Chapter 17 Dark Gold Treasure Chest

With an excited heart, Nie Yan walked towards the place where he had discovered the dark gold treasure chest. Reaching the chest, he tried to use the key to unlock it.

The key and the lock were a perfect match. He could feel that the internal structure of the lock was extremely complex, so much so that even a master locksmith might not be able to open it.

System: Treasure chest opening in progress, 1%...10%...

After a while, the chest clicked open.

Nie Yan reached inside and pulled out quite a few items. This chest was truly a treasure trove. He took stock of the items.

Essence of Fire: Quantity 3.

Magic Dark-Veined Gold: Quantity 6.

Magic Rune Stones: Quantity 6.

These were all materials needed to craft Doro the Headless Horseman's riding crossbow. If Nie Yan were to search for these items himself, he wouldn't even know where to begin. He never expected to obtain these raw materials directly from opening this dark gold chest. As for the other two materials for the riding crossbow, Superior Magic Sandalwood and Superior Fire Mother Crystal, although they were quite expensive, they occasionally appeared in the auction house and weren't particularly rare.

In addition to these materials, Nie Yan also obtained a gem and a skill book.

Dark Gem (9): Can be used for socketing. Additional attributes: Converts 10% of attack damage into dark penetration damage, 1% chance to ignore defense, equipment requirements -10%.

This gem was actually of quality 9! Quality 9 gems were considered super-grade items. Nie Yan smiled wryly. Although he had such a good gem, he couldn't seem to find suitable equipment to match it. Socketing such a quality 9 gem into low-level equipment would be like casting pearls before swine, unless he could find a sub-legendary piece of equipment that would be a more suitable match. If he could craft that riding crossbow, it would be a decent match for this gem.

As for the other skill book, Nie Yan took a look, and his body trembled. It was the lockpicking skill! And the best lockpicking skill at that: the 'Lockpicking Expert' skill book! It came with two special effects: each time a treasure chest was opened, there was a 10% chance to gain an additional 1 skill proficiency point, and the chest level ignored was increased by +1.

He currently only possessed the novice lockpicking skill, but for Nie Yan, training his lockpicking skill proficiency wasn't difficult. He knew the locations of many locked treasure chests, and he could simply spend some time leveling up his lockpicking skill, so he could open high-level treasure chests.

After learning the Lockpicking Expert skill, Nie Yan stood up and searched the surrounding area. Seeing that there were no other chests, he finally stood up. His backpack was almost full. If he hadn't acquired a Magic Rune Backpack later on, the backpack space would have been insufficient long ago.

It was time to return to the city. In any case, his respect value in Calore had already exceeded 30 points.

He took out the black robe for concealing his appearance from his backpack and put it on. His red name status couldn't be hidden.

Nie Yan began to read the Return Scroll. A flash of white light later, he returned to the teleportation array in Calore.

At this time, the area around the Calore teleportation array was crowded with players. Some were forming teams, preparing to level up and grind monsters, while others were waiting for someone, and some had just teleported from various locations. When they saw Nie Yan in his black robe, they stared at him with blank expressions.

"Damn, he dares to return to the city in red name status. Does he not want to live? If he doesn't want to live, he can tell me, and I'll send him back to the graveyard."

"How many people did he kill to turn his red name like that?"

"Isn't he afraid of being killed by the guards?"

The players made way for him one after another, whispering amongst themselves. Nie Yan was wearing a black robe, his face hidden within the robe, coupled with his dazzling red name, giving off a mysterious and unpredictable feeling. They couldn't see Nie Yan's face, but the players' first impression was that this guy was dangerous!

Nie Yan glanced at the nearby players, and they felt a shiver down their spines, quickly backing away.

PK was prohibited within the city, but Nie Yan's red name status still placed a great deal of pressure on the players.

A team of Calore guards in full silver armor walked towards them. The players quickly cleared a path.

"This guy is dead for sure."

The players gloated. There was no way Nie Yan could defeat these guards. This team of Calore guards were all elites above level 100, and their uniform equipment radiated a strong aura of murderous intent.

But what happened next was like a thunderclap, stunning them all and freezing their minds.

This group of Calore guards didn't attack Nie Yan. One of the guard leaders even walked up to Nie Yan, behaving extremely respectfully.

"Greetings, Honorable Demon Hunter," the guard leader said respectfully.

Nie Yan nodded, ignoring the guards, and walked straight towards the headquarters of the Niu Ren Tribe guild. These guards could only maintain law and order and had no power in Calore, so there was no need to pay attention to them.

Nie Yan brushed past the group of guards clad in silver armor.

Nothing happened! This group of guards actually didn't dare to kill this red-named player. This simply subverted the players' understanding.

"Damn, awesome! Even the guards don't dare to kill him!"

"He didn't even acknowledge the guards. What a realm!"

"That awesome guy is leaving!"

