Steady

Everything could be postponed, except Investment Profit Sharing.

Ever since Lu PingAn awakened his "Investment" ability, his slots had been filled to capacity every single day.

Yesterday, he had given one to the cat, one to Senior Zhao Ying, and one to the mercenary standing before him, Xue En.

Among the returns from the invested target Xue En, the host is in a steady state. Calculating yesterday's investment returns now.

Obtained a small amount of Combat Fighting experience, a small amount of scouting experience, a small amount of Forbidden Knowledge (Taoist Arts), a small amount of weapon use experience, a trace amount of fate perception experience, a small amount of swimming experience, and a small amount of running (jungle) experience.

Lu PingAn felt both delighted and alarmed.

"He's a boxer and a soldier, isn't he? It should've been four or five Profession Skills at most. Why did it just flood the screen? Fifteen—no, sixteen types?! That's absurd."

Xue En's enormous experience share greatly expanded Lu PingAn's skill library at once, giving him many unfamiliar Lv. 1 skills.

Most delightfully, the shared comprehensive combat experience had forcibly pushed his Combat Fighting to Lv. 3. He could now be considered a fighting expert among ordinary people, despite barely having fought before.

"Combat Fighting? It's a core Profession Skill for several combat-oriented professions."

Lu PingAn had not yet taken on a related profession, so it could not be considered a Profession Skill and could not be turned into effective combat power.

But if he later decided to pick up an unarmed close-combat profession as a side path, it would be effortless.

The way Lu PingAn looked at him changed. This was no dark, skinny kid cursed by misfortune. He was clearly the finest leek in history.

Even with the dungeon's boost, such a huge share left Lu PingAn puzzled, so he asked his "portable old master."

After hearing Lu PingAn's account of the System Panel, Chris pondered for a moment before answering.

"He really is Tier 1, but he's at least simultaneously a Tier 1 soldier, Tier 1 detective, Tier 1 Taoist priest—scholar type—and Tier 1 boxer. He's in the accumulation phase. Those who have inherited a Secret Path love doing this."

This was another gap in his knowledge, so Lu PingAn casually asked a follow-up question.

"His ability is very unusual. It looks like a hereditary curse-like illness caused by some powerful source of contamination. Most likely, his family holds a Secret Path that can reach at least Tier 5. He's gathering components right now. Once he has them all, several Tier 1 professions will go straight to Tier 2, several Tier 2 professions will jump to Tier 3, and then he'll finally transition onto their unique profession path."

That already involved someone else's privacy and had nothing to do with him.

After learning a little, Lu PingAn had no desire to pry further. But Xue En himself could not calm down.

Xue En stared at the midday sun overhead, his face full of disbelief.

"I... I barely had any bad luck yesterday. I actually got through an entire day safe and sound."

No, no, no. You got dragged off by a python, bombarded with bird droppings, stepped into a mud pit, and got launched into the sky by an Aklis charging out of a blind spot. How did any of that count as safe and sound?!

Or rather, what kind of hell did you usually live in to think yesterday's chain of disasters was paradise?

"I can feel that the training paid off, but more importantly, I actually got a good night's sleep yesterday! Lu PingAn, your buff ability is incredible!"

After "Stamina Potion," "stimulant," and "Super Jin Kela," Lu PingAn's investment ability had now gained yet another function: sleeping pills.

The more exhausted people were, the more they thought. And the more deliberately they tried not to think about "negative emotions," the more likely those emotions were to erupt all at once.

Under the "double Life Force" state, Xue En remained at his most relaxed at all times and had finally gotten a good night's sleep.

"If possible, I'd like this buff for the next few days... It must be expensive, right? I've already taken advantage of you for one day."

Xue En felt awful. He wanted Lu PingAn's buff badly, but he genuinely had no money.

The seven hundred a day Lu PingAn offered was already quite low. If he had to pay for buffs too, he might end up losing money instead.

Abilities all came at a cost, and naturally, they also had a price.

An experienced hand like him understood the market. Such a powerful buff surely came at a great cost, so he could not bring himself to ask for it for free.

But how could Lu PingAn possibly let such a premium leek go?

"I'll give you buffs for free these next few days. Only when you're in good condition can you help me better."

Lu PingAn paused before smiling.

"If you feel bad about it, teach me more tricks and share some of your experience. You've seen it—I'm a complete rookie. I need experienced people to show me the ropes."

Xue En nodded. He nodded heavily.

"Oh, you're a second-year at Gu Da? I'm planning to apply to Gu Da too. Maybe I can start calling you Senior Brother now, Senior Brother Xue."

"So the most important thing in battle is understanding your own role? Senior Brother Xue, how do ordinary Gardeners fight? Do they all spend money to hire muscle? Uh, there aren't any combat-oriented ones? There are, but none at the lower tiers?"

"High-Tier Gardeners prefer positional warfare? I understand. That really would reduce my consumption."

"I need to carry ranged weapons at all times? Got it. I'll stock up when I head out. Are there any other tools I should always keep on hand? Take your time, I'll make a list."

