Chapter 23: Underground Goblin Kingdom

At eight in the evening, Lin Ye said goodbye to Su Mumu's family after he had eaten his fill. However, he didn't choose to go home. Instead, he went straight back to school.

Originally, Su Mumu also wanted to come with him.

But Lin Ye refused.

The reason was very simple. His walkthrough was only a theory. Whether or not it could succeed, he still needed to test it out in person.

Not only that, Su Mumu didn't have an abnormal talent like "Universe Reversal". If she randomly entered a dungeon blind, she would lose her chance to gain free attribute points and instead gain unnecessary exp, causing her to level up "mindlessly". 

With their limit now, they couldn't afford to level up with no plans or strategies mindlessly. Once she reached level 10 before the entrance examination, she wouldn't be able to enter dungeons anymore, thus losing many free attribute points...

That's right.

As a top student, Lin Ye not only planned an upgrade plan for himself but also for Su Mumu.

From the moment she awakened her innate talent until the college entrance examination ended.

How to suppress his level, get all the free stat points, which dungeon to clear first, which dungeon to clear next, how to "bug" their way through the dungeons, when to start forming a party... Lin Ye had planned everything out.

As long as Su Mumu followed his plan to a T, she could obtain more than 99% of the examinees' free attribute points without wasting time or efficiency.

As for the new loli-wielding fire greatsword, he also had to make arrangements for her. He had to help her get as many free attribute points as possible to fulfill his promise.

After all… Lin Ye wasn't some corrupted boss who only knew how to make empty promises to his employees.

He didn't want to lose this lucky teammate.

...

When he arrived at the school's dungeon hall, it was even more lively than it was in the afternoon. The lights were bright, and the voices were loud. It was as lively as a market in the early morning.

Most students who had nothing to do after dinner would rather spend extra time coming to school to level up.

Because of his post in the afternoon, Lin Ye knew he was famous now. Once his identity was exposed, he would be surrounded by the students planning to recruit him for their teams.

To save time, he decided to utilize Bai Zhi's "Lady Luck" buff, hoping that he could try to get as much equipment and skill books as possible.

He didn't really want to attract attention.

So, Lin Ye put on a mask and pulled up the hood of his hoodie to cover his face.

Then, he walked along the most remote and unremarkable corner of the wall, bypassing the enthusiastic students. Finally, he arrived in front of the second dungeon he was planning to clear.

[Prompt: You are about to enter the low-level Dungeon: Underground Goblin Kingdom!]

[Dungeon: Underground Goblin Kingdom]

[Level: 3 - 5]

[Difficulty: Difficult (Critical)]

[Description: This is a labyrinth dungeon inhabited by many Goblins. There are five floors, each with more goblins than the previous floor. The goblins are also stronger... If you feel that you can't make it to the last floor, please exit as soon as possible. However, Please note that there will be no rewards if you don't clear the final floor!]

The Underground Goblin Kingdom.

It was the most difficult secret dungeon that a level 5 Lin Ye could clear.

According to his plan, this hard mode secret dungeon would be set aside until the last stage of level 5. He would only attempt it when he was about to reach level 6.

This way, he could clear easier dungeons to obtain an additional 5 free attribute points.

If he cleared this dungeon first, Lin Ye would get more exp than he would have wanted and would have reached level 6 a lot sooner than he expected. If that were to happen, he wouldn't be able to clear the other level 5 dungeons and thus lose his chances of gaining more free attribute points...

But… The free attribute points awarded by the dungeon's secret requirements were related to the quality of the hidden treasure chest.

A Silver quality hidden chest could give 1-5 free attribute points, and a Gold quality hidden chest could provide 5-10 free attribute points. A Platinum chest could give 10-15 free attribute points, and so on...

This underground kingdom's hidden chest could only drop a high Gold chest, which was equivalent to 10 free attribute points.

And since he was still blessed by Bai Zhi's "Lady Luck" talent, the high Gold quality chest was upgraded to a low Platinum quality chest.

This meant that Lin Ye could get 15 free attribute points from this dungeon alone.

Considering the three times limit of Bai Zhi's awakened talent, the efficiency of clearing secret dungeons of different difficulties, the additional exp and rewards given by these dungeons, and their conditions, Bai Zhi's awakened talent could be used three times a week.

Obviously, with Lady Luck's buff, it was more cost-effective to enter the higher difficulty dungeons first.

So, before Lin Ye came to school, he changed his strategy at the last minute. He gave up on the easier, level 5 dungeons and went straight to the most difficult Goblin dungeon instead.

All of this…

Everything was within his control.

...

As soon as he entered the dungeon, a cold wind blew at his face, playing with Lin Ye's hair and clothes.

He looked around and found that he was in a forest. The entire sky was covered in a thick black fog, but a strange light illuminated the whole land, aiding his vision so that he would not fall into the darkness where he could not see his fingers.

'Oh? So the first floor is the misty forest?'

Lin Ye touched his chin and started to recall the strategy to clear this dungeon and the requirement to get an SSS rank.

For the SSS rank requirements, as usual, you will first need to kill the Boss, the Goblin King. The second requirement, just like the last dungeon, is to kill all the monsters in the kingdom. And the third requirement is not to use items other than health and Mp potions. This would include single-use bombs, spell scrolls, location markers, and so on.

This request was pretty simple. After all, he doesn't need to use basic potions to recover Hp or Mp, and he doesn't need to use any equipment. Any slightly powerful person could achieve this goal.

However, some rich people who relied on their "power of money" to spend on high-quality equipment to pass the test would be in trouble.

But since these rich kids would never come to this "lowly" dungeon to train…

'Anyway, where was I?'

The fourth requirement, the time he spent on each floor, could not be more than ten minutes.

It was equivalent to a speed run. It tested the challenger's output ability and their kiting and gathering monster skills. It also required the challenger to precisely control his or her Mp.

Since players' health potions can neutralize Mp potion, and with the addition of using their skills in the early floors to kill off monsters, the challenger might suffer from a lack of mana as they go deeper into the dungeon.

They had to wait for their mana to recover naturally or for their immunity to the potion to wear off before they could continue to use their skills to kill the goblins.

By then, it would be too late, and they could kiss their SSS rank goodbye.

Finally, the fifth requirement.

Also, the most discouraging point from the list.

[Kill the Goblin King First: You are not allowed to kill any Goblin monsters on the fifth floor of the dungeon. First, you must withstand their attacks and prioritize killing the dungeon's Boss, the Goblin King.]

With the time limit in mind, this requirement is even hellish than Stone Cave's anti-poison requirement.

After all, the King's minions will surround and protect their leader at all times, which means large AOE attacks on the King would be inadvisable.

This was equivalent to taking the initiative to cripple a part of their damage output ability and wasting precious time dealing with damage. They had to wait until they killed the Goblin King before they could start clearing the small monsters.

Furthermore… The challenger had no way of kiting the King out in such a short amount of time. They had to withstand the sea of attacks from the Goblin minions and simultaneously face the Goblin King head-on.

If they failed in this attempt… 

They might die a tragic death in a dungeon.

...