Chapter 361 - Blaze Step
The rest of the evening was spent levelling, which continued when everyone logged back on the next day. Lil’ Gold reached Level 50. He had already grown far larger in size, with Nie Yan only reaching his waist. Such a large Golden Dragon appearing in front of ordinary players would surely elicit cries of shock and terror.
Lil’ Gold’s health increased to almost 9,000, and he also learned two new skills.
Dragon Fireball: Ranged Single-Target Chaos Attack. Range: 50 meters. Attack Interval: 3 seconds.
Dragon Fireball was a long-ranged attack. Few casters had attacks that could reach over 50 meters, so it was definitely useful.
Blaze Step (Junior): The Golden Dragon ignites everything it passes through within a 5 meter radius ablaze, leaving behind a trail of fire which continues to burn for 20 seconds. Duration: 3 minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes. Ranks up at Level 100.
Blaze Step was an area-of-effect skill. Lil’ Gold’s Speed had reached 378, which was only slightly slower than Nie Yan.
With these two new skills, Lil’ Gold’s strength greatly increased. As a Golden Dragon, he was already a top-tier pet. But thanks to the effects of the Evolution Crystal, he became all the more amazing, to the extent his growth far surpassed anyone’s imagination. Even Nie Yan would find it difficult to take him down.
Nie Yan’s mind trembled when he read over Blaze Step’s description. This skill was made for mobbing! It wouldn’t lose out to any area-of-effect spell!
Nie Yan didn’t use the Death Wave Scrolls like before, instead ordering Lil’ Gold to attract the aggro of the mobs. Following a Dragon Breath, a group of Faelins immediately descended on him. Lil’ Gold quickly turned back and ran but not before activating Blaze Step, leaving a trail of fire in its wake.
Several dozen Faelins chased after Lil’ Gold and dove headlong into the flames, causing damage values to float up above their heads. The flames only dealt 100 or so damage due to the level difference. But since they continued to burn, the Faelins took damage every second, which accumulated quickly. As time passed, their health bars slowly drained until they finally collapsed dead on the ground, leaving behind a trail of corpses.
It appeared Nie Yan could use Blaze Step to level, which would save him a lot of Death Wave Scrolls. The mobbing speed wasn’t too bad either.
「What’s everyone’s levels at now?」Nie Yan asked in voice chat.
「I’m Level 53,」Smoke Stub said.
「I’m Level 52,」Sun said.
「I just hit Level 50.」
...
Everyone had at least reached Level 50. Many were a high enough level to storm the top 10 on the level leaderboards. But almost all of them had chosen to remain anonymous, so their names didn’t appear.
Tang Yao had reached Level 56. He was once more far ahead of Mad Blade. The amount of experience between a single level past Level 50 was enormous. Mad Blade would have to spend at least several days grinding nonstop to catch up.
A little earlier. Mad Blade, clad in a full set of Level 50 Gold-grade equipment, was currently levelling in the middle of the wilderness. He had already class advanced to a Great Berserker. He was going all out, cutting down one Level 60 Elite after another. He was quickly closing the gap between him and Tang Yao. Obtaining the number one position would be a great morale boost for the dispirited guild members of Bloodlust Blades. Just after he finished taking down a Level 60 Elite, he glanced at the leaderboards, only to see Tang Yao had reached Level 55.
Seeing Tang Yao pulling further ahead, Mad Blade increased his pace. But to his dismay, the gap was only growing wider. It was almost as if his opponent was on steroids. Not long after reaching Level 55, Tang Yao levelled up again.
Mad Blade stared at the leaderboards with a look of disbelief on his face. He had put in so much blood and sweat to catch up. But when he had almost achieved his goal, Tang Yao opened the gap again. How could he not find this hard to accept?
Tang Yao’s levelling speed shocked many players. He could even level this quickly beyond Level 50? This guy was from another world!
Despite Tang Yao holding his position for over a month, everybody was expecting Mad blade to overtake him. Who could’ve expected the tides to turn so abruptly.
Although Tang Yao wasn’t as famous as Nie Yan, he was still ranked number one on the leaderboards, not to mention he had held that position for so long. He could be considered one of Asskickers United’s gold signboards. If he fell, the guild’s reputation would surely take a hit. But for now, his legend remained firmly standing, showing no signs of collapse. Mad Blade’s efforts had all been but futile.
