Chapter 1968 – Divine Runic Armor

System: You have triggered the new expansion pack “Primordial Heart.”

Star-Moon Kingdom Region System Announcement: Players have triggered the new expansion, “Primordial Heart.” The Primordial Heart will descend in the Witch's Hill in three hours. Please prepare.

The system announcement echoed in every player's mind throughout Star-Moon Kingdom. When it finally ended, players fell into heated discussions over the new expansion.

“What's this Primordial Heart thing?”

“Has some major event occurred in the Witch's Hill?”

“This new expansion pack will definitely be a huge opportunity. I wonder how Witch's Hill will change this time?”

“I knew I should've gone to the Witch's Hill to develop.”

Star-Moon Kingdom's players s.h.i.+fted their focus to the Witch's Hill the moment the system announced the new expansion pack. Previously, due to the map's strange phenomenon increasing monsters' strength and reducing players' combat power, only strong independent players had ventured to the Witch's Hill to level and grind. With the addition of the various large Guilds' compet.i.tion over the region's resources, it had become nearly impossible for ordinary players to get a share of the area's benefits. Hence, the Witch's Hill's hadn't been very popular among independent players. Only the various large Guilds and adventurer teams still vied for the land.

Naturally, the kingdom's independent players weren't the only ones paying close attention to this new expansion. The various major powers in the Witch's Hill had launched fervent investigations to learn what changes this expansion pack would bring to the region.

“So, this is the Primordial Heart's activation condition?” Surprise flashed in s.h.i.+ Feng's eyes as he read the system notification.

The Primordial Heart expansion pack had appeared during his previous life as well, but it hadn't activated until long after the Otherworld Gate had been discovered. Now that he had triggered the expansion pack so early, s.h.i.+ Feng did not know how to feel about it

In the past, the Witch's Hill's Otherworld Gate had been discovered far too late. A large number of players had already reached Tier 3, and as a result, the Otherworld Gate had only been considered a good area to grind for unique materials and for independent players to level up. It hadn't been a particularly valuable map.

While it was true that the new expansion pack was an opportunity, the Primordial Heart expansion had hardly been any help to players in the past

When s.h.i.+ Feng had sealed the Otherworld Gate, it had caused the Primordial Heart's descent, increasing the Primordial Gas in the Witch's Hill. The gas, in turn, increased the strength of the region's monsters and decreased players' combat power. Even the monsters' levels had increased considerably, though the level cap was still Level 70.

As for the monsters that had come through the Otherworld Gate, not only were they quite powerful, but their bodies also contained dense Primordial Gas. When these monsters were killed, they had a certain drop-rate for Primordial Crystal Fragments, crystalized Primordial Gas that contained intense, turbulent energy. One could synthesize these fragments into Primordial Crystals, which contained even denser energy.

The Primordial Crystal was one of the best materials for nurturing living Mounts, even more effective than Energy Essence that dropped from the Eclipse Gate's monsters. After all, all sorts of monsters had ruled over G.o.d's Domain during the ancient area, and they had become so powerful due to Primordial Gas.

However, the Primordial Crystals had a drawback. Although they were far more efficient than Energy Essence when nurturing Mounts, they could only increase a Mount's rank to Bronze rank.

Hence, players in s.h.i.+ Feng's previous life had considered the Primordial Heart expansion pack useless. The majority of large Guild members had already nurtured their Guild Mounts to Bronze rank by the time the expansion had taken effect, and ordinary players hadn't usually had Mounts that were capable of growth. Only Guild players that intended to replace their Guild Mounts had any use for the Primordial Crystals.

However, the Primordial Crystals were far more valuable to current large Guilds. G.o.d's Domain's Guilds had only started to acquire Stables and grow their Guild Mounts. If they could upgrade their members' Mounts to Bronze rank with the Primordial Crystals, they could significantly help their Guilds' development.

Mounts could provide some a.s.sistance in battle once they reached Bronze rank, and they were considerably faster than Common Mounts.

However, while the Primordial Heart expansion pack would benefit the various large Guilds, it also came with plenty of trouble.

Activating the Primordial Heart expansion pack would double the number of monsters in the Witch's Hill and increase the number of Field Bosses in the area by several-fold. Moreover, the Field Bosses' raid difficulty would increase, making survival far more difficult in the Witch's Hill for current players.

In addition, the monster sieges would occur far more frequently. Originally, Guild Towns and Cities' chances of being besieged by monsters had only been 10% to 20%. However, once the Primordial Heart expansion took effect, those chances would increase to 20% to 35%.

As s.h.i.+ Feng pondered about how to deal with the Primordial Heart's descent, the Jealous Witch, who still hovered in the air, began to reclaim her youth.

In a matter of seconds, the old, hunchbacked lady transformed into a charming, middle-aged woman with fair, supple skin. Her black robe also transformed into a pitch-black, sleeveless dress. She now wore a black mage hat, as well, and her wooden staff had become one made of black jade. As she hovered, she radiated an indescribable charm that drew others' gaze.

“Excellent. Young adventurer, you have helped me seal the Otherworld Gate in time and avoided catastrophe for Star-Moon Kingdom. You have also helped lighten the curse I bear. Take this magic array design as a token of my grat.i.tude,” the Jealous Witch addressed s.h.i.+ Feng. “This should've been the end of your job here, but sealing the Otherworld Gate had made the Witch's Hill unstable. I now need your help to collect 100,000 Primordial Crystals.

“If you collect the necessary Primordial Crystals successfully, I will give you this forging design I acquired from an ancient ruin after much difficulty!”

Saying so, the Jealous Witch waved a hand, and a tome of dragonskin parchment appeared in her grip. The Dragon Might the tome radiated was so powerful that s.h.i.+ Feng even struggled to move. When he saw the large words on the cover, his eyes widened in shock.

The Divine Runic Armor Design!

That was an Epic Forging Design!

However, unlike ordinary Epic Equipment, the Divine Runic Armor was standard equipment, created during ancient times. It was similar to the standardized equipment design he had acquired from t.i.tan City.

Although the Divine Runic Armor was standard equipment, it was still Epic Equipment, on a completely different level than Dark-Gold Equipment.