Chapter 383 - Blackett Grizzly (1/2)

Chapter 383 - Blackett Grizzly

The Mages finished off the surviving few Phantom Swordsmen with single-target spells. After which the Thieves ran up to collect the loot. Asskickers United sorely lacked Level 50 equipment. With all the players hitting Level 50, there simply wasn’t enough to go around.

In that sense, the Cripps Stronghold was a treasure trove. Level 50 Elites were rare in other places and difficult to deal with. It was impossible to hunt them in large numbers elsewhere like they were doing right now!

After the area-of-effect magic fell, Level 50 equipment littered the ground.

Level 50 equipment was currently extremely expensive in the marketplace due to the short supply and high demand. Every day numerous groups of Level 40+ players set out to high level maps in hopes of finding decent equipment. Of course most of the equipment they found was White or Bronze-grade.

Nie Yan’s group had really hit it big this time by killing all these Phantom Swordsmen.

They slowly cleared away the Phantom Swordsmen in the area. After a while, Lustboy, Sunny South, and Summer Bug reported they had left the Magic Tower. They had replaced many of their old spells with brand new ones.

Nie Yan returned to base camp just in time to see the three of them arrive.

“How was it? Learn anything good?” Nie Yan asked before having them share their skill lists. If the new spells didn’t work out, they could just relearn their old ones but for a fee.

“Learning new skills is expensive. I watched 600 gold go down the drain in an instant.” Lustboy chuckled bitterly. But he couldn’t deny every spell was worth the price.

The Magic Tower in the Cripps Stronghold contained more than 1,000 spells, many of which were of decent quality.

Lustboy had only recently joined the ranks of top players. He didn’t have much gold saved up, unlike Summer Bug or Sunny South who wouldn’t bat an eyelid over several hundred gold.

“Talk to Guo Huai, and he’ll reimburse you guys,” Nie Yan said. He would spare no expense to provide for these top players. They were the future pillars of Asskickers United, so they were worth the investment.

Nie Yan listened to Sunny South, Lustboy, and Summer Bug describe the Magic Tower.

“The Magic Tower has a total of six floors. We could only enter the first and second floor. There were rows of bookshelves packed with thick and heavy books. There were many books that described magic and also many ones about history. The administrator of the Magic Tower is an Old Scholar. He’s in charge of passing down the skills. As long as you give him the appropriate amount of gold, he’ll give you access to the spells.”

Nie Yan skimmed through Lustboy’s skill list. He had learned over 30 spells: Ice Rend, Freeze, Exploding Ice Bullet, Icicle, Ice Spike...

It appeared Lustboy was walking down the path of an Elementalist who specialised in Ice Magic. Nie Yan noticed these spells were all of the most basic kind and shared similar characteristics: short cast times, quick cast speeds, and crowd control.

Nie Yan glanced at Lustboy. It seemed he had some unique ideas.

Such a combination of spells would be effective in both PvP and PvE, granted the player could utilize them properly.

“Lustboy, I like what you’re going for, but you’re lacking damage. After locking the opponent down, you should immediately follow up with high burst damage; otherwise, you’re giving them the chance to turn the tables on you,” Nie Yan gave his two cents.

Lustboy scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “I only had enough gold for these spells. The high damage ones were too expensive.”

“So that’s why. No worries, just talk to Guo Huai. The guild will naturally foot the bill. You’re a contracted player, after all.” Nie Yan smiled. Only now did he recall there would be many other members class advancing in the near future and they would all need to learn new skills too. The expenses just kept piling up. After all, Asskickers United had more than 60,000 players in total! Besides smuggling equipment from the Underworld, he had to expand to other areas of business. He could try capturing a few more strongholds. After developing them, the gold generated should be enough to support the guild.

Nie Yan checked the skill lists of Sunny South and Summer Bug. They too were walking down their own unique paths. Sunny South was a Great Holy Mage. All the spells he learned focused on high damage, which usually came along with long cast times and high skill requirements. Spells with long cast times could easily be interrupted by others. The caster had to have good judgement, awareness, and grasp of timing.

As for Summer Bug, this fellow was far off the beaten path. He was actually learning Shadow Arcane Magic; no crowd control, no high damage, only additional shadow corrosion damage. It behaved similarly to a curse, corroding the enemy’s defense and health. The longer a battle lasted, the more the shadow corrosion damage would accumulate.

Any build was viable as long as you knew how to play to its strengths.

There was no weak skill or weak class, only a weak player.

Mages would become incredibly powerful after visiting a Magic Tower. Even Nie Yan would feel wary encountering such a foe.

These several players all had their unique playstyles and understood their own skills better than anyone else. Not to mention they were famous figures in the previous timeline. Nie Yan could only rely on his experience to give a word of advice here and there.

When they matured and familiarized themselves with their respective skills, Nie Yan wanted to try challenging them in PvP. In the previous timeline, he was definitely no match for existences like Sunny South, Lustboy, and Summer Bug. But in this life, he had long since surpassed his previous limits.

Nie Yan had an almost 10 year lead on them in terms of game experience, so it was only natural he was superior. But as time passed, they would slowly catch up to him and likely surpass him one day.

Nie Yan continued to aggro mobs after the Mages on the rooftops had their area-of-effect spells come back off cooldown.

After roughly three hours, all the Phantom Swordsmen near the plaza were cleared away.