The hall of the fortress guild headquarters in Clemency, approximately 10 by 10 yards in size, was the gathering place for members of Angel Dominion.
The interior was very simply arranged. A winged angel clad in tight blue leather armor, carrying a longbow, strode in. Looking toward Crack Rock, he asked, “How familiar are you with the skills of top-tier classes?”
“Just starting to get a basic understanding. Recently I’ve watched some battle videos of Thunder Su and Splendid Blade, and there’s still quite a gap,” Crack Rock replied somewhat sheepishly. When it came to understanding top-tier classes, the players of Ox Tribe far surpassed them.
“Can’t we get more information about top-tier classes from Ox Tribe?” Winged Angel frowned slightly. Information on top-tier class skills, as well as the origins of some sub-legendary and legendary equipment, were all closely guarded secrets of Ox Tribe. Angel Dominion had little chance of acquiring them. Unless someone from the top echelon of Ox Tribe defected, but no matter how hard Angel Dominion’s intelligence organization worked, they had failed to recruit any of Ox Tribe’s top-tier players. They had managed to recruit quite a few second-tier members, but such genuine top-secret information wouldn’t fall into their hands.
Crack Rock shook his head.
“Has Shack returned?” Winged Angel asked.
“He’s already back and on his way here,” Crack Rock replied.
After a while, a player entered the hall. He was about 1.7 meters tall, thin, and somewhat different from the typical handsome appearance of elves. His skin was loose and wrinkled, giving him a rather aged look.
This somewhat elderly player was none other than the famous Butcher Shack!
The reason he was called Butcher Shack was because whenever he targeted a monster or item for farming or leveling, he absolutely would not allow others to interfere. He often ended up slaughtering all nearby players.
He was already over fifty years old, but his steps were steady and nimble. Though his elven skin had improved somewhat, it was still wrinkled. His hands were thin and bony, yet exuded a powerful force, like an eagle’s talons. His eyes were deeply set in their sockets, his corners lined with wrinkles, but his black pupils were not cloudy like those of ordinary elderly people; instead, they were very bright and sharp.
“Shack, you’re back. How did the mission go?” Winged Angel smiled warmly.
“It’s done,” Shack replied, glancing at Winged Angel and nodding slightly. He wasn’t fond of Winged Angel’s pretense, but if it weren’t for the generous payment, he wouldn’t have stayed with Angel Dominion at all. Shack himself preferred to travel alone, but he had to admit that joining a guild made his path to advancement much smoother. After all, no matter how powerful an individual might be, it was hard to compare to a large guild like Angel Dominion.
“I heard it was a legendary quest? The reward must be pretty good.”
“Hmm, Shadow Dance,” Shack replied.
Upon hearing Shack’s words, Winged Angel’s heart stirred. He was quite displeased with Shack’s indifferent attitude, but for now, he had to tolerate these high-level players. Thus, he still wore a smile and asked, “Shadow Dance—is that an advancement of Shadow Dancer?”
“No, just a high-level title. I heard that Crazy Rogue Nie Yan of Ox Tribe is a Holy Shadow Dancer, and Smiling Not For Me is a War Shadow Dancer. It’s roughly similar.”
Winged Angel raised his eyebrows and asked, “How did you hear that Crazy Rogue Nie Yan is a Holy Shadow Dancer and Smiling Not For Me is a War Shadow Dancer? There’s been no leak of such news from Ox Tribe.”
“It was something I overheard from an NPC,” Shack replied. Winged Angel didn’t even know this information—Angel Dominion’s intelligence work was truly subpar.
Winged Angel’s heart sank. He didn’t know how to deal with the Shadow Dancers of Ox Tribe. Relying solely on Shack was still insufficient. He had sent people everywhere to recruit top-tier players from the Saturn Empire, offering very generous terms, but the results were quite limited. Although players like Shack had joined, it was still very difficult to rival Ox Tribe in terms of top-tier class players.
“Boss, Piaolai Piaolu and Cao Ren have arrived.”
As the three were talking, two players entered the guild hall.
Cao Ren was a Tauren shaman, whose strength was no less than Winged Angel or Shack. Within Angel Dominion, his ranking was definitely among the top three. In duels against Winged Angel himself, he could maintain an over 80% win rate, and against Shack, a roughly 30% win rate. The reason he lost to Shack was due to class counters.
Cao Ren held an extremely high status within Angel Dominion. Winged Angel had once considered appointing Cao Ren as vice-president of Angel Dominion, but Cao Ren declined, as he didn’t want to get too involved in guild affairs. Cao Ren was the fourth to advance to a top-tier class within Angel Dominion, but the shaman’s advancement quest was much more difficult than those of other classes. They had their own unique system.
