Chapter 239: Heading to Stele Spring

“Stone, join the squad,” Blaze called out.

Almost immediately a system notification appeared in front of Marcus.

Ding!

[Player Blaze has invited you to join the ’Mad Lion’ Mercenary Group. Do you accept?]

“Accept,” Marcus said without hesitation.

A moment later a faint shimmer rippled across his shoulder, forming the emblem of a crimson lion’s head.

His bros had never cared much for the bureaucracy that came with running a full guild, but Mercenary Groups were different. They were simpler, practical, and perfect for staying connected without the burden of managing hundreds of players. More importantly, many high-tier mercenary contracts could only be accepted by registered groups. If you wanted the best missions, you needed one.

Marcus opened the group interface.

—

Mad Lion Mercenary Group

Level: 2 (11% to next level)

Leader: Blaze

Vice Leaders: Thunderstorm, Stonehaven

Members: DragonBlade, Cleaver, Fate’s Trial, Drunkard, Gloomy Arrow, Invincible Strong, Path to Heaven, Raven

—

Marcus noticed immediately that Blaze had promoted him to Vice Leader the moment he joined. The position granted permission to recruit members, remove inactive players, and accept mercenary contracts on behalf of the group. Administrative authority had never really interested Marcus, but one name on the list did catch his eye.

Raven.

Marcus felt a faint, uncomfortable twitch in his chest. There was no doubt it was Thunderstorm’s sister. Thankfully, she was currently offline. Otherwise the reunion might have become a lot more awkward than he wanted to deal with right now.

“Stone, my Reputation is only fifteen hundred,” Blaze said after a moment, eyeing Marcus’s equipment thoughtfully. “That means the group cap is fifteen members. With your level and gear, I’m guessing your Reputation is a lot higher. Maybe you should take over as Leader.”

In Dominion, any player above level twenty with at least five hundred Reputation could establish a Mercenary Group by paying fifty thousand gold.

Unlike guilds, however, Mercenary Groups weren’t built around wealth.

Their size was determined entirely by the leader’s Reputation, calculated at one member slot for every ten points. If your reputation was two thousand, you could support two hundred members. No amount of money could bypass that restriction. The system was designed to reflect the leader’s prestige and the quality of their connections rather than sheer financial power.

Leadership slots worked similarly. A group with less than ten thousand Reputation could only appoint two Vice Leaders. Every additional ten thousand Reputation unlocked another slot. Once those roles were assigned, they couldn’t be changed for a full week.

Mercenary Groups also capped out at level ten, and the only way to raise that level was by completing contracts.

“Keep the title, Boss Blaze,” Marcus said with a faint smile. “If I take over, this group won’t know a moment’s peace.”

He wasn’t exaggerating.

If he became leader, Lily and his sister would want to join sooner or later. And once they did, Jade and Chloe would inevitably follow. The group chat alone would turn into a battlefield.

“Stone, what level are you anyway?” Gloomy Arrow asked suddenly, studying Marcus’s armor more carefully. “I swear I’ve seen that gear somewhere before.”

“Now that you mention it…” Invincible Strong added, rubbing his chin. “Yesterday there was a post about some Knight walking around the city with two beautiful girls. The armor looked suspiciously similar to yours.”

He turned toward Path to Heaven.

“You catch anything about that on the forums?”

“Yeah,” Path to Heaven replied with a small nod. “Stone’s equipment matches a couple of the biggest discussion threads right now. Last night someone uploaded a video of a Knight riding the Violet Thunderwing Steed with a girl sitting in front of him. The footage was blurry and only showed his back, but the gear looks identical.”

“Violet Thunderwing Steed!” Strong nearly choked. “Stone, that was you?”

Marcus only responded with a mysterious smile, but Path to Heaven continued before anyone else could speak.

“There’s more,” he said calmly. “Another thread claims a mysterious Knight on a Nightmare Dragon Steed appeared on the third floor of Black Rock Spire. It’s the top-ranked mount in the entire game right now. The guy was wearing a rabbit mask, so nobody saw his face. Apparently his arrival distracted everyone long enough for the Violet Thunder Guild to kill the boss Werewolf Cabaro and grab a Guild Creation Token. Later someone spotted the same Knight at the Dragon’s Peak teleport hub… again with two girls.”

Path to Heaven’s eyes narrowed as he examined Marcus more carefully.

“The rider on the Nightmare Dragon Steed was wearing a rabbit mask. Stone… was that you?”

“A rabbit mask!” Drunkard burst out laughing. “Stone, you absolute legend. I’m never leaving your side again.”

He lunged forward, arms open for a hug, but Marcus stepped aside at the last second and let him stumble past.

“It was him,” DragonBlade confirmed with an amused chuckle, clearly enjoying the group’s reactions. “Drunkard and I saw him earlier today. He still had the mask on.”

“I knew it!” Strong shouted. “I saw you at the teleport hub! Stone, quit hiding things. Show us your gear. How many Golden pieces are you running?”

With every pair of eyes in the room fixed on him, Marcus finally stopped suppressing the visual effects of his equipment.

He opened his character panel and released the concealment.

Light exploded outward instantly.

Golden brilliance from high-tier equipment mixed with the blood-red glow of Artifacts, the deep obsidian aura of Mythic items, the regal violet sheen of Divine gear, and the eerie gray mist of Demonic relics. The overlapping lights wrapped around Marcus like an armor of radiance.

For a moment he looked less like a player and more like a walking battlefield deity.

“Shit… you’re a monster,” Drunkard murmured weakly.

“Unbelievable,” Gloomy Arrow said under his breath, his usual composure completely gone. “Every single piece is Golden-tier or higher…”

Then he squinted.

“Wait. Is that ring… Blue-tier?”

