Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Dungeon Mutation
Xia Qingyue stood where she was, looked at Lin Mo, and could not help asking,
“Young Master Lin... that skill just now was the Beginner fire-mage skill ‘Multi-Burst Fireball,’ right?”
Lin Mo tossed the last pine nut into his mouth, brushed the crumbs from his hands, and nodded.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“This skill involves the techniques of element splitting and secondary detonation.”
Xia Qingyue’s expression turned complicated. In the end, she still took a deep breath and cautiously asked,
“Young Master Lin... forgive my boldness, but how many skill books did you use in total to learn that move?”
In Xia Qingyue’s view, a Blank-Slate Mage without elemental affinity learning an advanced elemental skill was practically as hard as ascending to heaven.
Not just for a Blank-Slate Mage. Even for a fire-specialist mage, learning a new skill usually required consuming a certain number of skill books to aid one’s comprehension.
So this Young Master Lin had probably used dozens, perhaps even hundreds?
Was this the foundation of a great noble family?
After all, skill books were extremely expensive. Even a Beginner skill book started at a six-figure price in Dragon Nation currency.
Before Lin Mo could answer, Xia Qingyue quickly added, “Young Master Lin, if you don’t want to answer, then just pretend I never asked. I...”
“Skill books?”
Lin Mo scratched his head and looked baffled. “That stuff... I’ve never seen one before.”
“?”
Xia Qingyue froze.
Never... seen one before?
“You mean... you didn’t use any skill books?”
“Yeah.”
Lin Mo shrugged as though it were only natural. “Isn’t it just splitting it a little, then making it explode again? Is it that hard?”
The moment those words fell, his skill bar started trembling wildly.
【‘Fireball’ couldn’t listen anymore: Is it hard? It’s not hard for me! I was the one who fought for my life all night on the grasslands to comprehend it! What were you doing at the time? You were sleeping!】
【‘Fireball’ was full of disdain: Show-offs get struck by lightning sooner or later! Shameless! Stealing the fruits of my labor—doesn’t your conscience hurt at all?】
Lin Mo’s expression did not change in the slightest. He merely replied in his heart,
“Shut up. Do you still want to eat Stir-Fried Scarlet Flame Dragon Liver tonight or not?”
【‘Fireball’ instantly fell silent.】
【Status Update: Enduring Humiliation for a Greater Cause (Damage +100%)】
Seeing that Little Fireball had quieted down, Lin Mo felt thoroughly refreshed inside.
He had to admit, showing off once in a while really did feel pretty good.
Xia Qingyue opened her mouth, wanting to say something, only to realize she had no idea what to say.
To comprehend a skill on one’s own was an extraordinarily difficult feat, even for spellcasters with S-rank elemental affinity.
Yet this Young Master Lin, as a Blank-Slate Mage, had managed to do it on the second day after changing classes. No... judging by his level of proficiency, he had very likely comprehended it on the very first day.
Such talent was terrifying beyond belief!
“This is absolutely talent! Top-tier talent, beyond any doubt!”
At the side, Zhang Kai suddenly jumped up.
His face flushed red with excitement as he analyzed loudly,
“Captain, think about it. If he’d just brute-forced it by stuffing himself with skill books, then even an S-rank affinity fire mage would, at most, only be able to split it into three to five fireballs at the start!”
Zhang Kai pointed at the dense scorch marks on the ground.
“But Young Master Lin just split it into fifteen of them! Fifteen! What does that say?”
“It means Young Master Lin’s understanding of this skill has already reached the state of complete perfection! That’s not an effect you can stack up with skill books!”
“This is clearly an unprecedented and unparalleled supreme, invincible, super genius of the arcane path! Compared to Young Master Lin, all those so-called S-rank affinities might as well go home and raise pigs!”
Hearing that speech from Zhang Kai, Xia Qingyue felt somewhat too ashamed to show her face.
If S-rank affinities should go home and raise pigs, then what about her A-rank affinity? Go home and play with mud?
After hearing that analysis, Wang Meng and Liu Weiwei also suddenly saw the light, and the way they looked at Lin Mo was now like they were looking at a walking god.
