As soon as Shi Feng finished speaking, the beautiful elven steward quickly returned from the archive room carrying roll after roll of parchment made from subjugation intel.
"Honored Bronze Successor, here are all the subjugation quests you requested — intel on a total of seven Sovereigns." The beautiful elven steward set the scrolls on the table.
"Seven Sovereigns?" Shi Feng looked at the seven ancient parchment scrolls on the table, surprised.
In the Divine Realm, a Sovereign governed a single region. From what he knew and had seen, the Cold Spring Great Forest only contained six regions — meaning six Sovereigns. He had never heard of a seventh.
"I must remind you, honored sir, that you may only accept one of these subjugation quests. Whether you succeed or fail, you will have to wait ten days before accepting another. Furthermore, the Planar Gate materials required for the quest are extremely expensive. Please choose carefully." The beautiful elven steward looked at Shi Feng as she gave her warning.
Shi Feng already knew everything the elven steward had mentioned. He simply nodded silently and picked up the intel on the table to review it, wanting to see whether the information in this life matched what he knew.
If his rebirth had caused significant deviations in the quest data, his entire plan would be ruined.
A Sovereign-tier boss was no ordinary field boss. It might not be as powerful as those hundred-plus-level World Bosses, but it was still a supreme-tier monster that ruled over a region. Slaying a Tier 3 player would be no different from swatting an ant. To take down such a boss, a same-level Tier 3 raid of a hundred players was utterly useless — special methods were required.
After spending over ten minutes reviewing the intel, Shi Feng let out a deep breath of relief.
"Good — it's the same as what I know. There's just one additional Sovereign."
But even as he relaxed, his gaze became fixed on the intel for that extra Sovereign-tier boss.
Not only was the boss the legendary dragonkin — Ice Dragon Heiswitt — the region it governed was also highly special. It was the Cold Spring Gorge, the central region of the Cold Spring Great Forest in his previous life.
Cold Spring Gorge had been extremely famous in his past life because it produced a very rare resource: Cold Source Water.
Cold Source Water was one of the few items that could help players improve their constitutions. Of course, this improvement didn't enhance a player's base constitution — it purely boosted their adaptability to the environment. The effect might seem minor, and it was useless for players who already possessed a Gold-grade Mana Body. But for ordinary Tier 2 players who struggled to advance to Tier 3 classes, the help it provided was enormous.
In his previous life, Cold Source Water had sparked no shortage of wars between major powers. One could say the Cold Spring Gorge was where the most player deaths occurred.
He hadn't expected that Cold Spring Gorge could also become a player-controlled territory.
At this thought, Shi Feng chose the subjugation quest against Ice Dragon Heiswitt without a moment's hesitation.
"Honored Bronze Successor, are you certain you want to select this quest? There is only one Planar Stone remaining for the space where Ice Dragon Heiswitt resides. If you fail the quest, you will never be able to accept it again." The beautiful elven steward saw that Shi Feng had chosen the Ice Dragon subjugation quest — one that had been posted for over a hundred years — and couldn't help but warn him once more.
"This is the one I want." Shi Feng's tone was firm.
He was indeed quite confident about taking on the other Sovereign-tier bosses, thanks to all the experience he carried from his previous life. But the Cold Spring Gorge territory was far too important.
He could have subdued a different Sovereign first and then gone after the Ice Dragon after ten days. However, given Zero Wing's current capabilities, managing even a single territory was already a struggle — managing two was simply impossible.
Since he could only manage one territory, it had to be the best one: Cold Spring Gorge. Even if he failed, no one else would get their hands on it, and he could always choose a different territory to subjugate afterward.
"Traveling to the space where Ice Dragon Heiswitt resides requires a substantial fee. You need to pay ten thousand gold coins and twenty thousand Mana Crystals as a deposit. If you succeed, we will refund everything in full and pay the quest reward. If you fail, the deposit will not be returned." The elven steward spoke with a serious expression.
"No problem."
Shi Feng had long since prepared the funds. He produced the deposit and handed it to the elven steward, who in turn produced a gray-and-white crystal stone and gave it to Shi Feng. This crystal was the Planar Stone needed to travel to the Ice Dragon's space.
After obtaining the Planar Stone, Shi Feng did not head directly to the White River City teleportation hall. Instead, he first went to the Candlelight Trading Firm and withdrew the Dark Gold-grade weapons stored in the vault, upgrading the Abyssal all the way to Level 90 — the absolute limit he could manage right now. After all, Level 95 weapons were a luxury for current players, let alone Level 95 Dark Gold-grade ones.
At Level 90, the Abyssal's attack power and attributes fell only slightly short of a Level 100 Epic-grade weapon, comparable to a Level 100 Dark Gold-grade weapon. For Shi Feng, this was more than sufficient.
Next, Shi Feng descended to the second basement level of the Candlelight Trading Firm — the place where he stored his most important personal items.
While the guild headquarters was certainly safe, the Candlelight Trading Firm's building grade was higher than Zero Wing's headquarters, and its internal magic arrays were vastly superior. Unless a Tier 4 class player showed up, nobody was breaking through the Candlelight Trading Firm's defenses.
At the vault entrance stood an NPC guard — a Level 100 Gold-grade Tier 3 sentinel. No player could enter the vault; even a peak Tier 3 expert would be turned away. The security was that tight.
Earlier, he had used Grandmaster Forger Seluola to reforge the Legendary item, the Armor of Ruin. But the half-finished Armor of Ruin was far too powerful to carry around, so he had stored it directly in the Candlelight Trading Firm's vault.
First, to prevent it from dropping on death. Second, although the Armor of Ruin had been reforged, the aura it emanated would still draw the attention of beastkin — particularly high-level ones. If he accidentally caught their eye, a mere Tier 2 player like himself could do nothing at all.
Third, he simply couldn't equip it.
He had always been envious of Legendary items.
In his previous life, he had heard far too many stories about the divine might of Legendary items and the legends of the players who wielded them — Tier 4 players challenging Tier 5s, Tier 5s challenging Tier 6s, a single person slaying a Tier 5 dragon, and so on.
And he had finally obtained a Legendary-grade armor, only for it to be a half-finished product with a minimum equipment requirement of Tier 3. Before reaching Tier 3, he couldn't even view its stats.
Now that he had finally reached Tier 3 and met the basic requirement to equip the Armor of Ruin, it was time to retrieve it. With the power of a Legendary item, dealing with Ice Dragon Heiswitt would be far easier. After all, Legendary items allowed players to fight above their tier. With his Tier 3 strength and the Armor of Ruin equipped, he should be able to hold his own against Ice Dragon Heiswitt.
Entering the vault, Shi Feng chanted a spell and undid the seal on the Armor of Ruin. Instantly, centered around the dark-hued armor, waves of blood-red energy rippled outward. The terrifying pressure was enough to make even Tier 2 experts feel deeply uncomfortable.
As for Shi Feng himself, he felt his blood begin to boil as a violent, frenzied energy surged into his mind.
After spending several seconds suppressing the agitation, Shi Feng approached the Armor of Ruin and clicked on it, wanting to see whether he could finally view its stats this time.