“No, I’m dead serious. We’ll be contesting for the top spot,” Nie Yan replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Ehh, that sounds like a pain in the ass... I mean, right now, we get to hunt mobs and chase after girls to our heart’s content; isn’t that enough already...?” Tang Yao perplexedly asked.

Nie Yan sank into thought after hearing Tang Yao’s words, then burst out into laughter as well. Apparently the grand ambitions of others actually meant nothing to this brother of his. After contemplating awhile longer, he concluded that the timing did seem a little too early for establishing a guild. He still didn’t have enough trustworthy people by his side, and there was no way he could handle the task of running an entire guild all by himself.

Even though Nie Yan’s father was presently smuggling goods at the borders of the country, the man had already long set out plans for his future company from its name, how it would operate, to the types of machinery needed for manufacturing. In fact, he had already struck several undisclosed deals with neighbouring countries on the western and northern border. As a result, the profits reaped would be immense, but the risk was all too high. If any of these deals ever fell through, then the company would be toast because the trade contracts he owned were extremely coveted by others. Hence, in order to mitigate some of this risk in the previous timeline, Nie Yan’s father had heavily invested into the game known as humanity’s second world, Conviction. After recruiting experts for his newly established gaming organization, he had founded a guild that became immensely popular for a time called the War God Tribe.

Thanks to the enormous financial backing from his father, the War God Tribe nearly rivalled Victorious Return in power and influence, and the elites under his control were numerous beyond compare. However, as a consequence of the guild becoming powerful enough to contest their position as overlord of the Viridian Empire, Victorious Return began an intense string of counterattacks. They besieged land under the War God Tribe’s control, seizing two Strongholds in quick succession, and ruined many of their businesses. Having set foot in the game so late, their foundation was severely lacking which was shown by the fact that they owned only one influential property, an auction house opened by one of Nie Yan’s cousins. Thus, they eventually crumbled under the fierce attacks launched by their enemy.

Truthfully, after the War God Tribe’s initial strikes, Victorious Return had actually shown visible signs of decline. If they had pressed on a little further and organized several more powerful counterattacks, Victorious Return might have ended up on the losing side instead. In fact, were it not for several other guilds joining the fray, such as Radiant Sacred Flame, Bloodlust Blades, and so on, the War God Tribe wouldn’t have fallen. Under their combined assault, his father’s wealth became meaningless.

Reality was harsh and cruel. If his father’s guild hadn’t lost their strongholds and defeated Victorious Return instead, they would have seized thirteen strongholds—each of which would generate astronomical revenue—numerous shops, auction houses, and other properties, and the resulting wealth would have been enough to allow his family to prosper for many generations to come.

In the end, the company his father had built from the ground up through painstaking efforts suffered a crushing defeat, an outcome that could only be attributed to fate not being on their side. In this lifetime, however, Nie Yan would make sure that the War God Tribe wasn’t built atop a shallow foundation which was the main factor for their defeat. The several properties he had purchased so far were enough to allow the guild to gain a firm foothold in Calore. With this source of income, they would expand even more ferociously than before, letting the War God Tribe grow into an unshakeable oak that would reach new heights.

Nie Yan originally wanted to wait for his father to establish the War God Tribe before entering the spotlight and merging his assets with his father’s because—after his father pulled in his old comrades, colleagues, trustworthy friends, and hired talented management staff—he would have no need to worry about running the guild. However, considering recent developments, if he waited any longer, wouldn’t it already be too late?

Even though he was given a second chance, he was still subject to the tides of fate. He could only slowly build his influence a step at a time because if he rushed things too quickly, he was prone to failure. After all, he was only one person and the power he possessed was limited.

Nie Yan smiled at Tang Yao before shaking his head and said, “You don’t understand. Often when you’re alone, you won’t be able to protect yourself nor those close to you. An individual’s strength, no matter how powerful, is meaningless in front of many.”

“I don’t understand. I’ve never gotten into a serious conflict with any guild. Why would they go after me?”

“At times, even if you don’t go looking for trouble, trouble will come looking for you.” Nie Yan shook his head, a bitter smile on his face, and then continued, “Establishing a guild is tedious and difficult work. How about we put this discussion off for some other time? For now, we can still afford to hunt monsters at a leisurely pace.”

“Oh, alright. Let’s keep levelling then...” Tang Yao replied, sounding a bit distracted. Why did he suddenly bring up the topic of creating our own guildwhen we were happily going about our business?

Nie Yan knew that Victorious Return now had their sights on his head. However, as long as he stayed careful, then they probably wouldn’t be able to do any harm to him. After all, spotting and surrounding a lone player in the wilderness was an extremely difficult task, to say nothing of a Thief as skilled as him who only hung around high-level zones.

Although Scaled Frogs appeared clumsy because of their large size, once they spotted an enemy, they would act with incomparable speed. Of course, that was only if they had a target to go after. If they didn’t, then even if they were attacked for half-a-day, they would be helpless to react.

Scaled Frog (Elite): Level ??

Nie Yan still wasn’t able to fully inspect its level, but he knew from his previous life that this monster was Level 30.

“Are you ready?” Nie Yan inquired.

“As ready as I’ll ever be...” Tang Yao gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

“Don’t worry. As long as you stay over 25 meters away from them, they’ll be no different from motionless target dummies. Just focus on casting spells, and you’ll be fine,” Nie Yan assured with a smile as he patted Tang Yao on the shoulders.

