Chapter 20: Miner's Paradise
Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also give your opinions on something I should change or add
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Meanwhile, in the trade market of the entire Star-Moon Kingdom, the popularity of Whetstones had instantly soared. As long as a forger had at least a 30% success rate of crafting Whetstones, the various large guilds would instantly target them. The Guilds used all sorts of methods to recruit these forgers, continuously raising the standard of treatment. As a result, these forgers earned salaries comparable to the white-collar workers in the big cities.
Such a result inspired other players to become forgers. However, forging materials were utterly necessary if one wanted to hone their forging skill. Like adding fuel to a fire, this new situation instantly ignited a blazing inferno that raged through all of the Star Moon Kingdom.
The prices of forging materials soared, again and again, madly increasing the price of Hard Stones as well.
By the time Feng entered God's Domain that night, a stack of 20 Hard Stones already sold for 9 Silver Coins. However, the supply could not keep up with the demand. Furthermore, even the most common Bronze Ore sold for 15 Silver Coins per stack, with 200 per stack.
Feng then contacted Stabbing Heart. Although he didn't really need to sell him any Hard Stones like he did in his previous life, he felt that he owed a bit to Stabbing Heart. Thanks to him, Feng had a close relationship with the Assassin's Alliance, which had helped out Zero Wing in the beginning stages, as well as Feng later helping the Assassin's Alliance in the Twin Tower Kingdom, which the Guild Leader of the Assassin's Alliance had told about to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, which led to Zero Wing working with the Pavilion, because of which Unyielding Soul decided to work with Zero Wing, followed by Crimson Emperor, which had brought benefits to him later on; like help in constructing the Small Mobile Fortress.
"Brother Ye Feng, I am truly grateful for your help the last time! Because of your guidebook, the elite teams of our Guild could prepare far more than other Guilds. After we enter White River City, I believe it won't be long before our Assassin's Alliance reigns supreme over the other Guilds in White River City!" Stabbing Heart excitedly said, "However, after not meeting for some time, I never imagined that Brother Ye Feng would grow even more famous! I am truly envious! If I become as famous as Brother Ye Feng, I might even be promoted to an elder position during the next Guild meeting!"
"I'd rather be more ordinary," Feng shook his head.
"Brother Ye Feng, since you are looking for me, do you need help for something?" Stabbing Heart asked. Normally, Feng would not take the initiative to contact him unless there was something going on.
"Do you lack Hard Stones right now?" Feng asked.
"Lack?! My subordinates and I have a headache over this matter right now! Even though I'd sent many people out to grind, the amount of Hard Stones we obtained is merely a drop in the bucket! Does Brother Ye Feng need some Hard Stones right now?" Stabbing Heart breathed out a tired sigh when he heard the words 'Hard Stone.' He then immediately said, "If Brother Ye Feng needs them, I should be able to gather three to four stacks for you. I truly can't spare any more than that."
"Brother Stabbing Heart, you're overthinking things. I'm not calling to buy, but to sell," Feng laughed.
"Sell?" Stabbing Heart was awe-stricken. Hard Stones were extremely rare right now, and it was insanely difficult for average players to obtain them. Not to mention selling them, players would normally choose to keep them for their own use. After all, if one wanted to level up quickly, Whetstones were a must. "How many do you have? Be it two or three stacks, I want all of them! I'll even buy them at above market price! What do you think about 10 Silver Coins per stack?"
In Stabbing Heart's mind, Feng was only an independent player. It was already heaven-defying for him to have two to three stacks. After all, Stabbing Heart's own team, which consisted of hundreds of players, had only managed to obtain three to four stacks after a long time.
"No; I have fifty stacks. However, I'm only taking Coins for them," Feng casually responded, extending five fingers.
Stabbing Heart immediately froze in shock when he heard that Feng had fifty stacks of Hard Stones.
"Brother Ye Feng, you're not tricking me, right? Do you really have fifty stacks?" Stabbing Heart asked doubtfully. It was not that he did not trust Feng, but this number was simply too huge. Even a first-rate Guild in a town could not offer up that many. It would be impressive if they could even gather six to seven stacks.
"Naturally. Since when have I joked around before?" Feng shook his head, laughing.
"Brother Ye Feng, I don't know how to thank you for this...! If you have anything you need help with in the future, just mention it! If it is something that I can help with, I will give it my all!" Stabbing Heart was extremely touched right now. In his heart, he had already taken Feng as his good brother.
However, 5 Gold was not easy to obtain. He needed some time to gather the liquid funds from the other towns and collect some from the money-farming team.
Although it was a large expenditure, with fifty stacks of Hard Stones, Stabbing Heart could allow the team in Red Leaf Town to be the first team, out of all the other team in the Assassin's Alliance, to enter White River City. At that time, he would receive a promotion in the Guild once more. He might even become an elder of the Assassin's Alliance. Meanwhile, such an achievement was only possible due to Feng's help. Although Stabbing Heart felt slightly ashamed of himself for to not being of great help to Feng, he had already decided that, once he entered White River City, he would fully support Feng. Whoever dared to go against Feng would go against him as well!
"When can you send someone over to Red Leaf Town to conduct the trade?" Feng asked.
"As long as you are free, any time is good!" Stabbing Heart answered.
---
Twenty minutes later...
Feng arrived in front of the Bank in Red Leaf Town.
"Hello, Big Brother Ye Feng. I am Cocoa, from the Assassin's Alliance, Big Brother Stabbing Heart sent me here."
A pure and pleasant looking female Elementalist walked over, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Feng.
"Here are the fifty stacks of Hard Stones," Feng immediately traded the fifty stacks of Hard Stones to Cream Cocoa.
When Cream Cocoa saw the fifty stacks of Hard Stones in her trade window, her eyes widened in shock. She did not even dare believe her own eyes. Right now, it was hard to even purchase one or two Hard Stones. Yet, Ye Feng had easily managed to bring out fifty stacks. It was no wonder why team leader Stabbing Heart was so respectful to Ye Feng! As expected, he was a figure that average players like her could only look up to!
Soon after the trade completed, and Feng headed back to White River City, before teleporting to Star Moon City, and then to the Fire Dragon Empire. Feng had thought about it, and decided to go to Sharlyn at the same time as last time, since there weren't that many people in White River City right now, Starstreak won't attract as much attention, plus he won't have to make another trip to the Library to meet Thoughtful Rain this way.
Since he had some free time, he was going to go get the second piece of the Philosopher's Stone. Feng teleported to the closest city to the Level 50 map Miner's Paradise, and went towards the exit of the city. As he walked, Feng noticed there were a lot more players here than in White River City, though that's expected since the Fire Dragon Empire is one of the Four Great Empires. After leaving the city, Feng activated Seraphic Speed, and started running towards Miner's Paradise.
While he was traveling, more and more players reached Level 10, each of them entering White River City, one after another.
Right now, the majority of the players who entered White River City were the elites and upper echelons of Guilds. There was only a small amount of teams consisting of independent players.
Most of these independent players had purchased the White River City Guidebook, and they all admired its creator.
"Leader, this Ye Feng is truly amazing. The information he wrote in this Guidebook is so detailed. Fortunately, we bought the luxury version. The introductions in the simplified version were overly brief, and it only helps one get a general understanding of White River City. Meanwhile, the luxury version mentioned plenty of locations with good quests meant for specific classes. Thanks to it, I've accepted plenty of valuable quests."
"I know, right? It is all thanks to team leader's wisdom for buying the luxury version. If I didn't know that Ye Feng had personally penned this guidebook, I would even think that the game officials had published it. I really wonder what Ye Feng's previous profession was to possess such powerful observation skills."
"That Ye Feng indeed has some skills. Originally, I had simply intended to purchase the guidebook as a reference; I never thought that the information was all true. I was shocked after we arrived at White River City. It was worth the 30,000 Credits. If it were up to me, I wouldn't willingly sell this information even for 50,000 Credits. Not only does the information require time to arrange, but this is also first-hand information. I can't imagine why Ye Feng would willingly sell all of this for only 30,000 Credits."
In front of the Teleportation Hall of White River City, a non-Guild team consisting of ten-plus elite players happily chatted while waiting for their other companions.
"Hmm? An independent team?"
At this moment, Gentle Snow emerged from a Teleportation Gate, spotting this merry team of players. She felt slightly surprised by the sight. At this time, aside from those elite teams of large Guilds, there was even an independent team who had reached White River City. This was an extremely rare sight, and it illustrated this team's strength.
