The elites of the Bull Man Tribe were ambushed, with the prime suspects being the Mage Alliance, Sacred Guardians, and Angel Domination. However, other guilds were also under suspicion. It is likely that these other guilds hoped the Bull Man Tribe and the Mage Alliance would engage in a fierce conflict, allowing them to reap the benefits of the “When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman profits” scenario. They, too, had motives.
Even if elite members were assassinated, the Bull Man Tribe could only temporarily endure the attacks, enhance vigilance to avoid excessive losses, and simultaneously investigate why Blood Slaughter targeted them and who was responsible.
Nie Yan thought for a moment and assigned the task to Sun, asking Sun to track Blood Slaughter members and see if he could find any clues. Sun was fully capable of escaping any situation he encountered.
Nie Yan understood that fighting a decisive battle with the Mage Alliance and Sacred Guardians at this time would not be beneficial for the Bull Man Tribe. It would be better to wait until the Bull Man Tribe grew stronger.
The Bull Man Tribe still had 60,000 members, but each of its five branches had over 100,000 members. Only after rigorous selection could one join the Bull Man Tribe. Those in the Bull Man Tribe who lacked skills might be sent back to their branches. This ensured the Bull Man Tribe’s players had increasingly high quality and better equipment, far surpassing those of the Mage Alliance and Sacred Guardians.
The Bull Man Tribe’s players were renowned for their strength. In equal numbers, ten Bull Man Tribe players versus ten Mage Alliance players would usually result in the Mage Alliance being decisively defeated. Sometimes other guilds outnumbered the Bull Man Tribe significantly but still suffered devastating losses. 1v2 or 1v3 battles were commonplace for Bull Man Tribe players. Any Bull Man Tribe member who couldn’t handle at least 1v2 against same-level opponents would be too ashamed to show their face. This was the gap in quality.
Nie Yan could clearly feel the Bull Man Tribe growing stronger and would eventually surpass guilds like the Mage Alliance. There was no need to rush.
“You need to be careful. I heard that Blood Slaughter is planning to target you,” Guo Huai said. Although he believed in Nie Yan’s strength and that Nie Yan would rarely be at a disadvantage, if five or six top experts attacked him together, the outcome would be uncertain.
“I’ll be fine. It won’t be easy for them to kill me,” Nie Yan confidently smiled. This wasn’t arrogance. With his skill set and formidable equipment, even if he couldn’t defeat them, escaping would be absolutely no problem. When he wanted to escape, no one could stop him.
“How have Zhai Hao and Li Rui been lately?”
“They’ve been studying hard. After following Shao Bing’s group through some dungeons for a while, their skills have improved significantly, and their equipment has been completely upgraded. Recently, I’ve had them follow Dao Guang to learn more from him. Even if they can’t become top-tier players, their skills are definitely much better than before. Zhai Hao has the potential to break into the top 200, and Liu Chengxu should have no problem making it into the top 500. As for Li Rui, his talent is somewhat lacking. I can’t guarantee he’ll make it into the top 200; he might end up ranked in the thousands,” Guo Huai replied. Reaching the top 200 or 500 in the Bull Man Tribe was already quite remarkable, but Li Rui’s case was less certain.
Knowing Zhai Hao and others’ current situation, Nie Yan felt reassured and let them continue as they were. Even if Li Rui was a bit weaker, he could still easily handle a small squad leadership role.
“The Hilton Fortress has been activated. Other guilds have already started sending teams to the Hilton Fortress. It’s said that the monsters there drop better equipment and honor gear than our elite and lord monsters,” Guo Huai said. All major guilds were heading there, and they couldn’t afford to fall behind; otherwise, their equipment gap would widen.
Nie Yan thought for a while. After grinding Trolls for a while longer, his leveling speed would slow down. It would be better to visit the Hilton Fortress, where he could also claim the reward for predicting the monster attack event at the Hilton Fortress.
“What do Dao Guang and the others think? Do they want to go to the Hilton Fortress?” Nie Yan asked, knowing these team members would have their own opinions.
“Dao Guang said we definitely need to go to the Hilton Fortress. Hunting monsters there earns honor, which can be used to purchase honor sets from NPCs. Honor sets have much better PvP attributes than regular gear. Since the Mage Alliance and Sacred Guardians have gone, we should go there too. However, going there means we’ll inevitably encounter them, and PvP conflicts are unavoidable,” Guo Huai replied. The Bull Man Tribe had many enemies, and mixed battles with enemies were quite normal.
“Let Dao Guang and his team go first. I’ll grind a few more levels and head to the Hilton tomorrow,” Nie Yan decided. The Hilton Fortress was a must-visit.
“Alright, I’ll relay the message.”
