Chapter 561 - Magister!

After the flash of light, a crisp system jingle rang out. Nie Yan checked his notifications.

You have successfully crafted a Wish Necklace.

“Phew, it didn’t fail...” Nie Yan breathed a sigh of relief. His nerves which were stretched taut finally relaxed.

Examining the stats of the Wish Necklace—Alchemy +1—Nie Yan was absolutely elated. This was one of the best rolls he could possibly hope for. The guild treasury had several Master-rank potion recipes lying around. With this necklace, they could start putting them to use!

Properties: Alchemy +1

Restrictions: Bound to user. Wearer cannot gain skill proficiency.

Nie Yan immediately rang up Bird.

Seeing that Nie Yan was calling him, Bird dropped everything he was doing.「Boss, do you need anything?」

「Which Advanced Alchemist in our guild has the highest success rate?」Nie Yan asked. This Wish Necklace would naturally go to the most suitable person.

「The highest success rate, huh... I guess that would be Quiet Nannan. He has a success rate of about 95%. The next highest would be me,」Bird replied.

Quiet Nannan had the higher concocting success rate while Bird had a chance of creating an even higher quality potion and gaining a large amount of additional proficiency. Comparing the two, Quiet Nannan appeared to be the better fit for this necklace.

「Take a look at this necklace here. Decide who among you two should have it,」Nie Yan said. He put the Wish Necklace in his mailbox, then entered Bird as the recipient.

Bird sucked in a cold breath of air after seeing the stats of the Wish Necklace. As an Alchemist, how could he not understand its value? People like him had spent months on end holed up in a workshop concocting potions nonstop just to reach the rank of Advanced Alchemist. Even though many people found themselves at the precipice of becoming a Master Alchemist, they discovered that breaking through this bottleneck was incredibly difficult. WIthout the aid of some sort of special recipe, they could only stagnate in place. Advancing to Master rank was far more difficult than originally imagined. However, here was a necklace that allowed an Advanced Alchemist to become a Master Alchemist, or a Master Alchemist to become a Grandmaster Alchemist.

Sadly, the wearer of the Wish Necklace wouldn’t obtain any skill proficiency. It could only serve as a supplementary item while concocting potions. This kind of restriction was very normal. Otherwise, this necklace would be way too overpowered.

「I think Quiet Nannan should have it. It’ll allow him to concoct potions above his rank. Maybe one day he’ll concoct Grandmaster or Sage-rank potions,」Bird said. He still had to manage the Starry Night Potion Shop, greatly limiting his free time to concoct potions. Letting someone else have this necklace was clearly the better choice.

「We have Master Health and Mana Potion Recipes in the guild treasury. Have Quiet Nannan Learn them and start producing a few of them,」Nie Yan said. Even in the previous timeline Master rank potions were a scarce as well as expensive commodity. At this stage of the game, they could be considered cheat items. Players like Bladelight and Tang Yao already had health or mana pools exceeding several tens of thousands. Advanced Health And Mana Potions could no longer fulfill their needs. However, Master-rank potions could instantly restore their health and mana to full.

With Master Health and Mana Potions, players would have increased sustainability. It could potentially even save them from wiping out during dungeon runs.

「Understood,」Bird replied. He quickly went to arrange these matters.

After successfully crafting the Wish Necklace, Nie Yan’s mood improved substantially. He continued to grind mobs in the vicinity for a while longer. However, he failed to find any more Life Emeralds.

Nie Yan sorted out his inventory and was about to return home, when a gust of wind blew past him, carrying the smell of the sea.

“Is this near the sea...?”

Nie Yan checked his map. The closest coast was to the south more than 10 minutes away. The fact that he could smell the sea all the way over here was truly strange.

“A sea to the south, could it be the Silent Gulf?”

Nie Yan suddenly recalled he still had a quest to do there. He opened his quest window.

He was supposed to head to the Silent Gulf and search for Dragon Girl Venita.

Nie Yan had barely taken a single step in the Legend of the Ten Holy Paladin’s quest. The final boss was far too powerful. Whether it was the traitor Brewin or the hellhound Cerberus, both would have to wait until he was well over Level 100 and had become a Shadow Dancer if he wanted to stand a chance. That’s why he kept putting this quest off.

“Since I’m already here, I might as well go look for some quest clues,” Nie Yan muttered. He summoned his Faulkner Warhorse which had already recovered and set off for the southern coast.

The Dread Ravine was shrouded in an ever present darkness. A large gust of wind blew past, causing the trees to sway and rustle.