“Stone, what the hell is your secret?” Cleaver demanded, his hand twitching as if instinctively reaching for a weapon. “Start talking or we’re taking you down right here. I swear I’ll mince you into fish food myself. And tell me you’ve got a good blade somewhere.”

“I’m honestly hurt,” Strong added, though his grin ruined the act. “You’ve been playing all this time and didn’t tell us? I’m officially boycotting you on behalf of the squad.”

“Confess everything!” DragonBlade joined in. “Or face the consequences!”

Within seconds the shop dissolved into a storm of laughter and shouting.

Marcus didn’t keep them guessing for long. He gave them a condensed version of everything that had happened since he entered Dominion.

By the time he finished, several of them looked like they had been hit by lightning.

Not only was Marcus the mysterious “Top Player” everyone had been discussing, he also held the number one positions on the Reputation ranking, the Pet ranking, and the Mount ranking.

“You’re the worst, Stone,” Drunkard groaned dramatically. “We invited you to that UK trip and you skipped it just to secretly grind Dominion? Now look at us. Thunderstorm’s our highest level and he’s only twenty-five. You owe us big time.”

“He’s right,” Strong declared. “Compensation!”

“Compensation!” Gloomy Arrow echoed.

Drunkard rubbed his chin thoughtfully before his eyes suddenly lit up.

“Fine,” he said. “Next time we meet in the real world, Stone is paying for dinner at the most expensive steakhouse in the city. And we’re ordering the best wine on the menu.”

“Lame,” Strong scoffed. “No imagination. But I’ll take the steak.”

Marcus laughed, feeling lighter than he had in months.

“Deal. Next time it’s on me.”

A year ago his life had fallen apart.

He had lost Snow. His ties with Andrew and the others had shattered. The IronWing Guild had dissolved, and he had vanished from the gaming world entirely.

Back then he hadn’t told his friends the full truth about the ten million dollars he owed. They were all still young, none of them had even started their careers yet, and Marcus couldn’t bring himself to ask them to beg their families for that kind of money.

Thunderstorm probably could have covered the entire amount himself, but because of Raven, Marcus had never even considered asking.

In the end it had been Snow’s father who helped him find a way out. Otherwise he might have had no choice but to turn to them.

When his friends eventually learned part of the story after the breakup, they had been furious. Drunkard and Strong had actually tracked him down and punched him, not out of anger but because they felt hurt that he hadn’t trusted them enough to ask for help.

But by then everything had already fallen apart.

Marcus had spent the last year working quietly and trying to move forward. Gaming held no appeal anymore.

That changed three months ago when his boss fired him without warning. Instead of searching for another miserable job, Marcus noticed the beta announcement for Dominion and decided, almost on impulse, to give gaming one last chance.

Even then he had avoided everyone he knew. He feared running into Andrew. Feared confronting the past. So he changed his appearance and played alone.

But fate had a strange way of closing circles. No matter how far you ran, some storms eventually caught up to you.

And through Lily’s quiet care over the past few months, the old Marcus had slowly begun to return.

His bros, meanwhile, had spent the summer traveling through the UK. Marcus had been invited along, and Lily and his sister would have gone too if he had accepted. Instead he made an excuse to stay behind, partly to avoid Raven.

They had stayed in London for nearly a month. By the time they returned home, Dominion had already been live for two weeks, which explained why their levels lagged behind.

With their skill, they easily could have dominated the early rankings.

Still, Marcus knew them well enough to understand one thing. It wouldn’t take long before they fought their way back to the top.

“Fate, you lucky bastard,” Drunkard complained suddenly, staring enviously at Marcus’s Violet Thunderwing Steed. “With Stone helping you, that Wraith-Bird quest is basically done. You’re going to leave me in the dust.”

“With Stone here, the quest is guaranteed,” Fate replied calmly, though there was an unmistakable spark of excitement in his voice. “If we relied on you, the quest items would probably rot before we finished.”

“Alright,” Blaze said, glancing at the time. “With Stone’s mount, that Wraith-Bird isn’t escaping this time. We don’t need to recruit outside help anymore.”

He raised his hand, as his voice rang through the shop.

“Gear up. We move out in ten minutes. Destination: Stele Spring. Let’s hunt.”

Originally Blaze had planned to have Path to Heaven recruit several high-level archers and mages to help with the mission, but Marcus’s arrival made that unnecessary.

Marcus used the time to restock supplies. His expedition through the Mist Veil Palace had drained his inventory, especially with Lyanna’s Wyvern Flame Spear consuming more than a hundred Large Health Potions. Thankfully the Ring of Greed expanded his inventory capacity fivefold. Without it, he would have run out of space long ago.

Ten minutes later the group gathered outside the northern gate of Dragon’s Peak Citadel.

Each of them mounted up on Flame Chargers, the highest-tier horses currently available from NPC vendors. When Blaze activated the Mercenary System, the red lion emblems on their shoulders glowed faintly.

“Let’s go!” they shouted together.

Spurs dug into saddles and the horses burst forward in a thundering gallop, a streak of crimson riders racing toward Stele Spring.

Passersby stopped to stare.

“Wait… they all have Flame Chargers?” someone whispered in disbelief. “What kind of rich kid squad is that? That’s an insane amount of gold.”

Marcus’s own Flame Charger was the one SoulSync had given him after they defeated the Leopard Jackal King. For now it served as the perfect disguise.

The Mercenary System functioned somewhat like a traditional party, but it was far more advanced. A normal party could only hold ten players, but a Mercenary Group allowed all members to share experience across the entire formation, and at a slightly higher rate.

The only restriction was that once the Mercenary System was active, members couldn’t join separate parties at the same time.

For coordinated groups like theirs, it was the perfect tool.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep