Chapter 668: Just How Strong Are Soulfire’s Elites?

Faced with the astonishment of Soulfire’s two guild leaders and Lydia’s barely concealed curiosity, Marcus could only smile and prepare to cast his support skills.

Among support classes, knights ranked just below clerics. Cleric buffs were powerful, but most of them were single-target abilities, which meant clerics were rarely idle in battle. They were constantly refreshing buffs, healing injured teammates, and keeping everyone alive one person at a time. Knights were different. Their greatest strength was that their support skills could affect the entire party at once.

That was why knights were considered the backbone of a party and so often ended up serving as its leaders. The moment a knight activated their support skills, swoosh, the entire party was strengthened. Then the knight could charge straight into the front line, relying on their enormous defense to hold the enemy back.

Marcus quickly checked his skills. His support abilities were completely different from SoulfireBlade’s and those of the other two knights, so there was no concern about overlapping effects. With that in mind, he began casting them one after another.

"Knight’s Prayer!"

A golden radiance descended over the entire party. Everyone immediately felt a warm, powerful sensation spread through their bodies as their maximum health increased by 30%, their health recovery rate increased by 150, and all elemental resistances rose by 10%.

"Peach Blossom Dance!"

A swirl of peach blossoms suddenly bloomed around them, filling the air with a faint, pleasant fragrance. Everyone’s evasion increased by 25%, movement speed increased by 2, and resistance to all debuffs increased by 15%.

"Red Locust Light!"

A soft pink radiance enveloped the party, causing their health and mana recovery speeds to increase by 100.

"Thousand-Year Red Locust Essence!"

A strange red, cloud-like spirit appeared beside Marcus. It drifted lazily through the air before circling around the party, while a red halo appeared beneath Marcus and every member of the group. Their health and mana recovery speeds increased by another 200.

By now, SoulfireBlade, SoulSync, and Lydia were staring at Marcus in open disbelief. Even the others were visibly stunned. These were support skills they had never encountered before, and each one was remarkably powerful.

Knight’s Prayer was particularly impressive. A 30% increase to everyone’s health was no small matter. The party’s HP had jumped immediately, giving the frontline knights a much larger margin for error. SoulSync and Lydia both felt the difference, while the two mages and even SoulfireLeopard, the archer, suddenly had far more confidence in their ability to survive.

They could take a hit now, could fight without constantly worrying about being one mistake away from death. This was ridiculously strong.

Seeing the expressions around him, Marcus actually felt a little awkward. He quickly cast his final support skill before everyone’s praise became even more embarrassing.

"Dreamlight!"

A unique wave of holy energy spread outward from Marcus, washing over the entire party. His own attack and defense increased by 10%, while the same bonuses were applied to everyone else.

As the numbers on their status panels climbed, SoulfireBlade could not help but speak.

"Stone, if I’d known you had support skills like these, I would’ve brought one less knight and one less cleric. We could’ve added another DPS warrior and a mage instead."

SoulSync immediately clapped Marcus on the shoulder, laughing as he said, "Stone, you’re a monster. Seriously, last time you led us against the Firewind Guild, I thought you were just tough. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. You’re not just tough, you’re a damn monster."

"Heh..." Marcus could only keep smiling. ’Who knew being the good guy was this exhausting?’

He had originally intended to keep a low profile and maintain a certain air of mystery, but there was no point hiding everything. In fact, showing some of his strength was better. If he deliberately held back too much, they might start wondering what he was hiding. By showing them a portion of what he could really do, they would naturally assume this was close to his full strength and that he was simply doing his best to help them.

More importantly, he did not want to come across as stingy or distrustful. He had willingly come here to help Soulfire, just as he had led them against Firewind the last time. There was no reason to suddenly act differently now.

’Play comfortably. Rely on your friends.’

As long as SoulfireBlade and SoulSync felt that having him along had made the quest considerably easier, they would naturally value him more. That was far more useful than trying to maintain some ridiculous image of an untouchable expert.

With SoulfireBlade, Marcus, and the other two knights leading the way, the group advanced into the tomb. SoulSync, Lydia, SoulfireLeopard, and the two mages followed behind them, while the two clerics brought up the rear. They passed through the entrance that SoulfireBlade had opened using the mechanism and officially entered Jasper’s Tomb.

But Marcus had barely taken a few steps before Lydia, that troublesome fox, began stirring things up again. She quietly moved up behind him, then looked at him with a pair of bright, almost starry eyes.

"Stone, why do you always keep your equipment glow turned off? Don’t tell me you’re actually carrying a whole set of Purple Divine equipment?"

Divine equipment? What a shameless way of fishing for information. Fortunately, Marcus had already thought about how to deal with her. Without changing his expression, he activated the glow of his Corpse Demon Dark Soul Sword and Corpse Demon Set, and a burst of yellow light immediately surrounded him. Golden equipment. He only left the glow visible for a moment before deactivating it again, then gave a small sigh.

"Nowhere close to that. It’s just Golden gear. I don’t really like leaving the glow turned on."

After the system update, the appearance of equipment had undergone a major change. Equipment of different grades now emitted different colored glows. Blue equipment emitted blue light, Golden equipment emitted yellow, Mythic Artifacts emitted black, Red Artifacts emitted red, Divine Artifacts emitted purple, and Demonic Artifacts emitted gray.

