NOVEL NEXT Chapter 99: Magic Weapon Promotion
Point out any errors I made in the chapters, as I'm very lazy and sometimes can't be bothered to reread them. Also, give your opinions on something I should change or add.
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With his flying speed, Black Flame managed to reach White River City within less than an hour. After landing and equipping the Blood Emperor's Armor, Black Flame walked in through White River City's gates and headed to the Adventurer's Association.
Meanwhile, a few minutes after the initial clear of Frost Prison's Hard Mode, Feng had already reached the Grand Lord ranked Frost Giant, Frost Prison's Hell Mode final boss, and instantly killed it, resulting in system notifications once again ringing out in the players' ears.
Star-Moon Kingdom Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first team to conquer the Hell Mode of Frost Prison. All players on the team will be rewarded with 9,000,000 EXP, 1 Tier 3 Gemstone of a random Attribute, 100 Star-Moon Kingdom Reputation Points, and 10 Humanity Reputation Points.
God's Domain Eastern Continent System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first team to conquer the Hell Mode of Frost Prison. All players on the team will be rewarded with 10,000,000 EXP, 5 Tier 3 Gemstones of random Attributes, 100 Star-Moon Kingdom Reputation Points, and 20 Humanity Reputation Points.
God's Domain Continent System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for becoming the first team to conquer the Hell Mode of Frost Prison. All players on the team will be rewarded with 15,000,000 EXP, 10 Tier 3 Gemstones of random Attributes, 200 Star-Moon Kingdom Reputation Points, and 30 Humanity Reputation Points.
Hell Mode Frost Prison getting cleared by Zero Wing as well wasn't really surprising, but the players of God's Domain, regardless of whether they were independent players or in a guild, still couldn't help their envy of Zero Wing's members.
This was one of the most difficult Hell Mode Team Dungeons in God's Domain. Even Super Guilds did not dare to take on 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons right now. They had simply succeeded in clearing Hard Mode after Zero Wing and immediately prepared to raid the next high-level Team Dungeon. But, Zero Wing had done it.
There was a fundamental difference between obtaining the First Clear of a 100-man Hard Mode Team Dungeon and the First Clear of a 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeon.
By obtaining the First Clear of a 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeon, the players' names would be recorded on the God's Domain Glory List!
If they claimed the First Clear of a 100-man Hard Mode Team Dungeon, at most, their names would be recorded on the Glory List outside of the Dungeon for future players to see. However, by claiming the First Clear of a 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeon, not only would they have their names on the Dungeon's Glory List, but they would also have their names on the God's Domain Glory List, which could be found in the Glory Temple in the various major cities throughout the continent. Players throughout God's Domain would see their names, and their fame would soar instantly.
How could anyone not grow excited at obtaining such an honor?
Every single player who heard the system announcement felt a pang of jealousy, and they inwardly wished to be a part of Zero Wing and one of the members who had gotten the Hell Mode's First Clear, while the upper echelons of the many guilds across God's Domain, from First-rate Guilds to Super Guilds, all grew irritated with Zero Wing.
The competition for the First Clear of the various Dungeons across God's Domain was supposed to have been an opportunity for guilds like them to grow in strength and fame as they competed against each other.
Once one of them emerged stronger than the rest and beat them to the First Clear, they'd have their names recorded in God's Domain's Glory List and the name of the guild they were a part of would be announced for every player in range to hear and admire them, boosting all the guilds' member count while also increasing the guild's strength with the rewards gained from the First Clear.
That was how this was all supposed to play out at least.
But Zero Wing had already stolen all the glory for itself. It would have been fine if it just claimed the First Clear of Hard Mode for some of the dungeons in the Star-Moon Kingdom, or even its neighboring countries.
However, not only had Zero Wing obtained the First Clear of both Hard Mode and Hell Mode in the Dungeons meant for current players in the Star-Moon Kingdom, it had done it for nearly every known Dungeon in God's Domain, even the ones of a much higher level than current players should be capable of attempting.
This was undoubtedly an enormous embarrassment for every guild in God's Domain since apart from a few powerful Super Guilds who had been fast enough to get the First Clear of a few Level 30 100-man Team Dungeons' Hard Mode, every other system announcement ringing across God's Domain had been about Zero Wing clearing Dungeons.
Even those guilds and independent players who hadn't known or cared about the guild's existence weren't able to ignore it anymore and were forced to acknowledge it. Meanwhile, those on the Western Continent began wondering who the fuck Zero Wing is.
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In the Level 30 100-man Frost Prison Team Dungeons.
Feng remained ignorant about the various guilds' feelings about Zero Wing and what his guild's amazing performance had caused, going about his business as usual.
He slowly walked up to the Frost Giant's remains and began to collect the loot.
Right before killing the Frost Giant, Feng had activated Divine Providence, allowing his Luck to soar. In addition to the First Clear bonus, the number of items the Frost Giant dropped was extraordinary. At a glance, there were over 700 items scattered across the ground. Of course, the majority of them consisted of rare materials.
Feng spent over a dozen minutes organizing the loot. The Frost Giant's other loot was quite bountiful. There were many Dark-Gold items of good quality among the drops, a couple Epic pieces of equipment and weapons, and multiple Tier 1 Weapons. The remaining non-material items were mostly Fine-Gold Set pieces and equipment.
However, of the several hundred items dropped by the Frost Giant, there were only two items that Feng cared about.
The first was a faintly glowing golden crystal that Feng had discovered among the items, having almost forgotten this thing dropped in Dungeons.
[Mana Crystal]
Contains a frightening level of Mana. Rumor has it that this is the best material for forging Magic Weapons.
Magic Weapons were far rarer than Epic items. Every Magic Weapon possessed an extraordinary history. The Abyssal Blade in Feng's hands was one such example. The master smith Olysses had personally forged the magnificent weapon. The materials used had not have been one bit inferior to that of Legendary items. The value of a material that could be used to forge a Magic Weapon would definitely surpass that of an Epic item because a Magic Weapon's strength depended on the skills of the forger.
System: Abyssal Blade has discovered an evolution item. Would you like the Abyssal Blade to absorb the item and evolve?
Suddenly, the sound of a system notification reached his ears.
Without giving it much thought, Feng agreed to evolve the Abyssal Blade.
The Abyssal Blade was a Magic Weapon with a lot of potential, and with Feng having fed it high-ranking weapons for increasing its levels from the start, its power was quite extraordinary, comparable to that of a Fragmented Legendary Weapon of the same Level.
Due to the strength of Feng's opponents increasing even more rapidly, though, the Magic Weapon's effectiveness had recently dropped significantly. Feng had even stopped upgrading its Level since a simple improvement in the Abyssal Blade's levels would not make much of a difference.
It needed another type of upgrade for the Abyssal Blade's strength to become sufficient again for Feng's plans.
After Feng clicked to evolve the Abyssal Blade, the golden crystal in his hand suddenly atomized, transforming into a stream of golden mist that flowed into the Abyssal Blade.
Suddenly, the Abyssal Blade began to tremble and emit a flickering golden light.
A short moment later, the Abyssal Blade's exterior also began to transform.
The silver sword darkened to pitch-black once more. This time, however, eye-catching, bright red runes covered the sword's blade.
This was an evolution.
Feng could clearly feel that the Abyssal Blade had changed massively. His compatibility rate with the Magic Weapon had particularly increased. It felt as if the weapon had been tailored for him.
However, unlike the Abyssal Blade's usual commotion when it leveled up, the weapon had not changed beyond its appearance. It was simply inconceivable.
Immediately, Feng investigated the Abyssal Blade's Attributes, wanting to see how much him setting up a stronger foundation for it had benefited the Abyssal Blade.
[Abyssal Blade] (One-handed Sword, Magic Weapon)
Attack Power +3,923
All Attributes +381
Attack Speed +40
Ignore Levels +20
Attacks have:
75% chance to cause 200% damage.
50% chance to cause 300% damage.
Every attack increases damage by 2% to a maximum of 20%.
If wielder belongs to a Swordsman-related class, all Skill Levels +4.
Increase Free Ability Points received for every increase in Level by 2 points.
Equipment Level 30. Can be upgraded. (Devour twenty Level 35 Fine-Gold Weapons and three Level 35 Dark-Gold Weapons to upgrade to Level 35).
Equipment Tier 1. Can be evolved (Devour ten Mana Crystals to evolve to Tier 2).
Additional Active Skill 1: Phantom Kill (Tier 1)
Instantly creates a doppelganger under the wielder's control. Doppelganger has 85% of the wielder's Attributes and all Skills. The wielder can swap positions with the doppelganger at any time.
Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Active Skill 2: Abyssal Bind (Tier 1)
Binds enemies and prevents movement, reducing Defense by 100%.
Duration: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Additional Active Skill 3: Nine Dragons Slash (Tier 1)
Instantly creates twelve phantoms of the Abyssal Blade for wielder's use; each phantom sword deals up to 75% damage.
Duration: 45 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Active Skill 4: Abyssal Curse (Tier 1)
Prevents all targets within a radius of 30 yards from moving or attacking for 10 seconds and reduces their Attributes by 40% for 15 minutes. Effect doubles if there is only one target within range.
Cooldown: 30 minutes
Additional Profound Inheritance: Black Emperor (Tier 1)
When activated, every critical hit will accumulate one layer of Death Aura. Each layer of death aura can be used to increase all Attributes of wielder by 2.5% and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 1.5% for 15 seconds, or be used to reduce the Cooldown of a skill by 5 seconds. Maximum of 50 layers of Death Aura.
Duration: 12 minutes
Cooldown: 8 hours
The master smith Olysses personally created the Abyssal Blade using the Black Dragon King's fangs as material. It is one of thirty-six Famed Swords, ranking 31st. However, the Black Dragon King himself has cursed this sword. Beyond the immense strength the blade offers, the wielder must face a Backlash after a certain amount of time. However, after Jack had remodeled the Abyssal Blade with a Star Crystal, the strength of the Backlash has reduced greatly. If the wielder is unable to suppress the Backlash, the wielder will receive the Black Dragon King's curse, permanently reducing all Attributes by 50%.
Unable to be dropped.
Unable to be traded.
The Abyssal Blade's evolution had only provided minor improvements in terms of Attributes. However, it had increased the Tiers of the Magic Weapon's Additional Skills, upgrading them from Tier 0 to Tier 1 Skills. It was similar to how players upgraded their Skills.
Only, while players required Skill Proficiency to upgrade their Skills, the Abyssal Blade required Mana Crystals.
Although the Additional Skills had not improved much after the evolution, the Skills would now be more effective on high-tiered monsters.
If Feng could upgrade the Abyssal Blade's Tier even further, the Magic Weapon's skills could be of use to Feng in fights.
But the Mana Crystal was not easy to obtain. It only drops from 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons, and its drop-rate is really low.
It was not easy to raid 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons. Not to mention, there was only a chance for a Mana Crystal to drop from each raid. If one did not have the support of a powerful Guild, it was practically impossible to evolve their Magic Weapon.
In Feng's case, however, such a situation was not the case thanks to having Zero Wing. The guild's restored members had already cleared thousands of 100-man Hell Mode Team Dungeons and had obtained a large number of treasures from the First Clears.
Feng had previously instructed the restored members to save any Mana Crystals they found in Zero Wing's Warehouse, letting them gather up for him so that Feng could upgrade the Abyssal Blade. Only, he had been too busy with other matters to check on how many Mana Crystals his guildmates had acquired.
After this one that he obtained from Frost Prison and used to upgrade the Abyssal Blade to Tier 1, Feng decided it was time to let his Magic Weapon absorb whatever they had collected during his time in the World Summit and then look for other sources of Mana Crystals if those weren't enough.
Aside from the Mana Crystal, there was another noteworthy item among the Frost Giant's drops.
The second item was a golden key with magical runes covering its surface.
This was a very rare drop and one Feng had initially thought would not appear, even forgetting about it being a possibility on the Dungeon's loot table until he came across the key among the Frost Giant's drops. A pass to the Holy City of Titan!
The value of this item far surpassed that of an Epic Weapon. In the past, some Guilds had even been willing to pay 20,000 Gold just for a pass. Unfortunately, no Guild was willing to sell this item. After all, the value of going to Titan City was far above 20,000 Gold.
The Holy City of Titan was one of God's Domain's major secrets. Even in the past, not many players had known about the Holy City. It was a place that independent players had no chance of ever visiting. Even those who knew about the existence of the Holy City would not necessarily be able to go there. Only an extremely few large Guilds were capable of visiting it.
Generally, only first-rate Guilds and above had the ability to get to the Holy City.
The Holy City of Titan was originally a city where the Titans resided. It was once an extremely powerful city, capable of going up against even Gods. However, after the war between the Gods, the city had weakened significantly. Even so, it was still much more powerful than the current Four Great Empires of God's Domain, and was roughly Blackwing City's match and greatly respected by the various kingdoms and empires of God's Domain.
However, the Holy City of Titan was different from Blackwing City.
Blackwing City was more of a place for players to conduct trade at. Titan City, on the other hand, was a place meant for nurturing players. It had been titled a sacred training ground by many players. The reason for this was because the Mana density at Titan City was much denser than in most locations in the outside world.