Generally, at least a thousand people were needed to head to the Hilton Fortress; otherwise, it would be easy to be at a disadvantage.
“If the Jialan Temple, Holy Roman Empire, War God Tribe, and War Alliance want to go, let them come along too,” Nie Yan said. Bringing more people would provide mutual support.
Within the Bull Man Tribe, players began to get busy. They packed their belongings and prepared to head to the Hilton Fortress.
Cui Can Dao Guang and Shui Se Yan Tou led the way. Approximately a thousand Bull Man Tribe players were dispatched. The Jialan Temple, Holy Roman Empire, and other guilds combined to about a thousand players as well. A force of two thousand players was indeed impressive. The top elites from these guilds were all mobilized.
“Do you have anything to tell us?” Cui Can Dao Guang asked Nie Yan. They would depart shortly.
“Be careful on the road,” Nie Yan replied. This simple sentence contained many meanings, which Cui Can Dao Guang should understand.
“Understood, don’t worry. Unless the Mage Alliance, Sacred Guardians, and Angel Domination send out all their forces, they won’t be able to stop us,” Cui Can Dao Guang smiled slightly.
The journey to the Hilton Fortress and the monster grinding there would undoubtedly be full of troubles. Nie Yan believed that Cui Can Dao Guang and others should be able to handle them, so he wasn’t too worried.
“Guo Huai, how many people from the Mage Alliance and Sacred Guardians are at the Hilton Fortress?” Nie Yan asked. Guo Huai should have received the information by now.
“About five or six thousand. They are the top elites of these two guilds. However, our two thousand people will be more than sufficient to deal with them,” Guo Huai replied. The quality of Bull Man Tribe players was incomparable to those guilds. Past wars had already proven everything.
Nie Yan continued grinding Trolls for two more days, reaching level 88. Finally, in the afternoon of the second day, he obtained the Magic Key. It looked exactly like the images he had seen on forums in his previous life. The Magic Key was about an inch long, entirely black, pure in color, like crystal, emitting a strong magical aura.
Magic Key (Legendary): Special item.
Item Description: The rotating fate, a key once used by the legendary rogue, Krune.
Accessory, occupies one accessory slot.
Attributes: Wearing this item increases luck by 3. Using this item has a certain probability of opening locked chests.
This item is bound on pickup, non-tradable, and does not drop.
The Magic Key’s attributes didn’t seem impressive, but only Nie Yan, who had experienced his past life, understood how precious it was. In Nie Yan’s eyes, it was like a divine artifact. A luck increase of 3 could significantly boost players’ success rates when synthesizing items and increase their loot drop rates when fighting monsters. Additionally, it had many hidden effects. Actually, the luck attribute was secondary; the real value lay in the following attribute. The Magic Key had a certain probability of opening chests even if the player’s lock-picking level was insufficient.
Most importantly, when opening chests with the Magic Key, players could gain lock-picking skill experience with additional bonuses, making it the best tool for improving lock-picking skills. In his previous life, a player used the Magic Key to reach the Master level in lock-picking.
Master-level lock-picking was extremely rare. In Nie Yan’s previous life, those who could reach Master-level lock-picking wouldn’t exceed five people. A rogue with Master-level lock-picking skills would command very expensive commissions when joining a team for dungeons because they could open precious chests that ordinary players couldn’t. Ordinary teams couldn’t afford to hire them. Back then, to reach Master-level lock-picking, Nie Yan spent six full months continuously searching for chests, completing only 35%. This shows how difficult it was to reach Master-level lock-picking.
He was lucky to finally obtain the most valuable item from Troll Diluns.
The Magic Key could only be used by Nie Yan. If discarded, it would lose its effectiveness. Nie Yan carefully stored the Magic Key in his backpack. He would soon make it exert its due effectiveness.
Nie Yan checked his backpack. The number of javelins was already low, only two or three hundred left. He decided to keep them for possible future use.
After finishing leveling, he wondered how many more levels he could gain by turning in all the Magic Rune Stones.
Nie Yan returned to Carol City. Guo Huai said that the grouped Magic Rune Stones had already been stored in his personal warehouse. Opening his personal warehouse and flipping to the back, he saw rows and rows of grouped Magic Rune Stones, densely packed and quite impressive. Calculating, there were about 600 groups here. Guo Huai had gathered many more in the past few days.
A full 600 groups. Guo Huai must have spent at least 200,000 to 300,000 gold coins purchasing these Magic Rune Stones. In a few months, these Magic Rune Stones would definitely be worth over a million gold coins. However, for Nie Yan, levels were far more important than money. Even if he spent a million gold coins, he wouldn’t bat an eye.
Nie Yan transferred these Magic Rune Stones to his backpack and then headed toward the direction of NPC Klemi.
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