The revived players activated their Return Scrolls and teleported away. The 26 Shamans stayed behind until the very end, making sure everyone got out safely before leaving themselves.
The team members returned from Blaze City to Okoron and met back up in the guild headquarters.
"Boss, did you get that treasure?"
"Did you get anything good?"
...
Everyone bombarded Nie Yan with questions. They still had lingering fears from the fight with Bencroft. Even with all 500 of them attacking him non-stop for quite some time, his health still didn't drop one bit. On the flipside, he could kill them with one attack, pretty much sweeping through them like chopping vegetables. The treasure he guarded definitely had to be extraordinary.
"Of course," Nie Yan replied. After putting in so much effort, he naturally wouldn't return empty-handed. "Let me take a look."
Nie Yan examined the properties of the leg guards.
Abak's Leg Guards of Focus (Legendary): Unequippable
Requirements: 1,500 Strength, 1,200 Dexterity, Level 180
Description: This item can only be worn by the owner of the Glimpse of Darkness. It is only equippable when the owner has gathered the full set. Abak held strength in high regard. Only the powerful can become tyrants. Eliminate all traitors!
Properties: Defense +1,232, Dodge +30, Focus +60, Strength +1,300, Dexterity +1,220, Enhanced Leg Strength, 70% chance to block attacks targeted at the legs.
Set Completion: 8/8
Note: Automatically bound to the owner of Volume I of the Book of Order; cannot be traded or dropped.
The properties of the Leg Guards of Focus were a little disappointing. They didn't offer any supplementary skills. However, the important thing was that it was a set item, meaning Nie Yan had finally completed the Tyrant Abak Set.
After equipping the entire set, Nie Yan would also receive powerful set bonuses!
Nie Yan checked his level. He was still 7% away from levelling up to Level 150. The final hurdle. Where should I go to fill up that remaining 7%? Nie Yan suddenly remembered he still had experience he hadn't collected yet! Righteous Faction players would be given a certain amount of experience from the Mercenary Association for every Evil Faction player they killed. Nie Yan had completely forgotten about this matter until now. He had killed so many Evil Faction players already, but he had never collected his reward. He had probably accumulated quite a bit so far.
Nie Yan headed to the Mercenary Association to collect his experience reward. His experience bar filled up from 93% to 98%. Just a little more!
「Guo Huai, how many Wandering Bard's Sheet Music Scraps are in the guild warehouse?」
「32 in total,」Guo Huai said. The people under him had never stopped gathering the sheet music scraps.
「Good. Have someone deliver them over,」Nie Yan said.
「Alright.」
Before long, Nie Yan received the 32 Wandering Bard's Sheet Music Scraps. After turning them in, he finally levelled up to Level 150.
Finally! I can finally equip the Tyrant Abak Set! Nie Yan impatiently put on the set. It was dark violet in colour. Every piece was engraved with a mysterious and ancient marking. Its design was fairly reserved. Even though ordinary people could tell it was a set at a glance, few would notice that it was Legendary-grade. Apart from the six pieces of amour, the set also included two daggers. They were curved like the fangs of a viper and shared the same peculiar crimson colour. Their sharp, cutting edges gave of a stifling murderous aura that shook the hearts of all those who saw them.
After equipping the Tyrant Abak Set, Nie Yan felt a strange energy surging into him. It was like a never ending deluge. At the same time, the armour lit up with a dazzling violet radiance. The colorful aura made him look like a deity high above the clouds.
Nie Yan looked at the properties of the Tyrant Abak Set. Apart from the stats from the individual pieces, he also received several set bonuses. All his stats were increased by 200%, as well as the max rank of his skills. He also received four supplementary skills. The first was a passive skill called Slaughter Aura. All his attacks would deal 50% splash damage to enemies in the immediate vicinity. The second was a passive skill called Unlimited Bladeworks. It increased the execution speed of his skills, boosted the damage bonus from linking attacks, and raised the effects of all his crowd control skills by 50. Regarding the damage bonus for linking attacks, the first hit in a combo would deal 100% damage, the second 200%, the third 400%, and so on. The third was a passive skill called Bloodthirst Aura. All allies near him would enter a bloodthirsty state and have their stats increased by 120%. The fourth was an active skill called Instant Transmission. After knowing a location, he could instantly teleport there. It could even be used to go from the underworld to the surface. Its cooldown was half-an-hour.
