“Yeah, I’m in Dark Moon City now. What good thing do you have for me?”

“You’ll know soon enough!”

I took my sword and arrived in front of the guild hall. Li Chengfeng soon appeared after that. He was wearing a suit of dark green armor as he sprinted toward me. He wore a cocky smile on his face as he said, “The city is ranking up at an insane rate. Your ability to build up a city is way better than Candlelight Shadow’s!”

“It’s really just down to good luck. So what do you have for me?”

“Hmmm, it’s right here…”

Li Chengfeng fished out a golden longsword from his inventory and tossed it over. He said, “Here, I just soloed this boss, and it actually dropped this nice toy for me. What kind of joke is this…”

“Oh, it’s a weapon?”

“This isn’t any simple weapon! Take a look for yourself!”

“Gotcha!”

I lifted up the longsword and waved a hand over it, causing the weapon’s stats to materialize in front of me. My eyes immediately popped open in shock.

City Lord Rex’s Sword (Dark Gold–grade City Lord equipment)

Attack: ★★★★

Passive: Increase Attack of troops under the lord’s command by 27%

Passive: Increase Defense of troops under the lord’s command by 19%

Effect: After the user has equipped this item, increase the gold production of cities that they govern by 50%

Effect: After the user has equipped this item, increase Dark Insect production speed by 25%

Requirement: Hero Rank City Lord

……

It really wasn’t just any old weapon. To most players, this weapon was about as useful as a stick of firewood. However, it was simply invaluable to city lord NPCs! This Dark Gold–grade sword could not only boost Dark Moon City’s attack and defenses, it could also boost its gold production by 50%. Gold production was the one thing I really wanted to improve, and even though this 50% wasn’t much right now, it would be absolutely incredible once my city’s resource production had been built up to proper levels!

I couldn’t help but laugh as joy wildly surged through my heart. “Chengfeng, your luck is pretty darn good to have dropped a great weapon like this. Alright, I’ll thank you on behalf of the entire guild…”

Li Chengfeng shrugged his shoulders as he laughed. “Okay, as long as it’s useful. I thought that I had picked up a piece of trash at first, but it looks like it’ll come in very handy!”

“It really will!”

“Okay, then I’m off to continue leveling!”

“Alright!”

Li Chengfeng left while I summoned the Dark Moon City’s city lord Udal to my side. The Dark Knight approached me with a grave and stern look on his face. He knelt down on one knee and said, “Lord, what can I do for you?”

I simply opened up his character screen and equipped him with City Lord Rex’s Sword. After that, I left him to do his own thing.

I checked the time. It was nearly noon and I had swept the territory clean of all the resource monsters in the area. It was now high time for me to find a place to train. I needed to hit Level 120 as soon as possible so I could be the first player to hit the fifth class promotion!

……

I opened the world map, but I just stared blankly since I didn’t really know where I could go to train. The areas around our territory had also been completely explored. My brows knit together as I looked at the map and plotted my next move. Suddenly, my eyes immediately brightened when an idea popped into my head. It looks like I didn’t have any better alternative than to explore the peaks of Dragonbone Mountain Range!

Dragonbone Mountain Range was an extremely complex map and there were also many small maps within it. The levels of the monsters varied across the different areas of the mountain you could find yourself in. Their levels ranged from 100 at the foot of the mountain range to 175 when you reached its peak. As a result, players could easily level all the way to Level 175 with no problems in this place.

This was also one of the geographical advantages that Dark Moon City had, since it was barely even ten minutes away from this resource-rich mountain range. The advantages that came with being situated near such a gold mine must be causing the other powers in Sky City to go insane with envy.

After hiding the glow of my items and my in-game name, I discreetly sheathed the Heaven-stealing Sword in the scabbard slung across my back. Then, I breathed in deeply before summoning the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf.

It was time to go to Dragonbone Mountain Range!

When I reached the foot of the mountain, I discovered that the place was bustling with activity. Players were forming parties with each other as they kept yelling their requirements.

“Forming a 20-man party to charge into the middle areas of Dragonbone Mountain Range. We will be killing Level 127 shadow-rank monsters called Snow Rabbits. We will also be collecting cooking materials as we go. The party already has 3 riders and 2 warriors to be tanks, 3 mages and 5 archers as DPS. We also have 1 magic knight, 1 tactician whose Encourage III can boost attack by 29%. We are currently lacking healing as we only have 1 priest and 1 bard. We still need 3 more wet nurses! First come, first serve, and everyone in the party will roll for any equipment above Bronze-grade according to their needs!”

“Forming a 10-man party to grind in the Level 110 area of Dragonbone Mountain Range! Players who are Level 90–100 are welcome to join. Looking for a DPS or a healer! I am a Level 94 magic knight with high Defense. One spot left!”

“Forming an elite 20-man party. All party members must be Level 105 and above. We will be going into the upper level of Dragonbone Mountain Range to kill Level 135 shadow-rank monsters. We have also heard that the shadow-rank monsters in that area can drop Outstanding Dark Gold–grade equipment! We welcome all strong players! Knights need to have more than 10000 HP and 2500 Defense, mages need to have an Attack of more than 1500 and archers need to have an Attack of at least 2000, and healers need to be able to burst heal for more than 3000 HP. Come one, come all, this party will be leaving once we have twenty members and we will roll for any equipment that drops, with no special privileges for anyone, including the leader. We are looking for a high-level Encourage tactician to be the party leader!”

……

I quietly slipped past the crowds. It really wasn’t an easy year to be a warrior. Ever since the mount system had been introduced, magic knights had become the most popular class. They were absolutely the best tanks in the game if they came equipped with a warhorse.

High-level tacticians were also very popular nowadays. This was especially true for tacticians who had Encourage III and at least 200 Tactics. They could instantly boost the attack of their entire party by 25% or more. Any party would roll out the red carpet for them.