“Alright, if you say so. I’m ready.” Tang Yao raised his Blackwind Staff. This newly acquired staff improved his magic power significantly. However, against a Level 30 Elite, he didn’t have the least bit of faith in his damage.

Afterward, Nie Yan retrieved a pouch of Smoke Powder from his bag before slinking toward the Scaled Frog while in stealth. When he approached within ten meters of the Scaled Frog, it suddenly trembled, apparently sensing his presence.「Poof!」The bag of Smoke Powder burst in his palms, causing a dense cloud of smoke to proliferate outward, enshrouding everything within a 30-meter area for a predetermined period of time.

Then, he hastily retreated from the area. At the same time, the Scaled Frog didn’t seem to react as it was still leisurely roaming around.

「You can start now. Be careful, don’t get too close.」

After Nie Yan gave the go-ahead, Tang Yao gradually approached the Scaled Frog. After nearing within 30 meters of the Scaled Frog, it was finally within range of his spells.

Arcane Flame Burst!

After Tang Yao recited the spell, a sphere of black fire emerged from thin air and then shot toward the Scaled Frog.「Bang!」The spell exploded on its body and shaved away 10 health.

The Scaled Frog revealed an alert expression after being struck; its round eyes vigilantly searched for its aggressor. However, after being unable to find Tang Yao, it returned to its passive roaming state.

Seeing the Scaled Frog turn vigilant as it made several steps in his direction, Tang Yao felt extremely nervous, but when he noticed it rather quickly settling back down, he felt his fears quickly disperse. Sending several more spells to test the waters, he found his presence was yet to be noticed.

Everything was progressing smoothly. Of course, this was all thanks to Nie Yan wracking his brains until he finally came up with this method. Normally, killing a Level 30 Elite Scaled Frog wasn’t nearly as simple as shooting fish in a barrel.

Tang Yao finally felt reassured. As long as he didn’t approach within 25 meters of the Scaled Frog, he was completely safe!

They really could rely on this method to take down an Elite Scaled Frog! This was simply amazing! He couldn’t help but get excited as he began wondering what sort of items such a high-level Elite would drop.

The Arcane Fairy never stopped replenishing Tang Yao’s mana as he continued to fire spells while constantly repositioning himself to keep the Scaled Frog within the range of the cloud of smoke.「Blub! Blub! Blub!」The mana in the atmosphere converged toward him as the fairy blew an unending stream of bubbles by his side.

Arcane Fireball! Arcane Missile! Arcane Flame Burst!

Firing spell after spell, Tang Yao seemed to have limitless mana as their cost didn’t even put a dent in his mana bar.

“My Arcane Flame Burst advanced by a grade!” Tang Yao exclaimed after a system notification appeared. He began to recall the Elementalist from Radiant Sacred Flame, Dian Cang, who had been able to wipe out one of his party members with a single spell. At that time, he had been badly frightened by Dian Cang’s damage. Yet now, he was also capable of killing an opponent with just a single spell.

Watching Tang Yao firing off spells like a Gatling gun, Nie Yan began to recall that player who had a Rank 5 Arcane Fairy. At the moment, Tang Yao really did seem to somewhat resemble him.

?10, ?11, ?10, ?132....

A string of damage values rose up above the Scaled Frog’s head, many of which were fairly low. However, on occasion, a spell would proc the Ignore Level effect and deal a terrifying amount of damage.

In the meantime, Nie Yan didn’t have anything left to do. He could simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the free experience and loot.

Tang Yao decided to liven things up as he began chanting a long line of syllables.

“Meteor!”

Wave after wave of meteors rained down from the sky, all without exception bombarding the Scaled Frog. As the area was being carpet bombed, the ground was quickly reduced to scorched black craters.

After casting the spell, Tang Yao’s mana fell by one-fifth, but it quickly recovered soon afterward. In the past, when Tang Yao used Meteor, it would at least consume the greater half of his mana. However, thanks to his Rank 3 Arcane Fairy increasing his mana by 300%, the mana cost of casting Meteor could no longer be regarded as anything taxing.

The damage Tang Yao dealt was just too monstrous; even Nie Yan was left speechless.

The drop rate of an Arcane Soul Crystal was extremely low, not to mention 90% of all Arcane Fairies would end up dying before reaching Rank 3. That was why, even in a group of ten thousand Arcane Mages, it was hard to find one. Tang Yao really had struck gold, finding one so early on in the game.

“Did your Arcane Soul Crystal drop when you were farming monsters with Yu Lan (Blue Feather) and the others?”

“Yep!” Tang Yao replied as he fired off another round of spells.

“None of the Arcane Mages in their team fought with you for it?” Nie Yan asked in surprise. For others to not covet after such a priceless item was quite strange.

“None of them felt comfortable fighting with me over it, but I still thanked them anyway for letting me have it by giving everyone in the team two silver. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so broke when you told me to come over to Hems Wasteland.”

After the seemingly unending volley of magic persisted for thirty minutes, the Scaled Frog could no longer support itself as its right side gave way and it ended up on the ground belly up.

You have successfully slain a Scaled Frog (Elite). +700% experience for killing a monster above your level. You have received 98,290 experience points.

Nie Yan watched as his experience sharply rose from Level 11, 83% to 92%.

As for the other member of his party, Tang Yao, he was enveloped in a bright radiance, and having just recently hit Level 10, he stood foolishly, staring into empty space as he levelled up once again to Level 11.