Requirements: 130 Strength

Description: This chestpiece still contains strong remnants of magic power. Seek out the other fragments—Darkbright Fine Feather Silk and Darkbright Rune Cloth—to restore the Darkbright Leather Armour of Solga.

Properties: Defense 370–386, Dexterity +20, Speed +20, Jump +10, Stealth +10, Cloaking +10, Reflex +10

Darkbright Barrier (Rank 3): Absorb 30% of all incoming damage up to a maximum of 1200 points for 3 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour.

Restrictions: Thief; can be equipped by any faction.

What high defense! The properties of the Darkbright Chestpiece were undeniably great, especially the supplementary Darkbright Barrier (Rank 3). This piece of equipment was better than some Level 50 Dark Gold-grade Thief armour!

But the rather high Strength requirement made the Thieves in the expedition team shrink back. An anomaly like Nie Yan was perhaps the only one who could equip this Darkbright Chestpiece.

“Anyone want this chestpiece?” Nie Yan asked.

Nearly all Thieves shook their heads. With such an intimidating Strength requirement, how could any of them equip it?

Nie Yan looked at One Strike Vow and asked, “What about you? Want it?”

These players formed the core of Asskickers United, and a future Shadow Dancer like One Strike Vow was naturally no exception. If any of them wanted a certain piece of equipment, Nie Yan as their guild leader would do his best to provide. There were numerous other opportunities for him to obtain better equipment anyway.

One Strike Vow shook her head. “I only have 80 Strength, but all of that is from equipment and gems. There’s no way I can equip it.”

One Strike Vow still only had 80 Strength at her current level? This meant she had put all of her points into Dexterity!

When a Thief reached 500 Dexterity, a portion of it would be added to their attack power. At 1000 points, this bonus was doubled. Almost every Thief liked to focus on this stat, but very few actually chose to go all in. Although a full Dexterity Thief was very nimble with high attack speed, their fatal flaw was that they sorely lacked damage. So many players who attempted this difficult build would eventually end up abandoning it, having no choice but to add some points into Strength.

If One Strike Vow reached 500 Dexterity, keeping up her gear quality to compensate for the lack of damage, she could be considered to have achieved some minor success with the build. After reaching 1000 Dexterity, she would be all in the clear.

A few other top Thieves also shook their heads when asked. Only Nie Yan met the requirements for the Darkbright Chestpiece. He could even equip it right away.

“I guess I’ll take it then,” Nie Yan said. When he no longer needed the Darkbright Chestpiece, he could simply toss it in the treasury. By then, many players in the guild would meet the requirements to equip it.

Nie Yan checked his stats after equipping the Darkbright Chestpiece. They had increased significantly. It gleamed with a dark luster, resembling a black jewel—bizarre and mysterious.

The other two pieces of equipment were Dark Gold-grade. Both were snatched up by for around 20,000 merit points each.

After calculating the price of the Darkbright Chestpiece, Nie Yan distributed 500 merit points to every member of the team, causing them to rejoice.

Nie Yan wasn’t the least bit miserly when distributing merit points. This made the players respect him all the more.

On a different note, the Goblin Hunter gave an extremely generous amount of experience. This allowed for almost all of the players to rise up by a minimum of 80% of a level, and so many people levelled up.

Aside from the three pieces of equipment, Nie Yan’s group obtained the fifth Energy Key Fragment.

When all five Energy Key Fragments were gathered together, they started shining brilliantly before gradually merging into a complete glowing key.

Everlasting City Energy Key (Special Item)

“Boss, what’s that thing good for?”

“According to the official website, it’s used to open the gates to the Inner Sanctum of Everlasting City. What’s that?”

Nie Yan didn’t offer up an explanation. “Let’s go take a look.”

Nie Yan led the way to the center of the square. Carved throughout the towering, faintly glowing spire were murals narrating the golden age of the goblin civilization as well as their eventual decline. The remnants of their race was this city which had survived the ravages of time. It was thusly named Everlasting City.

The others followed closely behind Nie Yan. The broken brick floor beneath their feet sported cracks reminiscent of a turtle shell, which branched outwards in a bizarre, circular pattern.

