Adept Skill Books were different from ordinary or Advanced Skill Books. Being combat focused and possessing the special characteristics of their associated Adept Class, they tended to be far more powerful than ordinary skills while lacking the disadvantage of having long cooldowns like Advanced Skills.
Nie Yan continued rummaging through the Dark Gold Chest but found nothing else. He examined the Great Thief Skill Book.
Reverse Grip Backstab（Freedom Skill）
Description: Become invincible for 2 seconds after evading an enemy's attack, circle behind them and retaliate with an attack. Enhances Backstab damage.
Requirements: Action (Weapon), 50 Rage
Properties: Deal an additional 100%–300% damage. Ignores armour.
Cooldown: 30 Seconds
Restrictions: Great Thief; can be learned by any faction.
The Thief class was divided into Thief, Great Thief, and Shadow Dancer. With each class advancement, they gained more flexibility in combat. Especially after reaching Shadow Dancer at which point all skills could be used at will. With a wider range of freedom, their combat power increased exponentially.
Players could start learning Freedom Skills after reaching the Adept class, and Reverse Grip Backstab was precisely one of them.
This skill was quite powerful. It provided invincibility after evading an attack and enhanced his Backstab damage. Not to mention its cooldown was only 30 seconds.
But since Reverse Grip Backstab was a Freedom Skill, Nie Yan would have to spend some time gradually mastering it.
Freedom Skill Books were far more expensive than most mounts and Advanced Skill Books, regularly selling for over 10,000 gold in the previous timeline. This was testament to their popularity among the player base. Add this to their scarcity, and it explained why you might not even find 1 in 10,000 players with a Freedom Skill.
Most Thieves wouldn't have more than five or six Freedom Skills by the time they stepped into the ranks of a Shadow Dancer.
Nie Yan had once obtained a Freedom Skill Book after becoming a Great Thief in his past life, but his poor financial situation at the time forced him to sell it to a Shadow Dancer.
In this life, Nie Yan naturally wouldn't repeat such a shameful act. He put the Reverse Grip Backstab Skill Book in his bag. He could learn it when he advanced to a Great Thief at Level 50.
Nie Yan continued searching around in the hopes of finding other treasures. After passing through numerous tunnels, he arrived at the entrance to a room with man-made structures. The walls were polished smooth and engraved with tadpole-like characters that he couldn't read.
The lighting here was dark and a bit eerie.
Nie Yan hesitated for a moment before cautiously proceeding forward. As he stepped on a floor tile, a biting cold travelled up his feet. Suddenly, there was a slight tremble as some sort of mechanism activated underground.
"It's a trap!" Nie Yan cried out in alarm, only to see sharp arrow tips emerge out of the walls around him.
These arrows densely lined the walls and emanated a murderous aura.
Nie Yan didn't dare to move even an inch. As soon as his foot broke contact with the tile, the arrows would fire and he would be transformed into a human pin cushion!
With death staring him in the face, Nie Yan sucked in a breath of cold air.
Thankfully, his gut instinct was correct, allowing him to detect the trap in time.
However, he couldn't stand here forever!
Nie Yan looked up ahead. The arrows lining the walls stretched out for the next 10 meters.
That's right! I still have the Leaper Ring in my bag!
Nie Yan equipped the Leaper Ring. He determined his landing spot, then leaped high into the air like a grasshopper. The sound of arrows firing rang out behind him as he flew across the danger zone.
Nie Yan landed safely on the other side. When he turned around, countless arrows covered the ground, protruding out like stalks in a rice paddy. Seeing this scene, he felt as though he had gained a new lease on life.
Nie Yan continued exploring further, being especially wary of any traps. Although most of them were extremely well-hidden, not a single one escaped his sharp senses. Nevertheless, it was a thrilling experience. He had nearly died quite a few times!
Nie Yan eventually arrived at the entrance of a sealed off chamber after travelling through a narrow passageway. He let out a gasp when he looked up ahead. Before him was a terrifying, 10-meter black spider hanging in the center of a massive web!
This was Nie Yan's first time seeing such a monster in both lifetimes. He quickly retreated back into the narrow passageway to avoid being attacked. He observed the spider from a safe distance. It was incomparably ugly, with eight enormous beady eyes, and its body covered in fine, steel-like hairs. Upon further observation, he discovered it didn't move whatsoever. Its eyes were hollow and vacant.
