Chapter 1 Despite

Even though Nie Yan's understanding of the game surpassed all current players, he couldn't get fat overnight. Nie Yan had to collect excellent equipment piece by piece to slowly arm himself, so he could gradually widen the gap between himself and ordinary players.

That's why he was determined to get those Pages of Order!

He advanced in the vast Hems. This open area was a safe zone, protected by a barrier. The monster-spawning area was far away.

Nie Yan could only rely on his sense of direction and the vague coordinates in his memory to find the correct path. Passing through a thick layer of barrier, a huge figure appeared on the horizon in the distance, wandering across the vast Hems Wasteland.

It was a Skeletal Kodo!

Some monsters were active in Hems. They were Kodos who had died in battle, and their souls were attached to their corpses, turning them into Skeletal Kodos that wandered everywhere.

There were over three hundred Skeletal Kodos in Hems in total, and each one took a day to respawn after being killed.

These Skeletal Kodos respawned slowly, but the things they dropped were excellent. With good luck, they could even drop a Skeletal Kodo mount. After the official announcement of the location of the Page of Freedom, countless teams and guilds entered the Hems Wasteland, causing the number of players here to suddenly increase. Grabbing a Skeletal Kodo became almost impossible. Therefore, no small number of bloody incidents occurred over the competition for Skeletal Kodos.

Nie Yan went into stealth and approached the Skeletal Kodo, throwing an Identification spell at it.

Skeletal Kodo: Level 23 Elite, Health 1600/1600.

It was an Elite-level monster, and the Skeletal Kodo moved extremely fast. With Nie Yan's current strength, provoking it would be unwise. Nie Yan's Necromantic Sacrifice had a certain probability of successfully commanding the Skeletal Kodo, but if the Necromantic Sacrifice failed once, it would attract the Skeletal Kodo's aggro. With the Skeletal Kodo's speed, Nie Yan would have no chance to escape.

He needed to think of a way to command the Skeletal Kodo. At the very least, he needed to find some meat shields first.

It seemed that the monsters that spawned to the east were all low-level undead. He could go over there and think of a way.

Nie Yan slowly retreated until he was out of the Skeletal Kodo's line of sight, then canceled Stealth and ran into the distance.

About three minutes later, some lower-level undead creatures entered Nie Yan's view. They were Skeletal Warriors holding broken battleaxes and wooden shields, wandering aimlessly.

Skeletal Warrior: Level 15, Health 800/800.

With Nie Yan's current attack power, even if Stun was ineffective against Skeletal Warriors, he could easily deal with them.

Nie Yan entered Stealth and approached one of the Skeletal Warriors, stabbing it in the back.

-128. A damage value floated up from the Skeletal Warrior's head.

Equipped with the +7 Blood Contract Dagger and the +2 Assassin's Training, Nie Yan's attack had increased significantly. Even though his level was so much lower than the Skeletal Warrior's, he still easily broke through its defense.

After being attacked, the Skeletal Warrior swung the battleaxe in its hand and chopped down at Nie Yan.

Nie Yan dodged to the side, then counterattacked the Skeletal Warrior, following up with another stab.

-109, -112...

Nie Yan quickly reduced the Skeletal Warrior's health to just over sixty points, then quickly retreated.

Necromantic Sacrifice!

System: Necromantic Sacrifice skill failed.

Nie Yan quickly retreated.

Necromantic Sacrifice!

System: Necromantic Sacrifice skill failed.

After failing a third time, Nie Yan swung and slashed at the Skeletal Warrior, killing it.

These Skeletal Warriors gave 700 experience points, which was quite a lot. Nie Yan found a place to sit down and eat bread to recover his health. When his health was full, he continued to search for the next target.

Repeatedly going through this process, finally, when facing the third Skeletal Warrior and casting Necromantic Sacrifice, a crisp system notification sounded.

Success! Nie Yan's heart stirred. He looked at the Skeletal Warrior. Its bones had turned dark black, and its health had increased a little. He could control its movements!

System: Please name your summoned creature.

Nie Yan thought for a moment and randomly named it Skeletal Warrior 1.

With the first Skeletal Warrior, the next steps were simple. He had Skeletal Warrior 1 stand in front, while Nie Yan leisurely cast Necromantic Sacrifice from behind. If Necromantic Sacrifice failed, he would have Skeletal Warrior 1 charge up and finish off the Skeletal Warrior, then look for the next target.

Along the way, he successfully summoned four Skeletal Warriors. Nie Yan took these Skeletal Warriors to grind monsters for a while, then headed in the direction of the Skeletal Kodo.

Seeing the tall Skeletal Kodo in the distance, these Skeletal Warriors were pitifully small in comparison.

After thinking for a moment, Nie Yan manipulated one of the Skeletal Warriors to walk towards the Skeletal Kodo. It was basically playing the role of bait.

The Skeletal Kodo noticed the Skeletal Warrior approaching it and let out a roaring growl, pawing the ground with its front feet and exhaling a mouthful of hot air.

The low-level intelligence of the Skeletal Warrior being controlled by Nie Yan did not know what fear was, and it gradually approached the Skeletal Kodo. Nie Yan entered Stealth and slowly circled around to the Skeletal Kodo's back.

Seeing that it was about time, Nie Yan had the Skeletal Warrior charge at the Skeletal Kodo.