"I know who they are. Five years ago, these players were very famous in a relatively sizeable virtual reality game. They were known as the Holy Grail Knights at that time.
"Although they aren't a Guild, and their numbers never exceeded a hundred players, every member of their team was extremely skilled. Their battle prowess was extremely frightening. Their leader, War Wolf, even had the reputation as the strongest Warrior in the game. During those days, not a single Guild in the game dared provoke them. However, for reasons unknown, their team disbanded, and plenty of their members stopped playing the game."
"The remaining players then went on to become the upper echelons or core members of first-rate and second-rate Guilds. The Holy Grail Knights is a legend of sorts in the virtual gaming world now."
When the Shield Warrior, Ghost Chop, who was knowledgeable about these independent players saw the average-looking Shield Warrior standing amidst those players, his expression suddenly turned solemn. This person was indeed War Wolf, the past team leader of the Holy Grail Knights. Back in those days, Ghost Chop had admired and respected this man; thus, he chose to play as a Shield Warrior as well. He then turned to Gentle Snow, slowly starting his recollection.
"I see," Gentle Snow could not help but notice War Wolf.
Five years ago, she had yet to experience virtual reality games. Hence, she did not know that such a person had existed.
"Snow, are you thinking of recruiting him into Ouroboros?" Zhao Yueru asked with a smile when she noticed Gentle Snow's moved expression.
"Although this person seemed to lack spirit at first glance, he seemed as deep and profound as an ocean at the same time. Moreover, the equipment he's wearing is all Mysterious-Iron rank, though his weapon slightly lacks as it is not Secret-Silver rank. However, it should be extremely difficult for an independent team to have such a geared Shield Warrior, so it clearly displays how powerful the members of this team are. Meanwhile, a team leader capable of leading such a team is not a simple character. If we can recruit him, it should be of great help to our future Dungeon raids," Gentle Snow did not directly deny Zhao Yueru's question. Her previous intentions of recruiting Ye Feng as a subordinate were already dashed.
Unfortunately, she could not see through Ye Feng, as his entire being was shrouded in mystery. The guidebook he had sold her further solidified this fact. She was greatly shocked when she arrived at White River City. Using the luxury version of the guidebook as a comparison, Gentle Snow came to fully understand the value of the exclusive guidebook Feng had sold to her.
If the other first-rate Guilds discovered this guidebook, they might even start an all-out war with Ouroboros to snatch it away. Gentle Snow had estimated the true value of this guidebook to be five million Credits or more.
Even now, Gentle Snow did not dare reveal this information to any other person; she did not wish to bring a calamity upon herself.
"Go. Let's go and strike up a conversation with them, then," seeing that all the members of her team were already present, she opened her mouth and spoke.
Meanwhile, Feng had already arrived at his destination. A regular player would need over ten hours of travel in order to get to Miner's Paradise, but Feng got there in less than one. After arriving, he used an Isolation Scroll and took out the map he got from Arcus Maddox. Feng spent a minute discerning its exact location before sneaking over to it.
Twenty minutes later, Feng arrived at the place marked on the treasure map. He inspected the surroundings, but didn't find anything.
Feng's eyebrows furrowed as he wondered if the location marked on the treasure map was wrong, but decided to check out the place anyway. He finally found a hidden button after probing around for fifteen minutes. If someone didn't know that there was something here, they'd never find it unless they destroyed the entire place.
When he pressed the button, a hidden door leading to a cave tunnel suddenly opened a few meters away from him. Feng looked into the entrance, but it was too dark to see anything. The dark didn't matter to him though, so he proceeded in. After going down the tunnel for a few minutes, Feng arrived at a cliff looking over a giant cavern. At the edge of the cliff sat a skeleton with a pickaxe in its hand; overlooking the entire cavern.
Feng approached the skeleton to see if he could inspect it, when suddenly mana started gathering around it. The skeleton's empty sockets lit up with blue flames in the next moment, as it turned to look at Feng.
"Welcome, young adventurer, to Paradise Cavern." An old voice came out of the skeleton without it moving its mouth.
'Paradise Cavern?' Feng searched his memory, but couldn't find any recollection of the name.
"Respectful Elder, is there anything I can help you with?" Feng asked. He wanted to see if this skeleton had anything to do with the Philosopher's Stone.
"Indeed, there is something you could help me with. Me and my brothers from Holy Cavers found this cavern full of ore veins a long time ago and decided to create our treasury here. However, five hundred years ago, a Great Demon came and demanded one of the treasures from us.
"When we refused, the Great Demon tried to force open the treasury. Unfortunately for him, I had asked one of my good friends who was a Grandmaster Magician to create a barrier for the treasury, which ended up damaging the Great Demon." The skeleton stopped speaking and turned back towards the cavern, gazing into the distance. The blue flame in its eyes flickering.
"Since the key was bound to me, the Great Demon couldn't kill us to get it. So, in its rage, the Great Demon cast a curse in this cavern, sealing it and turning all of the monsters into demonic creatures, while my brothers and I became undead. The Great Demon only left me with the ability to think, while my brothers became mindless monsters." The skeleton's voice was filled with frustration and helplessness as it spoke.
"The Great Demon comes back every one hundred years to try and get the key from me. One hundred years ago, the Great Demon said that if my answer is still the same when it returns, it will turn me and my brothers into puppets, and find another way to get the treasure." The skeleton turned its gaze back to Feng and requested "The core of the curse is the magic barrier to the treasury itself. As long as you open the treasury, you will free us from this curse. As long as you are able to free us, you can have all the items in the treasury, as we will no longer have a need for them. However, I must warn you, the Great Demon will come here today again. If you don't manage to unlock the treasury by then, you will surely die, even if you are a heaven-blessed person."
System: Epic Hidden Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" triggered. Do you wish to accept?
'This is an... unexpected development.' Feng blinked when he saw the system notification. He had previously only wanted to check the place out and see if the situation is similar to the first piece of the Philosopher's Stone, where he could sneak in and grab it. If he couldn't, he could just come back when he levels up. But now, he didn't really have a choice. If he rejected the quest, he won't be able to get it ever again, and he'll lose his chance to get another piece of the Philosopher's Stone. Feng suddenly regretted being hasty and coming here right now.
He had no doubt that the treasure the Great Demon wanted was the Philosopher's Stone. Moreover, he knew a bit of information about the Holy Cavers. They were an organization consisting of over a dozen Master and Grandmaster Miners. It was said that their leader was even a Holy Miner. To Miners, a Holy Miner was like a Famed Smith for Forgers, and as the Miner profession wasn't that popular, Holy Miners were even rarer than Famed Smiths. As far as Feng knew, there were only three Holy Miners in his entire God's Domain. However, the Holy Cavers organization had disappeared around five hundred years ago, and no one had ever found out anything about them since then... well until now.
"Alright, I'll free you guys." Feng accepted the quest after complaining a bit in his mind.
"Thank you, young adventurer. Here is the key for the magic barrier." The skeleton thanked Feng and handed him a magic key.
System: Epic Hidden Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" accepted. Quest content: Free the Holy Cavers from the Great Demon's curse. Time limit: 12 hours. Rewards: Holy Cavers' treasure. Penalties: You will be hunted down by the Great Demon. If you are killed by the Great Demon, your body will be taken over by it.
After accepting the quest, Feng walked to the edge of the cliff, and looked down. Below the cliff, and in the entire Cavern, groups of Earth Golems patrolled. All around the cavern, there were holes in the ground that earth worms crawled through, some hid while waiting for unsuspecting prey. On the ceiling, hundreds of bats hung, while some flew around aimlessly.
[Demon Golem] (Special Elite)
Level 50
HP 700,000
[Dark Earth Worm] (Elite)
Level 50
HP 250,000
[Demon Bat] (Common Monster)
Level 50
HP 150,000
After looking at the monsters around, Feng shifted his gaze towards the end of the cavern. There was a hole that led to a a steel gate in Feng's opposite direction in the cavern. One could faintly see a translucent wall blocking the entrance, and Feng guessed that was most likely the treasury. A few yards in front of the entrance to the treasury, stood a giant golem, similar to the earth golems that were patrolling around; but it was much bigger, and the power of its aura was vastly larger than the patrolling ones. Around the golem stood skeletons with caving equipment and pickaxes in hand. Some's equipment was of a higher quality, and provided more protection to the skeletons.