“We finally have all five top-tier classes gathered,” Crack Rock said excitedly.
“We’re still far from Ox Tribe. The latest news says that Li Hua Sha and One Hammer Decides Love have just completed their class change quests and advanced to top-tier classes. That makes twenty in total, four times our number,” Cao Ren said.
Winged Angel felt a headache coming on. Adding even one top-tier class to Angel Dominion was extremely difficult. Despite working hard for so long, they had only added two. Many were waiting in line to change to top-tier classes, but the failure rate was over 99%, like a difficult childbirth, unable to push through. Meanwhile, news kept coming in from Ox Tribe about yet another of their members successfully changing to a top-tier class, widening the gap further.
How difficult it was to catch up with Ox Tribe’s pace. Winged Angel couldn’t help feeling disheartened.
“Although they have so many top-tier classes, coming to Clemency won’t be easy for them. I already have a way to deal with them. Defending the city is absolutely no problem,” Winged Angel said.
“Did you get the giant cannons sorted out?” Cao Ren asked in surprise.
“It’s in the final stages, but that’s not what I’m referring to,” Winged Angel shook his head.
Cao Ren and the others were somewhat curious. What method did Winged Angel have to deal with top-tier classes? The deeper their understanding of top-tier classes, the more they realized their power. With so many Archmages in the Ox Tribe, it might be difficult to defend Clemency Fortress.
“Now that all five of us are here, I plan to gather the rest of the brothers and head to Fengge to explore new content. Get ready,” Winged Angel said.
The other four nodded.
Winged Angel sent messages to the players under Angel Dominion, and soon the elites of Angel Dominion quickly gathered at Clemency Fortress.
Nie Yan rode the Darkwinged Dragon through the sky. He checked the dragon’s injuries and was surprised to find that most of its wounds had already healed, with fine scales growing back. He noticed that these scales were significantly different from before—darker and more crystalline.
The dragon’s body had also grown somewhat larger, with more muscular build.
Though it still exuded a dark aura, there seemed to be an additional element of death within it—a corrosive force. This force was subtle, masked by the dark aura, but as the dragon’s master, Nie Yan could clearly sense the difference.
Unexpectedly, after being injured, the Darkwinged Dragon had undergone such a transformation.
Perhaps the death energy from the necromancer Bodman, being of the same origin as the dragon’s dark aura, hadn’t instantly killed it, but instead had somehow accelerated the dragon’s evolution.
Though the Darkwinged Dragon was still lightly injured, it had become significantly stronger than before, showing signs of impending advancement. If it successfully advanced, it would become an eighth-tier flying mount, which thrilled Nie Yan. In his previous life, the highest-tier flying mount appeared to be only a ninth-tier griffin, owned by Breaking the Sky. There was an insurmountable gap between griffins and dragons; dragons were high-level beings, while griffins were merely common low-level creatures.
With only two or three minutes left to Clemency, Nie Yan retracted the Darkwinged Dragon to avoid being spotted by Angel Dominion members and leapt from the sky.
Unlike Splendid Blade and others, Nie Yan dared not land directly on the ground. A few seconds before landing, he used the Feather Fall skill to reduce his speed.
Upon landing, Nie Yan immediately activated his Haste Step and rushed toward Clemency Fortress.
“Nie Yan, are you okay? I just received news that Winged Angel is gathering all the elites of the guild and moving toward Clemency Fortress,” Guo Huai urgently messaged Nie Yan, thinking he had been discovered after entering Clemency Fortress.
“I haven’t even entered Clemency Fortress yet. What is Winged Angel gathering the players for?” Nie Yan frowned. His timing was really bad.
“We haven’t received any message from Jifeng yet, and Winged Angel didn’t inform them. It might be for a dungeon or exploring a new map,” Guo Huai sighed in relief upon hearing Nie Yan hadn’t entered Clemency Fortress yet. “With Angel Dominion gathering so many experts, you’d better not enter Clemency Fortress for now.”
Nie Yan thought for a moment and said, “Since I’m already here, how can I just turn back? I might as well go and meet them.”
Guo Huai realized he couldn’t dissuade Nie Yan from his decision, so he could only instruct Jifeng to keep a close watch on the situation in Clemency and report any anomalies without delay. For some inexplicable reason, a lingering sense of unease settled in his heart.
Nie Yan sprinted across the plains and entered a canyon area. In the distance, at the heart of the canyon, the towering walls of Clemency Fortress were already visible.
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