Xu Yan was clad in sleek golden armour which glittered with a dazzling radiance. He was armed to the teeth, his fists, elbows, shoulders, and so on covered in sharp spikes. This was clearly an equipment set, and a Dark Gold-grade one at that. As for what it was called, Fu Guangtao had no idea. But he was sure it wasn't low level; at the very least, it was much better than the set he was wearing.
Glancing at Xia Tianyu and Fei Zhe, those two also sported high level Dark Gold-grade sets.
Fu Guangtao's head was spinning. Since when did Dark Gold-grade sets become as common as cabbage?
Seeing this new development, Zhao Shiyu was also struck dumb. She didn't expect Xu Yan, Xia Tianyu, and Fei Zhe to make such a flashy entrance. The equipment of the trio immediately caused them to feel ashamed of their inferiority. Even Fu Guangtao, who had the best equipment in their group, couldn't compare.
Thinking about it now, one could imagine just how ridiculous Fu Guangtao looked calling Xu Yan, Xia Tianyu, and Fei Zhe trash. In front of the trio, their group was the real trash!
「Dammit! How did those three get such good equipment?」Fu Guangtao said in voice chat.
「I don't know! Wasn't their equipment pretty trash before? How did they suddenly become so strong?」Zhao Shiyu said, unable to wrap her head around this matter.
With the current equipment of Xu Yan and the other two, Fu Guangtao would lose miserably if he tried making a move on them.
Fu Guangtao was far from a brave and unyielding character. When push came to shove, he was like a wet rag. He swallowed back the venomous words that were about to leave his mouth.
"Didn't you say we'd better watch our backs whenever we set out for a dungeon? You'll kill us if you see us? We'll be too afraid to set foot outside of the city? Well, come on. If you have what it takes, I'd like to see you try," Xu Yan said with a cold smile. He had made considerable progress recently. This, combined with the equipment Nie Yan gave him, made him overflow with confidence. He was no longer like before, readily submitting to humiliation.
"If you want to have a showdown, just name a time and place! We'll accept your challenge!" Xia Tianyu declared. Even before he received the Dark Gold-grade set from Nie Yan, he was never afraid of Fu Guangtao.
Fu Guangtao remained silent, not daring to reply. Zhao Shiyu and the others were also the same. They were people who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Xu Yan, Xian Tianyu, and Fei Zhe's old equipment was pretty lacking, so they weren't the slightest bit afraid. But now, they knew beating the trio would be impossible.
Given their current equipment, Xu Yan, Xia Tianyu, and Fei Zhe could easily lead Chu Chenghao and the others through high level dungeons. They would definitely be much better off with the trio than when they were with Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, and their lot. This was a fact.
"Where are those big words from before? I thought you guys were really fierce. Why are you suddenly so quiet? Did you lose your tongue?" One of the Mages in Chu Chenghao's group shot Fu Guangtao and the others a look of disdain.
"I think it's cause they're scared. I guess they only amount to this much. When someone stronger shows up, they suddenly become so meek."
…
The people around Chu Chenghao had all been suppressing a bellyful of rage. Now, all of it was erupting out, and they started ridiculing Fu Guantao and Zhao Shiyu relentlessly.
Fu Guangtao and Zhao Shiyu became embarrassed. They felt staying any longer would only make them lose more face.
Zhao Shiyu shot the trio a look of rancor, then turned away with a cold snort.
Fu Guangtao had nothing else to say and followed suit.
Watching Zhao Shiyu and Fu Guangtao's dreary figures, Xu Yan and the others felt a deep sense of satisfaction. Xu Yan clenched his fists, resolving to become even stronger. The day would soon come that clowns like Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, and Bai Jun would never dare to mess with them again!
"Come on, let's go levelling." Xu Yan turned to Chu Chenghao and the others.
"Sure!" Chu Chenghao nodded.
Xu Yan sent Xia Tianyu a whisper.「Is it fine for you to come levelling with us? It won't attract any unwanted attention from God Executioner Sword? Nie Yan did warn us.」
「It's fine. I know what I'm doing. I have a plan to get into the higher ranks of God Executioner Sword,」Xia Tianyu replied.
「Alright, I won't worry anymore.」Xu Yan nodded.
The group of 16 people set off to go levelling.
...
Nie Yan had spent a total of 36 days in the Ancient World. He had cleared Path of the Luminous Dancer 2, and was 60% of the way toward finishing Path of the Luminous Dancer 3, which required him to kill 500 Rank 3 or higher monsters. Apart from this, his Alchemy Master skill had already reached Advanced, 92%. It wouldn't be long before he reached Master rank. He had also learned the other artisan skills, such as Forging, Scroll Crafting, Engineering, Tinkering, and so on.
Artisan skills were separate from combat skills. So, Nie Yan could learn as many of them as he wanted without worrying about running out of skill slots.
Nie Yan had harvested many different materials in the Ancient World. Occasionally, when he was in the mood, he would train his artisan skills. All of them had already reached at least Intermediate. His Tinkering was the highest at Advanced.
Doing this kind of work was extremely time-consuming. For Nie Yan to accomplish this much in only 36 days was already quite impressive. He hadn't wasted a single moment. Whenever he wasn't hunting monsters, he was training his artisan skills.
His harvests weren't bad. Just like before, after killing a Rank 3 monster, Nie Yan dug out the Life Core. It was completely black and looked like a large black pearl.
The number of Life Cores in his bag quickly accumulated. He already had more than a thousand. Nie Yan discovered that Life Cores were divided into different elements: fire, ice, darkness, light, and so on. Among them, darkness and light ones were the rarest. He only had a hundred of them altogether.
"The Darkwing Dragon is darkness attribute. Would it better for me to feed it Darkness Life Cores?" Nie Yan wondered.
This was only a guess on Nie Yan's part. After all, he had never acquired a flying mount or something as rare as a Life Core in his past life.
His bags were starting to get full. Nie Yan planned to feed the Darkness Life Cores to the Darkwing Dragon to free up some space.
Scouting the area, Nie Yan didn't find any monsters nearby. It was safe. He summoned the Darkwing Dragon. A large onyx coloured dragon appeared before him.
The Darkwing Dragon flapped its wings, kicking up a gale that knocked over several trees in the surroundings. It then crouched down and nuzzled its head against Nie Yan.
Nie Yan patted the Darkwing Dragon on the head. He discovered it was noticeably larger than before. Small black scales were starting to sprout from its body. It was still a juvenile, only having taken the first baby steps towards adulthood.
Nie Yan wondered how strong the Darkwing Dragon would become once it was fully grown. He took out a dark coloured Life Core from his bag.
It had a deep, black lustre and radiated pure darkness energy. The Darkwing Dragon stared at the crystal in Nie Yan's hands, unable to tear its eyes away, as drool started leaking out of its mouth.