Chapter 1743 - Revisiting the Ice Crystal World
Chapter 1743 – Revisiting the Ice Crystal World
Ice Crystal World, Cold Wind City, the Snow Rift:
Icy-cold winds blew endlessly inside the snowy valley. If a player without Ice Resistance stood here, they would no doubt freeze to death. Even if players possessed sufficient Ice Resistance to survive the cold environment, their Stamina consumption would be several times higher than usual.
Currently, however, there was a very large number of players grinding inside the Snow Rift.
Looking down from the top of the mountain, one would see many large groups of players grinding the monsters here, seemingly used to fighting in this place already.
“We just left for a short while, and there are actually so many people grinding here already?” Yan Ya, who was currently dressed in exquisite dark-blue mage robes and wielding an emerald staff, was slightly surprised as she looked down at the crowd of players grinding beneath the mountain.
Even the lowest leveled player among the players present inside the Snow Rift was Level 50, with most of them being Level 51. Some of the players giving out orders had even reached Level 52.
In an empire on the continent of God’s Domain, a Level 52 player could easily rank within the top 30, yet there were actually more than thirty Level 52 players present in the Snow Rift…
Yan Ya and the rest of the Asura adventurer team members that had gone over to the continent of God’s Domain together with Shi Feng had been roaming about the continent grinding and questing constantly. Shi Feng had even helped them level up a little. However, they had only reached Level 52, yet so many independent experts of Cold Wind City had already managed to reach the same point!
“The monsters in the Ice Crystal World are stronger and provide more EXP, so the leveling speed of the players here is faster than that of the players on the main continent. Right now, the average level of large Guild members on the main continent is already close to reaching Level 50. It is very normal for the mainstream players here to reach Level 51 and 52,” Shi Feng said, not finding this situation particularly surprising.
During his previous visit to the Ice Crystal World, he had discovered that the average level of the players here was much higher than the players on the continent of God’s Domain. The part that truly surprised Shi Feng was the weapons and equipment these players were using.
The drop-rate for weapons and equipment in the Ice Crystal World was extremely low. Normally, monsters here only dropped materials. The main source of weapons and equipment was from Lifestyle Players. Hence, the quality of the weapons and equipment used by the players here was considerably inferior to those used by the players on the main continent. In contrast, the standard of the Lifestyle Players here was much higher.
Most of the Level 50 players present in the Snow Rift were geared in Level 50 Mysterious-Iron Equipment, with some even being geared in Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment. The equipment standard of these players was not the slightest bit inferior to the players residing on the main continent.
After reaching Level 50, the drop-rate for weapons and equipment would decrease drastically.
Currently, Level 50, 20-man Team Dungeons were the goal of independent players on the main continent. Meanwhile, the best equipment dropped in these Dungeons was Level 50 Secret-Silver rank, although the drop-rate was extremely low. The drop-rate was only at an acceptable level if one raided at Hell Mode. However, a Level 50, 20-man Hell Mode Team Dungeon was still too difficult of a challenge for current independent players.
As a result, even after reaching Level 50, most players on the continent of God’s Domain would only be geared in Level 50 Mysterious-Iron Equipment. Few of them possessed Secret-Silver Equipment. As for Level 50 Fine-Gold Equipment, that was something only large Guilds were capable of acquiring.
It also wasn’t very easy for players to produce high-quality Level 50 equipment.
After reaching Level 50, not only did the production procedures for weapons and equipment become more complex, but the production success rate also decreased. Even Shi Feng, despite having become a Basic Master Forger already, still needed the help of a bunch of excellent support tools to produce high-quality Level 50 equipment at a profitable rate.
Shi Feng found it very difficult to imagine that the Lifestyle Players of Cold Wind City were already capable of producing Level 50 Secret-Silver Weapons and Equipment.
If the Lifestyle Players here had truly reached such a standard already, then the average forging standard of Cold Wind City was even higher than that of the Candlelight Trading Firm!
The Candlelight Trading Firm possessed many Secret Forging Techniques. Candlelight could even send players to train at the Holy City of Titan. Members of Candlelight could also work and practice in the Mana-rich environment of Zero Wing City, yet despite these factors, Candlelight’s overall forging standard was still inferior to the forging standard of Cold Wind City. How could Shi Feng not be surprised by this fact?
“Commander, those people over there seem to be members of our adventurer team,” Solitary Nine said, smiling as he pointed at a 50-man team currently fighting against a Level 56 Great Lord.
Currently, six Level 51 MTs were working together to pin down the Level 56 Great Lord-ranked Frost Ape. The Frost Ape was very powerful. Even when three MTs worked together to receive one of its normal attacks, the MTs would still get pushed back and receive over 10,000 damage each. To cope with the Frost Ape’s powerful attacks, the six MTs would take turns receiving its attacks.
