Chapter 316 – Windfall
The Molelord’s health hit zero, and it heavily crashed to the ground, causing the entire cavern to shake.
Nie Yan quickly ducked for cover. When he saw no changes in the Molelord’s corpse, he breathed out a sigh of relief. He believed it would explode like the Moleguard they previously encountered. This was why he ordered Painted Muslin to retreat. It appeared he was just being a worrywart.
The Molelord’s corpse laid motionless on the ground. It resembled a large whale.
Nie Yan lit up with a brilliant radiance as he directly ascended to Level 35. The other members also gained at least a level.
“Boss, did anything drop?” Summer Bug asked.
Nie Yan was about to bend down to rummage for loot when he suddenly noticed the Molelord’s corpse starting to swell like a balloon. Its veins were pulsating violently with a force that couldn’t be restrained.
Nie Yan’s face paled. “Everyone, duck!”
This was Corpse Explosion!
There were next to no monsters with this ability!
Everyone turned to flee.
「Boom!」At this instant, the Molelord’s corpse exploded, sending out a powerful shock wave that swept out in all directions.
None of them had a chance to reach safety before the explosion enveloped them.
It was a complete wipeout.
Nie Yan was no exception. The Corpse Explosion was simply unavoidable. However, he didn’t immediately take on astral form. Instead, the scenery around him shifted into a white void. There were brilliant rays of light all around him as though he had arrived in the kingdom of heaven.
Nie Yan was flabbergasted. Just where the hell am I? He looked around and saw a lonely figure crouched down on its knees. He couldn’t make out its appearance. It was shrouded in a blurry mist of light.
It wandered through this vast void, occasionally stopping to stare into space. Noticing the new arrival, it stared at Nie Yan in confusion.
At this moment, a strange feeling surfaced in Nie Yan’s heart as various scenes of Empress Finas flashed across his mind. He could feel the boundless sorrow in the Molelord’s heart.
Nie Yan’s heart skipped a beat. These scenes were most likely clues on how to find Empress Finas!
The figure transformed into a ball of light and flew into Nie Yan’s bag. It danced around Bennett’s Journal for a while before entering inside.
Nie Yan examined the journal and noticed a few changes.
Bennett’s Journal: Undying Soul, Love of a Lowly Moleman (Quest Item)
Properties: The owner of this journal is allowed to open a Dark Portal to a random location in the Underworld. A portal can be opened once every 5 days and lasts for 20 minutes.
Restrictions: Bound to Nirvana Flame. Cannot be traded or dropped.
The Dark Portal was an unpredictable skill. It could teleport you to the Underworld, but the location was random. On top of this, you would have to wait for five days if you didn’t enter the portal within the 20 minute duration.
Nie Yan didn’t know when he would visit the Underworld. He could conveniently check if this quest was doable while looking for items to buy over there.
After an unknown amount of time, a system notification appeared.
Ten Li Painted Muslin has revived you. Do you accept?
Yes!
With a flash of light, Nie Yan was brought back to life. He opened his eyes to see Painted Muslin and Young Seven reviving the others.
When Painted Muslin returned, she was stunned to see all of their corpses. She revived Young Seven first, after which the two of them began reviving the rest of the members together.
Nie Yan collected the loot from the Molelord’s corpse. There were three items in total: a robe, a pair of gloves, and a gem, all of which were Level 50 Dark Gold-grade.
Both the robe and gloves were Arcane Mage equipment. They were part of the Dark Follower Set, an offensive-type set. The robes gave 250 magic power while the gloves gave 120 magic power.
The stats on these two pieces of equipment were superb. Out of all the level 50 sets, the Dark Follower Set gave one of the largest boosts to magic power.
A complete Dark Follower Set would probably increase magic power by over 1,000!
Nie Yan shared the information of the two pieces of equipment in the chat.
“The Molelord respawns every day. Should we collect the full set before we leave?” Smoke Stub asked. He understood just how valuable this set was.
“We’ll be staying here for the next several days, so I don’t see why not,” Nie Yan replied. It would take quite some time to clear away their red names.
With the Molelord dead, all they could do was kill ordinary Molemen until it respawned.
There were simply too many Arcane Mages in Asskickers United. A single Dark Follower Set obviously wasn’t enough to go around. So, they could only satisfy one player for the time being. Nie Yan would have to carefully consider who would receive this set. These sorts of situations arose pretty often. If handled unfairly, it could easily lead to discontent among the guild members.
