Craftsman God Bronnick’s thatch hut looked run-down and shabby. The things inside were strewn all over and haphazardly piled on top of each other. There wasn’t much space either. With six people entering at once, the place instantly felt cramped.

Bronnick raised his head. He swept his turbid eyes swept over the visitors before focusing on Nie Yan. His expression lit up. Ignoring the party of five trying to turn in their quest, he approached Nie Yan.

“That poor sap is screwed. Bronnick is going to send him flying out of here with a boot,” the orc Warrior said with schadenfreude.

“Ha, yeah. A Level 179 scrub coming here, I wonder if his Influence even reaches the requirements.” The Shaman chuckled.

The party of five gleefully waited for Nie Yan to be humiliated. From their point of view, any player below Level 180 had no right to be here.

Bronnick stopped in front of Nie Yan and greeted him with a respectful bow. “You honor me with your presence, sir. Welcome to my humble abode.” Since Nie Yan was in appear offline mode, NPCs wouldn’t use his name in their speech.

Nie Yan’s status as a Great Prophet put him above Bronnick in the hierarchy.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Craftsman God Bronnick.” Nie Yan nodded.

Hearing the exchange between Nie Yan and Bronnick, the party of five dropped their jaws in shock.

“H-how is this possible? W-why is Bronnick so respectful to that guy?” the orc Warrior asked in utter disbelief. He felt like the world was going loopy right now.

“Whos is this guy? Damn! This a load of bull! The last time we came here, Bronnick couldn’t even be bothered to raise an eyelid to look at us!” the Shaman fumed. This was their first time seeing Bronnick treating a player so affably.

The party of five could hardly believe their eyes.

Nie Yan and Bronnick continued to converse. Neither of them leaked any important information.

“I can upgrade any one of your items to Chaos-grade, free of charge. If you happen to have any void metals, the results will be much better,” Bronnick said.

The party of five sucked in a cold breath of air. It had to be someone really famous behind that cloak for Bronnick to offer an upgrade for free! One had to know, even if you brought void metal, upgrading any piece of equipment would cost at least 60,000 gold, and you would have to find large pile of rare and bizarre materials. Just what kind of quest did this Level 179 player complete to receive a reward like this?

“There’s no way that low level piece of trash has a piece of void metal!” the Shaman hatefully whispered, his eyes on Nie Yan’s hands. One had to know, their party of five risked life and limb to complete Bronnick’s quest, all for the sake of obtaining a single piece of Void Ore. Void metals were one of the rarest items in the game! He refused to believe Nie Yan possessed one!

“A Void Ore is worth at least 100,000 gold. No way a Level 179 player has that kind of gold.” The orc Warrior refused to let go of his feeling of superiority.

The party of five quietly whispered amongst each other. Even if Nie Yan didn’t possess a piece of void metal, just the exchange between him and Bronnick was enough to leave them completely shocked.

Nie Yan hadn’t had the time to research the new materials introduced to the game. So, he wasn’t too familiar with void metals. His only clue were the Dark Void Iron and Void Gold in his bag, both labelled as Void Metal. However, he doubted they were enough. Blacksmiths generally required dozens to hundreds of pieces of metal when upgrading a piece of equipment. If he had to collect 100 pieces of either of them, he’d be better off using that time to level.

“Bronnick, is this the void metal you’re talking about? How many will I need to upgrade my equipment?” Nie Yan asked. He took out the Dark Void Iron from his bag. It was about the size of a fist and looked completely ordinary without any particular features.

“You have a piece of Dark Void Iron? That’s great! Upgrading a piece equipment doesn’t require much. Just one piece is enough,” Bronnik said. His gaze landed on the lump of metal in Nie Yan’s hands. “The purity of this Dark Void Iron is quite high. It will produce a great result!”

Nie Yan felt a little silly. So, one piece was enough! He’d been worried for nothing.

The party of five players from the Satreen Empire sucked in a cold breath of air. They felt their heads spinning. A piece of Dark Void Iron was actually in the hands of a Level 179 player! This world was so unfair! Their eyes were bloodshot from all the staring. The orc Warrior pinched himself hard on the cheeks. The sharp pain told him he wasn’t dreaming.

Just what in the world was going on?

