All the strategist's thousands of words weren't worth a single "I'll think about it" from the goddess.
The moment Wang Junjie received Ruoxi's message, joy spread across his face.
He showed the chat record to Strategist Zhuge and asked, "Strategist, help me analyze this. Does she mean that as long as I cripple Rulebound, she'll sleep with me?"
Strategist Zhuge adjusted his glasses and took advantage of the moment, "Brother Jie, in my humble opinion, this looks more like a test for you. She probably wants to use this chance to see just how capable you really are."
"If we fail again this time and can't deal with Rulebound, then Brother Jie, I'm afraid you'll never get a second chance to see this Ruoxi again."
Thinking back to the encounter in the tavern of Blazing Ember City, remembering the breathtakingly beautiful face of that archer girl named Ruoxi, Wang Junjie immediately became anxious and restless.
"No way! I have to sleep with her!"
Strategist Zhuge seized the chance to continue, "Then Brother Jie, listen to me this time. I guarantee that this time we'll win in one strike. Completely cripple Rulebound and make sure he'll never recover."
"And after this, you'll definitely become famous in a single battle. You'll overturn all the public opinion on the internet about our Chaotic World Guild. And you'll also win the goddess's heart."
"One move, three gains!"
In the end, Wang Junjie was moved.
"Fine!"
"This time I'll listen to you! I'll hold it in a little longer and wait until everything's fully prepared before making a move!"
"Then give me a time. When exactly will it be ready?"
Strategist Zhuge said, "As long as the funds are in place, give me just tonight. Even if I don't sleep at all tonight, I'll definitely gather enough materials to reinforce the Poisonous Sets for all the brothers in the guild."
"Good!", Wang Junjie blurted out without even thinking, "Money isn't a problem."
"As long as we can cripple Rulebound this time, it doesn't matter how much it costs. I've got plenty of money anyway."
"You handle this for me! I'll give you five million first. When the job's done, I'll give you another five million! That's a separate reward just for you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Junjie immediately transferred five million to Strategist Zhuge on the spot.
When Strategist Zhuge received the transfer, he was so excited his heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest, "Thank you, Brother Jie!"
"Don't worry, Brother Jie! This time, I, Strategist Zhuge, will either succeed or die trying."
Wang Junjie sneered, "Rulebound! Liuli! You adulterous pair, just wait!"
"This time, I'll make sure the both of you lose your reputations completely and never recover again!"
———
[South of Blazing Ember City]
[The Level 48 Dungeon, Scorpion Empire]
Inside an imperial city area formed by enormous nests, countless giant scorpions the size of tanks, their bodies radiating shadowy auras, roamed freely through the place.
The difficulty of this dungeon was unprecedented.
Because this time, the opponents they faced had an enormous level gap.
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[Shadow Demon Scorpion] (Magic-type · Normal Monster)
— Level: 48
— Magic Attack: 5250
— Physical Defense: 3400
— Magic Defense: 3500
— HP: 55,800
— Skills: Ambush (D-rank), Pierce (D-rank)
— Weakness: Shadow Demon Scorpions possess hardened magical armor capable of resisting 30% of magic damage. However, if they are struck by physical attacks within 1 second after receiving magic damage, the physical damage dealt to them increases by 30%.
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After Lin Mo used the SSS-level Eye of Insight to analyze the monster and shared the data in the team channel, Ling Xiao, Qin Feng, and Xia Wanwan, who had entered the dungeon at the same time, all sucked in cold breaths.
"The strength of this attack and defense is already comparable to a level 30 third-tier BOSS."
"My god! A single mob is basically a BOSS?"
"That's terrifying."
Of course, that was from the perspective of the three of them, who were only level 31–32 at the moment.
Just like how the level 50 NPC army under Lin Mo had looked like a group of BOSS monsters to the Chaotic World Guild players when they were only around level 30.
As a result, their guild of ten thousand people had been completely helpless in front of those thousand soldiers and was wiped out with ease.
The dungeon objective remained the same: Kill three hundred Shadow Demon Scorpions and the dungeon BOSS, the Scorpion King.
No time to waste.
