Chapter 1276: Upgrading the Magic Sword
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1276 – Upgrading the Magic Sword
Star-Moon City, Shadowblade Ruins:
The Shadowblade Ruins was the nearest Level 40 to Level 50 high-resource map to Star-Moon City. Every day, tons of players would travel to this map. However, the players currently there were in a panic.
The reason for this was the sudden assaults of powerful monsters all over the map. Moreover, among these monsters’ numbers were the highly intelligent one-horned humanoid monsters, whose combat standards were significantly higher than elite players and whose Attributes were likewise high. These humanoid monsters were like wolves ravaging a flock of sheep as they charged into the various elite teams in the map. Every one of their attacks easily bypassed the defenses of players, directly landing on vital points on the latter’s bodies. Even healers could not keep up with the damage.
Only the experts leading these elite teams could keep up against these humanoid monsters—and just barely at that.
“Leader, our Instantaneous Movement Magic Scrolls aren’t working!” a Level 40 Swordsman wearing light-blue armor reported anxiously.
“How can this be? Weren’t there a few guys that used the scroll to escape from danger an hour ago?” The robust Level 41 Shield Warrior holding back a humanoid monster frowned when he saw the number of monsters attacking his team increasing.
Currently, the Shadowblade Ruins was still a very dangerous map for players. Hence, when exploring it, every team would prepare some Tier 0 Instantaneous Movement Magic Scrolls in order to escape any traps or monster encirclements they encountered.
Meanwhile, hundreds of monsters had already surrounded their 100-man team right now.
If the team were up against only several hundred Elite monsters led by Chieftains, they could still manage somehow. Now, however, the monster army they faced had three Level 50-plus Lords and over a dozen Level 50-plus Chieftains.
In addition, there was a Level 51 one-horned humanoid monster—a greater threat than even the Lord ranked monsters.
Meanwhile, standing on high ground a short distance away from this elite team, two players were observing the entire battle. One of these players was an Assassin wielding a pitch-black crystal. This Assassin’s skin was entirely gray, save for a blood-red mark imprinted between his eyebrows, his body giving off a dark aura. If Shi Feng were present, he would definitely recognize this Assassin to be Abandoned Wave, Blackwater Guild’s ex-Guild Leader.
Meanwhile, the cloaked Cleric with a white-jade staff, who was standing beside Abandoned Wave, was Flame Blood.
“These Evil Beasts sure are terrifying. Just one of them is already enough to force an expert Level 41 Shield Warrior to activate both his Lifesaving Skill and Berserk Skill just to cope with it,” Flame Blood exclaimed in astonishment as he looked at the distant Shield Warrior being pushed back by the one-horned humanoid monster.
“This is nothing,” Abandoned Wave said, smirking. “That’s just a recently created Evil Beast. Since we now have the entire Shadowblade Ruins locked down, let’s stop toying around with these people.”
Saying so, Abandoned Wave tapped on the pitch-black crystal he wielded. Immediately, five Level 55, Lord ranked Evil Beasts appeared before him. Compared to the Level 51, Chieftain ranked Evil Beast, these five Evil Beasts were not only larger in size but also had a trace of cunning in their eyes. It was clear that these Lord ranked Evil Beasts were much more intelligent.
So strong! Flame Blood shuddered involuntarily as he looked at the five Lord ranked Evil Beasts.
He was one of the peak experts of Heaven’s Burial, and his senses were telling him very clearly that just one of these Evil Beasts could kill him in two or three moves.
Meanwhile, five such monsters in total were present.
If such a force charged into a group of elite players, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Get rid of them all!” Abandoned Wave commanded as he pointed towards the 100-man elite team ahead.
In the blink of an eye, all five Evil Beasts disappeared before Abandoned Wave as they charged at the elite team currently locked in bitter combat.
When the five Evil Beasts entered the battlefield, the leading Level 41 Shield Warrior gasped.
“We’re doomed…” The Shield Warrior despaired when he saw one of the Lord ranked Evil Beasts killing a teammate with one blow.
After just a short moment, the 100-man elite team led by an expert was annihilated. Not a single player managed to escape alive. Abandoned Wave walked over to the battlefield and began a ritual.
Suddenly, the corpses of these elite players started transforming into monsters one after another. The expert Shield Warrior’s corpse became a thinly built Special Elite ranked Evil Beast. Aside from this expert Shield Warrior, two other players’ corpses turned into one-horned Evil Beasts. Only, they were Elite ranked Evil Beasts.
“Hahaha! Guild elite teams really are great! I managed to obtain three Evil Beasts from annihilating a team! Zero Wing, just you wait. It won’t be long before I make you all taste despair.” Abandoned Wave laughed in satisfaction as he looked at the three newly created Evil Beasts. “Alright, let’s head to the next location. The battle there should be ending soon as well.”
The difference between killing an adventurer team and a Guild elite team was simply massive. Previously, he had managed to create only one Evil Beast, despite killing three adventurer teams. Now, however, one Guild elite team had given him three new Evil Beasts. Among them, one was even an Evil Beast with high potential.
After a few more days at this rate, not to mention flattening Stone Forest Town, even raiding an NPC town would be a piece of cake for him.
…
Elsewhere, after Shi Feng finished dealing with the construction of his city, he contacted Melancholic Smile and had her find five trustworthy Advanced Enchanters to become the Candlelight Trading Firm’s core enchanters as well as have them sign a strict contract.
