"Quite full of himself, huh. But I guess he has the bite to back up his bark," Nie Yan remarked after seeing Lei Su's announcement. At present, the number of people capable of rivalling him could be counted on his fingers.
Nie Yan dispatched people to get in touch with Lei Su. He also wanted to see how strong Lei Su had become after advancing to a Sword Saint.
Nie Yan had nothing to take care of for now, so he decided to make a trip to the Cripps Stronghold and meet up with Xie Yao.
Xie Yao stood outside the entrance of the guild headquarters. Seeing Nie Yan approaching, she immediately went up to greet him.
A white radiance enveloped Xie Yao who radiated a powerful holy power. The gentle light contrasted with her fair face making her appear even more lovely.
Seeing Xie Yao's angelic-like appearance, Nie Yan's heart trembled.
Walking up to Xie Yao's side, Nie Yan felt a holy aura wash over him. At this moment, she already had seven pieces of Legendary equipment and had just advanced to a Holy Magister. He couldn't help but wonder how strong she had become.
"Where's Tang Yao?" Nie Yan asked.
"He went to get some things from his personal storage. He'll be back in a minute," Xie Yao replied. She gazed at Nie Yan with her bright eyes, her expression filled with warmth.
After a while, Tang Yao hurried over from around the street corner.
"Hah... hahhh.... Sorry, I'm late." Tang Yao scratched his head, still catching his breath.
Nie Yan glanced at the Arcane Fairy floating by Tang Yao's side. Blub blub blub... It was, like always, blowing out bubbles and pulsing out waves of mana into the surroundings
"Wow! Your Arcane Fairy is Rank 6!?" Nie Yan asked in surprise. He could clearly feel that the aura surrounding the Arcane Fairy was much stronger than before. It had also grown bigger.
"Hehe... Yeah. Rank 6.5." Tang Yao rubbed his nose.
Nie Yan's heart shook. A Rank 6 Arcane Fairy was already quite powerful. Evolving it was incredibly difficult, to the extent that filling its experience bar by just 1% required a ridiculous sum of experience. However, according to rumours, someone in the previous timeline had raised their Arcane Fairy to Rank 6.5. Though there wasn't a big boost to its stats, it gained the Spirit Transcendence property, allowing its owner to learn an extra two Forbidden Spells compared to ordinary Magisters.
Magisters could only learn three Forbidden Spells, of which only one could be a massive area offensive spell. This was already quite amazing. However, the Rank 6.5 Arcane Fairy broke through this limit, allowing a Magister to learn five Forbidden Spells, of which two could be massive area offensive spells.
Forbidden Spells had extremely long cooldown times, 10 days being on the shorter end and a month on the longer. Some especially powerful ones even had cooldowns of up to two months. One could imagine the significance of having an extra two Forbidden Spells at hand.
"Not bad, your Arcane Fairy is ranking up pretty fast. Do your best to get it to Rank 7," Nie Yan said with a voice full of pride and motivation. Tang Yao was definitely the fastest to train his Arcane Fairy up to Rank 6.5 in both the previous and present timelines. Maybe in the future, it would reach Rank 7.
No one knew what a Rank 7 Arcane Fairy was like. Even for most Magisters, it was an existence equivalent to a Divine-grade item.
"Mhm, yeah. It's getting harder and harder to raise its rank. Not to mention Rank 6 to 7 is a huge bottleneck. I did some calculations in my head. It'll take me close to a year to evolve it to Rank 7," Tang Yao said. His knowledge of raising an Arcane Fairy definitely far surpassed that of any other player.
Tang Yao had become deeply attached to his Arcane Fairy, pouring blood, sweat, and tears into raising it, much unlike other players who treated their Arcane Fairies merely as tools. Perhaps this was why his Arcane Fairy had ranked up so quickly.
"Let's go hunt some skeletons. I'm betting Bladelight, Sun, and the others will be done with their class advancement quests in a few more days," Nie Yan said. In the near future, Asskickers United would have a huge influx of Master Class players.
Xie Yao and Tang Yao were already aware of the situation with Necromancer Vorderman. They understood the severity of the situation.
Qin Han's skeleton army was rapidly expanding. They were no longer satisfied with merely attacking villages and towns and had started attacking levelling spots and dungeons with high concentrations of players and even some small cities. Their growth was gradually getting out of control. Some skeletons had even entered the borders of Calore's territory.
Nie Yan planned to kill as many as he could. Asskickers United had already fortified their strongholds in preparation for the invasion of the undead. Taking on the the skeleton army head-on was a foolish idea. They could only wait for the Viridian Empire and Temple of Light to dispatch their troops to deal with the situation. Borrowing the help of the NPCs to eliminate Necromancer Vorderman was the wisest choice. Nie Yan's only goal was to preserve as much of his strength as possible during this Vengeance of the Undead event.
As the three teleported to Hilderlocke, Nie Yan suddenly recalled something. "Follow me. We're making a small detour."
Nie Yan led Xie Yao and Tang Yao to the Temple of Light in Hilderlocke.