Aside from being a sacred training ground for combat players, Titan City was also a sacred ground for Lifestyle players. Due to the excellent environmental conditions there, Lifestyle players would have their production success rates improved considerably. In addition, the chance of obtaining Lifestyle designs at the grinding spots around Titan City was much higher than at other locations.
Hence, many Lifestyle players yearned to visit the Holy City of Titan.
However, Titan City was not a place that just any player could visit. Similar to Blackwing City, one needed to obtain a pass. However, the drop-rate for Titan City's pass was much lower than Blackwing City's. Moreover, only Level 30, 100-man large-scale Team Dungeons or above had a chance of dropping the pass.
The drop-rate for that item was simply too low though. Obtaining it in Level 30 or Level 40 Dungeons was practically impossible. Only after reaching Level 50 would 100-man Team Dungeons have a slightly higher possibility of dropping the pass. Even so, the probability was only one in one thousand. In other words, one had to raid one thousand 100-man Team Dungeons to obtain a pass to Titan City. Moreover, the drop-rate for the pass was unaffected by one's Luck Attribute.
Or at least, a player would have to have an incredibly high amount in order for it to have any sort of greater chance to drop, like Feng did; which had made the near-impossible treasure appear upon getting the First Clear of the Level 30 Frost Prison Team Dungeon.
A single pass could allow a maximum of 100 players into Titan City. However, the difficulty of Titan City's entrance trial was very high.
The system set the difficulty of the trial based on the Levels of the players undertaking it, so players would always feel that the trial's difficulty was the same, regardless of when they challenged it. Getting into Titan City depended on the overall strength of the team.
That would not be a problem for Zero Wing though with its current strength, and they won't have any trouble getting to the Holy City of Titan. Moreover, this entry pass provided Feng with another opportunity to greatly increase his combat power.
After storing the entry pass and distributing the equipment to the Burning Wing Legion members that wanted any of the items dropped by the Frost Giant, Feng dismissed them, allowing the restored members to get on with their business.
Before Feng left the Frost Prison, though, he approached the massive, resplendent gemstone that he had previously ignored, which had remained after he killed the Frost Giant, and the sound of a system notification suddenly reached his ears.
System: There is a strange image engraved on the Elemental Core left behind after the Frost Giant's death. Do you wish to investigate it?
The blue gemstone was as tall as he was. Although Feng knew of this thing in this timeline, If not for the system notification, he would not have noticed the palm-sized image engraved on the gemstone's exterior during his previous life when he had brought Zero Wing's Main Force to get the First Clear of Frost Prison's Hell Mode.
Upon carefully inspecting the image, one would discover that it was an extraordinarily complex Magic Array. When he had seen it for the first time in the previous timeline, it had been, by far, one of the most complex Magic Arrays he had ever seen at the time. It was as intricate as an electronic instrument.
Now, though, with his knowledge of Magic Arrays and Magician standard, Feng could tell it was a key for a different Sealing Magic Array. Moreover, Feng already knew its purpose.
When Feng touched the image, the Elemental Core suddenly began to shrink. From the size of an adult human, the massive gemstone shrank to the size of a fist in the blink of an eye.
System: Quest "Solomon's Treasure" activated.
Quest details: An immensely powerful magic array has been carved into the Elemental Core along with Solomon's symbol. You might gain an unexpected bounty if you take this Elemental Core to a Great Mage.
Quest rewards: Unknown.
Players with some knowledge about God's Domain would involuntarily shudder when they heard the name "Solomon."
There were countless weapons in God's Domain. However, while Epic Weapons were somewhat rare, Legendary Weapons were as rare as a phoenix's feather.
Among the ten most famous Legendary Weapons of Feng's God's Domain, one of them had been Solomon's Sword.
Even the faintest of connections with one of the Ten Great Legendary Weapons was amazing. It was enough to make every melee class in God's Domain mad with greed.
Legendary items were powerful enough to allow a person to challenge opponents of a higher tier. The Ten Great Legendary Weapons, however, stood out from the crowd.
They were comprised of two One-handed Swords, a Greatsword, two Staffs, two Daggers, a Bow, a Spear, and a Greathammer.
Among them, the two One-handed Swords, Solomon's Sword and Light of Two Worlds, were weapons that Feng had wielded during his previous life, using them for a long time and fighting many powerful experts with the two Legendary Weapons.
This Quest that he had just triggered, in particular, had led Feng towards his acquisition of Solomon's Sword. It was precisely because of the Solomon's Treasure Quest that Feng had told Zero Wing's restored members not to go into the Frost Prison Team Dungeon.
Although there, too, were other Dungeons of various ranks across God's Domain that similarly created an early opportunity for players who get the First Clear to find very valuable treasures, a few very rare ones among them having a clue to Legendary Items, and an extremely rare few among those rarities even containing a possible lead to one of the Ten Great Legendary Weapons, Feng didn't pay them much mind and allowed any of his guild members to freely get the First Clear and take those opportunities upon working towards them; with Frost Prison, and a few other special ones to which he sent members like Fire to take care of, being the only exception.
Feng fully intended on getting Solomon's Sword again, as well as securing all the other of the Ten Great Legendary Weapons for Zero Wing, which wouldn't be that difficult since he already knew where and how to get most of them, while he could use other means such as Ancient Documents to find out the whereabouts of the rest.
Storing the Elemental Core, Feng took out a Return Scroll and activated it.
When he arrived in White River City's Teleportation Hall, Feng wasn't in much of a hurry concerning the Solomon's Treasure Quest, and instead immediately headed to the Bank, choosing to enter Zero Wing's main Private Warehouse.
With the restored members constantly going out exploring maps, clearing Dungeons, and doing high-ranking Quests, Zero Wing's Warehouses have become filled with many valuable treasures that the current guilds couldn't even imagine.
Looking through the stacks of items stored within the giant Warehouse, Feng soon found what he was looking for.
"Very good! I have just enough." Feng's mood instantly grew brighter when he saw the 112 Mana Crystals inside the Warehouse.
With this many Mana Crystals gathered by the restored members, Feng had enough resources to upgrade the Abyssal Blade to Tier 3, after which point the Magic Weapon would no longer require Mana Crystals for its evolutions, and Feng wouldn't need to concern himself with getting more of them afterwards.
Retrieving ten Mana Crystals from the Warehouse, a system notification reached Feng's ears.
System: Ten Mana Crystals detected. Conditions to evolve the Abyssal Blade met. Do you wish to evolve the Abyssal Blade?
Suddenly, as Feng agreed, the ten Mana Crystals in his hands shattered, a cloud of black smoke emerging from their remains. Following which, the black smoke entered the Abyssal Blade. In response, the Abyssal Blade leaped from its sheath and hovered before Feng, trembling as it released dragon roars that echoed throughout the wilderness. At the same time, blood-red runes began to surface around the weapon.
