Chapter 780 - General (1/2)

For two months, Nie Yan’s team slowly made their way through the wasteland of the World of Darkness.

Every time Nie Yan gazed up ahead, the volcano was closer in view. It was already within reach now. The journey here took far longer than they originally imagined. Everyone’s levelling speeds had also slowed to a crawl. Nie Yan had reached Level 145 while Tang Yao and Xie Yao were only Level 146.

However, during these 2 months, Nie Yan had received quite a bit of good news. Black Heaven, Hapless Frog, Tyrannical, Monochrome, Edgeless, Happy Hermit, and Sunny South had successfully cleared their class advancement quests, increasing the number of Masters in Asskickers United from 21 to 28. Furthermore, of the three Archbishops in the Viridian Empire, all of them belonged to Asskickers United! Meanwhile, nine new Masters had appeared in the Satreen Empire, only three of which belonged to Angel Corps.

In terms of number of Masters, Asskickers United had always been far ahead of the rest. With 28 Masters, Lil’ Gold, and Paladin Lafus, Nie Yan had some confidence in taking on the Blood Reaver Corps. In a duel, Masters were far stronger than Silver Wings. However, that meant nothing in a team battle. Teamwork was the keyword here, an art the Blood Reaver Corps had perfected. In the previous timeline, countless teams from the Satreen Empire and Viridian Empire had suffered losses at their hands.

With so many Masters, Nie Yan believed they could repel the Blood Reaver Corps from the Abernathy Great Grasslands.

Nie Yan had received multiple updates from Guo Huai over the last two months, informing him in detail the endless heachache the Blood Reaver Corps gave to the guilds in the Satreen Empire. Even when the large guilds had dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to hunt down them down, it was to no avail. Instead, they ended up suffering heavy losses with tens of thousands of casualties. The players of the Satreen Empire were terrified, to the extent their faces would pale at the mere mention of the Blood Reaver Corps. Asskickers United’s Thieves had also lost track of them several times.

When Nie Yan’s team arrived at the base of the volcano, they received a notification.

You have discovered Morphest’s Volcano.

Nie Yan raised an eyebrow in surprise. This mountain was actually named after Morphest!

The end was finally in sight.

At this moment, Paternoster’s Warhammer in Nie Yan’s bag started going berserk, spewing out electric and frost energy. He sensed the spirit inside the weapon stirring awake.

You have sensed a powerful darkness energy. The great spirit within Paternoster’s Warhammer awakens. You hear it beckons. This is the willpower of the fragmented spirit of a war god. It lets out an enraged roar, “Brave adventurer, kill him! Kill Drakuru, that eternal disgrace and traitor of a disciple!”

One scene after another flashed through Nie Yan’s mind, narrating a complete story. Drakuru was an orc and was once the leader of the Satreen Empire’s Royal Orc Legion. In a battle against the Demon Tribe, a mistake he made led to the crushing defeat of his forces. However, unlike a man of honour, he refused to accept responsibility and instead pinned the blame on several officers under him. They were executed for his mistakes. A demon was born in his heart and slowly grew up, as his actions became increasingly heinous until one day he tried to overthrow the Satreen Empire’s royalty. After being discovered, he inflicted a mortal blow to the Orc King and fled, from then on walking the path of a traitor. The Orc King eventually succumbed to his wounds and died, leading to a power struggle that lasted over 30 years. Drakuru became public enemy number one of the Satreen Empire. While he was on the run, the demon in his heart eroded what little good was left in him, and he transformed into a Demonified Lord.

Another notification popped up. Nie Yan looked over it.

Kill the traitor Drakuru. But first, find Morphest and talk to him.

It was an assassination quest, but Nie Yan still had no idea about the details. Morphest would probably fill him in on those, and since this volcano was named after him, he was probably somewhere nearby.

“Boss, did you get an update on your quest?”

“Yeah, I have to find an NPC called Morphest.”

“Have Sun, King of the World, Shadow Killer, Mistaken Smile, and One Strike Vow split up and search for him. That’ll speed things up a little,” Smoke Stub suggested. It would take a lot of time for them to explore the entire volcano as a group. It would be more efficient to split up. Naturally, Thieves were the most suited class for this task.

“You should stay with us, Nie Yan. We need at least one Thief,” Bladelight said.

Nie Yan rubbed his chin, then turned to Sun, Mistaken Smile, and the other Thieves. “Then I’ll be troubling you guys.”

“What trouble? Helping each other out is only natural,” Mistaken Smile replied with a smile.

The five Shadow Dancers split up in different directions, disappearing into stealth. They were each in charge of a different region, with Nie Yan and the others going straight up to the peak.

“Boss, what kind of quest did you get?” Undying Scoundrel asked. Over these past two and a half months, they had encountered countless dangers and nearly wiped several times. One could imagine how high the difficulty of this quest was.

“It’s a quest to obtain the Assassin’s Heart. I have to assassinate a Demonified Lord. It’s a pretty high difficulty quest. Worst comes to worst, we’ll have to die to get out. It’s just a shame I’ll lose a few items I worked pretty hard to get. I don’t know if we'll get a chance to come back here again, or if we can even find an exit,” Nie Yan said. If he died, the losses would be serious.

“What kind of items? Guaranteed drops on death?” Summer Bug asked. He had encountered similar items before. They all generally had pretty good properties.

Nie Yan thought for a moment. Since he trusted this group, he didn’t mind sharing. “It’s a hammer.” He shared the stats of Paternoster’s Warhammer in the chat.

The light-hearted conversation came to an abrupt halt. Everyone’s expressions instantly froze.

A moment later, Undying Scoundrel broke the silence and cried out in shock, “Fuck! A Sacred Object! Conviction actually has items like these!? Those properties! Look at them!”