Chapter 676: Eternal Flame
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Too fast!
That happened too fast!
Was it because there were no monsters at all throughout the entire dungeon? Could it be that there was just one boss in the entire dungeon? Normal players were having similar thoughts on what just happened. Meanwhile, One Sword Stroke and the other Dungeon Exploration Parties had a chill up their spines after hearing about it. They quickly hustled up and killed the monsters as soon as they were able to. They were pretty worried that Lone Desert Smoke might just enter the other dungeons as well to get the First Clear of the other sub-dungeons! They might just rush in to snatch for the second, maybe even the third ‘First Clear’ for the sub-dungeons on the map!
--- well, they did not say that any guild that already cleared their own dungeon could not continue on with the other dungeons.
Truth be told, Zhang Yang had already on the move. He divided his party into two. Him alone, Sun Xin Yu, Han Ying Xue, Wei Yan Er and Daffodil Daydream were on the same party while the others were grouped as the second half of the party. Each party went on to clear two of the 5-player scale dungeons. Zhang Yang did not intend to gather his party to take on the other 10-player scale dungeon because the relationship of Crimson Rage with Lone Desert Smoke was very good. First of all, they felt awkward to even think about competing with Crimson Rage especially after they had agreed to let them take one of the dungeons. Second of all, Crimson Rage was extremely capable and powerful on their own. If Crimson Rage and Lone Desert Smoke started out on the dungeon at the same time, Zhang Yang and his party would still be able to win. However, now that the party of Crimson Rage was already halfway through the dungeon, there was no way that Zhang Yang and his party could catch up with their progress. Needless to say, they would never get to overtake their progress!
Although the Lone Desert Smoke had split up, the difficulty of the dungeons that they were in had dropped from 10-player scale to 5-player scale. Furthermore, the party Zhang Yang was on had a total of 3 players with Class S Inheritance and two players with Class A Inheritance. There was no other party in the entire world that could have such a powerful lineup.
They cleared the Normal Mode of the dungeon in about 11 minutes. Then, they cleared the Hard Mode of the dungeon in approximately 13 minutes. Finally, they cleared the Hardcore Mode of the dungeon under 15 minutes!
Unfortunately, while they were battling against the final boss of the Hardcore Mode for the dungeon, the Rolling Rocks had coincidentally taken out the boss before them and the system began to make the announcement. It was extremely close! However, after one minute had passed, the system began to refresh again --- Zhang Yang and his party had earned the qualifications required for them to clear the Hardcore Mode of the dungeon!
The Rolling Rock’s party of 5 were left in cold sweat. If Zhang Yang and his party had managed to clear the dungeon just a little faster, then they would have to give up on the dungeon. They were extremely lucky this time!
What an unfortunate thing for Zhang Yang and his party!
After about 1 hour, all the Hardcore Modes for all 6 dungeons had been cleared. However, there was an unexpected twist of events! The Sunset Amber did not get the ‘First Clear’ of the dungeon they were promised to take on. Instead, a guild called ‘Eternal Flame’ took down the ‘First Clear’ for the Hardcore Mode of the dungeon!
The China Region had taken down the ‘First Clear’ of all six dungeons in a row. It was natural that everyone was pumped up! The Eternal Flame had also become famous over one night because of what they achieved. Everyone was wondering. Where have they been all the while? They were actually capable of overtaking one of the top Tier guilds!
Truth to be told, that was not the real strength of the entire Eternal Flame. Well, their best players may have the capability to pick a fight with the Sunset Amber. However, if they were to compare their core players, the newly risen guild would not be able to match a well-established guild that had been there over the years!
Looking back at the history, the Lone Desert Smoke was not powerful at all in the beginning. They were not worthy of being compared with Crimson Rage, Imperial Sky and other Top Tier guilds. They could not even match The Dominators! However, after building up their names upon clearing dungeons after dungeons, the Lone Desert Smoke became more powerful than they ever could imagine. They had also recruited many top Tier players before they became the world leading guild. Now, they were at the top of the top in the entire world!
For a newly risen guild, taking down the ‘First Clear’ of dungeons would be the best way to build their names.
Undoubtedly, the Eternal Flames had succeeded in doing so. They would soon become a large-scale guild if they keep their good work up. However, it remained unknown if they could become one of the top Tier guilds. It would depend on whether they could actually keep their good work up, or not.
Zhang Yang and his party had taken down the ‘First Clear’ of a dungeon. So, every one of them acquired 1 Skill Point for themselves. Although breaking two records of Hardcore Mode for two dungeons did not give them extra Skill Points, the system had rewarded them with some Level 5 Gemstones. The Gemstones that each of them acquired were all compatible with each of their Class.
