Chapter 1 A Startling Discovery

Giant, black-scaled scale frogs moved through the forest, creating a terrifying atmosphere. Tang Yao was a little dazed. Could they really handle these level 30 creatures?

"Your Arcane Spirit's Ignore Level has reached +7, right?" Nie Yan asked. Ignore Level was a very good attribute, especially when fighting monsters or players of a higher level. Its effect was very obvious. If the Ignore Level reached +7, it could effectively inflict damage on targets within 12 levels of the player. If the target was more than 12 levels higher, there was a certain probability of directly ignoring the level difference and inflicting damage.

"Yeah," Tang Yao nodded.

"You can damage these scale frogs. As long as one out of every five attacks achieves the Ignore Level, you can whittle them down. And with the Arcane Spirit, you don't have to worry about mana at all, because you'll never run out!" Nie Yan had calculated this point, which was why he thought of bringing Tang Yao to grind scale frogs. Leveling up against these scale frogs would give a generous amount of experience, not to mention what they might drop. It was time to level up a bit.

Nie Yan glanced at the level leaderboard. Currently, the top player in the entire Greenland Empire was the leader of Triumph, called Po Tian. After the Soth Mountain Valley and Medusa Nest opened, his level skyrocketed, and he was already Level 15. The third and sixth were also from Triumph, and the second was a Level 14 player from the Holy Judgment Guild. Half-Asleep Fox was already Level 13, ranking fourth. Fifth was from the Radiant Sacred Flame. Kuang Zhan Alliance's Love Killer ranked seventh.

As for the Angelic Overlord guild, which was benevolent and orderly in his previous life, their sphere of influence was in the Saturn Empire, which had nothing to do with the Greenland Empire.

Five relatively powerful forces had risen in the entire Greenland Empire: Triumph, Radiant Sacred Flame, Holy Judgment, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Kuang Zhan Alliance. As for the other guilds, they were slightly inferior.

Of course, many more guild forces would rise in the future, but in the early stages, there were only these five powerful forces. Their influence was still very small, not enough to affect the Greenland Empire's landscape. Once they divided up the Greenland's fortresses, obtained a large amount of tax revenue from the fortresses, and became strong, and obtained seats in the Greenland Council, then they would be able to influence the future policies of Greenland.

If, like in his previous life, Cao Xu tied Triumph, Radiant Sacred Flame, and the other five major guilds together, occupied a large number of fortresses, secured his position as overlord, and obtained seven seats in the Greenland Council, the Holy Judgment, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kuang Zhan Alliance, and other guilds would have to avoid his edge. Then Nie Yan would not have a good time.

To avoid this situation, it was impossible for Nie Yan to be honest, abide by the rules, and never stick his head out. Even if he was strong and had good equipment, even if he could fight a hundred people, could he fight ten thousand?

Thinking of the possible situations in the future, Nie Yan's heart sank. Although he had collected a series of items with great potential for the future since the start of the game, such as the Chapter of Courage, the Chapter of Freedom, and the Shadow of Soggoth, it was not enough. He had to do something drastic.

"Although my mana will never run out, these scale frogs are level 30 monsters, and their movement speed is much faster than mine. If they attack me, I'll basically be instantly killed," Tang Yao said with a wry smile.

"Don't worry, we have this." Nie Yan took out a bottle of Mist Dust.

"What's this stuff for?" Tang Yao had seen the attributes of Mist Dust, but he didn't see what it was good for.

Mist Dust: Creates a mist within a 30*30 yard radius, reducing the vision of all enemies and allies by 15 points. Effective on all creatures within level 50 (excluding the undead). Lasts for 120 minutes.

"This thing is very useful. You'll find out later." Nie Yan smiled mysteriously.

"If this Mist Dust can reduce the enemy's vision without affecting you, that would be useful. But if the vision of both enemies and allies is reduced, it shouldn't be useful, right? You shouldn't have misread the attribute description, right? Besides, this thing is more suitable for PK, but it only reduces vision by 15 points, it's useless. And will monsters be affected by this stuff?" Tang Yao said, puzzled. Reducing the vision by 15 points didn't seem to have any effect at all. The vision of ordinary players was usually fifty or sixty. If players' vision was reduced to five or six in a dark place, then releasing a cloud of mist might have some effect, but who would deliberately go to that kind of place to PK?

"Mist Dust does reduce the vision of both enemies and allies, but monsters also have attribute data. Everyone's base vision is around 30. With the Perception and other attributes, it can reach 60 or more. My current vision is 57. Every monster has certain attribute weaknesses. For these scale frogs, their attribute weakness is their vision range, which is only about 40 yards. In other words, as long as you attack them from outside a 40-yard range, they won't be able to see you. However, your attack range isn't that far, so we'll use Mist Dust to reduce their vision by another 15 points, and that should be enough. As long as you run around them and attack, they'll never be able to find you or attack you," Nie Yan explained.

