“By the way, isn’t he still offering a bounty at the guild base?
He said that as long as someone can help him take down a base with over 2,000 NPC levels, he’ll pay a full million.
Does anyone have news?”
NPC levels are almost equivalent to the initial strength of a guild base.
The highest-tier bases can have 3,000 NPC levels, but there is only one in each world—meaning only nine exist in the entire game of YGGDRASIL, and they were all claimed long ago.
Normally, the top-tier bases naturally have 3,000 NPC levels, those with over 2,500 are considered top-tier, and those with over 2,000 are high-tier guild bases.
In the original story, the Ainz Ooal Gown guild’s initial NPC levels were 2,250, making it a standard high-tier guild base.
However, as a reward for being the first to clear a Lv 80 dungeon in one go, they not only obtained the World Item [Throne of Kings] but also an additional 500 NPC levels, thus making it a top-tier guild base.
Generally, guild bases are rewards given when guild members clear a dungeon for the first time.
Of course, if a guild’s members have already cleared it and the new base isn’t significantly different from their current one, they naturally wouldn’t need it.
In such cases, they usually sell the information.
To prevent others from getting there first, they typically don’t hold onto it for long and choose to sell it as quickly as possible.
YGGDRASIL has been operating for twelve years.
Although new dungeons were updated every year, in the late stages of the game, players generally possessed powerful classes and equipment, making exploration significantly easier than before.
In fact, the game’s popularity has dropped too much in the last two years; otherwise, it would be hard for high-level dungeons to still exist.
But rare doesn’t mean non-existent.
Furthermore, after the news of the server shutdown was released, some information that players were originally planning to sell ended up rotting in their hands.
As the only person willing to spend money on this, even though his condition was “acquisition” rather than just “information,” Makoto wasn’t worried about a lack of interest.
That’s how a buyer’s market works.
Because of this, several players had already contacted Makoto.
However, as he was busy leveling up alone yesterday and planning to select the most suitable one from the options, he hadn’t yet closed the [Base Search] bounty.
A few more hours passed.
Realizing that the improvement from solo grinding for exclusive experience points could no longer compare to being carried by others, he began to contact the “hired guns” he had arranged earlier.
A total of fifteen high-tier players were divided into three groups, taking turns leading Makoto through high-level dungeons.
After day and night of challenging high-experience dungeons and using the experience bonuses from cash-shop items, Makoto’s level reached Lv 92 with only twelve hours left before the server shutdown!
Even for a game where leveling was easier compared to typical DMMOs, reaching Lv 92 in such a short time was still incredibly unbelievable.
Looking back, the information his predecessor knew was a huge help.
If it weren’t for the first-clear rewards from those hidden dungeons that no one had entered yet, he wouldn’t have leveled up so quickly.
It was a pity.
To prevent leaks, the parts of the dungeons he designed that hadn’t been cleared yet were worth at most 1,850 NPC levels as bases.
When there are no better options, that’s naturally considered good, but when there is a choice, the higher the points, the better.
While picking up loot from the boss, Makoto sent a message to his temporary teammates:
[Good work everyone.
My level is sufficient now.
Except for Sophma-kun, everyone can go rest.
Don’t worry, wages will be paid for the full day.]
[If you need, you can give me the equipment, items, and materials you have.
I’ll give each of you an extra ten thousand, and send it along with the final payment later.]
[The boss is generous!]
[The boss is generous!]
[Boss, if there’s another chance like this, you must look for me!]
[…]
Makoto didn’t continue listening to them.
He had been playing the game for three consecutive days now.
Even though most of the time he was just running behind them and picking up equipment, he still felt an intense sense of fatigue.
His physical body was already in poor shape.
Even with high-quality potions to sustain him, the mental exhaustion kept Makoto in a state of trance for long periods.
“Phew—just hold on for the last twelve hours and it’ll be fine…”
Sophma was a holder of the World-Class [World Calamity].
Since he needed to hire players to help clear dungeons anyway, and holders of the [World Calamity] class were generally strong enough, it made perfect sense to simply seize (buy) the class qualification from him once he reached the required level.
There was no reason not to kill two birds with one stone.
After the others logged off, Sophma, stripped of his equipment, initiated a PK.
He then stood still as Makoto quickly emptied his health bar.
The number of [World Calamity] holders across the entire server was limited.
To become one, one had to PK the player currently holding the class to strip them of the qualification.
As Sophma turned into fragments, Makoto obtained [World Calamity] as he wished.
[Congratulations to player 亚蒙.尼古拉 for defeating Sophma.
It has been detected that player Sophma held the [World Calamity] class.
Player 亚蒙.尼古拉 has obtained the class [World Calamity] Lv 1.] This story is hosted at novelping.com.
“Good!
The class build is complete.
The remaining levels can be upgraded using Sinful Silver Coin after the crossover.
The remaining precious time can be used to acquire items and build the guild.”
“Gold coins, items, and even large Golems are already acquired.
What needs to be done first now is to obtain a guild base!”
Makoto had already established it two days ago.
The guild name would be [Black Cross].
The guild emblem’s main body was a Black Cross burning with flames, with a pair of pure white wings extending from behind the cross to encircle it.
Opening the forum and looking at the large amount of guild base information provided by players in the section, he quickly made a choice.
The Floating Archipelago [Novas Aethel], a dungeon consisting of seven floating islands connected by cloud bridges.
Each island had at least one very troublesome boss-level lord in addition to a large number of monsters.
Makoto remembered this base; it was designed by his colleague last month.
If he remembered correctly, the NPC levels were a full 2,450!
It was just a bit short of reaching the standard for a top-tier guild base!
Originally, a gold-farming guild with a high ranking had spent a lot of time discovering it, planning to sell it for a good price.
As it turned out, they heard the news of the game’s shutdown before they could find a buyer.
The guild leader was already prepared to accept his bad luck, but then a sucker appeared who was willing to spend a million to buy a base!
A full hundred thousand—although it was a bit less than the originally expected profit and they still had to put in the effort to help the other party clear it—it was still very lucky compared to losing everything.
Coincidentally, after thinking it couldn’t be sold, they had planned to let their own guild play around with it.
At most, they had already reduced the final boss’s health to below ten percent.
With a little more effort, they could clear it.
Bringing a few more cash-shop items would make clearing it absolutely no problem!
And wasn’t the other party planning to buy another round of game items in the evening?
Their guild just happened to have a whole pile of “treasures” they couldn’t sell.
If they treated the other party well during the dungeon run, since he was going to buy anyway, would he really not buy from them?
Regardless of how much they sold, it would still be a way to recoup some losses.
Therefore, the moment he received the message, the guild leader replied instantly—
[“We are professionals!
Guaranteed not to let you down!”]