Besides the two pieces of equipment from the Dark Follower Set, there was also a Dexterity Gem (7) which increased Dexterity by 35. Nie Yan planned to socket it to his own equipment.
The group sat down to recover their health and mana. Afterwards, they started farming the regular Molemen.
Nie Yan was at the back of the group, leeching experience while managing the affairs back in Calore.
Just at this moment, Nie Yan received a call from Yao Yao.
「Nirvana Flame, I’ve completed the quest. I received a Templar Magic as a reward. Thank you!」Yao Yao informed. If it wasn’t for Nie Yan’s guidance, she could’ve never done this quest.
「No problem. You’re a member of Asskickers United. It’s only natural I help.」Nie Yan chuckled.
Yao Yao felt somewhat disheartened. Besides being a guild member, was there really no other reason for him to help her? From when they first met in Lake Rando to their recent adventures in Zennarde’s Domain, did all of that mean nothing? She wished Nie Yan would like her inside the game more.
Xie Yao had only met Nie Yan a few times in real life, so there was still a bit of unfamiliarity between them. However, she felt very comfortable with him inside the game. Levelling, running dungeons, and going on adventures together, could all of that really not compare to a few encounters in real life?
「What kind of Templar Magic did you get?」
「Holy Purification.」
Nie Yan raised an eyebrow in surprise. Holy Purification was one of the better Advanced Magics.
「Not bad.」
「The servers are going down soon. I’m heading off first!」Yao Yao pouted. Nie Yan only cared whether or not she was an asset to the guild!
「Alright, see you later.」Nie Yan didn’t say anything else despite picking up the discontent in Yao Yao’s voice. He checked the clock. It was about time for him to log off as well.
Seeing Yao Yao’s name go dim on his friend list, Nie Yan sorted through the day’s profit. He had made over 1,000 gold from the Union of Assassins, 5,000 gold from the Starry Night Potion Shop, 2,000 gold from leases, and 5,000 gold from his auction houses and the Super Trade Channel. That was over 13,000 gold in total! Even the Dragonsoar Financial Group only brought in roughly 30,000 gold a day through their various channels! What’s more, all these projects were still developing. In the future, they would rake in even more gold!
Besides these earnings, Nie Yan had also sold several real world business districts to the Dragonsoar Financial Group. A portion of the gold was given to Holy Empire and Sapphire Shrine, but most of it went into his back pocket.
Asskickers United no longer required Nie Yan’s financial support. The Dragonsoar Financial Group’s investments sufficed. He averted his attention to other guilds. His next target was Battle Crazed Alliance in Hilderlocke!
In the previous timeline, Battle Crazed Alliance had received the backing of the West Pool Financial Group, the sixth largest financial group in Asia. However, they eventually withdrew their investments due to Cao Xu’s actions. His unbridled spending and massive bribes had poached away many of Battle Crazed Alliance’s professional players. Add to this the pressure from Victorious Return, Radiant Sacred Flame, and Bloodlust Blades that put the guild’s very existence at stake, and withdrawing had been the only logical course of action for the financial group.
Battle Crazed Alliance mostly likely hadn’t been acquired by a financial group yet. Since that was the case, it was the perfect time for Nie Yan to take action.
Nie Yan told Guo Huai to talk to Kill Love about the matter of investment since it wouldn’t be appropriate to do this personally. If Kill Love agreed, he would invest in Battle Crazed Alliance under his own name. The details of their cooperation could be discussed at that time.
Just as Nie Yan finished arranging these matters, he received a call from Tuoba Time.
「Do you have any gold? I’m short on funds.」Tuoba Time got straight to the point.
「How much do you need?」Nie Yan asked. Tuoba Time was quite a rich fellow. He would have no problem obtaining 50,000 gold. If he was asking to borrow money, it definitely wouldn’t be a small sum.
「I need 600,000 gold in a month’s time,」Tuoba Time replied.
Nie Yan gasped.「What do you need so much gold for?」600,000 gold was easily more than enough to acquire a large guild! He thought about it for a moment. Based on how much he made every day, although it would be difficult, it was still possible.
「If you help me get this gold, I’m willing to give you 30% of the Tuoba Family’s assets in Conviction. This includes 11 shops, 21 plots of land, and 3 auction houses!」Tuoba Time dropped another bomb on Nie Yan.
These assets might only be worth 20,000 gold right now. However, their value would skyrocket to 80,000 gold in just a month’s time and who knew how much more further down the line. Yet Tuoba Time was willingly sell them to Nie Yan for the measly price of 600,000 gold!