LWGP - Chapter 70
Chapter 70: Ten Minutes
Three minutes ago, after sending He Ming and the others back to the city, Wang Jiu entered the vortex dungeon, and the System gave a notification.
"Notification: You have entered a Wilderness Unknown Dungeon. Dungeons are divided into four levels: Simple, Normal, Difficult, and Nightmare. You must clear them in ascending order. Clearing each level grants Prestige. If you are the first to clear all levels up to Nightmare, you can directly obtain ownership of the racial territory within this dungeon—provided you acquire this dungeon's Mystic Realm Fragment."
In other words, you had to be the one to claim ownership of the dungeon clear.
This overlapped with the condition for obtaining the Mystic Realm Fragment.
And clearing it level by level, competing for the fastest clear of Nightmare difficulty, then seizing the Prestige and territory rights—was this the point of pioneering a dungeon?
This was the dungeon ranking system the System had mentioned before. Wang Jiu quickly asked the System about Prestige and territories.
System: "Prestige has two functions. First, it determines your status within the game's Order System. Status is divided by Prestige and has a huge effect both inside and outside dungeons. Second, you need 100 Prestige to obtain territory rights. To explain it simply: the homestead you have now is your personal property, but a territory is a sphere of influence. Others can reside and even live in your territory, and a certain portion of the Spirit Energy they provide will be added to your own stats."
Ah, so territories were probably high-end gameplay for after the game fully launched.
Wang Jiu: "The basic condition for building a city?"
System: "Correct."
Wang Jiu understood. The mist in her vision then cleared.
She didn't know how difficult this so-called "Simple" dungeon would be. In any case, just as her vision cleared, she found herself in a small canyon. Her shoes suddenly felt a little damp; it turned out she had entered at a shallow part of a stream. Further up was the deeper part of the canyon.
However, she dipped a blade in the water and brought it to her nose to smell.
Aquatic creatures, or at least creatures that live by the water.
Flicking the blade dry, Wang Jiu surveyed her surroundings while cautiously making her way upstream. Soon, she discovered more and more signs of monster activity, as well as droppings left on the ground.
There were also scales.
The scales were quite large. Could they belong to a one-meter-long fish?
The pebbles here had been dry for a long time; the water level hadn't reached this high. But the droppings and scales left on them were recent.
This meant the fish… could live on land.
Fishman?
The monster category flashed through Wang Jiu's mind as she quickly crept forward, carefully managing her distance. Soon, she spotted a monster.
It had the body of a fish, but its fins had become long legs. Its body was covered in dense scales, and it held a long fork.
This Fishman was out alone. It held the long fork in one hand and dragged a bleeding wild boar with the other.
The boar had no obvious wounds from close-quarters combat, only a clear puncture mark on its neck.
Such precision, preventing the boar monster from fighting back, suggested it was killed by a thrown ranged attack.
Wang Jiu followed behind it, observing for a while.
She had arrived.
Hiding behind a tree, Wang Jiu saw a waterfall cascading down a cliff at the source of the stream not far away. Below it was a pool of water about five meters in diameter. Its depth was unknown, but on the surface and along the bank were at least twenty Fishmen.
She checked; their levels were higher than hers.
Either level six or level seven.
That boar monster looked tougher than the Little Red Fox, yet it was easily killed by a single Fishman mob. They seemed stronger than the Blade Minions. Rushing into a melee now would be very risky.
Besides, the Boss was nowhere to be seen.
Wang Jiu scanned her surroundings and noticed the nearby cliff face was uneven, offering good handholds for climbing, but no footholds. That didn't matter, though.
She quickly calculated a new position, entered the mountain forest, and crept forward ten meters. When she was fifteen meters away from the group of Fishmen, she climbed a tree to the top, then used the protrusions on the cliff face to climb higher.
Based on her earlier observations, the boar weighed about two hundred jin. From the speed at which the Fishman dragged it and the range of its movements, Wang Jiu roughly estimated its strength. After observing the length of the long fork, she calculated its potential range if thrown.
At most, a height of 8 meters and a distance of 14 meters.
If the Boss was in the pool, given the Fishmen's communal nature, they wouldn't stray far from that area and would opt for ranged attacks.
And even if they pursued her, throwing their weapons from below, they would struggle to reach her altitude.
Based on this assessment, Wang Jiu climbed to a spot on the cliff about 15 meters away from the pool and 10 meters high. Then, holding onto a sharp rock spike with one hand, she took out a bronze broadsword with the other and jammed it into the cliff face until it was secure. She then inserted two more blades, crossing them to form a flat platform made of weapons. She stood on it; it was very stable. Although someone with a fear of heights would be scared to death standing here… Wang Jiu felt pretty good.
