Chapter 241 – Buried History

Nie Yan flipped to the fourth page of the book, while wondering what sort of materials were used to create such durable pages. The page densely packed with ancient characters from the Era of Shared Governance was detailed to a rarely seen degree. It contained techniques which allowed a player to advance to a Great Thief and Shadow Dancer, practice exercises to hone those techniques, methods to sharpen the player’s awareness as a Thief, and so on. A person in possession of this information could increase their combat strength by at least several fold. Many things on this page couldn’t found in the videos of his past life. There were even some techniques that he had never seen Sun or Shadow Killer employ.

This was the most comprehensive guide on how to become a Great Thief and Shadow Dancer!

With this guide, there was no longer a need for a person to go about blindly figuring out things for themselves. There were over a hundred techniques altogether, including those Nie Yan was familiar with like the beginner, middle, and advanced footwork of Shadow Dance and Dance of Death. Just mastering two or three of them would allow you to roam around unimpeded, while mastering five or six would allow you to look down on the world from high atop the peak.

Nie Yan had no intention of learning all of these techniques. Just having five or six of them handy was enough. Besides, some of the things described in this guide were simply too difficult to pull off.

The fifth page contained long forgotten secrets such as the whereabouts of Sage Grant’s equipment set or the origins of the Somodo Greatsword. There were also mentions of the Water of Life and Sacred Potions.

There was information on every mythical item that ever appeared in the history of the Atlanta continent.

After skimming through, Nie Yan flipped to the next page.

On the sixth page was a mystical star design with an enchanting glow. As soon as Nie Yan set his eyes on the page, the start flashed with a dazzling radiance, and a projection of the star appeared in his mind. A flood of information related to past eras surged into his head, catching him off-guard.

He could only passively accept all of this knowledge. Only after a while did he finally finish absorbing all of it.

You have received All Knowing.

You have received the ‘Grand Scholar’ title.

A skill and a title…? Nie Yan quickly looked at his skill window, and noticed that a new passive skill was added—All Knowing. As he read through the description, he discovered that this passive came with a host of benefits. The first was a 200% boost to his Intelligence; it was unfortunate that he was a Thief and not a Mage, so this was not as useful to him. The second benefit was that he directly learned the languages of the elves, beastmen, and any other race that belonged to the Righteous Faction of Order. Finally, it granted him the supplementary ability to divine the future of the game world once every ten days, such as major changes in an empire or or historical events yet to occur. As for the Grand Scholar title, it raised his Influence in all nations by 50, allowed him the use of any transfer point free of charge, and enjoy the protection of any guard within a 50-meter radius while in a town or city. He was also given the privilege of riding a mount inside a city, and he even held the authority to order the guards to punish any NPC below the rank of viscount!

Any NPC or player with the rank of baron or lower would have to maintain a deferential attitude in front of Nie Yan. If such a person insulted his honour, depending on the severity of the offense and how much Influence the offender held, they could be jailed for anywhere between one to five days! This punishment was especially severe for a player. During this time, they wouldn’t be able to level at all! All they could do was helplessly pass the time in a jail cell!

This was the power of the Grand Scholar title, possessing supreme authority!

From now on, Nie Yan was privileged nobility. The benefits of most titles only had effect in a specific city or nation. However, Grand Scholar was different; its benefits would alway apply whether he was in the Viridian Empire or Satreen Empire.

Even the chief administrators, who held immense authority in their respective cities, didn’t easily dare to offend a person with the title of Scholar. It was because such a figure had the ability to divine the future!

Nie Yan’s lips curved into a sinister grin when he read through the part about being able to throw those who offended him in jail. A devious plot began forming in his mind. So long as he wasn’t the first one to throw out insults, he would be able to watch a good show if he could bait Heaven Breaker into cursing at him.

It was a pity that this trick would only work once. However, Nie Yan felt that was enough. The resulting psychological blow from such a public humiliation would have a far greater effect than the actual punishment itself.

Any Grand Scholar whose divinations aided the Viridian and Satreen Empires in averting heavy losses in several major battles against the forces seeking to plunge the world into darkness would receive the title of Augur!

Flipping to the seventh page, Nie Yan saw an illustration of a gallant stallion clad in thick, metal barding framed by a magic runic circle. It was a spell which allowed the player to summon this warhorse as a mount.

Nie Yan couldn’t help but be shocked. It was a Faulkner Warhorse, named after the Faulkner Prairies from which they originated. These horses were known as the royal steed, and were as fast as the wind with a movement speed bonus of 300%. In the previous timeline, even the cheapest horse sold for the sky-high price of 50 gold, to say nothing of a luxurious mount like the Faulkner Warhorse, which was exclusively available only to those of extremely high status. Faulkners raised in the royal stables sold for more than 50,000 gold. However, gold alone was not enough to purchase one of these mounts. There was an additional requirement, which was that the buyer needed to either possess at minimum the rank of a marquis or have at least 50 influence in Calore!

Meeting any of these two requirements was as difficult as scaling the tallest peaks. Even the leaders of the major guilds in the previous timeline could only look on with envy at such an expensive mount.

Nie Yan wanted to see what this Faulkner Warhorse was like after summoning it, but this wasn’t the appropriate place.

