Chapter 158 A Massive Windfall

Zhang Shan was the first to pick an item, and there was no need to hesitate. No matter how good the other things were, none of them could compare to the Source of Magic.

Putting aside how effective the Source of Magic was, just the fact that it was a spiritual artifact was enough for Zhang Shan to choose it.

How many spiritual artifacts were there in the entire game right now? Every single one of them was extremely precious.

Wind and Cloud Artillery was the second to choose, and without hesitation, he picked a skill book.

This skill book was also quite good: Heavy Slash, a skill book for Guardian Warriors.

It was somewhat similar to Chakra's Flowing Light Slash; once the skill was maxed out, it increased damage by one hundred percent.

After learning this skill, Guardian Warriors would no longer be mere meat shields without output.

The remaining five people could only choose equipment and materials.

Although there were still three red-grade items of equipment, these top players did not care much about them.

Level 40 red equipment wouldn't be usable for a while anyway, and besides, anything that could be bought with money wasn't truly a rare treasure.

After the items were distributed, Wind and Cloud Supreme said:
"Auction whatever you don't use yourselves in the guild channel, and send out red envelopes once sold."
"God-Tier Bro, start the auction. You won't be using this Source of Magic yourself, right?"
"Of course he won't use it. God-Tier Bro barely needs any skills that consume mana."
"Sigh, God-Tier Bro is so OP without even using skills, while I pull off all kinds of flashy skill combos and am still a noob."
"I have no use for this Source of Magic, so let's auction it off. Big shots, drive the price up—I won't sell it if it's too cheap."
"Don't worry, if it's below fifty million gold coins, I'll take it."
"None of you compete with me. To use my ultimate skill sooner, I'll fight you to the death today!"
"Too bad spiritual artifacts become soulbound upon equipment, otherwise we could borrow them from each other."
"You're overthinking it. Would the game developers let you play that easily?"

After a fierce bidding war among the top players, the Source of Magic was won by that archer for eighty million gold coins.

Another massive profit, yet Zhang Shan didn't really care about making money right now.

What he wanted was to boost his combat power as quickly as possible, but there were no suitable skill books available.

His equipment couldn't be upgraded either; they were all red items, and better equipment simply couldn't be bought.

It looked like it was time to test whether that damaged ring could be turned into a divine artifact.

Otherwise, he might not see much improvement within the next two months.

If that happened, he wouldn't be able to suppress other players with his strength anymore.

Once everyone else reached level thirty and equipped level thirty gear, their combat power wouldn't be far behind his.

He wouldn't be able to enjoy the comfort he had now—killing people with a single shot, or two at most.

Wind and Cloud Artillery's skill book was also won by the little secretary for fifty thousand gold coins.

Although the Heavy Slash skill was very practical, it was still just a standard skill.

It was only because skill books for it dropped rarely that it fetched a decent price.

After all, Guardian Warriors prioritized building health and defense.

Not many Guardian Warriors seriously focused on increasing damage, so selling this skill book for fifty thousand gold coins was already quite good.

The others successively auctioned off the equipment they didn't need.
"God-Tier Bro, hurry up and send out the red envelopes."

Zhang Shan's Source of Magic sold for eighty million gold coins. As previously agreed,
he had to send out red envelopes worth ten percent of the item's value, which meant giving away eight million gold coins.

It hurt a little bit.

Never mind, it was windfall money anyway.

In the guild channel, he entered the red envelope amount of eight million gold coins and set the quantity to ten thousand before sending it out.
"Haha, I grabbed five thousand gold coins."
"Darn it, why did I only get one hundred?"
"Not bad, one thousand gold coins, hehe."

After Zhang Shan sent out his red envelopes, the other six people also sent theirs.

Zhang Shan didn't even grab two hundred gold coins in total.

Mainly because the others sent out smaller amounts; even Wind and Cloud Artillery, who sent the most, only put up fifty thousand gold coins.

Although their guild had ten thousand members, not all of them were present, but nobody bothered to count heads.

They just sent red envelopes based on the total guild population.

For Zhang Shan to grab over a hundred gold coins meant he had pretty good luck.

After all the red envelopes were sent out, everyone was beaming with joy.

The harvest from this boss fight was fantastic, and Zhang Shan had directly made over seventy million gold coins.

The others also gained small harvests of their own.
"Little Qiuqiu, can't you cast your ultimate skill now? Show it to us."

The archer big shot who learned Wrath of the Stars was named Wind and Cloud Cupid.

After winning Zhang Shan's Source of Magic in the auction, he could finally use Wrath of the Stars.
"Show you my foot, the cooldown takes 24 hours. If I use it now and we end up fighting someone else later while the skill is still on cooldown, wouldn't that be a joke?"
"You're not needed for everyday fights; you can only use this skill once a day anyway. It's fine for scaring people, but its actual effect isn't as practical as God-Tier Bro's one shot at a time."
"You're just jealous. A single move covers fifty yards, and in densely packed crowds, it can insta-kill two or three thousand people."
"Which idiot would stand that closely together and let you hit them?"

"Even if they stand apart, it doesn't matter. Knocking down hundreds of people in one go is a piece of cake."
"You're so OP, fine. Sigh, when will I ever manage to get an ultimate skill?"
"Prepare your gold coins; sooner or later you will."
"Why prepare gold coins? Wouldn't it be wonderful if I dropped one myself?"
"That's asking too much of your character. You know what your luck is like, hehe."
"What do I know? I'm going to farm one out myself."

With the boss defeated and the loot distributed, everyone split up to form groups and farm mobs.

There was no need to guard the tunnel entrance anymore either; when not fighting a boss, they weren't afraid of others coming to cause trouble.

If few came, they would just wipe them out. In the unlikely event that a large crowd arrived,
they had scouted it out long ago and could simply fall back to the tunnel entrance to continue defending.

Zhang Shan, along with Wind and Cloud Yidao and Boss Wu, continued farming mobs, and his experience bar skyrocketed.

However, leveling up was still a long way off.

Because too many people shared the experience from defeating the boss earlier,
he only gained about one hundred thousand experience points from it—an amount he could farm in just over ten minutes on his own.

Fighting bosses was best when there were fewer people: fewer people to share experience, and fewer people to split loot.

Unfortunately, those powerful bosses required large numbers of people; small groups couldn't beat them.

A boss like Chakra couldn't be defeated by a fifty-person team, not even two months from now.

A single ultimate skill dealt 180,000 damage; who could withstand that?

Such bosses had to be zerg-rushed by sheer numbers. When they wiped out entire areas in a second, no one could block them.

Zhang Shan checked his experience bar; after leveling up, he had only farmed about three million experience points.

That was not even a tenth of what was needed for the next level.

Still, it didn't matter. Temporarily, no one could catch up to him in terms of level.

The second-place player on the level leaderboard, Heart Follows My Motion, had just reached level twenty-nine.

To reach level thirty would take at least ten days, and that was assuming he farmed quickly.

It was time to tackle the damaged ring quest—this was a long-term project.

Zhang Shan planned to spend a few days running all over the Eastern and Western Capitals; he refused to believe he couldn't find the corresponding NPC.