Building My Empire in the Frozen Apocalypse (Riley Carter) novel Chapter 130

Chapter 130 Crafting Rare Equipment

“Pineapple Beer: That’s how it works. Once you hit level ten, you gotta pick a class before leveling up again I’ll keep an eye out for class–change cards. We should also grab some gear upgrade tokens while we’re at it

“TartKing: Wait, really? I thought you could just keep going straight up. There’s already folks in the main chat at like level thirteen or fourteen.”

“Pineapple Beer: Don’t sweat it. I’m fifteen.”

“TartKing: Whoa.”

*****

The three of them laid out their own goals in the private chat.

After closing the window, Riley’s gaze sharpened.

Her Storm Splitter Dual Axes were rare blue–tier, and it’d been a while since she last upgraded them.

If she wanted to stand her ground in the upcoming contest with thousands of players, her current setup wouldn’t cut it.

How else was she supposed to scare off the wolves circling her if she didn’t have overwhelming strength?

Before anything else, Riley decided to set up a few more security cameras around the coal mine–just in case someone got too close or tried to hide out there.

“Neeko, up and at ‘em. We’ve got a long day ahead.”

Riley mercilessly yanked back the comforter and pulled out a white/cat still kicking softly in her sleep.

“Mmmm… five more minutes… just five…”

Neeko kept her eyes shut, paws swiping at the air as if she could grab back the fading drowsiness.

“Breakfast today is thick honey wheat toast with blueberry jam, plus hot milk,” Riley listed calmly. “Mine five hundred pounds of coal, and you get an extra meal tonight. You’ve been staying up too late binging shows. No wonder you can’t get up in the morning.”

The next second, the limp cat blinked open her eyes, flipped off the bed, landed on the floor, and shifted back into human form.

“For the food! Let’s go!”

Ten minutes later, a large brown bear with two pickaxes strapped to its back and a small lunchbox tied around its neck charged out of the base, heading straight for the open–pit coal mine two miles away.

Watching that enthusiastic figure disappear into the distance, Riley gave a satisfied nod.

She turned back into the cabin, walked over to the workbench, and pulled out six blueprints glowing with 3

a soft azure light.

These were the biggest haul from the Nightshade run.

Six full rare–tier equipment blueprints, covering light armor, heavy armor, cloth gear, boots, a belt, and a

weapon.

“Blueprint: Frostguard Chestplate (Heavy Armor/Rare) +4 Constitution

“Blueprint: Shadowstrike Leather Pants (Light Armor/Rare) +3 Constitution, +1 Agility

“Blueprint: Wizard’s Focus Robe (Cloth Armor/Rare) +2 Constitution, +1 Agility, +3 Magic Affinity

“Blueprint: Lightstep Boots (Boots/Rare) +1 Constitution, +3 Agility

“Blueprint: Spirit Gathering Belt (Belt/Rare) +2 Constitution, +2 Strength

“Blueprint: Armor–Piercing Crossbow (Ranged Weapon/Rare) +4 Strength, +1 Agility”

Riley did the math.

Even though she could craft these more than once, making rare–tier gear didn’t come cheap. There was no way she could outfit everyone with a full set. She’d have to be smart about it.

She herself was built for close combat, so she needed high constitution and strength. Pineapple Beer was an assassin–type and relied on agility. TartKing needed enough constitution to stay alive on the front line.

“Still short on materials.”

Riley frowned at the ingredient lists on the blueprints.

Crafting rare gear required more than just basic iron and leather. She’d need rarer components like tempered steel, refined mithril powder, high–tensile beast sinew, and even rare–tier energy cores- common requirements for blue–quality crafts.

She had supplies stocked up, but most were everyday resources.

“Gonna have to pool from the team.”

Riley opened the “Hustle Crew” group chat.

“SpicyBurger: @everyone, gear crafting prep time. I’ll send the blueprint requirements. You two send me a list of all the rare materials you’ve got stored, especially beast sinew and mithril. We just need to fill in what’s missing.”

This time, Riley didn’t plan to split things too carefully–after all, these blueprints partly belonged to Pineapple Beer and TartKing to begin with.

She attached an image of the six rare blueprints.

Less than three seconds after sending it. Tart King replied first.

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