Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Cold Weather Outfit, Acquired!

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Five days had passed since the third floor opened.

During this time, countless teams of players had attempted to explore the third floor “Winter Snow Plains,” but unfortunately, as of now, not a single team had successfully reached the safe zone of the main city “Ice Snow City.”

To reach the main city area from the third floor entrance teleportation array, one must cross the outer “Windless Zone” and the inner “Blizzard Zone.”

According to the frontline situation, most pioneering players had been stopped at the Blizzard Zone. The reason was that someone discovered the cold-resistant outfits given by the side quests were actually of “Poor” quality, with cold resistance only sufficient to get through the Windless Zone.

In the Blizzard Zone, the cold DEBUFF would stack extremely quickly, making it almost impossible to advance.

Some had tried to recruit fire-element mages, but magic professions required imagination and concentration, which already demanded considerable talent and had high barriers to entry. As a result, most players seen walking on the city streets were melee physical classes, while magic-using players were extremely rare.

With the number of mage class players already being extremely limited, those who had learned elemental magic were almost impossible to find.

This reminded Tilia of Cross, who had recently mastered entry-level fire magic, putting her ahead of 95% of magic profession players. Many were still struggling to figure out how to conjure fireballs.

However, the insurmountable snowstorm of the third floor was about to become history.

Because today, the game’s first player capable of crafting “Cold Weather Outfit” had emerged, reaching the level of intermediate tailor.

“Is this far enough?”

“Yes, thank you both for escorting me. I believe the profession advancement quest should be completed now.”

In the southern forest area of the second floor, three young women moved among the trees.

A chestnut-haired girl wearing a light yellow long dress held a glowing leaf in her palm. After clicking on the item details, its name appeared — 【Weaving Mulberry Leaf】.

This was the essential quest item for advancing from “Novice Tailor” to “Intermediate Tailor.”

This chestnut-haired girl in a yellow dress, or Miss Xaya, was a novice tailor with maximum proficiency. Her profession advancement quest was to find the 【Weaving Mulberry Leaf】 item in the second floor forest and defeat some monsters along the way.

So Miss Xaya had commissioned Tilia and Cross as her guards.

As a PVX player, she was not only still at combat level Lv.7 but also completely clueless about fighting. Since the profession advancement quest could be completed in a party, she invited players skilled in combat who were active on the frontlines.

Miss Xaya was their friend, or more precisely, a friend Cross had made in the game.

After the third floor map opened, Cross immediately went to learn about the Winter Snow Plains situation from closed beta players. Upon finding out about the need for cold weather outfits, she went to the main city area looking for a tailor who could make them, coincidentally meeting and befriending Miss Xaya who was shopping for silk.

However, at that time, Miss Xaya was still a novice tailor and regretfully shook her head, telling Cross that cold weather outfits required an intermediate profession level to craft.

“Try it now? You can advance as soon as you submit the item, right?” Cross asked curiously.

“Yes, that should be correct.” Xaya summoned the quest menu, then clicked on the purple-marked 【Life Profession Advancement (Part One)】 quest. An item slot immediately appeared at the bottom of the quest tab, showing 【Weaving Mulberry Leaf 0/1】.

After submitting the quest item, the quest completion settlement screen appeared.

A golden light enveloped Xaya’s entire body, representing her profession level increase. When she checked her profession level again, it had clearly become 【Intermediate Tailor】, and the 【Proficiency 5,000/5,000】 below had changed to 【Proficiency 0/20,000】.

Upon learning that cold weather outfits required intermediate tailoring, many players had belatedly begun raising their proficiency, but Miss Xaya had been improving since the game launched, making her unquestionably the game’s first intermediate tailor.

“Congratulations, Miss Xaya!” Cross offered her congratulations.

“No, it’s all thanks to you two. Let’s waste no time and return to the main city to craft the cold weather outfits.”

The game’s main city, since the second floor was entirely forest area with no safe zones, and the third floor’s Ice Snow City wasn’t open yet, remained only the Pure White Holy City main city area on the first floor.

They quickly teleported back to the brilliantly lit Pure White Holy City at night, and Miss Xaya returned to her weaving house.

She clicked on the screen a few times at the weaving table tool in the house, skipping all the weaving and sewing processes. Ten cold weather outfits were completed in less than five minutes. Xaya selected two with 【Perfect】 completion quality and gave them to Tilia and Cross.

Products of life skills were generally divided into three completion qualities: 【Poor】, 【Normal】, and 【Perfect】, with higher completion quality providing better attributes.

“Here, I’ve picked the two with the best completion quality for you.”

“Don’t you need a processing fee?” Tilia quickly saw the perfect cold weather outfit in her trade window.

This would absolutely be a hot commodity right now. If sold, it could be worth over 10,000 Star Coins!

No, considering the current demand for cold weather outfits among pioneering players, it might sell for even higher than imagined. Yet Miss Xaya was just giving them away. Tilia thought she should at least pay something in return.

But Miss Xaya declined her money.

“No need. If you two hadn’t escorted me to the quest location, I wouldn’t have become an intermediate tailor so easily. Consider this my thank-you gift,” Miss Xaya said with a gentle smile. “A casual player like me will just make things in the main city. Completing the game requires pioneer players like you. If there’s something you need, I’ll definitely support you with all my efforts.”

“Yes, we’ll do our best!” Cross nodded vigorously, looking very confident.

“Please be careful in the upcoming third floor exploration, Cross, and the beautiful Miss Tilia.”

Having obtained the cold weather outfits meant they could now officially head to the third floor map that had been delayed for several days. It also meant that PVX players would become an important part of this game, as some essential items and equipment needed to be produced by them.

Walking on the return path, Cross, as the team leader, pondered for a while before asking for an opinion: “Tilia, since we’ve acquired the cold weather outfits, shall we try exploring the third floor first thing tomorrow morning?”

“Yes, that sounds good. Let’s make thorough preparations before that.”

“Let me think… I heard fire magic can dispel some of the cold, and that magic staff I recently acquired seems able to summon a giant deer as a mount. I wonder if it can travel across the snow…”

Cross was indeed thinking very seriously. After Nolan left, she had to shoulder the strategic planning for this two-person team.

Although her small head sometimes struggled to handle this responsibility delicately, often “smoking” from overthinking, it was clear she was trying her best to arrange the safest and most feasible exploration plan.

Seeing her serious thinking expression, Tilia worried she might trip while walking, and couldn’t help but smile.

However, just as Cross was immersed in thoughts about tomorrow’s third floor exploration, Tilia suddenly perceived something keenly, her gaze turning sharp as she glanced to the side, looking toward a certain corner of the street.

A black shadow with a fluttering coat edge immediately withdrew into the darkness.

So it wasn’t an illusion, from just now…

“Cross, you head back to the inn first. I still have some things I want to buy at the market,” Tilia said, looking in another direction.

“Oh, alright! Do you have enough money?”

“Don’t worry, my loli team leader. I’ll be back soon.”

After saying this, Tilia lowered her gaze and quickly turned to walk directly toward the bustling market area.

Cross stood in place, blinking and pouting.

“W-what’s that about? Tilia isn’t even that much taller than me… Well, I’ll head back first.”