The enthusiasm of a guide hired with money and an older brother voluntarily teaching a newcomer was naturally worlds apart.

Lu PingAn was paying the price of a rookie mercenary, yet had hired a conscientious beginner's mentor with a unique inheritance.

He learned while he practiced.

At that moment, standing within a small fence made from Monkey Shield Tree stumps, Lu PingAn smiled at the Aklis outside and waited for it to charge headfirst into the trap.

The newly born monster had limited experience and rigid behavioral patterns. It was nothing like the previous one.

Poisonous ivy wrapped around it and paralyzed it outright.

As it fell, its body gradually dissolved into drifting mist.

A flock of bizarre bird-beasts swooped down from the sky, countless in number and densely packed.

"Boom!"

A sudden explosion stunned them, and they scattered in every direction.

This was not Lu PingAn's Plant Grenade. He was not that extravagant.

Keeping tool packs stocked with Sonic Boom Grenades, Decoy Grenades, and the like was also Xue En's suggestion. Lu PingAn had specifically gone out to replenish his supplies.

Facing the dispersed flock, Lu PingAn only needed a simple handmade crossbow to harvest prey with ease.

When one of the birds fell to the ground, its hooked beak and fluffy face made it look somewhat like a miniature Griffin.

"Wine Lake Birds. They're bizarre creatures that exist as a trinity. Killing one doesn't solve the problem. But if one falls, the other two will definitely come to rescue it."

Lu PingAn did not even look at the fallen bird-beast or its rescuers. This place had long since become his "position."

When the bird-beast duplicates descended, the poisonous vines spread across the ground ended them.

"Hunting in a safe dungeon has never been a fair form of combat. We know how they fight and what they excel at, so it's never difficult to prepare targeted methods."

"Then are there unsafe dungeons too?"

"Most wild dungeons aren't regulated by the gods' power, so there's naturally no concept of safety. The greatest danger is actually the unknown monsters and rules inside. Scouts and pioneers always die the fastest..."

Lu PingAn silently nodded. Worried that he might accidentally stumble into a death trap, Big Cat had drilled him on this knowledge before, and explained it far more thoroughly than Xue En had.

Every dungeon was actually an extremely powerful contamination source, a self-contained Small World capable of eroding the surrounding world.

Successfully occupying the core through the power of the gods did not mean that "It" would no longer produce new contamination. Rather, the gods' power regulated and filtered its "contamination," allowing it to emerge only in ways the gods desired.

For example, the Aklis and Wine Lake Birds before them both had mythological prototypes, and both came from European folklore.

One was a giant elk of the same name, likewise possessing the fatal weakness that its legs could not bend and falling meant death.

The trinity Wine Lake Birds were the same, though much weaker than their mythological prototypes.

Maiden of the Forest caused local contamination to emerge in modular form, incarnating as monsters.

Not long after the monsters were born, they were killed by the rookie Secret Keepers, naturally reducing the dungeon's contamination.

"They're kind of stupid. The trap is so obvious."

"Newborns mainly rely on instinct. They possess some innate experience and combat instincts, but that's a good thing for us."

Having basic combat skills and instincts was a good thing? Lu PingAn was briefly stunned, then noticed the bird-beasts charging eagerly and understood.

"The things newborns know and their instincts for handling sudden situations are all similar, making it easier for us to slaughter them in large numbers with the same methods?"

"That's one of the benefits of rookie dungeons. In slightly larger dungeons, many monsters live for a long time and become extremely cunning and troublesome. They may even evolve powerful abilities."

Lu PingAn nodded. He recalled the Aklis from yesterday, over four meters tall, and compared it to the Aklis before him, less than two and a half meters tall and without a Mist Eye. They were not remotely on the same level.

"That one yesterday? It had lived for at least a year and evolved twice, raising a Tier 1 Aklis to nearly Tier 2 strength. Newcomers call ones like that 'Black Death Gods.' They really are rookie-killer monsters. As far as I remember, old beasts like that mostly hide in the most dangerous mountain ranges, and there aren't many of them."

Then how was it such a coincidence? It crossed an entire region and happened to appear before a rookie like me?

Lu PingAn glanced at Xue En, then said nothing.

"I admit, I may have thought we'd run into one. But a good result is a good result. Haha, we can even collect the extra bounty for an old beast, though it's not much—just a few dozen bucks."

After spending more time together, Xue En had become more lively. He could even force himself to keep going now.

Still, as he watched the energetic Lu PingAn, he hesitated.

Forget Tier 0. Even a Tier 1 combat profession should have overloaded after such frenzied killing, yet this young junior seemed as though nothing had happened.

But remembering that his contamination tolerance had also risen a level after receiving Lu PingAn's buff, and seeing that Lu PingAn was in excellent mental condition, he did not say anything unnecessary.

Lu PingAn himself felt a little uneasy. When he asked Chris whether he should be concerned about this, he received an unexpected answer.

"Can a little ditch contaminate the ocean? I told you before: contamination-detecting bracelets are completely meaningless to you, Lu PingAn."