Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 34: So low it was almost laughable

That’s exactly why he was competing with Seraphina for experience.

Sure, getting Seraphina to level 15 as soon as possible would bring huge benefits, but as the lord, leveling up quickly himself would also yield significant advantages.

Since he wasn’t willing to sacrifice either, he had to balance both—developing on two fronts.

But honestly, that wasn’t even the most insane part.

The real game-changer was that both Seraphina and Cicero, as Green Dragon heroes, could lead troops.

When a troop hero became a subordinate of a lord hero, they had two possible roles.

The first was as a combat hero under the lord’s command.

They could cast spells, equip strategic artifacts—essentially becoming an unstoppable "super soldier" at the same tier!

The second was as a free hero under the lord’s banner. Free heroes had the ability to command troops independently in battle! In other words, Seraphina and Cicero’s insane 40 to 50 attack and defense stats could be applied directly to their troops!

That was more than double the attack and defense bonuses Ethan could provide! Once their numbers grew, they’d be an absolute nightmare for the enemy.

"I’ve got two Tier 8 Crusaders here. Interested?" Ethan asked.

"Tier 8 Crusaders? Hell yes!" Doombringer nodded immediately. "Seven hundred thousand gold, how about that?"

"Deal."

With another massive transaction completed, Ethan’s gold reserves skyrocketed to 1.8 million!

Converted into Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knights, that was 22 of them!

But that still wasn’t enough.

Even with Seraphina leading them, 22 Silver Pegasus Knights might not be enough to take down that Unicorn Glade. And even if they could, he’d be broke.

No gold meant no way to recruit Tier 11 Unicorns!

Plus, attacking the Unicorn Glade would inevitably result in heavy troop losses. He’d be throwing everything in and still coming up short...

Thinking about this, Ethan narrowed his eyes and turned to Doombringer. "Let’s talk about a second deal... This one’s gonna be big."

Ethan smirked, his eyes gleaming as he looked at Doombringer and the others. "How much is Legion of Shadows selling Tier 7 Pegasus Knights for?"

The moment he said that, Doombringer, LoS_Marty, and LoS_Starlily all froze.

"Valkarion, you want to buy Tier 7 Pegasus Knights? Why?" LoS_Starlily looked completely baffled.

Hadn’t Ethan just sold off his Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knights and Tier 8 Crusaders?

Why was he suddenly buying Tier 7 Pegasus Knights now?

Everyone knew that in this game, having more of the same unit wasn’t necessarily better. Higher-tier units were always the priority!

A single Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knight was worth at least five times more than a Tier 7 Pegasus Knight—probably even more...

"Wait... You’re not..."

LoS_Marty suddenly shuddered, staring at Ethan in shock. "A strategic talent hero?!"

"What?!"

The moment those words left LoS_Marty’s mouth, Doombringer and LoS_Starlily’s expressions changed dramatically. They were completely stunned.

A strategic talent hero?

Someone who could upgrade Tier 7 Pegasus Knights into Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knights?

That had to be a joke, right?

How was that even possible?!

Ethan, on the other hand, simply glanced at LoS_Marty with mild surprise before speaking in a calm, almost indifferent tone. "Not bad, you figured it out. Guess that means the only question left is—are you selling or not?"

"You really have..." LoS_Marty’s eyes widened, his breathing quickened, and his face flushed with shock.

A hero with a strategic talent that could upgrade Tier 7 Pegasus Knights into Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knights—what kind of absurd ability was that?

An S-rank blue Rare hero?

Or maybe even SSS-rank?

Could it be... a purple Epic hero?!

Unbelievable!

And it wasn’t just him—Doombringer’s face had also changed drastically. He locked eyes with Ethan, his gaze flickering with intensity, his expression turning deadly serious.

After a long silence, he finally spoke. "Can you give us some time?"

"Thirty minutes. I’m on a schedule." Ethan replied flatly.

"Alright! Thirty minutes it is!"

Doombringer nodded quickly, then shot a look at LoS_Marty. The two of them immediately turned and walked off, leaving only LoS_Starlily standing there, looking completely lost and overwhelmed.

"Starlily, sit down. Why are you just standing there?" Ethan said casually.

At that moment, it felt like he was the one in control, not LoS_Marty and the others.

"Ah—oh, right!" LoS_Starlily snapped out of her daze, finally regaining her composure. She sat down, still looking at Ethan with a complicated expression. "Valkarion, you never cease to amaze me... A strategic talent hero who can upgrade Pegasus Knights into Silver Pegasus Knights? What kind of rank does that even require?"

"Honestly? Not that high. Just an S-rank blue Rare hero. Don’t tell me Legion of Shadows doesn’t have any?" Ethan smirked, his tone half-joking.

As far as he knew, among player-controlled heroes, no one had seen a purple Epic hero yet—except for himself.

But among NPC heroes and troop heroes recruited by players? There were definitely purple Epic heroes out there.

Especially for top-tier guilds like Legion of Shadows.

In fact, Ethan was almost certain that a powerhouse like Legion of Shadows had more than just one or two Epic heroes.

After all, they were a dominant force in North America.

Even on a global scale, the top ten guilds were major players.

A guild of that caliber? There was no way they didn’t have some seriously powerful trump cards.

"We do... but..." LoS_Starlily hesitated.

"But what?" Ethan asked, intrigued.

