System: Congratulations, player, on completing the exploration quest "Secret Land of the Giants." Reward: Giant Sacred Stone, Adventurer Association Reputation +20, Adventurer Association Contribution +1000.
System: Congratulations, player, on unlocking the neutral city of Thunder Axe City. Reward: Thunder Axe Crystal, Thunder Axe City Reputation +100, Thunder Axe City Contribution +2000.
……
A pair of system notifications echoed through Shi Feng's mind three times each, leaving him momentarily dazed.
"Exploring Thunder Axe City really pays off," Shi Feng muttered, clicking his tongue in amazement as he stared at the crystal that had suddenly appeared in his hand — a crystalline stone radiating a dark-golden glow. "Two thousand contribution points is already impressive, but they're even giving me a Thunder Axe Crystal outright?"
Thunder Axe City was located deep within a hidden region of the Icefire Mountain Range. Even after unlocking the city, players would normally have to enter through the teleportation gate at the range's outer perimeter — a considerable inconvenience. But Thunder Axe City was a hub of resources and trade, brimming with vast supplies and opportunities. No matter how troublesome the journey, it was always worth the trip.
However, there was another way to enter Thunder Axe City besides the usual route: special teleportation items unique to the city.
These special items came in two types. The first was the Thunder Axe Emblem, which allowed a single player to teleport directly to Thunder Axe City. The second was the Thunder Axe Crystal, which could open a teleportation gate to the city, allowing a large group of players to enter all at once — saving enormous amounts of travel time and making back-and-forth trips far more convenient.
The trouble was that both items were extremely difficult to obtain. The Thunder Axe Emblem required a player to hold noble status in Thunder Axe City, and could only be exchanged for using Thunder Axe City contribution points. The Thunder Axe Crystal required even higher status — a countship — to exchange for.
Setting aside the difficulty of achieving status in Thunder Axe City, the contribution points alone were notoriously hard to accumulate.
Thunder Axe City was vast, with countless quests and opportunities, but very few of them actually rewarded Thunder Axe City contribution points. Even upon completion, most quests awarded only a handful of points. Higher-tier quests gave more, but such quests were exceedingly rare.
Two thousand contribution points was a sum that most players couldn't amass even after a full year of effort. And the Thunder Axe Crystal cost five thousand points to exchange for…
The Thunder Axe Crystal was of limited use to individual players, but for a guild, its value was enormous. At the very least, guild members would no longer waste enormous amounts of time traveling. The time saved could be spent doing far more within Thunder Axe City.
After tucking the Thunder Axe Crystal away, Shi Feng turned his attention to the Giant Sacred Stone that the Giant Grand Elder had given him.
In his previous life, the intelligence he'd come across stated that unlocking Thunder Axe City would yield an Epic-tier item called the Giant Crystal. The Giant Crystal allowed players to skip the conversion quests in Thunder Axe City entirely — using the crystal's power, players above Level 50 could be directly converted into Giants. It could convert up to one thousand people.
Of course, if a player was below Level 50 and wanted to become a Giant, they still had to come to Thunder Axe City and complete the conversion quest, which cost twenty gold per person just as the registration fee.
In other words, completing the exploration quest not only saved the twenty-thousand gold cost of one thousand conversion slots, but also spared the player the hassle of running conversion quests.
But what the Giant Grand Elder had given him now was a Giant Sacred Stone…
"Wait — a Legendary item fragment?!" Shi Feng tapped open the Giant Sacred Stone's attributes and felt a jolt of shock. "This quest reward is absurdly generous!"
Giant Sacred Stone — Legendary item fragment, a sacred stone condensed from the ancient bloodline of the Titan race.
Effect One: Can convert up to 1,000 players into the Giant race. Minimum player level: 50. No cooldown.
Effect Two: Can bestow a trace of Titan bloodline upon Giant players. Maximum of three recipients. No cooldown.
In Shi Feng's eyes, the ability to convert a thousand players wasn't all that remarkable — the Giant Crystal could do the same. But the ability to bestow a Titan bloodline was overwhelmingly powerful.
What was a Titan?
They were the beings closest to divine existence among all races. Though not gods themselves, they possessed partial divine abilities. And once a Titan actually ascended to godhood, the result was truly terrifying. However, the closer a being was to divinity, the harder it was for them to reach Tier 6. From what Shi Feng knew, only the King of the Titans had achieved Tier 6. The ten Sages of Titan Holy City, for instance — not one of them was a Tier 6 god. In Shi Feng's current understanding, they were likely demigods, yet every single one of them wielded power that rivaled a Tier 6 god.
The Tier 6 gods referred to here were nothing like Tier 6 players. A single Tier 6 god could crush Tier 6 players with ease — it would take several Tier 6 players working together just to fight one on equal footing. That should give some sense of how terrifying a demigod-level Titan truly was.
And now the Giant Sacred Stone could grant Giant players a Titan bloodline. This was far superior to the Dark Iron Bloodline he himself had obtained — and it could be given to three people at once.
The value of this alone surpassed that of three Legendary item fragments.
The Giant race already possessed extraordinary innate talents. If they additionally received a Titan bloodline…
Shi Feng could barely imagine what heights they might reach. After all, Titans were beings of near-perfection — unlike Giants, who had clear weaknesses.
"The people who get converted into Giants are in for a tremendous blessing," Shi Feng said, looking at the Giant Sacred Stone with a hint of envy.
Players of the Giant race found advancing far more difficult than ordinary humans. But with a Titan bloodline, the difficulty of progression would undoubtedly drop significantly. In his estimation, it should fall to roughly the same level as ordinary humans, allowing converted Giants to break into the high tiers.
Setting aside the distant dream of Tier 6 godhood, a mere Tier 5 Giant player was already terrifying enough.
In his previous life, an expert player had been fully supported by their guild and advanced to the Tier 5 Class. They couldn't contend with Tier 6 god-tier players, of course, but among all Tier 5 players across the entire Divine Realm, they ranked within the top twenty. It was worth noting that every player who placed in the top twenty of Tier 5 across the Divine Realm was outfitted with exceptional equipment, each wielding at least one Legendary item fragment and possessing unique legacies, with combat skills absolutely at the Divine Realm's peak.
Yet that particular Giant race expert hadn't had even a single Legendary item fragment to their name — they had muscled into the rankings through sheer talent alone. That alone spoke volumes about how formidable the Giant race's innate abilities truly were.
If it were possible, Shi Feng would have wanted to convert into a Giant himself. But as the guild master, countless matters within the Divine Realm required him to act in his human identity. Converting into a Giant simply wasn't an option.
After that, Shi Feng left the Giant Grand Elder's residence and headed directly for Thunder Axe City's municipal hall — which was, in fact, the main reason he had unlocked Thunder Axe City in the first place.
As a hub of resources and trade, Thunder Axe City's sheer stockpile of resources dwarfed that of Sea Forest. Or rather, the two simply weren't even on the same scale.
In his previous life, nearly ten percent of the ore and herbs needed by first-rate and second-rate guilds had come from Thunder Axe City. The ore alone allowed numerous second-rate guilds to control more than fifteen percent of the market. One could only imagine how abundant Thunder Axe City's resources truly were.