Chapter 167 – World Magnifier
Even Zhou Ning, a veteran of countless battles, couldn't help but let out a sigh.
The first stage had been manageable thanks to the assistance of Jaina and Arthas. It was a normal-to-hard difficulty level, with the only real challenge being how to quickly take down Hogger and Kirtonos to keep Arthas alive. A few more attempts would likely be enough to figure it out.
But starting from the second stage, the difficulty spiked straight into hell mode. Ten waves of zombies attacked in relentless succession, leaving no time to breathe. On top of that, the insane clown's constant harassment and sneak attacks were absolutely shameless. Despite being a level 62 boss, its tactics were downright despicable. Zhou Ning hadn't even faced the clown head-on before the raid ended in failure. He suspected that even with Jaina and Arthas present, the clown would still have had another scheme up its sleeve.
Zhou Ning silently lit a candle for the players who'd be entering this dungeon in the future.
…
Though this run left him feeling a bit sickened, the rewards weren't bad. After grinding through mobs and completing three optional quests, he gained around 600,000 experience points. Even with players having massive experience-gaining potential, that was still a very impressive haul. His experience reserves jumped to 2.6 million—just 900,000 short of reaching the 3.5 million needed to max out his Wandering Gunslinger at level 30.
With one more day left, it shouldn't be too difficult to gather the rest. At that point, his combat power would definitely take a significant leap forward.
He'd also gotten two pieces of equipment and one engineering blueprint—while none of them had amazing stats, they were barely passable as supernatural-grade items. Zhou Ning glanced at the leather bracers in his hand and promptly set them to hidden.
Huh? Wait a minute!
Zhou Ning blinked and noticed a red notification dot had popped up on his quest tab. When he clicked it, he saw that the [History Enthusiast] quest he had picked up earlier had somehow been completed during the dungeon run.
This quest required collecting five supernatural items that were over a hundred years old. The [Bracer of Dark Will] he had just obtained, despite only being of rare quality, apparently qualified as an antique due to its age.
Adding in Frostmourne, which also had a long history, Zhou Ning had surprisingly fulfilled the quest requirements.
…
[History Enthusiast]: As a history enthusiast, you are deeply intrigued by forgotten pasts. Collect five or more supernatural items that are over 100 years old, from either the real or simulated world. (5/5) Completed!
He clicked to claim the quest reward, and a system message popped up:
[You have completed the hidden quest: (History Enthusiast) (Part I). Randomizing reward type…]
[Your reward this time is: Specialization Reward]
[Randomizing… Please choose one of the following three specializations as your reward.]
Zhou Ning clearly remembered the last time he got a randomized reward—it had given him the "Ordinary Office Worker" template. The initial excitement had turned into lasting disappointment.
But this time, things were finally turning around. Not only was it a specialization reward, one of the options was even an elite-level specialization!
Could it be his lucky day?
[Iron Will (Basic): Greatly increases your survivability. +25 Stamina, +500 bonus HP.]
[Keen Eye (Elite): You notice details most would miss. Your Identify and Perception skills receive a major boost.]
[Swift Runner: You're a speedster—your movement speed while running increases by 30%.]
After reading the options, Zhou Ning pulled a wry smile. He wasn't sure if his luck was good or bad. He'd finally rolled an elite specialization, only for it to be underwhelming. Keen Eye wasn't terrible, but once your Perception skill was high enough, it usually did the job just fine. As for Identify—that was a reward for promoting the Historian class to Advanced, which he hadn't even taken.
That left Iron Will and Swift Runner.
Was there really any choice to make here? Zhou Ning didn't hesitate: Iron Will.
[You have obtained the specialization: Iron Will!]
Zhou Ning glanced at his stats panel. The effects of this specialization were immediate—his margin for error in combat increased significantly.
After completing [History Enthusiast (Part I)], a hidden follow-up quest appeared. Zhou Ning accepted it, and the task entered its next phase.
Hidden Quest: (Can be triggered under special conditions)
[History Enthusiast]: As a history enthusiast, you are deeply intrigued by forgotten pasts. Collect nine or more supernatural items that are over 100 years old, from either the real or simulated world. (5/9)
Not bad at all—not too difficult either. Maybe, like this time, it'd get completed just by coasting through normal content.
After settling the quest rewards, Zhou Ning turned his attention to Little Deathwing. After running one dungeon, the little black dragon had leveled up from 1 to 2, grown a bit in size, and its attack power had increased from 23–59 to 35–72—a major improvement.
With that kind of monstrous growth rate, it was almost certain that this little black dragon would become explosively powerful in the future.
…
The next morning, Zhou Ning woke up around 8 a.m.
According to Edvin, the squad would likely depart for the Meteorological Tide tomorrow afternoon, which meant he had about a full day of free time.
"Even though I've temporarily left Darkland, why do I feel even busier than before?" Zhou Ning chuckled and shook his head. He opened the flap window of his tent to get a breath of fresh air, but the swirling snow and biting cold quickly made him shut it again.
He washed up with the fresh water stored in his tent, then took down the black trench coat and black silk top hat hanging beside his bed. Once dressed, he stepped outside.
Today, his first task was to craft the World Magnifier. Then he'd get back to business—serving as a skills mentor for the players.
The snow still hadn't stopped. In fact, it had mixed with heavy rain, turning the accumulated snow into slushy muck. A dozen shirtless cadets were out there energetically clearing the streets. Ah, to be young again. Zhou Ning, bundled up like a dumpling, couldn't help but sigh.
Under the falling snow, umbrella in hand, Zhou Ning followed the edge of the street to a shop in the town's northwest.
Though the town was small, it had all the basic amenities needed for a player starter zone. As an intermediate-tier blueprint, the World Magnifier didn't require any rare materials—just a large quantity of copper ingots, a few silver ingots, and some Shadow Obsidian.
In addition to gathering the necessary materials for the World Magnifier, Zhou Ning also bought supplies for crafting bullets. Since he wouldn't be returning to Darkland anytime soon and his stock of Flame Rounds was nearly depleted, he urgently needed to produce another batch.
Shadow Obsidian was a rare ore that appeared alongside copper deposits and was worth around 4 Roshens. It could be bought right in town. After making a full circuit to gather all the materials, Zhou Ning rented an engineering lab in the local workshop and eagerly got started.
Crafting bullets didn't take long, but the World Magnifier was a bit more troublesome.
His first attempt failed, but the second finally triggered a success message:
[You have crafted the rare item: World Magnifier. You gained 8,000 experience!]
[World Magnifier: Enlarges the entire world for 10 minutes or until you launch an attack against an enemy. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
[Usage Method: Fire it!]
The final product resembled a laser gun. Zhou Ning gave it a moment's thought, then pointed the gun at himself. A beam of light hit his chest.
When he opened his eyes again, the entire world had indeed grown larger. It was as if he had become Gulliver in the land of giants.
A workbench that had once been under a meter tall now looked like a skyscraper, and Zhou Ning felt like he'd shrunk to the size of a thumb-sized gnome.
That was the power of the World Magnifier—it shrunk him down, and from the perspective of a smaller self, the world naturally appeared magnified.
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