"Strengthening Stones… the failure rate gets pretty high the more you use them, right?"
System: "Yes. The higher the level, the easier it is to fail."
Wang Jiu: "Oh."
Then she slammed a Strengthening Stone onto the Old Lady's necklace.
Strengthen +3
The System was speechless. "Your luck with this thing is pretty good. Three direct successes. But aren't you afraid of it failing?"
But Wang Jiu was unconcerned. "I have to use them eventually. It's either success or failure. Do I need to consult feng shui and pick an auspicious time?"
She had an air of magnanimity—only because she had already succeeded.
Who knows who it was that was desperately stuffing sexy sleepwear before.
And now, all of Wang Jiu's attributes had increased by 5.
HP: 27
STR: 73
AGI: 63
STA: 55
She wanted to tackle this dungeon in her best condition.
After she was done strengthening, Wang Jiu took out a card.
The Blade Minion BOSS card.
She held it between her fingers, like a child playing with throwing cards, and tossed it toward the pool.
Swish. It spun at high speed, flying in an arc toward the edge of the Fishman group. As it landed, Wang Jiu mentally activated it.
Hwaa. A flash of light, and the Blade Minion BOSS appeared.
Upon seeing an enemy invader, the Fishmen, who had been frantically tearing at the wild boar, immediately grew agitated and charged toward the Blade Minion BOSS.
From her position, Wang Jiu could see that the Blade Minion BOSS had a duration of 10 minutes and its attributes were 100 STR, 100 AGI, and 90 STA.
No wonder it had been so hard to fight before. Especially its Stamina. A boss was bound to have high HP and strong defense, but the Blade Minion was a monster that focused more on agility, yet its Stamina was still so high.
However, according to the System, there were already players with all three attributes over a hundred before the full launch. That meant they could solo this Blade Minion BOSS and kill it easily in just a few hits.
After the launch, people like that would frantically clear a few dungeons, and their attributes would increase even faster.
As Wang Jiu thought this, her actions didn't slow. She had already connected to the Blade Minion BOSS through the card's contract, remotely controlling its positioning to fight the monsters and avoid being worn down by the mob.
As a proper boss with such high agility, it wasn't under much pressure.
But it was only after getting the card herself that she realized she could control it through a conscious contract. Thinking back to that guy Yang Cheng, he had actually shouted verbal commands, leading her astray as well. He probably got the card and was reluctant to use it, so he never figured it out. His wartime mentality was just poor.
While controlling the Blade Minion BOSS, Wang Jiu quickly took out her bow and arrow, nocked an arrow, and aimed…
Bzz!
The arrow flew in a perfect arc, striking a mob that the Blade Minion BOSS had already worn down to low health.
She couldn't see health bars, but her eyes could distinguish which monsters had been hit by its attacks, allowing her to judge when they were low on health.
Thwip, thwip, thwip. One or two arrows were enough to take down each Fishman. Because she was in a high position with a puppet tanking the mobs, she took no damage and didn't need to evade, allowing her to maintain a high rate of fire. And her form was only getting better.
Her Weapon Mastery over the bow was rapidly increasing.
This feeling was amazing!
The number of Fishmen dwindled. One fell every two or three seconds, dropping lots of copper coins and materials. She didn't know what they were, but she was too far away to collect them with a single click, and she wasn't in a hurry.
She had only been inside for a few minutes. It would take Qi Dong at least half an hour to rush back, gather people, and return.
Bzz… Arrow after arrow flew by. The Fishmen weren't stupid. After five of their brothers and sisters were killed, they reacted, spotting Wang Jiu by following the direction the arrows came from.
"There, she's there!"
"Shoot her!"
Wang Jiu was surprised. The mobs could talk? But she narrowed her eyes, locking onto the long forks they all threw in unison… while continuing to fire arrows.
The arrows and the long forks followed staggered trajectories, passing each other in mid-air. One arrow hit a Fishman's head, while the forks hit—a spot two or three meters below the weapon platform at her feet.
Like a pincushion, seven or eight forks stuck into the cliff face, some not even reaching that high, scattered about.
"Aargh!" The Fishmen were furious. They wanted to charge out and climb the cliff, but they were intercepted by the Blade Minion BOSS. If they didn't attack it, its slaughter would begin—especially since they had just thrown their forks.
