After wrapping up his discussion at the Red Stone Restaurant, Shi Feng quickly returned to Zero Wing's headquarters and had everyone begin working on improving their completion rates for Tier-Two magic skills. He also set aside a number of advanced combat rooms in the arena for Zero Wing's core members to train in. The results wouldn't come close to those of the Tower of Four Gods, but it was better than nothing. Meanwhile, Xiao Yu started purchasing virtual combat equipment, preparing to build Tiandou Training Hall's virtual combat platform.
"Hei Zi, I'm probably going to spend quite a bit of time inside the Tower of Four Gods. During that period, I need you to have our people collect large quantities of Ancient Lumber and Vajra Wood. On top of that, have Bai Qingxue take the main raid team to the Maelstrom in the Sea of Death to grind — the monsters there should drop fragments of the Stone of Tides," Shi Feng called Hei Zi over and said. "The more of these you can gather, the better. I'll need them for something important later."
A player could only enter the Tower of Four Gods once nearly every year, so he certainly couldn't afford to waste his time there. Just from the first layer alone, it was clear that this trial would take no small amount of time.
More and more factions were now shifting their focus to the seas, with Dragonheart City being the most critical hub.
If Zero Wing wanted to expand rapidly and raise enough funds to open Tiandou Training Hall branch locations, the key was to establish a real foothold in Dragonheart City as quickly as possible.
To truly establish a foothold there, they needed to raise the guild's reputation in the city. Only then could they construct a teleportation magic array at the guild headquarters in Dragonheart City, allowing guild members to teleport to the city's headquarters at will and greatly ease their movements.
This was exactly why all the major factions were having their guild members frantically run quests in Dragonheart City. Many factions might have already obtained Ancient Gold Coins to purchase land and build a guild headquarters, but if the guild's reputation in Dragonheart City wasn't high enough, the headquarters would serve as nothing more than a place for members to rest — hardly a significant convenience.
Raising guild reputation in Dragonheart City was no easy task. As a free, neutral trade metropolis, quests that increased guild reputation were both rare and difficult. Every major faction was fighting tooth and nail for them, and on top of that, fifty thousand reputation points were required.
Among all the methods, fragments of the Stone of Tides offered the fastest way to boost a guild's reputation in Dragonheart City.
However, obtaining Stone of Tides fragments was far from simple. Not only did one have to venture into the Sea of Death's core zone — the Maelstrom — but the weakest monsters there were Level 90+ Great Lords, and there was no shortage of Level 90+ High-rank Great Lords either. One could even spot Level 90+ Legendary monsters with ease. The danger was extreme.
Without a Tier Three team, making headway there was virtually impossible.
He had originally planned to lead the team to the Maelstrom himself to grind and collect Stone of Tides fragments, but now that he was trapped inside the Tower of Four Gods and the situation outside was growing more urgent by the day, he could only rely on Hei Zi and the others to handle it.
After all, Zero Wing's main raid team was no longer weak. Most of them had already reached Level 90, and they had Ke Le — a main tank wielding a Legendary-grade fragment shield. That made them barely capable of grinding there.
"Got it. I'll go notify them right away." Hearing Shi Feng say that the Stone of Tides fragments were of great importance, Hei Zi immediately grew serious and left the room to relay the message to the main raid team.
After Hei Zi departed, Shi Feng once again lay down inside his virtual reality pod and logged into the Divine Realm, determined to clear the Tower of Four Gods' trial as fast as possible.
Upon re-entering the Divine Realm, Shi Feng appeared at the center of the temple hall, surrounded on all sides by a massive swarm of Six-Headed Hell Serpents.
[System: Kill one thousand Six-Headed Hell Serpents within three days. Failure to complete the objective within the time limit will result in automatic failure of the challenge.]
"A thousand in three days — the difficulty of this first wave on the second layer really is a massive jump from the first." Shi Feng glanced at the Six-Headed Hell Serpents encircling him and furrowed his brow slightly.
Back on the first layer, he'd had to deal with fifteen hundred Phantom Fire Two-Headed Wolves, but those were only ordinary Lord-tier monsters. These Six-Headed Hell Serpents, on the other hand, were bloodline creatures — not only did they possess enormous health pools, but they also had special abilities, making them exponentially harder to kill. To make matters worse, these serpents always moved in groups of two or three.
Slaying a thousand of them in just three days made the difficulty more than several times harder. Even experts who had reached the Perception realm at the same level would struggle to pull it off.
Once he logged in and the brief window of invulnerability ended — during which he could neither attack nor be attacked — Shi Feng wasted no time. He charged straight toward two of the Six-Headed Hell Serpents.