To Nie Yan's shock and dismay, no matter where he walked in the Top Military Academy, he would attract the attention of all those around. From time to time, their whispers and hushed voices would enter his ears.
It caused Nie Yan a great headache, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Since the date of the match was set to a month later, Nie Yan hadn't decided whether to accept it or not for the time being. He couldn't make heads or tails of Lei Su's intentions. Since Lei Su was challenging him, why a month from now and not today? Little did Nie Yan know that Lei Su was currently undergoing a strict training regime. As he was right now, he wasn't confident in taking on Nie Yan. If the students of the Top Military Academy knew this, who knew what kind of reaction they would have?
As per usual, Nie Yan continued going to classes. However, his daily school life had become incredibly hectic.
Come evening, Nie Yan helped Asskickers United catch 56 more flying mounts. When all of them fully recovered from their injuries, the guild would have more than 100 flying mounts.
Asskickers United actively prepared for war. After creating a force 100,000 men and several hundred siege engines strong, they set out toward Colt. A dark cloud of dust filled the air. As far as the eye could see, soldiers armed to the teeth trotted forward in formation.
There were 20 guilds located in Colt, at least 10 of which had been acquired by the Monet Financial Group. They controlled 70% of the strongholds in the territory. When these guilds joined together, they made a formidable force.
Asskickers United's 300 Armoured Ice Catapults and 100 trebuchets gradually advanced on the plains. This kind of sight was truly shocking to behold.
Seeing Asskickers United's enormous army heading over there, the guilds in Colt all descended into panic. They mobilized their armies as fast as they could to help defend their home city.
The cloud of war hung over Colt.
The Monet Financial Group were preparing to launch an assault on Calore and deliver a ruthless blow to Asskickers United. But before they could even finish their preparations, the enemy had somehow beaten them to the punch, catching them with their pants down.
The Shoro Stronghold. This stronghold belonged to the second largest guild in Colt, Dragon Universe. It occupied one of the major routes to Calore, which was why the Monet Financial Group spent an enormous sum of gold to fortify its defenses. The 20-meter-high walls were a great deterrence; anyone who saw it would think twice before attacking it.
About 8,000 troops were stationed on the walls. Elsewhere in the stronghold, three transfer points were up and running. As soon as a fight broke out, the 10 guilds in Colt acquired by the Monet Financial Group would dispatch at least 100,000 players over. There were also five Magic Cannons placed on the walls. Though they were quite powerful, they were still somewhat lacking compared to the Gnome Magic Cannons. The most important point was that there were too few of them. In front of Asskickers United's several hundred siege engines, they might as well not exist.
The Shoro Stronghold was in sight. As the 100 trebuchets advanced forward, trying to get into position, the Magic Cannons on the walls started opening fire. Several shells arced through the air and blew up two trebuchets. But many of the shells were off target and struck the ground instead.
After coming to a halt outside the stronghold, the 100 trebuchets were quickly assembled. The artillery teams then loaded the buckets with large boulders.
Nie Yan stood at the peak of a mountain neighbouring the plains. Looking down below, Asskickers United's troops stretched out across the battlefield. Then further off in the distance was the Shoro Stronghold, whose defenses appeared completely inadequate. His heart was filled with pride and heroic spirit. His conquest of the entire Viridian Empire would start here!
「Start the assault!」Nie Yan passed down the order.
Immediately, several hundred boulders were launched in the air, whizzing through the sky before raining down on the Shoro Stronghold. A section of the walls was instantly obliterated with rubble flying everywhere, and the five Magic Cannons were destroyed without a trace.
The Shoro Stronghold shook and groaned under the bombardment of the trebuchets. After several volleys, its walls completely collapsed into ruins.
The stronghold was like a maiden stripped of her clothing, buck naked and defenseless in front of the players of Asskickers United.
Nie Yan didn't order his troops to rush in immediately but rather had the Armoured Ice Catapults continue advancing in order to minimize casualties.
After being shelled by the Armoured Ice Catapults again and again, the players in the Shoro Stronghold were almost completely wiped out.
This was an overwhelming defeat! There was no need for Nie Yan to take action himself. As his army swept through the other strongholds near Colt, this likely wouldn't change. He had absolute faith in the success of this conquest.
Asskickers United had declared a full-out war against the Monet Financial Group. Nie Yan had no idea how they would react next, but they definitely wouldn't go down without a fight.
Nie Yan oversaw the progress of the war on one side and researched on how to improve the Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow on the other. He had already had Delfina[1] duplicate the Crossbow Enhancement Blueprint, which he then learned himself.
Nie Yan had the players under him gather a few metals so he could start the remodeling process of the Cavalry Crossbow.
The Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow was extremely elaborate. Its exceptionally sturdy metal body gave off a shocking sense of power. Its only flaw was its weight. It required both hands to hold up, and if your Strength wasn't high enough, just lifting it up would be difficult.
