บท 37: Let's continue this another time (2)
A short distance away from Creek Town, Aqua Rose and the other members of Zero Wing still grinded the Blood Hand Association's NPCs relentlessly, their experience bars continuously rising.
There were over 2,000 NPCs in Creek Town, and it would not be an easy task to kill every one of them. Although Blackie's Stars of Light skill was very effective against the enemy NPCs, the skill had a long Cooldown. As for everyone else, the damage they dealt to the enemy NPCs was practically negligible. In the end, the main source of damage was the Level 50 Tier 1 guards. However, there were healers among the Blood Hand Association NPCs, as well as some powerful Level 50 Blood Hand Association Elites. It was not possible to eliminate all of them within a short time.
Seeing that the situation had mostly stabilized, Feng summoned Kite before saying in the team chat, "You guys remain here and continue grinding. Violet, come with me. We're going to make a trip to the Blood Hand Association's stronghold."
Violet simply nodded and followed after Feng to the Blood Hand Association's stronghold in Creek Town, while the rest didn't pay much attention to why Feng brought Violet along and continued grinding the Blood Hand Association's NPCs.
As the Blood Hand Association's stronghold, the security around the construct was usually very strict. However, now that all of the NPCs had been drawn away, Feng's group managed to enter the stronghold without any trouble.
The inside of the tower was a resplendent sight. Such a luxurious building in a barren place like Creek Town was unimaginable.
Inside of the Blood Hand Association's stronghold, it was like a maze. There were also many Level 30 Blood Hand Association Knights patrolling the construct. These NPCs wore red leather armor and wielded spears. They also had 200,000 HP. Moreover, these NPCs always moved in groups of ten, and their coordination made them extremely difficult to deal with.
Unlike in his previous life, Feng didn't bother circling around the Blood Hand Association Knights and merely let Kite deal with them while providing help when necessary. The reason, he simply didn't feel like wasting time sneaking around, while he also didn't feel like dealing with these weak NPCs that he could kill in a few slashes, so Feng decided to use the chance to help Kite get used to his recovered strength and level up a bit. If Kite couldn't handle the fights anymore, Feng would step in and end it with a few skills.
As for the traps all around the Blood Hand Association's stronghold, Feng either avoided them based off of memory or dealt with them in other ways while taking the shortest root to the control room.
Violet followed the two of them quietly with a cold expression while occasionally healing and providing support to Kite when he takes a lot of damage fighting the Blood Hand Association's Knights. Seeing Violet's current expression, Feng breathed an inward sigh...
"So... how did getting the True Saint Legacy go?" Feng asked after a moment of thought and realizing he hadn't had the time to ask her yet. When Violet obtained the True Saint Legacy he had been busy with starting up Zero Wing, before going to the Jin Hai Fellowship party to recruit some members, after which he immediately headed back to his apartment after exhausting his energy returning the memories of fifteen people. As soon as he logged on, he went to conquer the Demon's Castle and then headed to complete the Demon's Heart quest and mine the Seven Luminaries Mountain immediately afterwards.
During that time, he either mined or rested while preparing to mine. The most he did while logged out was eat and return the memories of some other people. After he left the Forgotten Lands, Feng went to the War God's Temple and did the Twelve Trials, before going to the Silverleaf Forest.
Overall, Feng had been pretty busy for a while, and didn't have the time to ask Violet about the True Saint Legacy. The most he knew was that she managed to get it after asking Fire about it during one of their lunches.
With the True Saint Legacy being one of their God's Domain's Ten Great Saint Legacies, and rivaling Top tier Peak Legacies, one can imagine the difficulty of acquiring it. It was one of the two Ten Great Saint Legacies that Zero Wing had definitive information on how to find, with the Blade Saint Legacy being an unreliable third due to it dropping from the Mutant Mechanical Slayer. Although none of the Zero Wing's members were the ones to get it in Feng's previous life, they managed to get some information on it and the general way to obtaining it from the one who did get it. And as that person was never a member of Zero Wing, Violet had decided to obtain the True Saint Legacy for herself this time around.
"It was fine. There were no problems." Violet gave a simple reply with an emotionless voice.
Seeing her reaction, Feng let out another inward sigh.
Naturally, Feng didn't have Violet come along with him to the Blood Hand Association's stronghold just to ask her about the True Saint Legacy.
He had already noticed that Violet had been acting strangely cold and distracted for a while, seeming like she had something on her mind. Feng had a guess on what it was about, as this behavior of hers started right after his relationship with Fire changed.
With his knowledge of Violet, along with what Fire told him, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out how Violet was currently feeling and that she wasn't exactly pleased about the current situation between Fire and Feng.
However, despite knowing the problem, Feng wasn't really sure what to do about it. After all, feelings weren't really his strong suit. The method he has been using all this time to deal with all of it was ignoring the problem and distracting himself with other things while hoping it would fix itself. He had been planning to use the same method after reincarnating again, but the situation no longer really allowed it.
