Chapter 466 - Golden City

Nie Yan made a trip to the Underworld and returned back to the surface. The Tuoba Family's five guilds were still assaulting the War God Tribe's strongholds to no avail. He received word two of the Armoured Ice Catapults were completed, and it wouldn't be long before the third was ready for war too.

With three Armoured Ice Catapults complete, the War God Tribe would launch an all out counter offensive. Previously, Bloodlust Blades had used Armoured Catapults to slaughter the players of Asskickers United during the siege of the Cripps Stronghold. This time, their side would use the Armoured Ice Catapults to massacre the Tuoba Family's five guilds. If the Tuoba Family didn't have a comparable siege engine or powerful summon like the Crypt Lord, they were going to suffer dearly.

Like Nie Yan envisioned, on the sixth day of the war in Nisode, the War God Tribe brought out the three Armoured Ice Catapults and wreaked utter carnage on the forces of the Tuoba Family's five guilds. Their awe inspiring presence and might left the enemy beating a full retreat.

The defeat of the Tuoba Family was inevitable.

The War God Tribe held an absolute advantage. So long as the three Armoured Ice Catapults stood, victory was assured. Nie Yan felt comfortable leaving the rest to Guo Huai. Everything was fully under control.

Nie Yan offloaded all the equipment he brought back from the Underworld in the various auction houses across the Viridian Empire. This time, however, he only made around 500,000 gold profit. Night Vision and Focus boosting equipment in the market had hit a saturation point. It would be a while before demand increased again.

Selling equipment like this, of course the first few times would be extremely profitable. However, every subsequent time would be less so, to the extent that Nie Yan would be better off doing something else. He and Plenty agreed on waiting with the next trade. Both sides had already benefited greatly from this cooperation.

Guo Huai sent word that Sun had received a flying mount quest. Nie Yan also received an update from King of the World saying he had just obtained two pieces of Sub Legendary-grade equipment.

With Guo Huai leading everything, Asskickers United along with Holy Empire, Sapphire Shrine, and Radiant Sacred Flame took down all the Basic Strongholds surrounding Calore. They frantically upgraded the buildings and defenses of all their strongholds. Everyone was busy beyond belief.

Nie Yan checked the progression of his three most important active quests. The first was finding out the truth about the Ten Holy Paladins, with Karsi telling him to look for the Dragon Girl, Venita. He estimated he would have to be Level 100 at minimum to complete this quest. He temporarily shelved it aside for the time being. The second quest was to search for the Occult Talisman of Empress Finas. This was a similarly high difficulty quest. The third quest was collecting the Tyrant Abak Set. It required him to travel to the Level 60 map, Golden City. This was the only one he could do right now.

Nie Yan was also still tagged with the Wander Princess' Mark. However, Phantom Princess Ina still hadn't shown up even once yet. He figured she would only appear under certain conditions. He would have to be careful while out questing.

Nie Yan made his preparations. After stocking up on consumables, he teleported to Hilderlocke and set off for Golden City. Suddenly, a notification popped up.

—A calamity descends on the Hilton Stronghold as lava from the erupting Mt. Anfrit overflows into the Underworld. The soldiers of the Viridian Empire heroically fend off the hordes of invading monsters.

The Defense of the Hilton Stronghold update is released. Brave adventurers, set off for the Hilton Stronghold to protect humanity's bastion of heroes!

Nie Yan's heart trembled. The monster invasion of the Hilton Stronghold was finally beginning. It would last for five days, and most of the NPC residents there would end up dying. Afterwards, players would slowly start arriving and become the new main line of defense against the monsters. In addition, at Level 100, players from the Underworld would start arriving on the surface. That was when the war between the Righteous Faction and Evil Faction would truly begin.

Nie Yan felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. His prophecy had come true. He wondered if the NPCs over in the Hilton Stronghold had heeded his warning and made preparations in advance. Checking the status of his titles, he was still a Grand Scholar.

Grand Scholar: Progress to Great Prophet (3/5)

The correct prediction of the invasion of the Hilton Stronghold had only brought him three fifths of the way to Great Prophet. Nie Yan couldn't help but be bewildered. Wasn't ranking up to a Great Prophet a bit too difficult? After all, it wasn't like major disasters and wars happened on a daily base.

