Chapter 1 Finally Arriving at Dark City

The group finally arrived in Dark City. The news they received along the way was rather gratifying. Deceitful Ripples hadn't gone straight to the teleportation point but had headed towards the player-run stalls in the trading street of Dark City. If he had gone directly to the teleportation array, it would have put Cleansing Mist in a very passive position. With so many main cities in the Realm of Gods, it was impossible to have personnel in place at every teleportation array immediately.

However, the good news didn't keep them happy for long. The number of supporters that the powerhouse teams possessed was astonishing. This was truly a period of absolute world war. Even the trading street seemed unusually deserted. Deceitful Ripples walked around briefly and quickly prepared to leave.

Fortunately, they had finally arrived in Dark City when they received this new information. Along the way, there were disputes everywhere. The group had hidden their guild tags. Ever since Cleansing Mist announced the formation of their team, their publicity stunts had become increasingly provocative, and now was a time of heightened emotions. It was entirely possible that someone's hatred would spill over onto their Cleansing Mist guild. Cleansing Mist didn't want their guild to be dragged into it. Even if the conflict was a feud between powerhouse teams sparked by the championship, Cleansing Mist didn't want to seek attention that way.

Without the guild tag above their heads, they looked inconspicuous. Everyone was busy and didn't have much time to pay attention to whether someone passing by in a hurry was Lord Grim or Grim Lord.

At the entrance to Dark City, the people Cleansing Mist had instructed to bring the equipment were waiting.

The equipment was all based on the attributes that Ye Xiu had requested. Cleansing Mist provided whatever they had directly, and if they didn't have it, they spent money to acquire it. In the online game, equipping a few characters wasn't something Cleansing Mist cared about. In their eyes, Ye Xiu had provided them with significant help, so they were willing to pay for it.

Ye Xiu and the others weren't too polite, taking the equipment and swapping it onto their three characters. Instantly, their appearance and attributes were different. Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion were finally wearing complete professional sets, second only to those produced in the seven major hundred-player dungeons. In the game, they were definitely considered top-notch.

As for Lord Grim... the attributes had indeed changed, but the appearance... he still wore his gear like it was trash. Only he had this one-in-a-million mixed-and-matched style. Other classes could mix and match, but they generally wouldn't go too far. Each class had its own mastery of armor types. If you went too far, you would suffer a significant loss in armor mastery, and the higher the grade, the greater the loss.

But Lord Grim's unspecialized playstyle had no armor mastery, so he had no such concerns. And so, his belt was cloth, his boots and hat were leather, his lower body was covered in chain armor, his upper body in heavy armor, and he had plate armor shoes, giving him a very top-heavy feeling.

But Ye Xiu completely ignored these things, opening his character panel and admiring the attributes, very satisfied. Because the unspecialized class didn't have a job advancement, there was no modification to the attribute growth. Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Spirit all grew by 3 points per level. When reaching level 70, all four stats would be 210. And all the attribute point reward quests were very fair, granting the same amount for all four stats, 90 points each. For any class, these four stats all had varying degrees of importance, but none were completely useless. So, all players would definitely complete these quests. At level 70, Lord Grim's base stats would all be 300 points.

A total of 1200 points for the four main attributes. This was basically what any character would have when reaching level 70, unless they had missed some attribute reward quest. The final difference in the four stats would come from the differences in attribute growth.

The unspecialized class had no modifications, so they ultimately shared the 840 attribute points from leveling. But other classes were different.

For example, Battle Mages had a growth of 3.5 for Strength and Intelligence, but only 2.5 for Constitution and Spirit.

Thus, at level 70, the total for the four stats would still be 840, but Strength and Intelligence would be 245, while Constitution and Spirit would be 175.

These stats were basic attributes that players couldn't change. On top of that, they needed to choose equipment to accumulate based on their needs. Furthermore, they would receive 160 free attribute points after the guild chose an attribute to protect.

How these were distributed depended on the individual. Especially for a class like Battle Mage, which had both physical and magical damage, whether to focus on Strength or Intelligence, or to distribute them evenly, or in what proportion, was a question that was still debated even after ten years. Especially whenever new equipment appeared, they often faced a new round of matching and selection.

As Glory's top Battle Mage, One Autumn Leaf, had chosen a slightly balanced combination of slightly more Strength and slightly less Intelligence. As a popular character, this choice naturally attracted a lot of followers, but in reality, blindly following the builds of professional players was not a smart move.

This was because ordinary players simply couldn't handle this level of professional attribute distribution. First of all, their skill level wasn't that high, and secondly, the quality of their equipment was far inferior. Many attribute distributions only showed their power when certain attribute thresholds were reached. And without reaching these attributes, even professional-level skill couldn't unleash the power of the distribution.

Soft Mist and Steamed Bun's skill levels were already at a near-professional level, but their understanding of the game wasn't enough. Asking them to choose the right method for themselves would definitely lead to nowhere. So, Ye Xiu directly helped them choose their equipment.

