C.3431 - - Empire Taking Shape

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ

Chapter 505 – Empire Taking Shape

“Is there something special about that Secret Treasure, Guild Leader Black Flame?”

Desolate Fury couldn’t help but grow curious when he saw Shi Feng hastily picking up a gray bead from the ground and appraising it. Likewise, Cross and Leroja also noticed Shi Feng’s behavior and paused their looting action, a surprised look appearing on their faces as they looked at Shi Feng.

Unlike everyone else on the team, the three of them had raided a World Mode Team Dungeon with Shi Feng. They were also part of the first team of players to have discovered the existence of Secret Treasures.

However, even when the Courtyard of Space’s Final Boss dropped two Extraordinary Secret Treasures, Shi Feng barely paid attention to them.

Yet, even though the glass bead was clearly a Common-ranked Secret Treasure, Shi Feng was showing great interest in it. So, it was only natural they’d be curious about it.

“It is indeed very special.” Shi Feng nodded and smiled. “If we can complete a set, we could even challenge Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeons.”

“Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeons?”

Upon hearing Shi Feng’s words, the trio couldn’t help but look at the glass bead in Shi Feng’s hand with even greater surprise.

While they didn’t know how challenging a Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeon was exactly, they knew that Level 160 God Mode Regional Dungeons were places where even Tier 6 experts had difficulty surviving while Level 160, Tier 5 expert teams could get annihilated easily.

Going by the World Mode Courtyard of Space’s difficulty, they could easily imagine how challenging a Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeon could be…

However, Shi Feng didn’t bother offering the trio any additional explanations. Instead, he focused all his attention on the gray glass bead.

During the middle stages of the Eternal Realm’s birth, the Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeon Hundred Eyes Canyon was one of the most popular places for players. Not only did the monsters there drop plenty of Secret Treasures and high-tiered Skills and Spells, but it was also possible to obtain the Lord’s Certificate from there.

During the Eternal Realm’s early-to-mid stages, the entire realm was in chaos, and only a small number of NPC Towns, Cities, and Fortresses existed. Because of this, there were plenty of lands rich in resources for players to develop and establish a country of their own.

The only problem was that these undeveloped lands were located far from any NPC strongholds, and reaching them required a lot of time, even with the help of Legendary Flying Mounts. It might not be a problem if players only needed to travel to these places once, but the time players wasted on travel would quickly pile up if they had to make multiple trips.

This was where Guild Cities came in. To establish a Guild City in the Eternal Realm, players would need to have the Lord’s Certificate, and to obtain a Lord’s Certificate, players would need to explore and raid the Hundred Eyes Canyon.[1!!]

Normally, only Tier 6 teams could raid a Level 160 World Mode Regional Dungeon, but there were exceptions to everything. In this case, it was a Tier 5 tank equipped with a Secret Treasure Set.

Secret Treasures normally already provided a sizable increase to Mana Protection for players. Meanwhile, Secret Treasure Sets provided an additional boost to Mana Protection on top of that. When Tier 5 players equipped a Secret Treasure Set, even if it was Common ranked, they could still have the Mana Protection of a Tier 6 player.

Originally, Shi Feng didn’t place much hope on obtaining a Secret Treasure Set. After all, even non-set Secret Treasures were already incredibly rare, let alone Secret Treasure Sets. Normally, these sets could only be obtained from World Mode Regional Dungeons such as the Hundred Eyes Canyon.

As for the Underground Crystal Palace, Shi Feng had only ever heard of Secret Treasure Sets dropping from the Level 160-plus areas.

Meanwhile, after Shi Feng infused 100 units of Seven Luminaries Crystal into the glass bead, the Secret Treasure’s stats were revealed to him.

…

[Graymoon Secret Treasure] (Tier 1 Secret Treasure, Common)

Attaches to leg guards. Once attached, it can increase the wearer’s Mana Protection by 13%.

Six-piece Set Effect:

Increases Mana Protection by an additional 30%.

…

It’s the Graymoon Set? Shi Feng was initially stunned when he saw the Graymoon Secret Treasure’s stats. Then, ecstasy filled him.

He had heard of the Graymoon Set in his previous life. It was a very special existence among Common Secret Treasure Sets. It was also the Underground Crystal Palace’s most iconic Secret Treasure Set, and what made the set special was that it did not have any class restrictions nor armor-type restrictions.

As a comparison, the Combat-ranked Orichalcum Secret Treasure obtained from the Courtyard of Space could only be attached to gauntlets, which were gloves belonging to the plate armor category.

