Chapter 159 – Fourth-Floor Expert

“I can’t say for certain,” the Half-Demonkin named Graysword answered. Graysword was a tall and robust man with dark-gray skin covered in pitch-black runes. After quietly watching Shi Feng’s battle for a moment, he hesitantly said, “But according to my experience as a Swordsman, anyone capable of executing a Saint-level Mana Technique to such a level of perfection should be a fourth-floor expert.”

“A fourth-floor expert?! Blood Hammer couldn’t help but turn to look at Graysword in disbelief when he heard the Half-Demonkin’s words. “Their God’s Domain shouldn’t have access to the Greater God’s Domain yet, so how can an expert of such caliber appear there already?”

Before a God’s Domain gained access to the Greater God’s Domain, it would typically categorize its experts based on the Realms of Refinement.

However, in the Greater God’s Domain, there was only one publicly acknowledged categorization for strength—the World Tower.

The World Tower was similar to the Trial Tower available in every God’s Domain, and all players in the Greater God’s Domain ranked their strengths based on their performance in the World Tower.

However, compared to the Trial Tower, the World Tower’s difficulty was significantly greater. So long as players managed to clear the World Tower’s first floor, they would be publicly recognized as experts in the Greater God’s Domain. Meanwhile, experts of such caliber were welcomed by the various powers in the Greater God’s Domain.

If a player successfully cleared the second floor, they’d become an expert that even the Greater God’s Domain’s various peak powers would actively try to recruit. Meanwhile, experts such as Hundred Flower Palace’s Cleansed Rue would be at the World Tower’s second-floor standard.

Going one step above would be the third-floor experts. These experts were also known as God-ranked experts.

Typically, only Tier 6 God-ranked experts would be capable of clearing the World Tower’s third floor. Of course, there were bound to be exceptions since not everyone would have the fortune to reach Tier 6. After all, besides having sufficiently high combat standards, players would also need to have sufficient fortuitous opportunities to get promoted to Tier 6.

The current Hundred Flower Palace’s Crimson Heart could just barely be considered a third-floor expert. Everyone in the Tower Alliance’s party was similarly at this standard. Unfortunately, they were all stuck at the cusp of reaching Tier 6.

As for experts capable of clearing the World Tower’s fourth floor, these were existences capable of ranking within the top ten in their God’s Domain. Even the Tower Alliance only had one such player in its midst.

It should be known that the difficulty of the World Tower’s third and fourth floors was worlds apart from each other. The fourth floor’s challenge was so difficult that every one of their God’s Domain’s current fourth-floor experts had only managed to clear the fourth floor after gaining access to the Greater God’s Domain and sparring numerous times with the God-ranked experts there.

Thus, Blood Hammer found it hard to imagine that a God’s Domain that had yet to gain access to the Greater God’s Domain could produce an expert of such caliber. Not to mention, said expert was only at Level 110 and had come to a place like the Sealing Labyrinth.

“If that’s the case, it might be worth befriending Hundred Flower Palace,” Maria said. While watching Shi Feng singlehandedly tanking the Dark Titan, she couldn’t help but reevaluate the importance of Hundred Flower Palace. “The Stratified Abyssal Realm is the gathering place for the various God’s Domains’ newbies. Setting aside the native players, the strongest players there are third-floor experts like us. There is no way any power would send a fourth-floor expert there. If we can get a fourth-floor expert’s help, we’ll have a much easier time establishing a foothold in the Stratified Abyssal Realm.”

The Stratified Abyssal Realm might be a gathering place for the various God’s Domains’ newbies, but it was also a place highly contested by the powers of the various God’s Domains. This was because aside from being rich in rare resources such as the Seven Luminaries Crystal, the Stratified Abyssal Realm was also home to many players with superior talent.

Due to the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s nature, many of its native players grew faster than players based in normal God’s Domains. Their chances of becoming second-floor and third-floor experts were also several times higher. Occasionally, fourth-floor experts would even appear in the Stratified Abyssal Realm. Meanwhile, these experts had become a resource fought over by the Greater God’s Domain’s various powers.

If Guilds could recruit these native experts to their cause, it would significantly help their development. After all, competition in the Greater God’s Domain was incredibly harsh. NPC protection also did not exist in the Greater God’s Domain. Thus, if a Guild wished to establish a foothold in the Greater God’s Domain, it would need many capable experts.

Meanwhile, so long as the Stratified Abyssal Realm developed to a certain extent, it would become a part of the Greater God’s Domain. Once that happened, recruiting the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s experts would become significantly more difficult since every power in the Greater God’s Domain would be competing over these talents. Hence, before the Stratified Abyssal Realm merged with the Greater God’s Domain, the various Guilds needed to enter the Stratified Abyssal Realm and snatch up as many of these experts as possible.

