Regarding hatching the Darkwing Dragon before entering the Realm of Death, Nie Yan didn't hold any extravagant hopes. He was even about to give up, when Guo Huai sent word a Life Crystal had been found!
Nie Yan was elated. He hurriedly called up Guo Huai.
「Someone is selling a Life Crystal?」Nie Yan asked.
「Yeah, we've already made contact with him. That bastard's really greedy. He isn't willing to sell even for 100,000 gold,」Guo Huai said.
50,000 gold was already a sky high price for a Life Crystal. However, the other party still considered Nie Yan's offer too low.
Nie Yan frowned.「How much does he want?」
「I'm guessing he knows we're desperate. That's why he's trying to milk us for as much as he can. He said 200,000 gold, no less, or all negotiations are off. Exchanging equipment is fine too,」Guo Huai said, his eyes flashing with killing intent. 200,000 gold for a Life Crystal? How about you go rot in a hole instead!
「Exchanging equipment...」Nie Yan pondered for a moment, then asked,「What kind of equipment does he want?」Some experts didn't particularly care for gold, since they had plenty of it. At their level, top quality equipment was much more attractive, the kind that couldn't be bought even if you had the money. If they came in possession of a relatively rare item, they generally wouldn't sell it but would rather exchange it for equipment instead.
「Top quality Shadow Priest equipment, and he's picky. That guy's equipment is pretty good too. He has quite a few pieces of Sub Legendary-grade equipment. He even has a Legendary-grade staff,」Guo Huai said.
A Shadow Priest with amazing equipment...? Nie Yan's heart trembled. Shadow Priests were the least played class, with next to no experts. Only two players came to mind, that fellow on the Wind Serpent who attacked Tang Yao and Black Heaven's big brother.「What's that person's name?」
「Black Hell,」Guo Huai replied.
「It really is him. What a small world...」Nie Yan muttered. He didn't expect to meet Black Hell again. A Life Crystal wasn't something that could be obtained purely by luck. A certain amount of skill was required too. The fact that Black Hell had managed to obtain one wasn't strange.
「You know him?」
「He's Black Heaven's big brother.」
「Oh, so it's like that... Since he's an acquaintance, that makes things much easier,」Guo Huai said. Black Heaven was a huge pain in the beginning. But after getting to know everyone, he gradually blended in. Although he was a recluse by nature, he respected people with ability. If Asskickers United was full of trash, he probably wouldn't have stayed for very long. He initially looked down on everyone in the guild. However, after meeting Undying Scoundrel and the others and losing several times to them in one-on-one duels, then witnessing the skill of Bladelight, Smoke Stub, and the rest, his view changed. Afterwards, when everyone got familiar with one another, they realized Black Heaven himself wasn't too bad either. Since Black Hell was his big brother, there was no harm in having him do the negotiations.
「First, see if we have any good Shadow Priest equipment. We shouldn't try taking advantage of him,」Nie Yan said. If he could obtain a Life Crystal, trading away a few pieces of equipment was definitely worth it.
「Nie Yan, can we try recruiting Black Hell? I mean, Black Heaven is already here,」Guo Huai asked.
「It'll be difficult. I've already tried but failed. He seems to have some special attachment to the Dark Hero guild.」
「Hmmm? Black Hell wasn't wearing a guild emblem, though. He's a solo player. I heard a while back some Shadow Priest in Dark Hero slaughtered more than 20 of their guildmates, including the guild leader, and then withdrew from the guild. Maybe that's him?」
Nie Yan hadn't heard about this incident. This wasn't odd. Guilds like Dark Hero were basically ants compared to Asskickers United. Why would he pay them any heed? Even if Guo Huai happened to learn about their matters, he wouldn't bring it up either. Whatever drama broke out within these guilds was inconsequential to Asskickers United.
「Black Hell withdrew from Dark Hero?」Nie Yan found this piece of news hard to believe.
Since Black Hell was currently guildless, Nie Yan had a chance of recruiting him to Asskickers United!
「How skilled is that fellow?」Guo Huai excitedly asked. Everyone could see how skilled Black Heaven was. Since Black Hell was the big brother, he shouldn't be too bad either.
「He's definitely a godly Shadow Priest. If he joined Asskickers United, he could easily place within the top five of the entire guild,」Nie Yan replied. The top five within Asskickers United, this was a position many players strived for but could never hope to reach.
