“Boss, you’ve come!” Bird said with pleasant surprise.

“You’ve been promoted to Intermediate Alchemist?” Nie Yan was slightly surprised as well. Bird had plenty to do every day just managing the Starry Night Potion Shop, but he somehow still found the time to raise his Alchemy skill to become an Intermediate Alchemist.

“My Intermediate Alchemist proficiency is already at half. In the entire shop, only three people are ahead of me,” Bird proudly reported. Considering he had less time to practice than the dedicated Alchemists in the shop, not falling behind the pack would’ve already been a remarkable achievement.

The Alchemy King’s rise had finally begun. Maybe he would give Nie Yan a nice surprise in the future.

“Business seems to be booming,” Nie Yan commented as he looked around at the hundreds of players crowding the Starry Night Potion Shop.

“Potion sales have been especially high these past few days, netting around 300 gold in profits daily. We’ve also provided over 600 gold’s worth of potions to Asskickers United in that time. Our three branches in Calore have also begun to earn over a hundred gold a day. According to your instructions, we’re working on opening thirty-two Starry Night Potion Shop branches in six other cities. After we contacted the local bosses of those cities, they’ve all agreed to not disrupt our business for now. We’ve already started recruiting Alchemists, but those branches won’t be bringing in profits for quite some time.” Bird diligently reported on the profits and expansions of the store.

Nie Yan nodded and praised, “Very good!” He was extremely satisfied with Bird’s work managing the store.

“You’ve given me everything, Boss, so I naturally have to produce good results,” Bird replied seriously. Solely due to Nie Yan’s benevolence, he had completely reversed his previous situation. The complete turnaround from being cast out from Dark Hero as a failed Apprentice Alchemist to his current position as both an Intermediate Alchemist and the manager of the Starry Night Potion Shop caused Bird to feel deeply grateful toward Nie Yan. Just a few days ago, Dark Hero’s guild leader even came in person to invite him back to the guild, but Bird flatly refused his very generous offer. People should not forget their benefactors, after all.

“How many Intermediate Alchemists do we have now?” Nie Yan asked.

“We have eleven now. According to my best estimations, there’s only sixteen Intermediate Alchemists in all of Calore, so we employ two-thirds of them,” Bird responded. Calore was currently the frontrunner in both the number of players in the Viridian Empire and the most robust economy. Even from the perspective of the entire Viridian Empire, the Starry Night Potion Shop was the undisputed leader of the potion industry. “Do you want to meet our Intermediate Alchemists? They’re all extremely curious about the secret backer behind the Starry Night Potion Shop.”

“Not right now,” Nie Yan answered. Bird was good at doing business. So long as Asskickers United provided high-level recipes, the Starry Night Potion Shop would continue to grow. “When I have some spare time, I’ll meet with them.”

“Alright,” Bird nodded.

After chatting a bit more, Nie Yan left the Starry Night Potion Shop. He withdrew 200 gold from his share of the Union of Assassins’ profits and headed to Tasoyi Village, where he bought a thousand Basic Magic Bombs and some Smoke Powder. This time, they would grind Mechanical Golems in Everlasting City to their hearts desire.

「Damn! Undying Scoundrel just got a Slaughter Fiend Medallion! Why is my luck so bad?

」Tang Yao sent a message to complain to Nie Yan. He had farmed Scaled Frogs for so long without any luck, but Undying Scoundrel got one to drop almost immediately. How could Tang Yao not feel frustrated? It could even be said he was saltier than the Dead Sea!

「I think your kill count might not have been high enough. Undying Scoundrel killed over a hundred players.」Nie Yan was finally certain that the Slaughter Fiend Medallion required a red named player to have killed over a hundred players in order to drop. Of course, even then, luck still played a factor.

「Had I known that earlier, I would’ve just killed a few more of those bastards from Victorious Return!」Tang Yao sighed. Back when he unleashed a massacre outside the Black Flame Forest dungeon, his kill count had only been a little short of a hundred. Thinking back now, it was really a pity.

「Share the properties of Slaughter Fiend Medallion for me to look at.」Slaughter Fiend Medallions were different for each class. Because Undying Scoundrel was an Elementalist, his medallion should be for a Mage.

「Mhm.」Tang Yao grunted as he shared the properties of the medallion.

Slaughter Fiend Medallion (Mage)

Rank: Junior (Kill 1000 players 2 Levels higher than you to upgrade to Intermediate.)

Description: The Slaughter Fiend Medallion can be upgraded by killing players. But with each subsequent upgrade, the owner will suffer a stronger curse that reduces defense.

Properties: Magic Power +20%, Defense -20%, Willpower +5, Ignore Level +3, Armour Pierce

Junior Elemental Blast: Fire an elemental missile that deals three times your Magic Power as damage. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Junior Elemental Drain: Drains 60 mana from a single target each second, up to 50% of their maximum mana. Cooldown: 3 minutes.

Restrictions: Can only be used by the original owner. Automatically bound after being picked up. Cannot be traded or dropped. Can be destroyed.