Nie Yan’s group arrived at the base of the spire, where they were greeted by ancient gates whose surfaces were mottled by rust. Still standing firm in spite of the passing of centuries, they were impossible to push open regardless of the force employed.

At the center of the gates was a giant lock with a keyhole. Constructed of intricate metal parts interlinked with one another, it exuded a rather remarkable impression.

Nie Yan held the Energy Key.

“These are the gates?”

“They don’t really look like much. But I heard you can obtain the Energy Core of Everlasting City by opening them.”

“What’s that for?”

“Who knows? It probably has something to do with strongholds.”

The players chattered among themselves.

Nie Yan turned around to face the team members and said, “Wait out here for now. I’ll be out in a bit.”

Nie Yan didn’t have second thoughts about entering since there were no monsters in the Inner Sanctum. He slowly inserted the Energy Key into the keyhole, feeling strong currents of magical energy surge out from the lock’s tiny apertures before dispersing into the air.

Once the key was fully inserted, a blinding radiance shone from the ancient doors. Their previously mottled surfaces shone with brand-new splendor, as if they had never rusted at all.

Nie Yan slowly pushed open the door, then stepped inside where he was welcomed by nothing but darkness.

“Just run if you encounter any trouble,” Bladelight shouted from behind, sounding a bit uneasy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Nie Yan replied. There were no monsters inside the Inner Sanctum. He had nothing to be concerned about.

Nie Yan proceeded forward with nothing but darkness around him until he arrived at a meter-high stone platform, on top of which sat a metal basin collecting light-green droplets trickling down from above.

The basin was filled to the brim with the falling green liquid.

Looking down, Nie Yan saw a glowing crystal at the bottom of the basin. It was the size of a goose egg, elliptical in shape and jade-green in colour.

It was the Energy Core of Everlasting City!

With it and a few NPC Barrier Masters, Nie Yan could construct a barrier powerful enough to hold off even Rank 5 advanced magic. That would be sufficient until players reached Level 150. Even in the previous timeline around when Nie Yan assassinated Cao Xu, there were only two Magisters who had learned Rank 6 advanced magic.

Barriers were immensely valuable to the defense of a stronghold, blocking incoming spells from the enemy while allowing outgoing spells to pass through. However, players could freely enter or leave.

This property alone made the Energy Core priceless.

Nie Yan reached into the basin and fished out the Energy Core. The green liquid that filled the basin turned impeccably clear as if its essence was drawn out along with the crystal.

He looked at the properties of the Energy Core.

Energy Core of Everlasting City (Junior): Generate 1 Megacycle of energy per day, maximum storage of 50 Megacycles of energy.

A Megacycle was a unit used by goblins to represent the intensity of energy. The energy released by a Rank 1 advanced magic spell was approximately 0.1 Megacycle. This meant a Barrier put up at a stronghold at maximum energy capacity could hold off at least 500 such spells!

It would take at minimum ten days before a second Energy Core was produced. I’ll tell them to come here by themselves next time, Nie Yan thought. He wouldn’t need to personally come back here again.

Nie Yan stored the Energy Core inside his bag, then headed back outside. Bladelight and the others walked up, welcoming him back.

“How’d it go? You got it?” Bladelight asked. He had looked up the uses of the Energy Core on the official website and now knew the importance it held.

“I got it.” Nie Yan nodded. This trip to Everlasting City was well worth the time spent.

“What are we doing next?” Bladelight asked.

“Tell everyone to return to the headquarters. We’ll stay here with a few to grind a bit outside Everlasting City,” Nie Yan said. It wasn’t too efficient to have so many people levelling together.

At this moment, Nie Yan received a call from Guo Huai.

「Nie Yan, I heard a Level 40 Golden Dragon spawned east of Calore in Sinful Gorge. I checked the website and it says the Golden Dragon’s Horn can summon a Golden Dragon! Victorious Return, Radiant Sacred Flame, Holy Empire, and Sapphire Shrine are heading there right now. Should we go as well?」Guo Huai asked.

The Golden Dragon was a rare, top-grade summon!

「Of course! Why wouldn’t we go? We have to join in on the fun as well!」