A few thousand yards away from Battle City, in a desolate graveyard, one soul after another emerged. These were the fallen—Tang Yao, the Invincible Villain, and others.
In their soul forms, they could see each other. Upon seeing everyone else, they exchanged bitter smiles.
“We’re done. This time we got wiped out,” Cui Can Dao Guang (Cui Can the Blade Halo) looked around. More and more people were arriving; soon, they would all be gathered.
“How did you guys die?” Xiao Yan Bu Wei (Xiao Yan Not For Me) asked. They had died earlier and probably didn’t know what happened afterward.
“We were so close to taking down Dirakru—we were just a little short. If we had ten more minutes, we could’ve done it!” Invincible Villain said, almost frantic. He didn’t know that Dirakru was a quest monster and could only be defeated with the Paternoster Hammer in the end.
They exchanged bitter smiles again. Close wasn’t enough; they still hadn’t managed to kill him.
Twenty soul forms appeared.
“Hey, why isn’t Nie Yan out yet?” Xie Yao (Xie Yao) asked in confusion.
Only then did everyone realize Nie Yan still hadn’t shown up. Yet it had already been more than ten minutes since Dirakru cast his meteor storm spell. Could it be that Nie Yan still hadn’t died after ten minutes?
“Is the boss still in there?”
“If Nie Yan hasn’t respawned, maybe there’s still hope!” Cui Can the Blade Halo said, his emotions hard to contain.
The group began murmuring amongst themselves, praying Nie Yan might still defeat Dirakru. But they knew the chances were slim—nearly impossible. Perhaps Nie Yan had just narrowly survived the meteor shower.
“Let’s respawn here and take a break,” Cui Can the Blade Halo suggested to the group.
They each released their souls and respawned on the spot. Each lost a level and some equipment, but these losses weren’t unbearable. After leveling up so much in the Dark World, they had already profited.
The twenty team members sat down to recover their health and waited anxiously for news from Nie Yan. None dared to call him on voice chat, fearing they might disturb him. Seeing that Nie Yan hadn’t died in the team messages gave them some peace of mind.
After Nie Yan entered the portal, a series of scenes flashed through his mind—images related to the Orc King and the Paternoster Hammer. They told the story of how the Orc King built the Satern Empire, defeating enemies one by one. But in the end, heroes grow old, and he was ultimately betrayed by Dirakru. These vivid scenes captivated Nie Yan.
The Heart of the Assassin meant that even if an assassin knew the path ahead was perilous and death was certain, he would still go forth to uphold justice, completing his mission with the resolve to sacrifice himself.
Nie Yan successfully completed the mission, assassinating the powerful NPC Dirakru. As a result, he received the Heart of the Assassin as a reward.
After an unknown amount of time, Nie Yan finally awoke. He checked his location and found himself inside Battle City, surrounded by a maze of streets.
Finally out, Nie Yan took a deep breath, feeling unusually relaxed.
Eagerly, he checked the reward from the Heart of the Assassin.
Heart of the Assassin: All attributes increased by 30%, Agility increased by 30%, all control skill levels increased by 3, gained an additional equipment slot. Reputation with the Human Empire increased by 50, and with the Satern Empire by 200.
Seeing the added attributes from the Heart of the Assassin, Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel excited. This was a huge boost. His stats were already strong, and now they were even more extreme. The +3 to control skills was also great. These were all personal stat boosts, completely different from those provided by equipment.
The additional equipment slot meant Nie Yan could now wear two sets of gear simultaneously, switching between them instantly—taking only one second—and even during battle. This was even more exciting than a 30% attribute boost!
Although the stats from both sets wouldn’t stack, Nie Yan could wear different types of gear. For example, one set with high magic resistance and another with high physical defense. He could switch to the magic-resistant gear when fighting mages and to the physical-defense gear when fighting warriors. If facing a team of both mages and warriors, he could keep switching back and forth. If he worried about losing good gear upon death, he could wear one set of top-tier equipment and one set of junk gear, switching to the junk set when a death seemed unavoidable.
Having two equipment slots provided immense flexibility.
Nie Yan remembered that most players had to wait until level 180 to gain an additional equipment slot. He hadn’t expected the Heart of the Assassin to grant one. He wondered if he might gain a third equipment slot upon reaching level 180.
After understanding the Heart of the Assassin’s bonuses, Nie Yan checked the two items dropped by Dirakru and was stunned.
One of the items was a heavy shield. Made from an unknown metal, it was extremely heavy—too heavy for a shield warrior with low strength to even lift. The entire shield was blood-red, covered in strange runes, with a demon’s image at its center.