Guo Huai's heart shook. Just what did this signify? Right now, the top five in Asskickers United were Nie Yan, Bladelight, Smoke Stub, Sun, and Tang Yao in that order. Although no one had witnessed King of the World's strength yet, Nie Yan estimated he was no weaker than Sun. Just below were Xie Yao, One Strike Vow, Lustboy, and so on. With so much competition, one could imagine how difficult it would be to enter the top five.
Yet Nie Yan dared to claim that Black Hell could do it!
Guo Huai's eyes lit up. Such a player was definitely a national treasure!
「I'll ask Black Heaven to try and convince Black Hell to join the guild. If he can't do it, I'll give that brat a piece of my mind!」Guo Huai said in high spirits. He quickly went to contact Black Heaven.
Black Heaven likely also wanted Black Hell to join Asskickers United. It now all depended on what Black Hell wanted. Last time, his choice was to stay in Dark Hero, probably because his attachment to the guild was too deep. But now, he'd withdrawn from the guild. As for what happened, no one knew. If Black Heaven tried really hard to convince Black Hell, maybe Black Hell might actually join Asskickers United.
After all, Asskickers United was the guild for Black Hell to join if he wanted to join one, if only for his little brother Black Heaven.
Nie Yan was fine letting Guo Huai and Black Heaven deal with this matter.
As for the Life Crystal, Guo Huai would probably send it over before it was time to log off. For an expert like Black Hell, such an item probably wasn't very useful.
Knowing that he could hatch the Darkwing Dragon Egg soon, Nie Yan got fired up.
Nie Yan glanced at the flying mount leaderboards. There were already six entries, a number that would only keep rising. The Netherthunder Eagle was pushed down a rank by an Achlys Dragonfly. Among these six flying mounts, two belonged to Asskickers United. One was Tang Yao's Netherthunder Eagle, and the other was Natural Fiend's recently acquired Azure Wing Albatross.
The Azure Wing Albatross was an enormous bird which excelled in aerial combat, and was only slightly inferior to the Netherthunder Eagle in that regard.
The proliferation of flying mounts was inevitable. In the future, aerial warfare would become much more common.
Nie Yan wasn't sure if Alliance of Mage's side would bring out flying mounts tomorrow. But with the Darkwing Dragon on their side, Asskickers United definitely wouldn't lose out in the skies.
About an hour later, Guo Huai sent over someone to deliver the Life Crystal. On top of that, he had more good news. Black Hell agreed to join Asskickers United and would be joining them in the Realm of Death tomorrow. However, he had one condition. Nie Yan had to help destroy the Dark Hero guild!
If Black Hell revealed his real identity as Invincible, he could easily gather enough people to crush Dark Hero. However, he had decided to borrow Asskickers United's power instead. Dark Hero was founded by him, so he would be the one to destroy it.
Nie Yan agreed without the slightest hesitation. A peak expert like Black Hell was one that could only be discovered by chance not found. For the sake of recruiting him, he was willing to destroy hundreds of Dark Heroes if he had to. With a snap of his finger, he could instantly wipe out a declining guild like Dark Hero anyway.
According to Black Heaven, they still had a few close friends in Dark Hero. If those friends learned that Black Hell joined Asskickers United, they would almost certainly follow as well.
For Asskickers United, this was definitely a no-lose situation.
After receiving the Life Crystal, Nie Yan looked inside his bag. It was filled with all sorts of gems, all neatly organized together. He had everything he needed. The Hilton Stronghold also had a place to hatch pets. He sorted through his inventory, then headed there.
Inside the pet egg slot where the Darkwing Dragon Egg was stowed away, Nie Yan could feel every heartbeat of the creature inside. It was on the verge of hatching and becoming the ruler of the skies!
The Hilton Stronghold's pet shop was a bit crude and simple due to being reconstructed after the demon beast invasion. However, the Beast Tamers here were all fairly high rank.
Nie Yan entered the pet shop. To his left and right were stacks of cages, containing all sorts of different pets. However, what differed compared to the one in Calore was that this place also had a section for flying mounts.
After passing through the aisles, Nie Yan approached one of the Beast Tamers.
This place was quite bustling, with people coming and going constantly. There were about 60 people in the shop at any given time, busying themselves with their own matters. Several players from Alliance of Mages were also present.
Nie Yan knitted his brows. This place was too crowded. If he hatched the Darkwing Dragon here, it would definitely be seen by many people, in particular those players from Alliance of Mages. News of him hatching the Darkwing Dragon would definitely reach Crazy Magic's ears, and everything would be revealed. However, he had no other choice. He could only steel himself and talk to the Beast Tamer.
"Greetings sir Nirvana Flame. How may I help you today," an Advanced Beast Tamer in red robes asked.