Following the blueprint, Nie Yan started making minor adjustments to the Cavalry Crossbow, replacing the middle section with the most flexible Pallenium, which was an extremely rare type of metal. Asskickers United's guild treasury only had three ingots in total. Furthermore, the cable also had to be replaced.
Nie Yan completed these tasks with the utmost meticulousness. His Engineering, Forging, and other skills had already reached Master rank. So, as a master of all trades, it was fairly easy for him.
After capturing the Shoro Stronghold, Asskickers United set out for the next stronghold. Nie Yan followed behind the army while focusing on remodeling his crossbow.
About six hours later, the Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow's appearance had undergone a drastic change. The lath looked sleek and slender. It was much more flexible than before. As soon as it was drawn back, it would be full of tension. At the same time, because it was outfitted with a Pallenium body, its weight was greatly reduced. So, it was much more convenient to carry around.
The remodeled Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow looked like a weapon that could conquer all. Even the strongest of heart would reel in shock when they saw it.
It would take at least another five or six hours to completely remodel the Cavalry Crossbow. Not to mention Nie Yan was still missing a few rare metals. Even though he could supplement it with ordinary materials, the effects wouldn't be as good. Plus, the remodeling was a one time thing. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it to the best of his ability. Otherwise, if later down the line he wanted to further upgrade it, he would be playing a game of catch up.
Nie Yan had Guo Huai send people to find the metals he needed.
Nie Yan wondered what the properties of the fully remodeled Cavalry Crossbow would look like.
Seeing the Cavalry Crossbow which was still a work-in-progress, Nie Yan suddenly thought of something. If the crossbow could be remodeled, shouldn't the same be possible for the bolts?
The damage from ordinary crossbow bolts was fairly limited. If he could think of a way to create more powerful ones, it would greatly increase his damage.
Nie Yan started forging the leftover Pallenium into crossbow bolts.
Nie Yan came up with three types of bolts. The first was a three-pronged head with a bleed effect. As soon as it hit, it would deal additional bleed damage. The second was replicating the Flesh Biters, with an inner mechanism that released hooks upon impact. As soon as they pierced the target, they would be near impossible to pull out. The third had a sharp spindle-shaped bolt head, the inside of which would be filled with poison. It could deal extremely potent damage to a target.
Apart from these three types of bolts, if Nie Yan thought of any more in the future, he could simply create them.
Thinking to this point, Nie Yan got to work. Crafting these bolts wasn't too strenuous for him. He could easily bring these ideas to life.
It was a pity the effects of these three different bolts couldn't be combined into one. If he attempted this, not only would the power be greatly reduced, but the process would be extremely complicated and tedious. He could only give up on the idea for now. He would have to use different bolts for different types of situations.
After a while, Nie Yan created a bolt with a three-pronged head. He engraved it with all types of runes, greatly increasing its killing power.
You have created a new type of crossbow bolt. Please give it a name.
Nie Yan thought for a moment. "Let's just call it a Bleed Bolt."
You have successfully created a Bleed Bolt. Forging, Engineering, Tinkering +580 skill proficiency.
Nie Yan examined the properties of this Bleed Bolt.
Bleed Bolt: Attack +800, 30% Bleed Effect, Duration: 5 minutes.
This Bleed Bolt was amazing, especially the bleed duration. Five minutes was extremely shocking.
Nie Yan didn't expect making this sort of modification would have such a great effect. Not to mention the attack stat was also pretty great.
Apart from the Bleed Bolt, Nie Yan also crafted the two other types of bolts, naming them Flesh Biter Bolt and Venom Bolt respectively. There was no need to spend a lot of time on their names. What mattered was that they worked. He had Guo Huai deliver a large pile of metal ingots, crating out bolt after bolt. This type of work was fairly simple.
The Flesh Biter Bolt could inflict a crippling effect while the Venom Bolt could inflict poison damage.
Nie Yan crafted about 120 Bleed Bolts, 200 Flesh Biter Bolts, and 100 Venom Bolts.
Creating these bolts took Nie Yan about three hours. He was pretty skilled in crafting anyway, and he wasn't lacking materials. Whenever he had some free time in the future, he would craft even more of them.
Nie Yan stored these new bolts in different quivers, then placed them in his bag. In the future, he would use them when the situation called for it. After fully remodeling his Dullahan Cavalry Crossbow, he would see a huge improvement to his ranged combat ability.
While Nie Yan was crafting his bolts, Asskickers United had already swept through 11 strongholds, causing the guilds in Colt to piss their pants in terror and despair over their impending deaths. As soon as they saw Asskickers United's army coming, they cursed their parents for not giving them an extra pair of legs.
1. Delfina is a slave girl Nie Yan liberated. She was first mentioned in Chapter 455.