LoS_Starlily struggled internally for a moment before finally biting her lip and lowering her voice. "Legion of Shadows does have S-rank blue Rare heroes... even SSS-rank ones... but as far as I know, none of them have a strategic talent like yours."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "And from what I’ve heard, in the private rankings of major guilds, a strategic talent hero who can upgrade Tier 7 units to Tier 8... is considered equivalent to a purple Epic hero."

"There’s actually a ranking like that?" Ethan raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

But after thinking it over, it made sense.

The system’s overall evaluation covered the entire Glory Lords X world, while the private rankings of the major guilds were only based on the global player base.

After all, the strongest player-controlled units in the world right now were only Tier 11.

So Tier 8 units were naturally a big deal.

But in the world of Glory Lords X, the strongest units were Tier 14 Mythic Units—and possibly even higher. Compared to that, Tier 8 units weren’t nearly as significant.

Ethan leaned forward slightly. "Starlily, besides me, do you know of any other Strategic Heroes who can upgrade units to Tier 8? Are there a lot of them?"

He wanted to get a sense of how deep the top ten guilds’ reserves really were.

"Do you even need to ask? Of course, there aren’t many!" LoS_Starlily shook her head without hesitation. She thought for a moment before saying, "From what I know, Lich’s Covenant has a purple Epic-ranked Gold Golem hero. Using a special building called the Golem Factory, they can upgrade the Tower faction’s Tier 6 Iron Golems into Tier 9 Gold Golems!"

"Gold Golems?" Ethan’s eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise.

If he remembered correctly, those things were insanely strong—not only were they tanky as hell, but they also dealt high damage and had powerful Resistance abilities, making them a nightmare for spellcasters.

As for Lich’s Covenant, he knew exactly who they were.

They were the undisputed number one guild in North America.

They had been sitting at the top of the rankings for years.

They were also the only guild powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the military.

On top of that, over 30% of the top 100 players on the Monarch Leaderboard belonged to Lich’s Covenant. That alone spoke volumes about their strength.

Technically, the top ten guilds were supposed to be equals, all on the same level.

But in reality? Everyone knew Lich’s Covenant was the true king.

Their overall strength far surpassed the other nine guilds in the top ten.

For most North American players, Lich’s Covenant was the only guild that truly represented them—the other nine were just... not quite on the same level.

"Yeah, a purple Epic Gold Golem hero," LoS_Starlily confirmed. "Lich’s Covenant wouldn’t be able to hold onto the number one spot so securely without that hero. As for others..." She thought for a moment. "Holy Concord Guild has a Grand Mage hero who can train the Tower faction’s Tier 7 Mages into Tier 8 Archmages."

"Then there’s Rising Empire, Holy Dominion, and Scarlet Legion. I’ve heard they also have Strategic Heroes with similar abilities, but I don’t know the details."

Holy Dominion—ranked fourth among the top ten guilds.

Rising Empire—ranked eighth.

Scarlet Legion—ranked tenth.

All of them were major powerhouses in the North American gaming scene.

But Ethan was still curious. "What about Legion of Shadows? You guys don’t have one?"

"Probably not..." LoS_Starlily sighed, looking a little frustrated. "If we had a Strategic Hero like that, we wouldn’t have been pushed down to sixth place by Holy Dominion and Mountain’s Shrine."

Mountain’s Shrine—ranked fifth among the top ten guilds.

"Is that so?" Ethan murmured, deep in thought.

He was starting to realize something—he had underestimated the value of an S-rank blue Rare Strategic Hero like Elynn.

Or rather, he had overestimated the strength of the current player factions.

An S-rank blue Rare Strategic Hero like Elynn was enough to shift the rankings among the top ten guilds?

He wasn’t going to take that statement at face value, but even if it was only partially true, it still proved one thing—

Right now, the overall level of Strategic Heroes and combat heroes in the player base was ridiculously low.

So low it was almost laughable.

"Looks like I was right... Once Emerald Castle successfully breaks through Sylvanwood and enters the public eye, we’ll be able to dominate the entire world!" Ethan murmured to himself, feeling a surge of excitement.

Of course, by "the world," he meant Earth—not the world of Glory Lords X.

After all, he had a strong suspicion that Glory Lords X wasn’t just limited to Earth. There might be other planets or even parallel universes involved!

Just look at Seraphina and Cicero—two Green Dragon heroes, and they were already this ridiculously powerful.

Then what about Tier 14 Ultimate Units?

What about B-rank, A-rank, or even S-rank and SSS-rank Crimson Ultimate heroes?

How terrifyingly strong would they be?

He could barely even imagine it.

But what really sent a chill down his spine was the thought that, while he still wasn’t completely sure how much this version of Glory Lords X had in common with the one from his original universe,

In the Glory Lords X he knew, there were actual Tier 15 units.

And not just one or two—there were several.

So if this universe’s Glory Lords X turned out to be the same as the one from his original world...

Ethan suddenly shuddered, his voice barely above a whisper. "That would be... true god-tier destruction."

"Huh? Valkarion, what did you just say?" LoS_Starlily asked, confused. She hadn’t caught his last words.

"Nothing." Ethan shook his head, then changed the subject. "Starlily, is Legion of Shadows in desperate need of Tier 8 units right now?"

"Not just desperate—we’re critically short on them."

LoS_Starlily lowered her voice. "Valkarion, I’ll be honest with you. A few years ago, we made a reckless attempt to explore deep into Sylvanwood... and it was a disaster. The losses were devastating, especially for our high-tier units—anything Tier 7 and above was practically wiped out. Even now, we still haven’t fully recovered. So yeah, Legion of Shadows is seriously lacking in high-tier troops."