Chapter Thirty-Six: The First Level of the Demon-Suppressing Platform

After selecting the dungeon difficulty with the military officer, Storm Dominates the World was the first to enter, followed by the others in turn.

Standing at the dungeon entrance, they saw a dense mass of minor enemies ahead, all demon militia.

“These really are the same kind of monsters as in the Bowang Wasteland—demon militia everywhere.”

“Looks like the gatekeeper boss really is a demon priest.”

“With so many mobs, how are we supposed to clear them all? I’m afraid we won’t even get a chance to see the boss.”

“We can clear them. Once you kill a dungeon monster, it doesn’t respawn. It looks like a lot, but every one we take down is one less to deal with. It’s not hard to wipe them out; it’ll just take some time.”

“That’s a relief. I thought it’d be like the wild maps, with endless respawns.”

“Since these are all the same mobs as in the Bowang Wasteland, do you think that Sentinel Captain will show up here too? That orange boss is so easy to fight, practically a free gift.”

“No idea, but let’s hope so.”

“Alright, let’s get started.”

“Wait, I have a question first.” Zhang Shan had suddenly thought of something and stopped the others.

“What could it be? Let’s just clear the mobs first.”

“It’s like this: I didn’t really pay attention to the dungeon rules earlier. Is there a limit on how many times we can enter?”

“There is. Once a week. The dungeon attempts reset every Wednesday.”

“You’re kidding, right? So if we don’t clear this run, we can’t try again until next Saturday?”

“That’s right. Dungeons are weekly.”

“So what do we do? It’s only Saturday now; there are several days until next weekend. By then, other guilds might have gotten the Heroes’ Order and could establish their guilds before us.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. We can’t just not play.”

“It all depends on how strong the gatekeeper boss is. If even the normal mode boss is as tough as the one you just fought, we still won’t be able to beat it even if we get a bit stronger.”

“Now I’m kind of hoping the boss isn’t a red-named monster.”

“Yeah, red bosses are just insane.”

Zhang Shan glanced at his level. He was already well into level eighteen, just tens of thousands of experience points away from nineteen. If he could reach level twenty, he could equip his purple priest cloak, dramatically increasing his chances against the gatekeeper boss.

He just didn’t know how much experience was needed to go from nineteen to twenty. It had taken four hundred thousand to reach nineteen; if it took five hundred thousand to hit twenty, that would be quite doable.

With so many mobs in the dungeon, there were probably some mini-bosses as well, more than enough to level him to twenty.

If he managed that, and put on the purple cloak, his HP would reach sixteen thousand. His divine weapon could also be unlocked to level twenty, and with guild supports healing him, he’d stand a very good chance against the gatekeeper boss.

With this in mind, Zhang Shan said to Storm Dominates the World, “Boss, I’m about to hit level nineteen. If I can level up to twenty in the dungeon, I’ll be able to wear a level twenty purple cloak. I should be able to withstand the boss’s attacks.”

“What? You have a purple cloak? Monster! Poor me, I’m still stuck with a white one.”

“Yeah, a purple priest cloak. It adds sixteen thousand health. With support healing, tanking the boss for a while won’t be hard.”

“Insane. Truly the chosen one of the new world.”

“How much more experience until nineteen?” Storm Dominates the World asked.

“Just over sixty thousand. Half an hour at most.”

“Alright, then no one else attack the mobs. Let Sixbar handle them alone and level up first. Then we’ll see how long it’ll take to reach twenty.”

“So what do we do? Just stand around?”

“Do nothing. Rest at the entrance. Don’t split the experience with Sixbar. Dungeon experience is limited, so let him have it all for now.”

“One person grinding mobs with over forty people watching? That’s quite a scene.”

Heh heh.

“I’ll go get to nineteen, then.”

“Be careful! Don’t let a Sentinel Captain jump out and take you down.”

“Afraid of what? We have two revives. If I fall, just pull me up and I’ll be back in action.”

Zhang Shan strode out from the entrance and charged into the mob horde.

His attack power was now close to seventeen hundred. With his titles and suppression effects, he only needed two hits to kill a monster—sometimes even with damage to spare.

He wasn’t worried about being swarmed. His grinding speed was blazing as he steadily cleared mobs from the entrance deeper into the dungeon.

“Damn, that divine weapon is just ridiculous. I need twenty or thirty hits to kill a demon militia, but Sixbar only needs two.”

“I know, it’s so unfair. I’m jealous.”

“Me too, but let’s not talk about fair. If you could buy up all the best stuff at the auction house, you’d probably be even stronger than Sixbar.”

“No way. I could get my attack up, but there’s no way I’d ever match his attack speed.”

“True! How did he get his attack speed so high? Only years of singlehood could get you that fast.”

“Nonsense. It’s either gear or skills.”

“Sixbar, why is your attack speed so fast? The divine weapon only adds ten percent—shouldn’t make that big a difference.”

Aside from his weapon adding ten percent to attack speed, Zhang Shan had another special item: the Hand of Midas, boosting attack speed by fifty percent.

Special items didn’t count as equipment and weren’t on the equipment rankings, so nobody else knew about it yet.

Zhang Shan promptly displayed the Hand of Midas.

“Holy—an artifact-level special item? There’s really something this broken?”

“So special items really are this powerful.”

“Not always. I heard someone got a special item yesterday—a quiver for archers that ups arrow damage by three percent.”

“So people really are getting special items. Besides the quiver, any others found yet?”

“Not that I’ve heard. For now, it’s just that one, and it was someone in Zhao who got it—a white quiver.”

“Even a white one’s good. Three percent more attack is actually pretty useful.”

“Sixbar, where did you get your artifact?”

“Didn’t drop from monsters. When I was repairing my divine weapon, Master Lu threw it in as a bonus.”

“Wow, buy one get one free? Are NPCs really that generous? Give me a dozen!”

“I want to collect quest items, see if I can trigger something with Master Lu.”

“You wish. So far, apart from Professional Certificates, I haven’t seen any other quest items drop.”

“Why are all the good things never mine? Life’s hard.”

“Don’t be sad, just pretend you never heard about it, heh heh.”

Get lost.

While everyone else bantered, Zhang Shan fought on alone, grinding for levels.

In less than half an hour, he reached level nineteen.

He quickly checked how much experience was needed for twenty.

Fortunately, it only took five hundred thousand. That shouldn’t be a problem—even without extra mini-bosses, just the four priest sentinels would be enough to get him there.

“I’m level nineteen now. From here to twenty is five hundred thousand experience. No problem. Once I solo the four sentinels, I’ll hit twenty.”

“Great! Let’s go, everyone—clear the mobs as fast as possible,” Storm Dominates the World said.