Is it dead? Nie Yan was dazed for a moment. He cautiously crept around and discovered that the spider's back was split open. It was just an empty shell!
Even if it wasn't alive, it was still terrifying.
Nie Yan saw a pearl shimmering on a web-covered stone platform below the spider. It was entirely black, perfectly round, and about the size of his fist.
Nie Yan couldn't help but be attracted to it.
What is that?
Nie Yan took out his crossbow and started randomly shooting in search for booby traps.
The arrows struck the ground, wall, and ceiling of this chamber in quick succession. Some of them even pierced through the spider's carapace. But nothing happened.
After confirming there was no danger, Nie Yan carefully walked over to the stone platform, still cautious of any traps below his feet.
Nie Yan took a deep breath, then reached out and grabbed the pearl, whereupon he felt a cool sensation travel up his arm.
The pearl was smooth and glossy without the slightest blemish.
Nie Yan held the pearl in his palm and examined it.
Empress Finas' Fate Pearl: Special Item
Properties: Night Vision +12, Darkness Awareness +12, Dark Magic Effect +100%.
Additional Quest Property: Weaken Empress Finas' stats by 30%.
Note: Item effects are applied immediately upon entering the player's bag.
Nie Yan reckoned this Empress Finas' Fate Pearl was worth well over 10,000 gold. In the Righteous Faction, equipment that increased Night Vision was extremely rare. Its value could be well-imagined since even a piece of equipment with only Night Vision +1 sold for a bare minimum of 10 gold in the marketplace. Darkness Awareness was also extremely valuable, allowing the player to detect an opponent's position more easily in the dark. Not to mention its effects were active while in the player's bag. It was very difficult to appraise the value of these properties. As for the Dark Magic Effect +100%, it was also useful to him since it would increase the success rate of Undead Rite!
Nie Yan's eyebrows jumped after seeing the Night Vision property on Empress Finas' Fate Pearl. A thought flashed across his mind.
Night Vision Equipment!
Equipment with Night Vision +1 only cost around 50 silver in the Evil Faction, but their value skyrocketed to more than 10 gold in the Righteous Faction! Nie Yan could already imagine how much profit could be made off this difference.
With the Necklace of Deception in his possession, there wasn't much of a challenge for him to travel to the Evil Faction and buy whatever he pleased in their marketplace. Loaded with items he could sell at a premium in the Righteous Faction, he would return and stock his own auction houses!
In the previous timeline, many players attempted to sell items from the Righteous Faction to the Evil Faction and vice-versa from players in the Evil Faction. But all of them would end up failing. The reason was simple. Righteous Faction and Evil Faction players were not allowed to communicate, trade, or have any form of contact with each other whatsoever. If a player was found to be smuggling items, they would be punished by the NPCs of their respective side.
Righteous Faction items were not allowed to be transported to the Evil Faction. Even if they were deliberately abandoned for Evil Faction players to pick up, as long as the sum value of the items exceeded 10 gold, it was treason by Calore's law. The Law enforcement would track down the perpetrator and arrest them.
However Nie Yan's plan of selling items from the Evil Faction to the Righteous Faction was allowed. But if he attempted to do the opposite, regardless of the method, Calore's Law enforcement would immediately come looking for him as soon as he stepped foot in the city. These actions were tantamount to treason. Even the title of Grand Scholar couldn't protect him at that time. Due to this, it was very hard for items to circulate on both sides.
One could never have too much money. Nie Yan reckoned if he went over to the Evil Faction and brought back five bag fulls of high-level equipment, he could easily make a profit of 50,000–60,000 gold.
It was possible to sell 50 gold worth of equipment from the Evil Faction for up to 1,000 gold in the Righteous Faction, especially if it was Night Vision Equipment.
If Nie Yan could transport items from the Evil Faction over to this side, he would definitely sell them across the various cities in the Viridian Empire. Besides that, he would also stock up Asskickers United's treasury.
Naturally, this was only a plan. He didn't know if it would actually succeed. But with so much potential for profit, it was worth giving a try.
Nie Yan put Empress Finas' Fate Pearl in his bag. This item would probably have a use in the quest later on. He searched the room for other items but came up empty. He retraced his steps as he went to regroup with the others.
「How's things on your side?」Nie Yan asked in voice chat.
「Sun found the Molelord,」Bladelight informed. Now, they were just waiting for Nie Yan.