With Liang Jing off to prepare materials, Shi Feng finally had some free time to properly sort through the loot dropped by Ying Zhun and his group.
Every last one of Ying Zhun's companions possessed at least fourth-tier combat power, and their equipment could only be described as spectacular. The third-tier Class gear was especially noteworthy — if Zero Wing could assemble even one complete set from their drops, it would undoubtedly grant the guild another fourth-tier combatant.
As Shi Feng examined each item one by one, he couldn't help but grow more and more impressed with the equipment wielded by players from the Outer World.
The third-tier experts were one thing — every last one of them wore third-tier magic equipment sets, each worth tens of thousands of gold coins at minimum. Any single set would have been fought over across the entire Divine Realm's continent.
But compared to the weapons and equipment dropped by the fourth-tier experts, those paled considerably. Every piece was a Level 150 Epic-rank item, and some had even dropped individual components of Epic-rank equipment sets. It was plain to see that these fourth-tier Outer World experts had been outfitted in full Epic-rank sets.
Epic-rank sets were something even current-day Zero Wing wouldn't dare dream of.
Setting aside how exceedingly rare Epic-rank sets were in the first place, assembling a full set required far more than hunting a single boss. It meant taking down a wide variety of different bosses, and even then, each one only had a chance of dropping a component — it was never guaranteed.
In other words, without slaughtering massive numbers of different bosses, putting together a complete set was simply impossible.
And to kill large numbers of Level 150 fourth-tier Legendary bosses, having a substantial pool of fourth-tier combatants was an absolute necessity.
Of course, finding a single Epic-rank component didn't prove much on its own.
But Shi Feng held a total of five Epic-rank set components in his hands — and this was merely the gear of a single fourth-tier mercenary group from the Outer World. One could only imagine how well-equipped the fourth-tier experts of the Outer World's superpowers were, and how terrifying their numbers of fourth-tier combatants must be. Otherwise, a mere fourth-tier mercenary group could never have obtained this many Epic-rank set pieces.
"No wonder every major superpower on the Divine Realm's continent has been completely unable to fight back," Shi Feng muttered, examining each dropped item with an increasingly splitting headache. "Just in terms of equipment, they're already more than half a year ahead of us, to say nothing of the gap in fourth-tier expert count."
He had originally assumed the disparity was limited to the number of fourth-tier combatants and the gap in combat techniques. Now it turned out even the equipment gap was this enormous.
He had to admit — the threat posed by the Outer World's player factions far exceeded his expectations.
After all, even Zero Wing at its current state could only produce Epic-rank components, and in very limited quantities. The number of people capable of crafting them could be counted on one hand.
Shi Feng had even reviewed the detailed records of Zero Wing's fourth-tier guild members.
Over seventy percent of the fourth-tier experts still didn't even have five or six Level 150 Epic-rank items in their entire loadout, with most owning only around three such pieces.
Epic-rank sets?
In their dreams!
The reason Zero Wing's fourth-tier experts had accumulated so many Level 150 Epic-rank items was thanks entirely to their recent development in the Great Frost Canyon, along with the large haul of Level 150 Epic-rank gear that Yan Ya and the others had brought back from the Ancient Divine Realm. Otherwise, the equipment situation for Zero Wing's fourth-tier combatants would be even worse.
Still, calling Zero Wing's fourth-tier gear "worse" wasn't entirely accurate — at least it was somewhat better than that of the local superpowers' fourth-tier experts. But when compared to the Outer World's fourth-tier combatants, there was simply no contest.
"It looks like once the cross-realm teleportation magic array goes live, I'll need to put serious effort into acquiring top-quality Epic-rank weapons and equipment," Shi Feng mused. "Otherwise, even with enough fourth-tier combatants, we probably still won't be able to stand against the Outer World's major superpowers."
After reaching the fourth-tier Class, inheritance guidance and improvements in mana control were certainly important, but equipment couldn't be neglected either. The difference in basic attributes between a full set of Epic-rank components and a complete Epic-rank set was at least around twenty percent — and once amplified through magical skills and mana control, the resulting gap in combat power would be even greater.
Just as Shi Feng was examining a damaged crystal sculpture, he suddenly froze.
"Eternal Object?"
The crystal sculpture appeared to be an utterly ordinary item at first glance, yet Shi Feng couldn't discern any information about it — everything showed as unknown. But if one focused carefully, one could feel that the very instinct for survival seemed to crave devouring this crystal sculpture. It was exactly the same sensation he had experienced with the Eternal Object Feng Qianyu had given him.
Without hesitation, Shi Feng activated the Eye of Omniscience and began probing at full power.
With his Mana Body at 120% and his Liquid Mana as a safeguard, the Eye of Omniscience worked swiftly — in less than thirty seconds, some of the sculpture's data materialized before Shi Feng's eyes.
Origin Statue. Eternal Object. Specific effect: Guides the Laws of All Things. Indestructible.
"Guides the Laws of All Things?"
Shi Feng was completely stumped. He had no idea what that meant.
Previously, the World Stone's ability to stabilize the Laws of All Things was what had allowed him to log in and out freely within the Ancient Divine Realm. But guiding the Laws of All Things? What on earth was that supposed to be?