In the end, Soft Mist had a set of Strength-focused attribute stacking scheme. After equipping all of this gear, her Strength reached 870, and her Intelligence was 540.

This kind of attribute was eye-catching enough in the online game world, but it was still far behind in the pro scene.

One Autumn Leaf's 1220 Strength and 1140 Intelligence, the sum of these two main attributes was 1.67 times that of Soft Mist. This didn't even include Constitution and Spirit. If you compared the entire set of stats, this attribute that was eye-catching in the online game was simply nothing in the pro scene.

Soft Mist's equipment was definitely not bad for the online game. It was second only to the equipment produced in the seven major dungeons, and the only stronger equipment would be the equipment dropped by Wild Bosses. But the gap between this equipment and Silver equipment was so large.

In reality, it wasn't that the attributes of Silver equipment were so ridiculously high. The biggest advantage of Silver equipment was that it was custom-made. These four words were the reason why Silver equipment was so much better than Orange and Purple equipment. It was also through these four words that professional characters equipped with Silver equipment accumulated terrifying stats that online game players couldn't imagine. This kind of terror was difficult to compensate for with skills, which was why Wei Chen was so uneasy at the thought of facing a team like Excellent Era in the Challenger League.

Taking Soft Mist's 870 Strength and 540 Intelligence to challenge One Autumn Leaf's 1220 Strength and 1140 Intelligence, wasn't that a pipe dream?

Not to mention the terrifying difference in attack power between Soft Mist's level 70 Purple weapon, the Aurora Battle Lance, and the Silver weapon, Unspecialized.

Not to mention that the Silver equipment on One Autumn Leaf, in addition to providing the four main stats, would also provide many attributes that were absolutely suitable for Battle Mages.

This kind of equipment was definitely not enough.

As a professional player, Ye Xiu was satisfied with Lord Grim's current attributes, but he knew even better that it was still far from the pro scene. Lord Grim's current attributes were actually inferior to Soft Mist's. Soft Mist at least had armor mastery and set bonuses, which he didn't have. To make up for this difference, he had to rely on self-made equipment. Making "specialized" attributes on Silver equipment was a topic that Su Muqiu and the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had been researching in sync in the early years.

The brilliant idea of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had never appeared a second time in Glory, but the concept of Silver equipment with "specialized" stats had already been realized in the pro scene four years ago.

Lord Grim's top-heavy, strange appearance made everyone desperately suppress their laughter, but they didn't know that Ye Xiu was currently thinking about very professional issues because of his attributes.

However, even though they were changing equipment, spectating, and thinking, the group didn't stop moving. After understanding Deceitful Ripples' current coordinates and the location of the Dark City teleportation array, Ye Xiu decisively said, "We can make it." Then, he immediately gave instructions, "Little Tang, Steamed Bun, you two go to the resurrection point. Let me know when you get there."

"Okay." The two listened and turned to leave.

This was obviously going to be a repeated pursuit of Deceitful Ripples! At the thought of this person killing him and stealing three materials, Cleansing Mist was immediately invigorated by this approach, as were the other four. They had failed to catch that guy with so many people in the Dark Shrine, which was embarrassing. Now they wanted to win back face.

The five were cheering themselves on when they heard Ye Xiu say, "Then I'll see you all later. I'll contact you again if I need information, Little Mist."

See you later?

The five of them were stunned for a moment. What did he mean by seeing them later after following them all the way here?

"Hey!" Cleansing Mist quickly called out, and the five of them chased after him together.

"What's wrong?" Ye Xiu asked as Lord Grim ran.

"Why are you saying goodbye? We're going too!" Cleansing Mist said.

"You're going too?" Ye Xiu was puzzled. "Didn't you think chasing him was a waste of energy and time?"

"I..." Cleansing Mist realized that he had indeed said those words, but why the hell had he suddenly changed his mind and his thinking? Why was that?

"Don't worry! With this equipment, he definitely won't get away with it. I'll avenge you! If he drops those three materials, I'll definitely return them to you. But I guess he probably won't carry those three items with him, maybe he's already put them in the warehouse. Or, do you have any way to arrange for a buyer or something to get close to him? I estimate that he'll eventually sell these materials. When he has them in his hands, we'll think of a way to get them back," Ye Xiu said.

"Alright, alright, I can't say anymore. I have to hurry, or I won't be able to intercept him. Remember to keep me updated on his movements!" After saying this, Lord Grim suddenly sped up. Wearing leather boots and a plate helmet, he left the five of them behind in a top-heavy manner.

"This, this..." The five of them stammered, but they had already slowed down.

"This is really ruthless!" In the end, it was Distant Sea who praised Ye Xiu's design in the second half.

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This chapter involved some data, so it took a long time to write. I know many people may not like to read data, but in fact, data is the simplest way to show strength, which is also the advantage of online games. What immortal fantasy and xuanhuan descriptions of the power of weapons and treasures, with all kinds of tricky and gorgeous descriptions, can be beaten by a single sentence here: 12000 attack power, completely crushing them.