For example, Marcus’s Divine Artifact, the Blackflame Ice Flower Sword, had originally emitted both purple light from its grade and the blue elemental glow associated with its water element. After the update, the blue glow had been removed from its normal appearance, leaving only the purple light. Only when Marcus actually attacked with the sword would a burst of blue water-element energy flash within the purple radiance.

Equipment also changed visually as it was strengthened with Dreamland Gems. Take the Blackflame Ice Flower Sword as an example. At +5 or below, it would simply emit its normal purple glow. Once it was strengthened beyond +5 with Dreamland Gems, a rotating purple halo would appear within that glow. At +7, there would be two rotating halos. At +8, three. At +9, four.

The higher the enhancement level, the more dazzling the equipment became. The purple radiance grew brighter, and the rotating halos made it immediately obvious just how heavily a weapon had been enhanced. Experienced players could tell the strength of someone’s equipment with a single glance.

That was also why Marcus’s brief demonstration had revealed more than Lydia probably realized. His Corpse Demon Dark Soul Sword was +7, so when he activated its glow, three yellow halos had appeared around it. The Corpse Demon Armor, Helm, Gauntlets, and Greaves, however, did not have a single halo.

Lydia fell silent. Finally.

Marcus was not fooled, though. He could tell from those soft, seductive eyes that she was anything but satisfied. She was almost certainly already thinking about how to dig out more information from him later. He could only silently pray to the Goddess of Dreams. ’Please, just leave me alone, you fox of a woman.’

Marcus glanced toward the other eight Soulfire elites and could not help feeling a little impressed by their equipment. It was truly extravagant. Soulfire had probably gathered almost all of its best equipment and concentrated it on these eight people. Nearly every piece of gear they wore was Golden, and everyone possessed at least one black Mythic Artifact or red Red Artifact.

SoulfireBlade and SoulSync were even more outrageous. Each of them possessed more than two black Mythic Artifacts or red Red Artifacts. They were clearly equipped with the absolute best equipment Soulfire could provide. Their weapons were all +7 as well, each one glowing with two halos, while their armor pieces had been enhanced to +5.

Marcus had to admit that his own Corpse Demon Set, which had not yet been enhanced with Dreamland Gems, probably looked rather shabby in comparison. That was likely one reason he had felt the need to display so many of his support skills earlier. Still, there was an obvious reason Soulfire’s elites could be equipped so extravagantly, and that was the advantage of belonging to a major guild.

A lone player might be extremely strong, but they could rarely compete with the resources of an entire guild. Soulfire could gather its best equipment, distribute resources among its strongest members, and create a team whose combined strength was far beyond what an ordinary player could hope to achieve.

Marcus quietly activated Insight and checked SoulfireBlade’s status, wanting to see just how strong one of Soulfire’s top experts really was at full power, with all of Marcus’s support buffs active.

—

SoulfireBlade: Level 50. Class: Dark Knight. HP: 9,845. MP: 3,960. Defense: 5,358.

—

Looking at the numbers, Marcus fell into thought. With his support buffs active, SoulfireBlade’s current attributes were roughly equivalent to Marcus’s own unbuffed stats. In a straight duel, if five SoulfireBlades of this level joined forces, they might actually be able to defeat him.

That was without counting pets, of course. Once pets were included, the comparison changed completely. SoulfireBlade still had a long way to go before he could compete with Marcus at full strength.

Even so, Marcus had to admit that his advantage over powerful guild leaders was not as overwhelming as he had originally imagined. Forget fighting one against a hundred, forget even fighting one against dozens. Against five players on SoulfireBlade’s level, he might actually have a difficult time.

Marcus sighed inwardly. ’The gap isn’t as big as I thought. There are plenty of strong players out there.’

Of course, if he upgraded all of his equipment to +7 and fully brought out the effects of his gear, he could probably deal with ten SoulfireBlades at once. Looking at the eight elites in front of him, Marcus actually felt a faint itch to test his strength against them.

He checked the others one by one. To his surprise, SoulSync’s attack at full power was only about 1,000 points lower than Marcus’s current attack. The others were considerably weaker. Even if their current attributes were doubled, they probably still would not be able to defeat him.

Then Marcus reached Lydia, and he paused. The fox was actually about as strong as SoulSync. Two pieces of +7 Mythic Artifacts glowing with black light, combined with a complete set of +7 Golden equipment... So that was how it was.

Marcus suddenly remembered what had happened earlier. The moment SoulfireBlade had heard that Lydia was joining the quest, he had immediately added her to the party without the slightest hesitation. Marcus had initially assumed that Lydia’s combat strength was lacking and that she was mainly coming along because of her connections or other abilities. He had forgotten one very important fact.

Lydia owned the Willow Garden Gourmet House. She was rich. Very rich. With enough money, even an ordinary player could be equipped with extraordinary gear, let alone someone who was already strong to begin with.

Marcus’s thoughts immediately drifted to another person, that Merchant Alliance fellow, CryptoWarlord. If someone like Lydia could possess equipment of this level simply because she had enough wealth, then what kind of equipment would a player like CryptoWarlord have? And more importantly, just how high would his stats be?

Marcus’s expression became thoughtful. It seemed his advantage was not nearly as large as he had imagined.