Chapter 97
It is said that a third of the people on the leaderboard have been pulled away, and with the members of Yu Xunhuan's team, these individuals, under the training of the S-rank talents of the male and female leads, would have attribute points that are no worse than those of level 10 players, even if they themselves are not yet level 10.
In essence, it’s like a hundred level 10 players facing a level 15 young dragon. With the best equipment, food, and potions, in such a scenario, they would still lose a quarter of their number before finally bringing the dragon down.
Without even needing two guns, Yu Xunge could solo a level 10 dungeon. Now that she has equipped herself with purple weapons, she should be able to hold her own against that young dragon, right? Even if she doesn’t win, it’s fine; with her talent, [Immortal], and the Fire Spirit Ring, her margin for error is high, giving her the capital to take risks.
To be safe, Yu Xunge prepared for three more days, getting her spirits up, readying her food, and bringing along every type of healing item available on the market. Finally, she also took out a special item from her cat’s nest—a red fruit that looked like a grape.
[Blood Bodhi]: Consuming it locks your health for 5 seconds.
That’s equivalent to five seconds of invincibility, perfect for when the young dragon unleashes its ultimate attack.
Unfortunately, she only had one.
...
The location of the dungeon’s light screen where the young dragon resided was a bit tricky; it was near the Su family villa.
Yu Xunge spent some time searching for the dungeon’s light screen, after all, she had never been there in her past life and had only observed the events from the forums.
Whether it was Yu Xunhuan and Su Yitong hiring external help with a hefty sum, or netizens analyzing the situation of the Su family’s young lady and her husband, or discussing how difficult this dungeon was to tackle...
As Yu Xunhuan’s older sister, she knew less than the netizens.
So she only had a rough idea of the location; the specifics she had to find out for herself.
Although this dungeon belonged to the Su family, the interesting part was that it was a level 15 dungeon.
For the people of Blue Star, a level 15 dungeon was far too distant, making it unnecessary to guard. Anyone attempting to enter would be seeking their own demise.
Thus, the Su family had not wasted manpower on guarding it; they simply built a basic wooden house around it and installed cameras inside. This was how the Su family handled dungeons they didn’t currently need.
Yu Xunge estimated she would have to spend several days in this dungeon, so she prepared a change of clothes in advance. She set up seven vending machines on the rooftop of the villa, each filled with items for sale, programmed to open one per day. She also filled the cat food bowl in the backyard with cat food.
She even took a few days off from Hufflepuff and the training camp.
After making all these preparations, she chose to enter the dungeon in the dead of night.
Once inside, Yu Xunge found herself in a small village bustling with activity, populated by various races, and she even spotted sentient beasts selling wine on the street.
As a large dungeon capable of accommodating a hundred players, the map was naturally vast. She opened the map and calculated the area; it was nearly as large as a deep city.
First, she found a lone villager and, after following him to a secluded spot, swiftly killed him to lock the dungeon, ensuring no one else could enter besides herself. Only then did she begin to converse with the villagers.
After chatting with seven or eight passersby, Yu Xunge confirmed that the history of this dungeon was undoubtedly orchestrated by the undead.
According to the villagers, a wicked dragon resided in the distant volcano, occasionally swooping down to seize the villagers' food and the nobles' jewels. The lord of this territory—a necromancer—had issued a bounty, preparing to gather warriors to slay the dragon.
Yu Xunge decided to join this quest. Although she would face the young dragon one-on-one, that didn’t mean she had to charge in recklessly.
She could first join the dragon-slaying team, gather intel on the young dragon’s various skills during the hunt, and most importantly, light up the map. When the time came to fight, she could use phantom shifting to dodge its attacks.
As for whether this band of heroes would actually kill the dragon? That was the least of her worries.
Despite the various wars that erupted between races on both Blue Star and Zelan Star, when facing the people of Blue Star, these foreign races had a common goal. The very beings she was teaming up with to slay the young dragon could turn against her at any moment, siding with the dragon to deal with her.
Who knows, they might even sign a contract with her in her dying moments, turning her into a pawn of the undead planted in Blue Star.
Yu Xunge went straight to the lord’s castle to sign up.