[Demonified Guardian Golem] (High Lord)
Level 50
HP 30,000,000
[Undead Grandmaster Miner] (High Chieftain)
Level 50
HP 9,000,000
[Undead Master Miner] (Chieftain)
Level 50
HP 3,000,000
Upon seeing the information of the monsters in the cavern, Feng fell into thought for a moment, before deciding it was doable. In fact, it was a great opportunity to increase his EXP and Skill Proficiency while getting the Philosopher's Stone and whatever else treasure there is here.
Thinking of that, Feng took out a Return Scroll, and teleported to White River City, he then ran to the Bank. After arriving at the Bank, Feng took out eleven Level 15 Dark-Gold Weapons and eleven Level 20 Dark-Gold weapons from his warehouse. He had decided to upgrade the Abyssal Blade in advance. Although not much of the Dark-Gold Weapons would be left for his guildmates, they won't be staying on those levels for long, and there were still the Fine-Gold Weapons that could be used if necessary; so it didn't really matter, since the ones who would use Dark-Gold Weapons can manage without them anyway.
While Feng was heading back to the teleportation, he called Blackie to check up on them. Blackie picked up his call after two seconds of ringing.
"How's it going? Did you guys manage to get in it again?" Feng asked when the call went through.
"Yes, the Trial of God was still here. Man, it feels great to know when, where and how things are going to happen. Is this how you previously felt like?" Blackie asked after confirming that the Trial of God was still there. He truly felt omnipotent right now.
"Sometimes. The information I had was usually incomplete, and sometimes random things I never knew about happened, like this Trial of God. Anyway, do your best in the trial. Try to get as much from it as you can." Feng replied. He had told Blackie and the others to do the same quests for reputation and check if the Four Color Trial of God would appear again.
Encountering a high level trial was difficult, and with their standards, it would be easy for them to clear all of the floors with high ranks. It was also a good opportunity for them to get back used to the environment of the current God's Domain.
After spending nine years fighting in the Greater God's Domain, their combat standards have vastly improved. With Violet's talent, she had managed to reach the Beyond Domain realm within a year of entering the Greater God's Domain. Although Fire lagged behind a bit, she too managed to reach the Beyond Domain realm within a few years. Meanwhile, Cola had reached the Peak of the Domain realm, while all of them had reached the Transcendental realm in the Realms of Truth; except for Violet, who surpassed it.
Feng had originally been really bitter when his guildmates caught up with him one after another, while some even surpassed him. Despite him having ten years of experience, a head start in the Realms of Refinement, plenty of opportunities handed to him and even getting stuck in a Mysterious Space for a few decades, he was still unable to reach the Beyond Domain realm due to his average talent. Although the Mysterious Space had helped him a bit by reaching the Half-step Beyond Domain realm, he was already basically there. So the most he got out of it were psychological issues.
After ending the call, Feng arrived at the teleportation hall and teleported a few times, going back to the the city closest to Miner's Paradise. After leaving the city and seeing that no one was around, he used Rocket Boost and went at his fastest speed. He only needed to run a bit more in order to get back to the cavern after Rocket Boost ended.
When Feng returned to the cliff, he took out the eleven Level 15 Dark-Gold Weapons. Feng then offered the Weapons as sacrifices to upgrade the Abyssal Blade.
The Abyssal Blade started exuding a dark fog, which immediately charged at the sacrificial weapons Feng had prepared.
Within three seconds, all of the sturdy Dark-Gold Weapons had been turned into dark fog and were absorbed by the Abyssal Blade.
After the Abyssal Blade had finished devouring the sacrificial weapons, the weapon was no longer completely pitch-black in appearance. Golden divine runes appeared on the blade of the sword, giving off a faint golden glow. Meanwhile, the entire blade itself had also become silvery gray.
When Feng casually brandished the Abyssal Blade, slashing it through the air, the feeling he got was like he was cutting a transparent sheet of paper.
[Abyssal Blade] (One-handed Sword, Magic Weapon)
Attack Power +1270 [1]
All Attributes +64
Attack Speed +20
Ignore Levels +13
Attacks have:
50% chance to cause 200% damage.
30% chance to cause 300% damage.
25% chance to induce Doom Curse, reducing all Attributes by 40% for 30 seconds.
If wielder belongs to any Swordsman-related class, all Skill Levels +3.
Increase Free Ability Points received for every increase in Level by 2 points.
Equipment Level 15. Can be upgraded. (Devour ten Level 20 Mysterious-Iron Weapons and one Level 20 Secret-Silver Weapon to upgrade to Level 20). Can be evolved (Unknown).
Additional Skill 1: Phantom Kill. Instantly creates a doppelganger. You can control this doppelganger. Doppelganger will have 60% of original body's Attributes and all Skills. At the same time, doppelganger and the original body can be swapped.
Duration: 45 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Skill 2: Abyssal Bind. Binds enemies and prevents movement, reducing Defense by 100%.
Duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
Additional Skill 3: Nine Dragons Slash. Instantly creates nine phantoms of the Abyssal Blade for wielder to use; each phantom sword is capable of dealing up to 45% damage.
Duration: 35 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Skill 4: Dark Violent Dance. 55% of the total damage dealt to the target spreads in a cone-shaped area towards targets within a distance of 13 yards.
Duration: 30 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
The Abyssal Blade was personally created by master smith Olysses using the Black Dragon King's fangs as material. It is one of thirty-six famed swords, and it is ranked 31st. However, this sword has been cursed by the Black Dragon King. Aside from providing the wielder with immense strength, there will be a Backlash every period of time. However, after being remodeled by Jack using a Star Crystal, the strength of the Backlash has been greatly reduced. If the wielder is unable to suppress the Backlash, the wielder will receive the curse of the Black Dragon King, permanently reducing All Attributes by 50%.
Unable to be dropped.
Unable to be traded.
Feng was shocked when he saw the massive increase in the Abyssal Blade's power. It was definitely worth the Dark-Gold Weapons, but he wasn't done yet. He took out the eleven Level 20 Dark-Gold Weapons from his bag.
Following which, Feng chose to upgrade the Abyssal Blade once more. In God's Domain, Level 20 was considered a large threshold. Just like the time the Abyssal Blade had risen to Level 10, it would receive a large improvement when it was upgraded to Level 20.
The devouring process this time was clearly different from when the Abyssal Blade got upgraded to Level 15.
After devouring the offerings, the Abyssal Blade erupted and let loose a dragon's roar. The sky and earth trembled in the face of this mighty roar. Immediately after, the Abyssal Blade broke free from Feng's grasp and floated in mid-air.
Boom!
The Abyssal Blade exploded, transforming into a black tornado. The surroundings went deathly still as if with bated breath.
As the black tornado dissipated, a gigantic figure emerged in its place. This figure was none other than the phantom of the Black Dragon King. However, compared to when the Abyssal Blade was upgraded to Level 10, the phantom that appeared this time was much more vivid. Moreover, the destructive aura it emitted was far stronger than before.
The skeleton that had been sitting lifelessly at the cliff's edge turned its head to the Black Dragon King's phantom. Blue flames flickered in the skeleton's eye sockets, before it turned its head back a moment later; returning its gaze to the distant Undead Miners.
At this moment, the Black Dragon King's phantom, which was several hundred meters in height, actually turned to look at Feng and revealed a human-like sneer. Feng felt like he was being looked down on, so he returned the sneer. The Phantom narrowed its eyes at Feng, but it dissipated soon after and transformed back into the Abyssal Blade. As the sword landed, its blade stabbed deep into the earth before Feng, with only its hilt remaining aboveground.
Feng pulled out the Abyssal Blade, and looked at it.
The appearance of the Abyssal Blade had greatly changed after being upgraded. The entire sword was now silvery gray in color, and it exuded a faint, black aura of death. The image of a black dragon could also be seen fading in and out of existence on the blade of the sword. Meanwhile, the image of a dragon had also been carved out of the hilt of the Abyssal Blade. There were small black chains wrapped around the hilt as well, seemingly acting as a seal for the dragon.
[Abyssal Blade] (One-handed Sword, Magic Weapon)
Attack Power +2341
All Attributes +109
Attack Speed +25
Ignore Levels +17
Attacks have:
60% chance to cause 200% damage.
35% chance to cause 300% damage.
30% chance to induce Doom Curse, reducing all Attributes by 40% for 30 seconds.
If wielder belongs to any Swordsman-related class, all Skill Levels +4.
Increase Free Ability Points received for every increase in Level by 2 points.
Equipment Level 20. Can be upgraded. (Devour ten Level 25 Secret-Silver Weapons and one Level 25 Fine-Gold Weapon to upgrade to Level 25).
Can be evolved (Unknown).