When the blood-red runes covered the sword entirely, the weapon began to release a rapidly growing pressure. Rather than a sword, Feng felt as if he stood before an angry Dragon. The pressure was so great that some people would even struggle to breathe.
The phenomenon only began to weaken after about ten seconds. Eventually, the Abyssal Blade returned to its peaceful state.
After evolving, the Abyssal Blade's appearance had transformed slightly. Now, the sword was entirely pitch-black. It also radiated a faint trace of black miasma. A black dragon coiled around the sword's hilt, and blood-red runes had carved themselves into the blade. Overall, the Abyssal Blade's new appearance looked evil.
Feng then glanced at its Attribute Panel while taking out the remaining Mana Crystals for the Magic Weapon's third evolution from the storage.
[Abyssal Blade] (One-handed Sword, Magic Weapon)
Attack Power +5,010
All Attributes +661
Attack Speed +44
Ignore Levels +20
Attacks have:
70% chance to cause 250% damage.
40% chance to cause 330% damage.
Every attack increases damage by 3% to a maximum of 30%.
If wielder belongs to a Swordsman-related class, all Skill Levels +5.
Increase Free Ability Points received for every increase in Level by 2 points.
Equipment Level 30. Can be upgraded. (Devour forty Level 35 Fine-Gold Weapons and five Level 35 Dark-Gold Weapons to upgrade to Level 35).
Equipment Tier 2. Can be evolved (Devour 100 Mana Crystals or Eternal Ice Crystals to evolve to Tier 3).
Additional Active Skill 1: Phantom Kill (Tier 2)
Instantly creates a doppelganger under the wielder's control. Doppelganger has 95% of the wielder's Attributes and all Skills. The wielder can swap positions with the doppelganger at any time.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Active Skill 2: Abyssal Bind (Tier 2)
Binds up to 3 enemies simultaneously and prevents movement, reducing Defense and Magic Resistance by 100%. The higher tiered the target is, the weaker its the effect will be.
Duration: 6 seconds
Cooldown: 35 seconds
Additional Active Skill 3: Nine Dragons Slash (Tier 2)
Instantly creates 16 phantoms of the Abyssal Blade for wielder's use; each phantom sword deals up to 95% damage.
Duration: 45 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Active Skill 4: Abyssal Curse (Tier 2)
Prevents all targets within a radius of 50 yards from moving or attacking for 10 seconds and reduces their Attributes by 45% for 10 minutes. Effect doubles if there is only one target in range.
Cooldown: 20 minutes
Additional Profound Inheritance: Black Emperor (Tier 2)
When activated, every critical hit will accumulate one stack of Death Aura. Each stack can be used to increase all Attributes by 2.5% and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 1.5% for 20 seconds or to reduce the Cooldown of a skill by 7 seconds. Maximum of 50 stacks of Death Aura.
Duration: 15 minutes
Cooldown: 6 hours
The Famed Smith Olysses personally created the Abyssal Blade using the Black Dragon King's fangs as material. It is one of thirty-six Famed Swords, ranking 31st. However, the Black Dragon King himself has cursed this sword. Beyond the immense strength the blade offers, the wielder must face a Backlash after a certain amount of time. However, after Jack had remodeled the Abyssal Blade with a Star Crystal, the strength of the Backlash has been reduced greatly. If the wielder is unable to suppress the Backlash, the wielder will receive the Black Dragon King's curse, permanently reducing all Attributes by 50%.
Unable to be dropped.
Unable to be traded.
Unable to be destroyed.
The upgrade was quite significant for the Abyssal Blade and it greatly enhanced its skills, but Feng immediately went on with the next evolution.
System: One hundred Mana Crystals detected. Conditions to evolve the Abyssal Blade met. Do you wish to evolve the Abyssal Blade?
The moment Feng tapped on the 'Evolve* button, the Abyssal Blade transformed into a cloud of black fog that moved toward his bag. The black fog began to devour every Mana Crystal in his bag like a ravenous wolf.
The Mana within the Mana Crystals was only slightly less pure than within Seven Luminaries Crystals, and a single Mana Crystal contained enough mana to obliterate a small town from the face of the continent. When the Abyssal Blade devoured all 100 Mana Crystals, space around Feng trembled violently with the transfer of such a frightening amount of energy. At the same time, a Dragon's roar echoed across the island. It felt as if space were about to explode, making room for a Dragon's arrival.
Feng inwardly wondered if this was a backlash as he watched the evolution process, prepared for the Abyssal Blade to make its move and dish out the price for using it.
With every evolution, there was a chance that the Magic Weapon would release a Backlash, and each Backlash would be stronger than the last. If the weapon's owner couldn't cope with a single Backlash, it would cripple their account.
Feng was pretty confident of contending with a potential Backlash, and wasn't all that concerned even by the Mana fluctuations he sensed.
Fortunately, the Mana only fluctuated for a few moments. After three seconds, the Private Warehouse returned to normal, and a pitch-black sword, decorated with engraved, draconic patterns, appeared some distance away.
Despite standing five yards away from the Abyssal Blade, Feng could feel the Magic Weapon's intense Dragon Might weighing him down. His heels even sunk into the ground.
[Abyssal Blade] (One-handed Sword, Magic Weapon)
Attack Power +6,859
All Attributes +1,103
Attack Speed +51
Ignore Levels +30
Attacks have:
80% chance to cause 270% damage.
50% chance to cause 350% damage.
Every attack increases damage by 3% to a maximum of 45%.
If wielder belongs to a Swordsman-related class, all Skill Levels +6.
Increase Free Ability Points received for every increase in Level by 2 points.
Equipment Level 30. Can be upgraded. (Devour one hundred Level 35 Fine-Gold Weapons and ten Level 35 Dark-Gold Weapons to upgrade to Level 35).
Equipment Tier 3. Can be evolved (Devour 5 God Crystals to evolve to Tier 4).
Additional Active Skill 1: Phantom Kill (Tier 3)
Instantly creates a doppelganger under the wielder's control. Doppelganger has 100% of the wielder's Attributes and all Skills. The wielder can swap positions with the doppelganger at any time.
Duration: 3 minutes
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Additional Active Skill 2: Abyssal Bind (Tier 3)
Binds up to 6 enemies simultaneously and prevents movement, reducing Defense and Magic Resistance by 100%. The higher tiered the target is, the weaker the effect will be.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 35 seconds
Additional Active Skill 3: Nine Dragons Slash (Tier 3)
Instantly creates 21 phantoms of the Abyssal Blade for wielder's use; each phantom sword deals up to 100% damage.
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 6 minutes
Additional Active Skill 4: Abyssal Curse (Tier 3)
Prevents all targets within a 100-yard radius from moving or attacking for 15 seconds and reduces their Attributes by 45% for 15 minutes. Effect doubles if there is only one target in range.
