sbdcsierra Chapter 10 The Blessing of the God of War
Chapter 10 The Blessing of the God of War
The night wind outside the decaying insect nest carried a hint of the dusty smell unique to the military-controlled area.
The backs of the three members of the second logistics team were deformed by the weight of the specially made folded backpacks, and the heavy transport vehicle dispatched by the military came to a stop just in time.
Several heavily armed soldiers stepped forward and helped load the pile of priceless, top-quality equipment onto the truck. The vehicles then started moving and drove in a long line toward the logistics appraisal center.
After clearing away the loot scattered on the ground, the five permanent members of the first squad sat cross-legged in the open space in front of the teleportation portal, each drinking potions to restore their strength.
Even with their incredible physical abilities, the nerves of those who retreat from the intense, continuous harvesting need a buffer period.
Zhao Leiguang downed half a bottle of stamina potion, casually crushed the empty bottle and tossed it into the recycling bin, then waved to Lu Yan: "Big Panda, since you have some free time now, show us your board. What good stuff did you pick out from that pile of dark gold and gold pieces? We're all old hands at this, we can give you some pointers on martial arts equipment combinations."
Wen Yue wiped the recurve bowstring and chimed in, "That's right. You just leveled up to level 20 in one go. Now that you've leveled up, your equipment stats need to keep up. You're the core member of our guild that needs protection, so our resistance defenses can't have any weaknesses."
Lu Yan did not refuse. In his previous life, he had operated countless top-tier accounts, and configuring equipment was one of his strengths.
However, those were all for maximizing output or specific mechanic combinations. Right now, he's a pure support, the kind with no combat ability at all. His only requirement is to survive.
The control panel was unfolded, and a pale blue holographic projection was projected directly into the team's shared channel.
Xiao Qianyu slid open the tactical tablet and glanced at it. She had initially intended to offer some advice, but stopped herself after seeing the data.
Apart from the [Immortal's Hidden Breastplate] emitting an orange glow with incredible attributes on its chest, the rest of Lu Yan's body was filled with the top-tier items that had just been looted.
【Ash Stone Golem Leggings (Dark Gold)】: +800 to both defenses, +25% resilience, and reduces crowd control duration by one-fifth.
【Abyssal Jellyfish Bodysuit Armor (Epic)】: Increases maximum health by 20% and automatically regenerates 0.8% of total health per second.
【Rockscale Earth Dragon's Amulet (Dark Gold)】: After passing the physical resistance test, directly exempts you from 500 points of fixed damage.
The entire six-piece set contains no items that increase mental strength, casting speed, or maximum mana; it's purely a set focused on full defense, high health, and high resistance.
Zhao Leiguang leaned over for a look and immediately laughed: "Your build is even tougher than mine. With your current health bar and those damage reduction stats, you could stand and fight that level 40 queen beetle from before, and it wouldn't even be able to hurt you."
"Everyone has their own expertise." Lu Yan turned off the equipment display. "I don't have any offensive skills, so there's no point in stacking mana and spirit. You guys kill monsters in front, and I'll stand in the back. Staying alive is more important than anything else." In a treasure-hunting team, if the leader or support gets killed by some stray bullet, that's considered an operational accident. He maximizes the survival rate because he's responsible for the entire team.
Lin Chuxue leaned against the Jeep door next to her and gave a straightforward evaluation: "Professional."
After checking the equipment configuration, Xiao Qianyu got down to business. "Now that you're level 20, take a look at your talent tree."
She pointed to the Halo Master's emblem on the holographic screen, "The Awakener's skill system is not complicated. Once you reach a certain level, the nodes on the class talent tree will automatically light up, and you can allocate skill points yourself. Each branch will offer different variations after reaching the level three cap."
Having thoroughly mastered various complex skill mechanics in his previous life, Lu Yan had no trouble understanding this classic level-unlocking and stat allocation system. He decisively selected the talent tree projection on his personal interface.
The initial nodes for Aura Masters are pitifully scarce. Moving the gaze upwards, four grayed-out base icons float on the second layer.
[Heat Aura]: Stimulates the physical abilities of allies, increasing their base physical attack power and attack speed.
[Durability Aura]: Cellular activity catalysis, greatly increases the rate of health recovery both out of combat and in combat.
