Chapter 189 – Elite
After doing what he needed in his personal storage, Nie Yan set out to the Asskickers United guild headquarters. Guo Huai, Zhao Li, and Hao Cheng were still busy with guild business. In fact, ever since the guild was established, they had never found any free time to level. The benefit to that, however, was that they had become quite skillful in handling administrative affairs. Although the guild still required individuals who were especially talented in administration, they wouldn’t feel at ease handing over that responsibility to others.
Aside from that, Guo Huai had also recruited a few people from his family’s firm. He put them in charge of combing through the backgrounds of every guild member. They had managed to weed out countless moles that were sent by Victorious Return and other guilds.
Nie Yan looked over the list of players who had signed a contract with the guild. There were over a hundred individuals in total, each a peak talent in some respect. It could even be said to be a galaxy of talent. Eleven of them had the potential to receive a Shadow Dancer, Magister, Archbishop, or similarly ranked title later on. They consisted of Sun, Leader Young Seven, Taotie, Undying Scoundrel, Blue Yarn Thread, Blowhard Summer Bug, and so on.
Altogether there was one Archbishop, two Shadow Dancers, two Guardians, two Heroes, two Magisters, one Divine Sage, and one Templar. Even right now, they displayed immense talent. Each one of them received generous treatment from Asskickers United. They had access to the best resources in the guild. The Starry Night Potion Shop would supply them with plenty of potions, pills, and other consumables every day. Nie Yan himself had invested over 100 gold into them. They could form teams and find excellent teammates whenever they wanted. As a result, they were growing at a rapid pace.
These players had secured more resources because they entered the game relatively early. The fact that they were talented and hardworking—along with a myriad of other factors working in tandem—allowed them to reach the pinnacle in the previous timeline. And in the present timeline, Nie Yan had bettered their conditions in every aspect.
All in all, given the proper environment, a genius would always rise to the top.
Taotie, Undying Scoundrel, Blue Yarn Thread, and Summer Bug were chatting near the entrance of the guild headquarters. As they were prepared to set out and level, they saw Nie Yan walking over. They all greeted him courteously.
“Hello, Boss Nirvana Flame!” Taotie called out. He was a twenty-odd-year-old man in shiny bright Paladin armour. He had a full set of Gold-grade equipment on, several pieces he had obtained by himself while the rest had been provided by the guild. At the current stage of the game, he was only a slight bit lacking in comparison to the top-elites of Withered Leaf.
“Hello boss!” Undying Scoundrel greeted Nie Yan. As an Elementalist, the Elemental Resonance Set he wore was already the best Level 20 set a player of his class could get.
They were all peak players of Calore in Nie Yan’s past life, Yet they were all gathered here right now.
Nie Yan nodded, acknowledging them with a faint smile. He hung around for a while to chat which made them feel slightly honoured. From the moment they joined the guild, they could tell that the astonishing resources of Asskickers United was in no way inferior to those of behemoths like Victorious Return. Nie Yan and Tang Yao’s identities were shrouded in a dense fog of mystery that no one could see through. Nie Yan rarely showed himself in public. While with Tang Yao, almost none of the guild members had ever seen his face aside from in the videos Guo Huai had uploaded. As a result, they had come to revere these two figures in their minds. They didn’t expect Nie Yan to be so approachable. It was quite a surprise.
“You guys are now the elite members of Asskickers United. The guild has provided you with the best environment and resources it has to offer. So I hope you guys can show the guild your worth in the future. Accomplish great things, and the guild will never mistreat you,” Nie Yan said. He had already spent quite a bit on them. As long as one or two them reached the same heights as they did in the previous timeline, it would be worth the investment.
“Boss Nirvana Flame, you can put your faith in us!” Taotie, Undying Scoundrel, and the rest said in unison.
Afterwards, Nie Yan met up with Guo Huai.
“Here, give this to the person you think is the most suitable out of that lot.” Nie Yan handed the Hellfire skill book over to Guo Huai.
The appearance of the skill book instantly attracted the attention of everyone around them.
It was high-level magic!
Even among the large guilds, high-level magic was extremely scarce and highly sought after. Needless to say, the skill books for them didn’t appear very often. Even if you took out five or six full sets of Gold-grade equipment to trade for the skill book of a high-level magic, the other side might not necessary be willing. It was reported that Victorious Return had mobilized over seven hundred core members to deal with a Lord-class boss for the sake of such a skill book, suffering several hundred casualties before finally obtaining it.
No one in Asskickers United had learned high-level magic. Many guild members felt this matter to be quite a pity.
But the appearance of the Hellfire skill book signified that Asskickers United also had the ability to obtain a high-level magic.
“There are several Arcane Mages and Elementalists who’ve been performing pretty well. Let me think…” Guo Huai said in a slightly distressed tone. Finding a reliable person to learn Hellfire was extremely important. It would be wasted in the hands of an unskilled player.
Nie Yan felt reassured about these members who had signed contracts with the guild. All of them would learn high-level magic at some point in the future. It was only a matter of now or later.
“I’ll let you handle it,” Nie Yan said. He deposited the sixteen pieces of equipment as well as the six extra fragments of Splitting Edge that he had obtained from the Light Monastery into the guild treasury. “By the way, how goes the search for top-quality Magic Redwood Logs and Fire Source Crystals?”
“I’ve already found a seller, they’re from another guild, but the price is somewhat high. We’re still in the middle of negotiations. If you find it suitable, we can immediately purchase them,” Guo Huai answered. He couldn’t help but wonder what in the world was Nie Yan going to do with these materials.
