Chapter 445 - Sleeping Beauty
Nie Yan examined the stats of the upgraded Silk Spinner Ring.
Silk Spinner Ring (Silver): Special
Item Description: Shoot out a sticky web line with a range of 10 meters. Supports a maximum load of 300 lbs.Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Weight: 1 lb
Restrictions: None
Its range doubled from 5 meters to 10 meters, its maximum load increased from 200 lbs to 300 lbs, and its cooldown was cut in half from 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Since not long after the start of the game, this ring had always been by his side, helping him avoid countless dangers and saving his life who knew how many times.
The lower the starting point of a special item, the higher the upgrade potential. For example, the Silk Spinner Ring went from Bronze to Silver-grade and could be upgraded even further to Gold and Dark Gold-grade.
Nie Yan couldn’t help but wonder what the properties would be like at higher grades. After all, the greater the range and maximum load the better. But the Silver-grade Silk Spinner Ring would do for now.
Following the same procedure, Nie Yan upgraded the four other special items.
Crawler Ring (Silver): Special
Item Description: Grants the ability to stick to walls, trees, and other similar surfaces for up to 15 minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
Weight: 1 lb
Restrictions: None
The Crawler Ring’s duration had increased by 5 minutes. Its cooldown was also cut in half from an hour to 30 minutes.
The Leaper Ring, Pearl of Disguise, and Necklace of Deception couldn’t rank up any further since they were already Dark Gold-grade. However, they still saw noticeable improvements.
The Leaper Ring’s range was increased from 10 meters to 30 meters, its cooldown was reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes, and it could now be used in combat. As for the Pearl of Disguise and Necklace of Deception, their durations were increased from 30 minutes and 3 hours to 1 hour and 5 hours respectively. However, their cooldowns remained the same at 1 day.
These three special items were fully maxed out now. Even though they couldn’t be upgraded any, they’d still play a vital role in his future growth.
Nie Yan accepted his five special items back. Paget would now borrow Pandora's Box to create a necklace for his deceased wife.
Paget took out a red, a blue gem, a green gem, and a dull-looking silver chain.
He placed these four items into Pandora’s Box and started the crafting process.
After a flash of light, a rainbow-coloured necklace emerged from Pandora’s Box.
Nie Yan examined the newly created necklace. It was called Necklace of Paget’s Deceased Wife, a powerful Legendary item. It increased the rank of the Jewelcrafting skill by one.
Paget put on this necklace, increasing his Jewelcrafter rank from Master to Grandmaster.
Nie Yan never expected Paget to use his Pandora’s Box to create something so amazing. If he had known earlier, he would’ve allowed Paget to make the necklace first. Thankfully, the upgrade attempts on the five special items were all successful. Else he would have wasted a Radiant Gem for every failure.
“It was rumoured that by combining an Azure Fantasy Sapphire, Scarlet Blaze Ruby, Life Emerald, and Magic Silver Chain inside Pandora’s Box, an incredible necklace capable of fulfilling one’s desire can be crafted. For the sake of helping me become a Grandmaster Jewelcrafter, my wife, Alaine, braved through countless perils to obtain these four items. It’s unfortunate that she’s already departed this world. I pray her soul found peace in heaven...”
Nie Yan’s heart trembled. Paget had just offhandedly provided him with a crafting recipe. As long as he could find the aforementioned items, he could create a powerful Legendary-grade necklace! Something that could increase the rank of any crafting profession by one was practically unheard of. After putting on this necklace, a Master could become a Grandmaster, and a Grandmaster a Sage! It must be known that the higher one climbed in their craft, the harder it became to improve. For example, a Master would have to spend a grueling amount of effort for two years straight to ascend to the rank of a Grandmaster. Moreover, after becoming a Grandmaster, only crafting items above a certain difficulty would give proficiency.
Nie Yan memorized this recipe in his heart. Even though collecting three gems and a chain didn’t seem like much, he knew these four items were probably extremely rare.
“Thank you! You’ve helped me fulfill a long cherished wish of mine. I can live on without regrets.” Paget turned to Nie Yan with a grateful look in his eyes.
Nie Yan replied in a manner one would expect from standard quest dialogue. What puzzled him was that he had received no reward, though Paget had informed him that he could come here for gem upgrades any time free of charge.
