Chapter 1 Altered Variation

An ultra-variant Lord was too strong. Nie Yan wondered if Brilliant Blade Light could withstand it. After much deliberation, Nie Yan decided to wait. He suppressed the dangerous idea. Sub-legendary items weren't so easy to obtain. Nie Yan didn't want his own hidden adventurous streak to lead to a wipeout of the entire team. First, they'd kill ordinary Lords to improve the team's equipment and levels, and then consider whether to look for ultra-variant Lords later.

Nie Yan glanced at his own level, already thirty-three. As for the team members, Undying Scoundrel, Hei Bai, Wu Feng, and the other six were already level thirty. They had left the party, but were still helping Nie Yan lure monsters. Brilliant Blade Light had just reached level thirty and also left the party.

There were still four people who hadn't reached level thirty, but soon, piles and piles of mechanical puppets were being lured over. Watching the dense, tidal wave of mechanical puppets surging from all the streets, Nie Yan was also taken aback. How could there be so many? He suspected that the team members had lured over all the mechanical puppets in the entire Eternal City. At Nie Yan's warning, these team members dared not go to the central area of Eternal City, but only operated on the periphery.

Nie Yan's area-of-effect magic bombs continued to fall, exploding with *peng peng peng* sounds, and swathes of mechanical puppets fell to the ground.

After a while, only a large pile of mechanical puppet corpses remained on the square.

The team members collected the dropped equipment.

"Any boots or shoulder armor?" Nie Yan asked. Now the most pressing issue was to help Brilliant Blade Light collect a complete set of Eternal equipment.

"I found a shoulder armor here," Xia Chong Yu Bing said, picking up a piece of equipment.

"There's a leg guard here."

"We already have leg guards!"

"Let's farm a few more waves. We should get boots."

Nie Yan checked his backpack. There were only three hundred area-of-effect magic bombs left. In a short period of time, two thousand area-of-effect magic bombs had been reduced to just over three hundred. This consumption was truly alarming.

The team members calculated that Nie Yan had spent nearly five hundred gold coins due to the team's leveling. Everyone felt a sense of guilt. They didn't know that leveling like a rocket cost so much. Now that they thought about it, asking Nirvana Flame to power-level them back then was such an excessive request.

"Boss, we're sorry, we wasted so much of the guild's money," Undying Scoundrel said apologetically from the side. After all, Nie Yan bringing them to level was first proposed by them. Since the consumption was so high, why didn't Nie Yan explain the situation?

"Bringing you all to level thirty, five hundred gold coins isn't a waste. If we gather a complete set of Eternal equipment, it'll be even more worth it. Five hundred gold coins is nothing, money spent can be earned again," Nie Yan said with a smile. Although five hundred gold coins was a large sum, it was a good thing to improve the team's strength.

"Boss, you're really touching us. In the future, just say the word and we'll do anything for you," Undying Scoundrel said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

Nie Yan smiled and said, "Alright, stop the nonsense. Those level thirty gold equipment in the guild, you can all wear them. Go tell Guo Huai and take them from the guild warehouse."

"That won't do, we can't take things from the guild for free again. The brothers in the guild will have opinions. My guild contribution value is already more than six thousand. Donating a few more pieces of equipment will get me a set of level thirty gold equipment. I'll donate this set I'm wearing," Xia Chong Yu Bing said from the side. They all understood that the guild was just developing now, and everyone had to think about the guild's development so that everyone could rise with the tide in the future.

Xia Chong Yu Bing's words were recognized by everyone. In any case, used equipment, when put into the guild warehouse, could be exchanged back into guild contribution value. The existence of the guild warehouse greatly facilitated everyone.

If every member in the guild had such a mindset, how could the guild not grow strong?

Three more people leveled up to thirty, leaving only Big Bro Seven, the leader, who hadn't reached level thirty yet. He was a priest, and usually had the most difficult time leveling, so his level was slightly lower than everyone else.

Nie Yan thought for a moment, and said to Big Bro Seven, the leader, "I still have some area-of-effect magic bombs here, I'll bring you to level thirty-two."

Priests level up slowly, and they'll definitely be gradually surpassed by others in the future, so letting Big Bro Seven, the leader, level up a few more levels wouldn't leave him too far behind.

"Isn't that too wasteful?" Big Bro Seven, the leader, said hesitantly.

"It doesn't matter, leveling with two people is very fast," Nie Yan said. Without other team members sharing the experience, it would be very fast to help Big Bro Seven, the leader, level up to thirty-two.

"Alright then," Big Bro Seven, the leader, said after thinking for a moment. As a priest, he understood how important he was to the guild's elite team, so he didn't refuse.

Another wave of mechanical puppets was lured over, and area-of-effect magic bombs continued to be used. Clusters of flames swept over these mechanical puppets. Swathes of mechanical puppets fell.