Of course, Famous General Skills were far more ridiculous than Encourage III. However, there were only so many Famous Generals to go around in Sky City, and if a Famous General simply appeared out of nowhere, all of the big guilds would be stumbling over themselves to court him.

As for warriors, it was a rather awkward time for them. They couldn’t equip shields or ride mounts and their overall DPS was inferior to archers and mages. They would only be able to recover some lost ground once they hit Level 150 and could ride mounts as well.

Of course, for elite warriors like Li Chengfeng, High Fighting Spirits, and myself, our stats were so high that we could ignore the disadvantages of being unable to equip a shield or ride a mount. We were like natural disasters, leaving behind a trail of dead monsters and players wherever we went. We would also be hot property if we revealed ourselves in public.

Quite a few players had already taken notice of me as I slipped past them. Among them was a cute female mage holding a staff. She stared at me in shock as she said, “Aiyah, that big brother has a really fierce-looking wolf with him, and why does it seem a little familiar to me?”

Another girl piped up, “It looks familiar to you? Ah, I can’t see his name, so his level must be high! If a Level 108 player like me can’t see his name, that means that his level is definitely higher than 113…”

A brawny man holding a battle axe said in a deep rumble, “Someone whose level exceeds 113 and has a greedy wolf as a pet? There’s only one person in Sky City that fits that description and that’s the person ranked 7th in the CGL Hall of Fame, Falling Dust. Otherwise known as the Unkillable War God or Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand…”

Hearts instantly appeared in the eyes of that female mage. “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand actually walked past me and even brushed up against me…”

“Cut that out! Let’s go and train! Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is definitely going to the upper reaches of Dragonbone Mountain Range. We can’t afford to offend such a person, so let’s go train in the middle zone!”

“Mn!”

……

I ignored the gossip from the players behind me and I plunged into the needle-leaved forest with my sword in hand. I smashed aside Level 117 wild bears and porcupines as I swiftly advanced with the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf by my side. Because my level was high enough, my minimap would display Level 137 monsters as red dots, so I was able to completely avoid them.

After about half an hour, I had finally made my way past the halfway mark of the mountain. If I continued upward, the levels of the monsters would start exceeding 140. But that didn’t pose any sort of threat to me whatsoever since I was nearly reached Level 117. As long as it wasn’t a shadow-rank monster thirty levels higher than me, it was nothing that I couldn’t handle.

“Rooaaaarrr...”

A distant Level 139 Fierce Jungle Tiger let out a fierce roar, causing many players who had reached this zone to freeze in their tracks. 99.9% of these players would choose to immediately retreat after that.

Players could see the levels of any non-boss monster that was less than thirty levels above them. So if a player that was Level 109 and below realized that they couldn’t see the Fierce Jungle Tiger’s level, why would they continue forward? That was no different from digging their own grave!

I moved past the jungle and entered the southwestern part of the unpopulated upper reaches of Dragonbone Mountain Range.

I stepped into a scorching, rocky wasteland. If the peak of Dragonbone Mountain Range looked like a huge, wriggling dragon, then this was somewhere along its spine. Furthermore, the ground started to sink as I moved forward, this entire place was actually a rather large basin!

Though this basin wasn’t just any old basin! It was dotted with little volcanic craters that bubbled with magma, which was also why no lake had formed in this area.

……

Ding~!

System Notice: You have entered a neutral zone—Dragonspine Basin!

Just as I had expected, this was one of the maps in Dragonbone Mountain Range, Dragonspine Basin! Its name wasn’t bad and the monsters in this place should be pretty high-level as well.

I held my sword at ready as I moved forward. The roar of a huge dragon rang out faintly in the distance, causing my hair to stand on end. Fucking hell, there were giant dragon monsters in this place? I’d be fucked if that was the case.

Even though I was standing at the peak of most players in my server, I still hadn’t even reached Level 120 yet. It was a wee bit too early for me to challenge any giant dragons. I was more liable to become dragon shit instead!

However, I could also catch the voice of a woman intermixed with those dragon roars!

Hmmm? A… giant dragon and a beautiful lady?

I immediately lapsed into deep thought.

How could it be? There would be no future for them...

It was at this time that I heard an even clearer groan.

Hmmm, it came from southwest of me! There was definitely something hiding behind those piles of boulders over there!

I didn’t stop to think as I slowly made my way around the boulders and the sight that greeted me caused shock to blossom in my heart.

The floor was covered in green blood and a green dragon lay between two of the boulders. A horrible-looking wound had been torn into one of its wings and its head spasmed as it let out those low roars of pain. It looked as if it was protecting something.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the green dragon was actually protecting a human woman. It was a female warrior dressed in battle robes and armor. She was hurt and fresh blood could be seen staining her legs. A sharp sword lay beside her and it was obvious that she was no ordinary female warrior.

I stared at the lady for a while before realization dawned upon me. She really wasn’t just any warrior! She was actually one of the Dragon Knights!

A name floated above the beautiful Dragon Knight’s head, and it was a name that I had seen before.

Green Dragon Knight Tia (Floating Ice City)

……

It was actually one of the five great Dragon Knights who served under Princess Karinshan of Floating Ice City. I’d met this Green Dragon Knight Tia once before during the battle of Floating Ice City. I was protecting Xinran at that time, so the five great Dragon Knights were our enemies at that time.

I walked up to Tia and went down on one knee. When I took a closer look at her injuries, my brows knit together and I said, “Don’t be nervous, I won’t hurt you…”

Tia anxiously bit down on her lower lip, but the dragon energy that had gathered in her palm began to slowly dissipate. The green dragon also lowered its guard.

“I recognize you, young warrior. You’re a citizen of the Violet Empire,” Tia whispered.