「How's the team doing now?」Nie Yan asked Resplendent Bladelight. Aside from providing some important advice every now and then, he didn't really concern himself with the matters of the elite team because he had full faith in them.
「Everyone's doing fine,」Bladelight responded.「We've recently cleared the Level 20 Shadow Marsh dungeon on Normal difficulty.」With Nie Yan's guidance, their progress had vastly outstripped that of the major guilds'. They were all curious. Just where did Nie Yan get all his news? Maybe he had an inside source?
「Is everyone working together well? How's the team synergy?」
「Young Seven is the best right now, but Yi Yan is also very strong. Everyone else on the team can also be considered an elite player of the game. Asskickers United really has a lot of experts!」Resplendent Bladelight couldn't imagine how Nie Yan had gathered all these skilled players into one guild. Back when he was in Unhindered, him and Hei Zhuo (Black Amazing) were the only powerhouses in the guild. Everyone else was only so-so. However, after joining Asskickers United's elite team, he found himself with teammates that were his equals. Dungeoning with experts was definitely much more enjoyable!
While the other major guilds were still trying to clear Shadow Marsh for the first time, Asskickers United's elite team had already cleared it on Normal and were starting on Hard. The equipment they swapped out or didn't need was all placed into the guild treasury to strengthen the auxiliary teams. These dozen or so auxiliary teams were already trying to clear Shadow Marsh for their first times.
「Another three thousand players from Unhindered have followed me into Asskickers United now. However, there's no way to tell if any are spies sent over by Hei Zhuo. After all, these people are all latecomers who have worked under Hei Zhuo for a while now. It's unlikely that none of them came with malicious intentions. Aside from them, the vast majority of these brothers will gradually become loyal members of Asskickers United.」
「Don't worry about it. I'll just have Little Worm, Watchful Snail, and the others keep watch over the new recruits. Even if there are some spies, they couldn't make much of a storm anyways.」Nie Yan laughed off the idea. It's not like they could get the entire guild to revolt or anything. With just the people who came over from Unhindered, they wouldn't even be able to make a wave, much less a storm.
There were many players trying to join Asskickers United every single day. Even Nie Yan couldn't imagine the extent to which his guild would grow in the future. In his past life, Asskickers United would already be considered a large guild. However, because of the stir Nie Yan had been making, the future might end up completely different.
「How many people are left in Unhindered now?」Nie Yan asked.
「About twenty to thirty thousand. I understand Hei Zhuo's character very well. With his abilities, even though so many people left the guild, it still doesn't affect Unhindered too much.」Resplendent Bladelight really was too embarrassed to talk about the issues that resulted in his falling out with Hei Zhuo.
The current Unhindered had over twenty thousand players, giving it a respectable amount of strength. However, it paled in comparison to the current Asskickers United. What's more, Asskickers United was still in its rapid development phase, so it would vastly outstrip Unhindered in the near future.
「You guys keep playing, then. If you need anything, just let Watchful Snail know.」Nie Yan knew that with the financial clout held by Asskickers United, any reasonable request made by the elite team would be as good as fulfilled.
Edgeless has deposited Fire Source Crystals x3 and top-quality Magic Redwood Logs x10 into your personal storage.
The materials I asked Guo Huai to purchase have arrived! Nie Yan ran to his storage to retrieve the materials, then made a trip to the Starry Night Potion Shop to withdraw 50 gold, before finally heading over to the smithy of Advanced Blacksmith Kade.
As he walked through the familiar streets of Calore, he thought back to when he used to buy Bat Teeth from players and sell them to Blacksmith Kade for his first significant profits. Back then, he'd busied himself going back and forth many times just for a few silvers. Now, after less than a month, he was the secret owner of the Starry Night Potion Shop, the founder of the Union of Assassins, and the true leader of Asskickers United.
For things to change so rapidly was truly unfathomable.
Snapping himself out of his reminiscing, Nie Yan walked into the Kade Smithy. It had been upgraded to Tier 2 since his last visit, so it was much more spacious than before.
"Sir Demon Hunter, what have you come to my humble shop for?" When Kade saw Nie Yan, he immediately became respectful. The hierarchy system within Calore was extremely strict. As a mere Advanced Blacksmith, Kade was not permitted to show even the slightest disrespect to a Demon Hunter like Nie Yan. If he did, he would immediately be hauled out to trial and punished, even if he was on good terms with the offended.
"I would like to have two items forged. First, I would like to have a Splitting Edge forged from these fragments." Because of the status that accompanied a Demon Hunter, Nie Yan had no need to appease or haggle with Kade the way an ordinary player might.
"Combining a Splitting Edge from its fragments would normally cost 50 silver. You only need to pay sixty percent of the listed price, so that would be 30 silver." Blacksmith Kade took the twenty Splitting Edge fragments and began to forge.
