Everlasting City was still as tranquil as before, with Mechanical Golems in groups of several dozen wandering aimlessly through the streets. However, that tranquillity was broken when a group of players entered the city through the main gates.
"Sun and I will go round up the mobs, then take care of them. The rest of you can just sit back and enjoy the free experience," Nie Yan said. The two of them were the most suitable for the task. A few Warriors could fill the role as well. However, Mages were simply too slow.
"Boss, we don't have to do anything at all?"
"Yeah, nothing?"
"You guys can be responsible for picking up the drops," Nie Yan lightly replied before dashing towards a group of Mechanical Golems in the distance.
Sun also followed behind, only a tad bit slower than Nie Yan.
「Boss, Heaven Breaker withdrew from the level leaderboards!」Summer Bug informed in the group chat after noticing the change on the leaderboards.
Nie Yan checked the rankings. Heaven Breaker had indeed disappeared.
「What was his level before?」
「28,」Summer Bug replied before taking a final glance at the leaderboards.
「Level 28?」Nie Yan knitted his brows. He didn't expect Heaven Breaker to level so quickly. As the guild leader of Victorious Return, Heaven Breaker enjoyed the luxury of having his subordinates find fast levelling spots on his behalf. Even though he made his level private, he wouldn't easily give up on trying to reclaim his throne. In fact, he might be trying to overtake Tang Yao with even greater fervour.「Forget it, it's nothing to worry about.」
Nie Yan and Sun ran while simultaneously throwing Basic Magic Bombs.
「Boom! Boom! Boom!」As the Basic Magic Bombs detonated over the crowd of Mechanical Golems, powerful blasts swept through the surroundings. Their destructive power was nothing short of breathtaking.
「Boss, where did you get those bombs? They're so powerful!」
「I got them from an NPC shop in Tasoyi Village,」Nie Yan replied.
「They're so awesome! Next time, I'm gonna buy some too!」
「Boss, how much do they cost?」Edgeless interjected. He saw through the crux of the problem. With how great the Basic Magic Bombs were for powerlevelling, they could easily get a player up to at least Level 35 in two or three days. However, Nie Yan and Tang Yao didn't bring too many people with them to Everlasting City. There was probably a very good reason for this.
「Two for 1 gold,」Nie Yan replied before throwing another Magic Bomb.「Boom!」It unleashed a fiery explosion that wreaked havoc on the Mechanical Golems.
「...」The group drew in a cool breath of air.
Just what did 1 gold signify? Even Level 20 Gold-grade equipment, save for one or two pieces of very specific Warrior and Priest equipment, generally couldn't be sold for 1 gold! Didn't that mean tossing out two Basic Magic Bombs was the same as tossing out a piece of Level 20 Gold-grade equipment?
Even rich tycoons couldn't afford to be so frivolous!
Although this method of levelling was very quick, the price was too steep!
Watching Nie Yan chucking Magic Bombs like tossing pebbles, the group members couldn't help but feel intense pain gripping at their hearts, like flesh being flayed off, piece by piece. Just how much money did he waste!?
The boss had spent so much money all for the sake of helping them level up. They were extremely touched. Many guild leaders were extremely miserly. They would detest doling out even the tiniest amount of merit points, for fear of depleting their guild's treasury. In stark contrast, Nie Yan was as magnanimous as the god of fortune.
Nie Yan understood that money was secondary. Young Seven, Sun, and the others were all figures who could call the wind and summon the rain in the previous timeline. The money that he spent on them now could be considered an investment to ensure their loyalty down the road. As for the other promising individuals in the guild, as long as they were willing to serve the guild, he would also think of ways to help them soar in level.
The effectiveness of the Magic Bombs was evident as close to 400 Mechanical Golems collapsed to the ground. Quite a few members in the group lit up with a flash of radiance.
Of the twelve members in the group, Nie Yan and five others levelled up. Nie Yan glanced at his status bar—Level 30. He didn't need to switch out his equipment just yet. He didn't touch his free stat points for now. If he obtained a piece of equipment with high stat requirements in the future, he could just allocate them then. As for his mastery points, he learned two new masteries—Magic Item Proficiency and Kicking.
Nie Yan raised Magic Item Proficiency to Junior, the highest rank he could go at his current level. It gave him +20% effectiveness on magic items, which meant he could now expect to deal an extra 120 damage on top of the 600 base damage from every Basic Magic Bomb. The benefits of having such a mastery were as plain as day, allowing him to cut down on costs by a significant margin. He spent the rest of his mastery points raising Kicking to Intermediate. It was a useful mastery that allowed him to delay an enemy mid-cast, with a chance of directly disrupting them.
By the time Nie Yan finished allocating his mastery points, the members of the group had already found the drops among the debris on the ground. They stored all the loot into one place.
"Boss, you can store all these items in the treasury. We haven't contributed at all, yet we've already cost the guild so much money. We don't need anything," Undying Scoundrel said on everyone's behalf. He was normally pretty carefree, but even he understood it was improper for them to take the drops. If Nie Yan sold these items or stored them in the treasury, then at least he would be able to recuperate some of his losses.
"We don't need any of these items. Use them to build up the guild treasury," Bladelight said. Out of everyone in the group, he was only second to Nie Yan in terms of prestige, so his words carried quite a bit of authority.
