Chapter 1 Time Passes

Time slowly passed, and the quest accumulated ring by ring, quickly breaking through three hundred. The respect value was still steadily accumulating little by little.

After exceeding three hundred rings, Catherine demanded increasingly expensive items, such as dark magic-patterned cloth, black crystals, and the like, worth several thousand gold coins. Each time, she required the collection of fifty or sixty pieces, while the rewards remained about the same as before. No wonder the previous person gave up after completing three hundred rings; the items required later were too terrifying.

Nie Yan thought to himself, should he just call it quits here? Continuing this quest would cost too much money for each point of respect value gained, and the value was no longer equivalent.

After some thought, he decided to complete three hundred and ninety rings. If there was still no progress after that, he would withdraw.

Having handed over so many items, he had accumulated a total of one hundred and thirty-two respect points. If he were to do quests, it would take at least two or three S-rank quests to accumulate that many.

He handed over five black crystals, and a crisp system notification sounded.

System: You have gained three respect points.

This was the three hundred and sixth ring. Although the items required were becoming more expensive, the rewards were also becoming more generous, which was somewhat comforting.

The reward for the three hundred and thirtieth ring was a revival gem, worth fifty to sixty thousand gold coins. Keep in mind that Nie Yan had spent a total of more than one million gold coins on these thirty rings. A single revival gem was simply not enough to soothe his wounded heart. However, the experience points rewarded for these thirty rings were quite generous, increasing Nie Yan's level by about 7%, and his respect value reached one hundred and fifty-two points.

At this point, Nie Yan estimated that even wealthy super-tycoons like Cao Xu of the Century Financial Group, Duo Duo of Angel Corps, and Ang Yi Tian Shi of Angel Dominance would find it difficult to persevere.

Nie Yan continued, wondering how many rings this quest needed to be completed thoroughly. Probably no one knew for sure.

"Respected Grand Prophet Nirvana Flame, Hilton Fortress has once again been attacked by demonic creatures. The warriors of Hilton Fortress fought valiantly, defending our homeland, but their equipment is extremely scarce. Would you be willing to help me find one thousand pieces of level 30 golden equipment?" Catherine asked.

She was actually starting to ask for equipment. Fortunately, one thousand pieces of level 30 golden equipment were not worth much money, much cheaper than the items she had requested before.

Soon, the players below brought over one thousand pieces of low-level golden equipment. Generally, these were pieces with poor attributes that weren't worth much money. Anyway, Catherine only asked for golden equipment and didn't specify the attributes.

The one thousand pieces of golden equipment were handed over to Catherine.

"Respected Mr. Nirvana Flame, thank you for your generosity. On behalf of the warriors of Hilton Fortress, I thank you." Catherine bowed deeply.

System: You have gained nine respect points.

One hundred and sixty-one respect points. Three hundred respect points didn't seem too far away.

The quests Nie Yan received next were basically requests to collect equipment: five hundred pieces of level 30 dark gold equipment, eight hundred pieces of level 35 silver equipment, seven hundred pieces of level 35 gold equipment, and so on. If he weren't the leader of a guild, finding these items would have driven him crazy. Although he could buy them at the auction house, the items sold there were mostly expensive items with good attributes. Those junk items with terrible attributes were generally hard to find. Each ring of the quest probably required spending a lot of wasted money.

Starting from the three hundred and thirty-first ring, it was just collecting equipment. For Nie Yan, it wasn't particularly difficult. The Nirvana Tribe guild warehouse had countless pieces of equipment that were about to be discarded, especially low-level equipment, at least several million pieces. They had to be cleared out every once in a while, but there were still countless pieces. Handing over some didn't matter.

Above the three hundred and thirtieth ring, the rewards became exceptionally generous, which truly made Nie Yan feel great. His respect value quickly accumulated to two hundred and thirty points, and his experience points also increased rapidly.

Ding-dong, a crisp system notification sounded. Did he level up?

Nie Yan quickly opened his personal status. Sure enough, his level had risen to one hundred and fifty-seven.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before his respect value broke through three hundred. This progress was much faster than he had imagined, and he could also receive a lot of experience points along the way.

Seeing that he was about to reach the three hundred and sixtieth ring, he wondered what the reward for that ring would be.

The three hundred and fifty-ninth ring actually required Nie Yan to find thirty pieces of level 120 or higher sub-legendary equipment! This was sub-legendary equipment! Guo Huai had previously done a statistic that the entire Nirvana Tribe guild only had a total of one thousand two hundred sub-legendary pieces, and only six hundred or so were above level 120. Catherine was going to take away thirty pieces?

And this was only the three hundred and fifty-ninth ring! Who knew what was above that?

Nie Yan truly hesitated this time. Thirty pieces of sub-legendary equipment were not a small number!

"Guo Huai, can we find thirty pieces of level 120 or higher sub-legendary equipment?" Nie Yan asked.

