Ding!
A dazzling silver dagger was blocked by Ye Kong's long sword!
At the same time, a youth revealed himself—
"Oh crap!"
The young Assassin-class player, smilingtwinblades, muttered to himself in dismay, "How did he know I was here?!"
Whoosh!
The momentum had now shifted in Ye Kong's favor, and he moved to counterattack, slashing his sword with ease, as the Assassin went pale with fright—
"What the h*ll!"
The youth had a very good idea of the horrific damage this freak in front of him could deal!
Even the Yokai Legion Guild's powerful tank, the Sentinel - goldenpomelo, wouldn't be able to hold off this opponent's offensive, so how could a Dexterity-type Assassin like himself hope to fend him off?
Whoosh!
The Sword of Thorns cut into the Assassin's body—
Poof!
The youth's body burst into a cloud of smoke, and in the next moment, it turned into a wooden pile!
Ye Kong was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly reacted to the situation—
"The Body Replacement Technique?!"
The Body Replacement Technique was the Assassin's life-saving skill. However, acquiring this skill was extremely difficult, especially in the early stages of the game, when the first instance dungeon hadn't even opened yet. This skill was as valuable as his Interrupt skill!
The most critical aspect of this skill was that upon the successful activation of the Body Replacement Technique, the Assassin automatically entered into a Stealth state. When that happened, ordinary players would find it very difficult to track down the Assassin.
"Stealth state?"
Ye Kong swept his gaze across his surroundings, and his lips curled into a cold sneer—
"At your standard, can it even be called 'Stealth'?"
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Ye Kong rushed forward, raising his sword to stab what seemed to be empty space—
Ding!
A youth wielding a dagger, a horrified expression on his face, was revealed, and right after the moment of impact, a number popped out of his head—
-23!
Even though he blocked the sword, the youth still received damage, which just went to show how terrifying Ye Kong's attacks were!
"What kind of freak is he?!"
Smilingtwinblades felt like he was about to have a mental breakdown. "He's just a lowly Swordsman. How did he see through my Stealth? And he has such a fearsome damage output!"
As a closed beta tester, he had crossed swords with a fair number of Swordsman players. However, he had never felt such a daunting pressure from any of them!
Since the fight started, the Swordsman had controlled the entire flow of the battle, and smilingtwinblades couldn't even see a glimmer of hope that he could win!
"I'm retreating!"
Smilingtwinblades made a snap judgment. A stream of light flashed across his body, and in the very next moment, he had rocketed off and away, as he became even faster!
It was the Assassin Skill - Shadowstep!
This was an escape skill that could be used in combat, giving the Assassin a dramatic movement speed increase. In terms of pure burst acceleration capabilities, it was even better than the Ranger's Windwalk skill!
Swish!
Smilingtwinblades had beat a swift retreat. At the same time, relief washed over him—
"It doesn't matter. The other guild members in the area are on their way here. Once all our strength is assembled...
"This lacuna is going to pay with his life, for sure!
"I'm going to make him drop all his premium-quality equipment!!!"
A greedy look crossed smilingtwinblades' face as he watched Ye Kong's back in the distance. Then, he watched as Ye Kong turned around, flashing him a contemptuous smile—
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, Ye Kong had vanished from sight. Smilingtwinblades immediately felt a chill run down his spine, and he instinctively raised his dagger.
Bang!
The two players swept across each other.
"This... this is..."
Smiling's eyes widened in disbelief, and his face filled with horror—
"A movement skill?!"
Bang!
Smiling's body burst into sparkling dust.
At this point, three of the Yokai Legion Guild's elite players had been sent packing back to Qingmu Town by Ye Kong.
"That should do it. Time to pick up my spoils of war."
Ye Kong put away the Sword of Thorns and inspected the items that were dropped on the ground—
A stack of Gray Wolf Fangs, a chunk of Frost-patterned Iron Ore, and a set of Black Iron quality level three shoes.