Additional Skill 1: Phantom Kill. Instantly creates a doppelganger. You can control this doppelganger. Doppelganger will have 75% of original body's Attributes and all Skills. At the same time, doppelganger and the original body can be swapped.
Duration: 45 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Skill 2: Abyssal Bind. Binds enemies and prevents movement, reducing Defense by 100%.
Duration: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
Additional Skill 3: Nine Dragons Slash. Instantly creates twelve phantoms of the Abyssal Blade for wielder to use; each phantom sword is capable of dealing up to 50% damage.
Duration: 40 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Skill 4: Dark Violent Dance. 60% of the total damage dealt to the target spreads in a cone-shaped area towards targets within a distance of 13 yards.
Duration: 35 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
Additional Profound Inheritance: Black Emperor. When activated, every critical hit will accumulate one layer of Death Aura. Each layer of death aura can be used to increase all Attributes of wielder by 2.5% and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 1.5% for 10 seconds, or be used to reduce the Cooldown of a skill by 4 seconds. Maximum of 50 layers of Death Aura.
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 18 hours
The Abyssal Blade was personally created by master smith Olysses using the Black Dragon King's fangs as material. It is one of thirty-six famed swords, and it is ranked 31st. However, this sword has been cursed by the Black Dragon King. Aside from providing the wielder with immense strength, there will be a Backlash every period of time. However, after being remodeled by Jack using a Star Crystal, the strength of the Backlash has been greatly reduced. If the wielder is unable to suppress the Backlash, the wielder will receive the curse of the Black Dragon King, permanently reducing all Attributes by 50%.
Unable to be dropped.
Unable to be traded.
The Abyssal Blade's attributes increased greatly once again. Its attributes were even higher than a Two-handed Fragmented Legendary Weapon's of the same level. Though, its attributes were still less than a Legendary Weapon's. With the new Abyssal Blade, finishing this quest would be a breeze.
Following which, Feng walked towards the edge of the cliff, and jumped off. Although there was a steep pathway downwards, he didn't bother using it. When Feng was a few meters away from hitting the ground, he activated Gravity Liberation, slowing his fall enough to land without taking any damage.
As soon as Feng landed, a group of patrolling Demon Golems noticed him and rushed in his direction.
'This is a good opportunity to test out the new Abyssal Blade.' Feng smirked when he saw the approaching Demon Golems. When they were close enough, he slashed with the Abyssal Blade in their direction.
Thundering Flash!
Three green streaks of thunder flew towards the Demon Golems, who were unable to react in time to dodge. Damages of -22,053, -29,772 and -40,192 consequently appeared above the Demon Golems' heads. Feng then leaped into the air and used Thunder Flame Explosion, dealing more damage to the Demon Golems, and placing them into a Fainted state. While they were in the Fainted state, Feng used the chance to charge up Earth Splitter to the max, before slashing at the Demon Golems. Due to Thundering Flash's damage amplification, the Earth Splitter caused over -120,000 damage to the Demon Golems.
Feng followed up with a Dark Violent Dance, which enveloped the Demon Golems. By the time the duration of Dark Violent Dance ended, the Demon Golems only had around 20% of their HP left; some who received critical hits from Thundering Flash and Thunder Flame Explosion had even less, while one that got hit with a critical Earth Splitter had died.
Unfortunately for the Demon Golems, the cooldowns of Feng's skill had ended during the Dark Violet Dance. With another wave of Thundering Flash, Thunder Flame Explosion and Earth Splitter, all of them dropped to the ground. They had died before they could even showcase their abilities as Level 50 Special Elites.
Feng leveled up over twenty times with all of the EXP he got resulting from killing opponents who were 31 levels higher than him, reaching Level 41. Since he could kill all of the monsters easily even at Level 19 and level up quickly, Feng started leveling up Flame Burst. He only stopped when he dropped to Level 19 again. Meanwhile, Flame Burst had reached Tier 1 Level 8.
[Flame Burst]
Tier 1, Level 8 (Requires 840,000,000 EXP to upgrade to Tier 1 Level 9 skill)
Channeling time: 1 second
Gathers the power of flames to a single point and causes 1,050% damage to the target.
Attack Count: 15 times
Cooldown: 3 minutes
While picking up the drops from the Demon Golems, Feng remembered something, and looked at his Free Mastery Points. He received 8 Free Mastery Points for every five levels, so he currently had 57 Free Mastery Points. Feng called out his Attribute Panel, choosing to use the Free Mastery Points.
[One-handed Sword Mastery]
[Basic Swordsman]
Mastery Points required: 20
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 10%.
[Intermediate Swordsman]
Mastery Points required: 50
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 15%.
[Advanced Swordsman]
Mastery Points required: 100
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 20%.
[Basic Sword Master]
Mastery Points required: 150
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 30%.
[2]
[Intermediate Sword Master]
Mastery Points required: 200
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 40%.
[Advanced Sword Master]
Mastery Points required: 300
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 50%.
[Basic Sword King]
Mastery Points required: 450
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 80%.
[Intermediate Sword King] [3]
Mastery Points required: 600
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 110%.
[Advanced Sword King]
Mastery Points required: 900
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 140%.
[Basic Sword Emperor]
Mastery Points required: 1,500
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 200%.
[Intermediate Sword Emperor]
Mastery Points required: 2,100
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 260%.
[Advanced Sword Emperor]
Mastery Points required: 2,700
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 320%.
[Basic Sword Saint]
Mastery Points required: 4,000
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 440%.
[Intermediate Sword Saint]
Mastery Points required: 5,500
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 560%.
[Advanced Sword Saint]
Mastery Points required: 7,000
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 700%.
[Basic Sword God]
Mastery Points required: 10,000
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 1,000%.
[Intermediate Sword God]
Mastery Points required: 15,000
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 1,500%.
[Advanced Sword God]
Mastery Points required: 20,000
Damage when using a One-handed Weapon increased by 2,000%.
Feng placed 50 of his Free Mastery Points into One-handed Sword Mastery, pushing it to Advanced Swordsman. He now did 20% more damage with One-handed swords.
After collecting all of the Demon Golems' drops, Feng started walking towards the treasury. He didn't get to walk for long before a flock of Demon Bats noticed Feng and flew towards him while screeching. Feng didn't even glance at them as he slashed the Abyssal Blade in their direction.
Three green streaks of thunder flew through the flock of Demon Bats, causing all of their HPs to drop to zero as they nosedived into the ground. After all, the Demon Bats were just Common Monsters, and their Defenses were much lower than the Demon Golems, thus a single Thundering Flash was enough to deal with them.
Feng continued his journey through the cavern after picking up the Demon Bats' drops. Another few waves of the native monsters, and Feng reached Level 44. He immediately upgraded Flame Burst to Tier 1 Level 9, dropping to Level 20.
Through his journey, Feng saw multiple Ore Veins of different kinds, most of them were Grade 3 Ore Veins, and he even saw a few Grade 2 ones. By Feng's estimate, Paradise Cavern can be considered a Large Mineral Field with different types of Ore Veins.
This discovery greatly surprised Feng. Such a Mineral Field couldn't be kept a secret even if one of the Five Great Super Guilds found it, but Feng had never heard any news about it. Although Paradise Cavern was enveloped by a magic seal, it would still be found no matter how hidden it was.
If it was on some map that not many players visited, he could understand, but Miner's Paradise is a map filled with many Ore Veins on it. Multiple large and small guild wars have been fought on it for the Ore Veins from what Feng knew about the map. So it's very strange that Paradise Cavern was never discovered.
By the time Feng arrived near the end of the cavern a few hours later, he had upgraded Flame Burst to Tier 2 Level 1, dropping from Level 45 to Level 13, before leveling back to Level 45. However, now he couldn't upgrade Flame Burst again even if he dropped down to Level 0. The damage of the Tier 2 Level 1 Flame Burst increased to 1,200%, while its Attack Count increased to 16 times, but its cooldown stayed on three minutes.
Since he leveled up 26 times, Feng had plenty of Free Attribution Points to spend, so he placed half of them in Strength and half in Agility.
Having decided his preparations are good enough, Feng approached the Undead Miners and Demonified Guardian Golem. When he was within range of the Undead Miners, faint blue flames lit up in their empty sockets, as they turned their heads towards Feng. Without making a sound, they rushed towards him.
Meanwhile, the Demonified Guardian Golem turned to look at Feng. It opened its large hand, and a giant hammer made of black stone formed.
Phantom Kill!
Nine dragon Slash!
Black Emperor!