After arriving outside the entrance, both Tang Yao and Xie Yao were baffled. What did Nie Yan bring them here for?
The three of them walked into the Temple of Light. Seeing Nie Yan, an NPC in white robes walked up to greet him, "Greetings, Sir Luminous Dancer."
The NPC was extremely respectful, behaving like how a subordinate would treat a superior.
Hearing how the NPC addressed Nie Yan, Xie Yao and Tang Yao were shocked. Nie Yan was a Luminous Dancer, meaning he was special even among Shadow Dancers!
"I need some help," Nie Yan voiced his intentions of wanting to recruit Paladins.
"Yes, right away. Here is the list of Paladins you can recruit from the Temple of Light. Please take a look."
A window with the names of 800 Paladins popped up in front of Nie Yan. As a Luminous Dancer, he had the authority to recruit 30 Paladins to do his bidding. Naturally, after their task was over, he would have to pay out some compensation. However, it was quite cheap considering he would only have to fork out a few thousand gold to recruit them for several days.
Nie Yan glanced over the stats of the Paladins. Most of them were Level 120+. Some were even as strong as Level 150. They were all powerful elites in the service of the temple.
Nie Yan recruited 16 Level 150 Paladins while the remaining were all Level 140+.
After a while, a group of Paladins entered the hall of the Temple of Light. The 30 of them lined up in rows of six and columns of five. They were all clad in identical silver-white armour. Their movements were in sync, like a small corps that had trained together. Their equipment was excellent. Each of them had 20,000-30,000 health. They certainly looked like a formidable force.
"Sir Luminous Dancer, we're willing to serve!"
"May the light be with you!"
The eyes of these Paladins burned with zealous fervor. They had absolute faith in Nie Yan and respected his will. They would carry out any command he gave them, including committing suicide.
Seeing so many Paladins, Tang Yao's jaws dropped. He turned to Nie Yan with a look of shock and asked, "A-are all these guys your mercenaries?"
Damn! Recruiting 30 of them at once, and they're all Level 140-150 Elites! This is crazy!
"Yep, they look pretty strong. We just don't know how effective they'll be when we're clearing the skeletons." Nie Yan glanced at the Paladins. All of them were tall and bulking, and their equipment was orderly.
Tang Yao thought for a moment. Ever since he started the game, Nie Yan had given him surprise after surprise. As time passed by, he grew stronger and stronger. However, he realized he still couldn't see through Nie Yan's true strength. He faintly smiled, "You never fail to throw me for a loop."
Xie Yao quietly stood beside Nie Yan. Seeing Tang Yao's astonished expression, she faintly smiled. She had long since gotten used to this.
Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao left the Temple of Light with the recruited Paladins in tow.
Nie Yan glanced at the Paladin corps following behind him as he walked through the streets of Hilderlocke. They really were too eye-catching. Unlike his Divine Recruitment, the NPCs recruited from the Temple of Light couldn't be recalled. Though these Paladins couldn't avoid the sights of players, they could!
Nie Yan had the 30 Paladins clear the path forward. Meanwhile, he, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao put on their cloaks and followed from behind.
These 30 Paladins immediately attracted the attention of the players on the streets. A group of Paladins like this appearing in Hiderlocke was definitely shocking!
"Do you think the Temple of Light dispatched them to deal with the skeletons?"
"Maybe. It's definitely possible."
The players discussed fervently. They didn't notice Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao following behind the Paladins at all.
Nie Yan discovered some suspicious people trailing the Paladins. They were players from God Executioner Sword!
Qin Han's side had definitely become aware of these Paladins. They would surely make a move.
However, Nie Yan wasn't worried. Even if they were surrounded after stepping out of the city, with two Magisters here, there was nothing to be afraid of! Tang Yao and Xie Yao could easily wipe them out with a simple spell. Not to mention Hilderlocke wasn't only the territory of God Executioner Sword. If a fight broke out, Battle Crazed Alliance could come to their aid at any time.
The 30 Paladins headed out of Hilderlocke, then set out for the east.
At this moment, the territory around Hilderlocke had already become a barren filled with the undead. There were skeletons roaming everywhere. Many players didn't dare to step out of the city and had already left for elsewhere to level. So, recently the number of players hanging around in the region had plummeted. It was bleak and desolate.
Nie Yan, Xie Yao, and Tang Yao followed the Paladins outside the city. Before long, a large number of skeletons emerged from a hillside in the distance. They stretched out as far as the eye could see, surging forward like an unending tide.
"Looks like God Executioner Sword sent out these skeletons after locking down our positions. These guys really move quick."
Nie Yan turned to Xie Yao and Tang Yao, "You guys are up. With so many skeletons, we'll get to grind to our hearts' content."
"Mhmm!" Xie Yao nodded.
"Don't worry! They can send as many as they want, we'll kill them all! I was looking for a decent place to do some levelling anyway!" Tang Yao excitedly said. Gripping his staff, he prepared to start.