BANG! BANG! BANG! A whirlwind of flames rose up into the air.

−33,234

−35,251

−30,799

...

A short time later, the first bear let out a mournful cry and collapsed on the ground.

Thanks to Kalenna’s blessings, Undying Scoundrel and the damage output of the other Magisters had skyrocketed.

As for the Warriors in the frontline, they didn’t even need shields to defend against these bears! They gathered the bears all into one place. The Magisters started chanting small-scale AoE magic and called down a shower of fire, lightning, and ice.

The Warriors smoothly retreated out of the range of the magic. Their teamwork was flawless.

Within two minutes, bear corpses littered the ground.

“Hot damn! Why couldn’t I get a battle angel during my class advancement quest!?” Tang Yao complained, envy thick in his voice.

“What are you complaining? You got a Rank 7 Arcane Fairy. You should be satisfied with what you have.” Nie Yan smirked. A Rank 7 Arcane Fairy was already ludicrously powerful.

Tang Yao scratched his head with a wry chuckle. “Pfft... how could my fairy compare to that overpowered angel of yours?”

Nie Yan glanced at Xie Yao’s Holy Fairy. It had already reached Rank 5. Even though fairies weren’t as rare as before—the entire Righteous Faction having around 30 altogether—maybe only three or four were Rank 5 or higher. That said, they couldn’t be compared with a Guardian Angel. A fairy was an existence that was more than several tiers lower on the totem pole.

King of the Word, Sun, and the other Shadow Dancers collected the drops from the bears.

“Find anything good?” Nie Yan asked.

“Yeah! A Darkness Divine Stone!” King of the World exclaimed.

Darkness Divine Stone!? Nie Yan’s heart thumped. Darkness Divine Stones were incredibly rare drops from demonic monsters. It was the ultimate catalyst, the crucial material in a great many recipes. If you also found a Transmuter or Pandora’s Box, the possible recipes to choose from were endless.

Apart from the Darkness Divine Stone, a decent Priest necklace also dropped. It was given to Painted Muslin.

Fallen Angel Brufut looked down at them disdainfully. He floated in mid-air, a barrier protecting him. So, Nie Yan’s group couldn’t attack him. They could only wait for his next move.

“How long do we have until the next wave? Do you know what he is going to summon next?” Nie Yan asked.

“Next wave is in about three minutes, I think. I’m not too sure. This first wave was already different from our intel,” Bladelight replied. The dungeon’s difficulty had ramped up a lot after Nie Yan accepted Kalenna’s quest.

“I see. Let’s recover as much as we can,” Nie Yan said.

Everyone sat down to recuperate.

I wonder what sort of things can be crafted out of this Darkness Divine Stone... Nie Yan was just about to search online, when Xie Yao sent him a link.

“What’s this?” Nie Yan asked.

“It’s a crafting recipe for the Darkness Divine Stone. I figured it’s something you’d be interested in,” Xie Yao said with an adorable smile.

Nie Yan felt a warmth in his heart. It’d already been three years since they first started dating. Their relationship had grown to the point where they could tell what the other wanted without needing to say anything.

Nie Yan skimmed through the recipes. There were around 60 altogether, but most of them didn’t really interest him. He was just about to close the page, when his eyes fell on the last recipe on the list—Demon Wings!

Required Crafting Materials: Demon’s Feather x1, Darkness Divine Stone x1, Jadeite Gems x5, Dark Grimoire x1, Dark Runic Cloths x12

Nie Yan couldn’t help but get excited. These Demon Wings was precisely the item he was longing for! He already had a Demon’s Feather. Combined with the Divine Darkness Stone, he had two of the required crafting materials in his possession. He didn’t know how difficult Jadeite Gems, a Dark Grimoire, and Dark Runic Cloths were to find. He could only hope it wouldn’t be too hard. The sooner he got these wings, the sooner he had something to deal with Soaring Angel!

Nie Yan immediately contacted Guo Huai.「Help me find five Jadeite Gems, a Dark Grimoire, and 12 Runic Cloths. I need them as soon as possible.」

「What do you need these items for?」Guo Huai asked. Even though Jadeite Gems were rare, he knew about them. As for a Dark Grimoire and Dark Runic Cloths, he’d never even heard of them before.

「They’re crafting materials for wings,」Nie Yan explained.

Guo Huai immediately understood the importance of these items. He of course knew of the fight in the City of Sin, of Soaring Angel besting them with his wings. Both he and his team were trying to think of methods to deal with Soaring Angel, but wings were simply too difficult to find. After all, even the Wings of Sorens had a drop rate of only 1 in 50,000. So, when Nie Yan told him why he needed those items, he quickly replied,「I’ll get on it immediately!」

Nie Yan could only pray that Guo Huai found the materials fast. It would be massive if he had the wings for the upcoming battle.