"Weapons, get weapons!"
"Get weapons from the water!"
"What weapons? The weapons belong to the others! Call for help, quick, call for help!"
A Fishman let out a shriek. Ripples spread across the pool, and soon, thirty more Fishman heads emerged.
That made forty in total.
Wang Jiu's emotions were now very calm. Without any extraneous thoughts, she quickly assessed their numbers and increased her rate of fire. At the same time, she controlled the Blade Minion BOSS, using its high agility to dodge and pull the monsters apart. But the monsters were still densely packed. Wang Jiu narrowed her eyes and nocked two arrows at once.
With them packed so tightly, she didn't need to worry too much about accuracy.
Bzz! As the two arrows shot out, she controlled the Blade Minion BOSS to execute a charging slash, sending four or five Fishmen flying with the charge.
Swish. The first volley of double arrows had already flown past.
Hit! Hit!
As the other three landed, the second volley of double arrows arrived.
Pop, pop!
The fifth one tried to get up but was kicked away by the Blade Minion BOSS, splattering into a paste of flesh against the wall.
There it was, the zone. Wang Jiu had finally found her perfect state, coordinating her own ranged attacks with the Blade Minion BOSS's kills.
Instantly, her damage output skyrocketed!
The forty monsters were reduced at a terrifying rate. By the time only half were left, Wang Jiu had leveled up to level 6.
The experience from killing higher-level monsters in a dungeon was substantial, much better than grinding mobs in the wild.
But even after reaching level 6, Wang Jiu still couldn't see their level, which meant they were level 7 monsters.
"Level 7 mobs, so the BOSS must be at least level 7," Wang Jiu mused.
The System watched coldly, further assessing that Wang Jiu seemed to have an extreme innate talent and desire for slaughter.
The more she killed, the more she entered a state of extreme calm and ambition. This state wasn't a bonus from Weapon Mastery, but rather seemed to be her true nature—a beast-like talent for combat.
But the Blade Minion BOSS's duration was also ticking down. Six minutes left.
Bang! The 40th Fishman exploded.
The mobs were cleared.
Wang Jiu saw the water's surface churning and immediately had the Blade Minion BOSS move. Just as it left its spot, BOOM!!
A massive, three-meter-long fork stabbed into the spot where the Blade Minion BOSS had just been standing.
The Boss had arrived!
And at this very moment, in Huize Mountain, about a ten-minute journey from this hidden tree-hollow vortex, Pan Zhen and his men were on a killing spree, slaughtering some people they had been grinding mobs with. They were fast, clearing out the group in the blink of an eye.
In the distance, Lin Fengmian's group of eight, who had run into them again, were cursing their luck. They could only turn and flee once more.
"Brother Pan, those people…"
"Ignore them. Find that woman first." Pan Zhen was very satisfied with the results of this battle; it had ended even earlier than he expected.
"Let's go!!"
Only after Pan Zhen and his men left did the people on the ground dare to play dead no longer.
"Damn it, Pan Zhen and his crew are too ruthless."
"Who are they trying to hunt down?"
The "dead" people were filled with resentment, but they were also curious about who Pan Zhen was so eagerly chasing.
"It's also possible they're not hunting someone." Some of the more perceptive ones began to suspect that Pan Zhen's group had found a Wilderness Unknown Vortex.
Some began to follow them secretly, while others realized the advantage of numbers. In these dangerous mountains, if they didn't stick together, they would just become free labor for people like Pan Zhen.
And so, taught by a bloody lesson, teams quickly began to form.
Thirty minutes away from them, He Ruguang and his group were also frantically killing monsters in a dungeon.
But higher up the mountain, a person covered in blood was on a mad rampage, killing both players and bosses.
His average attributes were all over 80.
A figure comparable to a mini-boss, he was slaughtering his way down from the top, crazily strengthening himself by killing people and looting their belongings.
And in these mountains, how many such ruthless people were there?
Perhaps there was only one as strong as him, but there were many, many ruthless people.
Everyone was prey.
Meanwhile, Wang Jiu, still unaware that Pan Zhen and his men were on their way, watched as the ground cracked and shattered. Then, a huge, four-meter-tall Fishman Chieftain with a somewhat fat and heavy body emerged from the water.
Its eyes were glaring viciously at the Blade Minion BOSS, and it shot a deep look at Wang Jiu.
It just took a nap, and all its little fishy children died?
In that instant, she had a feeling—congratulations, you have successfully maxed out your aggro with this big, fat fish.
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