Nie Yan could already imagine the birth of another high Growth Rate pet even stronger than Lil' Gold.
An Evolution Crystal could allow a pet to walk on a completely different path.
Nie Yan tossed the Evolution Crystal into his bag. "Come on. Onto the next one."
They rushed over to Smoke Stub's aid and targeted the next Dark Druid.
The Thieves' silhouettes darted back and forth around the Dark Druid. The chain of crowd control skills completely locked him down. His health rapidly fell lower and lower.
Before long, the second Dark Druid collapsed to the ground.
Meanwhile, Lei Su and Bladelight were under a lot of pressure. They started to get overwhelmed. Facing off against two and three Level 160 Lords respectively proved an enormous challenge.
「Requiem, Smile, you two go help Lei Su and Bladelight!」Nie Yan ordered in voice chat.
「Got it!」
Dark Requiem and Mistaken Smile set off to help Bladelight and Lei Su. Nie Yan and the others shifted their attention to the other Dark Druid on Smoke Stub's side.
Bladelight was swiftly evading left and right, avoiding more than 80% of the attacks coming his way. However, the damage output from these three Level 160 Lords couldn't be underestimated. His health was gradually falling, and with no healing from the backline, he was naturally in a tough spot.
Just as he was about to die, Bladelight drank a Specialist Health Potion, instantly restoring his health back to full. A Dark Druid smashed down with his staff. He hurriedly retreated back, only to meet with a pincer by the two Dark Druids behind him. He raised his greatshield to block, but it was too late.
BANG! One of the Dark Druid's struck Bladelight in the back of the head with his staff.
Normally, Bladelight could easily brush off an attack like this. However, something unexpected happened. It had triggered a stun effect, leaving him immobilized.
The Dark Druid's stun effect only had a 5% chance of proccing. Bladelight could only blame his bad luck.
The three Dark Druids surrounding Bladelight smashed down with their staffs one after the other. BANG! BANG! BANG! A string of attacks struck him with one managing to proc another stun. About seven seconds later, he was sent flying and crashing into the ground. His health fell to zero.
「Bladelight died!」Mistaken Smile reported.
With Bladelight dying, the three Dark Druids lost their target. They instantly looked over in the direction of Nie Yan and the others and were about to charge over, when Mistaken Smile took out his crossbow and pulled the trigger. Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Three bolts flew out. Mid-firing, he shifted his aim so each bolt would hit a different target.
Put put put! Each of the three Dark Druids was struck by a bolt. They immediately aggroed onto Mistaken Smile and started chasing after him.
Mistaken Smile turned tail and started kiting the Dark Druids.
At this moment, Nie Yan and the others had already killed the third Dark Druid.
「Help Lei Su first!」Mistaken Smile said. Thieves weren't great at keeping aggro. However, this was where his unique title came into play. As a Shadow Strifer, he had special skills that allowed him to become the focus of these three Dark Druids.
Nie Yan checked the overall situation. Mistaken Smile would likely be fine by himself. Nie Yan led Sun, King of the World, and the rest to Lei Su's aid.
Young Seven, Undying Scoundrel, and the other casters could only stand to the side and observe, like cheerleaders during the game. But it didn't matter. Even though a slight mishap occurred, the situation was still under control.
Nie Yan and the others surrounded the fourth Dark Druid. Before long, it collapsed to the ground.
A short while later, the fifth Dark Druid was killed too.
With Smoke Stub and Lei Su's hands freed, they could also start dealing damage. Their killing speed increased.
One Dark Druid after another fell to the ground.
It didn't even take six minutes to kill all 10 Dark Druids. Without pause, Nie Yan and the others started dealing with the remaining Two-Headed Hellhounds.
Chained to the obelisks, unable to cast the magic they were known for, and without their masters, these Two-Headed Hellhounds posed zero threat.
Sun and the others casually dealt with the Two-Headed Hellhounds, one person on each one. Nie Yan took a detour around them and discovered the obelisks they were bound to had strange carvings with all sorts of demonic designs on them. They each took a specific position, and their mid-section was engraved with a large ancient character about the size of a palm. Each obelisk had a different rune.
Nie Yan had no idea what these runes represented. He walked past the obelisks and arrived in front of the chest.