However, Zhang Yang was dissatisfied. Now, he was beginning to go down on the path of Strength. He would be needing as many Strength Gemstones as possible. The system gave him a Vitality Gemstone. He could not do anything with it unless he intends to focus back on powering up his Vitality attribute. So, he could only pass the Gemstone to Endless Starlight. That wretched guy was screaming in joy while praising Zhang Yang. He even suggested that Zhang Yang give him the [Sword of Purging Devourer] as well. Instead of getting the sword, he got a kick in the face for demanding the impossible. What a greedy f*ck!
Although Zhang Yang did not mind about having more competitors, he still sent a spy over to have a check on the Eternal Flame’s background. The spy was really good at getting information without people noticing. He came back with some news very quickly --- actually, the Eternal Flame had nothing to hide as well. They publicly announced that anyone who had the skills and strength could join their guild. Players who decided to join their guild would also get quite a sum of money as their allowance. The stronger the player, the more allowance the player would get for joining the guild.
They classified players into 5 rankings: Top class players, high-class players, middle-class players, Collector class players and Production class players.
Collector class player and Production class player had it much easier. As long as the Collector class player could provide the guild a fixed amount of Ores, Herbs and other necessary items, they would be rewarded. They would reward the Collector class players based on the grade of the items they bring in. They classified the items in three different grades. The High-tier, Middle-tier, and the Normal-tier. The rewards based on the tiers would be 5,000 gold, 3,000 gold, and 2,000 gold respectively. On the other hand, the Production class players would need to produce a fixed amount of items for the guild as well. The rewards for the items they made would be based on the grade of the blueprints they had. They also categorized the grade of blueprints into three different grades. The rewards would also be 5,000 gold, 3,000 gold and 2,000 gold respectively based on their grade.
This mechanism was not that bad at all. Normal players could go to work in real life during the day and earn some pocket money in the game during the night. However, Production class players would have much lesser things to worry about once they have their hands on a certain number of blueprints. On the other hand, Collector class players would have to work their *sses off to gather items and herbs. After all, the guild is not stupid enough to give you free money. Even though they could get 2,000 gold for Normal Tier items or Herbs, they would need to provide a fixed amount of the items and Herbs. It would be extremely difficult for them to do so. Upon spending time on gathering items and herbs, these players would not have time at all to grind their levels up.
As for the top class players, high-class players and middle-class players, the Eternal Flame guild had implemented a very simple test to determine the class of the players joining them. They allocated their core players of 6 different Classes as the Examiners. Those who wishes to join the guild would need to battle against these Examiners. Those who can defeat the Examiners would be deemed as top class players. Those who could get a tie with the Examiners would be deemed as high-class players. Meanwhile, those who could last over a certain time frame of the battle with these Examiners would be deemed as middle-class players.
The guild would still give 3,000 gold to the players every month even if they were just middle-class players. High-class players would get 10,000 gold per month. As for the top class players, they would be signing contracts with the guild and their allowances would differ based on the strength and performance of the individuals.
If the calculations are based on the Level 4 Guild of 40,000 players, the guild would have to throw a total of 1,200,000,000 gold coins into the guild expense each month, even if each of the members only get 3,000 gold coins! About the production part, the guild would only be able to earn through their collection and production class players. At the same time, they could not afford to have too many players become those classes of players. Because if they do, it would definitely affect the strength of their guild. Most of their players would be too busy collecting and producing instead of grinding their levels!
Holy god! Which man or woman would be so rich to burn their money like that?
However, if they do gather enough men with that standard of recruitment, the Eternal Flame would definitely be capable of becoming one of the top Tier guilds in the entire world, eventually. After all, the strength and capability of Eternal Flame seemed to be able to rival the strength and capabilities of top Tier guilds like Imperial Sky and Rolling Rocks, sooner or later. The most important thing in getting the guild up to standard would be to gather as many top Tier players into one’s guild as possible.
The core players of the Lone Desert Smoke’s core players were actually on the same standard of the core players on the other large-scale guilds. However, Lone Desert Smoke had quite a number of top Tier players on their side. For instance, Zhang Yang, Sun Xin Yu, Lost Dream and his other gang members were absolutely powerful!
Just look at the Leaderboard of China Region. Lone Desert Smoke had occupied 12 names on the list! They had 5 or 6 names more than Crimson Rage and Imperial Sky which were known to be number two and number three! On the Leaderboard of Classes, Lone Desert Smoke had also occupied 10% of the total players on those lists. They had the most number of top Tier players in the guild, after all.