"Is it really that magical?" Tang Yao was stunned. Nie Yan's explanation sounded reasonable, so it might actually be true.

"Alright, get ready. We still have to go deeper."

"Still going deeper? Isn't it good enough to grind here?"

"Grinding ordinary scale frogs here is too wasteful of Mist Dust. We're going inside to grind elites and sub-elites." In this vast scale frog spawn area covering two mountain regions, Nie Yan knew of three locations where elite scale frogs spawned, like the Lion King, which also spawned once a day. As for the sub-elites, there were even more.

Tang Yao's mind was a little dazed. Grinding level 30 ordinary monsters already seemed very far-fetched to him, but Nie Yan actually said he wanted to grind elites. This was too incredible. Was Nie Yan crazy? A level 30 ordinary elite probably had tens of thousands of health, would his attacks even be effective?

"Don't stand there in a daze, let's go," Nie Yan said.

The two continued to venture deeper into the jungle, avoiding the giant frogs moving around.

The headquarters of the Triumph Guild was a meeting hall in Carroll City, provided by the server to each guild. It was quite large, enough to accommodate hundreds of people.

Triumph's elite players were all gathered here.

Their guild leader was called Po Tian. He was a middle-aged man in his forties, tall and strong, with dark skin. He was a berserker, and the hint of ferocity between his eyebrows was chilling. In reality, he was a business partner with Cao Xu, and a formidable figure in the underworld. If it weren't for him using every means possible, Cao Xu wouldn't have been able to accumulate such a vast fortune. Of course, without Cao Xu, his power wouldn't have been able to expand to such a terrifying extent. He had at least fifty or sixty thousand men under his command, many of whom were desperate criminals with blood on their hands. The reason he entered Faith was to launder money through Faith and gradually whitewash himself. With the support of his powerful connections, the Triumph Guild rapidly expanded.

At this moment, Po Tian was like a furious lion, and the members below were all silent. The boss hadn't been this angry in a long time.

"Because of you, our progress in the dungeon will be delayed by at least another day. Orange, you go first. What exactly happened? Three of you were actually killed by a thief. Are you guys just eating and doing nothing? Are you having too much of an easy time!" Po Tian roared.

Orange and the others didn't dare to talk back, and could only honestly explain what happened.

"I don't know what happened. When we exchanged blows, I only saw the dagger flash before my eyes, and then he stunned me." Night Shadow was still confused. The exchange was too short, and Nie Yan's movements were too fast. He didn't see clearly at all.

Po Tian listened to the three's report, and his face darkened as he fell into thought.

Night Shadow and the others quickly shut up, watching Po Tian with some trepidation. They knew what the consequences would be if Po Tian got angry.

"Alright, you can go down. Go to the Medusa dungeon first and collect the equipment you lost. We'll go to the Mist Forest tomorrow," Po Tian said calmly, making it impossible to read his thoughts.

Night Shadow, Orange, and Hidden Blade were pardoned and quickly moved to the side.

If the same thing happened once, it might be a coincidence, like when Purple Flame was killed last time, it might have been due to Purple Flame's carelessness. But this time, Nie Yan killed three elites from the team, especially Orange, whose strength ranked third in the guild. Since he was still killed by Nie Yan, this person called Nie Yan was a little extraordinary. If he was a god-level thief, it might be worth recruiting him.

Nie Yan and Tang Yao were carefully traversing through the deep forest when Nie Yan's voice communication suddenly rang. He looked at the name of the person who sent the voice message. It was Po Tian, the leader of the Triumph Guild.

If someone comes, they aren't friendly. But Nie Yan still connected the voice communication. Triumph and Cao Xu were very close, so he understood that what had to be faced would have to be faced.

"Nie Yan, is it?" Po Tian's low, slightly hoarse voice rang out.

"That's right."

"You killed four people in my guild, Purple Flame, Night Shadow, Orange, and Hidden Blade. I'll give you two options now. The first is to join Triumph, and I can ignore everything that happened before. The second, you should understand, Triumph won't let any enemy go. I'm very busy, I'll give you three minutes to answer." Po Tian's tone was arrogant and threatening.

"The first option is impossible. I don't have any good feelings for Triumph. So I choose the second option. Bring on whatever you have, I'm ready to play anytime." Nie Yan didn't show any weakness. In his past life and this life, he had quite a few grudges with Triumph, and he had never feared Triumph.

"I admire your straightforwardness," Po Tian sneered and hung up the voice communication.

Seeing that Nie Yan's expression was not right, Tang Yao asked, "What happened?"

"It's nothing." Nie Yan waved his hand, and suddenly laughed heartily, "Tang Yao, do you want to start a guild for fun?"

"What, start a guild?" Tang Yao was stunned by Nie Yan's sudden words.

"A guild even more powerful than the Triumph Empire and Radiant Sacred Flame!"