Suddenly, another Feng and twelve pitch black swords appeared, as dark fog started emerging from the Abyssal Blade and entering Feng's body. Feng controlled the phantom Abyssal Blades to fly towards the Demonified Guardian Golem, while the doppelganger used Thundering Flash on the approaching Undead Miners.
Damages of -21,393, -28,881 and -38,989 appeared above their heads, when Feng used Thundering Flash causing another series of -57,602, -77,763 and -104,980 damages to appear. With only two skill, Feng had taken away over 10% from the Undead Master Miners' HPs. Although the Undead Grandmaster Miners took less damage in comparison to the Undead Master Miners, it was still a considerable amount.
The doppelganger used Thunder Flame Explosion, followed by Earth Splitter, before running to distract the Demonified Guardian Golem along with the twelve phantom Abyssal Blades. Meanwhile, Feng also used those skills before enveloping the Undead Miners with Dark Violent Dance. Although the Undead Miners tried to get out of the flame cone, Feng kept hitting them back in.
When the duration of Dark Violent Dance was about to end, the doppelganger broke away from the Demonified Guardian Golem and ran back to Feng. As soon the Dark Violent Dance dissipated, the doppelganger used Thundering Flash, causing another series of damages, and disappeared in the next second. Feng used his own Thundering Flash, before following up with Thunder Flame Explosion and Earth Splitter.
Since the doppelganger wasn't there to distract it anymore, the Demonified Guardian Golem charged towards Feng, arriving in front of him in the next second and smashing at him with its giant hammer heavily. Feng naturally dodged, however, when the hammer hit the ground, earth spikes started coming out from the surroundings, intending to pierce Feng.
Feng used Wind Blade and avoided all of them while dashing towards one of the Undead Master Miners, which had less than one million HP left, while some who received critical hits had even less. When Feng reached one of the Undead Master Miners, the Abyssal Blade in Feng's hand started glowing a dazzling white. The white glow surrounding the Abyssal Blade shone like a miniature sun; its presence alone raised the surrounding temperature by several folds.
He dodged the Undead Master Miner's pickaxe and slashed at it with the Abyssal Blade while running past it, and dashing towards another one. The Undead Master Miner was devoured by the miniature sun, causing a damage of over -800,000, instantly taking away all of the HP it had left.
Meanwhile, the Demonified Guardian Golem didn't lift the stone hammer in its hand, instead it dragged it along the ground and swung it in Feng's direction. The ground opened up into a ravine along the way of its swing.
'That's annoying.' Feng thought to himself. It would be a bit more difficult to dodge and move freely if there were ravines all around, so Feng activated Rocket Boost that recently came off cooldown, and flew towards the next Undead Master Miner. With his increased speed, he managed to reach the Undead Master Miners even faster, and with a single slash from his sword, all of their HP bars emptied out.
By the time he was on his eleventh hit, all of the Undead Master Miners had fallen. He then switched his sights to the closest Undead Grandmaster Miner and flew towards it. Although the Demonified Guardian Golem tried to stop him multiple times along the way, none of its attacks and skills managed to land.
When Feng reached the closest Undead Grandmaster Miner, he only had one second left on the damage amplification from the Thundering Flashes. So, he swung the Abyssal Blade five times in one breath, all of the attacks landing on the same spot at the same time.
Five Extreme Slashes!
A damage of over -5,000,000 appeared above the Undead Grandmaster Miner's head, leaving it with only 20% of its total HP. Just when Feng was going to continue attacking, he sensed that that the Demonified Guardian Golem had arrived behind him and was singing its hammer.
He flew higher and avoided the hammer, which hit the Undead Grandmaster Miner, sending it flying and leaving it with less than 100,000 HP. Feng quickly flew towards it and used Chop, followed by Double Chop, taking away the last of its HP. Feng turned to the Demonified Guardian Golem with a look of gratitude. What a kind guy! Just when he ran out of skills, it came in to help and lower the Undead Grandmaster Miner's HP for him.
Naturally, the Demonified Guardian Golem couldn't tell the sarcastic gratitude Feng gave it, as it dashed forwards and continued to attack Feng, but he easily avoided all of its attempts. Feng continued to reduce the remaining Undead Grandmaster Miners' HP while waiting for the cooldowns of his skills to end, reducing a large chunk of the Undead Grandmaster Miners' HP whenever they did.
After three minutes, he used Flame Burst to take down another three Undead Grandmaster Miners, leaving only one left. Although he lost Rocket Boost at that point, it didn't change much. The last Undead Miner fell too within a little over two minutes. He then turned his gaze towards the Demonified Guardian Golem which hadn't stopped chasing him this entire time, and dashed towards it.
When the Demonified Guardian Golem saw the human approaching it, it swung its hammer in advance and smashed it on the ground in front of the human. It already knew that the small human was very fast and it wasn't able to land any hits on the human, so it chose a different strategy. When the giant hammer hit the ground, a small earthquake shook the entire cavern. The ground under Feng's feet became unstable as cracks appeared all around, earth spikes shot out of the ground surrounding Feng, forcing him to jump in the air to avoid them.
The Demonified Guardian Golem was waiting for this, as it swung its giant black stone hammer at the human who was in mid air and unable to dodge anymore. Just when the hammer was going to smash into the small human, it disappeared. The Demonified Guardian Golem became confused seeing its target disappear. Before it could look around, three lightning streaks hit its back, followed by another three. When it turned around, it saw that there were now two humans, and one of them had golden dragon scales covering its skin.
Suddenly, the pitch black swords in the two humans hands began to glow like miniature suns. The Demonified Guardian Golem became serious as it was familiar with this move that badly damaged its underlings. Although the Demonified Guardian Golem attempted to defend itself, nine pitch black chains appeared out of nowhere and bound it as the two humans accurately hit its weak spots.
Eight Extreme Slashes! x2
Eight Extreme Slashes! x2
-8,923,619, -3,346,364, -8,992,082, -3,401,897
In two breaths, Feng and his doppelganger used all of the Flame Burst's attacks, devouring over 80% of the Demonified Guardian Golem's HP. As the Demonified Guardian Golem that broke out of the Abyssal Bind started going Berserk, Feng used 45 of the 50 layers of Death Aura he had accumulated to reduce Flame Burst's cooldown to zero, while using the remaining 5 layers to increase all of his attributes by 12,5% and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 7,5%.
As the Abyssal Blade once again turned into a miniature sun, Feng brandished it, using two Eight Extreme Slashes and taking away the last of the Demonified Guardian Golem's HP.
A golden glow surrounded Feng. With all of the EXP he got from the Undead Miners and the Demonified Guardian Golem, he leveled up two times, and wasn't far from Level 48. Since he was way ahead of the other players and needed his level to be lower for clearing Demon's Castle, he decided to upgrade Flame Burst again to Tier 2 Level 2, which caused him to drop to Level 15.
Flame Burst now did 1,300% damage, with its attack count and cooldown remaining the same.
Feng then proceeded to pick up all of the loot from the Undead Miners and Demonified Guardian Golem. By the time he finished sorting out the drops, the duration of Heavenly Dragon's Power had already ran out, and he went back to his original appearance.
With Feng's luck, he managed to obtain plenty of rare materials and high level equipment from all of the monsters he killed along the way, and the drops from the Demonified Guardian Golem and Undead Miners was even better. After he was done picking up everything, Feng noticed that the bodies of the Undead Miners didn't disappear, instead they just lay lifelessly on the ground.
Feng approached the magic barrier protecting the steel gate, which was the entrance to the Holy Cavers' treasury. Inside the transparent barrier, there was a black fog that seemed to be contaminating it, causing the magic barrier to become darker and give off an evil aura. Feng guessed that was the curse.
'I can probably open this even without the key.' As he observed the Grandmaster Magic Array, Feng figured that it wouldn't be too difficult to crack it open, but he decided to use the key anyway since it saved him some time. As he inserted the key, a gap appeared in the magic barrier, making an entrance. The black fog started pouring out of the magic barrier through the gap, before dissipating. At the same time, black fog left the bodies of the Undead Miners as well as the monsters in the entire cavern.
As all of the fog left the Undead Miners, phantoms of humans appeared above the skeletons. They nodded at Feng before disappearing.
"Young adventurer, thank you. I can already feel the curse in my body vanishing. With this, we can leave this world without regret." The skeleton that had been sitting on the cliff suddenly appeared, it looked at Feng and thanked him as it bowed deeply. "The treasures that me and my brothers have collected over the years are now yours. However, the Great Demon might sense that the curse had been lifted, so I recommend that you leave as soon as possible." Finished speaking, a phantom of an old man came out of the skeleton, which collapsed into a pile of bones, and fazed out in the next second.