After looking through the seventh page, Nie Yan realized there was still one more page left.

When he flipped to the eight page, it blossomed out with a brilliant radiance.

Within the light, Nie Yan saw a massive army in an ancient battlefield, countless majestic towers, and demons and angels battling in the sky above… Scene after scene flashed past his eyes, as though he was warped back in time to experience these distant eras firsthand. The very history of the world was recounted to him in great detail. A desolate bleakness…

Everything he witnessed had long since disappeared due to the merciless passage of time.

Announcement: Volume I of the Book of Order has been opened. A hallowed radiance illuminates the world. The Buried History expansion will be released!

Announcement: The game will go down in one hour to undergo patching. Please be advised that all players must log off before then.

Below the announcements was a detailed introduction on the Era of Shared Governance. This was the ushering in of a new era. The Viridian and Satreen Empires would allow the unrestricted sale of land-based mounts to players. The knights of both empires rejoiced in triumph as they expelled the creatures of evil.

Following the release of the expansion, several changes would be implemented into the game to give newcomers a chance to catch up. The experience required to level up at lower levels would be dramatically reduced. The drop rate of in-game currency, along with both low-level skill books and equipment ranked Gold and Dark Gold, would be increased. There would also be the successive releases of basic strongholds, with five appearing in the first batch, all of which were guarded by evil creatures. Ownership of these strongholds would be given to whoever cleared them. Aside from this, places like the Elemental Hall and Holy Shrine would allow advanced magic to be learned without going through any tedious prequests, and the difficulty of the associated trials would be reduced, though only slightly. At the same time, a slew of quest lines related to the Buried History expansion, which ranged from Level 60–120, would become available. Even though the speed of levelling was increased, it would still be a long time before anyone could start them.

Nie Yan never expected flipping to the eighth page would trigger the release of the Buried History expansion. He was endlessly vexed. Yet another major deviation in the timeline had occurred! If he had known this would happen earlier, he would have never looked at the last page! That way future events would still be a bit easier to predict! Although he believed the early release Buried History Expansion was inevitable after he completed Volume I of the Book of Order, he never thought it would happen like this!

The simple action of flipping a page had influenced the course of the entire game!

A huge uproar occurred in the outside world.

“What the hell? Which guy opened the first volume of the book of something?”

“Who knows.”

“I heard levelling is going to become a bit easier after the release of the expansion. I wonder if that’s really true.”

The sudden release of an expansion caught the players off-guard. They were discussing fervently, trying to guess the identity of the person who triggered this. All the teams that were about to run a dungeon had no choice but to turn back, while those already in the middle of a run sped up their pace, though an hour’s time was plenty enough.

Every major city and town was crowded with players. Everyone was talking about the shocking announcements. Since people learned that levelling would become much easier after the release of the expansion, no one was out levelling right now, instead taking the time to relax and stroll around.

「Nie Yan, were those announcements triggered by you?」Guo Huai asked. He knew Nie Yan was in possession of some of the chapters from the Book of Order, but he wasn’t too clear on the details

「Yeah, it was me. When everyone gets back online tomorrow, I want you to quickly gather six hundred of the top players in the guild,」Nie Yan said. Since the the release of the expansion couldn’t be stopped, he might as well take advantage of the opportunity to seize some benefits; otherwise, it would be too much of a loss.

「Alright, that won’t be a problem,」Guo Huai replied. He understood that Nie Yan probably wanted to do something important.

「Also, I want you to find Heaven Breaker’s location for me. Is he in Calore right now? If so, immediately report it to me!」Nie Yan said. He was about to carry out his devious plan. Knowing Heaven Breaker’s fiery temper, it would be a piece of cake. As for Nightbreak Trickster, from what he understood of this person’s personality in the previous timeline, it wouldn’t be so easy to dupe him.

「Why are you looking for him?」Guo Huai asked in shock. There was nothing that could be done to Heaven Breaker in the city. Could it be that Nie Yan was planning to negotiate with him?

「I’m going to make him fall flat on his face. Watch carefully.」Nie Yan chuckled. The expansion was a rare opportunity for rapid growth. Especially considering that the stronghold battle between Holy Empire and Radiant Sacred Flame was going to start in a few days, if he could get Heaven Breaker locked up in jail during that time, it would greatly improve their chances of victory.

「Alright, I’ll immediately find out, then report back to you,」Guo Huai said. Even though he had no idea what Nie Yan was planning, he knew that Heaven Breaker was probably going to suffer sorely just based on how mysterious Nie Yan was acting. He knew Nie Yan was a person who wouldn’t do something unless it was guaranteed to succeed. He couldn’t help but get somewhat excited. Heaven Breaker was most likely going to walk right into whatever trap Nie Yan had set for him.

Before long, Guo Huai reported back to Nie Yan. Heaven Breaker was currently at the main auction house in the heart of Calore with a group of people.

「Shadow Killer is with him too!」Guo Huai said. He was quite alarmed when he heard this piece of information.

Nie Yan narrowed his eyes before letting out a light laugh.「That’s not a problem. There’s no harm in having an extra audience member to enjoy the show.」

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