Chapter 1 Nie Yan's Discovery

Nie Yan didn't know the Dark Treant's exact attributes. He'd only managed to open the Dark Gold Treasure Chest halfway, so naturally, he was very unwilling to give up. He went to the official website and searched for information on Dark Treants, where he found the data.

The Dark Treant was a type of Treant, but unlike most Treants, it couldn't move. It could only attack with its tentacles, with an attack range of thirty yards. Since it was immune to magic and had high physical defense, ordinary crossbow bolts did very little damage to it. It wasn't easy for ordinary players to deal with; they could only have Warriors tank it. However, the Dark Treant's Entangling Roots had a binding effect. So, when most teams encountered it, they basically had to detour unless they had crossbow bolts powerful enough to kill it.

He wondered if his Headless Horseman Drollo's Mounted Crossbow could kill the Dark Treant. Nie Yan leaped up, jumping several yards high. He grabbed a tree trunk with his right hand, flipped over, and stood on a branch. He took out the Mounted Crossbow, supported it with his left hand, gripped the rear handle with his right, and aimed at the Dark Treant.

He pulled the trigger, and a series of arrows shot out.

The arrows flew in a straight line through the air, *dudududu*, all hitting the Dark Treant's trunk. Damage numbers floated up from the Dark Treant's body.

-28, -28, -28, -192...

A critical hit! Nie Yan knocked off some of the Dark Treant's health. After being attacked, the Dark Treant opened its eyes, but it couldn't attack Nie Yan and could only get anxious.

Seeing that his attack damage was so considerable, Nie Yan's heart stirred. There was hope! He continued to load arrows into the crossbow, but when he finished loading and looked at the Dark Treant's health again, he found that it had recovered to full.

Damn, this guy's health recovery rate is so fast!

Nie Yan supported the Mounted Crossbow, smiling wryly. After shooting a few arrows randomly, his attack damage was not even as fast as the Dark Treant's health recovery rate!

At this rate, there was no way Nie Yan could kill the Dark Treant.

Nie Yan was about to put the Mounted Crossbow away when a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. Could the Dark Treant have any weaknesses?

Some monsters had weaknesses, and hitting a weakness could cause extra damage.

The official website's information didn't describe the Dark Treant's weaknesses, but that was normal; the official website wouldn't give you all the information.

Nie Yan rekindled some hope. He used the crossbow to continue shooting at the Dark Treant, and a series of arrows shot out.

In his previous life, Nie Yan was considered an experienced crossbow user. His shooting accuracy was extremely high; he basically hit where he aimed, rarely missing.

Nie Yan's arrows continued to shoot, constantly probing, attacking different parts of the Dark Treant. Unfortunately, there were no results; his attack damage was only 28 points.

He didn't give up and kept shooting arrows, testing everything from the branches to the roots.

Nie Yan aimed at the Dark Treant's eyes and shot five arrows. The Dark Treant closed its eyes, *ding ding ding*, and the five arrows hit its eyelids, as if hitting metal, and fell one after another.

It seemed there was no hope. Just then, a thought suddenly rose in Nie Yan's mind, and he whispered, "Eye of Truth!"

Two beams of red light shot out from Nie Yan's eyes. He discovered that many parts of this Treant were fake, including its branches, leaves, and part of the trunk. They were all images it had conjured. Only part of the trunk and the tentacles below were real. A bright red heart was beating about two inches below its eyes.

That was its weakness!

It was only about two fingers wide. If he hadn't used the Eye of Truth, he wouldn't have been able to discover the Dark Treant's weakness at all.

Only now did Nie Yan feel that the Eye of Truth was so useful.

Over the years, Treants had continuously evolved and had evolved into a creature between animals and plants.

Nie Yan held up the Mounted Crossbow and aimed the sights at its heart. A series of arrows shot out.

*Dudududu*, five arrows simultaneously hit its heart.

Damage numbers of -323 popped up from the Treant's body. Seeing this damage number, Nie Yan felt confident. This time, he should have a chance.

Although the Dark Treant's health recovery rate was fast, it still couldn't keep up with Nie Yan's attack damage.

The Dark Treant kept roaring and hissing, but it was useless. Nie Yan kept shooting, and the Dark Treant's health gradually dropped.

Time passed, minute by minute. More than an hour later, the Dark Treant finally couldn't hold on anymore. Its health was depleted by Nie Yan, arrow by arrow, and it fell to the ground with a bang. Various branches and leaves were scattered all over the ground.

*Ding-dong, ding-dong*, two system notification sounds rang in succession. Nie Yan checked his level: fifty-eight.

Gaining two levels in two hours was still pretty fast.

Finally done! Nie Yan stood up, wiped away some sweat, jumped down from the tree, and walked towards the Dark Treant.

He wondered what the Dark Treant had dropped. As an level 80 Elite, it should drop some good stuff!