Without even meeting the necromancer lord, she received her first task from the undead steward: the slaying team needed to understand the dragon’s habits, and she was to find a book in the castle’s library that detailed the dragon’s traits and weaknesses.
The task reward was decent—three bottles of intermediate healing potions.
Following the undead steward, Yu Xunge arrived at the lord’s library, only to discover that this task was not as simple as it seemed.
There were at least a thousand books inside, and to make matters worse, the spines of each book were blank.
This meant that if someone without a probing skill came in, they would have to pull each book out to see the title. And there was a particularly annoying rule: once a book was pulled out, it had to be read for ten minutes before it could be put down.
What was the difference between this and ads on video sites?!!
Moreover, there was another catch: all the titles and texts were in the language of the undead. To understand them, one needed a translator. If not, they would have to sign a very basic initial contract with the undead to borrow their knowledge.
Using her probing skill, Yu Xunge scanned through the books. Most were related to the undead, with titles like "The History of the Undead," "Making the Undead Great Again," "The Blood and Tears of the Undead," "The Heart of the Undead," "The Undead: Miracle Makers," "The Undead, Masters of Death"...
The heavy marketing vibe hit her hard; it was as if they were forcing the people of Blue Star to attend a history lesson on the undead...
Yu Xunge planned to play along, killing half an hour in the library just to find the book related to dragons and then leave to complete her task. But as she walked past the shelves, heading to the nearby bar to grab a cup of coffee, a very familiar title caught her eye—"Hufflepuff, the Alchemical Madman."
Without hesitation, she pulled the book out and walked over to the bar, skillfully using the same coffee machine found in the alchemy shop on Zelan Star to brew herself a cup.
Holding the steaming coffee, she took a sip before opening the book. Within ten minutes, she felt as if she had stumbled into a romance novel aimed at a female audience.
Hufflepuff, born in a very remote farm, was the daughter of a farmer.
Unfortunately, at the age of eight, she was sold to a noble as a maid due to her father's debts. Fortunately, the noble's daughter was studying alchemy, and Hufflepuff's task was to serve her young mistress.
Perhaps some people are simply born for alchemy; with exceptional talent, Hufflepuff began to self-study the language of the undead and alchemy just by occasionally helping her young mistress organize books or serving tea and fruits during her lessons.
Hufflepuff carefully hid her talent, for to the nobles, a servant's talent outshining that of their master was a profound humiliation.
From the age of eight to fifteen, for a full eight years, Hufflepuff voraciously absorbed knowledge—letters, herbs, potions, gems... She even started learning alchemical knowledge before she began to grasp the language of the undead.
Her young mistress lacked talent, and sometimes a potion needed to be learned multiple times, giving Hufflepuff the opportunity to fill in the gaps.
However, the truth was that the alchemy teacher had long discovered Hufflepuff's secret studies. When Hufflepuff turned fifteen, the alchemy master bought her from the noble for twenty gold coins.
She took Hufflepuff away from the castle and told her she was free.
The book wrote:
"In fact, I still don’t understand why Lucia took me away. That noble family wasn’t bad; although I was a maid, I hadn’t signed a lifetime contract. It was a pretty good job, sharing the workload with five older maids, and I worked less than two hours a day.
"There, I didn’t have to worry about food or shelter, I could sneak a peek at my noble mistress’s alchemical notes, and I could quietly practice alchemy with the materials she discarded. But after Lucia took me away, I had to start working to support myself, spending eight hours a day in an herb shop, earning just enough to buy a root of grass..."
—Excerpt from "Hufflepuff’s Autobiography, 21-Year Edition"
Hufflepuff did not shy away from her maid origins or her past of stealing knowledge; instead, she reminisced fondly about those days of free food and shelter.
"Damn it, can someone help me tell that little brat to return my twenty gold coins?" —Excerpt from "Lucia’s Autobiography"
After leaving the noble castle, Hufflepuff had to become self-sufficient. She worked in an herb shop, relying on her ability to identify and process herbs. However, she only lasted six months in that job before she lost interest, as she had already learned about all the herbs. She wanted to delve into alchemy... So she quit and went to the alchemy shop next door, starting as an alchemy apprentice.
And thus began her rise to prominence.
She didn’t even have a real teacher, relying solely on her self-study, stealing knowledge, and a lot of practice.
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