This was by far the oldest chest Nie Yan had seen to date. Though a thick layer of dust covered it, it couldn't hide the delicate workmanship of this small chest. It was cast out of pure gold and decorated with many brightly coloured jewels. If this chest were cleaned and polished up, it would definitely look dazzling.
Nie Yan noticed the lock on the chest.
A Level 160 Legendary chest. Nie Yan examined the lock. Luckily, his Lockpicking Specialist skill was high enough rank to open it.
Unlocking chest… Progress: 3%... 6%...
Nie Yan wondered what sort of treasures this chest contained. His heart was brimming with nervousness and anticipation. He felt like every second was excruciatingly long.
While Sun and the others were busy with the Two- Headed Hellhounds, the rest of the team walked over to Nie Yan's side and watched him opening the chest. They quietly started chatting.
"I wonder what the boss will find in that chest." Undying Scoundrel rubbed his hands in excitement.
"We're exploring a new map. It has to be something special, right?"
"I think so too."
"Those Dark Druids gave some pretty good drops already. The boss actually got an Evolution Crystal and two Level Requirement Reduction -10 gems. The equipment is pretty high quality too."
As everyone chatted, they heard the lid of the chest pop open with a click. Their hearts nearly stopped beating, as their nerves attacked their sanity.
"It's finally open!" Nie Yan smiled. He reached his hand inside the chest and fished out a leather scroll. It'd survived since the ancient past, just barely. Written down on it were symbols that looked similar to the carvings on the obelisks. He was unable to decipher them. There were also some words which were written in a language he didn't recognize.
"Forget it. I'll look at it later." Nie Yan put away the scroll in his bag and continued rummaging through the chest before taking out a large crystal ball.
A Magic Orb!
Nie Yan's heart trembled as his face lit up with elation. Looking at the properties, he confirmed it was indeed a legendary Magic Orb!
"Sweet!"
It was an Earth Orb.
The Magic Orb was made out of crystal. It was translucent and clear, taking on the shape of a sphere. Contained within the center was yellow earth elemental energy, which was constantly changing shape. When Nie Yan's hand came in contact with the orb, he felt a heavy sensation as if his entire being were connected to the land. The earth element was widely known for being tough and tenacious.
Earth Orb (Legendary)
Description: The holder of this item automatically learns all earth element magic, taking up no additional skill slots. Mana Cost -60%. Drops upon death. Can be traded.
Restrictions: Magister
Note: Collect all seven different elemental orbs to craft the Aether Orb.
According to legend, the Aether Orb was created by the Elemental Goddess and was an extremely powerful Sacred Object. Upon her dead, it split into seven pieces: earth, fire, ice, water, lightning, light, and darkness. Each piece granted the holder all the magic of the respective element. Comparatively, earth element magic had the fewest number of spells, but there were still well over 500, including 12 which were categorized as Forbidden Magic. One could imagine how enticing of an item these elemental orbs were to Magisters. Each one would instantly take them to the peak of an element. If they gathered all seven orbs together, they could even fuse them together into the Aether Orb and gain control over all elements!
This harvest was pretty good. Nie Yan searched the chest again but it was empty.
"Which one of you is interested in the Earth Orb?" Nie Yan asked.
Undying Scoundrel, Summer Bug, Wood Grace, and the other Mages looked at each other.
"Just give it to the boss lady," Undying Scoundrel said.
The others seemed to agree with Undying Scoundrel.
Nie Yan looked over toward Xie Yao.
Xie Yao hurriedly shook her head and waved her hands. "Give it to Scoundrel or someone else. The Earth Orb will be useless on me. All my equipment gives bonus damage to light element magic."
Everyone declined. No one seemed to want this legendary orb.
Nie Yan knew all of them were extremely interested in the Earth Orb. Even without the earth element magic, the Mana Cost -60% property on its own was already extremely alluring. However, they were too embarrassed to take it for themselves.
"How about this? I'll leave this Earth Orb in the guild treasury. If you need to borrow it, just take it. After you're done with it, give it to the next person," Nie Yan said. There was only one orb. So, they could share it. If they found more elemental orbs, things would become simpler.
"Do any of you recognize these characters?" Nie Yan asked, laying out the leather scroll he had just obtained on a flat surface.
The team members looked at the scroll, then at each other and shook their heads.
"I do!" Xie Yao said after looking at the characters. "It's the language of the Koradi, a tribe of taurens."