Chapter 238: Demons Are Full of Treasures!
Chapter 238: Demons Are Full of Treasures!
Sterl, sensing his avatar being blocked, remained completely unflustered.
Since the avatar inherited 25% of the power of his equipment, it casually used Star Insight to discover that the two waves of demons ahead and behind were merely of third-class strength. Although close to legendary, they were ultimately still a level below.
Thus, with his avatar's severely lacking output, he swiftly harnessed the power of starlight, transforming it into liquid and condensing it into a longsword, slashing out effortlessly!
Although it seemed like the two types of demons wanted to release skills to counterattack, the suppressive effect of the Law Power was too strong.
With a few casual swings from the avatar, the demons were left lifeless on the ground.
Meanwhile, Sterl noticed that streams of blood-colored energy were drifting from the demons' corpses toward a certain direction in the city.
He sensed that he could activate the Holy Stone of Blood to absorb this blood-colored energy, but Sterl decided against it after some thought.
Firstly, the Holy Stone of Blood wasn't part of the equipment, so the avatar didn't inherit it.
Secondly, even if Sterl's main body were here, he wouldn't absorb the blood-colored energy.
According to the intelligence from the King of the Principality of Florence, after demons die, their power converges.
Sterl estimated that these third-class peak demons, upon death, would have the chance to be forged into a legendary demon.
This would conveniently provide some trouble for those legendary players. While Sterl wanted to delay their investigation progress to ensure the Blood Sacrifice Swallowing God Array could be activated, he definitely wouldn't take action personally.
Having some strong enemies around would make things much easier.
Sterl still adhered to his old strategy.
He intended to reap the benefits of the grand array, but no one else should find out.
After contemplating for a few seconds, Sterl noticed spots of starlight flickering on the corpses of the demons in front of his avatar.
It took him a moment to react—
Wait! I'm fighting monsters, so they dropped loot!
Sterl casually picked up the resources, acquiring two pieces of third-class platinum-level equipment, though the equipment levels were 130 and 140. He suspected that by that time, he would have already prepared corresponding diamond-level gear for himself.
He tossed the equipment into his inventory and then discovered something rather peculiar.
[Anti-Element·Flame]+
[Description: In the world of hell, all rules, powers, and essences are in absolute opposition and contrast to those in various other worlds. Perhaps the heroes from otherworlds are the only ones capable of utilizing both positive and negative forces.]
[Effect: By integrating Anti-Element into flame-related skills, you can add a total damage increase attribute against main world units.]
Simultaneously, a prompt appeared before Sterl— [You have accessed information related to faction conflicts.]
[View? Yes/No]
"Yes," Sterl muttered, choosing to view "Faction Conflict" first.
Instantly, a flood of information surged into his mind.
[Player Sterl, you have unlocked Faction Conflict.]
[Currently discovered factions: Main World Faction, Hell Faction.]
[Current conflict mode: Opposites Clash.]
[Opposites Clash: Players born in the Main World or Hell World are naturally in a red-name state with each other. Killing an opposing player will drop their rarest equipment, with a small chance of dropping their highest-quality skill (including Platinum, Iridescent, Pure skills), and yield a significant amount of faction tokens.]
[The faction shop you have currently unlocked is: Main World Faction Shop.]
"No way, there are players in Hell too?" Sterl was momentarily stunned but quickly accepted this setup.
After all, in the various large-scale online games he had played before transmigrating, such faction conflicts were quite common.
It would be stranger if [Transcendence] didn't have this feature.
However...
"Sub-Professions and Faction Wars both require such high levels to unlock. Isn't that a bit too demanding?"
"Only those at the peak of third class, nearing legendary status, can access this content."
Sterl grumbled to himself.
A thought suddenly sprang to his mind, a hypothesis: if this game followed the patterns of MMOs from his previous life—
Unlocking various systems at such high levels implied that the real game content of [Transcendence] was just beginning at this point.
In many MMOs, reaching the top level and unlocking all systems marked the start of the core gameplay...
"If various systems still aren't fully unlocked, could it be that in [Transcendence], being a legend, demigod, or even a god is just the starting point of the game?" Sterl couldn't help but wonder...
He quickly dismissed these far-off thoughts and turned his attention back to the material dropped by the demon.
"Anti-Element..."
"This thing should be quite valuable," Sterl analyzed, unable to resist the urge to hunt more demons.
Adding unconditional damage boosts to skills, and enhancing total damage after all other modifiers, was an incredibly powerful effect!
While it seemed to only target enemies from the main world, that scope was broad enough.
Even for Sterl, maxing out his various damage-dealing skills would be a significant upgrade.
"These aren't just demons! They're walking treasures."
Sterl's eyes lit up.