Meanwhile, because of the Graymoon Secret Treasure’s uniqueness, it became standard equipment for the various powers’ main forces during the Eternal Realm’s later stages.

Normally, though, the Graymoon Secret Treasure could only be obtained from monsters roaming the Underground Crystal Palace’s Level 160-plus areas. So, the fact that one dropped in the Level 150 area was a pleasant surprise to Shi Feng.

If he could complete a set and let a Tier 5 tank equip it, even if it was only a Level 150 tank, he could begin exploring the Hundred Eyes Canyon right away.

“Here is the other Secret Treasure that dropped, Guild Leader Black Flame.” At this time, Ink Qilin approached Shi Feng and handed him the Secret Treasure that River Light found. At the same time, she couldn’t help but grow a little envious as she looked at the Graymoon Secret Treasure that Shi Feng had just appraised.

Before entering the Underground Crystal Palace, they had agreed that they would distribute the loot based on individual contributions to the team. Although the Graystone Battle Apes had dropped two Secret Treasures, going by contribution rankings, both Secret Treasures would go to Shi Feng…

When the other members of Scarecrow Fox saw this, they, too, couldn’t help but grow envious. However, none of them voiced any objections.

If not for Shi Feng breaking apart the Battle Apes’ battle array, they would have had great difficulty defeating the monsters. There was even a possibility they would get annihilated. Hence, Shi Feng deserved to have both Secret Treasures.

However, after Shi Feng appraised the second Secret Treasure, he found that, while it might be a Common Secret Treasure, it wasn’t part of the Graymoon Set. So, he handed it back to Ink Qilin and said, “You can have this one. There is a specific kind of Secret Treasure I want. If any Secret Treasure of that kind drops, I want priority over it. In exchange, I will give you a Secret Treasure of equal rank every time I exercise this privilege. I will also cover the appraisal cost. What do you think?”

“This… Is that really alright?” Ink Qilin asked in surprise.

With Shi Feng’s five-man group’s contributions, even if more Secret Treasures dropped afterward, Scarecrow Fox’s group was unlikely to receive many. However, if they followed Shi Feng’s distribution method, Scarecrow Fox stood to get a lot more Secret Treasures.

“Of course.” Shi Feng chuckled.

He did not care for the average Common Secret Treasure. Even if players fully equipped themselves with independent Common Secret Treasures, they wouldn’t see a qualitative transformation in their combat performance. However, it was a different story for the Graymoon Set. Hence, he’d rather give up the chance to obtain more Secret Treasures and focus on completing the Graymoon Set first instead.

As for Gentle Snow, Desolate Fury, Cross, and Leroja, none of them had any opinions about Shi Feng’s decision. It was especially so for Gentle Snow. She had received a lot of help from Scarecrow Fox during the past two months. So, even if Shi Feng didn’t suggest such a distribution method, she would have given her share of Secret Treasures to Ink Qilin.

Subsequently, with the help of Shi Feng’s Mana Domain, the team rapidly eliminated the surrounding Graystone Battle Apes.

After hunting continuously for two whole days, the team managed to eliminate several hundred groups of Graystone Battle Apes. Although the harvest they got from subsequent groups of Battle Apes was not as good as the first group they killed, their luck still wasn’t all too terrible, obtaining one Secret Treasure for every two or three groups they killed. After hunting several hundred groups, they obtained a total of 142 Secret Treasures.

Out of these 142 Secret Treasures, 106 went to Shi Feng’s group of five. However, of these 106 Secret Treasures, only 14 were part of the Graymoon Set. To make matters worse, none of these set pieces could form a complete set; every set was missing one or two pieces. Exp-wise, Shi Feng was able to reach Level 152.

While Shi Feng and the others were resting, Gentle Snow, who had returned after logging off to rest in the real world, approached Shi Feng with a gloomy expression.

“Guild Leader, I got in touch with Hidden Soul.”

…

TL Notes:

[1!!]This was where Guild Cities came in. To establish a Guild City in the Eternal Realm, players would need to have the Lord’s Certificate, and to obtain a Lord’s Certificate, players would need to explore and raid the Hundred Eyes Canyon.:

I have no idea if this part is accurate or not as this part was partially missing from the raws I received. I just made a guess based on the context given, so I will come back to change it if it turns out to be wrong.

[2]Secret Treasure ranks:

Common -> Combat -> Extraordinary -> Fantasy (Chapter 453)