Chapter 17: Drag Monsters, Mass Kill, Instant Boss

At night, Lin Moyu entered the dungeon for the fourth time. This run, his skeleton warrior forces had grown to 76 undead soldiers. After clearing the instance thrice before, he knew this dungeon copy like the back of his hand.

Upon entering, a brand new strategy popped into Lin Moyu's mind. "You can try it. If feasible, it can be utilized in other dungeons too."

Putting thought into action, all the skeleton warriors rushed headlong into the mine tunnels like an unstoppable tide. Their charge attracted hordes of goblin monsters from the mine, but the undead legion did not engage, simply continuing their relentless push deeper underground.

An bizarre scene unfolded within the dungeon caves - a massive skeletal vanguard charging ahead, trailed by a stream of goblin monsters hot on their trail. And at the rear, Lin Moyu himself followed with a sly smile, supervising the unlikely parade.

Ever since the skeleton warriors evolved to bronze rank, the maximum distance he could control them from increased to 1000 meters. He merely needed to remain within that range.

With nearly a hundred monsters gathered from the tunnels, they ran all the way to the lair of the Mine Wolf King. Their presence awoke the formidable boss from its slumber. The Mine Wolf King began attacking the skeleton warriors, but they paid it no heed.

They waited until all the trailing monsters had caught up and congregated together. Under Lin Moyu's command, the skeleton warriors condensed their area of activity, steadily compacting the mass of feral monsters into an ever-tighter throng.

By the time Lin Moyu's figure appeared at the mine entrance, the situation was ripe. The skeleton warriors abruptly launched an assault, instantly slaying one of the goblin mine guards and hurling its corpse skyward.

The corpse exploded violently!

Lin Moyu, who had patiently been waiting, activated his skill to detonate the body from afar. A deafening bang erupted as the entire mine shook, countless pebbles raining down from the trembling rock walls. The hapless goblin guards were blown to pieces.

In Lin Moyu's view, a dizzying array of notifications and rewards flashed by too quickly to read. He had no time - with so many fresh corpses now available, he chained together ten consecutive uses of Corpse Explosion in rapid succession.

Ten thunderous roars later, the dungeon floor had been forcibly excavated down another layer by the relentless blasts. The Mine Wolf King did not even have a chance to retreat this time, perishing instantly amidst the gruesome bombardment.

At this point, the iron gates leading deeper into the complex burst open, disgorging a fresh wave of mine wolves emerging from their lairs. Only then did Lin Moyu realize those gates would open automatically without requiring the boss to call for reinforcements.

"Go on, pull them all into the central mine," Lin Moyu commanded, and the skeleton legions charged forth again without hesitation, drawing the newly-appeared mine wolves along in their wake. Lin Moyu followed behind closely.

In this moment, he was radiating an aura of leveling up. That coordinated group-bombing maneuver had rocketed him straight to level 14 - and it was only 5 minutes since he had entered the instance. This leveling speed was almost unimaginable.

The skeleton vanguard ran recklessly down into the deepest recesses of the primary mine shaft, attracting every monster lair and den along the way like a magnet. When they reached the bottom fundament, over 200 ravenous monsters - goblins, mine wolves and more - had amassed together in a crammed, snarling horde.

The Goblin King slowly roused, its eyes filled with bewildered doubt. What in the nine hells was this situation?

"I'm back again," Lin Moyu announced casually as he too made his way down into the crowded pit.

The skeleton warriors ceased their retreat and pivoted to counterattack. Furious blows rained down, red arcs of slashing skills lighting up the cramped cavern. One fierce mine wolf after another was cut down with bloodcurdling howls, their corpses sailing through the air to detonate in a continuous chain of thunderous explosions.

Boom! Boom! The deafening roars reverberated endlessly, nearly bringing down the entire underground complex.

Lin Moyu's experience rapidly skyrocketed as a kaleidoscope of notifications and item rewards overwhelmed his vision. The Goblin King, who had just awoken and not even risen to its feet, collapsed lifelessly to the cavern floor amid the dozen consecutive corpse burst detonations ripping it apart.