If Tang Yao was only pulling ahead bit by bit, Mad Blade might still have a chance by changing up his levelling methods. However, Tang Yao’s level had skyrocketed at a speed that could best be described as inhuman. This struck a fatal blow to Mad Blade’s confidence. Even if he spent several more gruelling days catching up, who was to say Tang Yao wouldn’t just do the same thing again? In that case, what was the point?
Nie Yan and the others were still grinding Faelins.
「Have you guys found any Junior Revive skill books?」Nie Yan asked.「Given how long we’ve been grinding, I’m sure we’ve obtained quite a few.」
「I found one.」
「I picked up two.」
Nie Yan counted 10 Junior Revive skill books in total. Their drop rate here was astonishing. Thanks to these skill books, they would have another 10 Priests who could cast Junior Revive!
「I’m out of Death Wave Scrolls, so I’ll be returning to Calore to do my class advancement. You guys should do the same as well,」Nie Yan said after checking his bag.
「Later, Boss!」
「Bye, Big Brother!」
...
Nie Yan activated a Return Scroll. With a flash of light, he returned to Calore. Since it was a new day, he visited the various auction houses and listed up 90 pieces of equipment in total, all of which were much higher quality than the ones from the day prior. He only dropped by the auction houses that showed the fiercest competition on the first batch. As for the auction houses where the equipment sold for a low price, he didn’t bother visiting them again.
The second batch of sales immediately stirred up several cities. Those who had the wealth immediately rushed to the auction houses or opened up the Super Trade Channel to fight over the equipment.
“He’s finally selling again! Thankfully, that guy still has Night Vision equipment left. No matter what, I have to get a piece today! If he runs out, I won’t even have time to weep!”
The vast majority of players didn’t lack money. Especially the whales who had purchased a large amount of gold in preparation for exactly this moment. As soon as Nie Yan put up the equipment for auction, they started a frantic bidding war, raising the prices to frightening heights.
Add this to the fact the equipment today was of a much higher quality, and Nie Yan was sure to make a killing!
The chaotic scene in the auction houses left the players of Calore speechless. This was the largest spectacle they had ever seen, with wealthy players frantically fighting over only several pieces of equipment.
All 90 pieces of equipment were sold in no time. Each one went for more than 4,000 gold, some even over 5,000. The total profit was 420,000 gold, a shocking figure!
When the commotion finally settled down, Guo Huai sent Nie Yan a message.「How did it go? How much gold did we make?」
「420,000 gold,」Nie Yan replied. This was only the beginning. The Viridian Empire’s market was far from being saturated!
Guo Huai was blown away. This was amazing! With that much gold, not only could they resolve their current problems, it would even aid in the guild’s development!
「I’ll leave 200,000 gold to payout any bounties that might come up. I’ll also leave 120,000 gold to restock the treasury, increase the number of guild expeditions, and pay out more merit points. I’m going to invest the remaining 100,000 gold into the Starry Night Potion. I want to upgrade every branch to Tier 7!」
Upgrading to Tier 5 only required a few hundred gold, whereas upgrading to Tier 7 required several thousand. With so many branches in need of upgrading, Nie Yan would definitely have to spend a lot of gold. After upgrading the shops, he planned to hire a large amount of Alchemists, Tinkerers, Enchanters, and so on, cornering every market!
Nie Yan already had a blueprint in his mind. He also planned to acquire more auction houses and link them all up with the Super Trade Channel!
Since funds were ample, Nie Yan could fulfil his ambitions without worry. He deposited 320,000 gold into Guo Huai’s personal storage. Afterwards, he headed to the Starry Night Potion Shop and handed over 100,000 gold to Bird, telling him to expand the business according to the plans they previously discussed.
The main branch of the Starry Night Potion Shop in Calore was already a Tier 7 Shop. He would have to upgrade it to at least Tier 10! Not to mention he would have to increase the number of NPC employees to 30 at minimum! This place was packed with customers every day. Not upgrading wasn’t an option!
With the recent popularity of Night Vision Equipment, and Asskickers United’s money troubles suddenly disappearing, many people could deduce the person behind this all was Nie Yan. The upcoming massive expansion of the Starry Night Potion Shop would also likely be attributed to him. But so what? This was the time for Asskickers United to show off their strength!