A Warrior who had been standing in the Kade Smithy saw this exchange. Witnessing Advanced Blacksmith Kade treat Nie Yan with such reverence, he was shocked into a momentary daze.
Nie Yan eyed the Warrior who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He wore a pretty good set of armor. The Warrior was reserved but still showed signs of a noteworthy bearing. Nie Yan used Transcendent Insight and saw that his name was Reborn. The name was unfamiliar to Nie Yan.
"Hello there." Reborn walked over to greet Nie Yan.
"Hello." Nie Yan nodded indifferently. He wasn't really interested in making connections with players he didn't know.
"You're here to have something forged right? Blacksmith Kade treats you very respectfully. I have a set of materials with me that I want him to forge into a weapon. Do you think you could help me negotiate a price?" Reborn asked. In Conviction, players could get up to a ten percent discount by haggling with an NPC. The success of the negotiations depended on both the player's ability to haggle and their Influence in the area.
Haggle? Nie Yan revealed an uncomfortable expression. He had always hated negotiating with NPCs for anything.
"My weapon would require 7 gold to forge. If you can get me a discount of at least 70 silver, I can give you half of it." Seeing Nie Yan's somewhat impatient look, Reborn quickly offered him a bit of profit.
Generally, a piece of equipment that would require 7 gold to forge would be considered one of the highest quality. However, to Nie Yan, this bit of money didn't count for much.
Nie Yan replied, "If you trust me enough to give me the materials, I can immediately obtain a 40% discount."
Reborn looked at Nie Yan doubtfully. This person shouldn't be trying to con me out of these materials, should he?
Nie Yan didn't want to talk more than was necessary, so he watched Kade work at his forge for a while. After working himself into a sweat, the blacksmith finally finished forging the Splitting Edge. Holding the completed weapon, Blacksmith Kade walked over to Nie Yan.
"Sir Demon Hunter, the Splitting Edge has been completed." Kade handed the weapon over to Nie Yan. It was a sharp dagger about seven inches long, with jagged teeth lining its sharp edge. Its shape allowed it to easily penetrate an enemy's armor and cause residual bleed damage.
Its weight felt just right in Nie Yan's hand, giving a very familiar feeling. After all, he'd used this very dagger from around Level 30 all the way to Level 60 in his past life.
Splitting Edge (Dark Gold): Charge Weapo
Requirements: 120 Strength, 100 Dexterity, 20 Willpower
Properties: Attack 206–299, +10% chance to pierce armour, +10% chance to inflict bleed damage for 5 seconds
Blast (Innate Skill): Once fully charged, the weapon will blast the energy out when inside an opponent's body, dealing extra damage.
Charge: 0/100.
Attack Speed: 2.9
Weight: 5lb
Restrictions: Thief; can be equipped by all factions.
This dagger was truly one of the most overpowered weapons before Level 50. Both the armour-piercing and the bleeding abilities were extremely deadly. The Blast skill was especially helpful, and it even did a lot of damage to bosses because it ignored defense.
Charge Weapons generally had a Willpower requirement. If a player's Willpower was not high enough, forcibly using the weapon would result in a backlash. Willpower would also affect the charging speed: a higher stat value would allow the weapon to charge faster.
With Nie Yan's 37 Willpower, for example, he'd be able to charge the weapon by roughly 20 points every day.
The max energy capacity for Blast was 100 points. The more energy that was stored up, the higher the damage of the skill. With only 20 energy, the skill would do roughly twice his attack power as damage, not to mention it would ignore all armour. It was effective against both players and monsters, regardless of how high their defense was.
Once the skill was activated, all of the energy in the weapon would be emptied at once, no matter how much was stored up.
Now that he possessed a Charge Weapon, as long as it had enough energy stored up, he would even be able to effortlessly kill some particularly tanky Warriors.
For an ordinary player, having 10 Willpower was already considered impressive. But Nie Yan far exceeded the average player by having 37 Willpower, thanks to the stat bonuses he gained from the chapters of the Book of Order. He could draw out even more might from the Splitting Edge.
Nie Yan equipped Splitting Edge to his primary weapon slot while switching Blood Pact to his secondary. His attack power shot up explosively. His total attack power wasn't calculated by simply adding the attack of his primary and secondary weapon together but rather with a special formula. Around 20% of the attack power of his secondary weapon would be added to that of his primary weapon.
Nie Yan checked his current attack power. It was almost 430. For a Thief player, such a value was incredibly frightening. It wouldn't even have any trouble dealing with plate-armoured Warriors.
Reborn prudently observed Nie Yan. His figure seemed familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before. He suddenly remembered. He had seen Nie Yan before in the video of Asskickers United battling Victorious Return. This person was considered a celebrity. He recalled once more how respectfully Blacksmith Kade had treated Nie Yan. Was there any reason for such a person to swindle him?
Reborn called out, "Brother, I'll give these materials to you. Please help me get this sword forged."