Chapter 328 - Harvest After the Battle

After the battle with Absolute Heaven came to an end, Shi Feng sighed in relief.

If not for the Seven Luminaries Ring, he might really have let the cunning Absolute Heaven get away.

This was how God’s Domain worked. When players attempted to gain some achievements and make a name for themselves, they were like a boat traveling against the current; either they advanced forward or were forced backward. Today’s glory might very well become tomorrow’s laughingstock.

Although Absolute Heaven’s growth was impressive, there was still a considerable gap between him and Shi Feng.

Soon after, Shi Feng looted the items the Assassin had dropped.

Shi Feng was inwardly astonished when he examined Absolute Heaven’s items. The equipment Absolute Heaven dropped was top-tier even among Secret-Silver Equipment. Meanwhile, the daggers he dropped were Fine-Gold rank. With these items, even among the core members of Zero Wing, Absolute Heaven could still reach the middle ranks. Among the Assassins, only Fire Dance and Flying Shadow surpassed Absolute Heaven.

Absolute Heaven was a lone wolf. Yet, even without relying on the support of a Guild or an organization, he still obtained such quality items for himself. He was already an expert standing at the peak of White River City. If Absolute Heaven were not a solo player, the equipment he had possessed might not have been Secret-Silver, but Fine-Gold rank.

If Absolute Heaven had been fully geared with Fine-Gold Equipment today, Shi Feng’s victory would not have been so easily secured.

“Big Sis Aqua, is that really our Guild Leader?” Snow Goose asked hesitantly; her big, round eyes focused on the figure standing proudly within the sea of fire. “He looks so much more powerful than when he appeared in the video. Guild Leader is usually a very ordinary, approachable, and gentle person. But now, even when looking at him from such a distance, I still feel overwhelmed.”

“Naturally.” Aqua Rose giggled. “This is our Guild Leader: ordinary yet reliable.”

Snow Goose had been raiding Dungeons all this time, so she had only ever heard and not personally seen any of Shi Feng’s battles. Now that she had personally witnessed Shi Feng fight for the first time, it was only natural that shock filled her heart.

After all, a video could only portray so much. Only by personally experiencing something could one truly understand it.

“Alright, stop daydreaming. Clean up these remaining Red Players quickly. Over 2,000 NPCs are still chasing Fire Dance and the others, and they could obliterate our team at any moment.”

The Red Names of Creek Town had despaired when faced with Shi Feng and his NPC entourage. Now that Shi Feng had also extinguished the hope presented by Absolute Heaven and the High Lord ranked monster, these Red Names completely lost their heart to resist.

Escape?

How were they supposed to escape?

With Shi Feng’s gale like speed, even if they grew a few more legs, it still would not be enough for them to get away.

After these Red Names lost their fighting spirit, Aqua Rose and the others took little effort to clean up. They took less than a minute to deal with the remaining Red Names of Creek Town. Meanwhile, the harvest they obtained was sufficient to arm a team of 1,000 players.

Throughout this battle, although a few of their members had died and lost a level, when compared to the harvest they obtained, such loss was practically negligible. The items they obtained had easily made up for the total losses Zero Wing had suffered with surplus.

Aqua Rose was overjoyed when she examined their harvest. As the manager of Zero Wing’s daily affairs, she was very clear about what these items represented.

With the addition of this batch of items, after Zero Wing finished recruiting new members, they could arm a large batch of elite players, pushing Zero Wing’s combat power to a whole other level. At that time, even if Dark Star declared another war on Zero Wing, they could still deal with it without needing Ouroboros’s assistance.

“Guild Leader, we’ve dealt with all the Red Names. We can start cooperating with Fire Dance and the others to kill the Blood Hand Association NPCs now,” Aqua Rose happily reported through the team chat.

“Okay. Follow the plan and kill those Blood Hand Association NPCs. Be careful not to lure too many at once. Those NPCs are more sensitive than field monsters,” Shi Feng said. “Oh, right. Send me a healer. I need someone revived.”

“I’m a Cleric! I’ll go! I’ll go!” Snow Goose hurriedly shouted in the team chat, excitedly waving her hand.

Seeing the girl’s reaction, Aqua Rose indulgently said, “Fine, off you go then. In any case, the Tier 1 guards will be responsible for killing those NPCs. Our role is to supply support.”

The Blood Hand Association NPCs were all Level 30 and above, while the members of Zero Wing were only around Level 20. Among those present, only Shi Feng and Blackie possessed 10 Ignore Levels. Everyone else could only deal minute amounts of damage to these NPCs. The most they could do was use some control skills on these Blood Hand Association NPCs.

Although these Blood Hand Association NPCs possessed a certain degree of intelligence, it was only slightly higher than normal field monsters. Otherwise, Fire Dances’ group could not have lured them away.

What Aqua Rose’s group needed to do was to lure the Blood Hand Association NPCs away in small batches and kill them separately. With the strength of forty Level 50 Tier 1 guards, they could easily take care of up to 300 Level 30 Blood Hand Association NPCs each time.

With a massive difference of 20 levels, the attacks of the Blood Hand Association NPCs would only deal damage in the double digits to a Tier 1 Shield Warrior guard. Meanwhile, a Level 50 Tier 1 Shield Warrior possessed over 200,000 HP. Even if dozens of Blood Hand Association NPCs attacked simultaneously, the total damage would only be a tickle to a Level 50 Tier 1 Shield Warrior. The Shield Warrior’s battle recovery alone could restore most of the HP lost. Not to mention, there were still the Tier 1 healers waiting in the wings.

However, NPCs were different from monsters. The NPCs of the Blood Hand Association were very organized when they fought. The warriors that served as meat-shields[1] would stand in front, and the mages would attack from behind, coordinating their attacks with the melee fighters. The healers standing at the rear would also spam heals on the tanks. There was even one time where an Assassin from the Blood Hand Association had circled and ambushed Aqua Rose’s group.

If Cola had not reacted quickly and immediately aggroed the NPC Assassin, the team would have lost at least one member to the NPC.

Compared to everyone else who the NPCs suppressed, Blackie was free and unfettered as he sent spell after spell at the Blood Hand Association. The Mavis’s Guard Blackie wielded allowed him to ignore the massive level difference completely, and each one of Blackie’s attacks could deal around -700 to -800 damage to these Level 30 Elite NPCs.

When Blackie used Stars of Light, the result was simply earthshaking. A damage of over -1,000 appeared above every enemy NPC caught within the skill’s range. Moreover, with each successive bombardment, the damage of the Stars of Light increased by 10%. The skill had a duration of 15 seconds, and by the time the 15th bombardment landed, the enemy NPCs were already receiving over -6,000 damage each. Some of the attacks even achieved critical hits, dealing over -10,000 damage to the enemy NPCs.

These Level 30 Elite NPCs only had 100,000 HP. They stood no chance against Blackie’s Stars of Light.

After Stars of Light ended, over 200 Level 30 Elite NPCs fell to the ground lifelessly. Suddenly, everyone’s experience bars started increasing madly. Some even leveled from Level 19 to Level 20. Even Blackie, who was currently Level 23, saw a huge increase in his experience bar.

Even though the EXP was shared with over a hundred players, each person still obtained a frightening amount.

Originally, everyone had only come here to kill these NPCs for the purpose of completing the Crusade Quest. Now that they had discovered the wealth of EXP in front of them, everyone started working even more enthusiastically.

After killing several waves of NPCs, everyone managed to level up to Level 20 or above. Blackie even reached Level 24. Everyone’s leveling speed was simply frightening.

“Hahaha! Sister Aqua, at the rate we’re leveling, Zero Wing will fully occupy the top 100 spots on the White River City Ranking List!” Blackie laughed.

“That’s a nice idea. All this time, that leveling madman Lone Tyrant had held the ninth position on the Ranking List. Although Guild Leader had killed him once back in the Silverleaf Forest, he had only fallen to tenth place. Seeing that Dark Star is so adamant in challenging us, if we kick Lone Tyrant out of the top 100 of the Ranking List, it would be a massive blow to both Lone Tyrant’s and Dark Star’s reputation. Moreover, we would also elevate Zero Wing’s fame and prestige, killing two birds with one stone.”

Aqua Rose revealed a playful smile when she considered this interesting idea.

“Okay! Let’s kick Lone Tyrant out of the Ranking List!”

TL Notes:

[1]meat-shields - Noun. (plural meat shields) (video games) A so-called "tank" whose main purpose is to hold aggro from MOBs and absorb damage. (video games) A stunned or dead enemy character used as a shield against attacks.