Of course, to Level 51 MTs, losing 10,000-plus HP was not a cause for concern. Instead, the truly troublesome part about the Frost Ape was the Freezing debuff its attacks inflicted. If one were struck by the Frost Ape, their body’s movements would turn sluggish. If struck too many times, even their Movement Speed would decrease. At the same time, the damage they received would also increase.
However, although the Frost Ape was very powerful, Asura’s 50-man team was still able to reduce its HP steadily. It was only a matter of time before the Frost Ape died.
After hearing Solitary Nine’s words, Lifeless Thorn, Cleansing Whistle, Dark Madness, Yan Ya, and the other members of Asura in the team turned to look in the Frost Ape’s direction. For a moment, they all could not help but sigh ruefully.
Although the Asura members that were currently in combat were relatively strong and high-leveled, in their eyes, these players were still too lacking when it came to combat standards.
This was something they had learned after leaving the Ice Crystal World.
The players of the Ice Crystal World might be higher-leveled, but the average combat standard of the players on the continent of God’s Domain was significantly higher.
The Asura members in the Ice Crystal World needed 50 people to suppress the Level 56 Great Lord ranked Frost Ape. If the task were left to the various large Guilds of God’s Domain, a 20-man team would be more than enough to deal with such an opponent.
Just as Solitary Nine and the others were talking about their fellow companions’ combat standards, an army of players suddenly entered the valley below them. There were easily over 3,000 players in this army. Meanwhile, these players all wore Level 50 Mysterious-Iron Equipment of matching designs. It was obvious that the equipment was player-made. Some of the leader-level individuals in this army were also equipped in five or more pieces of Secret-Silver Equipment. As for the 100-man team moving in the lead of this army, over half of the equipment on them was Level 50 Secret-Silver rank.
The gorgeous and neat equipment these players wore quickly earned them the envy of the other players present inside the Snow Rift. At the same time, fear surfaced in the eyes of the surrounding crowd.
The players in this army all wore a Guild Emblem in the shape of a black lion. They were, evidently, Guild players.
When the players grinding in the Snow Rift saw the arrival of these players, they immediately started a discussion between themselves.
“Amazing! So, this is Hecate?”
“Sure enough, Hecate isn’t something the Guilds of Cold Wind City can hope to compare to. It’s no wonder the Matchless Family decided to join Hecate. Moreover, with how much pressure Hecate is placing on the Centurion Dynasty, I believe it won’t be long before the Centurion Dynasty disbands!”
“I really wish I could join Hecate! I heard that there are plenty of weapons and equipment made available for exchange in the Guild. One is eligible to exchange for Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment just by becoming an elite member. It’s a pity Hecate’s recruitment requirements are too high.”
…
As the players grinding in the Snow Rift watched Hecate’s army slowly approach, they felt a sense of yearning towards the Guild. Right now, they had to grind arduously for rare materials and then use these materials to trade for a piece of Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment from Hecate. If they could become members of Hecate, however, they would not have to go through all that trouble. They also wouldn’t have to make unfavorable trades with Hecate.
“Hecate’s reserving this place! Non-members leave this place immediately!”
“If you’re not gone within five minutes, we’ll forcefully evict you from this place!”
Just as the spectating crowd was chatting among themselves, a few of Hecate’s members suddenly started evicting players from the map.
“What?! Hecate has occupied several high-resource leveling maps before. This leveling spot is something we found after going through great lengths! How can you guys just come here and take it from us?”
“That’s right! This is too much!”
“Without this place, how are we supposed to grind for rare materials?”
For a time, the various independent players all complained about Hecate’s tyrannic actions.
“What? You guys have something to say about this?” At this moment, a savage man wearing light-blue armor walked out from Hecate’s army. The man then sent a glance at the crowd before him, sneering, “If you have something to say, fine! Come say it to my face!”
Hearing this man’s words, everyone suddenly went quiet.
The savage man before them was named Vast Heaven, and very famous in Cold Wind City. On the first day he had arrived in Cold Wind City, he had killed over thirty experts from the Centurion Dynasty. Afterward, in the Guild war between Hecate and the Centurion Dynasty, not only did Vast Heaven managed to kill over a hundred players all by himself, he even managed to slay Centurion Dynasty’s Guild Leader, Sky Slicer!
How could they possibly dare fight him?
Everyone started quietly leaving the area, no longer daring to say anything about Hecate’s actions. Meanwhile, Asura’s 50-man team finally defeated the Frost Ape and were about to pick up their loot and leave as well.
“Wait a minute! This place is already under Hecate’s management! You guys over there leave those materials behind!” Vast Heaven shouted as he looked at Asura’s members.
“Vast Heaven, we killed this Boss! Don’t you dare go overboard!” the Berserker serving as the leader of Asura’s 50-man team said as he looked at Vast Heaven.
“What? You guys want to fight?” Vast Heaven laughed. “Sure! Come at me! I’ll even let all of you attack me together! If you manage to kill me, I’ll immediately have my men leave the area!”