In the quiet forest, Shi Feng followed the coordinates given by the scouting assassin and soon discovered a spot deep in the woods where dense magic power surged, even forming a faint white mist that shrouded a stretch of the forest.
"What incredible magic power," Shi Feng muttered in mild astonishment as he stepped into the white mist.
Inside the mist, not only was his mind clearer than it had ever been, but his stamina and mental energy were recovering at a remarkable rate — three or four times faster than resting at an inn in a town.
If players could fight and train in a place like this, the results would be absolutely phenomenal, especially for practicing Combat Techniques.
In his previous life, players had always favored locations with high magic density. Beyond simply allowing them to perform at a higher level, the more important reason was training Combat Techniques.
Combat Techniques didn't consume any of a player's mana, but they did drain stamina and mental energy. Unlike displayed stats, these were hidden values that players could only gauge through their own feel.
In ordinary combat, even high-speed battles, as long as the fight took place in a large city, the rate of consumption was roughly equal to the rate of recovery. That was why players could spar in arenas freely without feeling fatigued. But after using Combat Techniques, things were different entirely.
The stamina and mental energy drain from Combat Techniques was enormous. Even basic Combat Techniques consumed four or five times as much. Continuously using basic techniques would deplete a player's stamina and mental energy in no time, even inside a city — to say nothing of advanced Combat Techniques, which burned through even more.
That was why experts in the Divine Realm always preferred places with high magic density. Training Combat Techniques there was far easier, whereas using them in an ordinary location would drain a player dry in short order.
In the current Divine Realm, Combat Techniques were not yet widespread. Once they became common, a place like Zero Wing City would have long since become a city with a player population exceeding ten million.
This was one of the reasons Shi Feng wanted to start selling access to basic Combat Techniques now.
"If not too many people can enter the Ancient City, the ones who are left could practice their basic Combat Techniques here instead," he mused, surveying the area blanketed by the white mist. It was large enough to accommodate over a thousand people training at their leisure.
Locations with high magic density were already rare in the Divine Realm, and those that produced white mist were rarer still. They were absolute sanctuaries for training, and whenever one was discovered, it would be claimed by one of the major superpowers to hone their own guild elites.
"Guild Leader, that NPC is right over there." Once Shi Feng arrived at the designated coordinates, a blue-clad assassin who had been waiting for some time pointed toward an old man standing at the center of a magic circle in the distance. The elder wore a white robe and held a golden staff.
He looked completely unassuming, radiating no pressure whatsoever.
But upon closer inspection, one would quickly realize that absolutely no information about this old man could be read — not even his name. Everything displayed was simply question marks.
Shi Feng immediately activated Omniscient Eye to observe him.
Taloc (Guardian of the Ancient City), Hero, Holy Archmage, Level ???, HP ???????.
"A Hero?" Shi Feng was visibly stunned.
He never expected to encounter a living Hero.
In the Divine Realm, Heroes had long since become the stuff of legend. The Heroes he had summoned using Hero Tokens were an entirely different concept from the real Hero standing before him. Strictly speaking, the Heroes summoned by Hero Tokens were Heroic Spirits — not true Heroes. But even so, they had been terrifyingly powerful, capable of holding dominion over an entire region.