Chapter 58 – Clever Use of the Featherfall Jewel

「

We did clear it,

」Dusk replied a moment later.

“His skills with the crossbow are amazing!” Sleepy Fox exclaimed in admiration. He was on the part of the video where Nie Yan first began luring the Treants with the crossbow. Even if one had exceptional skills, accurately firing those three bolts in such a short time frame and under such pressure was nearly an impossible feat. Nie Yan’s skills were beyond exceptional.

The players at present had just entered the game, so in regards to skill, they were a far distance away from Nie Yan. These three bolts might be nothing more than a common everyday skill in his former timeline. However, in the eyes of Sleepy Fox, Dusk, and the others, it was no different from the skills of a god!

Sleepy Fox had never valued or noticed the importance of a Thief during a dungeon run. After all, many teams who lacked one still managed to clear dungeons just fine. Therefore, he never attached any importance to what Nie Yan could do as a Thief when he invited him. Though at present, he began to think having a good Thief in a dungeon expedition team was somewhat of a significant matter!

He had always felt the team was lacking a certain something yet only now did he realize what it was. What they were lacking was exactly an expert-level Thief like Nie Yan!

「

Stone was correct. He really is an expert,

」Dusk said. Stone’s judgement had always been somewhat lackluster, yet this time around... They didn’t know how or what, though a good analogy would probably be something like a disabled cat finding a dead mouse, but he somehow managed to invite a godly expert to their team.

「

We should be able to clear Agmota Muddy Wetlands now.

」After finishing the video, he understood the phrase, “A successful Thief can increase the team’s survival by thirty percent or higher,” slightly better. This line didn’t only apply to three-player parties nor only five-player parties, it meant the same with twenty-player and even thirty-player teams as well!

Besides his individual skill, Nie Yan’s leadership abilities were certainly commendable too. Were it not for him, Yu Lan and the others would have found it impossible to pass the dungeon because of their sub-par equipment.

The moment Nie Yan found out Dusk was part of Holy Empire, he knew the progression of the run would be seen by Sleepy Fox. Therefore the least he could do was to eliminate some of the doubts in Sleepy Fox’s mind.

Now that the Featherfall Jewel was in his hands, Nie Yan was reminded of a famous Elite Monster, Gato the Lion King. He still needed to make quite a few preparations if he wanted to get rid of that overgrown feline.

Nie Yan took a stroll around the auction house. Since the demand and selling price of Black Phenol wasn’t bad, many Alchemists gathered whatever leftover ingredients they had and concocted it into Black Phenol to put up on the auction house. At the moment, there were a little over a hundred bottles and several dozen recipes for sale. In but a few days the value of these items would soar considerably. However,

a few days

hadn’t arrived yet so Nie Yan pressed purchase without the slightest hesitation and cleaned the entire auction house out of all its Black Phenol, Black Phenol Recipes, and even the ingredients used to create Black Phenol.

After purchasing all of the Black Phenol and Black Phenol related items, Nie Yan sorted by price and bought nine of the most expensive crossbow quivers up for sale: two thousand Blackgold Bolts, three thousand Nightmare Bolts, and four thousand Tempered Poison Bolts.

Blackgold Quiver (1000 bolts): Damage +12 | Price: 2 silver

Nightmare Quiver (1000 bolts): Damage +10 | Price: 1 Silver, 50 copper

Tempered Poison Quiver (1000 bolts): Damage +9 | Price: 1 Silver, 10 copper

These bolts cost Nie Yan a pretty penny. Besides a few players from the larger guilds who were in charge of luring monsters, absolutely no one could bare to use these expensive bolts. Truthfully, even those wealthy guilds would find it a bit too wasteful squandering these bolts on luring monsters. Therefore the demand for these types of bolts wasn’t much at all. However, their prices still remained high because they were relatively uncommon. Hence, only ridiculously rich players like Nie Yan would purchase these things.

After purchasing the quivers, Nie Yan teleported to Mordor using the transfer point and headed off in the direction of Violet Dream Hills.