This was definitely an unrivalled, godly equipment set! Any one of these four skills was beyond amazing.
Ordinary players had a hard enough time finding even a single piece of a Legendary equipment set, to say nothing of collecting the full set. The Tyrant Abak Set wasn't just any Legendary set either, it was a Level 180 Legendary set! Those ordinary low level Legendary items looked like normal rarity items next to it. This set was something that players would normally only hear about in myths and legends.
With the Tyrant Abak Set, Nie Yan would be unrivalled, at least for the time being.
Nie Yan looked at his stats. Both his attack and defense were over 30,000 now. Plus, the Tyrant Abak Set wasn't leather armour but rather the formidable divine armour. In terms of physical defense, it was comparable to a Warrior's heavy armour. At the same time, its resistance against magic was far superior to anything a Warrior could wear. His health had reached over 60,000, and his dodge chance was 79%. All his stats had reached a level that ordinary players could hardly imagine. Even the other Masters of Asskickers United were completely eclipsed.
Nie Yan's heart was racing with excitement upon seeing these stats. There was no one in the world that could stop him now!
Announcement: The Age of Gods expansion has been released.
Age of Gods: Master classes are now fully available. The Legend class advancement quest is unlocked. Nation wars are released. Brave adventurers, bravely press forward and pursue eternal strength! Create legends and become the rulers of this world!
The sudden announcement caught the entire playerbase off guard. Players everywhere went into an uproar.
"Master classes are now fully available!?"
"Does that mean becoming a Master will be easier?"
"What is that Legend class advancement quest all about? Does that mean I can class advance into a Legendary Mage after becoming a Magister?" a Mage muttered.
…
Everyone was fervently discussing the release of the Age of Gods expansion. Back in the Asskickers United guild headquarters in Okoron, Nie Yan was completely dumbstruck. He never thought him putting on the Tyrant Abak Set would cause such a huge commotion.
Nie Yan was completely clueless about the Age of Gods expansion. This expansion hadn't yet been released in his past life. After quickly scanning the information, his first reaction wasn't one of joy. Since Master classes were fully available to everyone now, the advantage Asskickers United had built up would probably vanish. Luckily, there was also some good news. The Legend class advancement quest. This shook Nie Yan's heart. Could it be that above Masters were Legends? Could it be the same as those Legendary NPCs?
The guild chat was extremely lively, with a lot of discussion going on about the Age of Gods expansion. Nie Yan started lurking.
「Master classes are fully available now. I wonder if I meet the requirements...」
「Yeah, me too. I'm Level 130 with 7,638 defense. Do you think I'm strong enough?」
「We won't know if we don't try. I heard a Class Advancement Hall opened up in Calore. Let's go there and accept the class advancement quest.」
After Guo Huai received word of the situation, he anxiously contacted Nie Yan.「What are we going to do? With this expansion, we'll have a lot more Masters popping up.」
「Have everyone at Level 135 and up take the class advancement quest and see if they can become Masters. As for those under Level 135, tell them to get their level up first,」Nie Yan said. Even though the bar for becoming a Master had been greatly reduced, the difficulty was probably still pretty high. Other than that, the post Age of Gods Masters would probably start off much weaker than the pre Age of Gods ones.
「I'm receiving reports that all the large guilds, including Angel Corps, are sending many of their players to take their class advancement quests,」Guo Huai said.
「Nothing to worry about. Just do as I say.」Nie Yan immediately started making some arrangements. Within this short time, he would have to take some measures to ensure that Asskickers United maintained their advantage over Angel Corps.
Even though an unexpected development like this had happened, it didn't dampen Nie Yan's mood of obtaining the Tyrant Abak Set at all. He glanced at his quest window.
Path of a Legend
Description: Each era, Legends rise up. They gain the power to shape the world around them. Will you become one of them? Set out on the path to becoming a Legend.
