Chapter 335 – Glory Kills
Lil’ Gold and Nie Yan quickly cleared the herd of Bloodthirsty Porcupines, littering the ground with corpses. Like the first one, each of their corpses dissolved into motes of light before disappearing.
Nie Yan checked the Holy Spirit Heart quest. He had purified a total of 56 corpses.
As long as Nie Yan continued purifying evil creatures, he could eventually unlock all seals on Zennarde’s Sword. It was the best weapon he had ever seen, much better than those so-called godly equipment posted on the forums in the previous lifetime. When it was fully unlocked, its properties would be beyond astonishing.
Tyrant Abak’s Set and Zennarde’s Sword were the pinnacle pieces of equipment Nie Yan would work toward in this life!
Nie Yan had Lil’ Gold tank at the front while he repeatedly cast Undead Rite from the back. He eventually caught five Bloodthirsty Porcupines: two ordinary, two Leader, and one Elite. Their damage was negligible, but they had high health and tough armour, making them decent meat shields.
Nie Yan continued to aggro herds of porcupines while using his meat shields to tank the damage. When one of them died, he would just capture another one.
The Dark Magic Effect +100% property of Finas’ Fate Pearl greatly increased the potency of Undead Rite. Its success rate was much higher than before.
Nie Yan, Lil’ Gold, and his five Bloodthirsty Porcupines swept away everything in their path, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.
「Ding!」Following a crisp jingle, Nie Yan lit up with a bright radiance and finally reached Level 37.
Nie Yan checked the level leaderboards. Tang Yao and Bloodlust Mad Blade occupied the top two positions at Level 53 and 52 respectively. They were practically neck and neck. Many players from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors were also quickly rising up in the ranks.
Bloodlust Blades, Alliance of Mages, and Divine Protectors only caught up on the leaderboards because of the nonstop conflict in Calore, leaving the players from Asskickers United little free time to level. However, Asskickers United still held an unshakeable position with 6 players in the top 10, and 27 players in the top 50.
Everyone’s level was already so high. Nie Yan was truly a bit lacking in comparison.
I really need to catch up quickly, Nie Yan resolved. Afterwards, I’ll find a town or village and ask around about the nearest city.
While Nie Yan was in the middle of grinding mobs, he noticed bright explosions of magic in the plains up ahead. It was activity from players of the Evil Faction!
I should go take a look first. It’ll be troublesome if they discover me while I’m grinding here, Nie Yan thought before starting to make his way over there. He ordered Lil’ Gold and the five Bloodthirsty Porcupines to continue grinding.
Nie Yan’s body melted into the darkness as if he were a spirit of the night.
Nie Yan approached within 10 meters of the players. Several figures entered his vision. They looked completely different from anyone he’d seen on the surface, with pale white skin lacking a single trace of life, blonde hair, and incorporeal bodies.
This appearance… they’re ghosts! Nie Yan inwardly exclaimed. It seems I’m in the Undead Empire… The class system of the Undead Empire was on the simpler side compared to other empires in the Underworld, comprising Dark Shaman, Spectral Knight, Undead Raider, Dark Incantist, Necromancer, and Spectral Thief.
Out of these six classes, the Necromancer was the main force of the Undead Empire. With the ability to summon all sorts of undead creatures and monsters, they could deal just as much damage as a Mage.
Undead Shamans were similar to Priests in the sense that their primary job was healing. Dark Incantists were known as the most frightening class. They could render players helpless with debilitating curses and cast powerful magic.
Spectral Knights tanked in front with sword and shield similar to Fighters, while Undead Raiders were more offense orientated like Berserkers.
Last but not least, Spectral Thieves were quite notorious.
Among all Thief classes, undead and elven Thieves stood out above the rest. The former were experts at crowd control while the latter were experts at stealth, both of which were essential aspects for a Thief.
Furthermore, undead Thieves possessed the unique racial skill, Undead Will, which allowed the player to ignore Mind Magic to a certain degree. Even though its duration was short, it was quite useful in PvP.
This was exactly why players viewed the undead and elven races as the most suited for the Thief class. Humans were a close second thanks to their ability to disarm traps and use magical tools.
However, racial traits didn’t determine strength, skill did. If you wanted to become genuinely strong, you would have to rely on your own ability; otherwise, it would be useless no matter what race you picked.