Luckily, Fire had an extremely straightforward personality, which helped her to confront Feng about him ignoring hers and the other girls' feelings, which lead to Feng reconsidering everything and eventually leading to their current relationship.
If not for that, Feng would have continued doing things the same, sweeping the emotional problems in his guild under the rug and hoping it would be fine.
But unlike Fire, Violet's personality was much more reserved and quiet. If Feng waited for her to make up her mind about what she really wanted and how to go about things, the current situation between them would continue for months, if not longer.
After all, similarly to Feng, neither were the girls around him particularly good or experienced with emotions; and this was especially so for Violet, who practically sold her soul to God's Domain when she was only a teenager. Once God's Domain came out and all of them started playing it, all of their time was spent improving and around business, so there was no time for relationships and emotions when they had to fight in order to survive in the Greater World.
This lead to Feng's situation of having no proper relationships not really being unique in the Greater World, and many people faced similar problems. Who has the time to form bonds with other people when their lives were constantly in danger, and they had to constantly fight to survive? Even if they wanted to potentially have a partner, who could they possibly trust? In a world where anyone would be willing to do anything and sell even their closest ones for more power, how could someone possibly trust someone else that much? Trust takes time to build, but who had that kind of time in the Greater World?
Such a situation caused no romantic relationships to be formed between people, while men with power simply had sex with whatever women they could get their hands on in order to satisfy their urges, while woman with power used their own 'unique' methods to satisfy their sexual urges.
In a world where strength rules, anything's allowed as long as one had enough strength; no matter what kind of sick and twisted kinks and pleasures one has.
Of course, arranged marriages still existed, however, they were used purely for beneficial purposes, and there were no feelings involved whatsoever. Even when those who were in an arranged marriage had sex and children, there were still no feelings involved. Naturally, this lead to the offsprings of those arranged marriages to not care about emotions and feelings either, and they only strived for power; which results in those people's offsprings being even worse. This resulted in an continuous cycle happening, with people slowly losing their emotions, and power remaining their only pursuit and goal.
There were even studies done on this, saying that if the situation continued, humans would eventually starts losing their sex drive as well as wish and instinct to reproduce, which would threaten their survival as a species.
But did people care about that or paid any mind to these things?
Of course not! How could they when they were so obsessed with gaining more power and strength?
In fact, even Feng was guilty of this. He, too, had been obsessed with only getting stronger and stronger, while not paying any attention to the women around him who had feelings for him. Even though Feng had even seen those studies, he eventually wrote it off as nonsense and not being his problem, not realizing that such a type of thinking was the problem which was leading to humanity's extinction.
Feng only came to a realization after having sex with Fire and having a moment of post-nut clarity. That's when he realized that, if things don't change in humanity's very structure, humanity will be fucked... only figuratively; as it not being literally was the problem.
"Oh, by the way," Feng suddenly remembered something after realizing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, and reached for something in his bag "I got a souvenir from the Twelve Trials."
A glass bottle with a rainbow colored liquid in it was retrieved from Feng's bag, arousing Violet's attention. Violet had only glanced at it indifferently, but when she saw and identified the contents of the bottle, Violet's eyes widened as her cold expression betrayed some shock.
"This is-?" Violet asked in disbelief. As a former Craftsman Chef, Violet's knowledge of cooking ingredients and rare, valuable creature parts was vast. However, even though she managed to identify the rainbow liquid, she didn't believe it. After all, those creatures were already practically extinct, so how could Feng manage to get fresh blood from one.
"Unicorn blood." Feng confirmed Violet's thoughts with a smile as he handed the bottle of Unicorn blood to her.
After excepting the bottle, Violet inspected it for a little longer in disbelief, before her expression quickly returned to a cold and emotionless one.
"Impressive as always, Guild leader. How many bottles did you get?" Violet asked indifferently after storing the bottle.
"Ten in total." Feng answered while retrieving the remaining bottles from his bag and handing them to Violet.
Violet's lips twitched upon hearing the number, as she wondered how much he had tortured a Unicorn in order to fill up ten bottles. Violet took the nine bottles and checked them out, before placing them into her bag and continuing to follow along with a cold expression.
'Well that was short lived.' Feng finally realized that doing this won't be as simple as he originally thought.
Moreover, Violet could definitely tell by now what Feng was trying to do, yet, even though she wanted to do something and change their current relationship too, she still acted indifferent. Feng was now confused whether or not Violet actually wanted anything between them to change. A woman's mind sure is complicated.
Letting out a final inward sigh, Feng glanced around to see if there were any patrols in the surroundings, before making a decision 'Looks like I'll have to take a more forceful approach.'
When they were about to round a corner, Feng suddenly stopped and slammed his hand against the wall in front of Violet, blocking Violet's way forward.
