Chapter 328: Standard Equipment

“You help me take down two groups of Spectral Berserkers, and your part in this task will be done. I’ll handle the rest myself,” Nie Yan said. This was a necessary checkpoint for completing the task; otherwise, they couldn’t proceed.

These seven Spectral Berserkers stood like towering iron giants, blocking Nie Yan and Tang Yao’s path.

“You’re not serious, right?” Tang Yao looked at Nie Yan in disbelief. Nie Yan must have gone mad to think about taking on seven level-60 elite Spectral Berserkers.

“Of course I’m serious. Don’t worry, listen to me. Spectrals are unarmored units and won’t impose level suppression on lower-level players. Your attack power translates directly into damage. These Spectral Berserkers are immune to physical attacks, but magic attacks deal an additional 30% bonus damage against them. I can use Advanced Vines to entangle them, and you can unleash AoE spells on them,” Nie Yan explained. He wouldn’t have brought Tang Yao here without confidence in the plan.

Seeing Nie Yan’s confident explanation, Tang Yao nodded. “Alright, since you’ve decided, tell me how to proceed.”

Nie Yan detailed the entire plan to Tang Yao.

“Follow my instructions. I’ll pull aggro,” Tang Yao said, running toward the seven Spectral Berserkers and stopping about thirty yards away.

Nie Yan also moved into position and signaled Tang Yao. Tang Yao swung his staff, launching a black fireball straight ahead.

With a loud boom, the fireball struck one of the Spectral Berserkers, exploding with sparks flying everywhere.

All seven Spectral Berserkers locked their gaze onto Tang Yao and swung their hammers, charging toward him.

Charge!

Charge!

The Spectral Berserkers activated their charge ability, rushing toward Tang Yao at an astonishing speed, several times faster than his.

Oh my god, Tang Yao cast Swift Wind upon himself and ran toward Nie Yan’s position.

Seeing Tang Yao begin to draw aggro, Nie Yan unrolled an Advanced Vines scroll and started chanting, the scroll emitting a faint white glow in his hands.

Tang Yao was being chased closer and closer by the Spectral Berserkers. The level difference was too great, making him significantly slower. He was quickly caught up to.

Nie Yan, still chanting the Advanced Vines scroll, was sweating for Tang Yao. He hadn’t expected the Spectral Berserkers’ movement speed to increase by over 150% after charging.

The Spectral Berserkers swung their hammers downward. It seemed like the next moment Tang Yao would be crushed into pulp.

Suddenly, Tang Yao’s body transformed into an eagle the size of a millstone, flapping its wings rapidly as it accelerated and flew away.

With a loud crash, the Spectral Berserkers’ hammers missed, slamming into the ground and leaving a deep crater.

Tang Yao, however, managed to escape. After flying for about thirty seconds, he transformed back into his human form and sprinted toward Nie Yan.

Nie Yan was surprised by Tang Yao’s trick. He immediately recognized it—Rare Item, Ring of the Shapeshifter!

The Ring of the Shapeshifter allows a player to transform into a chosen animal. Each transformation grants a unique talent. For example, the eagle form provides a significant movement speed boost and limited flight ability, though it lacks attack power. The transformation state disappears if attacked. Additionally, the Ring of the Shapeshifter’s effect only lasts about thirty seconds, making it quite brief.

In a situation like that, the Ring of the Shapeshifter proved extremely useful.

After escaping, Tang Yao finally exhaled in relief. Aggro pulling was simply too difficult for him.

Seeing Tang Yao successfully draw the Spectral Berserkers, Nie Yan waved his right hand. The scroll in his hand emitted swirling magical elements before finally dissipating.

The group of Spectral Berserkers was accelerating their charge when suddenly thick vines rapidly sprouted from the ground, entangling their limbs and firmly binding them. The seven Spectral Berserkers immediately halted.

As Tang Yao sprinted, he suddenly turned around, swung his staff, and uttered several deep incantations. A mass of black flame clouds gathered in the sky, unleashing torrents of fire onto the Spectral Berserkers.

Damage numbers, mostly around two to three hundred, appeared over the Spectral Berserkers. As unarmored units, each hit dealt real damage.

Tang Yao kept retreating while continuously casting AoE spells.

The Spectral Berserkers struggled but couldn’t break free from the vines, roaring in agony as their health dropped by about 30%.