This demise was even quicker and more brutal than the previous encounters, over in the span of mere agonizing seconds rather than a protracted fight. Surveying the Goblin King's unwilling, dejected expression, Lin Moyu sighed softly.

"Don't worry, I won't be coming back again after three more times." The implication being this formidable adversary must suffer death three more times at his hands.

"Anyway, you're probably used to dying by now. People come to kill you every single day."

[Kill the King of Goblins, experience +40000]

[Obtain a bronze-level weapon, the Goblin King's Staff]

[Obtain a low-level monster crystal nucleus]

[Goblin King's Staff: Bronze Level, Spirit +10, Constitution +10, Mage-type skills increased by 3%, available after level 12]

Checking his experience, Lin Moyu saw he was now 60% of the way through level 14. Next run he would surely hit level 15. However, after that milestone, experience requirements would spike upwards again, likely necessitating 2-3 more dungeon clears at least.

"Calculating the time constraints, I can enter the dungeon three more times at most before it resets. I should be able to reach level 16 without issue, unless the experience demands after 15 are exceptionally high," he mused.

By this point, the usual bustle had resumed outside the dungeon entrance. The number of people seemed a bit lower than before, and the makeup of groups had changed as well. Lin Moyu did not recognize any familiar faces at a glance.

He overheard from conversations that members of the Dynasty Guild had been around investigating recently. Evidently, they had not managed to obtain any useful information during their inquiries.

This time, rather than depart, Lin Moyu found a secluded alcove to meditate and recover his mental energies. Four more skeleton fighters joined his ranks, bringing his total forces up to a staggering 76 undead warriors. The four-dimensional combat attributes of each skeleton soldier now peaked at a formidable 4600 - higher than even the nightmare-level Goblin King boss.

The only downside was their underwhelming skills lacking any truly devastating ultimate abilities like the Goblin King's flame spray. But their sheer numbers andStats more than compensated.

As Lin Moyu meditated, one of his skeleton warriors suddenly alerted him that someone was approaching their location...

"How old are you?" a familiar voice queried.

Lin Moyu opened his eyes to see Xia Xue standing before him. Her delicate face bore a touch of dust and her body emanated an aura of elemental power - clearly she had just emerged from the dungeon instance, fresh from battle. Dissatisfaction flashed across her expression as she stared at Lin Moyu.

"Level 14," he calmly stated.

"What!" Xia Xue exclaimed in disbelief. "How could you level up so quickly?"

She had teamed up and cleared the normal difficulty West Sea Mine dungeon twice back-to-back, advancing from level 10 to only level 11. Two full runs had utterly drained her stamina.

Even accounting for Lin Moyu's ability to solo the instance, such a rapid leveling speed seemed implausible to Xia Xue. She could never have fathomed he was actually tackling the nightmare difficulty setting.

Lin Moyu did not offer any further explanation. Xia Xue could choose to believe him or not. Based on her understanding, he would not outright lie - if he claimed level 14, then it must be true.

The displeasure in Xia Xue's eyes only intensified. The higher the level, the slower the leveling process became. On that first day in the novice dungeon, she was level 5 while Lin Moyu was 7 - a two level gap. Logically, that gap should have narrowed by now.

Instead, she was stuck at a mere level 11 while he had soared ahead to 14, widening the divide even further. Xia Xue let out a haughty snort. "I won't concede defeat." With that, she turned and stormed off.

Lin Moyu watched her go, at a loss for words. All these years, he had unintentionally suppressed Xia Xue's efforts. Prior to their class promotions, he had always achieved top marks while she claimed second place. After the job changes, his levels continued outpacing hers, leaving her lagging behind once more.

He understood her burning drive to prove herself, to finally surpass him. This unrelenting competitiveness was quintessential Xia Xue, before and after the class change. But Lin Moyu had never allowed her that chance at victory.