Turning her head in confusion, Violet gave Feng a questioning gaze as she wondered why he had suddenly blocked her way.
Feng, however, didn't respond to her questioning gaze. He merely leaned forward slightly as he gazed down at Violet, his lips curving into a smile. Violet simply returned the gaze as she looked back up at Feng with an expressionless face. The silence between them lasted for a few moments, until Violet finally couldn't withstand Feng's intense gaze anymore, as she turned her head slightly to the side while a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.
"W-what is it? Why are you staring at me like that." Violet's ice-cold expression finally broke, as her personality took a drastic turn from a cold, expressionless woman, to a nervous and stuttering little girl.
"It's nothing. I'm just wondering whether I had been blind in my previous life." Feng shook his head, finally relieved after Violet's reaction told him everything that he needed to know.
"Hm?" Violet tilted her head a little in confusion, wondering why Feng would suddenly say such a thing.
"I just can't believe I never realized how cute you actually are." Feng continued his line, his smile growing even wider.
"Tch" Violet clicked her tongue in annoyance as the reality of what Feng was doing finally caught up to her. Nevertheless, for some reason that Violet could not understand, she was still feeling a bit delighted on the inside by Feng's words, and her lips unconsciously curled upwards slightly.
While Violet was distracted, Feng leaned in, placing his lips next to her ear, and whispered
"Violet, have you taken a liking to your Guild Leader?" Feng's question greatly confused Violet. Was that not obvious by now? Was Feng still somehow unsure? But before Violet could answer, Feng continued "Because, I'll tell you a little secret. I've taken a great liking to you, Little Violet."
Despite Feng stating something she was already pretty sure about, when Violet heard Feng's words, an indescribable feeling filled her heart, and her fair cheeks turned completely red.
Not giving Violet any time to react or respond, Feng continued, "And," he pulled his head back slightly, with their faces almost touching, wrapped his arm around Violet's waist, and gazed at her with a look in his eyes that Violet had never seen before. Besides desire, there was an emotion that Violet didn't quite know how to describe.
"I want you to be mine." Saying so, Feng leaned in and placed his lips onto Violet's, causing the girl's eyes to widen as her mind went blank for a moment, before she quickly closed them and returned the kiss.
The kiss continued as Violet desperately clung to Feng with her arms wrapped around his neck, hoping to stay in this position and for the kiss to never end, as she barely even took the time to breath through her nose. Feng, on the other hand, casually used one arm to pull Violet closer to him, while his other one swiped across empty space, calling up the system interface and choosing to unequip his Gauntlets, allowing his bare hands to roam around Violet's petite body.
'It's happening!' An exhilarating feeling overwhelmed Violet's senses when she felt Feng's hands slip into her robes and caress her body while their tongues interwound inside of their mouths 'I can't believe it's finally happening!' Violet grew more and more ecstatic with each passing second as what she had always wanted was finally happening, and more importantly so, about to happen next.
Thinking of that while succumbing to the pleasure Feng's hands, which were starting to touch places they weren't supposed to be touching, brought, Violet embraced Feng even more tightly while her kisses became even more passionate; so much so that Feng was greatly surprised by Violet's sudden change from being nervous, to acting like she was suddenly in heat. Though, he wasn't complaining, as he immediately returned Violet's passion.
Unfortunately, as he was wearing full Plate Armor, Feng couldn't properly enjoy the feeling of embracing Violet's soft body. Nevertheless, the feeling up of Violet's body with his hands, along with her stifled moans that were being suppressed by their kissing, still brought him pleasure.
The Plate Armor also prevented Violet from fully enjoying the feeling of being embraced, as instead of another human's body, she only felt hard, cold metal armor. Moreover, the armor also prevented her from feeling the thing that would normally be pressing up against her by now. But even though Violet couldn't feel Feng's hard-on because of the armor, the desire from his gaze told her what he was currently feeling.
Meanwhile, off to the side, Kite stood awkwardly. He glanced at his master from the corner of his eye, not believing that he would do such a thing in the middle of enemy territory, while keeping his guard up and surveying their surroundings for any enemies; but he quickly looked away, not wanting to intrude on the current situation. It sure is great to be young. Kite let out a sigh at the thought, realizing that he had wasted most of his youth crippled after the Great Demon War.
Suddenly, Kite noticed several shadows approaching their current location from one of the hallways to the side, as well as hearing the footsteps of around ten people.
"My Lord, there is an incoming patrol. We should-" Before Kite could finish his warning, one of Violet's eyes shot open, revealing her constricted pupil and causing a boundless killing intent to gush out like a flood, forcing Kite to shut his mouth as fear overwhelmed him. Violet's murderous gaze pinned Kite to a spot, as she gazed at the person who interrupted her long awaited moment.
A deep fear brewed inside of Kite's mind as he felt Violet's murderous intent. Never had he expected that a little Cleric would be capable of producing such a deep and profound killing intent. He had never felt something like this in his entire life, and Kite swore that even the Tier 3 Demon that had crippled him wasn't this terrifying and never made him feel so scared.
