Chapter 118 Energy Crystal

"Let's go pick up the loot, I'll allocate some points," Nie Yan said to Tang Yao, looking ahead. The corpses of mechanical puppets stretched for fifty or sixty yards down the street, with various items scattered all over the ground.

"Okay," Tang Yao replied, searching through the corpses for dropped items.

Nie Yan checked his stats. He had seven free attribute points and three skill points. Without hesitation, he put all seven points into Agility, bringing it up to 137. He was still 23 points short of the 160 needed to equip the Scarlet Poison Ring. If he could wear it, his attack power would increase significantly.

*He'll go back and find some agility gems, that should be enough.*

As for the three skill points, Nie Yan put them into Intermediate Stealth, Advanced Crossbow Specialization, and Advanced Dual Wield Specialization. After leveling up, the skills were even more potent than before. Intermediate Stealth now had a better effect on masking his presence, making it harder for players to detect him. Players with a Perception stat of only twenty or thirty points wouldn't be able to sense his stealth at all. Dual Wield Specialization added about 30% of his off-hand weapon's attack power to his main hand, greatly increasing his damage. Crossbow Specialization increased his attack power by about 10% and improved his firing speed when using crossbows.

After allocating his points, Nie Yan and Tang Yao began gathering the items dropped by the mechanical puppets, like two scavengers searching through a pile of rubble.

After a while, they had collected everything that had dropped.

"I picked up five Charging Crystal Fragments, how about you?" Tang Yao asked, most concerned about the fragments.

"I got two," Nie Yan replied, bringing their total to seven.

Nie Yan traded the Charging Crystal Fragments to Tang Yao. Collecting seven fragments from just one wave of monsters was quite fast. However, they would become harder to find later on, as the Blue Armored Mechanical Puppets wouldn't continue to respawn.

"Seven already!" Tang Yao was excited. He could see a glimmer of hope.

Nie Yan gathered all the loot. There was quite a bit, including several Tier 2 Life Gems and Strength Gems, as well as a few Level 40 White equipment pieces. They could probably sell it all for fifteen or sixteen gold coins.

After calculating the expenses, the Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs they used were worth nineteen gold coins. This meant they had spent three or four gold coins on this wave of monsters.

However, spending three or four gold coins to let Nie Yan level up four times and Tang Yao level up twice was still worth it.

"Get ready to pull the next wave," Nie Yan said. They only had enough Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs left for four more waves, but it would still be amazing.

While Nie Yan and Tang Yao were leveling up like crazy, the outside world was in an uproar. After a period of silence, Xie Yao's leveling speed exploded once again, quickly surpassing Po Tian's by a large margin. However, this time, everyone was used to Xie Yao's monstrous leveling speed. Although surprised, no one foolishly ran to the official website to report Po Tian for cheating. As for what others on the level rankings thought, that was their business. Xie Yao had once again sparked a leveling frenzy. However, this time, many players were studying how to grind monsters above their level. Although the cost was high, many people gained significant benefits. Some players on the level rankings even started focusing on killing monsters above their level. The bonus experience was simply too tempting. Encouraged by Tang Yao's example, they were extremely enthusiastic about it. Many players died and fell off the rankings, while others surged ahead.

Nie Yan didn't care about what others thought. They continued to grind the mechanical puppets.

Nie Yan pulled a huge group of four or five hundred mechanical puppets over. Then, one by one, the Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs were thrown into the sky, landing in the middle of the group. The mechanical puppets were instantly mowed down. Like cutting wheat, the mechanical puppets fell in swathes until none remained.

The abundant experience allowed Nie Yan to soar to Level 26, while Tang Yao reached Level 29.

Nie Yan once again put all his free attribute points into Agility, bringing it up to 146, still 14 points short. For Nie Yan, increasing his Agility by 14 points was just a matter of finding a piece of equipment or two Agility Gems.

After the mechanical puppets were cleared, it was time to reap the rewards.

Nie Yan and Tang Yao found six Charging Crystal Fragments among the fallen mechanical puppets.

"Nie Yan, look what this is!" Tang Yao exclaimed, picking up a crystal radiating a faint, brilliant blue light, about the size of his thumb, from beside a mechanical puppet. Because of the Charging Crystal Fragments, Tang Yao was particularly sensitive to crystal-like objects.

Nie Yan stared at the crystal in Tang Yao's fingers, stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

All energy crystals were extremely rare and valuable, and they often had unique uses, such as the Charging Crystals.