"The quest requires you to hand over thirty pieces of level 120 sub-legendary?" Guo Huai was stunned for a moment and asked.

"Yeah," Nie Yan said with a wry smile, "Should we continue doing it?"

"How much more respect value do you need?" Guo Huai asked. If there was a lot missing, then it really wasn't worth doing. Although the summon dire wolf skill was powerful and an absolute deterrent skill, they had already spent so much for three hundred respect points. This time it was even more outrageous, actually requiring thirty pieces of sub-legendary equipment.

"Fifty-two points short," Nie Yan said.

Guo Huai frowned slightly. According to Nie Yan's progress, fifty-two respect points wasn't actually much. To hand them over or not?

"My intuition tells me that the three hundred and sixtieth ring must be crucial, but the items required are too unbelievable. I think it's better to just give up. Doing a few large quests might get me to one thousand respect points. I'll come back and do this quest later," Nie Yan thought for a moment and said.

"Large quests aren't something that you can just get whenever you want, and they don't necessarily reward respect value," Guo Huai said. Nie Yan was an unyielding monument for the Nirvana Tribe, allowing Nie Yan to constantly increase his strength and firmly occupy the first position. This was a great encouragement for the players below the Nirvana Tribe. No amount of money could buy morale. He gritted his teeth and said, "Thirty pieces of sub-legendary equipment isn't a problem. I'll have someone send them over to you in a while." He remembered that there were some discarded sub-legendary equipment in the guild, although they were sub-legendary, their attributes weren't very good, sixteen pieces in total. They just needed to find fourteen more.

Nie Yan somewhat painfully handed over thirty pieces of sub-legendary equipment to Catherine.

System: You have gained twenty-five respect points.

"Respected Mr. Nirvana Flame, to express my gratitude, this is something I obtained while adventuring in the Dark Swamp. I hope it will be of some help to you. You have amazing talent and have a good chance of advancing to Legend. You might still be missing this." Catherine took out a blue diamond-shaped crystal from her bag.

Seeing this crystal, Nie Yan's heart trembled. He was very familiar with this item. It was the shattered divine fragment he had been searching for all along. Of the four conditions required to advance to Legend, divinity, a divine artifact, and the heart of a sage, he had already gathered them all. With the six shattered divine fragments plus the one Catherine gave him, he already had four. He was only one step away from Legend, a title one level higher than Shadow Dancer! A height that no player in his previous life had ever reached!

He never expected that the three hundred and fifty-ninth ring would have such an extra reward.

"Respected Grand Prophet Nirvana Flame, I have caused you a lot of trouble, and I sincerely apologize to you. Finally, would you be willing to help me collect five pieces of level 120 or higher legendary equipment? This is my final request," Catherine said sincerely.

Hearing Catherine's words, Nie Yan's heart trembled. Was this already the last ring? At the same time, he was also scared silly by the quest of the last ring. Five pieces of legendary equipment, oh my god! The entire Nirvana Tribe guild only had a handful of legendary equipment above level 120. Among their group of top players, there were only sixty or so pieces! She was going to take away five pieces all at once. Wasn't this like cutting flesh from his heart?

But the three hundred and fifty-ninth ring rewarded a shattered divine fragment, so the reward for the last ring must not be simple.

Nie Yan suddenly remembered that there were seven pieces of legendary equipment in the Nirvana Tribe warehouse. Those pieces of equipment had been left there untouched. The reason was none other than the equipment's wearing requirements were too high. Ordinary players couldn't wear them at all. They were very impractical. Since they were left there unused, it was better to make the best use of them and complete all of Catherine's quests. Maybe there would be new gains.

Nie Yan asked someone to bring over those five pieces of legendary equipment. Although it was very painful, the quest had already been done to this point. It was absolutely impossible to give up halfway!

The moment Nie Yan handed over the items to Catherine, a ray of white, holy light fell from the sky, enveloping him, and his whole body was filled with a warmth.

System: You have completed Catherine's request and obtained the Sage title.

His whole body was shrouded in white light. The holy light made the Guardian Angel Kalenna cheer. She flapped her wings and flew up, and strands of holy white light penetrated into her body. Another pair of wings slowly grew from her back, turning her into a six-winged angel! Although her size had not changed, the aura emanating from her was more sacred and powerful than before.

Nie Yan glanced at Kalenna's status. Nearly half of Kalenna's skill tree had been lit up. Nie Yan could use as many as sixteen skills!

An exciting reward! Although some powerful skills could not be used at will, such as Kalenna's Guardian, which was still dark, having sixteen skills already made Nie Yan ecstatic.

Since becoming a Holy Shadow Dancer, Nie Yan had deeply realized the power of this little angel, which was definitely better than any pet!

He wondered what this Sage title was, and what additional effects it had? Nie Yan thought and opened his character status.