Tang Yao looked at Nie Yan with an incredulous expression and said, laughing, "Are you kidding? Why would we start a guild?"

"To dominate the world, of course," Nie Yan said matter-of-factly.

"Too much free time? Isn't it better to happily level up, grind monsters, and chase girls?" Tang Yao asked, puzzled.

Nie Yan considered Tang Yao's words, then laughed heartily. What others saw as grand ambitions, Tang Yao saw as nothing at all. After thinking about it, the timing wasn't right to start a guild. Nie Yan had too few trustworthy people around him, and he couldn't possibly manage the guild's operations alone.

Although Nie Yan's father was currently stationed at the border, he had likely already planned out the company's future. The company was nominally involved in metal smelting and mechanical manufacturing, but in reality, it engaged in secret trade with several countries along the northern and western borders. Consequently, the company's profits were quite substantial, but the risks were enormous. If this line were to be cut, the company would be finished. Furthermore, Nie Yan's father's control over this trade route aroused intense envy. To reduce the risks, Nie Yan's father invested funds in what was touted as the second world, Faith, poaching talent from various studios to create the once-powerful guild, Ares Tribe.

With the support of Nie Yan's father's massive funding, Ares Tribe's strength once approached that of Triumph. It had countless elite troops under its command. Triumph, threatened by Ares Tribe's challenge to its dominant position, launched a fierce counterattack, aggressively attacking Ares Tribe's fortresses. It successively captured two fortresses, destroying part of Ares Tribe's economy. Furthermore, Ares Tribe was established relatively late, lacking a solid foundation. The only somewhat influential business it possessed was an auction house run by one of Nie Yan's cousins. Consequently, Ares Tribe was on the verge of collapse under the fierce onslaught.

In fact, under Ares Tribe's fierce counterattack, Triumph had already shown signs of decline in some areas. If it could have persevered and organized several strong counterattacks, it might have been Triumph that was destroyed. At this time, other guilds, such as Holy Light Flames and Bloodlust Blades, joined the battle, and Ares Tribe finally fell apart. The funds Nie Yan's father had invested all went up in smoke.

The world was so cruel. If Ares Tribe could have held its ground, or even defeated Triumph, it would have controlled thirteen fortresses. The daily income from each fortress was quite staggering, and combined with the revenue from shops, auction houses, and so on, Nie Yan could have lived as a second-generation rich kid for the rest of his life.

Nie Yan's father had worked hard, only to end in a miserable defeat. It could only be said that his luck was bad, and his shallow foundation was also a factor. But the situation in this life was very different. The pile of shops and land Nie Yan had bought was enough to allow Ares Tribe to gain a foothold in Calore, providing a huge source of income and enabling more aggressive expansion. With a solid foundation, Ares Tribe could grow into a towering tree.

Nie Yan had always wanted to wait until his father's Ares Tribe was up and running before getting involved in the guild scene. He wanted to wait until his father had brought back all his old comrades and classmates, and hired a large number of management talents. He wouldn't have to worry about the guild's management at all. But now he wondered if waiting until then would be too late.

Nie Yan's power alone was limited. Even though he was a reborn, he could only drift with the tide, slowly building his own power. Taking steps too quickly would make it easy to fall.

Nie Yan looked at Tang Yao, smiled, and shook his head. "You don't understand. Many times, if you're alone, you can't protect yourself, or the people around you. In the face of a guild, even the strongest individual is just scum."

"I don't get it. I don't have any conflicts with those guilds. Why should I care about them?"

"Sometimes you don't go looking for trouble, but trouble comes looking for you," Nie Yan said with a smile, shaking his head. "Building a guild is very difficult. For now, let's just honestly level up."

"Yeah, let's level up first." Tang Yao was puzzled. Why, when they were leveling up just fine, did Nie Yan start talking about building a guild?

Nie Yan understood that Triumph Guild had already set its sights on him. But as long as he was careful, Triumph Guild shouldn't be able to do anything to him. It was very difficult to ambush a thief in the wild, especially since he usually didn't hang out in low-level maps.

Gradually, Nie Yan and Tang Yao entered a quiet forest, somewhat dark and with very damp ground. A huge Scale Frog appeared before Nie Yan and Tang Yao. The Scale Frog was covered in lumps, with black scales covered in striped white patterns. It moved slowly, its bulging eyes darting back and forth, then it crawled forward a few steps, stopped, and remained in place for a long time.

Although Scale Frogs looked very clumsy, they moved very quickly once they spotted an enemy. Of course, this was after they had identified a target. If they hadn't identified a target, they wouldn't react even if they were attacked for a long time.

Scale Frog: ?? level Elite.

Nie Yan couldn't detect its level yet, but he knew from his past life that this guy was a level 30 Elite.

"Are you ready?" Nie Yan asked Tang Yao.

"Ready," Tang Yao said, slightly nervously.