The drop rate for energy crystals in the entire Eternal City was only a few hundred thousandths of a percent. Tens of thousands of players grinded in Eternal City, and only one person might find an energy crystal every few weeks. If they did, they would immediately become rich. The money earned from selling an energy crystal would be enough to buy a set of Dark Gold equipment and still have plenty left over. It was like someone suddenly winning five million in the lottery.

Energy crystals were also classified by color. The lowest level was red, which was relatively common. Blue was extremely rare, and its value was several times that of a red energy crystal. Above that was purple, but it was even rarer than Legendary equipment.

They had only grinded two waves of monsters, and they had already found a blue energy crystal.

Nie Yan couldn't help but sigh. Opening up new areas was the best.

"Let me see," Nie Yan said.

Tang Yao handed the energy crystal to Nie Yan, who examined its properties.

Mutated Energy Crystal: Grants a summoned creature a permanent mutated energy. Can only be used once.

Below was a large description, including instructions on how to use the Mutated Energy Crystal.

It was actually a Mutated Energy Crystal! Nie Yan couldn't help but marvel at his luck. The Mutated Energy Crystal was one of the rarest types of energy crystal. If it was implanted in a summoned creature's brain, it could trigger a mutation, granting the creature a certain level of low-level intelligence and allowing it to persist indefinitely.

For example, an Arcane Sprite. Implanting a Mutated Energy Crystal in its brain could trigger a mutation, granting it certain abilities. This mutated ability was uncontrollable.

However, it was obviously not worth using on an Arcane Sprite, because Arcane Sprites were persistent summoned creatures.

If Nie Yan successfully commanded an undead through Undead Sacrifice and then implanted a Mutated Energy Crystal in its brain, it could become a permanent summoned creature. Since the level of summoned creatures could not be increased, it was not worth using a Mutated Energy Crystal on them at a low level. It was best to find a pet that could level up.

In his previous life, someone had placed a Mutated Energy Crystal in a mantis-type pet, triggering its mutation and turning it into a terrifying Phantom Mantis, which could sneak and hunt like a Thief, possessing incredible strength.

The price of the Mutated Energy Crystal remained high even in the later stages of the game. There was never any need to worry about it depreciating.

"Can this energy crystal revive the Arcane Sprite?" Tang Yao asked hopefully. He thought that this Mutated Energy Crystal, like the Charging Crystals, had the effect of reviving the Arcane Sprite.

"No," Nie Yan shook his head.

"Forget it then, you keep it," Tang Yao said, not interested in mutation or implanting the Mutated Energy Crystal into the Arcane Sprite's head.

Nie Yan thought for a moment. He didn't know if he would have the opportunity to use this Mutated Energy Crystal in the future. After all, pets were too rare. Only one or two out of tens of thousands of players might have one. As for using it on a summoned creature, he wasn't considering it for the time being, because most summoned creatures couldn't be leveled up unless he could find one or two extremely rare ones.

He put the Mutated Energy Crystal in his bag. Now, even if all one hundred gold were spent, there was nothing to regret. The value of a Mutated Energy Crystal far exceeded a hundred gold. It was no less valuable than a Sub-Legendary item.

After grinding three more waves of monsters, Tang Yao reached Level 30, continuing to allocate his attribute points with 4 Intelligence and 1 Agility before Level 60.

As for Nie Yan, his experience had just barely surpassed Level 29. Since he was responsible for the main output, he received more experience.

All two hundred Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs were used up, leaving not a single one.

Apart from the Mutated Energy Crystal, the other items they had obtained were probably worth around eighty gold. Of course, they couldn't immediately convert all of those items into cash.

"Should we continue to buy Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs and level up?" Tang Yao asked Nie Yan. This kind of leveling speed was undoubtedly very fast, but it was too expensive.

If Nie Yan and Tang Yao continued to level up, they would quickly empty the pharmacy's cash reserves.

"How many Charging Crystal Fragments did you get?" Nie Yan asked.

"Thirty-six," Tang Yao said, checking his bag. They were still far away from their goal.

"Of course, we have to continue. I'll go to Starry Night Pharmacy to get some money. It should be enough for today," Nie Yan thought for a moment. Reviving the Arcane Sprite was also important. The money could be earned back after it was spent. In fact, they had earned a lot from leveling up today. As for cash, he could still find a way to raise it.

Just as Nie Yan and Tang Yao were preparing to return to the city to buy Area-of-Effect Magic Bombs and continue leveling up, they suddenly received news that something had happened at the guild! Nie Yan's heart skipped a beat.