Carter decided to go take a shower first.

　　After showering, Jack Carter found his post had hundreds of replies. Whoa! Awesome! In his whole life, Jack Carter had never had a post get more than 10 replies. Excited, he clicked in—damn!

　　—Bro, can you give me tips on rushing from beginner to intermediate?

　　—Honey, come out and see God!

　　—Dew wets the sandy wall, dusk is quiet and lonely

　　—Please add QQ 53511XXXX, let’s discuss in detail

　　……

　　Jack Carter slapped his forehead—he’d forgotten he’d transmigrated! The server had only been open for a month; it would take at least a year for jewelry to become mainstream. Who could possibly give him advice now? What a disgrace for a transmigrator—he never should have made that post. Sigh, he’d gotten used to being a help-seeker in his past life. He deleted the post and re-entered the game.

　　As soon as he logged in, he noticed his message box was flashing. A message from a stranger? George Foster? That name sounded familiar. He answered.

　　—“Excuse me, are you the Jack Carter who posted on the forum about how to go from intermediate to advanced in jewelry crafting?”

　　Turns out it was spam. Professional power-levelers hate spam the most, especially since Jack Carter had just been flamed on the forum and was already in a bad mood. He replied, “I made a typo. I meant how to go from beginner to intermediate.”

　　The other person just said “Oh” and didn’t reply again.

　　Now Jack Carter opened the jewelry crafting recipe list and focused on studying the materials for each formula, trying to pick the cheapest leveling route. No matter how he calculated, the materials weren’t cheap. The remaining 500 gold was definitely not enough. Worse, every ring he made was a statless accessory—completely worthless.

　　In reality, only jewelry with stats—actual equipment—fell under the domain of advanced crafters. So, in the early and mid-game, jewelry crafting was just a money pit.

　　George Foster!? Suddenly, Jack Carter jolted—he finally remembered who that was! The future president of the Five Seas Merchant Guild Alliance! The future Richard King—no, he was already Richard King! This guy’s family was loaded; he founded and united over a dozen gold-farming studios, each with over a thousand members. Maybe the little studio Jack Carter worked for in his previous life was one of his subsidiaries. He was known as the money-printing machine of the game—even the game company had to negotiate “exchange rates” and “financial” issues with him to stabilize the in-game economy.

　　How could a big shot like that ever cross paths with a nobody like Jack Carter? No wonder the name didn’t ring a bell at first. What was he waiting for? He should latch onto this big boss right away!

　　Jack Carter immediately messaged him: “Hello, are you still there?”

　　—System prompt: Your message could not be sent. The recipient may have blocked you or is not in the same server region.

　　“Huh!? Offline?” Jack Carter was on the verge of tears.

　　Forget it, what’s done is done. That George Foster was known to be strict, and with Jack Carter’s unambitious personality, they’d never get along anyway. Still, who would’ve thought such a big shot would have such a petty moment, personally checking if the other person was an idiot. He never let any potentially valuable information slip by—no wonder he was so successful.

　　Short on money? Jack Carter turned his gaze to Oswald. He’d already borrowed once—surely there’d be a second time?

　　Oswald smiled and said, “If there’s anything else you don’t understand, feel free to ask me.”

　　Jack Carter shamelessly said, “Boss, I want to level up to advanced skills as fast as possible, so I can learn quickly and start benefiting sooner.”

　　Oswald squinted and smiled, “Oh? So how can I help you?”