"NPCs?"
Siyu Qingxuan and Qingzhu were startled by Kate and Anna, who had appeared out of nowhere.
Both Kate and Anna radiated an overwhelming aura.
Even just standing nearby, the pressure was suffocating.
"It's been a while, and they've definitely improved a lot." Shi Feng glanced at the dashing Kate and the alluring Anna, feeling quite satisfied. "They're already level 60. As expected of Dark Gold-rank retainers — their growth speed is truly impressive."
Anna's improvement was particularly remarkable. She had become a personal retainer later than Kate, yet she had already caught up to level 60. Moreover, she was now a Tier 2 Summoner. Her pace was nothing short of astonishing.
In the Divine Realm, cultivating a powerful personal retainer was no easy feat.
First and foremost, it required a massive amount of money!
Because they were NPCs, the experience points needed to level up were far greater than what players required. Constantly dragging retainers along to fight in the wild would only slow down their growth.
To level up retainers quickly, you had to send them to the Adventurer's Guild to accept quests on their own. But accepting quests cost money — and not a small amount, either. Fees varied depending on quest difficulty. Although retainers would earn gold coins, experience points, and other rewards after completing quests, those gold coins and rewards had absolutely nothing to do with the player.
The gold a retainer earned could only be used to purchase equipment and items for themselves. Unlike players who had to run dungeons to gear up, retainers could buy gear directly from the Adventurer's Guild or weapon shops. A player's own gold couldn't buy those items.
So the first step in cultivation was making sure your retainer had plenty of money and getting them to take on quests in bulk.
At the Adventurer's Guild, quests were ranked by difficulty: Bronze, Iron Rank, Mythril, Gold-grade, Dark Gold, and Epic. The higher the difficulty, the more generous the rewards — but the cost to accept them was also substantially higher.
A level 60 Bronze-rank quest alone cost 5 gold to apply for. Iron Rank cost 10 gold, Mythril 20 gold, Gold-grade 40 gold, Dark Gold 80 gold, and Epic a whopping 200 gold.
Whether a retainer could actually complete the quest depended on their own strength. For instance, a Bronze-rank retainer accepting a Bronze quest had a high success rate — roughly 70% — but at Iron Rank, that dropped to maybe 40%, and at Mythril, it could be as low as 10%.
However, improving a retainer's equipment could boost their combat power and indirectly raise their quest success rate, though this required time to accumulate.
Kate and Anna were different. Their innate potential was Dark Gold-rank. Even with just starting equipment, their success rate on Dark Gold quests was already 50%. Once their gear caught up, that rate could exceed 80%, and at a certain point, they could even attempt Epic-rank quests.
That said, Epic quests weren't available on demand — they depended on the daily quest refresh at the Adventurer's Guild.
It was precisely this gap in quest acceptance that made their leveling speed so fast.
"Night Edge, we're not actually going after the Crystal Wolf King, are we?" Siyu Qingxuan asked with concern, looking at the battle-ready Shi Feng.
Although two level 60 Tier 2 NPCs were formidable, the Crystal Wolf King was a Tier 3 Grand Lord boss.
"Don't worry. I've already researched the Crystal Wolf King. This boss relies primarily on buff-type skills. As long as Qingzhu dispels them properly, we have more than enough firepower," Shi Feng explained with a smile.
He had fought the Crystal Wolf King more than once. What made it dangerous was its speed — even a top-tier tank of the same level would struggle to withstand its attacks. On top of that, its buff states stacked continuously, making it stronger the longer the fight dragged on. If the buffs weren't cleared in time, the inevitable outcome was a total party wipe.
But as long as they handled the buffs correctly, taking down the Crystal Wolf King with two Dark Gold-rank retainers shouldn't be a problem.
Shi Feng then led Siyu Qingxuan and the others to the cave entrance.
A fierce gale howled before the cave mouth. The moment they stepped inside, a piercing wolf howl echoed through the cavern, shaking the entire tunnel.
In the vast, dim depths of the cave, a towering figure appeared.