The five players had every right to be shocked. The market value of a Void Ore started at 100,000 gold, and rarely ever appeared in the marketplace. Even if you camped out in the auction house for a week straight, you’d be lucky to find one or two pieces. Around 20 to 25 Void Ores were equal to a single piece of Dark Void Iron.

One could imagine how valuable Dark Void Iron was!

If it weren’t for the fact that Bronnick was a powerful Legendary NPC and PvP was disabled in this zone, they would’ve tried to rob Nie Yan on the spot.

A Legendary item and a piece of Dark Void Iron, as long as you helped Bronnik collect the necessary materials, it would become an item on par with a Sacred Object!

Bronnick had already agreed to upgrade one of Nie Yan’s items for free. Nie Yan had also taken out a piece of Dark Void Iron. They weren’t stupid enough to believe he didn’t have a Legendary item!

This was simply too shocking! A Sacred Object! How powerful of an item was this!

The party of five licked their parched lips.

Nie Yan breathed a sigh of relief. He only needed one piece of Dark Void Iron to upgrade Zennarde’s Sword to a Chaos item. He still had the Void Gold in his bag. The Dark Void Iron was the reward he received for clearing the Dark Demonic Space within two hours; while he received the Void Gold for clearing the Dark Demonic Space within one hour. It was clearly of a higher rank.

Since Nie Yan was going to upgrade Zennarde’s Sword, he would of course use the best material!

“I still have this Void Gold. I wonder if it can also be used to upgrade equipment?” Nie Yan asked as he took out the lump of Void Gold from his bag.

The party of five stared in both disbelief and suspicion. “Void Gold? Is he for real?” They felt their hearts race as they tensely awaited Bronnick’s reply.

“Without a doubt, this is Void Gold, quite a high purity too. Using this to upgrade equipment will produce a much better finished product than with Dark Void Iron.” Bronnick nodded.

The party of five felt a bomb go off in their heads. This lump of metal was actually Void Gold!? The same material countless people were going crazy over? The world really was going lopsided today! Sure, they could barely accept a level 179 player had a piece Dark Void Iron, but Void Gold? This was straight up heaven-defying!

Dark Void Iron could still be obtained if you forked over two or three million gold. Apparently, the guild leader of Fallen Angel, Plenty, had collected more than 20 Void Ores and refined them into a Dark Void Iron ingot. Asskickers United was even more ruthless. Any piece of void metal that didn’t exceed 10% above the normal market price was instantly snatched up by them. Only when the prices were inflated too high would they give up. According to rumours, they’d gotten some Dark Void Iron through this method. As for how many pieces exactly, no one knew. They were all used up by their top ranked players.

However, even if you had the gold, it was impossible to purchase Void Gold. Up until now, the number of Void Gold Ores in both great factions didn’t exceed five. However, this information couldn’t be correct, since 20 to 25 pieces of Void Gold Ore were required to extract a Void Gold Ingot!

They simply couldn’t imagine how much a Void Gold Ingot could upgrade a piece of Legendary-grade equipment.

When the party of five was still recovering from their shock, Nie Yan finished speaking with Bronnick. A trade window popped up in front of him. All the necessary upgrade materials were already there. He placed in Zennarde’s Sword, then the Void Gold Ingot.

A notification popped up.

With this kind of success rate, if he failed, it simply wasn’t meant to be. However, he doubted he would have this kind of bad luck.

Nie Yan hit confirm. In the next moment, he felt like he was transported into a void. Craftsman God Bronnick stood in front of an enormous forge, striking his hammer. Several days seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. When Nie yan snapped out of his reverie, he was back in the thatch hut. In the trade window, Zennarde’s Sword had a completely new appearance.

The upgrade was a success! Even though he didn’t think his luck was that bad, he still couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. After all, the item he put up was perhaps his most precious. Even he couldn’t bear such a big loss. Seeing it was a success, he felt a huge weight off his heart quickly replaced by endless excitement.

Zennarde’s Sword was originally a pure black, but now it flickered with hints of gold. There was also the addition of pulsing gold runes within the dark flames that raged around the blade. From the extremely demonic appearance to a more solemn and dignified one, it gave off the unrivalled power of a king!

Nie Yan felt the spirit inside Zennarde’s Sword slowly awakening. Only the slightest presence, yet it gave off an imposing aura that looked down on all in the world!

Nie Yan wondered how much the stats of Zennarde’s Sword had changed. His heart raced with excitement and anticipation. He retrieved the item back into his inventory.