Nie Yan opened up the information page related to the Great Prophet title on the official website. It appeared the scope of the event predicted affected the progress, with ordinary events only giving one point. Five points in total were required to advance to a Great Prophet. His correct prediction of the Hilton Stronghold invasion counted as a major event, so he was rewarded three points.

Nie Yan checked the privileges of Great Prophets. They could receive a fiefdom in their home nation and establish a city, setting their own laws and decrees and collecting all the relevant taxes. Furthermore, in the Viridian and Satreen Empires, they held authority equal to a council elder, a paramount and eminent position. Lastly, it was rumoured that by communicating with God and nature they could call forth a powerful personal summon.

Although the official website contained a vast wealth of information, it wasn't all-encompassing. There were still secrets out there the players had to discover for themselves. The official website couldn't provide everything.

That said, Nie Yan was deeply moved by these benefits, especially the part about establishing his own city. This wasn't a stronghold but an actual city like Calore or Nisode, with its own territory capable of supporting a large number of strongholds. Alas, the Great Prophet title was still a far ways off for him. After all, the events of the game had already altered course. Predicting the next event would be incredibly difficult. On top of this, the Great Prophecy skill had a cooldown of 10 days, and the clues were cryptic at best.

Nie Yan could only drop the subject for now. He had no idea if there was a reward for correctly predicting the invasion of the Hilton Stronghold. The system didn't say anything. Once the fighting was over, he would go over there for a look. Maybe he had something special waiting in store for him.

At this moment, Nie Yan was already making good headway to Golden City.

Golden City was located south of Hilderlocke, a place full of riches. A prominent mine owner built a grand castle halfway up Burks Mountain. Later on, the owner abandoned the light and transformed into a demon called Mine Slave Igrin, a Level 90 Lord, who defended the entrance to the castle. Players didn't dare to challenge him as of yet, so they only hung around the mines beneath Golden City.

Nie Yan galloped on his Faulkner Warhorse toward his destination.

An enormous castle situated halfway atop a mountain entered Nie Yan's sight. This was Golden City, Mine Slave Igrin roamed the top half while the bottom half was a well-known dungeon, Golden City Underground Mines. Bladelight and the others had long since cleared this dungeon. It was reported that when they first arrived here, they had gotten into a conflict with a guild from Hilderlocke, who sent over 2,000 players to trap them in Golden City. The end result was Bladelight and the others slaughtering their way out. 20 players completely crushing 2,000. From then on, Asskickers United's reputation in Hilderlocke soared.

Whenever guilds from Hillderlocke encounted players from Asskickers United these days, they would behave extremely politely. They knew who they could afford to offend and who they couldn't. This was an old story by now. But back then, Nie Yan was still roaming around in the Underworld. Whether it was grinding mobs or running dungeons, these sorts of minor conflicts were fairly common. If you had to gang up on people anytime some friction occurred, to the extent of bringing over your entire guild, that would be too degrading.

Right now Level 60+ players were fairly numerous. Golden City was especially bustling. Many player owned stalls lined up both sides of the forest path leading up the mountain.

Passing by numerous people along the way, Nie Yan finally arrived outside Golden City. He wore a black hooded cloak to hide his appearance.

"Looking for a team to run Underground Mines, I'm a Mage with 800 magic power…"

"Underground Mines team recruiting Priests and Paladins. Heals have to restore a minimum of 1,000 and 500 health respectively."

The outskirts of Golden City was bustling with activity, with a total of 3,000 players gathered. Players were regularly forming teams to run the dungeon. Guilds from all over the Viridian Empire gathered here, while there were also numerous solo players looking to run dungeons.

Since this wasn't a PvP free zone, players were on high alert.

Players looking to form teams were everywhere. As they searched around, they glanced at every person they passed. If they met a suitable candidate for a teammate, they would send out an invite. Their requirements were extremely high, resulting in few suitable candidates. Anyone that didn't fit their stringent requirements would be ignored.

There were also low end teams running Golden City Underground Mines. Their goal wasn't to clear the dungeon but simply to farm the regular mobs that spawned inside. Maybe if they were lucky, something nice would drop.

No one recognized Nie Yan as he walked through the crowd. Most people were already used to seeing cloaked players, so he didn't attract the least bit of attention. Little did they know this person was actually the famed Mad Rogue Nirvana Flame!