Chapter 981: Eleven Divine-Tier Pieces
Ethan stood shirtless in front of his inventory screen, staring at the rainbow-colored equipment displayed inside it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t calm down.
Before logging out, he’d specifically instructed his Avatar to upgrade every piece of equipment to Dark Gold-tier. The materials available at the time had only been enough for that level of enhancement. So why had everything become Divine-tier? The rainbow glow was unmistakable. It was the signature effect of Divine-tier equipment.
He immediately opened the stats and checked every piece one by one. Without exception, every item had reached Divine-tier.
The numbers were absurd. Completely absurd. Even Ethan, who had seen plenty of powerful gear by now, felt his scalp tingle as he looked through the attributes.
"Did the system bug out? Where the hell did all the materials come from?"
Then he remembered something. Before logging off, he’d asked the Mad Engineer to help collect materials. Those materials hadn’t even been delivered to him yet. After thinking it through for a moment, he arrived at the only explanation that made sense.
Morzan. It had to be Morzan. The materials his Avatar had been carrying before, the ones supposedly enough for Dark Gold upgrades, had most likely been gathered by Morzan as well. That would explain everything.
Ethan quickly checked his Avatar’s inventory. As expected, it was nearly empty. Apparently, crafting a full Divine-tier set had consumed almost everything. Still, he couldn’t help wondering, ’Would I log in one day and discover the entire set had somehow been completed while I wasn’t looking?’ Just imagining it made his heart race.
Without hesitation, he equipped one of the pieces. The moment it settled onto his character—
WOOM.
A powerful surge swept through his body. Ethan froze, his eyes widening slightly. This feeling was completely different from anything he’d experienced before. Why was equipping gear inside the game affecting his real body?
Frowning, he equipped the rest of the set. One piece after another. When everything was finally equipped, he immediately logged out.
Back inside the VR capsule, Ethan slowly raised his hand and clenched his fist.
Pop.
A dull sound echoed from his palm as an overwhelming sense of strength flowed through his muscles. He stared at his hand. "This feeling..." The increase was almost greater than the boost he’d received after reaching Divine-rank. For a brief moment, a violent impulse rose inside him. He wanted to find the nearest battlefield connected to the Fifth Universe and wipe out everything in sight.
Fortunately, reason returned before he acted on the thought. He lay quietly inside the capsule for several minutes, forcing himself to calm down. The Divine Realm wasn’t going to be a playground. He had no idea where his current strength stood compared to the experts there. ’What if I enter thinking I was powerful, only to discover I’m nothing more than a common soldier?’
That kind of arrogance would get him killed.
Still, one thing was becoming increasingly clear. If equipment inside the game could strengthen his body in reality, then a completed Divine-tier set would probably provide an even greater boost. And then there was the Twilight War Spear. His strongest weapon. A Legendary-tier weapon. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t summon it in-game. It looked like he’d have to wait until Moonbeam woke up before figuring that out. But if Divine-tier armor could increase his real-world strength this much, then equipping the Twilight War Spear would probably push him even further.
After gathering his thoughts, Ethan logged back into Ethereal. The first thing he did was send his Avatar out to continue mining. After that, he opened his mailbox. Several messages from Trusty007 were waiting for him. One contained more than 220,000 gold coins. Another contained over 30,000. The attached notes explained that the money represented Ethan’s share of recent investment profits. Clearly, Trusty007’s financial operation was already in full swing.
At this point, Trusty007 controlled roughly eighty percent of the guild alliance’s shares, more than all the other members combined. The remaining dozen or so shareholders split the last twenty percent among themselves. Of that eighty percent, seventy belonged to Ethan. Trusty007 kept ten percent for himself. Even so, he remained the alliance’s second-largest beneficiary.
His control over such a large amount of stock gave him enormous influence. If he ever withdrew his investment and walked away, the entire structure would collapse overnight. That was why he worked so hard. Every coin he earned ultimately made its way into Ethan’s pocket. Because Trusty007 knew better than anyone that if Ethan suddenly demanded his capital back, everything he’d built would come crashing down.
After collecting the gold, Ethan headed straight for the auction house. Low-grade ores. Rare metals. High-end crafting materials. He bought everything he could find. When he finally finished, he stepped back onto the street and headed toward All-You-Need Engineering.
This time, unlike before, he wasn’t walking around shirtless. He was fully equipped. Eleven Divine-tier pieces covered his body, each radiating rainbow-colored light. As he crossed the busiest square in the city, countless players stopped in their tracks. Some stared. Some pointed. Others rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren’t imagining things. Ethan enjoyed every second of it.
Then, with a casual wave of his hand, he revealed his hidden character name.
[NotADruid.]
The nine letters appeared above his head. The crowd instantly fell silent.
Until now, everyone had been trying to guess the identity of the player wearing a complete Divine-tier set. A full Divine-tier set wasn’t just one lucky item. It meant every single equipped piece had reached Divine-tier. Earlier that day, players had been obsessively refreshing the equipment rankings after eleven Divine-tier items suddenly appeared on the leaderboard at the same time. The owner’s name had been hidden. No one knew who it was. The only thing people knew was that all eleven pieces had appeared in the Northern Frontier Region. The mystery had spread across forums, guild chats, and regional channels. ’Who is this monster?’ No one had an answer.
The face was unfamiliar. The player wore the Renegade Alliance insignia, but most people had seen the alliance’s major figures at least once, either in person or through videos. This wasn’t any of them.
Then the name appeared. NotADruid. For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Finally, someone broke the silence. "Never heard of him. But with a full Divine-tier set, he’s basically finished gearing up. All that’s left is upgrading everything."
"If I had a full Divine-tier set, I’d sell it. I’d be rich for life. I’d buy a whole carton of eggs and not even care if some went bad."
"Can you stop embarrassing yourself?"
"What?"
"Calling you clueless would be polite. You seriously don’t know who the Druid God is? Why are you even playing Ethereal? What are you doing in the Northern Frontier Region?"
"Druid God? Never heard of him."
Most of the surrounding players immediately went quiet. Several people stared at the speaker as though he’d just admitted he didn’t know what game he was playing. A few stubborn players continued arguing. The people around them slowly stepped away. Not because they were afraid. They just didn’t want to be associated with them.
Before long, the arguments died down. Even the loudest players began remembering the countless stories, videos, and records connected to that famous nickname. An awkward silence settled over the square. Everyone’s eyes turned toward Ethan. By then, however, he was already gone.
Without paying any attention to the commotion behind him, Ethan walked through the entrance of All-You-Need Engineering and disappeared inside.