"Let's get to work."
With that, Lin Mo raised the level 35 third-tier golden-quality Poisonous Crossbow and locked onto a Shadow Demon Scorpion ahead, launching an attack.
Frost · Grip of Extreme Cold!
Whoosh!
The arrow of extreme cold cut through the air and precisely pierced through the body of the Shadow Demon Scorpion in front.
-11980! (Frozen)
Seeing that this SSS-level single-target skill only shaved off about one-fifth of the Shadow Demon Scorpion's HP, Lin Mo was slightly surprised.
"Even with 920 agility, it didn't crit? Are level 48 monsters really this resistant?"
"And their defense is seriously thick."
After speaking, Lin Mo followed up with another attack: Blaze of Heaven · Wildfire Spreads, combined with Heaven-Slaying · Seven-Star Volley.
Two SSS-level skills burst out on the frozen Shadow Demon Scorpion.
-20856! -4171 (Burn)
-4675!
-7223 (Critical)
-7440 (Critical)
Roar!
With a wail, the Shadow Demon Scorpion collapsed onto the ground, dead.
By using the skill effect of Frost · Grip of Extreme Cold to trigger a 40% defense break and 30% damage amplification, and combining it with the 30% burn damage amplification from Blaze of Heaven · Wildfire Spreads, Lin Mo's follow-up damage clearly increased a lot.
Although in Qin Feng and the others' eyes, Lin Mo instantly killing a level 48 monster could only be described with three words, "Against the heavens!"
"Monstrous!"
"Freak!"
But, even with a full set of level 35 third-tier golden Poisonous gear equipped, and after using three SSS-level skills, he had only barely managed to take down this ordinary scorpion.
Instead, this made Lin Mo feel pressure like never before.
He realized it wasn't that he was weak. The level 48 monsters were simply too far above their level.
At this moment, Ning Xi made her move beside him.
Boom!
Boom!
A C-rank Fireball and a C-rank Ice Spike blasted toward a magic scorpion, instantly triggering two enormous damage numbers—
-29425!
-28138!
Seeing that even under the tenfold damage amplification, Ning Xi still needed two skills to kill a single scorpion, compared to before, when a single normal attack had been enough to harvest a monster, it seemed somewhat weak.
Only then did Lin Mo finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Good thing I'm not alone."
[Ding~ Your teammate Rulebound has killed a level 48 Shadow Demon Scorpion. You gained EXP +114000 (Base 50% + Level Gap 140%)!]
[Ding~ Your teammate Liuli has killed a level 48 Shadow Demon Scorpion. EXP +114000!]
In the backline, after receiving the battle notifications, Qin Feng and the other two exploded with excitement again.
Qin Feng: "Holy crap! The EXP from these level 48 mobs is this insane? Yesterday I killed a level 32 elite monster and only got a hundred thousand EXP."
Ling Xiao: "High risk, high reward. That saying really isn't wrong!"
Xia Wanwan: "Oh my god! Just two mobs… my EXP bar went up by 5%!"
Amid the excitement, Ling Xiao said, "Since we can't help in the fight, let's go pick up the drops. At least we can contribute somehow!"
Ning Xi didn't use reward amplification.
Because before clearing the dungeon, the chance for Shadow Demon Scorpions to drop crystal cores was only 1%.
Only when a crystal core dropped from a Shadow Demon Scorpion would activating reward amplification be truly worth it.
So with Black Gold · Strong-Maned Pig tanking at the front, the two of them began killing the Shadow Demon Scorpions one by one.
Although their monster-killing efficiency wasn't nearly as smooth as when they had been clearing the Corrosion City and Poison Swamp dungeons before, this time, however, Lin Mo's expectations were higher than ever.
Because Ning Xi's talent had unlocked reward amplification.
And the extra first-clear rewards for the first ten dungeon runs didn't depend on rating. As long as the dungeon was cleared, the rewards could be obtained.
Which meant: as long as Lin Mo's team of five cleared the Scorpion Empire dungeon, they could obtain five first-clear gift packs.
Then let Ning Xi open all of the gift packs and trigger the tenfold reward amplification.
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