He went past the town walls and travelled north for roughly ten or so kilometers before encountering an unbroken chain of mountains. Arriving at the base of one of these mountains, he ran up the path leading to the mountain peak. Upon reaching the peak, he gazed far into the distance and saw an open plain. Due to how high up he was, everything on this plain looked extremely small. He then looked at the landscape directly beneath him which was nothing but desolate terrain.

Standing atop the peak where the wind whistled through the air, he observed the forest of conifers that ran along the mountain range; the trees flowed like the waves in an ocean of green.

The peak he stood on top of was roughly several hundred meters above ground. For the average player, it would mean certain death if they tried to jump off this peak.

Nie Yan paced back and forth around the peak, occasionally glancing down to examine the landscape directly below. However, he halted upon finding a certain tree situated near the peak’s edge.

He stood directly under this tree and faced east.

One step, two steps, three steps... This should roughly be it.

Yep, it’s right here. There’s no mistaking it.

Nie Yan then leaped off the mountain peak.

Though his actions stated otherwise, the purpose of making this trip wasn’t really so he could commit suicide. It was because the lair of the Level 7 Elite monster, Gato the Lion King, was located beneath this cliffside. This monster was the field boss who ruled over this desolate terrain, and many unsuspecting players who came to this area to train would find themselves killed by this mighty lion.

Gato would respawn within a day if he was killed. Moreover, he had a high probability of dropping the Blackblood Set which consisted of three items: cloak, gloves, and shoulder guards. At Level 5 Silver-grade, the set was currently one of the best Thief equipment sets in the game, coming second to the Covenant Set which could only be found in the yet-to-be-opened Sosil Valley dungeon. By obtaining the Blackblood set, Nie Yan could at least guarantee that he was fully geared in first-rate equipment. Beside the aforementioned set, Gato also dropped various Thief skill books.

In Nie Yan’s previous life, many players gathered here to hunt Gato the Lion King. Plenty of chaotic battles occurred for the sake of snatching the equipment he dropped. Often times a large expanse of players covered the entire area, so wanting to grab the Blackblood set wasn’t a simple matter. While trying to complete the set was even more of an ordeal. This was due to the fact that Gato would also spawn several hundred Lions with him each time he respawned. Therefore players needed to clear the surroundings of Lions before facing off against the boss safely. However, the numerous ordinary Level 7 Lions were extremely difficult to deal with as well.

The player base at present was too low level. At the very least, it would take twenty-five Level 5 or higher players to hunt Gato. However those sort of players were few and far between. Moreover, those who were at that level were certainly experts as well. In any case, gathering so many top ranked players together certainly wouldn’t be easy.

Let alone Gato, players didn’t even dare to come to this area to hunt the ordinary Lions. This vicinity was a Level 7 monster spawn area so very few people would come. Even if they did, none of them would be able to reach Gato’s lair. This was the reason Nie Yan could feel at ease while carrying out his plan.

The wind blew past his hair as he continued descending in altitude. When Nie Yan reached four fifths of the way to the ground, he activated the Featherfall Jewel’s skill, whereupon he immediately began slowing down. He felt like he was as light as a feather as his speed slowed down to a steady rate.

Under the effect of Featherfall, Nie Yan’s falling speed was only somewhat faster than the actual falling speed of a feather.

The distance between him and the ground grew increasingly short. He estimated his current altitude at about twenty meters above ground. He shot out a web line from his Silk Spinner Ring which stuck to the rock face and stopped his fall. Now suspended in the middle of the air, he looked below to discover a robust brown Lion with a large mane of hair and an imposing royal aura.

By coincidence, this Lion was also within his firing range.

Obviously, this was Gato the Lion King. Nie Yan recalled this was the exact location where he spawned.

Perfect.

The web line connected to Nie Yan’s left hand was firmly secured on the vegetation growing on the rock wall above. His right hand reached into his bag and took out a crossbow. He lined the sights on the Lion...「Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!」The bolts shot out of the crossbow and went in a straight line towards Gato.