[War Aura]: Environmental Adaptability Modification, increases movement speed coefficient and group defense.
[Elite Aura]: Enhances visual and neural perception, increasing hit rate and attack frequency.
"The root cause of why Aura Masters have been kicked out of the mainstream teams lies here."
Xiao Qianyu bluntly pointed out the weakness of this profession: "The percentage bonus given by the level 1 aura is negligible. It only shows its value when you concentrate your resources and invest more than three points in a certain path to unlock the variant. However, the early leveling is slow, and most aura masters are eliminated before they can reach that stage."
Lu Yan rubbed his chin, weighing the pros and cons.
Level 20 means he has just accumulated enough skill points to max out a single skill branch.
Let's lay out the data and calculate. The Heat Aura and Elite Aura are offensive buffs.
Look at the team's setup: Lin Chuxue's dual-elemental bombardment of ice and fire, Wen Yue's wind-elemental point-killing, plus Shen Xinglin's interspersed reinforcements, the damage is already overflowing.
When farming these kinds of insect hive dungeons where quantity is key, damage output is not a bottleneck at all.
Durability Halo belongs to the battery life system.
The epic healing tome in Su Yunqing's hands has such a massive healing output that it can pull the dead out of the underworld; there's no need for him to contribute his meager recovery.
After eliminating the other options, his gaze finally settled on the third icon.
[War Aura].
Movement speed and defense.
Initially, people always thought that support should maximize the damage output of teammates, but further analysis revealed that in a completely one-sided mowing game, the only factor limiting output is the time taken to travel.
This team clears monsters extremely quickly, spending all their time on transitions and movement across large areas of the map.
Improving the team's mobility will lead to an exponential increase in production efficiency. Efficiency is the most crucial KPI for treasure hunters.
Without pausing, the finger tapped three times in quick succession.
[Ding. Skill points consumed x3.]
[War Aura upgraded to Lv3 (MAX).]
The light effect at the center of the interface bursts open, giving rise to a golden branch.
[Hidden variant unlocked: Blessed by the God of War]
Lu Yan allocated the last bit of special mutation bonus to this new node. The panel provided intuitive numerical feedback:
[The Blessing of the God of War (Aura)]
[Effect 1: All friendly units within the area receive a 20% increase in all attribute defense modulus.]
[Effect 2: War March - In both combat and non-combat states, base movement speed is increased by 50%. This effect includes advanced terrain adaptation, ignoring slowing effects from swamps, mud, and gravity anomalies.]
The moment Lu Yan confirmed the effect, a layer of pale golden ripples spread out from beneath his feet. The ripples radiated outwards from him with a radius of fifty meters. The halo touched the team members' armor and then disappeared.
Shen Xinglin stood up, but before he could take a step, he slid three meters away. After regaining his balance, he glanced down at his boots, then tentatively initiated a basic dash leap. A streak of silver light left a long afterimage across the open ground, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound.
Zhao Leiguang shifted his heavily armored body slightly: "This 300-pound plate armor of mine makes me run as lightly as if I'm not carrying any weight!"
Su Yunqing closed her eyes and sensed the surroundings for a moment, then provided more precise data feedback: "Besides the increased defense, the actual conversion rate of my agility stat has changed. My current running speed is significantly faster than when I've stacked Swiftness Prayer."
Lin Chuxue, who always practiced standing meditation while casting spells, had a bundle of ice swirling around her fingertips as she looked at Lu Yan with a hint of inquiry in her eyes.
Mages are inherently short-legged, often relying on teleportation to a fixed point when facing sudden danger; poor mobility is a common weakness. This 50% global movement speed boost is tantamount to giving her wings.
"A variant of the War Aura." Lu Yan put his hands back in his pockets and revealed the truth, "The entire team's base speed is increased by 50%, ignoring terrain and slowing down."
Xiao Qianyu tapped the edge of the combat tablet. "Not bad. I originally planned to have you add some attack power, but it seems your idea was better!"
She immediately adjusted the next tactical deployment, "Everyone, get used to the current movement speed changes. For the low-level mowing tasks we're currently undertaking, this 50% bonus is the finishing touch. It means we can clear two to three similar dungeons per unit of time."