Nie Yan searched under the Dark Treant's corpse for a while and picked up three things from the ground: two level 80 Gold-grade equipment, which he definitely couldn't use for the time being, and a thin piece of paper with a giant crossbow drawn on it, along with structural analysis, but only half of it. This blueprint was just a fragment.

It was a crossbow blueprint, Dark Gold-grade item.

Blazing Ballista Design Blueprint Fragment: Quantity 1/5.

Nie Yan looked at the crossbow on the blueprint. This crossbow was different from ordinary crossbows. It was more complex and much larger than ordinary crossbows, worthy of being called a ballista. It weighed sixty pounds and required two people to move it. It needed three people working simultaneously to operate the ballista.

Looking at the ballista's stats, its range was about 300 yards, and its attack could reach 3000+. It could install five arrows simultaneously, and the shooting direction of these five arrows was not in a straight line but spread out.

Making the Blazing Ballista required five Intermediate Mechanics and two days to complete one, and the materials were also very complex. As fortresses developed, Mechanics began to become popular. More and more players who hadn't achieved anything in leveling up began to turn to the Mechanics profession. In the future, this profession would definitely be sought-after.

If he could make such a ballista, taking it to the wild to grind monsters would definitely be invincible. If it were used to equip arrow towers, it could increase the power of the arrow towers several times.

He wondered where to find the remaining fragments. Maybe there were other Dark Treants nearby!

There was still a treasure chest unopened. He wondered what was inside. Nie Yan took out the Zennarde's Sword and cut off all the Treant's roots. Finally, he dug out the treasure chest from the middle of the roots. This time, there should be no monsters disturbing him from opening the treasure chest.

Nie Yan bent down and began to open the treasure chest.

This treasure chest was a bit high-level, but fortunately, Nie Yan's Lockpicking Expert skill could open treasure chests above his level, but the treasure chest opened relatively slowly.

After five or six minutes, the treasure chest clicked and was opened.

Nie Yan reached into the treasure chest and pulled out a staff. The lower half of this staff was made of Phoebe wood, which was very hard. At the top of the Phoebe wood was a white skull, about the size of a fist. In the eye sockets of the skull, two balls of red flame were constantly jumping.

Looking at the attributes of this staff, it was a Legendary-grade item fragment!

Shattered Staff of Nadrak the Cursing (Legendary Item Fragment): Requires 1200 Intelligence, 130 Focus.

Item Description: Nadrak was a legendary Necromancer. In order to pursue the most powerful death power, he challenged the Spider Queen Finas, wanting to turn the Spider Queen Finas into his undead and enhance his curse power. Unfortunately, he ultimately failed. Only by collecting the Shattered Staff of Nadrak the Cursing, the Shattered Skull of Nadrak, and the Shattered Dark Diamond of Nadrak can this legendary staff be synthesized.

Item Attributes: Attack 1028-1203, Will +30, Dark Magic Effect +30%, Attached Skill: Wraith Possession, summons a wraith to attach to oneself, all curse magic effects +200%, magic defense +30%. Skill cast time 3 seconds, skill cooldown two natural days.

Limited: Restricted to Chaotic Evil Dark Alignment Warlocks.

It was something for Warlocks. Nie Yan was a little depressed. After all, this was Chaotic Evil territory, so it was normal to drop Chaotic Evil equipment.

The requirements for this staff were a bit too high: 1200 Intelligence wasn't something ordinary players could achieve. Even top-level Warlocks would have to be level 70 or 80 before they could equip this staff.

Thinking about it, this staff had such good attributes. If he gave it to Angel Corps, exchanging it for a good Thief equipment should be no problem. If Angel Corps didn't come up with equivalent equipment, Nie Yan wouldn't give them this equipment for nothing.

If such valuable equipment were thrown into the Chaotic Evil auction house, he wondered what kind of storm it would cause. Of course, he wouldn't sell it, only trade!

After throwing the staff into his backpack, Nie Yan continued to feel around in the treasure chest. Since Bennett's Spirit had led him here and killed this Dark Treant, there should be at least one or two quest items!

Nie Yan took a bead out of the treasure chest. To be precise, this wasn't a bead at all, but a fragment, only about half of it.

Shattered Bead of Detoxification: Special Item, Quantity 1/3.

Item Attributes: Holding this item grants +10 poison resistance, ignores all beginner toxins, attached skill: Intermediate Detoxification, removes all intermediate and lower-level toxins from the body.

Limited: None.

It was a Bead of Detoxification, and its effect was pretty good. Intermediate Detoxification was still usable for the current level, but it wouldn't be useful after leveling up another ten levels or so. At level 70 or 80, players generally had advanced toxins.

He wondered what would happen if he collected all the Beads of Detoxification. At this time, Bennett's Spirit floated up and guided Nie Yan to a distance. This quest had only just begun, and he didn't know what unpredictable situations there would be later.