Suddenly, he noticed Xia Xue and a few others entering the dungeon entrance again. "Strange, didn't she just come out? How did she get back in so quickly? Doesn't the dungeon have a cooldown period?"

Lin Moyu had tried across all difficulties - there was always an obligatory wait time between instances, a commonality he assumed was universal. Even after clearing nightmare mode, he couldn't immediately enter the normal difficulty for 12 hours.

Yet somehow Xia Xue had circumvented that restriction, re-entering extraordinarily fast. Lin Moyu was certain she had only emerged from the dungeon moments ago - the aura of combat still clung to her, including traces of the Goblin King's essence impossible to fake.

While meditating, he had kept his skeleton sentries observing. Two hours later, Xia Xue's figure reappeared at the entrance, having completed another full clear already. As she exited, she made sure to shoot a pointed glance toward Lin Moyu. He saw clear exhaustion etched on her features - the telltale strain of extended, draining combat.

Yet merely ten minutes later, Xia Xue had regrouped with another party and reentered the instance once more. This time, Lin Moyu noticed a faint glimmer envelop her form right before crossing the threshold, likely some kind of consumable item.

"If there's a chance, I should inquire about that," Lin Moyu thought to himself before returning to a meditative state to recuperate his mental energies.

As his level climbed higher, the importance of his mental power stat grew increasingly paramount. Now his base mental stat had reached an impressive 700, far outstripping his other attributes - a defining trait for the mage class, exchanging well-rounded overall stats for overwhelming specialization in one area.

A few hours later, the distinctive sound of heavy footfalls approached. Xia Xue trudged over, bodily exhaustion weighing her down, and plopped unceremoniously beside Lin Moyu. Even disregarding the cooldown limit, repeatedly chaining full clears was clearly taking its toll.

"I'm wiped out," she groaned, sprawling on the ground without a care for the skeleton warriors standing vigilant nearby. As a classmate, she held no fear of Lin Moyu's undead summons.

After resting for a spell, Xia Xue regained a bit of energy. "My level's already 12, I'll be catching up to you soon," she declared, a hint of her usual competitive fire flickering back.

Yet at level 12, even with a full party, it would require at least 3-4 normal difficulty clears just to gain a single level. Closing that gap would prove arduous.

Lin Moyu glanced at the visibly drained Xia Xue. "Aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"

She snorted derisively. "Tired? Of course I'm damn tired, I can barely move a muscle right now!"

"But why?"

Xia Xue shot him an indignant glare. "Why? You still have the gall to ask me why? After being suppressed by you year after year, this lady is determined to finally surpass you, no matter what it takes!"

"Just for that reason?" Lin Moyu hadn't expected her resentment to burn so intensely over academic rankings.

"Of course not just that," Xia Xue retorted, gazing skyward. "We're both aiming for Xiajing Academy, so surely you understand the stakes."

To meet Xiajing's entrance criteria, level 14 was the bare minimum, 15 the safeline, and 16 the ideal comfort zone. With little over two days remaining, Lin Moyu estimated Xia Xue would struggle just to hit 14, let alone the 15 or 16 he targeted - unless...

"You know, you'd level much faster by attempting the nightmare difficulty," he gently suggested.

Xia Xue shot him an incredulous look. "Are you kidding? Finding an elite group for nightmare is near impossible for me. Those teams demand at least level 16, 17 players with top-tier equipment. I'm only 12 - no one would take me."

She glanced pointedly at the showy elite groups loudly recruiting at the entrance, their stringent requirements for not just levels but precise job roles and gear specs on full display. Only healers and support classes could sometimes skirt the rules.

As an offensive DPS like herself, the bars were set insanely high. Seeing Lin Moyu's silence, Xia Xue sighed resignedly. "That's why I have no choice but to grind more normal clears. Level 14 should be feasible, maybe 15 if I really push it."

Noting her resigned tone, Lin Moyu finally broached the matter that piqued his curiosity. "So how are you bypassing the cooldown restriction?"