Nie Yan hung up the call.

About three minutes later, Fallen Angel Brufut brandished his greatsword and summoned 20 Savage Bone Giants. “GRAAAOGH!” They paced back and forth restlessly around the center of the shrine.

“I’ll take five of them!” Bladelight rushed forward.

“I’ll take three!”

“I’ll take two!”

...

The Warriors quickly drew the aggro of the Savage Bone Giants. They had perfect synergy, and their movements were well-practiced and smooth.

Like against the bears, these Savage Bone Giants weren’t too big of a challenge thanks to Battle Angel Kalenna, who had buffed everyone with blessings and shields at the start of the fight. Within a few minutes, the Savage Bone Giants started dropping left and right.

Several Energy Crystals dropped from the Savage Bone Giants. They could be fed directly to pets and flying mounts. Nie Yan obtained two darkness attribute Energy Crystals. He was the only one in this team with a darkness attribute flying mount.

Thinking for a bit, Nie Yan summoned his Spectre Dragon and let it move around a bit before feeding it the two darkness Energy Crystals.

The Spectre Dragon was already on the verge of breaking through to Rank 7. These two Darkness Energy Crystals were perhaps all it needed!

When everyone saw the Spectre Dragon, they were completely dumbfounded. Nie Yan hadn’t told anyone about obtaining it, nor was he the type who liked to show off. So, this was their first time seeing it. Even though it didn’t look as formidable as the Darkwing Dragon, it was still extremely shocking.

“Boss, d-did you switch flying mounts?” Paladin of the Elegy asked.

It was common knowledge that every player could only have one flying mount.

“Remember that Dragon King’s Divine Might ability from Zennarde’s Sword? It allows him to have two dragon flying mounts,” Smoke Stub said.

Only a few people in Asskickers United knew Nie Yan had obtained the Spectre Dragon. This was the type of matter where the fewer people who knew, the better.

The people in this team were all trustworthy. So, Nie Yan had no misgivings about summoning the Spectre Dragon in front of them.

“This Spectre Dragon is Rank 6 right now, but it looks like it’s starting to break through,” Summer Bug remarked.

“Yeah. I hope it’ll break through before the upcoming battle,” Nie Yan said. “Then, our side will have another Rank 7 flying mount.”

In this downtime between waves, they started chatting about the Spectre Dragon, wondering how effective it would be in combat.

“Boss, is the Spectre Dragon a close-combat type or magic-type?” Undying Scoundrel asked.

“It’s a magic-type,” Nie Yan replied.

Everyone’s eyes lit up. Most flying mounts were close-combat types. Magic-types were much rarer, especially among existences like dragons. A high rank magic-type flying mount was a priceless treasure.

“What are its skills?”

“You’ll know in a few hours.” Nie Yan chuckled.

“Ah, stop being such a tease, Boss!”

Seeing Nie Yan’s mysterious smile, everyone’s curiosity was piqued even more.

After eating the two Darkness Energy Crystals, the Spectre Dragon let out a low roar, as though it was in pain. Nie Yan knew this was a good sign. He recalled the Spectre Dragon back to his pet space and paid close attention to its movements.

Before long, Nie Yan felt a powerful ripple of energy sweep across his pet space. His heart trembled. The Spectre Dragon underwent a world-shaking transformation. It grew much larger, and its skin turned as black as the void. Sharp spikes grew around its wings. They were incomparably sharp and radiated a freezing aura.

The Spectre Dragon broke through to Rank 7!

Even though it appeared feeble and weak right now, Nie Yan confirmed it was already Rank 7. Likely, breaking through had taken too much of its strength. Nie Yan fed it a couple of Darkness Life Cores to help it recover. By the time the showdown with Angel Corps started, it would be at peak strength!

The Spectre Dragon’s break through put Nie Yan in high spirits. He impatiently checked its status page. Just like he predicted, it had obtained two new skills.

The first new skill was called Phantom. The Spectre Dragon could turn incorporeal to evade an enemy attack. The second new skill was called Spontaneous Combustion. When possessing a target, it could use its soul fire to continuously burn away at the host’s health. An extremely ruthless skill! Spirit Possession and Spontaneous Combustion synergized perfectly and would make for an unrivalled killing move. As long as the target wasn’t two ranks higher, there was no way they could escape death!

Nie Yan was extremely happy with the Spectre Dragon’s two new skills.