Under Violet's dense killing intent, the vision in Kite's eyes changed, and he felt like he was floating in the dark, starry sky. Completely weightless and breathless. Slowly suffocating. In the pitch-black surrounding, apart from the distant bright stars, Kite only saw a pair of giant, violet eyes gazing at him. Kite had the feeling of an ant being stared at by a gigantic creature that was about to swallow him whole.
However, the illusion only lasted for a split second, as Kite's vision returned to the stronghold after Feng patted Violet's head and stopped her Killing Intent Manifestation before it broke Kite's mind.
"This isn't a place for this, anyway." Feng calmed the murderous Violet. Although Feng was pissed at being interrupted as well, unlike Violet who's been suppressing herself for a long time now, he had already slightly calmed down his sex drive after constantly having sex with Fire, so he had regained his composure fairly quickly; otherwise, he would have already leveled the entire stronghold. He also realized that their current location wasn't exactly suitable for what they wanted to do. "Let's continue this another time," Feng leaned in and whispered into Violet's ear with a seductive voice "In real life."
Hearing Feng's words, Violet's body twitched slightly, realizing that they were still in God's Domain, and that it would be a lot better to continue something like this in real life. After taking a couple of deep breaths, Violet clamed down and nodded to Feng; but the rage from having the moment ruined didn't dissipate in the slightest. It was only controlled and redirected, while she also had the perfect outlets...
At this moment, a patrol group of Blood hand Association Knights rounded the corner. Upon seeing the intruders, the patrol group pointed their weapons at the three of them and charged in a formation.
Feng was planning to take care of the group with a slash and continue forward to quickly get to the control room and settle all this as fast as possible, but before he could, Violet took a step forward while pointing her glowing staff at the incoming group. Her low, yet murderous voice echoing throughout the passage
"Disappear"
---
Within the Blood Hand Association stronghold's Control Room, an old, one-eyed man dressed in black robes inside the control room. The old man held a Redwood Staff as he manipulated a magic array.
Inca Richter, the old man, frowned slightly upon sensing the unrest within the stronghold. He had noticed that, for some unknown reason, the traps and patrol guards around the stronghold had suddenly started getting wiped out at a much faster pace than before. Inca Richter started wondering if some powerful personage had come to his Town for some reason.
He even began considering running away before it's too late.
BOOM!
The Control Room's tightly-sealed stone doors broke apart as they were suddenly kicked in by a small foot.
Turning around to see who the intruder was, Inca Richter became stunned when he noticed it was only a pink haired, female little Cleric. Moreover, he could sense that the Cleric was only Tier 0.
Before Inca Richter could react, the female Cleric had already pointed her glowing staff at him and spoke,
"Die" [1]
A bright, pure light shot out of Violet's staff, flying towards Inca Richter. Although the old, Tier 1 Elementalist tried to defend himself, the beam of light instantly destroyed all of his defenses before landing on him. Inca Richter didn't even have the time to scream before he was completely annihilated and turned to dust, transforming into an abundance of EXP.
Previously, during the time they were Dungeon diving as well when Zero Wing's core team was being hunted by Dark Star, Violet had only been standing in the back and healing, as she had to lay low and not show off her strength until the fights between Gentle Snow and Cao Chenghua.
But now that no one was around, she could finally display her real strength while also letting out her anger. In truth, regarding damage dealing ability and overall strength, Violet was only second to Fire in Zero Wing's core team.
"Feeling better now?" Feng walked into the Control Room after Violet had eliminated Inca Richter, with Kite quietly following behind with his head lowered, not even daring to gaze at Violet.
"Yep!" Violet turned around and responded happily with a smile, no longer feeling the urge to murder somebody. She also no longer acted all emotionless with a frosty expression constantly covering her face. Instead, she was back to her usual cheerful self. Violet scuttled over to Feng and hugged his arm, before tiptoeing and placing a kiss on his cheek, "Much better now."
"Good. This version of you is much cuter."
Feng then turned off all of the traps within the Blood Hand Association's stronghold. Now that there were no more traps, it would be much easier to deal with the enemy NPCs. He also picked up a key from the dust left behind by the old man, it being the only thing that survived the skill from Violet's staff.
[Star's Reminiscence] (Magic Weapon)
A key belonging to the ancient and great Star Sage, Raines. Inside this key remains a fragment of Star Sage Raines's power. Currently, Raines's power has been sealed by a mysterious power, and information about the key can only be unveiled after the seal has been undone. This seal requires a Tier 3 Great Mage to undo.
As Violet now had the True Saint Legacy, she no longer had a need for this key, so Feng decided to put it in his guild and let anyone who wanted to become an Astromancer buy it using Contribution Points.
With the magic array of the control room deactivated, what they needed to do next was to wipe out all the Blood Hand Association NPCs outside Creek Town, as well as all the remaining NPCs inside the Blood Hand Association's stronghold. After that was done, the Crusade Quest would be officially completed.
---
While Feng's group of three was leaving the Blood Hand Association's stronghold, a major incident occurred at White River City.
Originally, the members of Zero Wing had occupied only up to the 40th position on the White River City Ranking List. However, after another two hours had passed, Zero Wing now occupied every rank up to the 20th position of the Ranking List. Currently, Zero Wing was only 11 ranks away from obtaining full monopoly over the Ranking List.
At present, not a single Guild in Star-Moon Kingdom had managed to achieve the feat of completely monopolizing the Ranking List of a single city. To be precise, nobody had even dared to think of achieving such a feat. After all, there were plenty of experts in every city; there were bound to be a few leveling madmen. It was practically impossible for a single Guild to surpass every other player in a city.
Not to mention, White River City wasn't just a small city. On the contrary, it was the most important city in Star-Moon Kingdom's eastern region. It was also the fifth largest city in Star-Moon Kingdom. Needless to say, there were plenty of Guilds and experts gathered here, making it very difficult to fully monopolize the city's Ranking List.
Yet, now, Zero Wing was actually about to accomplish such a feat. How could the players of White River City not grow excited about it? However, the players most excited over this situation were still the members of Zero Wing. At this moment, many members of Zero Wing started cheering loudly on the streets as they tracked the Ranking List, showing their fervent support for Aqua Rose and the others.
Of course, while some were rejoicing over Zero Wing's inevitable monopoly over the Ranking List, others grew anxious at this situation.
When Lone Tyrant saw that Zero Wing members were quickly catching up to him, he started using every means available to him to level up.
Lone Tyrant sent for another 600 players from Dark Star to assist him in leveling up. He then split these 600 players into 30 teams of 20 players. These teams were then tasked with gathering and killing monsters around Lone Tyrant.
As long as a team was about to kill the monsters they had herded, they would immediately invite Lone Tyrant into their teams before killing said monsters. That way Lone Tyrant could still receive a portion of the EXP without needing to personally land the killing blow. After the monsters were killed, Lone Tyrant would then leave the team and go on to join other teams. Including the several hundred players that were originally helping him, Lone Tyrant now had over 30 teams of players assisting him in leveling up. Lone Tyrant continued to leave and join teams this way, accumulating large amounts of EXP for himself. Naturally, the effect on his leveling speed was self-evident.
However, such an extravagant way of leveling was only possible because Lone Tyrant was the Guild Leader of Dark Star. Other people could only look on in envy. Not even tycoons dared to level up in such a way.
In truth, Lone Tyrant himself was reluctant to waste so much manpower. However, he simply had no other choice. Despite sending out a horde of people to search for Zero Wing's whereabouts, no one returned with positive results. Lone Tyrant could not stop Zero Wing's progress even if he wanted to.
No matter how hard Lone Tyrant racked his brain, he simply could not figure out how the members of Zero Wing were leveling up so quickly. Even when he was using such an extravagant way of leveling, his leveling speed was still far inferior to theirs. It would be fine if this situation was only limited to one or two individuals in Zero Wing. However, such a large group of players was actually leveling up so quickly. Just what kind of method were they using to accomplish such a feat?
If Zero Wing were to really kick him out of the Ranking List, then he, as the Guild Leader of Dark Star and also someone who was famed for his high level, would really become the laughingstock of White River City.
Hence, Lone Tyrant had no choice but to carry out such an unwise move.
However, with the passage of time, Lone Tyrant grew increasingly frightened. Everyone in White River City was greatly surprised as well. The reason being, not only did Zero Wing's leveling speed not slow down, it somehow was even accelerating.
The rankings changed practically every few minutes.
The positions Zero Wing occupied rapidly went from the 20th to the 15th, before increasing to 12th, and finally stopping at 10th. Now, Lone Tyrant was the only player on the Ranking List who was not part of Zero Wing.
Lone Tyrant became even more frantic at this sight.
"Lure more monsters! The more the better! Everyone else, give me all the Magic Scrolls you have!" Lone Tyrant's eyes were glowing red at this moment. He looked just like a gambler who had lost all his bets and was planning to stake everything on one final throw. "Black Flame, you're a hundred years too early if you think you can kick me out of the Ranking List!"
Shortly after, Lone Tyrant started hysterically using all sorts of AOE attack Magic Scrolls, killing the hundreds of monsters his subordinates had lured over. Each and every one of these AOE attack Magic Scrolls were very precious, and they were normally treated as the Guild's strategic materiel. At this moment, however, Lone Tyrant treated these Magic Scrolls as if they were toys, using them with wild abandon.
Lone Tyrant's experience bar also soared within a short period of time. However, compared to the rise in experience, Lone Tyrant's behavior was simply throwing good money after bad.