His Tier 2 promotion quest was extraordinary and would definitely take a long time to complete.
Hence, Shi Feng wanted to deal with all Guild and trading firm-related matters first. Only then would he be able to focus on his quest.
At this point, the Candlelight Trading Firm was already the publicly acknowledged number one trading firm in Star-Moon Kingdom. It also possessed a 3-star Shop. As a result, plenty of Lifestyle players were applying to join the trading firm every day. Even Basic and Intermediate Lifestyle players did not have much of an advantage when they sought to join the trading firm; they could only become reserve members after passing the trading firm’s test. Only Advanced Lifestyle players got to become official members immediately upon passing the test. Despite such strict requirements, a flood of applicants would still come to the trading firm.
Hence, while it might be difficult to find Advanced Enchanters in other trading firms, the Candlelight Trading Firm boasted quite a few.
…
“Whichever one of you is willing to become a core Enchanter of the Candlelight Trading Firm, come register with me!” Melancholic Smile shouted in the lounge for Advanced Lifestyle players.
Immediately, the various Advanced Lifestyle players inside the lounge perked up their ears in interest. However, when they heard that the offer was only for Enchanters, many of the Lifestyle players present turned to look at the Enchanters among them with envy.
“Hah… it’s actually Enchanters this time. I wonder when it will be us Forgers’ turn?” an Advanced Forger said, sighing dejectedly.
Silent Wonder, who was also resting in the lounge, grew confused when she saw the downcast expressions the crowd in the room was wearing.
What was there to feel envious about?
Becoming a core member of the trading firm meant signing a strict contract and losing much of their freedom. On the other hand, non-core members only needed to make a certain amount of items each day. Once they hit their daily quotas, they could do whatever they wanted. If they decided to quit the Candlelight Trading Firm, they only needed to pay a small severance fee as well as forget all the recipes and designs they learned from Candlelight. As for core members, if they wished to leave the trading firm, they had to not only pay a massive severance fee but also clear their Masteries to zero and forget all the recipes they had learned before. They would have to start all over again from scratch.
“Silent, you might not know this since you’re new, but the Candlelight Trading Firm has the precious slots to enter the Holy City of Titan. That is a great opportunity for us to become Masters. However, only core members and Advanced members may contest for those slots, with the majority of the slots allocated to core members. Hence, everyone here hopes to become a core member of Candlelight. Unfortunately, that depends heavily on luck,” the female Alchemist seated beside Silent Wonder explained patiently when she saw the dazed look on Silent Wonder’s face.
“Candlelight still has more Holy City slots?” Silent Wonder could not help but be surprised by this revelation.
She had already gained an understanding regarding the Holy City slots through the recent auction. She knew that the Holy City could greatly help Lifestyle players in reaching the Master rank. However, she had thought that Candlelight had already sold all of the Holy City slots it had during the previous auction.
This revelation tempted Silent Wonder. However, when she remembered the words Shi Feng had said to her before, she quickly dismissed the notion from her mind. She had very nearly reacted the way Shi Feng had said she would. Inwardly, she thought to herself, Hmph! With my abilities, I refuse to believe that I won’t be able to earn a Holy City slot myself! Just you wait! You will definitely be the one begging me to stay in Candlelight later on!
…
Inside a Special Forging Room on the Candlelight Trading Firm’s sixth floor:
Five Advanced Alchemists followed Melancholic Smile into the room and immediately grew nervous. Seated before them was a legendary existence who was both the Guild Leader of Star-Moon Kingdom’s number one Guild as well as the kingdom’s number one expert.
“I’ve asked you to come here for a very simple reason. Learn this Basic Enchantment Design. Afterwards, focus on making Basic Runestones. Don’t worry about the materials. In addition, the one who manages to make the most Runestones within a certain period will have a Holy City slot with their name on it.” Shi Feng then placed the Basic Enchantment Design he obtained from the Sea God’s Temple on the table.
The Basic Runestone was something none of the current major powers possessed. However, it was a common consumable in God’s Domain. Not only was it cheap, but its effects were prominent as well. As long as the Candlelight Trading Firm could produce it, there would be no need to fear a lack of demand for it.
Currently, he had already spent most of the income from the Candlelight Auction. Meanwhile, he needed a lot more money to develop his future city. Hence, he needed to plan for the future right away.
Now that the Candlelight Trading Firm had obtained the twenty Shops from the Secret Pavilion as well as the two golden Shops mortgaged by Phoenix Rain, he definitely had a good opportunity to sell the Basic Runestones and increase Candlelight’s fame in God’s Domain.
Upon hearing Shi Feng’s words, the five Advanced Enchanters immediately grew excited at the opportunity to learn the design for such a precious item as well as the chance to visit Titan City. Without hesitation, the five players clicked to learn the design and promptly left the Special Forging Room to research the production method of the Basic Runestone in the hopes of increasing their success rate.
Meanwhile, after Melancholic Smile and the others left the room, Shi Feng took out thirty Level 45 Fine-Gold Weapons and ten Level 45 Dark-Gold Weapons.
The Tier 2 promotion quest was already a tough challenge in the first place, all the more the promotion quest for one of the Ten Great Saint Legacies. Even if he possessed frightening combat power, he still needed to further improve himself in order to be certain of completing his promotion. Hence, he naturally could not leave the Abyssal Blade sitting at Level 40. After all, he had already reached Level 50. A Level 40 weapon was no longer suitable for him.
“Start devouring!”