Watching the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King collapse to the ground, Shi Feng once again confirmed just how powerful Anna was.
Although light-element magic was highly effective against dark creatures, suppressing the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King to such a degree was no feat that a run-of-the-mill Tier 3 NPC could accomplish.
The downside was that Anna's power could only be sustained for a very limited time — a mere 100 seconds — with a cooldown of six hours. Otherwise, with power like that, she could sweep through Level 70 Grand Lords all on her own.
With the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King dead, a floor full of loot scattered across the ground, granting Shi Feng and Anna a massive amount of experience. Even though experience gained in the Dark World was drastically reduced, Shi Feng's experience still increased considerably. As for Anna, she was completely unaffected, but given that she was already Level 80, even killing a Level 70 Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King meant next to nothing for someone who needed astronomical amounts of experience to level up.
"As expected of a Grand Lord in the Dark World — the drops are so much better," Shi Feng murmured, surveying the items strewn across the ground with a sense of wonder.
In the Divine Realm, a Level 50+ Grand Lord would typically drop around a dozen items at most, the majority being crafting materials. Getting three or four pieces of weapons and equipment was considered good, and Mythril Rank was the best you could hope for.
But after the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King in the Dark World had been killed, it had dropped over twenty items. Materials accounted for just over half, while the weapons and equipment numbered a full five pieces: three pieces of Level 60 Mythril equipment, one of which was a pair of Level 60 Mythril set shoes from the Shadow Devour set; and two pieces of Level 60 Gold-grade equipment, one being a Level 60 Gold-grade set piece from the Phantasm set for magic users. Though it was only a six-piece set, once you collected four pieces, a Level 55 player could equip the full set. A Level 55 magic user wearing it would absolutely dominate other magic users of the same level in magical damage. Probably only those wearing several pieces of Epic-grade equipment could compare.
Among the remaining items, there were two Master-rank potions. One was a rare Mana Awakening Potion, an incredible burst potion that could boost a player's magical effects by 200% for thirty seconds. The other was a Recovery Potion — drinking it after resurrection could restore a portion of lost experience. On the open market, each of these potions was worth over a hundred gold.
In addition, the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King had dropped one Dark Crystal and three Dark Crystal Fragments.
But more exciting than all of that to Shi Feng was a semi-transparent crystal ball the Wolf King had dropped.
A Scouting Crystal Ball!
This was a supreme tool for outdoor adventures, especially during the night when visibility was poor. The Scouting Crystal Ball could detect monsters within a certain range and display them on its surface. The detection range varied with the ball's rank — a Bronze Rank Scouting Crystal Ball could sense a radius of 500 yards, an Iron Rank 700 yards, and a Mythril Rank 1,000 yards, greatly reducing the chances of being ambushed.
The Scouting Crystal Ball dropped by the Dark Twin-Headed Wolf King was Gold-grade, with a detection radius of 1,500 yards — farther than the vision granted by demon observation, and no monster within that radius could escape its detection. The only drawback was that each use required one Magic Crystal, and it lasted only one hour.
For ordinary players, this would be far too costly to use casually, but for Shi Feng it was immensely helpful.
Monsters in the Dark World were far less numerous than in the Divine Realm. Not only was finding them troublesome, but locating specific targets took even more time. The Scouting Crystal Ball could save him a great deal of time and help him avoid unnecessary battles.
"This will save me quite a bit of time," Shi Feng said with a slight smile. Without a second thought, he consumed a Magic Crystal and activated the Scouting Crystal Ball to hunt for his next target.
Though Anna couldn't use her burst skill again for a while, Shi Feng still had the Book of Darkness. Once the cooldown refreshed, he summoned another Tier 3 demon. Even without Anna's terrifying burst damage, he could slowly grind down a Level 70 Grand Lord.
And so Shi Feng continued to hunt Grand Lords throughout the Dark World. For restoring his stamina and mental energy, he relied on Blood Refining Crystals to absorb the blood essence of slain monsters and condense it into Life Essence to recover.
He ground for an entire day straight, and after activating the god-tier skill Divine Blessing, he had collected a total of twenty-eight Dark Crystals, along with over two hundred Dark Crystal Fragments. Gathering the required one hundred Dark Crystals within the time limit was now merely a matter of time. The Level 60 Mythril Rank or higher weapons and equipment he had obtained numbered over a hundred pieces. He had completed a full Shadow Devour set, and for the Gold-grade Phantasm set, he had collected four out of six pieces — he was only missing the headpiece and the gloves.
Though Shi Feng was thrilled by his progress, years of experience had taught him an important lesson: balance work and rest. Even though Life Essence continuously restored his stamina and mental energy, this kind of recovery was more like a stimulant — it couldn't provide true rest. To truly relax and recover, he needed to log out.
Back in reality, Shi Feng went through his usual basic training to maintain his condition, then made arrangements for the further expansion of the Zero Wing Workshop.
Now that the Zero Wing Guild was well on track and even had its own city, the guild was growing larger and management was becoming increasingly complex. More and more people were needed, which meant further expanding the Zero Wing Workshop and recruiting more internal members.
But before Shi Feng could even leave his room, the light-computer watch connected to his virtual reality pod began to ring. It was Water Violet Rose calling.
"Guild Leader, I can finally reach you," Water Violet Rose said the moment the call connected, her voice carrying a note of urgency.
"Did something happen with the guild?" Shi Feng asked, puzzled.
"Something major," Water Violet Rose replied. "During the time you were in the Dark World, the Heavenly Burial Guild fought desperately against the siege of multiple major guilds. They even deployed a large number of evil demons and dark beasts. But somewhere in the middle, a superpower intervened, using powerful siege weapons and a large number of NPC mercenaries. The two sides were locked in a stalemate for several hours with heavy casualties on both sides. In the end, the combined forces broke through the walls of Ancient Rock City and charged all the way into the City Lord's Mansion."
"Ancient Rock City was captured?" Shi Feng couldn't help but smile. He had destroyed the city's magic array earlier specifically to cut off the Heavenly Burial Guild's source of income. If another power took Ancient Rock City now, that would be great news for Zero Wing.
"No," Water Violet Rose shook her head.
"No? But didn't they already storm the City Lord's Mansion? With the combined resources of those superpowers, once they breach the city, even evil demons shouldn't be able to stop them," Shi Feng said, slightly taken aback.
The reason superpowers were superpowers was because they had an abundance of top-tier experts. While a Perception Master might not make much difference in a battle of ten thousand, in a street fight of several dozen or a hundred people, they could exert tremendous combat power. Inside the City Lord's Mansion, where the spaces were narrow, even a large number of Level 100 NPC guards wouldn't be able to hold back all of a superpower's Perception Masters.
"The various forces did indeed capture the City Lord's Mansion," Water Violet Rose explained. "But then a Tier 4 NPC suddenly appeared and transformed the entire Ancient Rock City into a lair of evil demons. Now not only has the whole city become a forbidden zone for players, but the demonic lair keeps expanding outward. The number of evil demons and dark beasts keeps growing. Just a short while ago, the towns held by other guilds were also taken over by the demons."
"According to our observations, these demonic armies are gradually encroaching toward the border of the Star Moon Kingdom. Their target appears to be our Zero Wing City…"