Everyone from Dark Star felt their hearts ache at this sight. They had managed to obtain these Magic Scrolls only after going through many difficulties. Now, however, all their efforts had gone to waste in order to allow Lone Tyrant to quickly level up. Despite their heartache, the members of Dark Star could do nothing about the situation. After all, the person holding the position of Guild Leader was not them but Lone Tyrant.
Many people started regretting their decision to join Dark Star instead of Zero Wing.
With such a selfish Guild Leader, would Dark Star even possess a future?
In contrast, Black Flame, the Guild Leader of Zero Wing, had not hesitated to charge to the rescue in order to save his brothers and sisters in arms from being bullied. Back when the core members of Zero Wing had been surrounded inside the Silverleaf Forest, Black Flame had ventured into enemy territory all by himself. Moreover, after the war, he had even spent huge sums of money in order to compensate his own Guild members. From Black Flame's actions, one could tell that he was a person who would rather bear the suffering himself than to let his brothers and sisters be wronged.
If they could have such a Guild Leader, so what if they had to suffer?
---
However, just as Lone Tyrant was hysterically using Magic Scrolls...
Zero Wing's 100-man team was also in the midst of killing the remaining Level 50 Tier 1 Blood Hand Association Elites.
In order to deal with these Level 50 NPCs, Blackie used Stars of Light, while Feng used Firestorm. Feng's normal guards also used all their AOE skills. The scene of the battle was like Armageddon; even the Level 50 Tier 1 NPCs could not endure this relentless bombardment.
Soon after, these Blood Hand Association Elites started dying one after another. Simultaneously, the experience bars of everyone from Zero Wing soared like a rocket.
The reason for such rapid leveling was simple. First of all, Tier 1 NPCs gave much more EXP than ordinary NPCs when killed. Second, most of the members of Zero Wing were only Level 20, while the rest were only a few levels higher, so the bonus EXP they could obtain from killing a Level 50 NPC was munificent. When both of these factors were combined, the levels of Zero Wing's 100-man team naturally increased by leaps and bounds.
After several tens of Blood Hand Association Elites died, everyone from Zero Wing had risen to Level 21 or above, instantly monopolizing all 100 spots on the White River City Ranking List.
At this moment, every player in White River City fell silent.
Zero Wing had done it. Zero Wing had actually fully occupied the top 100 spots of the White River City Ranking List.
The sight stunned Lone Tyrant. He even forgot to use the Magic Scroll in his hands.
At the same time, a series of system notifications sounded throughout the entire Star-Moon Kingdom.
Star-Moon Kingdom Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first Guild to exclusively monopolize the top 10 of a city's Ranking List! Rewarding 100 Gold Coins, 5,000 Guild Popularity, and 1,000 Guild Reputation.
Star-Moon Kingdom Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first Guild to exclusively monopolize the top 30 of a city's Ranking List! Rewarding 200 Gold Coins, 10,000 Guild Popularity, and 3,000 Guild Reputation.
Star-Moon Kingdom Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first Guild to exclusively monopolize the top 100 of a city's Ranking List! Rewarding "Honored Guild" title, 500 Gold Coins, 30,000 Guild Popularity, and 7,000 Guild Reputation.
Originally, Zero Wing's attempt at monopolizing the Ranking List was a matter limited to only White River City. Hence, aside from the players based in White River City, nobody else in Star-Moon Kingdom paid any particular attention to this incident. However, the appearance of these three system notifications dumbfounded every player in Star-Moon Kingdom. Players who were currently inside a Dungeon were no exception. At this moment, everyone was shocked when they saw these system notifications.
Just the amount of Gold Coins rewarded was enough to cause the large Guilds of many cities to feel envy and hatred.
From the three rewards, Zero Wing had obtained a total of 800 Gold Coins.
At this stage of the game, a large Guild would have only around a dozen Gold Coins in fluid funds. After all, it was not easy to earn in-game currency in God's Domain. Although players were reaching higher levels with each passing day and they were making more money than before, their daily expenditures had also increased inadvertently. Simply put, there were too many aspects where one was required to spend money in God's Domain.
For example, repairing equipment...
For example, learning skills...
For example, purchasing potions, Whetstones, and other necessities for adventuring...
Most importantly, hotels and daily meals. Originally, before the first evolution of God's Domain, players had no need to rest at a hotel. They also had no need to have meals. However, after God's Domain evolved, if players did not rest for long periods of time, their mental state would start to deteriorate. If players did not consume food for long periods of time, although no changes would occur to their character's Attributes, their body's physical state would be affected. This, in turn, would reduce a player's efficiency when grinding monsters and leveling.
Because of these aspects, players rarely had a lot of money sitting in their pockets. In fact, they had even less money than before the first evolution of God's Domain.