Nie Yan nodded. "All these items will be stored in the treasury. If you need any of them, don't hesitate to ask Guo Huai. As for the Energized Crystal Fragments, collect them and set them aside for Young Sparrow Hawk."
Nie Yan's group arrived at a public square which connected to various streets.
"The Warriors should start helping out as well. We'll gather the Mechanical Golems in the surrounding area in this square," Nie Yan said. This was the best location to do all the mobbing.
Bladelight, Edgeless, and the other Warriors also went to aggro the mobs. From all directions, Mechanical Golems were gathered at the heart of the plaza.
Nie Yan continuously threw Magic Bombs, causing explosions to sweep through the entire plaza. Mechanical Golems collapsed left and right, littering the ground with scrap metal and various pieces of equipment.
The members of the group rose rapidly in level, as the crisp, melodic jingles turned into a regular occurrence.
"Boss, this is awesome!"
"We're levelling up so quickly!"
Nie Yan looked at the levels of the members in the group. They soared to Level 26 or 27. Two people already reached Level 28 even!
Edgeless, Monochrome, and the other Warriors started pulling the next wave of Mechanical Golems with even more fervour, while the other members began picking up all the loot off the ground.
Nie Yan checked the harvest. They already had 32 Energized Crystal Fragments. Soon, Tang Yao would be able to resurrect his Arcane Fairy.
"Boss, do you know what kind of equipment this is?" Summer Bug asked after picking up a very dark piece of plate armour covered in runes. Its design was simple and unadorned. With one look, you could tell it was an artifact from a bygone era. It emitted a cold, ancient aura.
"I found something similar over here too. It's a pair of gauntlets." Off in the distance, Miracle Dancer picked up a similar piece of equipment.
The group members really did have a sharp gaze. They could immediately tell these pieces of equipment were out of the ordinary.
Nie Yan stared at the chest armour in Summer Bug's hands. It was covered in forbidden magic runes. It's part of that set, no mistake.
"They're part of the Everlasting Set. Bring them over," Nie Yan said, unable to hold back his emotions.
After receiving the gauntlets and chest armour, Nie Yan appraised both of them.
Everlasting Chestplate (Silver)
Requirements: Level 30, 270 Strength, 160 Dexterity
Set Items: Chestplate, Gauntlets, Leg Armour, Shoulder Guards, Cape, Horned Helmet, Greaves, Heavy Shield
Properties: Heavy Armour, Metal Defense, Defense 330–339, Damage Absorption +5%, Magic Resistance +10%, Maximum Health +10%, reduce the level requirements of the other set items by 10 when this armour is equipped.
Restrictions: Fighter
Everlasting Gauntlets (Silver)
Requirements: Level 40
Set Items: Chestplate, Gauntlets, Leg Armour, Shoulder Guards, Cape, Horned Helmet, Greaves, Heavy Shield
Properties: Heavy Armour, Metal Defense, Defense 220–238, Damage Absorption +2%, Magic Resistance +3%, Maximum Health +5%
Restrictions: Fighter
The Everlasting Series was produced in Everlasting City. It was divided into three sets: Silver, Gold, and Dark Gold. The Gold and Dark Gold sets only dropped from Elites, while the Silver set could be found on ordinary monsters.
Due to how many parts this set comprised, completing it posed some difficulty. Nonetheless, Its properties were great, even better than the Level 35 Gold Storm Set[1]. It was an exceptional defensive set for Fighters at the early stage of the game. If all the set items were gathered, the player would receive a set bonus in the form of a Rank 6 Shield.
More often than not, the difficulty of obtaining something determined how much it was coveted. Not only was defense focused Fighter equipment simply too rare, they were also in great demand. So if a good piece of equipment for a Fighter were put up for auction, even the most miserly of guild leaders wouldn't hesitate to break the bank.
"This is something for you. Let's see if we can gather the full set. Since we have the chestplate, it means you can equip the other parts of the set at a much lower level," Nie Yan said before handing the chestplate and gauntlets to Bladelight. If they could help him gather all the parts of the Everlasting Silver Set, which would allow him to tank high-level Lords, then during the upcoming guild expedition, they could try their luck at challenging much higher level Lords.
Bladelight looked over the two items, then exclaimed in a slightly surprised tone, "The properties are pretty good. What about the set bonus?"
"There's a description of this set online. The set bonus is a Rank 6 Shield," Nie Yan replied. It was precisely the Rank 6 Shield that made the set so great. Without it, the set's value would be much lower. The Rank 6 Shield allowed a Fighter to tank the hits of a Lord in an enraged state. To any team, this was extremely important.
"Wow, that's pretty good," Bladelight's heart was swayed. The notion of equipping a Level 40 defensive set at only Level 30 was very attractive to him.
"How far are you from meeting the stat requirements?"
"I'm a bit short from fulfilling the Dexterity requirement," Bladelight replied.
The difference in Dexterity could be made up by socketing Dexterity Gems. If they could complete the Everlasting Silver Set, an unrivalled Level 30 Fighter would be born!
[1] The Gold Storm Set is mentioned in Chapter 127. It's part of the Metal Storm Series.