System: Epic Hidden Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" completed.
Quest rewards: Ownership of the Holy Cavers' Treasury, +3 Humanity Reputation Points.
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Epic ranked Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" before Tier 2. Rewards increased by 100%
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Epic ranked Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" before Level 50. Rewards increased by 200%
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Epic ranked Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" before Tier 1. Rewards increased by 400%
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Epic ranked Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" before Level 20. Rewards increased by 800%
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Epic ranked Quest "Holy Cavers' Treasure" with only one player. Rewards increased by 1600%
Feng was dumbfounded by all of the system notifications. Although he had seen rewards being increased by the system when someone completes something meant for higher tiers or levels, he had never seen so many at once. Moreover, doesn't this mean his rewards were increased by nearly 4,600 times[4] of the original? He checked his Humanity Reputation Points and saw there were only three points, so he guessed it was the Holy Cavers' treasures that was increased.
He eagerly opened the steel gates to the Holy Cavers' treasury, but before he stepped into it to check his rewards, he turned around and went back to the magic array. The key had only opened up the magic barrier and not deactivated it completely, so the magic barrier could still be used.
However, as the key no longer works after the skeleton's soul left, it became unusable. But Feng didn't need the key. With him being a former Grandmaster Magician, it was easy for Feng to close the magic barrier again, so even if the Great Demon comes, he'll still be safe inside the treasury.
After settling the magic barrier, Feng went back inside the treasury. After all, the Holy Cavers were a group with multiple Grandmaster Miners, including a Holy Miner. Their treasures should be numerous and very valuable. Moreover, they'll definitely have Seven Luminaries Crystals. They should have 1,000 units at the very least, and even if they had less, with the 4,600 times boost, he'll still have a few hundred thousand units. And that's only the Seven Luminaries Crystals. There's still all the other valuable ores the Holy Cavers have stocked up, not to mention just regular Gold Coins and Magic Crystals. Feng could already envision himself becoming so rich that he'll just buy the Star Moon Kingdom and have a solid foundation for Zero Wing to develop.
But as Feng laid his eyes on the treasury, his expression froze. Although there were plenty of valuable ores, Gold Coins, Magic Crystals and even Seven Luminaries Crystals, Feng felt that something was wrong as he looked at the amount. Through his life, Feng had seen plenty of mountains of items, sometimes numbering in the millions or even billions on rare occasions. So, with his experience, he could immediately tell there weren't even 100,000 units of Seven Luminaries Crystals, there might only be around 50,000.
The fuck is this? Where was his kingdom-buying wealth? Feng absolutely refused to believe there were originally only around 10 units of Seven Luminaries Crystals in the Holy Cavers'. He soon noticed that it was the same case for the other items, including the Gold Coins and Magic Crystals. Logically, the Holy Cavers should be very rich, a few tens of thousands of Gold Coins wouldn't be surprising. Feng had been thinking that, even if there were originally only a thousand Gold Coins or so, he'd still have over four million coins. He had already started considering how to spend all of that money in the best way possible.
But it seems he was thinking to much, as there were only a few hundred thousand Gold Coins and Magic Crystals here. Although that's an astronomical amount for the current players, considering the circumstances, there should be much more. Feng calmed himself and started looking through the items. A couple of minutes later, he understood what had happened.
Indeed, he had been thinking to much. If a few millions of Gold Coins or hundreds of thousands of Seven Luminaries Crystals appeared in a players possession right now, it would completely break the game. The player would be able to dominate the entire God's Domain soon after.
Naturally, the Main God's System couldn't allow that, but it also couldn't take away Feng's reward.
God's Domain was a high-risk, high-reward game, and since Feng completed a Hidden Epic Quest in a Level 50 map at such a low level, he had to be rewarded. Similarly, if a Tier 6 player found the quest and completed it, the reward would be much lower; the player might only get the piece of Philosopher's Stone.
Since the Main God's system couldn't reward Feng the full amount, and it couldn't reduce Feng's reward, it did something different. It exchanged quantity for quality.
[Holy Pickaxe] (Pickaxe, Epic Rank)
Attributes adjusted according to user's level (Level 15)
Strength +30, Vitality +45
Mining Speed +40%
When Mining:
Stamina consumption reduced by 40%
20% chance to receive one extra Proficiency Point
15% chance to get an extra ore
Additional Passive Skill 1: Overminer
Increases Miner Subclass rank by one stage. (Up to a maximum of Basic Master rank)
Additional Passive Skill 2: Holy Miner's Aura
Increases Miner rank of all allies within 30 yards by one rank. (Up to a maximum of Basic Master rank)
Additional Active Skill: Berserk Miner
Mining Speed increased by 200%, Stamina consumption reduced by 50%, Miner rank increased by one rank (Up to a maximum of Advanced Master rank) for 20 minutes.
Cooldown: 12 hours
[Holy Ore Bag] (Epic Rank, Ore Bag)
Built-in medium warehouse for ores: Capacity 700 non-bag space ores
[Holy Cavers Orb] (Fragmented Legendary Item)
The Holy Cavers Orb contains the soul remnants of the Holy Cavers' members
Additional Active Skill - Holy Cavers Squad
Summons phantoms of Miners to mine for one day at the cost of Magic Crystals. Up to a maximum of 100 phantoms can be summoned at one time. Up to a maximum of 1 Holy Miner, 10 Grandmaster Miners and 50 Master Miners can be summoned at one time.
Basic Miner Apprentice - 10 magic crystals
Intermediate Miner Apprentice - 20 magic crystals
Advanced Miner Apprentice - 30 magic crystals
Basic Miner - 100 magic crystals
Intermediate Miner - 200 magic crystals
Advanced Miner - 300 magic crystals
Basic Master Miner - 1,000 magic crystals
Intermediate Master Miner - 2,000 magic crystals
Advanced Master Miner - 3,000 magic crystals
Basic Grandmaster Miner - 10,000 magic crystals
Intermediate Grandmaster Miner - 20,000 magic crystals
Advanced Grandmaster Apprentice - 30,000 magic crystals
Holy Miner - 50,000 magic crystals
Cooldown: 1 day
Among the other items, there were six Dark-Gold Ore Bags, and plenty of high level mining equipment. No to mention, there were millions of ores, some regular and some very valuable. There were even some that could only be found in Level 150 maps. As for Seven Luminaries Crystals, Gold Coins and Magic Crystals, there was more than 50,000 Seven Luminaries Crystals, exactly 500,000 Gold Coins and around 750,000 Magic Crystals.
Feng had originally been disappointed that the amount of resources was reduced. Just when he thought he was filthy rich, the Main God's System said "Sike. Here's some mining stuff". But when he thought more about it, he realized that this was more profitable.
Moreover, he still got plenty of money, even if it's not as much as expected, it'll still be enough for his future plans. And he had a good way of getting more Seven Luminaries Crystals using the Holy Cavers Orb, and plenty of other ores later on, too. So it's a major profit.
As Feng was emptying out the treasury, he came across a small pedestal. On the pedestal, there was a blood-red stone. The stone was none other than the Philosopher's Stone. This one seemed to be around the same size as the one he found in the Sun Temple.
Just as Feng picked up the piece of the Philosopher's Stone and was about to inspect it, a terrifying aura descended.
'Time to go.' Feng immediately stored the Philosopher's Stone, before he started picking up the rest of the items in the treasury and shoving them in his bag without bothering to inspect them. Although the Great Demon that just arrived couldn't previously get in, it might have found a way this time. Feng still couldn't take on a Great Demon, and he didn't want to risk anything, so he immediately packed up and left.
As the magic barrier isolated the space inside, Feng had no idea that the Great Demon was burning with rage outside. It's been waiting for over five hundred years to finally get a chance to get through the Grandmaster Magic Array and acquire the Philosopher's Stone. Just as it prepared a way to get inside the magic barrier, the Great Demon sensed that the curse it placed in Paradise Cavern has been lifted. The Great Demon was initially happy as it thought it wouldn't have to use that method, but when it arrived, the Great Demon discovered that the barrier was still closed, however the curse was lifted for some reason.
While the Great Demon was wondering what went wrong with the curse, it faintly sensed someone moving about inside the treasury. Having realized what happened, the Great Demon was both pissed and mortified. It quickly used the method it discovered to corrode the magic barrier so it could get through it.