Eternal Flame had just been founded 7 days ago. The Death Abyss dungeon was their first ‘First Clear’ ever acquired! They had never thought possible that their guild would ‘bloom’ overnight! They had never thought possible that they would step on Sunset Amber and reveal themselves into the public eyes of the China Region. Currently, the Eternal Flame was highly prolific. Many high Tier players from their guild were beginning to appear on the Leaderboards of China Regions.
Well, it seemed that a guild could really dig out powerful players from the abyss as long as the guild is willing to throw in a substantial amount of money!
There were numerous high Tier players in the China Region. However, many of them were still hiding in the shadows because of various reasons. Zhang Yang was also a powerful player in his previous life. However, because his level was not up to the standard of the majority and he was without any support from any powerful guild, he never got the chance to get good equipment. All he could do was to perform regularly as a high Tier player. He could not unleash his full potential under his previous circumstances.
However, the guildmaster of the Eternal Flame was a mystery. No one had ever met him, up till this point. Everyone knew his name by looking at the guild member list. His name was called ‘Dragon Marquis’.
Upon acquiring their first ‘First Clear’ for the Hardcore Mode of the Death Abyss, the Eternal Flame began to recruit new members for their guild, riding on the elevated profile of their victory. They were recruiting at the arena in Crimson Sky City. Players could sign themselves up for the test provided by 13 Examiners of each type to determine whether they were worthy of joining the guild or not.
"Noob tank! I’m a top Tier player, wait, no! I’m a top top top tier player! How come you’ve never pay me any salary then?" Wei Yan Er was forcing Zhang Yang, Han Ying Xue, Sun Xin Yu and the rest of the gang to check out on the battles in Crimson Sky City. She then raised her cute little face and put her hands up on her waist as she questioned Zhang Yang.
"Oi, little brat! You should talk without fooling yourself! You must stay clear, for the sake of your conscience, you know? Touch your heart and tell me! Didn’t I already give you 5% of my entire earnings from my Little Merchandize Shop every month? Just count and see! It’s way more than that! Or do you prefer to get the same amount of money a month as they do?"
Wei Yan Er was very obedient this time. She actually put her right hand on her left chest. Her face suddenly frowned. She was obviously annoyed. Then she complained, "You noob tank! How can you be so bad!"
Zhang Yang was muddled. What happened to the little brat? Why did she sulk?
Han Ying Xue laughed out loud and put her hand on her huge boobies, then she said, "Yan Er can only touch her ‘airport’! That must have triggered her pain in her heart! Hahaha!"
... Zhang Yang instantly understood! Well, he did mentioned ‘touch your heart’ back then.
"Han Ying Xue! If you even dare to say the word ‘airport’ again, I’m going to cut my ties with you!"
The big screen in the arena would show the situation of every battle. Meanwhile, a large number of players found it very interesting to see how the Eternal Flame was recruiting members for their guild. Therefore, they stopped everything that they were doing --- truth be told, ever since the developer had begun implementing the frequent Individual Ranking Competitions, the arena had been so quiet ever since.
Therefore, whoever win or lose was clearly announced on the big screen of the arena. However, there were not many high Tier players out there. Half an hour had passed, and no one that could beat any of the 13 Examiners. Only a small number of players managed to join the ranks of Eternal Flame as ‘middle class’ members. They had to accept that they would be treated as middle-class players then.
Among the 13 Examiners, some were very well-mannered, while some were not at all. Those who were ill-mannered were beginning to curse and scold. They were really demeaning those players who had failed with rude words. They even told them to stop wasting their time and go home, cry in their mothers’ arms and so forth. Although they were indeed professional players, their attitudes were... at least Zhang Yang would never want these sort of scumbags in his guild.
As he was tired of watching all the boring drama and sh*ts, he said, "Little brat... you asked us to waste our time watching some rude monkeys trying to show off? We’re better off grinding our levels you know?"
"Hehe... don’t you think those bastards are trying to pick a fight with us?" Wei Yan Er waved her battle axe around, "What kind of stupid guild is this? They even claimed that they will defeat the Lone Desert Smoke! Humph! I’m here to destroy them today!"
Well, it would be normal for any guild to shout out their slogan. Furthermore, there were numerous guilds who had claimed that they would defeat Lone Desert Smoke, so that they could become Number One in the entire China Region. Zhang Yang would never go and bully them just to scare them off. It would be immature to do so. If they want to come, let them come! However, this would be the first time that a guild would recruit members with the intention to defeat Lone Desert Smoke! This Eternal Flame was the only guild that was daring enough to do this sort of things.