Cooldown: 20 minutes
Additional Profound Inheritance: Black Emperor (Tier 3)
When activated, every critical hit will accumulate one stack of Death Aura. Each stack can be used to increase all Attributes by 6% and Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 5% for 20 seconds or to reduce the Cooldown of a skill by 8 seconds. Maximum of 45 stacks of Death Aura.
Duration: 15 minutes
Cooldown: 5 hours
The Famed Smith Olysses personally created the Abyssal Blade using the Black Dragon King's fangs as material. It is one of thirty-six Famed Swords, ranking 31st. However, the Black Dragon King himself has cursed this sword. Beyond the immense strength the blade offers, the wielder must face a Backlash after a certain amount of time. However, after Jack had remodeled the Abyssal Blade with a Star Crystal, the strength of the Backlash has been reduced greatly. If the wielder is unable to suppress the Backlash, the wielder will receive the Black Dragon King's curse, permanently reducing all Attributes by 50%.
Unable to be dropped.
Unable to be traded.
Unable to be destroyed.
After reaching Tier 3, the Abyssal Blade's boost to Feng's Attack Power and attributes were comparable to that of a Legendary Weapon's.
At Level 30, of course.
Even though its skills and abilities still fell quite a bit short in comparison to Legendary Weapons' in terms of power, the Abyssal Blade's skills were still extraordinary.
With this upgrade, the Abyssal Blade would be of great help to Feng despite it being under-tiered. Feng also didn't try upgrading his Magic Weapon to Tier 4 despite having five God Crystals available and being fully capable of evolving it.
The stronger a Magic Weapon became, the stronger the Backlash would be when it occurred. From Feng's experience in his previous life, upon there being a Backlash, he'd have to face the Black Dragon King of the same level and tier as the Abyssal Blade.
During the previous timeline, Feng had faced a Backlash from the Abyssal Blade only once while it was a Magic Weapon, the first and last one being triggered when he upgraded it to Level 50 while the Abyssal Blade was already Tier 2.
At that time, Feng had been forced to fight against a Level 50 Lord ranked Dragon, the lasting soul remnants of the Black Dragon King as it attempted to take over his body. It had been a difficult battle, but Feng managed to pull through in the end.
However, Feng wasn't sure at what level the Backlash would trigger past Tier 2 and 3. It might happen earlier than Level 50, and if he continues upgrading it, the Backlash might hit him immediately.
Feng was certain that he could take on the Level 30 Tier 3 Black Dragon King without any issues, so he wasn't really worried about it at the moment, but he wouldn't be as confident if he were to upgrade the Abyssal Blade to Tier 4.
A Tier 4 Dragon would be many times more difficult to handle than a Tier 3 one. Feng couldn't say for certain that he would be capable of soloing a Tier 4 Black Dragon King without any outside power, and he definitely wouldn't be able to fight it now when all his Berserk Skills were on cooldown.
In either case, he wasn't in a rush to upgrade the Abyssal Blade any further, with it actually being more beneficial if he waited due to other problems which could occur with a higher-ranking Abyssal Blade, so instead of taking the unnecessary risk, Feng was better off leaving the upgrade for another time once he's improved his strength even further and upgraded the Heavenly Dragon's Breath to Legendary.
With the Legendary Ring of legends, defeating a powerful Dragon would be much easier.
He also didn't bother increasing the Magic Weapon's Level. The reasoning behind his choice was partially a similar situation with the Abyssal Blade's Tier upgrade, and it was also for the purpose of making the Abyssal Blade as strong as possible.
Similarly to how higher-ranking creatures received more strength with each level up than those of a lower Tier, Magic Weapons functioned the same.
Just as a Tier 2 player who went through his Promotion Quest at Level 50 and leveled up to Level 80 would be significantly stronger than a Tier 2 player who only got promoted after reaching Level 80, the Abyssal Blade will be much stronger if he upgrades its Tier first while still at Level 30 before leveling it up than other Magic Weapons whose wielders' continuously increased their Weapon's Level without upgrading its Tier early on as well.
Though, it would also require a much larger number of weapons to upgrade the Magic Weapon's Level as well with each tier it ascends, which could be problematic for others, who would already be struggling to keep up their Magic Weapon's Level with their own even if a guild was backing them due to the valuable resources needed to upgrade Magic Weapons.
But such a requirement wasn't of any concern to Feng since low-level weapons like the ones the Abyssal Blade had to absorb in order to level up were easy to obtain, and Zero Wing's Warehouse was filled with them.
Hence, in order to set up the Abyssal Blade's foundation for the future, Feng had decided to first upgrade its tier as much as possible, and only then level it up again.
Afterwards, Feng stored the few extra Mana Crystals and looked through the Private Warehouse to see how other items' collection was coming along.
Aside from Mana Crystals, entry passes for the Holy City of Titan were also something Feng wanted his guild members to obtain in bulk so that they could continuously send Zero Wing's members in the trial and get tokens for the Titan City.
This way, not only could they afford to let all of the high-ranking Lifestyle Players in the Candlelight Trading Firm go to the Holy City of Titan, with restored members functioning better in the Holy City's environment than in the Trading Firm, while the unrestored members would have plenty of chances to quickly improve their skills and Subclass rank.
Unfortunately, the entry pass's drop-rate was very low, as even after getting the First Clear of thousands upon thousands of high-ranking Dungeons spanning between various levels, they've only managed to collect a dozen or so of them.
Nonetheless, it was still considered a great haul. The gathered entry passes will allow many things for Feng and Zero Wing.
After making a note of it and adding the Holy City of Titan to his plans, along with a few other things, Feng left the Warehouse.
Making a trip to the Candlelight Trading Firm, Feng gave Melancholic Smile the Advanced Transport Carriage Design, instructing her to have Candlelight's Forgers and Engineers start working on the carriages as the Trading Firm's number two priority, only after assisting Cocoa with the Magic Devices.
The Advanced Transport Carriage was essential for Stone Forest Town. If he had Transport Carriages, he could open trade routes from Stone Forest Town to other NPC towns.
Not only could the Advanced Transport Carriage transport a large group of players, but it could also transport more goods than the ordinary carriages that NPCs sold.
Many important items in God's Domain couldn't be stored in a player's bag space. Players were required to carry such items by themselves.
The carriages NPCs sold or rented out could only support a few players. Even a Bronze Carriage could only carry five people at a time. And while a Bronze Carriage could carry plenty of items in its bag space, it could only carry a maximum of ten items that couldn't be stored in a bag space. Most importantly, these carriages could only travel on official trade routes, which greatly limited their uses.
Transport Carriages, however, were different. As player-crafted items, they did not have many road restrictions.
The Basic Transport Carriage could already hold up to 10 players. In addition, its bag space was larger than NPC Bronze Carriages, and it could carry up to 30 non-bag items. It was also faster.
Normally, non-bag items were very valuable, regardless of whether the items were for an NPC or to sell to other players elsewhere. Delivering such goods was the easiest way to make a profit.
Merchant players would even fight over Basic Transport Carriages if they were available on the market, much less Advanced Transport Carriages.
The Advanced Transport Carriage could carry up to twenty people. Needless to say, its bag space was leaps and bounds larger than the Bronze Carriage. It could also carry up to 60 non-bag items. As for its speed, it could compete with Mysterious-Iron Mounts.
If an organization could use Advanced Transport Carriages, even if it didn't sell products and focused on logistics, it could still easily make a fortune.
Though, while the Advanced Transport Carriage was amazing, its required materials were extremely rare. They were also not that easy to construct. Even with all the required materials, it was possible that certain parts wouldn't meet the system's standards, which would result in failure during the final assembly. These faulty parts would need to be remade, and the carriage would have to be reassembled. These various processes were extremely taxing in both time and energy.
However, as long as the Advanced Transport Carriages were complete, they would massively assist Stone Forest Town's development once the Town's reconstruction gets completed in a few days, with the Transport Carriages being the key to unlocking the Stone Forest Town's true potential.
Although it was possible to rent ordinary carriages from NPCs, those carriages could hold up to four players at a time. Moreover, the rental price was relatively high. The amount of time one could save with these carriages was also minimal as their speed was on par with Common Mounts. If ordinary players were asked to spend 40 Copper just to save five hours, they would likely choose to walk the entire way. Hence, without the Advanced Transport Carriages, Feng would have to set the fee for using the rented carriages at 30 Copper per player. But with that strategy, he wouldn't even make a profit, only barely managing to not lose money.
If they could have a fleet of Advanced Transport Carriages now, they could solve many problems. First, the speed of an Advanced Transport Carriage was on par with a Mysterious-Iron Mount. Second, it was capable of carrying up to twenty players at a time. With these two factors, they would make quite an income by just offering players transportation. Furthermore, Advance Transport Carriages could carry cargo.
An Advanced Transport Carriage could carry up to 60 non-bag space items.
In player towns, a wandering NPC merchant's stock depended on the town's transportation services. This was because the majority of a wandering merchant's goods were non-bag space items.
The more non-bag space items a town could transport, the more rare items wandering merchants would bring to said town. Moreover, more wandering merchants would visit. This was considered a hidden benefit.
This hidden benefit had only been discovered after many Guilds had established their own Advanced Towns or Basic Cities in the past. When the news spread, the various Guilds regretted not establishing a transportation system early on. Otherwise, they would've attracted far more players with the wandering NPC merchants.
Moreover, as a town or city attracted more wandering merchants, it would unlock another hidden benefit—a Mystery Shop!
The Mystery Shop mainly sold Mystery Treasure Chests. As its name suggested, one had a random chance of obtaining all sorts of items from the Mystery Treasure Chest such as potions, weapons, equipment, Magic Scrolls, food, beverages, and far more. If one were lucky, they could even obtain Dark-Gold Weapons and Equipment. It had been very popular among players. However, while the Mystery Shop had an unlimited number of Mystery Treasure Chests in stock, players could only purchase five Mystery Treasure Chests per day at most. Each treasure chest sold for two Silver Coins.
After players purchased a certain number of Mystery Treasure Chests from the Mystery Shop, they could become members of the shop. By then, players could enter the shop's second floor, competing for a limited number of up-to-date and rare weapons, equipment, and tools. Even the most inferior among these items was Secret-Silver rank, and players had often found Fine-Gold items. While very rare, Dark-Gold items would also appear from time to time.
After reaching Level 50, it would become very difficult to obtain high-quality weapons and equipment. Obtaining Level 50-plus Secret-Silver Equipment would be as challenging as finding current Dark-Gold Equipment. Hence, getting to compete for up-to-date Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment every day was a huge opportunity for most players.
This opportunity did not require players to have superb combat techniques. As long as one had enough Coins, they could purchase the items they desired.
Players had swarmed to any town or city with Mystery Shop. Back then, even merchant players had used these Mystery Shops to make a fortune, traveling to the various towns and cities to compete for these items, then reselling them elsewhere for a profit. After all, players rarely sold their Level 50-plus Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment.
Considering the potential gains one could earn from the Advanced Transport Carriages, a Design for them was of incredible value, resulting in it being one of the most precious items dropped by Lancelot.
Feng immediately had Melocholic get the necessary materials brought over to the Candlelight Trading Firm, either purchasing and trading for the ones they didn't possess or grabbing some from Zero Wing's Warehouse; the restored Zero Wing members having already gathered enough to create a few Advanced Transport Carriages, even obtaining the main material, Green Ebony, which was extremely difficult to acquire, there only being a few places that produced the wood. Moreover, these locations were all very high-level maps. Even the lowest leveled location was a Level 60 map called Crying Ghost Ridge.
Aside from the Advanced Transport Carriage, Feng also gave Melancholic a large portion of the items Zero Wing's Warehouses had just been enriched with by the many deaths from the various guilds' members that Zero Wing members had no need for.
Previously, as Zero Wing became more famous thanks to its stunning victory over the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion, reveal of its many experts, the rich Candlelight Trading Firm that had popped up in most Empires and kingdoms by now, being the only one with an endless stock of Magic Crystals while the other guilds barely had any, as well as the thousands of system announcements ringing out in every player's ears as the restored members obtained First Clears of numerous Team Dungeons, players from all over God's Domain had come flocking over to join the mysterious guild.
At first, it was just players from White River City, then from all parts of the Star-Moon Kingdom, then from the neighboring countries as well, and finally, players from all across God's Domain, both independent ones and many who chose to leave their own guilds, came to Zero Wing's Residences, wanting to join Zero Wing.
Millions of players ended up applying for Zero Wing's entrance exam, overwhelming the guild's staff and managers even after Zero Wing had expanded to other countries and cities when a lot of people started joining.
Of the enormous group of players from all over around, Zero Wing could still only accept a limited amount due to the sudden increase in members, causing the requirement of joining Zero Wing to drastically heighten.
Still, there were too many qualified players, and they couldn't all be accepted at once, allowing for only a million of the best to join while telling others to come back another time once Zero Wing had settled and organized with the new members.
But one million players on top of Zero Wing's already rapidly rising member-count resulted for a few problems in the guild. Thankfully, Zero Wing lacked neither Gold Coins nor Magic Crystals, so the guild and the restored members could support its development. Equipment had become a small issue though.
Although Zero Wing did possess a lot of high-ranking equipment from the restored members' efforts and Feng's own grinding with the Main Force during the Great Mythic Hunt, those items were all Level 50 and above; too high for current players.