Feng, who was picking up the last of the items in the treasury, discovered that something was happening to the magic barrier. His expression changed as he realized his assumption about the Great Demon finding a way to get inside was correct. Feng used Phantom Kill and Nine Dragon Slash before activating the Ring of Nothingness and running to a corner of the treasury. He then took out a Return Scroll and activated it.
Seconds ticked by as the magic barrier corroded further. When only five seconds remained before the Return Scroll's activation finished, the magic barrier was completely corroded. The Great Demon gave it a punch, causing it to shatter like fragile glass. Before the Great Demon could even step forward and spread its senses, three streaks of green thunder flew towards it, surprising the Great Demon.
But the Great Demon's nonchalance immediately returned upon sensing the power in the lightning streaks. The Great Demon allowed them to collide with it, barely inflicting single digit damages. Just as the Great Demon opened its mouth to speak, twelve pitch black swords flew towards it. The Great Demon now became annoyed from the attacks. A scimitar appeared in the Great Demon's hand. It swung the scimitar lightly and the twelve phantom Abyssal Blades got sent flying in different directions, one of them almost hitting Feng who was invisible.
The doppelganger who activated Wind Blade finally arrived in front of the Great Demon, as the Abyssal Blade in its hand lit up like a miniature sun. The Great Demon sneered at the doppelganger's attempt and swung its scimitar lightly to meet the doppelganger's attack. Before they collided, the doppelganger executed eight slashes in one breath, all of them colliding at the same place on the Great Demon's scimitar.
Boom!
A loud explosion erupted as the doppelganger flew out of the smoke, its HP depleting. It only stopped decreasing when the doppelganger had less than 100 HP left.
"Still alive?" The Great Demon raised an eyebrow, but soon dismissed it. The Great Demon disappeared and reappeared in front of the doppelganger in the next second while slashing with its scimitar. The doppelganger blocked with its sword while using Parry and Defensive Blade.
The Parry was immediately proven useless as the Great Demon's scimitar ate through it and the Defensive Blade's block count, merely slowing it down for a second before it continued and removed the last of the doppelganger's HP. The Great Demon scoffed when it saw the doppelganger disintegrate. What did a mere Sword Apprentice think it could achieve in front of a Great Demon?
But soon, the Great Demon noticed that something was wrong when the doppelganger didn't leave anything behind. It took the Great Demon a second to realize what had happened, and it immediately became enraged. The Great Demon immediately spread its senses through the treasury.
Just as the Great Demon looked at a certain corner of the treasury, it saw a streak of light disappear.
"NO!" The Great Demon's rage reached its maximum, as it slashed at the corner while using a Tier 4 skill, completely destroying that part of the treasury. But nothing the Great Demon did would be able to bring Feng back.
Meanwhile, Feng was storing his earnings in the Bank, not caring about the raging demon. He stored everything except the Philosopher's Stone before he took out the piece of Philosopher's Stone he previously got from the Sun Temple and went to a hotel.
Feng took out the two Philosopher's Stones and combined them.
System: Do you wish to fuse the two Philosopher's Stones?
He immediately clicked the "Fuse" button.
Suddenly, the two Philosopher's Stones transformed into a pool of blood-red liquid and fused. The liquid then solidified into a fist-sized blood-red pearl. It was no longer an uneven block of stone.
After the fusion completed, Feng picked up the newly-formed Philosopher's Stone and checked its information.
[Philosopher's Stone] (41% Completed)
Epic Rank Special Item (Dropped upon death)
A sacred item for Alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone can be used to turn stone into gold, revive the dead, and more. However, the Sword Emperor, Knight, shattered the Philosopher's Stone into five pieces. However, the Philosopher's Stone possesses immense strength. As long as one gathers the five pieces, it will recover to its full strength.
Active Effect: Due to being damaged, the Philosopher's Stone possesses less than a seventh of its original strength. It can only be used for Alchemical Conversion, Elemental Refinement, Alchemical Synthesis, and Elemental Strengthening.
Feng saw that, except for the higher percentage, the rest of the information was the same as he remembered. In his previous life, he had only collected the two pieces and never found another one. Although Feng considered using an Ancient Document to look for the rest of the pieces, he had other things he needed to look for. There was also a chance that someone else had already found the pieces, in which case he'd only waste a precious Ancient Document.
Seeing that he still had plenty of time, Feng went to the Bank and stored the new Philosopher's Stone, before taking out the Epic rank Holy Pickaxe and some of the other mining equipment he got from the Holy Cavers' treasury. He then headed to a map close to White River City that had Ore Veins on it. Feng was planning to level up his Mining Proficiency in preparation to when he went to the God's grave at the Purple Sun Mansion. He definitely wasn't going to let go of those Seven Luminaries Crystals this time.
While Feng was running towards his destination, the entire White River City region flew into an uproar.
The cause was no other than the White River City region's Ranking List.
A Level 13 player actually held the first place.
"What is this? I've only managed to reach Level 10 and enter White River City after much difficulty, yet, there is already a Level 13 player? What did this bastard eat growing up?"
"I know, right? That Lone Tyrant fellow previously ranked in the tens, but he had suddenly shot up to first place, surpassing even the Snow Goddess!"
"Lone Tyrant is from a Guild called Dark Star. Isn't that a third-rate Guild? How could they be so strong as to surpass the Snow Goddess?"
The official forums were already in a fiery uproar over this matter
---
Inside the Level 10, 10-man Team Dungeon, the Dark Crow Cave.
A Black-feathered Crow with a six-meter tall body lay motionless on the ground, a pile of items sitting by its side. Among these items, there were pieces of Level 10 Mysterious-Iron Set Equipment. There were even two Secret-Silver ranked items and a large number of rare materials.
Meanwhile, standing beside this Black-feathered Crow was a fairy. This fairy possessed skin as white as snow and an appearance that could charm any mortal man. Her body was the very definition of absolute perfection. However, this fairy's eyes possessed a penetrating gaze with a boundless and intimidating chill.
This woman who seemed to transcend mortal men was none other than Gentle Snow.
System: Ouroboros has cleared the Hard Mode of Black Crow Cave. Rewarding 300 Guild Reputation.
"Snow, someone's reached Level 13 already. They're a lot faster than we are. Why don't we stop Dungeon-diving and resume leveling up?" possessing a similarly devilish body, Zhao Yueru pouted as she spoke, displeased.
After going to a Level 12 monster area while they were only Level 9, they quickly discovered that they could constantly improve their battle prowess. Although it was extremely difficult to kill those monsters, in the beginning, they rose swiftly after experiencing many near-death situations and long periods of research and self-reflection. With their battle techniques having greatly improved, they felt that killing monsters three levels higher was no longer just a pipe dream.
After arriving at White River City, they immediately picked up the Daily Reputation Quests. They then looked for an extremely good leveling spot, grinding there for a period. However, due to their equipment being slightly outdated, they decided to raid a Dungeon to upgrade their equipment, making preparations to obtain the First Clear of one of the Level 10 large-scale Team Dungeons. Otherwise, a player from a measly third-rate Guild wouldn't have surpassed them.
"Ignore him. Compared to Levels, the First Clear of a large-scale Team Dungeon is far more important. Moreover, after exceeding Level 15, it won't matter, even if we manage to clear the Hell Mode of a Level 10 large-scale Team Dungeon. Our equipment should be close to ready now, so let's start with obtaining the First Clear of a Level 10 Party Dungeon." When Gentle Snow noticed Lone Tyrant's name occupying the first position on the Ranking List, a calm smile appeared on her pure and untainted complexion.
Gentle Snow's team members revealed excited smiles when faced with Gentle Snow's decision.
They could finally display their prowess for all to see.
The Hard Mode of a Team Dungeon could not fully sate their thirst for growth. It was especially true after they familiarized themselves with their Extraordinary Condition. Right now, only Hell Mode could truly excite them.
Just like when they were in the Hell Mode of Dark Moon Graveyard, they wished to experience the feeling of having every single cell within their bodies tremble. In the past, they believed that their trembling represented fear. In reality, however, that trembling resulted from the excitement that grew in their hearts.
Meanwhile, the other large Guilds were similarly shocked by the sudden appearance of Lone Tyrant but quickly dismissed this matter from their minds.
The average players, however, were astonished. This incident had allowed the apex third-rate Guild, Dark Star, to firmly established a foothold in White River City. Even the second-rate Guild, the Assassin's Alliance, was a step behind them. None of the top ten players on the Ranking List belonged to the Assassin's Alliance. Contrary to expectations, the Assassin's Alliance had three members ranked within the top 30. One of them was the Guild Leader, ranking 18th. The second person was Stabbing Heart, who ranked 26th. Finally, the Assassin's Alliance's top Elementalist ranked at 29th.