Nie Yan observed the six players from the shadows. Their group consisted of a Dark Shaman, a Necromancer, two Dark Incantists, a Spectral Knight, and a Spectral Thief. The Necromancer had summoned a Skeleton Fighter. It wore tattered armour, supported a rusty helmet on its head, and carried a broken hatchet in its hand.
There were seven enemies in total.
Nie Yan activated Transcendent Insight. They were all around Level 45, which counted as above average among the player base.
This was Nie Yan’s first encounter with players from the Evil Faction. He didn’t know how skilled they were. Even though he had been to the Underworld in his past life, the place he visited back then was the Demon Tribe.
The Undead Empire and Demon Tribe were allied nations, just like the Viridian and Satreen Empires.
Nie Yan couldn’t hear what they were talking about. Only after moving a little closer did he realize they were speaking in the Vanbiya Undead Language which was one of the main languages in the Undead Empire.
Thankfully, he had learned the Vanbiya Undead Language.1 Otherwise, it would’ve been a pain for him to move around in the Underworld.
They were chatting about various topics. Nie Yan only heard bits and pieces of their conversation.
“Wily Six, what’s the range of your Night Vision?” the Necromancer asked. He conjured up a black fireball in his palm and shot it at a Bloodthirsty Porcupine.
“65 meters, it’s still too low to comfortably move about,” replied the Thief called Wily Six.
“Hah… If I knew it would be like this, I would’ve bought that piece of equipment with Night Vision +12 for 30 gold,” the Necromancer said in slight vexation. Too bad that ship had already sailed.
A piece of equipment with Night Vision +12 only costs 30 gold!? Nie Yan inwardly cried out in surprise. Such a piece of equipment would sell for upwards of 3,000 gold on the surface!
Their names were highlighted black, signifying they belonged to an enemy faction. Not only could Nie Yan freely attack them, but he also wouldn’t be penalized with a red name for killing them. Instead, he would be rewarded with a Glory Kill.
A player in the Viridian Empire could receive military ranks based on their Glory Kills: 10-man Commander, 100-man Commander, 1,000-man Commander, 10,000-man Commander, General, Great General
A player with a military rank could enjoy special privileges such as purchasing a set from the Glory Sets Series at a reduced price. Of course, the sets which were available differed according to military rank. A General could purchase a Sub Legendary Glory Set while a Great General could purchase a Legendary Glory Set. Glory Sets generally had properties that focused on PvP.
Outside of the Glory Set Series, players with high ranks could also become a member of the Viridian Empire’s parliament and take part in government affairs. They could wield enough power to shroud the skies. If Nie Yan could become a member of parliament, he would have dozens of methods available to squash Level 7 or lower guilds.
The higher the military rank, the better. However, you couldn’t become a Great General just by mindlessly killing however many people. You would also have to complete SSS-grade quests. In the previous timeline, there were a few Generals and only a single Great General, who nobody knew the identify of. All people knew was that the Great General never revealed themselves in public. Generals and Great Generals were existences that had slaughtered countless enemies, both players and NPCs. They would be constantly pursued and surrounded by the enemy and still come out alive in a hopeless situation. They stood proudly at the pinnacle of power!
Nie Yan wondered just how high of a rank he would reach by the time he unlocked all the seals of Zennarde’s Sword.
There was no harm in trying to raise his military rank. Maybe he could really become a General or Great General.
Nie Yan locked onto the six players in front of him. In the wilderness, Evil Faction Players would generally use any means to kill their opponent.
Nie Yan had no enmity with these people. However, they belonged to different factions, so it was inevitable they became enemies. If they discovered him first, they would do the same.
Thinking to this point, Nie Yan ordered Lil’ Gold and the five Bloodthirsty Porcupines to surround these six players.
“Wily Six, go pull some more mobs,” the Necromancer said.
“Alright.” Wily Six who was wearing ash-gray leather armour entered stealth, disappearing from sight.
Nie Yan looked around but he couldn’t detect the position of Wily Six anymore. His Darkness Awareness was too low, and his range of vision was too small. He could only clearly see things within 10 meters of him. Everything past that was darkness.
In this sort of dark environment, Thieves were an extremely frightening class. Unless you had sufficient Darkness Awareness, you would be killed before you even knew what happened.
1. Nie Yan learned the Vanbiya Undead Language back in Chapter 167.