In fact, Zero Wing had very little of the resources when it came to equipment for current players, with most of the ones they did obtain having already been distributed among the guild's initial members, to begin with not being nearly enough for the sudden influx of players; powerful ones at that with high standards.
This created a problem for Zero Wing that threatened to hinder the guild's development.
Thus, the various guilds' generous donation, which they had willingly chosen to give out by being stupid enough to offend Zero Wing and attempt to steal the Town Token from Black Flame, came in clutch at this time.
With over ten million pieces of equipment and weapons, Zero Wing had more than enough equipment to support its members and development until players reached higher levels; at which point this won't be an issue again.
Some of the equipment was too weak for Zero Wing's members, though, mostly the items dropped from players' bags or from those who weren't that strong themselves to begin with. Around one or two million of it wasn't of sufficient quality for the current members, so Feng chose to have those weak items get sold at Candlelight's Shops.
After all, it was still equipment dropped by elite players and was of good quality to regular players or those guilds who don't have as high of a standard for their members as Zero Wing. They rid themselves of the excess equipment while making a profit, which worked out perfectly.
Even if the Candlelight Trading Firm sold those items at one Silver each, they'd still make between ten to twenty thousand Gold Coins; not to mention many of those could be sold for several or even a dozen Silver.
There were also other items such as potions, Consumables, other daily commodities, or various items that Zero Wing either didn't need, with the exception of special and valuable items such as the Dilapidated Broken Sword dropped by Galaxy Past that was actually the Flawed Weapon Thousand Transformations, or couldn't use in such large quantities, so Feng had Melancholic sell those as well.
Settling everything after handing all that stuff to Melancholic to deal with, Feng left her with it and headed to the top floor of the Candlelight Trading Firm where his private Forging Room was.
Seeing as it was relatively late in God's Domain, Feng logged out to rest. Ever since suffering the soul backlash and logging in again, Feng hasn't had a chance to properly rest his mind, and had even been using the Perfect Clone's consciousness in order to function.
Now that his own consciousness had woken up and he wasn't in a rush to do anything else, Feng finally had a chance to log off. Although Feng was indeed awake right now and no longer in immediate danger, he still hadn't recovered by much from what had happened. Consuming more S-rank Nutrient Fluids and resting his mind was the only way to return to some level of normalcy.
---
Meanwhile, in God's Domain, after around two hours since Feng logged off, Black Flame finally arrived at White River City.
The players in the City were shocked to see the golden marker, but none of them tried anything.
Biding his time storing some items and going through the loot, Black Flame headed into the Adventurer's Alliance after enough time had passed and he could finally use the Town Token.
Unlike in the previous timeline where Feng had displayed the power of the Guard System to everyone during the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion's raid on Zero Wing's Guild Residence, players were still unaware of how important and useful Personal Guards could be yet.
Without those players that paid attention to the Guard System, the Adventurer's Association didn't receive the enormous amount of traffic every day like it had in his previous life.
While passing through, Black Flame overheard some players speaking about the Stoneclaw Mountains and Stone Forest Town.
After all, even though Black Flame had wiped out the various guilds, none of whose members could log in at the moment, there were still the 50,000 elite members of Ouroboros.
Hence, it was inevitable that news about what had happened would leak. Not that he particularly cared if people knew, since such a huge thing was bound to be found out eventually regardless.
Though, not many players actually believed the leaked intel on what had transpired at the Stoneclaw Mountains.
A single player annihilating a force comprised of nearly one million elites and experts?
No one was foolish enough to fall for such propaganda. The players who heard that piece of news were sure that it was just people spreading lies to gain Zero Wing more popularity, or simply someone spouting bullshit for attention.
As time passes, however, the truth would be exposed when the massive losses came from the guilds themselves and when the near million players don't log in for the next few days.
Some guilds who were more informed grew terrified of Black Flame and immediately cast out any thoughts of trying to take over Stone Forest Town, or compete with Zero Wing in general.
Unfortunately, doing so would have been useless anyway.
With Stone Forest Town under his control, the Stoneclaw Mountains were practically in his hands already.
However, these Guilds did not truly know what Stone Forest Town's becoming a Guild Town signified.
Black Flame quickly arrived before a counter.
"Greetings, Lord Marquise. How may I be of service to you today?" The blonde NPC beauty asked with a smile.
"I wish to construct a Guild Town. Here is the Town Token." Black Flame said, placing the Town Token on the countertop.
"A moment, please." After the NPC clerk accepted the Town Token, she began manipulating the crystal ball on the counter. "This is the Town Token for Stone Forest Town. Stone Forest Town is situated within the Star-Moon City region. If you wish to construct a Guild Town, you will have to pay a registration fee of 6,000 Gold as well as a basic construction fee of 5,000 Gold. In the future, you will also have to pay a monthly management fee of 5,000 Gold. Does my lord wish to hire any guards?"
"Yes." Black Flame nodded.
"Okay. The offers we have here are as follows: ten Level 150 Common Guards for ten Gold per three days, ten Level 150 Elite Guards for 50 gold per three days, ten Level 150 Tier 1 Guards for 100 Gold per three days, and ten Level 150 Tier 2 Guards for 300 Gold per three days. May I know how many guards my lord wishes to employ?" the NPC clerk reported.
Whenever a guild claims a Town, the Town would enter a protection period, during which the guild could hire guards to protect their Town, but that was only because they had just established the Town. Once 15 days passed, they would no longer receive such a treatment.
"I'll hire 5,000 Common Guards, 1,000 Elite Guards, 500 Tier 1 Guards, and 10 Tier 2 Guards for 15 days." Black Flame replied after making a rough estimate based on how big Stone Forest Town was going to be after it gets promoted into an Advanced Town[1].
"Okay. The total is 75,300 Gold. However, as my lord is a Marquise of the city, you receive a 25% discount, lowering the total to 56,475 Gold." The NPC clerk said, smiling.
After handing over 56,475 Gold, the NPC clerk handed Black Flame a Deed.
With this Deed, Stone Forest Town would only belong to Black Flame from this point forward. He could construct any building he desired within the town's confines without restriction.
"I'd also like to upgrade Stone Forest Town." Black Flame said once the Deed was in his hands while presenting the Dark-Gold Town Promotion Order.
After inspecting the Town Promotion Order, the NPC beauty led Black Flame to a room on the second floor before calling over a Senior Administrator to handle Black Flame's request.
Seated on a sofa inside a VIP room on the second floor of White River City's Adventurer's Association, Black Flame leisurely browsed through the designs of Advanced Towns.
Players had many templates of Intermediate and Advanced Towns to choose from, and each template had their strong points.
Likewise, different templates had different prices.