Logically speaking, this was quite a lucrative opportunity. He could upgrade equipment for other players and collect both a service fee and the gold that would normally be paid to Paget. However, given his status as the guild leader of Asskickers United, this was too far beneath him. He had better things to do with his time.
While Nie Yan was wondering why he didn’t receive a reward, he noticed the ‘Benevolent’ property was added to his character window.
Prior to this, Nie Yan had received ‘Just’ and ‘Brave’. Now he also had ‘Benevolent’ as well. He had no idea what these words meant. Perhaps he could find some clue after collecting more of them.
In the previous timeline, Nie Yan had never heard of a person receiving something like this, nor had he seen any discussion of it on the forums. As for how these properties would be useful to him, he would have to slowly continue researching.
After bidding farewell to Paget, Nie Yan and Sun left the shop. Sun still had some quests to do, so he left first.
Nie Yan looked at the broken Nadago’s Staff of Curses in his bag. After killing Nadago, he had received a quest notification telling him to find Great General Breakspear to receive a nice surprise.
He previously had no idea where Great General Breakspear was. So, he had ordered his subordinates in Asskickers United do some digging. They found he was located in the distant Hilton Stronghold.
Going from Calore to the Hilton Stronghold wasn’t too much trouble. He would first have to spend 1 gold and 60 silver to teleport to Kriston Town in Hilderlocke, then ride on horseback for about an hour.
The Hilton Stronghold was surrounded by badlands overrun with vile creatures that had escaped from the caves leading to the Underworld. It was the frontline against the Evil Faction. Who knew what sort of reward he would receive for turning in the broken Nadago’s Staff of Curses. However, there was no harm in making the trip. After all, it wasn’t every day that a figure like the Legendary Necromancer Nadago was slain.
Nie Yan handed over the Everwinter Potion Recipe and Junior Vitality Potion to Bird and dealt with a few guild related matters before setting off with the little time remaining in the day.
Calore was relatively peaceful right now. Even if an emergency happened, he could quickly return.
Nie Yan teleported to Kriston Town, then got on his Faulkner Warhorse and galopped north.
The minutes and seconds ticked away. As the server closing drew close, Nie Yan found a safe spot and unsummoned his Faulkner Warrhorse before logging off.
Nie Yan exited the game capsule to discover Xie Yao sleeping peacefully in his bed. It appeared she had snuck into his room some time during the evening.
Nie Yan walked over to Xie Yao. She had covered herself with a thin blanket. Her eyes were closed, and traces of fear could still be seen on her face. She appeared quite pitiful. The prior incident had probably frightened her far more than he initially thought. She was almost kidnapped and then watched a man killed before her eyes in cold blood. How could she not be traumatized?
Nie Yan’s eyes rested on Xie Yao, her delicate face without a single blemish, her hair that was messy every so slightly, those perky eyelashes and tender sweet lips...
Xie Yao was wearing a lace nightgown. Her collar was a bit low, exposing her slender milky white shoulders. She looked like a goddess. Nie Yan’s imagination couldn’t help but run wild.
The scene of Xie Yao sleeping so peacefully was one Nie Yan could have never imagined in the previous timeline. The joy it brought him was calming, like a whiff of fragrance soothing his heart.
Seeing Xie Yao’s eyebrow lightly tremble, Nie Yan faintly smiled. It seemed she had already woken up but was too embarrassed to open her eyes.
Nie Yan bent down and drew close to Xie Yao’s cheeks with a mischievous smile on his face.
Opening her eyes and seeing Nie Yan’s face so close to hers, Xie Yao’s cheeks burned bright red.
“You’re out?” Xie Yao asked, gently blinking her limpid eyes.
“Why are you sleeping here, in my bed?”
“I got scared. I didn’t want to stay in a room all by myself, so I came here,” Xie Yao explained. She felt a sense of security when she was by Nie Yan’s side. Although the sight of him killing Wisp yesterday was a huge shock to her, her opinion of him didn’t worsen. Though when she recalled Nie Yan’s appearance at that time, a peculiar feeling surfaced in her heart, one she couldn’t explain.
Seeing Xie Yao’s shy and vulnerable appearance, Nie Yan was overcome with desire and made an attack on her lips.
Caught off guard, Xie Yao yelped in surprise. However, that only further ignited the desire buried in Nie Yan’s heart.