However, it was also due to this reason that many inconspicuous lifestyle classes had started receiving attention from players and begun to develop rapidly. After all, mainstream lifestyle classes weren't the only lifestyle classes that could make a lot of money. Even non-mainstream lifestyle classes could achieve similar results.
As for Guilds, they could barely make ends meet. If the various large Guilds did not possess big money-farming teams of their own, their development would have long since stagnated.
To any Guild in Star-Moon Kingdom, 800 Gold was an astronomical sum of money.
If others had thought that Zero Wing was a considerably good Guild in Star-Moon Kingdom before, then from now on, Zero Wing would be very well-known as an excellent Guild in Star-Moon Kingdom.
At this moment, posts relating to Zero Wing were flooding the official forums for Star-Moon Kingdom, and no one was not astounded by Zero Wing's achievement.
"It's Zero Wing again. First, it was the Guild Residence. Now, they've fully occupied the White River City Ranking List; that's a feat that not even first-rate Guilds have managed to accomplish. Yet, a recently established Guild like Zero Wing actually did it. At this rate, won't Zero Wing become the overlord of Star-Moon Kingdom?"
"Why can't Zero Wing start recruitment in our city? If they start recruiting, I'll definitely be the first one to sign up!"
"I hear that Zero Wing is about to start another recruitment session again. I think I'll just migrate to White River City. Although I'll have to spend some money, if I can join such a good Guild, so what if I have to spend some money?"
"Indeed. I hear that the benefits offered by Zero Wing are excellent. Members even have the opportunity to rent out the Private Rooms inside the Guild Residence and accumulate Double EXP buff. If I can join Zero Wing, even spending 20 Silver Coins would be worth it!"
Many players throughout Star-Moon Kingdom started entertaining thoughts of joining Zero Wing. Previously, many players had lamented the fact that Zero Wing only recruited members in White River City, and not in other cities. However, as Zero Wing grew increasingly dazzling, the number of players wanting to join the Guild would definitely increase as well. If players did not take this chance to join now, the competition in the future might become even more intense. At that time, they might not be able to join Zero Wing even if they wanted to. Moreover, if they joined Zero Wing ahead of time, they could also accumulate Guild Contribution Points quicker and enjoy the various benefits of the Guild earlier.
"Big Brother Shadow Sword, we don't have enough funds for a single person's teleportation fee even if we add both of our assets together. Why don't we skip Zero Wing's recruitment this time and wait for the next one?" a tall and slender female Guardian Knight suggested. The woman was geared in an assortment of Common and Bronze ranked Equipment. With big, bright eyes, she looked at the stalwart-looking Berserker in front of her, adding, "There are also a few first-rate and second-rate Guilds recruiting in Greenstone City right now. With our strength, we should have no problems joining those Guilds. So, why bother spending so much money to go to White River City?"
"Turtledove, you don't understand. I'm not rushing to join Zero Wing because of their fame. Instead, I plan to join them in order to improve my strength. All these years, I have been stuck at a bottleneck and never managed to break through. When I watched Black Flame's and Ye Feng's battle videos, I learned a lot from them. However, the things one can learn from watching a video will always be limited. If I wish to further improve myself, I need to go and personally experience such battles. Meanwhile, joining Zero Wing would be the fastest way to do so," the Berserker named Shadow Sword explained as he shook his head. "If we lack money, then I'll just use all the Credits I've previously saved up to buy some Silver Coins. We should have enough by then."
"Big Brother Shadow Sword, you can't! You saved that money in order to join the city fighting competition!" the female Guardian Knight named Turtledove argued anxiously.
Shadow Sword waved his hand, softly saying, "You don't need to worry about this. If I can't raise my current strength, I would only become a joke by joining the fighting competition."
"I understand..." Turtledove nodded helplessly.
At the same time, many players throughout Star-Moon Kingdom started planning a trip to White River City. Every one of these players had reached a certain standard. After all, the teleportation fees required to go to White River City were not cheap. Being able to gather so much money was also proof of one's own abilities.
---
While everyone in Star-Moon Kingdom were discussing Zero Wing...
Creek Town, Blood Hand Association's stronghold.
Under Feng's lead, Zero Wing's 100-man team and the 48 Level 50 Tier 1 guards had cleared out all the remaining Blood Hand Association Knights inside the stronghold that survived Violet's rampage and arrived before the doors leading to the hidden warehouse.
'Hopefully it'll be a Mutant again.' Feng inwardly hoped as he approached the door. He had done things mostly the same as before, had the same number of people, and had shown even more strength than last time, so if that was the cause behind the Mechanical Slayer being a Mutant, there should be no problems. The only thing that was really different was his and Violet's actions upon entering the stronghold, but if him making out with a girl causes the Mechanical Slayer to not be a Mutant, then Feng could only curse his bad luck and settle for the Atrocity Legacy.
Of course, it could also be completely up to chance whether or not it becomes a Mutant.
