In the dim offline space, mere seconds after Shi Feng clicked the call button, Shui Se Qiang Wei answered the video call from the other end.
From the video, it was obvious that Shui Se Qiang Wei was somewhere out in the field. Her expression was visibly anxious, and the sounds of fierce combat echoed from every direction.
"Guild Master, you've finally gotten your communication back." The tightly knit brows on Shui Se Qiang Wei's face relaxed ever so slightly, as if a weight had been lifted. "If I couldn't get through to you, I was about to have Hei Zi come find you in person."
"Did something happen?" Shi Feng asked, surprised to see Shui Se Qiang Wei looking so visibly tired.
He hadn't been inside the Divine Realm for very long, and before entering, he hadn't received a single notification. Yet the moment he emerged, a flood of people were desperately trying to reach him — it was disorienting.
More importantly, the anxious look on Shui Se Qiang Wei's face indicated this was no trivial matter. Otherwise, with her abilities, she would have resolved it on her own long ago without needing to contact him.
Now that Zero Wing had grown thanks to Bai Qingxue's addition, the guild was indeed much larger than before. But in terms of guild management, things had actually gotten much easier for Shui Se Qiang Wei. With both her and Bai Qingxue being highly capable, many matters could be handled without his input, which was precisely why he'd felt comfortable enough to leave for his class change. Otherwise, those plans would have had to be delayed.
"Not long ago, the Sky Burial Guild established a settlement in the City of Eternal Darkness and transformed the Frostscar map into an Asura-rank regional dungeon. According to intelligence from within the City of Eternal Darkness, killing the final boss — the Frostbound King — earns the guild settlement rights in the City of Eternal Darkness. Right now, every major guild is frantically trying to clear this regional dungeon."
"And quite a few superpowers have their eyes on this opportunity as well. The competition and slaughter inside are absolutely brutal."
"My proposal is for Bai Qingxue's side to set aside the Lakeheart City matter for now and concentrate all of Zero Wing's forces on dealing with Frostscar first. But Bai Qingxue says Lakeheart City is finally showing progress and she absolutely can't step away. Right now, I'm leading a portion of the guild's main raid team here on my own, and it's nearly impossible to compete against those superpowers."
"On top of that, a bunch of dark players have been running around White River City killing players indiscriminately, putting the entire player base on edge. Some players have even decided to relocate to the Star Moon Royal Capital. To suppress these dark players, we've had to dispatch quite a few experts, which means I have even fewer hands here."
As the sole dark city in the Star Moon Kingdom, the City of Eternal Darkness enjoyed numerous privileges that no NPC city possessed. One of them was that once a guild reached a certain reputation level within the city, it could establish teleportation magic arrays connecting the City of Eternal Darkness to the guild's town — enabling direct teleportation from the City of Eternal Darkness to the guild town, and vice versa. Moreover, as the guild's status rose, the number of town teleportation arrays it could establish would increase accordingly.
This kind of privilege was completely unavailable at any other NPC city. It not only made things more convenient for the guild but also accelerated the development of the guild town. And since the City of Eternal Darkness wasn't far from the Star Moon Royal Capital, many players could teleport directly from it to guild towns that were otherwise a long journey away — easily leveling up in the high-level maps nearby without having to trek across the map. They wouldn't need to treat the guild town as nothing more than a temporary rest stop.
When that happened, the mass of free players would flood in, and the guild town would have no choice but to flourish.
"The settlement rights for the City of Eternal Darkness?" Shi Feng said, the realization hitting him.
No wonder Shui Se Qiang Wei was so anxious — even Feng Qianyu had contacted him multiple times.
If Zero Wing could establish a base in the City of Eternal Darkness and link Stone Forest Town with it, that would represent an absolute qualitative leap for Stone Forest Town. Of course, the same applied to every other guild, which explained why so many were going crazy over it — even the superpowers wanted in.
"Guild Master, I'd like to suggest having Bai Qingxue's side set aside the Lakeheart City matter for now. If the Frostbound King is killed by another guild, securing settlement rights in the City of Eternal Darkness afterward will be far more difficult." Shui Se Qiang Wei urged anxiously.