“How much are they asking for?” Nie Yan asked. Top-quality Magic Redwood Logs and Fire Source Crystals were high-level crafting materials. They were fairly uncommon in the today’s marketplace, and most guilds generally wouldn’t be willing to sell them.
“They’re asking 30 gold for 3 Fire Source Crystals and 10 top-quality Magic Redwood Logs,” Guo Huai replied. It was a huge sum of money from his point of view.
“Accept the offer. Send the materials to my personal storage. You can withdraw the money from the Starry Night Potion Shop,” Nie Yan said nonchalantly. Before he had reached Level 60 in his past life, if something had a price of 30 gold, he wouldn’t dare to even consider it. However, his circumstances in this life had completely changed. Besides, he had gotten used to the feeling of being rich and imposing.
It was only 30 gold, nothing more!!
A successfully crafted Sub Legendary crossbow would be worth 200 gold at the very least!
At the later stages of the game—particularly when siege battles were in full effect—every large guild would profit immensely from the taxes they reaped in their respective territories. By then, with so much surplus capital, an ordinary Sub Legendary item selling for 500–600 gold wasn’t an uncommon sight.
Sub Legendary gear was godly in the eyes of all players!
Although he temporarily couldn’t equip the Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow, he’d be content with just sneaking a few peeks at it inside his bag every now and then.
“Alright, I’ll make the purchase right now.” Guo Huai nodded, no longer hesitating. Since Nie Yan didn’t balk at spending 30 gold to purchase these materials, he was certain they were important.
The crafting of the Sub Legendary crossbow wasn’t guaranteed to succeed. There was a chance of failure. However, since he already had the necessary materials on hand, he might as well give it a shot. As for who to pick for crafting the crossbow, Advanced Blacksmith Kade was the best choice, but it would probably be expensive.
When requesting an NPC to craft a weapon, all you needed to do was provide the weapon’s blueprint, necessary materials, and pay a fee. If the crafting failed, then the onus was on you, and the blueprint would be returned regardless of the outcome.
As long as Nie Yan still had the blueprint, there was no harm in trying. He had enough materials to make two attempts anyway.
After finishing his business, Nie Yan left the guild headquarters. Aside from the Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow, he also needed to forge the Splitting Edge.
In the previous timeline, the highest average market price for the Splitting Edge was more than 30 gold. Many players were already Level 60–70 around the time Nie Yan started playing the game. So the marketplace was filled with Splitting Edge fragments, selling for about 10 silver each. If you ran a dungeon, then you could get them for significantly cheaper. Even then, collecting twenty fragments would still cost around 3 gold altogether.
However, at present, Conviction had only been open for a few weeks at most. Even an offer of 100 gold couldn’t garner a Splitting Edge. Level 30 dungeons still weren’t released yet, and very few teams dared to explore Level 30 maps. So how could there possibly be any to sell?
Nie Yan’s current set of gear consisted of various pieces of equipment he picked up along his journey. If he wanted to get a full set of powerful equipment, he’d have to expend quite a bit of effort. Gearing himself up from head to toe with godly equipment would be very difficult. The various big shots from the guilds of his past life had poured in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears trying to accomplish such. His current achievements could already be regarded as extraordinary. According to the progression of the game in his past life, at around Level 20–30, players shouldn’t even dream about seeing the shadow of piece of Sub Legendary equipment. At best, some lucky ones would be able to find a few fragments. However, out of the thousands upon thousands of fragments, just how many would be fused into a complete piece of equipment? Now that was hard to say. It wasn’t until Level 100 that the leaders of the major guilds were able to wear so-called godly, Sub Legendary equipment. As for Nie Yan, he at least had definite goals: the first was completing Volume I of the Book of Order, the second was crafting the Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow, and the third was gathering the remaining two fragments of Sulgata’s Shadow.
“Nirvana Flame added another dozen or so pieces of Level 30 equipment to the treasury. Seems like it’s mostly stuff for Paladins this time.”
“Hey, guys… where do you think the bosses go off to train?” Blue Yarn Thread, Summer Bug, and the others discussed.
“Beats me. But you know, there’s one thing I’m certain of… a Level 30 Gold-grade set I can equip has finally appeared! I’m warning you guys… I want that Soul Judgement Set, so nobody fight me for it!” Taotie shouted in high spirits. He examined the new Gold-grade equipment in the treasury. Each piece cost almost 3000 merit points. However, to an elite player like him, such an amount wasn’t hard to obtain. He could receive 1000 merit points for every piece of Level 20 Gold-grade equipment and 200 merit points for every piece of Silver-grade equipment donated to the treasury. All he needed to do was contribute a bit more to the guild.
“I have a Hellfire skill book with me right here.” Guo Huai approached the group. He shared the information of the skill book with everyone in the chat.
“Boss Watchful Snail, give it to me! I’ll spend 20,000 merit points!” Undying Scoundrel exclaimed in excitement.
Undying Scoundrel had performed pretty well recently. He was also one of the most skilled Mages in the guild. He was quite suited to learn Hellfire. Guo Huai turned to Summer Bug. As a top Arcane Mage in the guild, he was qualified to compete with Undying Scoundrel for the skill book.
Summer Bug shook his head. “Give it to Undying Scoundrel. I have two small-scale spells already. I don’t need a high-level magic for the time being. Besides, I usually level together with him, so it doesn’t really matter which one of us learns the spell.”
“Alright, it’s settled. The skill book goes to Undying Scoundrel.” Guo Huai nodded.
“Thank you, boss!” Undying Scoundrel giddily took the Hellfire skill book from Guo Huai’s hands.