The doors to the Blood Hand Association's hidden warehouse were made of extremely tough steel. The pair of thick doors was not something that could be pushed apart by only a handful of players. However, with only a light shove, Feng easily opened the tough door. Simultaneously, the space inside the hidden warehouse also appeared before everyone.
The space inside the hidden warehouse was extremely large and commodious, just like a gymnasium. Tens of metal pillars lined the walls of the building. At this moment, however, nobody paid attention to the appearance of the hidden warehouse. Instead, all eyes were focused at the center of the open space. That area had a small mountain of treasures piled up there. With a single glance, one could immediately discover many Treasure Chests sitting in the mountain of gold. Just the Treasure Chests that could be seen on the surface already numbered in the tens. Moreover, a majority of these Treasure Chests were of Mysterious-Iron rank. There were even some Secret-Silver Treasure Chests.
"Is this the reward for completing the Crusade Quest?" Although Aqua Rose was a wealthy princess herself, she was still shocked at the sight of the mountain of treasures before her.
At this moment, Snow Goose's eyes were practically shining. She could not help but wish she could immediately charge up and dive into this mountain of gold.
However, Snow Goose did not rush forward.
As the location the Blood Hand Association used to store its treasures, this hidden warehouse would naturally have guards.
A total of eight Mechanical Watchers and one Mechanical Slayer was standing at the periphery of the mountain of treasure. Moreover, there was also a magic barrier layered over the mountain of treasure. Unless one removed this magic barrier, nobody could even think of getting the treasure.
The hidden warehouse was the most important location of the Blood Hand Association. After all, the warehouse stored all of the treasures the Blood Hand Association had collected over the many years. Naturally, the security of this hidden warehouse would also be the most intense.
The NPCs outside of this hidden warehouse would, at most, comprise 40% of the Blood Hand Association's combat power. Meanwhile, the remaining 60% would be the nine giant mechanical guards guarding inside the hidden warehouse.
The combat power of these nine mechanical guards alone surpassed that of thousands of NPCs. One could just imagine how powerful these robots were.
[Mechanical Watcher] (Lord Rank)
Level 30
HP 1,500,000/1,500,000
[Mechanical Slayer] (High Lord Rank)
Level 50
HP 9,000,000/9,000,000
Everyone felt their hearts grow cold when they saw the shining pitch-black bodies of the Mechanical Watchers. In Team Dungeons, Lord ranked monsters were all categorized as Bosses. As field Bosses, although these Mechanical Watchers had less HP than Team Dungeon Bosses of the same level, their Attack Power and Defense was far superior. Field Bosses were much stronger than Dungeon Bosses of the same level, and a dozen players were no match for them.
As for the High Lord ranked Mechanical Slayer, a Boss of such rank would only appear in 20-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons or 50-man Hard Mode Team Dungeons. Moreover, the Mechanical Slayer before them was a Level 50 High Lord ranked boss. It was simply impossible for a group of Level 20 players to kill it. The level suppression alone would render the players utterly helpless.
"You guys stay here for a moment. I want to test something." Commanding his team, Feng walked towards the mechanical guards under the confused eyes of his guild members.
Upon being within 50 yards of the Mechanical Slayer, Feng took out the Blazing Meteor and, controlling his strength to the best of his abilities, lightly threw it at the Mechanical Slayer. A streak of flame appeared as the Blazing Meteor slowly flew through the air, taking around three seconds to reach and strike the Mechanical Slayer's torso.
Dang!
-2,500
Despite Feng trying his best to do as little damage as possible, with his current Tier 3 strength as well as equipment that allowed him to completely ignore the difference of levels, his damage was still pretty high in comparison to last time, making Feng worry on whether the Mechanical Slayer would not be a Mutant because of it.
The Mechanical Slayer's gloomy eyes suddenly illuminated and flashed red. Immediately, it retrieved the serrated greatsword from its back and slowly advanced towards Feng. Although the Mechanical Slayer's pace seemed slow, due to its gigantic body, each step covered more than a dozen yards. It was not one bit slower than ordinary players.
When approaching Feng, the Mechanical Slayer revealed a human-like sneer, making Feng clench his fists in exhilaration.
"All of you, retreat outside of Creek Town."
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1. From now on, whenever a word or sentence is bolded, it usually represents killing intent or evil intentions.
Note: One thing. I had previously said in one of the notes in one of my previous chapters that Violet is 18 in my fanfic for reasons that should be obvious by now, but that was before I had reread Wattpad's Content Guidelines (Definitely wasn't my first time reading them. I am a responsible writer), and saw that Wattpad follows the Canadian Law for Age of Consent, which is 16+, so for accuracy sake as well as respecting LOC's initial design, Violet goes back to being 16 or 17. But as SF is 22, this should be illegal to happen in the fanfic's world. But as the Age of Consent is fulfilled, there are no problems with the story (Unless there are, in which case, sike Violet is 18). Besides, she is mentally like over 26, so it should be fine.
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