Clue to Evolution
Clue to Evolution
Cold Wind City's library:
As soon as Shi Feng entered the library, he felt as if he had just stepped into a different world.
The library didn't contain any books whatsoever. Instead, the hall included a starry sky and organized shrubbery. Creeks and bridges snaked through the main hall. From time to time, one caught sight of glittering, translucent balls of water rising from the creeks before they dispersed into tiny drops.
All of these creeks originated from a single location, the massive water ball hovering in the center of the hall.
Not even Star-Moon City's library was this beautiful.
What an amazing library. It's fully automated with the use of magic water balls. The Mana density is double that of outside. If players could practice their Spells in here, their learning efficiency would double, maybe triple. Shi Feng could not help his surprise when he sensed the building's Mana.
However, Shi Feng was surprised to see only a few magical-class players in the library. At a glance, he only counted two to three hundred players. It was an abnormally small number for a library.
What he didn't know was that one had to become a Baron before they could enter Cold Wind City's library.
If not for Shi Feng's the Demon Hunter title, the Level 180 NPC guards at the entrance would've chased him away.
He didn't give the matter too much thought, though. He approached the central water ball and began to search for information on the Eternal Ice Crystals.
It was far more convenient to search through the magic water ball than it would be to leaf through numerous books.
There sure is a lot of information here. Shi Feng was astonished when his search for the Eternal Ice Crystal came back with over a hundred results.
Normally, he'd be lucky if he got ten or so results for a particular search. Fortunately, it was usually enough information to find the item they wanted, yet hundreds of entries mentioned the Eternal Ice Crystals. This almost guaranteed that he could find the crystals' location.
Following which, Shi Feng browsed through the information.
How is this possible?! What Shi Feng found shocked him.
The Eternal Ice Crystal was actually a Mana Crystal. Only, due to the Ice Crystal World's influence, the power of frost tainted these Mana Crystals, transforming them into Eternal Ice Crystals. These crystals could be found in the Ice Crystal World's various forbidden lands, but only Great Lord ranked Bosses and above had a chance of dropping them.
Unfortunately, these Bosses wouldn't drop complete Eternal Ice Crystals. Rather, they had a very low chance of dropping Ice Crystal Fragments. One had a 50% chance of successfully synthesizing ten Ice Crystal Fragments into one completely Eternal Ice Crystal.
No wonder she gave me a month for this quest. It's certainly not going to be easy. Shi Feng frowned. Although the Snow Rift was a forbidden land, it didn't have many Field Bosses. Considering the low drop-rate and the 50% success rate, it would take a long time to obtain one Eternal Ice Crystal, much less ten. I guess I need to hurry.
Now that he knew that Eternal Ice Crystals were actually Mana Crystals, he had even more reason to obtain them. He also needed Mana Crystals to evolve the Abyssal Blade.
Although the Tier 1 Abyssal Blade was plenty powerful, particularly when it came to compatibility rate, its Basic Attributes weren't quite on the level of top-tier Epic Weapons.
He wanted to evolve the Abyssal Blade, but he hadn't found any Mana Crystals, so he had been forced to set the matter aside for some time.
If he could evolve the Abyssal Blade once more, he'd be more confident of defeating the Ancient Shrine's Guardian Boss.
Armed with this new information, Shi Feng was glad he had decided to establish an adventurer team in Cold Wind City. He wouldn't have had any hope of collecting enough Eternal Ice Crystals in time if he were alone.
Following which, Shi Feng left the library and hurried towards Asura's Residence.
…
Shortly after the Asura adventurer team had published the new benefits, the crowd outside the team's Residence went into an uproar.
"What?! Members can trade Contribution Points for combat techniques?!"
"Asura is actually willing to teach combat techniques! Not even the city's two large Guilds offer that benefit!"
…
Although Cold Wind City had many experts, only a handful had learned combat techniques. These experts treated these techniques like family heirlooms, refusing to teach any outsider.
But the general public knew how powerful combat techniques were. A player with a combat technique could easily defeat one without.
Moreover, unlike Skills and Spells, players could improve their combat standards while they learned a technique. This was yet another reason that experts refused to teach others their techniques. They adamantly refused all sorts of payment for the training.
Yet, the Asura adventurer team wanted to teach its members various combat techniques. The news stunned countless players.
None of them doubted the validity of Asura's offer. As Cold Wind City's number one expert, Shi Feng certainly knew many combat techniques. There wasn't anything surprising about him teaching his members one or two of these techniques. Moreover, the more powerful an expert was, the more they would value their promises.
After a short moment, players crowded the previously empty registration area.
The crowd even included players who had yet to reach the Trial Tower's fourth floor. These players begged Solitary Nine to give them a chance and let them become reserve members.
For a time, Solitary Nine and the other players manning the registration area were incredibly busy. More players had come to apply than they had expected. Even fifth-floor experts were rushing to put in their applications. Among these experts, many had been main force members from well-known adventurer teams or experts from the two large Guilds.
In less than 30 minutes, Asura had over 100 official members and 500 reserve members.
Unfortunately, Solitary Nine rejected every player who hadn't yet reached the Trial Tower's fourth floor, telling these players to return after they did so.
News of the Asura adventurer team's offer to teach its members combat techniques quickly spread throughout the city. It became a hot topic among these players, and many expressed their intention to join the organization.
The city's two large Guilds suffered headaches because of this. They had planned to ridicule Asura for its high recruitment requirements, but now, they were only frustrated over the new adventurer team. If Asura gathered enough experts and taught them combat techniques, there was no doubt that the adventurer team would become Cold Wind City's overlord…
…
"Guild Leader, I've notified Hecate. However, more than 500 players have already joined Asura. At this rate, Asura will rule the city long before Hecate opens a path to Cold Wind City," Feather Wind said, shocked as he overlooked the statistics he had recently received.
"This won't do. Go and… No… We'll go and find Wave Heart. Even if we have to pay a high price, we have to form an alliance with the adventurer team and convince them to deal with Asura," Thundering Sky said as he stood.
He had hoped to avoid allying with Wave Heart to deal with Asura, but it'd be enough if the adventurer team helped Matchless Family survive until Hecate arrived.
"Guild Leader, a report just came in. Wave Heart's Lifeless Thorn has led a team to Asura's Residence. By the looks of it, Lifeless Thorn plans to take action," Feather Wind said, smiling coldly at the latest report.
Lifeless Thorn was a battle maniac. Since his debut in Cold Wind City, not a single expert he had challenged had lasted more than five moves. Eventually, he had become Cold Wind City's publicly acknowledged, number one expert. Not even the city's main Guilds could do anything against the man and were forced to ignore his existence.
"He's making a move?" Thundering Sky could not help but laugh. "This is going to be interesting. Let's go. We're heading to the Residence to watch this play out."