"No, Bai Qingxue's people can't be pulled away." Shi Feng shook his head. "As for your side, give up on assaulting Frostscar for now."
"Give up?" Shui Se Qiang Wei was stunned by Shi Feng's words.
Stone Forest Town had only just managed to become the number one town in the Star Moon Kingdom. If some other guild claimed the settlement rights, Stone Forest Town's status might very well be in jeopardy.
"That's right. Drop the Frostbound King for now. Take your people and focus on clearing Ice Prison Fortress — the team dungeon inside Frostscar. Ideally, secure the First Clear." Shi Feng nodded.
"Guild Master, that's a level-fifty, hundred-person team dungeon…" Shui Se Qiang Wei was momentarily speechless. "By the time we secure the First Clear, the Frostbound King will probably have been killed already."
A level-fifty hundred-person team dungeon was an enormous challenge for any guild at this stage — far more daunting than taking down the Frostbound King.
The Frostbound King, as the regional dungeon's final boss, was only level fifty-three according to their investigations — a High Grand Lord, nothing more. The real difficulty lay in the fact that the Frostbound King's location was deep within the dungeon. Players had to clear a large number of monsters and bosses along the way just to reach it. On top of that, the environment throughout Frostscar was terrible — players' stamina consumption there was several times higher than elsewhere, which was what made progress so painfully slow.
Here they were, leaving the relatively easier Frostbound King untouched and choosing to tackle a far more difficult team dungeon instead. It seemed like madness.
"The Frostbound King is an ice-type boss. Without high ice resistance, you're at a severe disadvantage when fighting him. The gear dropped by Ice Prison Fortress is quite special — nearly all of it provides high ice resistance. With that equipment, dealing with the Frostbound King becomes much more manageable. Besides, so many guilds are competing over this that it won't be decided anytime soon. We can quietly build up our team's strength in the meantime, and it won't be too late to take on the Frostbound King later." Shi Feng smiled vaguely without going into further detail.
"Fine, I understand. I'll clear Ice Prison Fortress as quickly as possible." Shui Se Qiang Wei was only half-convinced. She knew full well that the guild warehouse was stocked with large quantities of Sea God's Blessing — a consumable that could dramatically boost magic resistance. But since Guild Master Shi Feng had made the call, she couldn't very well argue, and could only rush to clear the dungeon.
Shui Se Qiang Wei then hung up. Watching her somewhat puzzled expression as she disconnected, Shi Feng could only manage an awkward smile. He couldn't say much more. After all, no one had ever successfully defeated the Frostbound King before — he couldn't exactly tell her that the ice resistance needed was at least three hundred points.
That level of ice resistance was so absurd that even two bottles of Sea God's Blessing wouldn't come close. He'd need additional weapons and equipment on top of that, or there would be absolutely zero chance.
In his previous life, the numerous guilds competing for settlement rights had been single-mindedly focused on clearing the monsters blocking the path, spending untold manpower and resources in the process. But after encountering the Frostbound King, everyone discovered that what had appeared to be a mere level-fifty-three High Grand Lord was anything but ordinary. In the end, an elite army of hundreds of thousands was frozen solid into ice sculptures by the Frostbound King — a tragedy that shook the entire Star Moon Kingdom.
Still, the Sky Burial Guild's establishment in the City of Eternal Darkness did give Shi Feng a twinge of urgency.
In his previous life, it had taken over twenty days from the City of Eternal Darkness's appearance to when the first guild managed to settle there. Now, barely any time had passed since the city appeared, and the Sky Burial Guild had already succeeded — it was utterly unbelievable. Moreover, being the first to settle in the City of Eternal Darkness came with certain benefits that provided a considerable boost to the guild's reputation within the city.
It probably wouldn't be long before the Sky Burial Guild's town was connected to the City of Eternal Darkness.
"No, I need to speed things up on my end."
After two hours of deep sleep, Shi Feng entered the Divine Realm once more.
P.S.: Special thanks to Jiang Di for the 100,000 donation! Old Cat will try his best to release three chapters over the next two days! (To be continued.)