The Slaughter Fiend Medallion would bind itself automatically, so only the player who got it to drop would be able to use it. Other players could only look on in envy. It counted as an accessory, and took up an accessory slot. This item was very good, and considered by many to be one of the absolute best.

「What a perverted item! Willpower +5 and Ignore Level +3, with an armour-piercing property that deals 120% damage to light armored units to boot! Such a pity.」Tang Yao was green with envy over this item.

A Thief’s Slaughter Fiend Medallion would be different from that of a Mage. Nie Yan looked at his own killcount. It’s more than enough. I’ll first go hunt some Scaled Frogs to get my own Slaughter Fiend Medallion, then.

「Just form a party with other guild members and hunt down some Victorious Return players before you try again at getting a Slaughter Fiend Medallion. Killing them is nothing to you anyway. We can’t let Unhindered off either. They ought to be slaughtered until they never dare to show their faces again.」After a bit of consideration, Nie Yan advised Tang Yao to go after this highly useful item. The boost to Ignore Level was especially important to him. If Tang Yao could equip more items with Ignore Level, they could continue to jump levels and fight more high-level monsters.

「That works too. Anyways, Heaven Breaker shouldn’t even dream about taking me over anytime soon.」To Tang Yao, the Slaughter Fiend Medallion was the devil’s fishhook.

「You be careful then. I’m about to go grab myself a Slaughter Fiend Medallion.」

「Your kill count is high enough?」

「I killed over a 150 players in Kiln Fire Woods.」

「You sure are vicious. A shame I wasn’t there,」Tang Yao sadly complained.

Nie Yan laughed.「That was for safety’s sake. We still have to go do a quest.」He had been planning this operation, which required the use of both the Adjudicator of God and Steal skills to complete, for quite some time. Now that he had the Kiln Fire Heart, he had even more confidence. It was also a Legendary item fragment, but the Grimmar Soul set was even better. He couldn’t possibly let this opportunity go! As for the Silent Bay and the Ten Holy Paladins Legendary questline, those had to wait until he was a higher level. Trying to complete it now would just be suicide.

Nie Yan exited the city, heading towards the area where Scaled Frogs spawned. While walking through the forest, he got another message, this time from Sleepy Fox.

「Your actions this time were insane! You sure are amazing, burying over twenty thousand Victorious Return players under Kiln Fire Woods,」Sleepy Fox exclaimed. He had expected Asskickers United to be suppressed because of Victorious Return’s absolute advantage. He hadn’t expected Nie Yan to find a Lava Titan from who-knows-where to completely massacre Victorious Return. It instantly flipped the situation, silencing Victorious Return and setting Asskickers United on track to grow even more prosperous with each passing day.

「We got lucky, is all.」Nie Yan lightly chuckled.

「What are you saying? How could it just be luck? I really admire your ability, especially the part where you dove into that crowd of 600 players to kill Hei Zhuo. You displayed a godly level of skill!」Sleepy Fox gave his heartfelt praise. He wasn’t trying to butter up to Nie Yan. He sincerely believed what Nie Yan had accomplished in Kiln Fire Woods could be performed by no other.

「With all this flattery, it can’t be that you have some kind of hidden motive can it?」Nie Yan laughed. From his understanding, Sleepy Fox was an extremely cunning figure who would never visit a temple without a cause.[1]

Sleepy Fox blushed as he coughed to hide his embarrassment before continuing.「I came with good intentions to tell you about some news I got. Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame have been making frequent movements lately. Their leaders are often in contact with each other, and there’s even hints of them being in contact with Angel Corps from the Satreen Empire. Do not look down on Victorious Return.」

Nie Yan, after hearing Sleepy Fox’s information, wrinkled his brows. He wasn’t worried about Angel Corps because the Satreen Empire was just too far from the Viridian Empire. It was simply impossible for them to mobilize a large-scale force here. Radiant Sacred Flame, on the other hand, was truly worrying because it was a major guild comparable to Victorious Return or Holy Empire.

「I contacted you today to talk of an alliance. If Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame make a move, we can stand united, both advancing and retreating together.」Sleepy Fox finally brought up the real purpose behind his words.

Advancing and retreating together, huh? Nie Yan’s cunning eyes gleamed as he questioned,「Could it be that you’re on bad terms with Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame and are now trying to drag Asskickers United into the mess?」

Having been exposed, Sleepy Fox chuckled wryly and admitted,「Only a minor conflict. Asskickers United can’t just passively defend itself forever, right? I heard they’re going to open a small stronghold soon. Are you guys interested in it?」

Sleepy Fox had taken the initiative to contact Nie Yan about an alliance, showing that Holy Empire recognized Asskickers United’s strength.

After carefully considering for a bit, Nie Yan responded,「I agree that Holy Empire and Asskickers United should cooperate, but we need to flesh out the details of such an alliance.」

Although Asskickers United was on the rise, the guild was only a single entity. If it could find some trustworthy allies, not only would morale be boosted but their future development would also be smoother.

[1] To “never visit a temple without a cause” is an idiom meaning to have a hidden motive. Instead of going to a temple to worship, one would go for some other, secular reason.