Properties: 39,000 Attack, Attack +500%, Strength +350%, 60% chance to stun with lightning, 30% chance to freeze, Warrior Skill Ranks +10, Lightning Skill Ranks +10, Ice Skill Ranks +10.

Thunder God’s Hammer: Hurl a lightning hammer at an enemy to stun them for up to 60 seconds. Can break Divine armour. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Bonus Holder Properties: All Stats +30%.

Frozen Fortress: Seal yourself in ice for up to 30 minutes of invulnerability. Can be dispelled at will. Cannot attack others while in frozen state. Cooldown: 2 days.

Note: Cannot be deposited into storage; drops upon death.

Nie Yan’s eyes trembled as he stared at the properties of Paternoster’s Warhammer. He immediately took out the Death God’s Edge. These two items were on the same level, but he couldn’t use either for the time being. A sigh escaped his lips as he looked at their amazing stats in admiration.

There was a slight difference between Paternoster’s Warhammer and the Death God’s Edge. While Nie Yan couldn’t take advantage of any of the properties of the Death God’s Edge, that wasn’t the case for Paternoster’s Warhammer. By just having it in his bag, he would receive the effects of All Stats +30% and obtain the Frozen Fortress skill.

Frozen Fortress was a defensive skill. Its effects were quite powerful. It could defend Nie Yan against all damage for up to 30 minutes. This would give him plenty of time to regain his bearings and for his escape skills to come back off cooldown.

“All Stats +30%,” Nie Yan muttered. He checked his defense. It had already reached an astonishing 28,700. His health had reached over 37,000. When all the bonuses were added to his base attack power of 12,000, it even reach as high as 32,000!

Stats like these would leave many Warriors completely speechless. Even a Champion like Bladelight only had 20,000 defense.

28,700 defense with leather armour was roughly equivalent to 15,000 defense with heavy plate armour against physical attacks. As for magical attacks, it was equivalent to 26,000 defense with heavy plate armour.

In other words, Nie Yan far surpassed Bladelight in terms of pure defense against magical attacks. As for physical attacks, he was only slightly worse than Bladelight. Of course, Bladelight was much more durable with a health pool of 130,000.

When Nie Yan took out Paternoster’s Warhammer, a notification popped up.

? Take Paternoster’s Warhammer to the Lost City of Barthe and find Morphest. He will inform you on how to obtain the Assassin’s Heart.

Lost City of Barthe? Nie Yan knitted his brows. He recalled Barthe was once a flourishing city. Until one day the legendary Demon Georgiona cursed it to sink into the underworld, like the sinking city of Atlantis. Records said the city used to be located somewhere in the north of the Satreen Empire.

Looking at the map, that meant Barthe had to be somewhere on the borders of the Demon Tribe in the underworld.

“Looks like I’ll have to make a trip to the underworld again,” Nie Yan muttered. After obtaining Paternoster’s Warhammer, the Song of the Bramble Bird quest was finally in full swing.

Paternoster’s Warhammer emanated a frosty aura, causing the surrounding temperature to drop and mist to form in the air. On the other hand, the Death God’s Edge emanated and aura of darkness which grew stronger and stronger over time. The two unique Sacred Objects seemed to have spirits of their own and started competing.

The clash of magical energies in the air grew more and more intense, spreading further out into the surroundings. If this were allowed to continue on for any longer, Nie Yan would have to start worrying about his own safety.

Nie Yan hurriedly stuffed the two items back into his bag. Only then did they calm down.

Just what sort of secrets did these two Sacred Objects contain? And how many more such items were there in Conviction? Nie Yan couldn’t help but wonder.

People in the previous timeline had likely come across Sacred Objects as well. They were different from ordinary items. They couldn’t be deposited into storage and would drop upon death. He estimated any player that obtained one wouldn’t dare to show it off ostentatiously.

After staying in Orc King City for a while, Nie Yan received word from Swift Maple that a Level 130 Demonified Lord had appeared on the borders of the city’s territory. It had slaughtered six villages, and seemed to be searching for something. However, it didn’t dare to approach the city.

Nie Yan raised an eyebrow in surprise. He didn’t think the Demon Slaughterer would be too afraid to enter Orc King City, taking its anger out on the inhabitants of the surrounding villages instead.

Given the strength of the Demon Slaughterer, as long as a legendary NPC didn’t take action, there was no one that could stop it.

Nie Yan wondered when the Demon Slaughterer would give up.

Nie Yan suddenly had an idea. His lips curved into a devious smile. He sent Swift Maple a message.「Swift Maple, do you have a way to sneak me into one of Angel Corps’ strongholds?」

「Sneak you into one of their strongholds? How long do you plan to stay there?」

「About a day or two.」

「That’ll be tough. Even though Angel Corps’ strongholds are open to the public, they restrict the entry of any unaffiliated human players from entering.」

Nie Yan knitted his brows. Angel Corps strictly controlled those who could enter their strongholds. It would be difficult for him to walk in through the front entrance. It appeared he would have to rely on his old and tested method of sneaking in!