"Don't worry, as long as you keep your distance from it at more than twenty-five yards, they're just sitting ducks. Just keep casting spells," Nie Yan said, patting Tang Yao and laughing.

"I'll be careful. Let's start." Tang Yao picked up his staff. The Darkwind given to him by Nie Yan had greatly increased his attack power, but he clearly wasn't very confident facing a level 30 monster.

Nie Yan took out a portion of Mist Dust and slowly sneaked closer to the Scale Frog, stopping about ten yards away. The Scale Frog twitched, as if it sensed something. With a *poof*, the Mist Dust exploded in Nie Yan's palm, and a large cloud of mist spread out, covering an area of about 30x30 yards, and lingered for a long time.

Nie Yan quickly retreated. The Scale Frog clearly didn't know what was happening and was still moving slowly.

"You can start now, but be careful not to get too close."

Hearing Nie Yan's words, Tang Yao gradually approached the Scale Frog, stopping about thirty yards away, which was within his attack range.

Arcane Fire Blast!

Tang Yao chanted a spell, and a black fireball shot straight at the Scale Frog. With a *poof*, the fireball exploded on the Scale Frog, dealing 10 points of damage.

The Scale Frog showed an alert expression, its round eyes darting back and forth. It didn't spot Tang Yao, and crawled forward slowly another step, then stopped.

Seeing the Scale Frog move, Tang Yao's heartstrings tightened. He discovered that it had only walked forward a little bit and stopped, and hadn't spotted him at all. He became bolder and released a few more spells. He found that even though it had taken a few arcane spells, the Scale Frog still didn't seem to notice him.

Everything was progressing smoothly. Nie Yan had gone to such great lengths to create the conditions for killing the Scale Frog for a reason.

Tang Yao finally felt relieved. As long as he didn't get within twenty-five yards of the Scale Frog, he was safe!

That meant they could use this method to kill the level 30 Elite Scale Frog! That was awesome! Tang Yao couldn't help but get excited. What good stuff would such a high-level Elite drop?

Tang Yao began to circle the Scale Frog, while simultaneously showering it with spells. A large amount of arcane energy gathered around the Arcane Sprite, which continued to blow bubbles. The arcane energy swirled and danced.

Arcane Fireball! Arcane Missile! Arcane Fire Blast...

Tang Yao's mana seemed inexhaustible. These spells didn't consume much mana.

"My Arcane Fire Blast leveled up!" Tang Yao said, glancing at the system notification. He remembered that time when he encountered the people from Holy Light Flames, when Dian Cang used an Elemental Fire Blast that instantly killed one of their teammates. He had been quite frightened at the time, but now, his Fire Blast could also one-shot people.

Seeing Tang Yao spewing fire like a machine gun, Nie Yan recalled that guy with the level 5 Arcane Sprite. Tang Yao was already starting to resemble that person.

-10, -11, -10, -132...

Damage numbers floated above the Scale Frog's head. Most of the damage numbers were very small, but occasionally a level-ignoring damage number would appear, shockingly high.

There was nothing for Nie Yan to do next. He just had to sit back and wait to collect experience and equipment.

Tang Yao chanted a spell and shouted coldly, "Meteor Fall!"

Fireballs rained down from the sky like a storm, all striking the Scale Frog. Under the intense flames, the surrounding ground was scorched black.

After casting Meteor Fall, Tang Yao's mana dropped by about a fifth, but it quickly recovered in chunks. Originally, casting Meteor Fall would have drained most of Tang Yao's mana, but the level 3 Arcane Sprite had increased his mana by about 300%, so Meteor Fall's consumption wasn't a big deal anymore.

Tang Yao's damage output was too fierce. Nie Yan couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.

In his past life, Arcane Sprites were rare drops, and over 90% of them didn't survive, so maybe one in tens of thousands of Arcane Mages had one. Tang Yao's luck was really good.

"Did your Arcane Sprite drop when you were grinding monsters with Yu Lan and the others?"

"Yeah," Tang Yao replied while throwing out a few arcane spells.

"None of the Arcane Mages in their team wanted it?" Nie Yan asked. There was no reason why no one would want such a good thing.

"They were too embarrassed to compete with me for it, but I still have to thank them for letting me have the Arcane Sprite. I gave each member of their team two silver coins, otherwise I wouldn't have had the money to teleport to Heimers."

Under the storm of magic attacks, nearly thirty minutes later, the Scale Frog finally kicked its legs, rolled over, and fell to the ground.

System: Your party has killed an Elite Scale Frog. Experience bonus for killing a monster above your level: 2800%. You have gained 98290 experience.

Nie Yan looked at his experience points, which had skyrocketed by 83%, bringing him to 92% of level 11.

On the other side, a ray of white light fell on Tang Yao's head. He had just leveled up to level 10, but now he had leveled up again, to level 11. He stood there stunned.