The Faulkner Warhorse dashed through the ravine at high speed.

The sound of activity came from the distance, arousing Nie Yan’s interest. There’s people!

With a loud bang, a ball of elemental energy exploded in the forest up ahead, emitting a dazzling seven-coloured light. A deafening roar rang out. Judging this sound, it seemed like someone was fighting the boss of this area, the Lord-class Berserk Black Bear.

“Could someone really be fighting the Berserk Black Bear? That’s a Level 90 Lord!” Nie Yan muttered. Even he didn’t dare to rashly challenge the Berserk Black Bear. It was definitely one of the most frightening Lords at this stage of the game.

Seeing the dazzling radiance in the distance, Nie Yan’s heart trembled. It was the Elemental Sphere spell!

NIe Yan couldn’t be anymore familiar with this spell. In the previous timeline after reaching Level 100, when he fought with Elementalists, this was their bread-and-butter spell. Its killing power was extremely high. If he recalled correctly, Elemental Sphere was a spell that could only be learned at Level 110.

Could it be that someone had had already broken through Level 100, or perhaps they somehow learned the spell at a lower level?

After thinking for a bit, Nie Yan recalled his Faulkner Warhorse. He then entered stealth and made his way toward the source of the tumult.

After travelling through the dark forest for about 10 or so minutes, Nie Yan hid in a corner. Looking through the shrubbery, he saw a giant bear collapsed on the ground up ahead. Patches of its fur were charred black by the explosions of spells.

Looking at the battlefield, Nie Yan could tell the Berserk Black Bear’s movements were restricted to a 10-meter area. What powerful crowd control ability!

Two people stood beside the Berserk Black Bear’s corpse. One of them bent down to collect the loot off the ground, then said something to the other before they left.

Nie Yan inspected the two with Transcendent Insight.

Titles: Flame Judge, Magister

It was an NPC! Nie Yan’s heart trembled. As for the other figure, he was a player, an Elementalist.

This kind of pairing was quite strange.

Nie Yan couldn’t see the Elementalist’s name and level. It appeared the other party was also in possession of a special item that hid their information.

At the same time Nie Yan activated Transcendent Insight, Magister Krasvi halted his steps. He turned around and scanned the forest, stopping at where Nie Yan was hiding.

Not good, he detected me!

Nie Yan immediately held his breath. Only he understood how terrifying of an existence a Level 120 Magister was, not to mention it was an NPC. If he entered within 60 meters of the Magister and a fight broke out, it would be extremely difficult for him to survive.

The most terrifying aspect of a Magister was that Unknown Transfer Scrolls didn’t work against them. Even if you’d already activated an Unknown Transfer Scroll, their magic could track you down and pull you back.

Nie Yan had fought Magisters before in the previous timeline. They could toy with you however they wanted, and there was nothing you could do to fight back.

A Level 180 Great Thief wouldn’t necessarily come out on top in a fight with a Level 120 Magister.

This was the difference in class rank.

This was also why so many players madly sought Master-class titles like Shadow Dancer and Magister.

“Sir Krasvi, is something the matter?” the player beside him asked.

Krasvi simply shook his head, then turned back around and continued walking.

The two disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

The Magister Krasvi’s Awareness was too high. Nie Yan didn’t dare to follow them. His heart was filled with doubt and curiosity. How did that player convince a Level 120 NPC to help him hunt monsters?

Nie Yan thought for a moment. Given Conviction’s settings, there were a few possibilities.

One, it was a servant. When players were questing, they had certain opportunities to make an NPC into their servant. Take for example Nie Yan’s Ten Holy Paladin’s quest. If he could defeat the hellhound Cerberus and free the imprisoned Paladins, he could make Karsi his servant. Two, that player was currently in the middle of a quest. Sometimes players could have an NPC accompany them while they were doing a quest, like an escort quest or they were helping the NPC kill monsters. Three, he had temporarily hired the NPC to fight on his behalf. For example, Nie Yan’s Divine Recruitment allowed him to hire powerful Paladins to aid him in combat.

As for what relationship Magister Krasvi had with that player, Nie Yan could only guess. He had no way of finding out.

Nie Yan felt a sense of urgency. Conviction was filled with too many hidden experts and talents. If he didn’t put in more effort, it was likely that he would be dragged off his throne. This would be a huge disaster for Asskickers United.

He definitely had to advance to a Shadow Dancer. An ordinary Shadow Dancer wasn’t good enough either. He had to become a Luminous Dancer!