He checked the shield’s attributes.
Shield of Demon Dirakru: Legendary, Divine Artifact, Required Level 180.
Item Description: Crafted by demon Dirakru using red moon essence iron, this heavy shield possesses tremendous defensive power. It has six slots for gemstones.
Item Attributes: Defense 7830–8812, Defense Rate 70%, 30% chance to ignore attacks, Magic Resistance +100, Strength +50%, HP +60%. Armor Type: Dark Armor.
Special Skills: Demon Taunt—causes all units within a 30-yard radius to attack only the wielder for 5 minutes. Skill cooldown: 20 minutes. Demon Devour—passive skill. While attacking an opponent, drains their mana at a rate of (2*Strength) and converts it into the wielder’s HP.
Special Effect: Demon Siphon—when HP drops below 30%, enters a state of fear, reducing all attributes by 30%.
Usage Restrictions: None.
Looking at the Shield of Demon Dirakru, Nie Yan’s eyes widened. “Goodness, a shield with over 7000 defense! I’ve never seen anything like this before. Even in my past life, the highest defense shield I ever saw was only around 5000, and its other attributes couldn’t compare to this one at all.”
With six gem slots, he could insert some gems that lower the required level, and then Cui Can the Blade Halo could use it.
If Cui Can the Blade Halo wielded the Shield of Dirakru, Nie Yan’s first priority would be to organize a guild team to hunt high-level creatures. One such target was the Lava Beast that had slaughtered tens of thousands of players in the Magma Forest, among many others.
Soon, the equipment levels of the top members of the Bull Tribe would rise significantly.
Besides the Shield of Demon Dirakru, the other item was a diamond-shaped crystal—another fragment of a shattered divine essence!
Nie Yan checked his backpack and found he already had three such fragments. He didn’t know their purpose yet, so he just kept them stored away.
“Where are you guys now?” Nie Yan asked in the team chat.
As soon as Nie Yan spoke, the team chat exploded with messages.
“Boss Nie Yan! How are you doing? Did you respawn?”
“No, that can’t be right—you couldn’t have leveled up this fast. Level 149! Boss Nie Yan, did you actually defeat Dirakru?”
“Nie Yan, did you really kill Dirakru?”
The team chat was filled with chaotic voices. The members were too excited.
“One at a time, I can’t hear you all! Dirakru’s been defeated,” Nie Yan said with a smile.
“How did you kill him? I remember Dirakru still had around 50,000 HP left when he wiped us out,” Invincible Villain asked, puzzled. For Nie Yan to solo 50,000 HP off Dirakru seemed unbelievable.
“It was a quest. Dirakru was a quest boss. Eventually, he became invincible. I couldn’t even hurt him with my Annihilation Slash. In the end, I defeated him using the Paternoster Hammer!” Nie Yan explained.
Hearing this, Invincible Villain and the others finally understood. It was a quest, and the Paternoster Hammer was the key to completing it. Without it, Dirakru was invincible and could never be defeated. They had to reduce Dirakru’s HP to a certain threshold, then use the Paternoster Hammer to deliver the final blow and complete the quest.
“Did Dirakru drop anything?” the others asked curiously.
“Did you complete the Heart of the Assassin quest?” Cui Can the Blade Halo asked.
“The Heart of the Assassin quest is done. I got the Heart of the Assassin, and I also got a shield,” Nie Yan said, clearly excited as he shared the shield’s attributes in the team chat.
The full attributes of the Shield of Demon Dirakru were displayed before Cui Can the Blade Halo and the others.
Silence fell—everyone was stunned by the shield’s incredible stats.
“Incredible stats! 7000 defense, 70% defense rate! I think even if Cui Can uses this shield, it might be hard for me to land a hit on him,” Shui Se Yan Tou (Shui Se the Cigarette) remarked.
With this shield, Cui Can the Blade Halo’s defense would be absolutely unbreakable—making him a super tank, solid as a rock, wherever he went.
“If we insert a few gems that lower the requirements, Cui Can should be able to use it,” Daotou Dage Qi Zai (Big Brother Seven) said.
Gems that lower equipment requirements weren’t particularly hard to find for Nie Yan and his group.
“With this quest done, we should go after the Crimson Demon Knight Order. Once Cui Can gets this shield, we’ll start farming bosses. Our first target will be the Lava Beast,” Nie Yan said, filled with determination.
“A level 200 boss?” the others hesitated for a moment. But then again, with such an extremely defensive shield warrior, even a level 200 boss wouldn’t be a problem. They couldn’t help but feel excited. Their gear was about to undergo a qualitative leap.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage