Chapter 437 - Bloodshadow Legion
Chapter 437 - Bloodshadow Legion
When evening came, Nie Yan and Xie Yao logged back into Conviction. The first thing Nie Yan wanted to do was to upgrade the Special Items in his possession with the Radiant Gems. After talking to Guo Huai about it, he learned Sun was in the middle of a quest given by Master Jewelcrafter Paget. When the quest was completed, he could enjoy preferential treatment on gem upgrades.
Nie Yan pondered for a moment. It was probably best to wait. There was a significant difference between the workmanship of a Master and Advanced Jewelcrafter. He wanted to get the most out of those five Radiant Gems. After all, Special Items like the Crawler Ring and Silk Spinner Ring were his treasured darlings. The better their properties, the more use he could get out of them.
With his equipment more complete than before, Nie Yan planned to do a few things to raise the guild’s overall strength. The first thing that came to mind was the Armoured Catapults!
Armoured Catapults had frightening destructive power which was crucial in guild wars. Generally when players obtained a Rank 1 Armoured Catapult blueprint, the guild’s Engineers would have to constantly improve it to raise it to higher ranks, similar to Goblin Magic Cannons.
Armoured Catapults could only be used on flat plains. Their wooden wheels prevented them from traversing rugged mountainous terrain, which put some limitations on them. Furthermore, since they were mechanical units, the monsters they killed wouldn’t give loot or experience, making them unsuitable for grinding purposes. Even so, they were unrivalled existences on the battlefield. They would only start slowly becoming obsolete at Level 100, when Master Classes were unlocked and equipment defense increased greatly.
Nie Yan suddenly recalled the location of an Armoured Catapult Blueprint. Not to mention this blueprint was for one even better than those brought out by Bloodlust Blades during the war, the rarely-seen Armoured Ice Catapult!
Ordinary Armoured Catapults only launched explosive shells that dealt fire damage. However, Armoured Ice Catapults launched ice shells that froze all targets in the impact radius. When dealing with large creatures such as the Crypt Lord, Armoured Ice Catapults were far more effective.
These Armoured Catapults would be slaughter machines on the battlefields prior to Level 100. Especially with how the Tuoba Family was gearing up for war, if the War God Tribe could get their hands on even a few of these catapults, they would achieve victory.
Although Nie Yan always knew about the Armoured Ice Catapult Blueprint, he didn’t dare to go retrieve it before since his level and equipment were too weak. Now, he barely met the requirements, so he could give it a shot. If worse came to worst, he could just flee with an Unknown Transfer Scroll.
Nie Yan teleported to Amore Town and bought two Intermediate Web Scrolls, three Advanced Twisting Vines Scrolls, and five Intermediate Aggro Dispel Scrolls. These would probably come in handy. He also picked up a few Advanced Health Potions and Ice Resistance Potions from the Starry Night Potion Shop in preparation for his journey.
Afterwards, Nie Yan informed Guo Huai and the others of his departure. Even if he was off searching for the Armoured Ice Catapult Blueprint, he could still direct guild related matters remotely.
Nie Yan departed Calore’s gates and summoned his Falkner Warhorse before setting off for the distant mountain ranges in the north.
Some ordinary players saw Nie Yan riding on his Faulkner Warhorse. Their view of Nie Yan and Asskickers United had changed. Before, they only saw him as Calore’s most powerful guild leader. But now he was the ruler of the city!
If these ordinary players wanted to grow in Calore, they’d have to do so under Nie Yan’s watch. No longer would there be anyone talking about killing him for his equipment. Such an act was no different from courting death. All he had to do was call some people, and the player in question would be slaughtered back to Level 0. Although Nie Yan had no desire to actually do this, the possibility alone was a huge deterrence.
Nie Yan rode through the grass plains and entered a Level 90 map. The area up ahead was covered in a sea of white tents. At the center was a two story oval shaped building that stood three meters tall. Its golden roof sparkled brilliantly under the sunlight. This was the encampment of the Bloodshadow Legion.
Within the Karon Prairies lived a group of heathens that abandoned their faith in the light and became apostles of the darkness. They roamed around attacking unwary travellers and were considered evil existences. Their leader was the Bloodshadow Great Mage, a Level 90 Lord who was capable of summoning Bloodshadow Bone Dragons.
There were also seven Armoured Ice Catapults right next to the central building of the Bloodshadow Legion Encampment. If an expedition team came here, they’d be decimated by the catapults.
The Holy Shrine would frequently dispatch Paladins to assault the Bloodshadow Legion, even succeeding in annihilating them multiples times. However, they would always rise back up from the ashes. There was a specific quest within the Holy Shrine that Paladins could accept, and that was precisely to kill members of the Bloodshadow Legion. Every kill would reward a certain amount of Honour.
Nie Yan wasn’t a Paladin, so he naturally couldn’t accept this quest. However, if he could obtain the Evil Gemstone from the Bloodshadow Great Mage, the Holy Shrine would recognize his achievement and reward him. It was rumoured the reward was Holy Acclamation. After receiving it, if he was able to advance further into a Shadow Dancer, he could become an even more powerful existence—the Luminous Dancer.
Luminous Dancers were different from ordinary Shadow Dancers in that they were capable of giving themselves blessings and using powerful holy spells. In the previous timeline, a player had completed this quest and became the sole Luminous Dancer out of all Shadow Dancers. His name was Smiling Thief. From what Nie Yan recalled, this player wouldn’t join the game until some time from now.
Nie Yan’s emergence had distorted history. In the previous timeline, even the highest level players were only Level 30–40 at this point in time. But right now, Level 50–60 players could be found everywhere. This was the effect of the Buried History Expansion. He had brought out a huge butterfly effect. Many people became strong while many others were withdrew from the stage of elites. He had changed the fate of many players and even the power balance of the entire Viridian Empire. In this new course of history, he didn’t know when Smiling Thief would appear.
If Nie Yan obtained the Evil Gemstone, he’d also change the fate of Smiling Thief who was originally meant to become a Luminous Dancer.
Nie Yan cautiously approached the tents. Several Bloodshadow Legion guards were patrolling the area more than ten meters away from him. They were wearing brightly coloured crimson armour and wielded dark red greatswords. Their entire bodies emitted a bloody aura. They were berserk slaughterers.
Nie Yan inspected one of the Bloodshadow Legion guards with Transcendent Insight.
Bloodshadow Warrior: Level 90
Health: 32,000/32,000
The attacks of these Bloodshadow Warriors were extremely fierce. When in battle they would buff themselves with Bloodlust, increasing their attack power greatly and adding a lifesteal effect to their attacks. They were incredibly difficult to deal with. But luckily, even though they were humans, their intelligence was subpar at best. They were classified as low-intelligence creatures. Only their leader, the Bloodshadow Great Mage was a bit smarter as an intermediate-intelligence creature.
However, Nie Yan didn’t plan to tangle with these Bloodshadow Warriors. His goal was the Armoured Ice Catapult Blueprint and Evil Gemstone.
This quest was a bit difficult for his current self, but it was still within the scope of his capabilities.
Nie Yan looked at the tents. There was a perimeter wall up ahead with Magic Cannons set up on them. Their dark muzzles were facing outward towards the plains. The defenses here were evidently extremely strong. If an expedition team came here, they’d first have to find a way through these cannons.
Nie Yan snuck around the Bloodshadow Warriors and arrived beside the perimeter wall. He leaped upward, scaling over the wall, and jumped down the other side.
He hid behind the tents as he slowly made his way toward the central area of the encampment.
In an empty space between the tents up ahead were six wooden pillars spiked into the ground. They stood about one meter tall with small crimson flags stuck at the top. The flags had mysterious red designs drawn on them. That was the most infamous sign of the Bloodshadow Legion, the Bloodshadow Totem!
Players could use certain special methods to destroy a Bloodshadow Totem. However, if they accidently set it off and made it explode instead, they’d be goners. Bloodshadow Totems exploded out with rays of crimson light which would invade anything it came into contact with and inflict a powerful decaying effect. Those affected would see their health and defense plummet. In the previous timeline, Nie Yan had personally experienced the might of these Bloodshadow Totems when he came with two Level 100+ hundred-man teams. Back then, he was nothing more than an ordinary grunt. The outcome was that out of those two hundred-man teams, only a few dozen survived. The losses were disastrous. It was only at the end when the leader obtained the Armoured Ice Catapult Blueprint that the losses were somewhat recouped. With 200 players almost completely wiped out, one could imagine just how bitter the battle was.
Nie Yan’s familiarity with the layout of this encampment came from that battle. He wouldn’t have come here alone this time if it wasn’t for that.
Hearing activity in the distance, Nie Yan hurriedly hid within the shadows at the corner of a tent.
A little after, more than 20 Bloodshadow Warriors walked by. After scanning around and failing to discover Nie Yan, they slowly walked away.