Immediately, his Bionic Tear began to move swiftly, aiming to ensure that the demons in the city wouldn't be claimed by other players.
...
Soon, with the help of Star Insight, Bionic Tear quickly locked onto a legendary demon.
This terrifying behemoth, accompanied by eerie flames, gradually took shape. It had the head of a goat, hooves of a horse, and a body wrapped in bulging muscles.
Strapped to its back was a massive axe, with the midsection of the axe head resembling the grotesque brain matter of various creatures.
Surrounding it were three legendary players, who eyed the demon warily.
"I've scouted it out, all these demons follow a mini-boss template."
"Their health and attributes are slightly weaker than actual bosses, but they are still much stronger than elite monsters. Do the three of us take it on?"
They waited for the demon to fully materialize, nervously discussing their strategy.
Even though players from the Hall of Valor were geniuses, they weren't reckless enough to challenge a boss-level creature of the same tier with just three people.
However, they were well aware of the value of these demons from the start. The fact that these demons were slightly weaker than full bosses made the trio eager to give it a try.
At that moment, as the Goat-Headed Demon was in the midst of its resurrection, it hadn't managed to make any moves yet.
One player swiftly threw out six radiant golden chains, binding the demon tightly. The glowing white runes on the chains caused the demon to scream in agony.
The other two players also went all out!
One player charged forward, swinging a longsword with his entire body enveloped in a ghostly green aura. The terrifying momentum even knocked down several surrounding streets, with many NPC civilians caught in the chaos, wailing as they fell.
Evidently, this was a legendary ability!
The other player stood still, with a highly restrained aura, holding a longbow. Arrows made purely of energy slowly formed in his grasp.
Through Bionic Tear's vision, Sterl could easily sense that all the elemental forces in the surrounding area were being forcibly drawn in, converging at a single point.
The sharp air currents from this energy even ground the surrounding rubble and soil to dust.
This was the destructive power of a legendary level. The battle had only erupted for a few seconds, and despite the relatively restrained fighting style of the three players, they had already devastated a large portion of the district!
Then, the player wielding the longsword made a fierce slash, producing six extremely sharp sword auras.
The Goat-Headed Demon first tried to break free from the chains but failed, and then was continuously hit by the sword auras, resulting in horrific gashes all over its body!
Simultaneously, the ghostly green energy surged into its body, swiftly weakening it.
After the sword auras subsided, the legendary player who had charged forward found himself in a momentary period of weakness, needing to recover his strength.
Seizing the opportunity, a vicious gleam flashed in the Goat-Headed Demon's eyes.
It had spotted a chance to counterattack.
Blood-red power rapidly gathered on the Goat-Headed Demon's body, but before it could make a move, the player with the longbow completed his charge in an instant.
An arrow, like a point of light, condensed into a beam.
It pierced straight through!
The night sky of the Principality of Florence was lit up like daylight, akin to a lightning bolt tearing through the twilight.
The Goat-Headed Demon's chest and abdomen, seemingly its heart, were directly penetrated!
The arrow's trajectory carved a long tunnel through the air!
"So powerful?" Sterl muttered. In his previous battles against legendary-level enemies, he had relied on the brute force of Law Power or sheer output.
Watching the seamless coordination of the three players, he realized it wouldn't be easy for him to handle such a situation himself.
However...
Just as the three players began to show signs of joy, thinking they were about to defeat the demon, a shrill roar erupted!
The Goat-Headed Demon somehow triggered a surge of blood-red power from within!
The others might not have understood, but through the Bionic Tear, Sterl sensed it using the [Holy Stone of Blood] that it carried. This power was resonating with a strange region beneath the Principality of Florence!
Although the Bionic Tear didn't inherit equipment effects, Sterl had equipped it with the Holy Stone of Blood for convenience in investigating the city.
In that brief instant, Sterl used Star Insight (released by Bionic Tear; not described further) to discover a "Divine Guardian" buff appearing on the Goat-Headed Demon.
"This is..." Sterl didn't have time to think further.
The situation reversed in an instant.
Bang!
With a crisp sound, the Goat-Headed Demon broke free from the golden chains with a blood-curdling roar.
Blood-red shockwaves surrounded it, causing all three legendary players to be simultaneously stunned!
The Goat-Headed Demon grabbed the massive axe from its back and slightly charged its power.
Beep!
After a sharp, piercing sound, blood-red light gathered, forming a terrifying ghostly face that accompanied the descending axe blade with an eerie noise!
Boom!
The next second, the axe blade struck!
The Goat-Headed Demon's attack hit the nearest melee player, instantly shattering the ghostly green glow from his legendary ability!
The player was bisected at the waist in a gruesome instant!