…

While Maria and the others were holding their hushed discussion, the Dark Titan’s HP was rapidly decreasing due to the attacks of Crimson Heart, Cleansed Rue, and Shi Feng.

Every one of their attacks dealt over a million damage. From time to time, Rain Song would also take over Shi Feng’s job of tanking the Dark Titan, giving Shi Feng the opportunity to execute Lightshadow and shave off over ten million of the Boss’s HP.

Monsters in the Sealing Labyrinth did not have any battle recovery, so every HP the Dark Titan lost would be permanent so long as it remained in combat. Thus, even though the Dark Titan had 15 billion HP, it would eventually fall so long as Shi Feng and the others did not run out of Stamina and Concentration.

However, the Dark Titan wasn’t as easy of an opponent as everyone thought. When its HP fell to 30%, it suddenly let loose an angry roar. Then, an identical copy of itself split from its body.

“It can even use Dark Division?” Crimson Heart’s complexion paled when she looked at the two Dark Titans before her.

Dark Division was a Tier 4 Super Spell that allowed users to create a perfect copy of themselves. Although the Spell only had a short duration of several minutes, the doppelganger created would possess all of the original’s Basic Attributes, Skills, and Spells. Moreover, even if the doppelganger was killed, it would not affect the main body in any way.

They already had their plates full dealing with one Dark Titan. Only death would await them if they had to deal with two Dark Titans.

“The Boss would use such a move at 30% HP? How is anyone supposed to raid it?” Blood Hammer couldn’t help but be dumbfounded when he saw this development. He never thought that the Dark Titan would have such a move in store.

Previously, he thought that his party still had a chance of raiding the Dark Titan. All they needed to do was come up with a viable strategy. However, after seeing the Dark Titan use Dark Division, he no longer thought as such. After all, there wasn’t a second person in their party capable of tanking the Dark Titan’s attacks.

“But this is a chance for us,” Maria suddenly said, her eyes glowing with excitement as she looked at the two Dark Titans.

Currently, neither of their parties could go up against the Dark Titan on their own. They could only get past this Guardian Boss if their parties worked together.

“Indeed. They’ll have no choice but to cooperate with us now,” Blood Hammer said, smiling.

However, going against Maria and Blood Hammer’s expectations, Shi Feng had long since expected such a development. As soon as the Dark Titan used Dark Division, he promptly activated the Winter of Eternal Night’s World of Frost.

Immediately, nine frost swords appeared around the two Dark Titans, each frost sword carrying 120% of Shi Feng’s Strength. Although the Sealing Labyrinth’s mental oppression prevented Shi Feng from displaying his full potential, he still managed to manipulate the nine frost swords to the point where every frost sword could execute a basic combat technique. Meanwhile, with the help of the nine frost swords, Shi Feng was able to keep both Dark Titans pinned down.

“Is he really just a fourth-floor expert?”

This scene dumbfounded Blood Hammer and the others.

While they found it shocking that Shi Feng had managed to single-handedly suppress the Dark Titan’s berserk mode, they found it even more shocking that he could exert such a high degree of control over the nine frost swords with their current circumstances. The level of control Shi Feng exhibited was simply astounding.

At this time, even Crimson Heart, Gentle Snow, and the others were stunned by this situation.

Under the Sealing Labyrinth’s powerful mental oppression, the most they could do was execute one basic combat technique at a time. Yet, in addition to executing basic combat techniques with all nine frost swords, Shi Feng was also simultaneously clashing with the Dark Titans directly…

Subsequently, time passed by quickly. Two minutes after the Dark Titan used Dark Division, the Spell’s duration expired, and the second Dark Titan disappeared.

Meanwhile, as soon as the second Dark Titan’s disappearance, Shi Feng promptly attacked the original Dark Titan with all nine Frost Swords.

World of Frost had a three-minute duration, which was only one minute more than the Dark Titan’s Dark Division. In a situation where everyone’s Stamina and Concentration were rapidly depleting, he needed to take advantage of every opportunity to kill the Dark Titan as soon as possible.

The Dark Titan already had its hands full fighting Shi Feng, so it naturally didn’t have any leeway to defend against the nine frost swords. As a result, the nine frost swords had free rein over the Dark Titan’s defenseless body, causing over three million damage per attack.

Subsequently, the Dark Titan’s HP bar could be seen draining at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Crimson Heart and Cleansed Rue also stopped holding back, both of them activating their Legacy Berserk Skills and doubling their Basic Attributes. They intended to shave away the Dark Titan’s remaining HP in one fell swoop.

%… 10%… 3%… 1%…

Boom!

Eventually, the Dark Titan fell to its knees as its HP reduced to zero.

…

TL Notes:

[1]World Tower: The World Tower(世界塔) mentioned here is different from the World Tower(世界之塔) located in Dragonheart Island. If I were to translate 世界之塔 in a more direct manner, it’d be “World’s Tower” or “Tower of the World.”