Objectives:
☐ Gather six Shattered Divinities. (3/6)
☐ Acquire all eight Divine Virtues. (7/8)
☒ Collect a Sacred Object. (2/1)
☐ Obtain the Holy Spirit Heart.
Nie Yan was dumbstruck. He was already more than halfway toward completing this Path of a Legend quest. He needed three more Shattered Divinities. Of the eight Divine Virtues, he was only missing Spirituality. With Death God's Edge and Paternoster's Warhammer, he already possessed two Sacred Objects. As for the final requirement, he was only a step from completing the Holy Spirit Heart.
This discovery was quite magical to Nie Yan. It turned out he was walking on the path of a Legend already.
After spending half a day digesting the new information from the Age of Gods expansion, Nie Yan closely examined the translucent egg. Letting it rest in his palm, he closed his eyes and focused his senses. He felt a holy energy. A Holy Fairy! He thought for a bit. In all of Asskickers United, the most powerful Holy Mage was undoubtedly Xie Yao. A Holy Fairy was similar to an Arcane Fairy. Once it died, it was gone. Only Xie Yao could protect it.
Nie Yan called Xie Yao over and gave her the Holy Fairy.
"Are you sure? I can really have this?" Xie Yao excitedly asked. She cutely gazed at the creature floating inside the egg.
"Yep." Nie Yan nodded.
Xie Yao chanted an incantation and started transferring her holy energy into the egg. After a while, the egg cracked open with a pop, and a white Holy Fairy appeared in her hand. As Xie Yao poured more and more of her mana into the fairy, it slowly grew bigger until it was about half the size of Tang Yao's Arcane Fairy. It was cute and chubby, blowing out white bubbles. It radiated a dense holy aura.
Another fairy was born!
After obtaining the Holy Fairy, Xie Yao's strength greatly increased. Naturally, she would have to put in a lot of effort to raise the fairy's rank and make it reach its full potential.
「Boss, did you trigger the Age of Gods expansion?」
「Was it really you, Boss?」
Everyone started spamming the guild chat with questions. It was a little too much of a coincidence. Moments after Nie Yan took something from a Level 180 Demonified Lord, the Age of Gods expansion hit. These two events were surely connected with each other.
「Seems like it.」Nie Yan nodded. Such a big happening was simply impossible to hide. So, he bluntly admitted it.
「Boss, what did you get?」
「Oh, that's right. Weren't you searching for the last piece of that Tyrant Abak Set? Is that what you got?」
「Yep, I've completed the set.」
「Show us!」
「Yeah, Boss! Show us the properties!」
The guild members shouted enthusiastically. They were all extremely curious to see the properties of the Tyrant Abak Set.
「Boss, you can show us the properties, right?」
Nie Yan considered what to do. Finally, due to the persistence of his fellow guild members, he gave in. Besides, there was nothing to hide anyway. Even if Angels Corps and the Century Financial Group got their hands on this information, it didn't matter. The wheels of war were already turning anyway. Soon, he'd be on their doorsteps.
Nie Yan first shared the individual pieces of the Tyrant Abak Set in the guild chat. After which, he showed everyone the frightening set bonuses.
The previous bustling guild chat went deathly quiet. Everyone looked in shock and awe at the properties of the Tyrant Abak Set. A Level 180 Legendary Set! The stats of the individual pieces were frightening enough, to say nothing of the set bonuses. Nie Yan was already beyond powerful before, but with this set on, would anyone be his opponent?
「Boss, these properties… They're absolutely insane!」Undying Scoundrel exclaimed. He couldn't find the words to describe his feelings right now.
This was the ultimate set. It would even make the most mundane Thief look godly, to say nothing of a supreme expert like Nie Yan.
「Wait, isn't it a Level 180 set? Why can the boss wear it?」
「Yeah, none of the pieces have any level requirement reduction gems socketed in them either.」
「I have something that reduces the level requirement of all equipment by 30,」Nie Yan explained.
They rolled their eyes. A Level 150 player wearing an unequalled Level 180 Legendary Set. Everyone else might as well just quit the game right now!
There was no second to the Tyrant Abak Set. Even the Saintess Christina Set Xie Yao was collecting couldn't compare.