The first two items were regular materials that could be farmed in the Eastern Plains. To gather iron ore, players needed to pick up the Gatherer subclass and put in some effort. However, Frost-patterned Iron Ore was the most commonly found material, and wasn't worth much.
The last item was a pair of Black Iron shoes, and the equipment was restricted to Dexterity-type classes. Unfortunately, Ye Kong already had a pair of Platinum Grade shoes equipped, so he didn't need this equipment.
"Bah, bunch of poor wretches..."
Ye Kong shook his head in disgust and, as if he were picking up rubbish from the ground, put his spoils into his bag.
If other players saw this scene, they would be spitting blood in indignation.
It was important to note that regular players were still struggling to get their hands on "White Equipment." Most guild players were only in full White Gear, and even if they owned just a couple of pieces of Black Iron Equipment, they were considered one of the guild's elites.
Even so, the Black Iron Gear that guild players treasured was indeed "rubbish" to someone like Ye Kong...
Simply because Ye Kong's equipment was far too "extravagant"—
He not only had the full three pieces of the City Guard Set, but his weapon and shoes were even of Platinum Grade quality, giving him character attributes that would crush any normal player. Plus, with his top-tier skills, he was basically an unstoppable killing machine!
Under normal circumstances, it was beyond expectation for a Swordsman to deal 15 points of damage to Sentinel with a clean hit to the body!
Ye Kong's strikes dealt double that damage!
In Demon Realm's Character Overview Window, the values listed for Attack and other attributes were just there to give players an "idea" of what they had, and weren't quantified values. To give an example—
With 10 points of Attack, a hit on a mob with four points of Defense would deal 3-4 points of damage.
With 20 points of Attack, a hit on a mob with four points of Defense would instead deal 19-23 points of damage.
For this reason, when it came to a player's attributes and Attack, every single additional point mattered. Like in the above example, even if the difference in Attack was only 10 points, the results were like night and day.
"Equipment quality" and "class advancement" were the main things that caused a gap between players' attributes.
Due to this tangible mechanism in the game design...
In the world of Demon Realm, there was an enormous gap between players at the top and everyone below them.
This was especially prominent in the later parts of the game, where a top-tier player could easily take on a regular party by himself without any trouble whatsoever.
If a group of top-tier players came together to form a party, they could eliminate an army of lesser elite players!
For this reason, it wasn't too challenging for Ye Kong to take out three of the guild's elite players.
"It's about time. The others should be arriving here soon..."
Thinking for a moment, Ye Kong took out the Black Iron shoes from his backpack and tossed them next to a large tree.
"With this, my set-up is complete."
Then, Ye Kong bent down in a crouch, and sprang up into the air in a sudden burst—
Bang!
Ye Kong grabbed onto the cracks in the tree trunk, using his hands and feet to climb up into the canopy of the large tree. Activating Aura Suppression, he stayed there motionless, blending into his surroundings perfectly.
He had a Climbing Ability +4 bonus from the Twilight Shoes, and his Strength stat wasn't low (the Strength attribute affected climbing, swimming, and other physical actions), so it wasn't a big deal for him to climb up to the top of a tree.
Then, Ye Kong bided his time, taking the opportunity to also recover his Soul Essence.
Soul Essence was a system in Demon Realm that had replaced the traditional concept of Mana. Some skills, such as Ground Slam and Cleave, required players to spend a fixed amount of Soul Essence to cast them.
In the previous battle, Ye Kong had spent three Soul Essence in total. Thanks to the bonus he got from his equipment, his Maximum Soul Essence was four. Otherwise, no matter how good his technique was, it was useless if he couldn't activate his skills
Presently, Ye Kong also had the help of the Emblem of Potential, so his Soul Essence recovery time had been shortened to less than three minutes.
Not long after, his Soul Essence had been restored to full.
Note: Soul Essence recovery always restores Soul Essence to its maximum amount. The recovery time for Soul Essence is calculated from the first instance Soul Essence is spent.
At this time...
Suddenly, there was a movement in the undergrowth ahead of him.
Rustle, rustle...
The very next moment, a large group of players emerged collectively from the brush.