Chapter 171 Mastery

Among the Ghoul's drops, Shi Feng spotted something familiar.

A Book of Mastery!

This item was incredibly rare, able to increase a player's free mastery points.

Usually, it could only be obtained from opening chests or completing rare quests. This was the first time Shi Feng had ever seen it drop from a special elite.

Currently, Shi Feng's one-handed sword mastery had reached the Elementary Swordsman level, increasing his one-handed sword damage by 30%.

Expert players were considered good if they reached Advanced Swordsman, which increased damage by 20%. Most experts were still stuck at the Intermediate Swordsman level.

"A Bronze-grade Book of Mastery?" Shi Feng examined the book's stats and felt a little disappointed.

If it were a Mysterious-Iron-grade Book of Mastery, it might have allowed him to break through to Intermediate Swordsman.

A Bronze-grade Book of Mastery granted a random number of points between 5 and 25, which was significantly less than the Mysterious-Iron grade's 10 to 50 points.

Elementary Swordsman required 150 mastery points.

Intermediate Swordsman required 200 mastery points.

If he got lucky with a Mysterious-Iron grade, combined with his previous accumulation, he might have been able to advance to Intermediate Swordsman in one go.

Intermediate Swordsman increased one-handed sword damage by 40%, a considerable boost for any player.

Shi Feng casually used the Book of Mastery and gained 9 free mastery points. Adding this to his previous total, he now had 177 points, only 23 points away from advancing to Intermediate Swordsman.

"I wonder if the remaining Ghouls will drop any more Books of Mastery," Shi Feng thought, his expectations rising. He then controlled a Tier 3 demon to wait 200 yards outside the palace gate, while he controlled another Tier 3 demon to kill the Ghouls nearby.

There were still three Ghouls within 200 yards of the palace.

Shi Feng didn't dare to lure them easily. His level was too low, and he might accidentally attract the attention of the Thunder Beast Watcher, which would be certain death. He naturally couldn't afford to take such a risk.

As Shi Feng waited quietly, the number of Ghouls around him steadily decreased.

Roughly one Bronze-grade Book of Mastery dropped for every fifty Ghouls killed, giving Shi Feng hope for improving his strength.

God's Domain players didn't pay much attention to mastery, but after their levels were high enough, they would realize that mastery had a significant impact on their abilities.

Reaching Intermediate Swordsman with a one-handed sword increased damage by 40%, while Advanced Swordsman increased damage by 50%.

If a player could advance further, reaching the Elementary Sword Master level, one-handed sword damage would jump to 80%. This 30% increase in damage couldn't be easily compensated for with a couple of pieces of equipment.

That was why, in many battles and PKs in God's Domain, even when both sides had similar skill levels and one side had superior attributes, they could still be defeated by the other side due to the difference in mastery.

If he could raise the mastery levels of the guild's higher-ups to a very high level, dealing with the Seven Sins' Flowers' assassins would become much easier.

However, reaching the Sword Master level was difficult.

Reaching Advanced Swordsman required 300 mastery points, while Elementary Sword Master required 450 mastery points, three times as many as Elementary Swordsman.

While Shi Feng was grinding Ghouls and waiting for the Ghouls in the restricted area to come out, a sensational event was unfolding in Star-Moon City.

The Tianji Pavilion's guild residence had actually appeared in Stone Forest Town, making it only the second other guild's residence besides the Ouroboros.

As everyone knew, Ouroboros enjoyed this privilege because they were allies with Zero Wing, but what was Tianji Pavilion?

An ally?

The major guilds realized that if Tianji Pavilion was an ally of Zero Wing, they would have to reconsider their attitude towards the Zero Wing Guild.

Tianji Pavilion was a transcendent power in the virtual gaming world. Although they didn't engage in much conflict, no one dared to underestimate them. Even super guilds were wary of them. With Tianji Pavilion entering Stone Forest Town, anyone who wanted to target Stone Forest Town would have to consider whether they had the strength to do so.

Previously, with a first-rate guild like the Star River Alliance taking the lead, the major guilds had felt somewhat confident.

However, the Star River Alliance was far inferior to Tianji Pavilion. Trying to compete with Tianji Pavilion for Stone Forest Town would be akin to courting death.

At the Star River Alliance's guild residence…

"Purple Eye, have you investigated the matter of Tianji Pavilion? What is Zero Wing's relationship with Tianji Pavilion?" Star River Past, sitting on the guild leader's throne, asked Purple Eye in a deep voice.

Star River Past had been quite happy originally, as he had received a high-level rare quest and was preparing to do it. However, after receiving this news, he couldn't remain calm and immediately convened this emergency meeting to find out what was going on.

Besides being a peak combatant in the Star River Alliance, Purple Eye was also one of the guild's intelligence managers. Moreover, Purple Eye had some special channels and could often obtain information that even the guild couldn't get.

That was why Star River Past asked Purple Eye directly.

"According to the feedback from the investigation, Tianji Pavilion and Zero Wing are not allies," Purple Eye said softly, "However, Tianji Pavilion seems to have conducted an internal transaction with Zero Wing. As for what they traded, I can't find out."

"A transaction?" Star River Past frowned, "This Black Flame is truly surprising. Tianji Pavilion doesn't easily conduct internal transactions. Just in case, from now on, we should be more careful, slow down our efforts against Zero Wing, and let the Open Source Conglomerate deal with them."

Although the Star River Alliance had funding from the Open Source Conglomerate, the Star River Alliance wouldn't go all-out for the Open Source Conglomerate's sake.

The outer region of the Stoneclaw Mountains.

"Gentle Snow, Tianji Pavilion has established a guild residence in Stone Forest Town. Star River Past's expression must be terrible now," Zhao Yueru said, her lips curving upward as she looked at the new information she had received, "I really don't know how Brother Black Flame managed to do it, to actually win over Tianji Pavilion. As long as Tianji Pavilion intervenes, the Star River Alliance will probably be unable to compete in the Stoneclaw Mountains."

"It's still too early to say that. We outsiders have no idea what kind of transaction Tianji Pavilion and Zero Wing made. If Tianji Pavilion was truly willing to help Zero Wing, they would have announced that Zero Wing was Tianji Pavilion's ally long ago, instead of being lukewarm like this. However, the Star River Alliance is very wary of Tianji Pavilion now and wouldn't dare to make any big moves. We can take the opportunity to seize those high-resource areas occupied by the Star River Alliance," White Feather said as she looked at the data, then gave her instructions.

Thanks to the Open Source Conglomerate's investment, the Star River Alliance's strength had greatly increased. Both their personnel and equipment had improved a lot, especially the supply of consumables, which was incomparable to Ouroboros. This had allowed the Star River Alliance to occupy many high-resource areas in the outer region of the Stoneclaw Mountains.

Now was a good opportunity to snatch them back.

Meanwhile, in a bar in Stone Forest Town, a group of players wearing black cloaks had gathered. These people were all very high level, the lowest being level 34. They were all among the top ten on the Star-Moon Kingdom's level rankings. Just their presence in the bar made the entire place unusually cold, causing people to feel chilled to the bone.

And these people all had one thing in common: they were all independent players and didn't belong to any guild.

At this moment, a young man wearing a silver robe walked in, immediately breaking the silence and causing everyone in the bar to stand up abruptly, each of them looking solemn and not daring to show the slightest bit of negligence.

"Get ready, the Open Source Conglomerate is already losing patience."

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