[Ding! You have entered the hidden map: Level 72 Nightmare Town!]
As the system notification fell, Lin Mo and Ning Xi were teleported into a small town filled with darkness and the aura of death.
Looking around, the town was completely run-down and desolate.
It looked as though it had been abandoned for a very long time.
Just as Lin Mo and Ning Xi were wondering where exactly the fragment of the Ghost Clan's ancient demonic artifact, the Eye of Chaos, was hidden in the town and how they were supposed to find it, suddenly...
Whoosh!
A beam of fire descended in front of Lin Mo.
Something seemed to be engulfed within the burning flames.
Sensing something, Lin Mo instinctively reached into the fire and grabbed the object inside.
The next second...
[Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained the Ghost Clan's ancient demonic artifact: Eye of Chaos Fragment (I)!]
Lin Mo was completely baffled.
Just as he was shocked by how easily he had obtained the fragment, another notification appeared.
[Ding! Player, please note: The clearing mission has begun. Eliminate all monsters in Nightmare Town. Until every monster in Nightmare Town has been cleared, the Eye of Chaos Fragment cannot be taken out of Nightmare Town.]
Lin Mo understood, "I knew it couldn't be that easy."
"So it gives you hope first, then drops the real challenge."
At that moment, Lin Mo looked at the blood-red eyeball fragment glowing in his hand, which he had taken from the flames.
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Eye of Chaos (Fragment I)
Description: The Ghost Clan's ancient demonic artifact, lost during the Ancient War fought by all the Supreme Races of Divine Oracle a thousand years ago. Legend says that whoever obtains the Eye of Chaos can become the Emperor of the Ghost Domain, with all ghosts submitting before them! This is only one fragment of the Eye of Chaos. All seven fragments must be collected to form the complete Eye of Chaos...
Note: This Eye of Chaos Fragment has been sealed within Nightmare Town for a thousand years and has long been claimed by the Dream Demons. Anyone who obtains this fragment will be hunted by the Dream Demons of Nightmare Town. The player must eliminate every Dream Demon in Nightmare Town before the fragment can be taken outside...
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Reading the fragment's description, Lin Mo thought to himself, "So there are seven fragments in total. That means the Ghost Domain Conqueror class advancement quest has seven stages altogether."
This was only the first stage.
It was easy to imagine the road to this class advancement would be a long one.
But when he thought about the overwhelming power of an SSS-rank hidden class, it felt worth it no matter how difficult the road ahead was.
As soon as Lin Mo obtained the fragment, humanoid monsters with flayed, blood-covered bodies began appearing from every street in the town, Level 72 Dream Demons.
They were the same level as the Dream Spirits outside in the Forsaken Land.
But through his SSS-rank Eye of Insight, Lin Mo discovered that the Dream Demons' stats were even higher.
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Dream Demon (Magic · Normal Monster)
Level: 72
Magic Attack: 39,480
Physical Defense: 21,000
Magic Defense: 21,700
HP: 680,400
Skills: Demon Slash (C-rank), Blood Slash (C-rank)
Weakness: After a thousand years of corruption from the Eye of Chaos Fragment, the Dream Demons are flawless and have no weaknesses...
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It was obvious.
"The Dream Spirits had about a thirty percent attribute boost."
"These Dream Demons have a forty percent boost, ten percent higher than the Dream Spirits."
Ning Xi said playfully, "Could it be because the Dream Demons in Nightmare Town are closer to the Eye of Chaos Fragment, so they've had more time to soak it in?"
"Looks like the purer the Ghost Clan bloodline, the greater the boost from the Eye of Chaos."
Lin Mo said, "If it were a true Ghost Clan member, even the lowest-ranked Ghost Beast would definitely receive a boost greater than forty percent from the Eye of Chaos."
"And Ghost Soldiers, Ghost Generals, and Ghost Kings would receive even stronger enhancements."
What shocked Lin Mo the most was, this was only a single fragment of the Eye of Chaos.
If it were the complete ancient demonic artifact, the boost it granted to Ghost Clan members was simply unimaginable.
"No wonder it's called the Ghost Clan's ancient demonic artifact, and why the legends say that whoever obtains the Eye of Chaos can become the Monarch of the Ghost Domain," Lin Mo exclaimed.
His desire to collect all the fragments, complete the Eye of Chaos, and become the Emperor of the Ghost Domain reached its peak.
He immediately locked onto a Dream Demon ahead and attacked.
Since the Dream Demons were stronger than the Dream Spirits, they were naturally harder to kill.
With Thunder Myriad Strikes and Siya's two SSS-rank buffs active, Lin Mo had previously been able to reliably kill a Dream Spirit with one SSS-rank single-target skill and one basic attack.
Against a Dream Demon, however, he needed one SSS-rank skill plus two basic attacks to finish it off.
At the same time, Ning Xi's side also became noticeably more difficult.
Even with tenfold casting speed, and her tenfold damage boost, two S-rank skills still weren't enough to kill a Dream Demon. Ah Li had to finish it off before it died.
The Dream Demons in Nightmare Town respawned continuously.
There was no way to quickly clear the map using SSS-rank magic scrolls.
They could only kill them one by one.
Lin Mo could check the monster-clearing progress for Nightmare Town at any time.
Each Dream Demon they killed increased the progress bar by 0.1%.
The progress... was painfully slow.
Lin Mo and Ning Xi gritted their teeth and kept fighting until seven in the evening.
After working the entire afternoon, they finally filled the progress bar.
BOOM!
As Ning Xi used an S-rank Dragon Command Technique together with Lin Mo to finish off another Dream Demon, the clearing progress bar before Lin Mo's eyes finally jumped from 99.9% to 100%.
At that moment, a pleasant system notification rang out beside his ears.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have completed the Nightmare Town clearing mission and obtained Eye of Chaos Fragment (I)! The first stage of the SSS-rank hidden class Ghost Emperor advancement quest, Ghost Domain Conqueror, has been completed!]
[Ding! Stage Two of the Ghost Domain Conqueror class advancement quest has been activated.]
At the same time, another pleasant notification sounded for both Lin Mo and Ning Xi.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have completed the hidden map Nightmare Town challenge and received the hidden map completion reward (Personal): EXP +500,000,000, Reputation +2,000!]
[Ding! Consumed 192,356 Reputation. Congratulations! Your SSS-rank talent Supreme Sovereign has triggered its tenfold reward multiplier, granting a tenfold shared team reward. Gold +10,000! Level 70 Tier 5 Equipment (Guaranteed Purple or above) ×10! S-rank Magic Scroll ×10!]
Hidden maps really were worth it.
It also made up for the fact that Lin Mo's Ghost Domain Conqueror class advancement quest only awarded its final rewards after completing every stage, with no rewards for the individual stages themselves.
After all, if even the first stage involved a hidden map, the later stages were bound to be anything but ordinary.
At the very least, the locations for each stage wouldn't be inferior to Nightmare Town.
That alone was something to look forward to.
At this moment, Lin Mo checked his status panel.
After spending the whole afternoon killing Dream Demons, he had reached Level 69.
With the generous EXP reward from clearing Nightmare Town, he had now reached Level 69, 81%.
Ning Xi's level had remained in step with his.
Since Lin Mo was about to reach Level 70, it also meant Ning Xi was only one step away from Level 70 as well.
And sure enough, Ning Xi had already reached Level 69, 78%.
Once she reached Level 70 and equipped the full Tier 6 gold-grade Yama Set, she was about to undergo another earth-shaking leap in strength.