It hadn't been long since the Adventurer Alliance's redemption benefits were posted on the official forums, but they spread through Cold Wind City like a computer virus. Even the major guilds in the city had their eyes glowing when they saw the news.
Gold-grade equipment sets for level fifty!
For every major guild out there, this was the stuff of dreams.
"The Shura Adventuring Team is insane! They're actually putting up stakes like this just to poach free players!"
"How the hell did they get their hands on this Arcane Light set?"
"Holy crap! With a full Arcane Light set, I could solo a level-fifty-five High Grand Lord!"
"No wonder those Shura Adventuring Team members had such ridiculous stats—they were wearing the Arcane Light set."
The higher-ups of Cold Wind City's major guilds stared at the redemption benefits offered by the Shura Adventuring Team and fell silent.
In terms of equipment alone, their guilds were already incomparably behind the Shura Adventuring Team. But compared to equipment exchange, the second redemption benefit the team offered was what truly gave everyone a headache.
Combat techniques!
This was something far more precious than any weapon or equipment.
Weapons and equipment were ultimately external items. As players' levels continued to rise, gear would keep being swapped out. Getting the best weapons and equipment now didn't mean you could use them for life.
Combat techniques, on the other hand, were different. They stayed with a player permanently, fundamentally increasing their combat power—worth immeasurably more than any weapon or equipment.
If players were given the choice between level-fifty Dark Gold equipment or a combat technique, the majority would choose the combat technique. Even if they picked level-fifty Dark Gold gear now, they still wouldn't gain a combat technique. By the time they reached level sixty, level-fifty Dark Gold equipment would be nothing more than ordinary gear. But with a combat technique in hand, even if their current equipment wasn't impressive, their skill level would speak for itself—and getting better gear down the road would only be a matter of time.
This was something every major guild had always wanted. The problem was, combat techniques were just too hard to come by.
So far, they had zero leads. The only combat techniques in existence had been reverse-engineered by exceptionally talented players, and these hard-won techniques would never be shared with outsiders—they were trump cards. If someone else learned them, you'd be handing over an advantage for nothing.
In all of Cold Wind City right now, the only guild that possessed combat techniques was Hecate, and Hecate kept an iron grip on them. Only core members who had signed binding contracts were eligible to learn. As for the talented players in the guild who hadn't signed? Not a chance...
And at that very moment, inside the Hecate guild headquarters—in the elegant, refined guild master's office—Xue Guang stared at the Adventurer Alliance's redemption benefits on the official forum, his face a mask of unspeakable gloom. The guild executives standing around him were equally dumbfounded.
"Has the Shura Adventuring Team lost their minds? Putting combat techniques up for exchange?"
"Aren't they afraid outsiders will learn these techniques and it'll come back to bite them later?"
...
One by one, the executives voiced their bewilderment at the Shura Adventuring Team's insane behavior. None of them had ever imagined the team would go to such extraordinary lengths to win over Cold Wind City.
"Vice-leader, I just got word—a large batch of elite players who signed with us are trying to break their contracts. The number's already past a thousand and still climbing..." A level-52 Ranger hurried in through the door and urgently reported to Xue Guang.
"Have they all gone mad? If they break their contracts, they'll owe us three gold coins each!" The executives standing nearby were stunned.
The contracts they'd previously signed with free players didn't make cancellation impossible—the cost was just prohibitively steep.
Three gold coins was no small sum even for expert players, let alone elites. Sure, players' levels and incomes were rising, but so were equipment maintenance and repair costs. There were plenty of regular expenses too—common potions, magic scrolls, and other consumables, plus food and lodging. Very little money actually stayed in their pockets.
An elite player would be doing well to have fifty or sixty silver coins in spare cash. Ordinary players might only have a dozen or so. Only the truly skilled players had more—two or three gold coins at best, maybe five or six for the wealthier ones. That was why the contract penalty had been set at three gold coins—roughly half an expert player's liquid funds.
But now...
Meanwhile, outside the Shura Adventuring Team's guild hall, the Adventurer Alliance's benefits had drawn wave after wave of free players. In less than half an hour, over fifty thousand had formed a massive queue stretching four or five blocks away, with the number still climbing. The Shura team had no choice but to deploy five or six hundred members just to maintain order.
The spectacle was so grand that the guild representatives who'd come to scope things out were left completely stupefied.