Chapter 168 – So, This is Asura?
Hundred Flow City, Soulfire adventurer team’s gathering point:
“Stop hesitating, Captain. Many powers have already gathered at Asura’s headquarters to register. If we don’t hurry up and join as well, there won’t be any Lineage Crystals left for us,” Moon Rain said as she looked at Southern Tiger. “Your strength will rise to the next level so long as you can get your hands on a Lineage Crystal. We’ll also have a much easier time exploring the Boundary Mountain Range in the future. We might even be able to get ahead of other powers and pioneer a path into the Boundary Mountain Range.”
Many powers in the Miniature Ancient World had decided to take a wait-and-see approach when the Asura Mercenary Alliance started recruiting members. After all, while Abyssal Star City was located very close to the Boundary Mountain Range, mainstream players were nowhere near reaching Level 115.
Moreover, joining Asura would mean losing the ability to go against the mercenary alliance. In addition, members would also be responsible for protecting the mercenary alliance.
In a situation where the Five Great Super Guilds were targeting the Abyssal Star Primordial City, most people felt that the Asura Mercenary Alliance could, at most, survive until the various superpowers’ experts reached Level 120 and got promoted to Tier 4.
Not to mention, the various superpowers might have long since established Guild Towns and Cities near the Boundary Mountain Range even before mainstream players reached Level 115. In that case, there’d be no benefit in joining the Asura Mercenary Alliance.
Most importantly, players could still enter Abyssal Star City even without joining the Asura Mercenary Alliance. At most, they’d have to stand in line for some time.
However, things were different now.
The Lineage Crystal that the Asura Mercenary Alliance had introduced into its exchange system recently was an item that rivaled Fragmented Legendary items in terms of usefulness. The various powers and independent expert teams might be able to ignore the benefit of having a slightly faster leveling speed. However, there was no way they could ignore something as valuable and useful as a Fragmented Legendary item.
After all, the Lineage Crystal was something that could help establish a powerful team, and having a powerful team meant being able to acquire more and better weapons and equipment.
Epic Weapons and Equipment might be powerful, but they were only a starting point for peak expert teams. What these teams aimed to acquire were Fragmented Legendary items, and they’d have to raid incredibly challenging Team Dungeons and secret lands to do so. Meanwhile, items such as the Lineage Crystal would be crucial in helping them accomplish this goal.
However, the problem was that only members of the Asura Mercenary Alliance could exchange the Lineage Crystal. Or, more specifically, members who had reached the Bronze rank or above.
“I’m not hesitating,” Southern Tiger said with a bitter smile. “I already sent someone to apply to join Asura as soon as I received news of the Lineage Crystal. However, there are just too many people applying to join, and the guy I sent says that there are several tens of thousands of people waiting in line before him…”
“There are actually so many people waiting in line?” Moon Rain was a little stunned when she heard Southern Tiger’s words. After all, it hadn’t been more than fifteen minutes since news of the Lineage Crystal came out. Yet, there were already several tens of thousands of players waiting in line to join Asura over at the mercenary alliance’s registration point in Hundred Flow City… The speed of everyone’s reactions was even more exaggerated than when they were competing for Team Dungeons out in the fields.
“With so many people waiting in line, it’ll take us at least a day before we can pick up a quest,” Southern Tiger said, sighing. “The only thing we can do now is to try and collect some Contribution Points from Asura’s members or find a trustworthy member of Asura and have them pick up a quest and turn it in on our behalf. But it won’t be easy to find such a person.
“Asura’s regulations state that normal members are only allowed to accept basic quests. Only higher-ranking members are allowed to take on more difficult quests and acquire more Contribution Points. Although quests for Common Mounts are available in large numbers right now, members of Asura will first have to complete fifteen basic quests before they can accept a Common Mount quest. As for Bronze and Mysterious-Iron Mount quests, only Bronze members can accept those.
“Currently, there are only a very small number of players with Bronze members.h.i.+p in Asura, and every one of them is a target of compet.i.tion for the various Guilds and adventurer teams. Although I’ve tried asking around, none of the people I know have a Bronze members.h.i.+p in Asura…”
“Someone with Bronze members.h.i.+p?” Moon Rain suddenly thought of someone when she heard Southern Tiger’s words. “Captain, do you still remember that Advanced Legacy we gave away some time ago?”
“You mean the one we gave to that girl from Zero Wing?” Southern Tiger said, similarly recalling Wu Lingling.
Originally, Southern Tiger was trying to get s.h.i.+ Feng, a Tier 6 G.o.d-ranked expert, to owe Soulfire a favor by giving the other party one of Soulfire’s Gold Order. Unfortunately, s.h.i.+ Feng refused to take the bait, so Southern Tiger settled with giving the Gold Order to Wu Lingling. Although Soulfire had technically formed a close relations.h.i.+p with s.h.i.+ Feng through this action, in essence, Wu Lingling was the one who owed Soulfire a favor.
“You told me to maintain contact with her afterward, so I did exactly that, and I’ve been exchanging messages with her and offering her guidance all this time,” Moon Rain said, smiling. “Currently, not only has she become a Refinement Realm expert already, but she is also a Bronze member of Asura. We can totally partner with her. I believe she wouldn’t refuse our offer, either.”
“She’s a Bronze member in Asura?” Southern Tiger was momentarily stunned. He didn’t think that the little girl following s.h.i.+ Feng would improve so rapidly, becoming not only a Refinement Realm expert but even a Bronze member in Asura in such a short time. This was absolutely astonis.h.i.+ng.
“Should I contact her, Captain?” Moon Rain asked.
“Of course! Do it quickly before other powers take her away from us!” Southern Tiger hurriedly said.
…
While Asura’s member count was skyrocketing, a masked man, who had just arrived in Hundred Flow City with a team of 3,000 Refinement Realm experts, couldn’t help but be stunned by the sight before him.
“What’s going on here?”
The masked man blinked his eyes in disbelief as he looked at the crowded Teleportation Hall.
Setting aside how many people were inside Hundred Flow City’s Teleportation Hall right now, just the number of Refinement Realm experts he could sense exceeded 5,000 already. This was even more exaggerated than the situation in Red Obsidian City’s Teleportation Hall.
In addition, the total number of Flowing Water Realm experts and Void Realm experts in the Teleportation Hall easily exceeded 100. Since when did experts of such caliber become so common?
It should be known that Hundred Flow City was only a small city compared to the other NPC Cities in the Miniature Ancient World. Yet, the quality of its player population right now was superior to even Holy Cities.
What the masked man found most unbelievable was that these experts originating from various powers were all eagerly initiating conversations with players wearing the Asura Mercenary Alliance’s Bronze Emblem. Meanwhile, every one of these experts sought to either befriend or form teams with these Bronze members of Asura…