「I’m planning to infiltrate the Clemenci Stronghold. Help me get a map with a layout of its defenses.」

「W-what? No, absolutely not! That’s way too dangerous. Guo Huai made me responsible for your safety. I can’t let you take such a huge risk,」Swift Maple said. Dying was a common occurrence for ordinary players. They could simply revive, and everything would be fine. However, Nie Yan was a living legend among players, having never suffered defeat even once. If he died, it would be an immense blow to Asskickers United.

「Don’t worry. I’m not going to siege the stronghold, only sneak in. There won’t be the slightest danger. Just give me the data I asked for, and I’ll handle Guo Huai.」

「I-I see... Fine.」Swift Mapled nodded after hesitating for a long time.

Angel Corps had already shifted their main guild headquarters over to the Clemenci Stronghold north of Orc King City.

This was only a Basic Stronghold. However, it had such a strong geographical location that that didn’t matter. Its first layer of defense were the several Angel Corps controlled strongholds in the neighbouring maps; no enemy could get close without going through those first. Second came its placement. Located in the middle of a ravine, sandwiched between two precipitous cliff walls, the only way in was up a steep incline from an extremely narrow plain. This made it practically impossible to siege.

Originally, Angel Corps’ guild headquarters was located in an Intermediate Stronghold. However, after Nie Yan became the lord of the Abernathy Great Grasslands and established Okoron which was rapidly expanding every day, Soaring Angel became uneasy. So, he transferred the guild headquarters over to a more secure place, the Clemenci Stronghold. After which he heavily fortified its defenses, erecting numerous arrow towers and cannons on top of the surrounding precipices. He had invested at least three times as much gold into the defenses of the Clemenci Stronghold as Nie Yan had into the Cripps Stronghold. Of course, it still couldn’t compare to Okoron.

Before long, Swift Maple got back to Nie Yan with a map of the defensive layout of the Clemenci Stronghold in addition to another map of the surrounding topography.

These two maps were extremely detailed, leaving nothing to be desired.

「I heard you’re planning to infiltrate the Clemenci Stronghold,」Guo Huai said.

「Yeah.」Nie Yan nodded.

「Be careful. The Clemenci Stronghold is different from other strongholds. I’ve seen the layout of its defenses. It’s like a porcupine. Taking it down won’t be easy. Soaring Angel invested an enormous sum of gold into this stronghold. Its defenses are on par with that of an Intermediate Stronghold, and its population density is also high.」

「Don’t worry. Since when have I ever gotten myself killed? Even if I’m discovered, I can easily escape. They won’t dare to aim their cannons toward the stronghold.」

「Sigh... I knew I couldn’t stop you. Fine, keep in touch and be safe.」Guo Huai bitterly smiled.

After looking over the map of the defensive layout of the Clemenci Stronghold, Nie Yan was also taken aback. It appeared Soaring Angel had really gone all out here. There wasn’t a single real world shopping district inside. There were also very few residential houses. Apart from important buildings like the guild headquarters, the rest of the free space was used to construct arrow towers and cannons. In terms of cannons alone, there were over 1,000. As for arrow towers, there were so many it was difficult to count.

Angel Corps’ engineering division wasn’t that far behind Asskickers United’s. In fact, in terms of manpower, they even surpassed Asskickers United. It was just that they lacked behind when it came to high rank blueprints. This was thanks to Delfina, the NPC slave Nie Yan recruited, who could duplicate blueprints.

In terms of number of catapults, no other guild could compare with Asskickers United. Their production ability was astonishing to say the least. As for Angel Corps, they focused all their energy into magic cannons. They had over 3,000 cannons in total, spread out across their various strongholds.

Seeing the Clemenci Stronghold’s defenses, Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel somewhat dejected. When he launched a war against Angel Corps in the future, it would pose quite the challenge to take this stronghold down.

Nie Yan double checked the path he was going to use to infiltrate the stronghold. He had also prepared some necessary consumables.

「Guo Huai, send a few Thieves to keep track of the Demon Slaughterer’s location,」Nie Yan said. He didn’t want to be killed by it while en route to the Clemenci Stronghold.

Nie Yan estimated it would take him about 10 minutes to reach the Clemenci Stronghold on the Darkwing Dragon. After all, it wasn’t too far away. He just needed to be a bit careful on the way.

Finishing his preparations, Nie Yan made his way to the outskirts of Orc King City. After finding a secluded spot, he summoned the Darkwing Dragon.

After giving it a special medicine, most of the injuries it had sustained during the battle with Necromancer Vorderman had recovered. Even though it still needed some time for a full recovery, flying wouldn’t be a problem.

Nie Yan hopped onto the Darkwing Dragon’s back. With a flap of its wings, it took off into the air and disappeared behind the clouds.