“...”
Lin Mo felt his scalp go numb from that torrent of praise.
He had to say, Zhang Kai was a qualified lackey.
“Ahem... all right, all right.”
Lin Mo waved his hand awkwardly and interrupted Zhang Kai’s performance.
“Keep it down. Be a little low-key.”
“It’s not that exaggerated. I just got lucky. Let’s get moving. The sooner we clear this place, the sooner I can go back and sleep.”
Xia Qingyue also came back to her senses from the shock. She glanced at Lin Mo, and the respect in her eyes deepened further.
Not only did he possess extraordinary talent, he was also so humble and low-key, only thinking about sleep...
This was the bearing of a true master.
“Everyone, listen to Young Master Lin and continue forward!”
Xia Qingyue quickly gave the order. “Maintain formation. Since Young Master Lin is going all out with his firepower, then we’ll advance at full speed as well!”
...
Meanwhile, on the field of broken rocks outside the dungeon,
Ye Hongyu leaned against the hood of the car. Five or six cigarette butts already lay scattered at her feet.
Those tiny crimson embers glimmered on and off in the darkness.
“Half an hour already...”
Ye Hongyu lifted her wrist and checked the time, her brows knitting slightly.
Although she had great confidence in Lin Mo’s godlike micro-control, this was still a Hard Difficulty dungeon. Even for an elite squad, half an hour was only enough to clear the outer area at best.
She took a deep drag from the cigarette in her hand, just about to exhale a smoke ring.
Then suddenly—
Hum—!
A tremor rose from beneath the ground.
Immediately afterward, an extremely oppressive and evil aura instantly shrouded the entire field of broken rocks.
“Hm?!”
Ye Hongyu’s expression changed drastically. She suddenly raised her head and looked toward the spatial rift.
The dungeon entrance, which had originally radiated a mysterious violet glow, was now being swallowed by a thick blackness so dense it seemed impossible to dissolve, surging wildly.
It looked like the eye of a demon from hell, slowly opening.
“Th-This is...”
Ye Hongyu’s pupils contracted sharply.
For the first time, genuine terror appeared on that normally calm and icy face.
“Abyssalization?!”
“How is that possible...”
As an experienced soldier, Ye Hongyu knew all too well what this scene meant.
In this world, dungeons were divided into two types.
One type was fixed dungeons, stable and safe.
The other type was temporary dungeon spaces opened through Random Wilderness Dungeon Scrolls.
And those temporary dungeons carried an extremely, extremely tiny chance of being eroded by the aura of the interdimensional Abyss and undergoing mutation.
How tiny was that chance?
One in a hundred thousand. Perhaps even lower.
Jianghai City had gone a full eight years without a single case of “dungeon Abyssalization”!
“This is bad. Something’s going to happen to the Young Master...”
Ye Hongyu’s fingertips trembled. She crushed out the cigarette at once, turned around, pulled out her phone, and dialed Lin Tianhao’s number.
If an Abyssalized dungeon merely meant stronger monsters, then there might still be a sliver of hope.
But the most terrifying part was this: in a normal dungeon, as long as one crushed the Return Scroll carried on one’s person, one could forcibly withdraw from the dungeon and save one’s life.
That was also her greatest source of confidence in letting Lin Mo go in, because while they were in the car, she had given Lin Mo multiple 【Return Scrolls】.
But...
Once a dungeon underwent Abyssalization, Return Scrolls became useless.
If one wanted to come out alive, there was only one path left: kill the final Boss and clear the dungeon.
Beep— Beep—
After only two rings, the call connected.
“Hello? Hongyu, did Mo’er already clear it? That was pretty fast...”
Lin Tianhao’s hearty laughter came from the receiver.
“Commander! Something’s happened!”
Ye Hongyu spoke at breakneck speed:
“The dungeon the Young Master entered... has undergone an Abyssal mutation!”
“What did you say?!”
From the other end came the sharp crash of a teacup shattering, followed by Lin Tianhao’s howl. “Wait right there, I’m coming over immediately!”