Yet, to the majority of the players within the White River City region, having such a rank was no different than having no rank at all. The fame of having such a rank was worlds apart from that of being in first place.
---
After arriving at the map with Ore Veins, Feng mined there for three hours, getting his Mining Proficiency close to Intermediate Mining Apprentice, when he received a call request from Stabbing Heart. He took a break from mining to let his stamina regenerate and accepted the call.
"Brother Ye Feng, I wonder if I can request your help on a matter?" Stabbing Heart spoke without adding any unnecessary flattery, getting right to the point. However, he immediately felt surprised by his own actions in suddenly seeking Feng's help. After all, an expert's time was extremely valuable. Not to mention, the competition in White River City right now was far more intense than the competition in Red Leaf City in the past.
After all, when all was said and done, Red Leaf Town only had a player base 20,000 to 30,000 in the past. Meanwhile, White River City had over a million players right now. Adding to the fact that plenty of experts had gathered at White River City, the intensity of the competition there had increased by several times.
"Help? I wonder what Brother Stabbing Heart needs me to do?" Feng asked.
"It's like this. I wish to invite you to raid a Team Dungeon with us. If we have the help of an expert like Brother Ye Feng, we will have a very high possibility of clearing the Dungeon." Stabbing Heart was clearly embarrassed for asking.
"Which Team Dungeon is it?" Feng asked
"It's one of the 20-man Team Dungeons, the Beastman Munition Factory. That is a Level 10 to Level 13 Team Dungeon, and the equipment dropped there would be of great help to us when we raid the three large-scale Dungeons. Although we've already cleared the Normal Mode of that Dungeon, the Hard Mode is simply too difficult. We have been stuck at the first Boss all this time, so we wished to seek your aid."
"Fine, but I have a demand," Feng said.
"Brother Ye Feng, there is no need to hold back!" Stabbing Heart released a sigh of relief after hearing Feng's agreement. He was deeply afraid that Feng would refuse.
"I want all the Recipes and Forging Designs we obtain from the Dungeon." Feng simply said. He agreed to help Stabbing Heart because it wouldn't take too long and he could get the Basic Fire Resistance Potion recipe.
Stabbing Heart carefully considered Feng's words. If he were the one leading the team this time, he wouldn't hesitate to agree to Feng's demands. However, the leader of the team this time was the Guild Leader of the Assassin's Alliance, Cruel Sword. So, Stabbing Heart had no authority to make this decision.
"Brother Ye Feng, I have to consult with the Guild Leader about this matter. Can I give you a reply sometime later?" Stabbing Heart said with less confidence.
"Sure." In any case, Feng was not in a hurry. He was still going to delay by two hours even though he was currently free, since he didn't want to have to come back here for two hours before going to the Library.
---
After Stabbing Heart disconnected the call, he immediately went up to the Guild Leader, Cruel Sword. Cruel Sword was currently a short distance away, clearing the monsters in the Dungeon.
Based on appearance alone, Cruel Sword looked very young, and his tall and robust body seemed full of energy. In actuality, he was already 39 years old. Normally, he wore a stern expression, and he would always look at others with an intimidating and penetrating gaze. His ferocious appearance was just like that of a warrior about to enter a battlefield.
In fact, Cruel Sword was a mercenary in reality. However, he had long since retired from his squad. After his retirement, he joined the then-weak Assassin's Alliance, and after enduring over ten years of hardships, he finally managed to turn the Assassin's Alliance into an apex second-rate Guild, gaining plenty of support and sponsors from large corporations.
"How did your negotiations with him go?" Cruel Sword turned his head and glanced at Stabbing Heart, asking sternly.
Previously, the Assassin's Alliance had been stuck at the first Boss of the Hard Mode Beastman Munition Factory. Hence, Stabbing Heart suggested recruiting a god-ranked expert to help them. However, Cruel Sword felt that it was beneath him to do such a thing. What god-ranked expert? Everyone's just blindly overestimating him.
If it weren't for the fact that Stabbing Heart had performed extremely well in recent days and been promoted to an elder of the Guild, Cruel Sword would not have let Stabbing Heart contact Feng at all.
"He agrees to come, but he has a demand. He wants all of the Forging Designs and Recipes that drop." Stabbing Heart carefully said, "However, I feel that Ye Feng is worth this price. After all, even the Snow Goddess greatly valued his performance."
After listening to these words, Cruel Sword's coarse eyebrows furrowed. He clearly felt dissatisfied about Feng's demands.
"Boss Cruel Sword, Ye Feng is truly powerful. Without Ye Feng, the Snow Goddess, Gentle Snow, might not have even obtained the First Clear of the Dark Moon Graveyard," Stabbing Heart hurriedly said.
"Gentle Snow, is it?" Cruel Sword's resolve slightly wavered after hearing this name.
Just half an hour ago, Gentle Snow had shocked all players throughout the entire White River City region, Cruel Blade included.
Gentle Snow had taken down the First Clear of four Level 10 Party Dungeons and two Level 10 small-scale Team Dungeons. Moreover, it wasn't the First Clear of Hard Mode, but the First Clear of Hell Mode.
Simultaneously, her achievements signified the gap between her and the other Guilds growing even larger.
Moreover, Cruel Sword received information that Gentle Snow had already begun raiding the Hell Mode of a 20-man Team Dungeon. If Gentle Snow really succeeded...
She would no longer occupy the same playing field as the other Guilds within the White River City region.
"It seems that Ye Feng indeed has some capabilities. Since that is the case, agree to his demands." Cruel Sword was very curious about Feng now. He wondered if Feng was truly as strong as Stabbing Heart described him.
In truth, Cruel Sword did not want any outsiders participating in the Guild's expedition. However, the Assassin's Alliance's position in White River City was becoming more insignificant as time passed.
Ignoring the first-rate Guild, Ouroboros, even the third-rate Guild, Dark Star, would soon surpass them. The severity of this matter further increased due to the sudden appearance of that Lone Tyrant, who occupied the first position on the Ranking List. Dark Star then continued to successfully raid the Hard Mode of two small-scale Team Dungeons, greatly increasing their fame and surpassing the other Guilds.
On the other hand, aside from obtaining the First Clear of several Normal Mode Dungeons, the Assassin's Alliance had yet to even obtain the First Clear of a single Hard Mode Dungeon. Hence, Cruel Sword had personally organized an elite team to raid the Beastman Munition Factory. He intended to take this chance to obtain the First Clear of a Hard Mode Dungeon, increasing the Guild's influence in White River City and ending the gossip of Assassin's Alliance's inferiority to Dark Star.
Hearing Cruel Sword's command, Stabbing Heart immediately contacted Feng, excited.
"Brother Ye Feng, our Guild Leader has agreed to your demands. I wonder if you can come here immediately?" Stabbing Heart asked.
"I still have some matters to attend to right now. I'll need around two hours before I can hurry over."
"Alright, then let's meet up at the entrance of the Beastman Munition Factory in two hours." Although Stabbing Heart wanted Feng to arrive as soon as possible, Stabbing Heart did not dare insist on the matter since Feng had his own matters to attend. After all, it was already stunning that Feng would willingly help them out.
"Alright. I'll be there in two hours." Feng disconnected the call, resuming his mining.
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1. Here me out on this big increase. In the novel the level 0 AB had 24 attack, after using 11 Mysterious-iron weapons it increased by 15 to 39, so each M-I increases attack by around 1.5, the level 10 AB had 96 attack power and it increased by 115 to 211 after 1 dark-gold and 10 M-I. Since 10 M-I is around 15, one D-G is around 100 attack power. Hence, 11 D-G is around 1,100 increase in attack power. Although it's not exactly accurate, since he gave the same amount to increase to level 20 and the attack power increased by 91. LOC made it too inconsistent, so this is the best I can do
2. I know there was something like "There is a 5% chance for a qualitative change to occur." here, but that was never ever mentioned again (that I know of at least) so I'm just gonna throw it out because I don't know what that's supposed to be. If any of you know what this is supposed to be and how it works, comment and I'll think about if I should add it
3. From this point everything is made up by me, since LOC apparently forgot mastery existed. If you have any opinions, comment them
4. This was originally something else, but I decided to change it, using compound growth, so it's increasing the original value by 100%, and then the new value by 200% and so on, meaning the original value is increased by 4,590 times.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone