Kalis took three steps at once, lunging straight for that single item glowing with scarlet light, the Mythic-rank gear, and bent down to pick it up.
[Crimson Might Circlet · Mythic]
Level Requirement: None
Class Requirement: Cleric, Mage
HP +2500
Physical Defense +100
Vitality +50
Unique Effect [Crimson Vitality]: Automatically restores 50 HP per second
Unique Effect [Crimson Barrier]: Automatically gains one Blood Shield every 300 seconds, stackable up to 3 layers. Each Blood Shield can block one attack, with a maximum trigger rate of once per second.
It was actually a Mythic-rank circlet with no level restriction!
The base bonuses to HP and Physical Defense were quite impressive, far outstripping the Epic-rank circlet he'd been wearing earlier. The 50 HP per second passive regeneration was practically like having a Cleric constantly healing him on standby.
But the most game-breaking feature of all was the stackable Crimson Barrier effect—it was exactly the legendary Holy Shield ability!
"I finally have a Holy Shield of my own!" Kalis couldn't contain the ecstasy surging in his chest.
Ever since he'd seen Lilith's Holy Shield ignore attacks completely, he'd coveted this kind of power endlessly. Now, his wish had finally come true.
After studying the gear's effects, he fully grasped the Holy Shield's trigger mechanism: even with three stacked shields, it couldn't completely ignore damage.
If he took multiple hits within a single second, the shields would be broken one by one—after all, it could only activate once per second at most.
He wasted no time equipping this Mythic circlet, swapping out his old Epic one. Combined with the stat boosts from the new gear and the potential points he'd just earned, his HP skyrocketed to 12,958 instantly, and his Physical Defense even surpassed his Magic Defense, hitting 198 points.
Of course, in terms of practicality, these bonuses still paled in comparison to his Crystal Barricade shield.
The ground was littered with a huge pile of gold coins. Besides, the bosses had died in scattered locations, so Kalis and Lia split up to collect the loot, then gathered to count it up. To their surprise, they'd raked in a whopping 930,000 gold coins in total.
Compared to the haul from killing Zerakel, though, this was somewhat lackluster.
This 180-level Legendary Warmaster, plus his twelve Epic Battlelords underlings—all their loot combined was actually worth less than Zerakel alone. The only upside was that they'd dropped more Epic-rank gear.
The reason for this was simple enough when he thought about it: Zerakel had been the lord of a whole city, sitting on a massive fortune. Mior and his men, however, were nothing more than soldiers of the Abyss, with no real opportunities to amass wealth of their own.
Besides the gear and gold coins, the ground was also scattered with all sorts of miscellaneous items like scrolls and potions.
Kalis bent over to pick them up for a while, only to find that his inventory was completely full in the end. He had to dump all items below Blue rank on Lia in one go, keeping only the Epic-rank gear and above, along with some high-value skill books for himself.
"We came here specifically to find the Divine Dew Spring, but who knew we'd end up with this much loot instead. Thank you so much, Kalis!"
Lia stared at the pile of items in her hands, her eyes crinkling into happy crescent moons. She'd already promised not to take a single coin of the loot.
Now, just selling these "scraps" that Kalis had "discarded" back in the main city would easily net her tens of thousands of gold coins, a pretty fortune by any standard!
After all, before she'd met Kalis, her entire life savings had amounted to no more than two thousand gold coins.
But since Dafiona had set them up as a party, her luck had completely turned around: first, she'd tagged along with Kalis to squeeze a huge sum of money out of Denise, and now, venturing into the Abyssal Realm, she'd witnessed unimaginable wealth firsthand—nearly two million gold coins, over a dozen Legend-rank items, dozens of Epic-rank items, plus a ton of rare scrolls, potions and skill books.
The total value of all this loot, converted into real-world currency, was enough to reach the tens of millions!
For Lia, who came from an ordinary family, this was nothing short of an astronomical figure. And this was only just the beginning.
Kalis picked out a few pieces of Epic-rank Cleric gear with good stats from the loot and held them out to Lia. "Here, these should be useful for you. Consider it a thank-you gift for saving my skin with Purification earlier."
These pieces of gear had decent stats, but unfortunately, their level requirements were too high for either of them to use at the moment. As for the gear Lenore needed, he certainly hadn't forgotten about it—his inventory still held several high-quality Legend-rank items for her.
The gear he gave Lia accounted for no more than one percent of the total loot.
But for Lia, it was an absolute dream come true.
"I-I can't possibly accept this!" Lia was completely stunned, her face filled with disbelief. Even if she'd been raiding top-tier bosses with a big team, she would never have had the chance to get her hands on such top-tier gear. Yet here Kalis was, just handing it to her casually.
She collected herself and quickly waved her hands to refuse. "No, I really can't take this. I barely lifted a finger during this trip to the Abyss. I don't deserve such valuable items!"
"Take them. It's nothing." Kalis waved a hand dismissively, not caring in the slightest. "We haven't even caught a whiff of the Divine Dew Spring yet, let alone fought any Mythic-rank bosses. There'll be plenty more loot in the future."
Ever since he'd gotten his hands on the Guild Residence Token, he'd become much more laid-back about valuable items in the game.
Naturally, he'd be over the moon if he found an Artifact that suited him perfectly. But these pieces of gear, which he had no use for himself, were nothing more than collection items gathering dust in his inventory.
He didn't mind sharing them with his teammates at all. Besides, he'd still taken the lion's share of the loot this time around—what he'd given Lia was just the tip of the iceberg.
He had his own calculations: Lia was an extremely powerful support at this stage of the game. She could not only provide buffs, but also dispel controls and grant the Berserk state at critical moments. Her role would be irreplaceable when they faced higher-difficulty bosses later on.
If her gear was too poor and she got one-shotted, no matter how high his damage output was, he'd still end up getting locked down and killed by the boss's combo attacks. And if he really did die and get sent back to the city, it would be tomorrow before he could return to the Abyssal Realm again.
These pieces of gear were essentially an advance payment for her "services".
"W-Well, if you insist! Thank you so much!" Lia stopped refusing, carefully taking the gear with a face full of gratitude. "Hey! Kalis, don't run so fast! Wait for me!"
The two of them raced forward, one in front of the other, along the wide main street toward the city gates.
This small Abyssal city was called Zerakel's Hold. It was unclear whether the city had been named after its lord or the lord after the city.
It was worth mentioning that the system map function was severely restricted in the Abyssal Realm. Players couldn't open the world map to view it freely—only by physically visiting a location would the corresponding area name unlock on the map.
The Abyssal monsters of Zerakel's Hold had already been completely cowed by Kalis's terrifying power, locking themselves indoors and not daring to show their faces. The roadsides were deathly quiet; not a single patrolling monster could be seen.
Kalis also had no interest in hunting down weak mobs for EXP. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, heading straight for the city gates.
Zerakel's Hold was built against the mountainside, with the city gates located right at the foot of a mountain with an unobstructed view.
Taking advantage of the eerie red light from the blood moon to look far into the distance, he saw a vast, boundless plain stretching out below the mountain.
The plain was planted with many strange crops unique to the Abyss, looking like a twisted sea of black farmland as far as the eye could see.
Further away, between the mountain ranges, there stood many more hilltop fortresses with a similar style to Zerakel's Hold, varying in size. Most of them were even smaller than Zerakel's Hold, with only a few being of comparable scale.
But atop a towering mountain peak thirty kilometers away, there stood a massive fortress that dwarfed Zerakel's Hold completely. It was grand and imposing in scale—not as big as a Level 3 main city, but far larger than a Level 4 city.
"That must be General Klim's stronghold. Let's go check it out." Kalis quickly analyzed the terrain, pointing at that massive fortress and saying.
It was quite a long distance to cover, and running all the way there would take a lot of time.
The two of them raced along the mountain path without stopping. The fog of war on the map kept clearing away as they went, gradually unlocking new areas.
Just then, Lia suddenly stopped in her tracks, pointing at a distant mountain peak with a confused look on her face. "Kalis, look! Why does that castle over there look so much like a human city?"
Kalis followed the direction of her finger and looked over—and he was just as surprised as her.
It was a luxurious castle standing atop a mountain peak. Its architectural style was completely different from the dark, rugged aesthetic of the Abyss.
Instead, it was full of the elegance and refinement of surface-dwelling human civilization. On the castle walls, quite a few Abyssal monster soldiers could be vaguely seen patrolling and keeping watch.
And above the castle, a flag embroidered with a bright red rose pattern was fluttering proudly in the night wind, standing out vividly against the dark sky.
"A rose... a castle..."
Kalis's mind instantly flashed back to the snippets of conversation he'd overheard from the Abyssal monsters earlier. A thought suddenly popped into his head, and he couldn't help muttering to himself in a low voice: "That castle... could it be Princess Lilith's palace?"