With a *ding dong* sound, a system notification chimed. Nie Yan leveled up again to thirty-four. He didn't expect to be hitting thirty-five so quickly. Nie Yan still had a set of Thief's Skywalk equipment in his backpack. It was defense-oriented equipment. He originally planned to use it when he encountered a suitable situation, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. He would have to start collecting level thirty-five and forty equipment. However, the defense of the Skywalk set was fine even if it was used up to level forty. At worst, he'd use gems to upgrade the Skywalk set. Since it was dark gold equipment, using gems to upgrade it was extremely cost-effective.

A beam of white light landed on Big Bro Seven, the leader, and Big Bro Seven, the leader, leveled up to thirty. His experience quickly soared to 86%. Without team members diluting the experience, the leveling speed was much faster.

After collecting the equipment on the ground.

"There's a piece of Eternal equipment armor here," Xia Chong Yu Bing said in surprise. In the Eternal set, the armor was the most important component. With the armor, you could wear the other pieces of equipment even if they were higher level.

"Not bad," Nie Yan said, also feeling pleasantly surprised. Even if there were only individual pieces of the Eternal set, the stats were good, especially when worn at level thirty. The defense was quite considerable. With the armor, he could give the remaining pieces to Yi Yan.

"Boots dropped here," Wu Feng picked up a piece of equipment from the ground. Now, the Eternal set was finally complete.

All the components were traded to Brilliant Blade Light. With a complete set of Eternal equipment, every part of Brilliant Blade Light's body was protected by hard metal. This set of equipment was no less than an ordinary set of level thirty dark gold equipment. The powerful defense allowed him to scorn all level thirty Lords. He might even be able to withstand level thirty ultra-variant Lords.

Plus, Big Bro Seven, the leader's, level had also come up. It was about time to organize guild activities, Nie Yan thought.

As he continued leveling, Nie Yan's voice communication rang. He looked at it and saw that it was Half-Asleep Fox. This guy finally couldn't help but look for him. Nie Yan connected to the voice communication.

"You guys are fierce enough. You've taken over the level rankings," Half-Asleep Fox said. He couldn't help but envy Nie Yan. It would be great if he had such a large group of experts under his command.

The current situation was that Radiant Sacred Flame and Victorious Return Empire were the strongest, Mad Rogue Tribe had the most experts. As for the Holy Roman Empire, their only hope was to rely on the fortress competition. If they seized the fortress, the Holy Roman Empire could develop. If the fortress was seized by Radiant Sacred Flame, the Holy Roman Empire would have to lie low for a while. Radiant Sacred Flame would definitely beat a dog in the water.

"You didn't contact me just to talk about levels, did you?" Nie Yan said with a faint smile. He was much more leisurely than Half-Asleep Fox.

"How about sending your guild's experts to help me seize the fortress?" Half-Asleep Fox finally stated his intentions directly. The competition for small fortresses would be conducted under the supervision of the Greenland Empire, with two thousand people on each side. After seizing the fortress, they would have ownership for five months. After five months, the fortress would be fully opened and could be freely contested. Even if they could only control it for five months, the fortress's tax revenue for five months was a great temptation, enough to allow the Holy Roman Empire to rise.

And the guild with the most experts was none other than Mad Rogue Tribe.

"Our alliance is only a defensive alliance. Mad Rogue Tribe has no obligation to help the Holy Roman Empire seize the fortress, right?" Nie Yan said. He would be taking a great risk to send experts to help the Holy Roman Empire seize the fortress. Unless there was enough benefit, he would not act. As a guild leader, he had to think about the guild.

"I want ten of you to make a move, two hundred gold coins, how about it?" Half-Asleep Fox said. The ten people he was talking about were the ten people from Mad Rogue Tribe who killed five hundred people in the Molten Forest and retreated calmly. The employment fee of two hundred gold coins was truly an astonishingly high price.

"You really think highly of us," Nie Yan said. Two hundred gold coins could probably hire a top-tier studio of two hundred people to work for Half-Asleep Fox, and the price he was offering was just to hire Nie Yan's ten people. But for Nie Yan, two hundred gold coins was nothing. He was so rich that he didn't take two hundred gold coins to heart at all.

"You're worth the price," Half-Asleep Fox said. He guessed that based on the cooperative relationship, Nie Yan should act.

But Nie Yan had other plans.

"I'll send 100 people. I'm 80% confident that I can help you seize the fortress, but two hundred gold coins is definitely not enough. If I help you seize the fortress, I want 30% of the fortress's shares," Nie Yan said, being a bit of a demanding lion.

"What makes you so confident?" Half-Asleep Fox asked in response. He had been recruiting employed experts everywhere, but he still wasn't confident in seizing the fortress. What made Nie Yan so confident?

"Think about it." Faced with Half-Asleep Fox's questioning, Nie Yan remained calm. The number of experts in Mad Rogue Tribe was something that Half-Asleep Fox couldn't imagine. It was more than all of their guilds combined. If it was a large-scale battle of ten thousand people, he couldn't guarantee anything, but in a battle of only two thousand people, Mad Rogue Tribe sending one hundred people, in cooperation with the Holy Roman Empire, could almost wipe out Radiant Sacred Flame.