“Good job. Great teamwork,” Nie Yan smiled.

Time passed second by second.

“Fall back, thirty yards!” Nie Yan shouted urgently. As soon as he spoke, Tang Yao didn’t hesitate, sprinting backward while carefully maintaining a thirty-yard distance from the Spectral Berserkers.

Nie Yan timed it perfectly, starting to chant the second Advanced Vines scroll before the entanglement on the Spectral Berserkers expired.

The vines’ duration ended. The Spectral Berserkers suddenly tore through the vines, breaking free and charging toward Nie Yan.

They were getting closer—ten yards… six yards… three yards…

The Spectral Berserkers charged like beasts toward Nie Yan. When they were just two yards away, Nie Yan’s Advanced Vines scroll vanished, and vines immediately wrapped around the Spectral Berserkers.

Their charge stopped abruptly, halted right in front of Nie Yan.

Tang Yao’s AoE spells rained down continuously, sustained by the mana of his Arcane Spirit.

The Spectral Berserkers’ health dropped rapidly.

Advanced Vines scrolls could only be used three times consecutively before the Spectral Berserkers developed resistance.

However, after three scrolls, the Spectral Berserkers’ health was nearly depleted.

Following the same pattern, Nie Yan used his last Advanced Vines scroll while Tang Yao continued attacking. With the final AoE spell, the seven Spectral Berserkers let out piercing screams and fell to the ground.

“That’s it?” Tang Yao blinked in surprise. Defeating the Spectral Berserkers had been unusually smooth. These level-60 elite Spectral Berserkers were practically helpless against Nie Yan’s well-organized tactics.

Nie Yan once again proved his judgment correct through action.

The seven Spectral Berserkers’ corpses gradually vanished, leaving behind a pile of equipment.

Nie Yan collected all the dropped gear, mostly level-60 equipment, including silver and gold quality items, which were temporarily useless. He checked around and found three quality-7 gems worth about 120 gold coins, easily covering the cost of the Advanced Vines scrolls.

Additionally, several items caught Nie Yan’s attention. One was an Intermediate Resurrection Skill Book, a rare and valuable item. It was seldom seen on the market, typically only dropping in maps above level 50, with an extremely low drop rate. It required an intelligence of 580, and Nie Yan wondered if anyone in the guild met the requirement.

There were also two potion recipes, valuable items requiring an Advanced Alchemist.

Currently, the Starry Sky Pharmacy had the most Advanced Alchemists in Karol City, with about seven in total. Five of them were in the Starry Sky Pharmacy, where WuBushengDan and Diaochi Nannan had been Advanced Alchemists for some time, striving to reach the Master level.

With these Advanced Potion recipes, it was good news for WuBushengDan and Diaochi Nannan.

Nie Yan also discovered another valuable item—a Standard Equipment Design Blueprint!

Design Blueprint—Level-60 Golden Set Evil Glow, Arcane Mage equipment. Requirements: Intermediate Tailor or higher, materials: 3 rolls of Magic-Woven Cloth, 2 rolls of Blazing Flame Cloth, and 3 rolls of Golden Thread. The Evil Glow Set, while not the best among all level-60 sets, was still quite decent. Top-tier players wouldn’t consider it, but it was a treasure for mid-level players. Unlike other equipment blueprints, Standard Equipment blueprints could be learned by twenty players simultaneously. Once learned, they could produce identical equipment as long as the materials were available. With twenty tailors, this Evil Glow Set could be mass-produced.

Since Evil Glow had low material requirements, Intermediate Tailors could craft it, allowing for mass production.

Using Standard Equipment to equip guild members was a dream come true.

In the future, Standard Equipment would become increasingly common.

After collecting everything, Nie Yan turned to Tang Yao. “Let’s go. Time for the next one!”

At the next intersection, another group of Spectral Berserkers gathered, this time nine in number. Nie Yan and Tang Yao followed the same strategy, defeating all nine and obtaining another Evil Glow design blueprint. With two Evil Glow blueprints, forty tailors could learn and produce even more Evil Glow Sets.

Looking at the Spectral Berserkers’ corpses on the ground, Nie Yan turned to Tang Yao. “You can head back now. You can’t go further.”

Tang Yao looked ahead, noticing the dense monster activity, and nodded. “Alright, be careful.”