Some templates were more suited to economic development through NPCs. Such templates allowed the town's Popularity to increase much more rapidly. Similarly, there were templates geared towards economic development through players. In addition, some templates facilitated the hiring of powerful NPC guards. In any case, many kinds of templates were available depending on the kind of a town that players wished to construct.
Unlike capturing a town, promoting a town costs much less. Moreover, as Black Flame was using a Promotion Order, the expense was even lower. He only needed to spend 3,000 Gold to promote Stone Forest Town to Advanced Town status.
The templates were all decent, but Black Flame didn't have any hopes for them to begin with and was simply looking through what was avalible to him with the status of a Marquise.
None of the Adventurer Allience's templates could match the Town Design dropped by Lancelot. Black Flame then turned to the NPC beauty standing at a side and took out an ancient design from his bag which Feng had handed him while the two of them were waiting for Ouroboros's members to collect the mountains of loot. Softly, he asked, "If I wish to use this design here, how much will it cost?"
Taking a look at the Design Black Flame had revealed, the NPC beauty's eyes widened as the design demanded her full attention. Only after some time did she open her mouth and say, "Lord Marquise, the quality of these construction materials and level of skill required are extremely high for this design. I cannot provide an immediate answer. I will have to ask the Association Master to appraise the design. Would my lord be willing to wait here for a short moment?"
In the Adventurer's Association, NPCs were categorized into ordinary staff member, administrator, senior administrator, Vice Association Master, and Association Master, each catering to adventurers from one-star to five-star status. Anyone capable of becoming a senior administrator even had the insight and knowledge to rival NPC Lifestyle Masters'.
"Although this design is tattered, I am certain that a Grandmaster produced it. A Grandmaster's Town Design is outside of the scope of my appraising abilities. In our branch, only the Association Master can appraise this." The senior administrator explained, smiling bitterly.
"Alright, let the Association Master appraise it, then." Black Flame nodded. Naturally, he already knew all this and was simply going through the motions.
When promoting a town in God's Domain, choosing the design was only one part of the process, while using the Design to construct the Town was another. The promotion process was not as simple as capturing a Basic Town. One could say that a town only truly began its operation after becoming an Intermediate Town.
The Adventurer's Association normally provided players with many template designs to choose from, their prices usually ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 Gold. The Adventurer's Association would only offer several Master Designs to someone who enjoyed the status he does. These templates could cost anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 Gold.
Master Designs were roughly 15% better than those of normal designs. Although 15% seemed like a small difference, it would be massively effective in an Intermediate Town.
For example, when that bonus was used to increase the town's Popularity among NPCs, a town which could originally gain 100 Popularity Points each day would gain 115 points with a Master Design. Normally, a lot of manpower and resources were required to gain that additional 15 points. In addition, Master Designs attracted more quests and events that would raise the town's Popularity, allowing the town to reach the next rank far more quickly.
Of course, players could opt to produce their own Town Designs. Only, the majority of players' designs wouldn't come close to the Adventurer's Association's ordinary templates. Extremely few lucky players or genius designers could draft a Town Design better than the available templates.
If a player created such a design, the various large Guilds in God's Domain would fight over purchasing it, offering roughly 3,000 Gold. If the design reached the Master standard, the minimum price would be 5,000 Gold. However, extremely few players could create designs of such standards. These people were even rarer than Master Forgers.
Normally, Town Designs dropped in the field came from Masters. That was the equivalent of saving 5,000 Gold. Moreover, Black Flame very much preferred this Town Design's heavy emphasis on transportation.
Transportation might not seem very important, but it had a considerably special town effect.
Once the Town was complete, as long as the Town spent a sufficient amount of money, it would unlock the transport carriages between Towns. Not only could these carriages transport players, but they could also allow NPC merchants to reach the town more quickly. It was a design capable of enhancing the town's popularity among both players and NPCs.
Meanwhile, a Grandmaster Design was 30% stronger than normal templates. In the past, even an ordinary Grandmaster Design could sell for tens of thousands of Gold, much less these designs at this stage of the game. Right now, Black Flame wouldn't sell the design even if he were offered ten million Gold.
At this stage of the game, Mounts were extremely rare. The carriages could save players a lot of time when traveling to Stone Forest Town. Players would be far more willing to stay in Stone Forest Town.
Even when Mounts became popular in the future, how could a Common Mount compete with a carriage?
Moreover, the carriages' speed was not always the same. Since Stone Forest Town would immediately become an Advanced Town, the carriages would upgrade to advanced carriages. Only with a Mysterious-Iron Mount could one match the speed of an advanced carriage.
Once transportation was no longer a barrier, what player wouldn't want to visit Stone Forest Town?
With it being the first player Town in God's Domain, much less the first Advanced Town and one that was so close to a treasure trove like the Stoneclaw Mountains, Stone Forest Town would undoubtedly become a holy land for players.
After Black Flame waited in the room for a short while, the NPC administrator returned to the room with his Town Design.
"Lord Marquise, our Association Master has appraised your design and confirmed it to be a Grandmaster Design. However, as the requirements for this Grandmaster Design are extremely high, the construction fee will be many times more expensive than usual. Including all of the required materials, it will cost 30,000 Gold. Moreover, this price cannot be discounted. May I know if Lord Marquise still wishes to use this design to construct your town?"
"I do." Black Flame answered without hesitation and took out 30,000 Gold Coins.
The moment Black Flame handed over the 30,000 Gold Coins, the sound of a system notification entered his ears.
System: Congratulations! As Zero Wing is the first Guild in God's Domain to have reconstructed an Advanced Town, Guild Popularity increased by 500,000 points. You will also receive one Mysterious-Iron Guild Residence Promotion Order.
He had merely reconstructed an Advanced Town, yet Zero Wing's Guild Popularity had instantly soared by 500,000 points.
Receiving Guild Popularity was incredibly difficult, especially in crazy amount like half a million. If any other guild heard about this, the guild's upper echelons would most likely die from envy.
Even Black Flame valued such a huge Popularity boost for Zero Wing. He then checked out the other reward he had gained.
[Mysterious-Iron Guild Residence Promotion Order]
Promotes the star ranking of a Guild Residence that fulfills the required Popularity by one star. Can be promoted up to a 5-star Guild.
Although the Mysterious-Iron Guild Residence Promotion Order was incredibly valuable, Black Flame had no intention of using it yet since he first needed to gather all the Advanced 4-star Guild Promotion Orders before he could promote Zero Wing to a 4-star Guild, and only then could he make use of the Mysterious-Iron Guild Residence Promotion Order.
After storing the Mysterious-Iron Guild Residence Promotion Order, Black Flame teleported back to Stone Forest Town and began reconstructing it.
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1. Random number of guards I came up with off the top of my head. Have no idea how many guards the Advanced Town would actually need.