With a bang, the Skeletal Warrior's battleaxe struck the Skeletal Kodo, dealing 32 damage.

The Skeletal Kodo roared, exhaled a mouthful of hot air, and rammed the Skeletal Warrior away with the sharp horns on its head. -356, an extremely high damage value floated up from the Skeletal Warrior's head.

Nie Yan was shocked. The Skeletal Kodo's attack was too terrifying. A Skeletal Warrior could only withstand a maximum of three attacks!

Nie Yan approached the Skeletal Kodo and cast Necromantic Sacrifice at it. A strange energy hit the Skeletal Kodo, causing it to pause for a moment, but quickly, it charged again, knocking the Skeletal Warrior away.

System: Necromantic Sacrifice skill failed.

Seeing that Necromantic Sacrifice had failed, Nie Yan didn't dare to linger and quickly cast Gale Step to retreat, quickly escaping, leaving the Skeletal Kodo's line of sight before it killed the Skeletal Warrior.

That Skeletal Warrior died under the Skeletal Kodo's attack.

After a while, the Necromantic Sacrifice skill cooled down, and Nie Yan continued to repeat the process.

After three Skeletal Warriors died in a row, Nie Yan still couldn't successfully command the Skeletal Kodo. Helpless, he could only continue to command Skeletal Warriors and gather four Skeletal Warriors before coming back.

As long as he ensured that he had one Skeletal Warrior alive, it wouldn't be difficult to command other Skeletal Warriors, but this process was also very time-consuming. After countless failures, another day passed.

The game closed, and Nie Yan took off his helmet.

Tang Yao had been called by his dad to do hard labor, and several of his more familiar friends from school had gone to other places. Indeed, Ningjiang was a terrible place to live. The environment was bad, the security was chaotic, and those with a little money had bought houses and moved to other places.

Nie Yan stayed at home alone, exercising and reading, enjoying his days. Occasionally, he would recall the appearance of his parents in his mind and look forward to the upcoming senior year of high school.

It wasn't until the evening that Nie Yan re-entered the game and continued to command skeletons.

After more than an hour, he finally gathered four Skeletal Warriors again and headed towards the Skeletal Kodo. Being able to command a Skeletal Kodo was very important to Nie Yan.

"Nie Yan, how's it going on your side? Have you got it done yet?" Tang Yao sent a message to Nie Yan.

"Not yet, ran into some trouble."

"Oh, send me a message when you get back. Guess what I found?" Tang Yao chuckled, unable to contain his excitement.

"What is it?" Nie Yan asked.

"Arcane Sprite..."

"What level?" Nie Yan couldn't help but be moved. Tang Yao could even find this kind of thing. His luck was really extraordinary. In the early stages, there weren't many things that Nie Yan could see in his eyes. He would only care about things at the level of the Page of Order, the Weaver's Ring, the Featherfall Jewel, and the Creeper Ring. As for Arcane Sprites, they were top-quality items for Arcane Mages, and not just ordinary top-quality items!

The entity of the Arcane Sprite was just a crystal medium, which only dropped from Arcane-type sprite monsters. The drop rate was frighteningly low. After obtaining that crystal, Arcane Mages could summon an Arcane Sprite through casting, which would accompany them. This Arcane Sprite was equivalent to a summoned creature, with health comparable to the player and slightly higher defense. It had no attack power, and it was disposable. If it died, it would disappear. But its effect was extremely significant, greatly increasing the magic recovery speed of Arcane Mages and reducing skill cooldown time and spell casting time. The higher the level of the Arcane Sprite, the more valuable it was.

The Arcane Sprite was equivalent to the Arcane Mage's mobile magic ammunition depot. In the later stages, the Arcane Sprite was one of the equipment that many top-tier Arcane Mages competed for, and having an Arcane Sprite by their side was a matter of prestige. Since Arcane Sprites disappeared forever once they died, they were even more precious to Arcane Mages.

"Level 1. Do you know what an Arcane Sprite is?" Tang Yao was stunned for a moment.

"There's an introduction in the library," Nie Yan said.

"Okay, it seems I have to go to the library and take a look too."

"Be careful, don't let it die. It'll be worth money if you take it to Level 3, and it'll be invincible if you take it to Level 5," Nie Yan said. The higher the level of the Arcane Sprite, the stronger its bonus to Arcane Mages, but since Arcane Sprites could die, few players could take them above Level 3, let alone Level 5. Nie Yan had only encountered an Arcane Mage with a Level 5 Arcane Sprite once, when he was grinding monsters in the wild. At that time, Nie Yan was already a Level 165 Grand Thief. That person was a Level 135 Archmage. The two had a slight dispute, and as a result, Nie Yan was almost beaten like a dog and barely managed to escape. At that time, he had underestimated the Level 5 Arcane Sprite too much. An Arcane Mage with a Level 5 Arcane Sprite was like a machine gun, desperately throwing out magic as if all magic didn't require mana, which was really terrifying.

"Be careful not to die. When I'm done with my work here, I'll help you level up the Arcane Sprite," Nie Yan said. If they had a Level 2 Arcane Sprite, their leveling speed would be awesome.

"Okay, hurry up!" Tang Yao was a little impatient after hearing what Nie Yan said.