"He went into the Niu Ren Tribe guild headquarters. Could he be a member of the Niu Ren Tribe?"

"Amazing. This Niu Ren Tribe has only just risen. It's said that their elite team cleared over a dozen master and expert-level dungeons in two days. The guild leader is the number one player on the level rankings, Niu Ren Yao Zi. He's even more awesome than Po Tian. Damn, if I had known, I would have joined the Niu Ren Tribe guild."

Soon, videos were posted on the official website: 'Red Name Sighting in the City!' 'Invincible Red Name Scares Away Guards!', and the like.

Nie Yan walked into the Niu Ren Tribe guild headquarters. The players entering and exiting the Niu Ren Tribe guild headquarters were startled when they saw Nie Yan, quickly avoiding him.

The red name was too intimidating. After they backed away, they remembered that this was Calore City! Red names weren't allowed to enter the city! Logically speaking, a red name entering the city would have been dealt with at the teleportation array. The guards always killed red names with a single strike!

Nie Yan walked into the Niu Ren Tribe guild headquarters.

"Hey, who is that? He's so awesome, daring to enter the city with a red name!"

"Didn't you see the guild badge? He's one of our guild members, and he seems to be one of our guild's leaders."

The guild members whispered, watching Nie Yan enter the guild headquarters, all very surprised.

Nie Yan opened the guild warehouse and dumped all the equipment he had obtained in the Realm of Illusions into the guild warehouse. As for recipes and other items, he planned to send them to the Starry Night Pharmacy.

"You're finally back. Damn, you scared me. How come your red name hasn't disappeared yet?" Guo Huai said in surprise.

"As long as your respect value in Calore City reaches 30 points or more, you can enter the city," Nie Yan said. Right now, players might be surprised to see a red name in the city, but later on, as more people with high respect values appear, especially after the fortress battles are opened, there will be more and more red names in the city, and they will slowly get used to it.

"No wonder you dared to come in," Guo Huai said in realization.

"How is the guild developing?"

"It's alright. The guild's membership has already exceeded 30,000. The largest guild in Calore City, the Triumph Empire, only has 80,000 members so far. Of course, their requirements for joining are stricter, and the quality of their guild members is much higher than ours."

There was a certain limit to the number of guild members. A level 2 guild could recruit a maximum of 50,000 people, and a level 3 guild could recruit a maximum of 100,000 people. The more people recruited, the greater the demand for guild resources. If there were too many low-level players, they would occupy a large amount of guild resources, so that the stronger players would receive less guild resources, which would not benefit the guild's development.

"We should appropriately raise our recruitment standards."

"Yes, we are discussing the criteria for recruiting people. It's not enough to only consider levels," Guo Huai nodded. The recruitment standards would definitely have to be raised. As for those players who hadn't participated in guild activities for a long time or were perfunctory about guild activities, they would definitely be kicked out of the guild, so that the cohesiveness of the entire guild could increase.

"What about the land?"

"I've already helped you buy 36 plots of land in eleven cities, and they've all been transferred to your name. If word gets out, it will scare a lot of people. It's estimated that the land owned by several large guilds combined isn't as much as the land you own alone," Guo Huai said. If all of these plots were opened as shops, even collecting rent would be enough to support several large guilds like Triumph and the Holy Roman Empire.

"Okay." Nie Yan didn't feel too surprised. He said to Guo Huai, "The current momentum of development is very good. Let's take it one step at a time and proceed steadily. I heard that Triumph's small actions haven't stopped?"

"More than 300 players have been killed by Triumph's people at least once each. Triumph is watching us very closely. Some players are being targeted as soon as they leave the city, even if they aren't wearing guild badges. There are Triumph spies lurking in the guild. We just cleared out a few a few days ago," Guo Huai said. He was also very troubled now. If this matter wasn't handled well, it could lead to player disaffection.

The players were now very optimistic about the Niu Ren Tribe. Therefore, even after so many people had been killed, they were still willing to stay in the guild. But this couldn't go on forever. If it wasn't dealt with, the problem would become serious.

"If they're blocking us, we don't have to swallow our anger! If they kill a hundred of us, then we'll take it back and at least not weaken our morale. We also need to be prepared to defend ourselves. When players are leveling up, they should avoid telling other players where they're going to level up. The map is so big, they might not be able to find them," Nie Yan said. This was the only way. Otherwise, if Triumph continued to harass the Niu Ren Tribe's players while they were leveling up, the Niu Ren Tribe would eventually be annoyed to death.

"But the Triumph Empire is so powerful. I'm afraid we can't outlast them!"

"I'll think of a way," Nie Yan said. He suddenly remembered a famous player organization from his previous life: the Assassin Alliance. The Assassin Alliance probably hadn't been established yet. If he could join an organization like the Assassin Alliance and get a title, he could probably spend some money to give Triumph a headache.