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"Bang!"

Without hesitation, he slammed a fist into the wooden support pillar. Fine cracks spread across it, and the entire underground cavern began to shake violently!

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Underground, with the earth around them beginning to tremble, Zhao Min's face went pale. She shouted at Li Xunsheng.

"Don't worry. It won't spread to our side."

He took two steps back and calmly watched the earth beneath them gradually collapse. Then Xuan Sheng turned around to face the furious girl, a thought flashing through his mind.

Hmm, this is a good opportunity. Since her brother isn't here, I might as well try to fix this girl's personality while I can.

"Heh heh heh... Now, there are only the three of us down here..."

"You... What are you going to do?!"

The man's expression suddenly turned sinister. Zhao Min instinctively sensed that something was wrong, and her body tensed.

"Hmph, don't mess around. With that little body of yours, I can send you packing with two fireballs!"

"Is that so? But what if I have Qingyi's help? You've been spouting nonsense all the way here, brat. I'll make sure you don't see tomorrow's sun!"

Wanting to tease the arrogant girl, the young man put on a fierce expression and began slowly approaching her.

"How would Qingyi listen to someone like you... Huh? Qingyi! No, don't..."

Just as the girl was about to refute the man's foolish idea, she saw the Qingyi she idolized silently draw a dagger, her face terrifyingly calm...

"Mm..."

The previously overbearing girl had completely lost her earlier haughtiness. Her body trembled as she covered her head and let out a frightened whimper.

"Hahaha, you really do look more pleasing when you're acting like a bullied little coward. Be more careful, girl. There are no laws restraining anyone in this game world. If you keep talking nonsense, you really will die."

Laughing heartlessly, Xuan Sheng pinched Zhao Min's cheek. Faced with her helpless yet furious expression, he felt a strange, wicked delight and grinned broadly.

"But Yi Qing, you really went along with it... Didn't you think I might actually attack her?"

Xuan Sheng had guessed that Yi Qing might stand by and watch, but he hadn't expected her to draw her dagger outright and take his side.

"We're in a party. Obviously, you were joking."

Yi Qing silently put away her dagger. She had seen through this little trick from the beginning.

It was merely a lesson to keep the cute girl from talking nonsense, and she was willing to cooperate.

"You... You jerk!"

Noticing that the party status among the three of them hadn't been canceled, the red-haired girl, her face flushed with embarrassment, lightly tapped the detestable man with her staff. She then hid behind her Qingyi and pulled faces at Xuan Sheng.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack..."

A grating sound of breaking and grinding rang out. With the crucial support points destroyed, the support structure became increasingly difficult to maintain and finally collapsed completely. The supports below shattered one after another like dominoes, and the unstable cavern gradually began to cave in...

['Golden Shovel' killed 'Kobold Soldier', War Merit +10]

['Golden Shovel' killed 'Kobold Soldier', War Merit +10]

['Golden Shovel' killed 'Kobold Squad Leader', War Merit +100!]

A series of system notifications began ringing out. As the three of their experience bars shot upward, Li Xunsheng—the culprit behind everything—was judged by the system to be the source of all the damage, so all the War Merit was credited to him alone.

[Lv.up!]

As their experience bars continued rising, blue radiance successively lit up above the three of them. Including the kobolds they had killed while exploring below earlier, the massive amount of experience sent everyone into a chain of level-ups!

"How many kobolds are there down here...?"

Her experience bar kept rising. Zhao Min had never experienced such an effortless way of leveling, and she instantly forgot her earlier displeasure, turning instead to rejoice over her growth.

As long as she reached level ten, she could change classes immediately!

Just a little more... Level nine! Yes!

"It stopped."

Yi Qing looked regretful as she stared at her experience bar, which was less than twenty percent short of reaching Lv.10...

[ Ding. All kobolds inside the Kobold Fortress have been killed. Among the teams that completed the mission, the player ranked first in War Merit will receive the legion's hidden reward. ]

[1. Golden Shovel — War Merit: 1290]

[2. Qingyi — War Merit: 930]

[3. Princess — War Merit: 690]

Originally, Yi Qing had unquestionably held the top spot in War Merit.

Unfortunately, after Li Xunsheng triggered the hidden trap and buried every kobold in the fortress, all the War Merit went to him. He immediately gained nearly a thousand War Merit.

"Is that all? What a pity. Brother wasn't here and missed this chance to level up."

Apparently savoring the joy of watching her experience bar surge, Zhao Min shook her head, feeling a little sorry for her elder brother, who had left the party long ago.

"Head back?"

Yi Qing was only a little experience short of reaching Lv.10, but all the kobolds in the fortress had already been wiped out. She only wanted to leave as soon as possible, finish leveling to ten, and then complete her main objective of changing classes.

"Let's go. There's no way for us to continue and obtain more information."

The gold coins and equipment were all buried beneath the earth. Xuan Sheng regretfully glanced at the completely blocked cavern before silently turning around.

Following the hints given by the Eye of God, he already knew the reason for the kobolds' urgency.

They had come here to excavate an extremely important treasure, and that treasure seemed to be connected to the deity of this place.

If they hadn't taken a shortcut by using the trap to bury the entire fortress, but had instead made their way to the end step by step, they might have had a chance to learn more about that divine treasure.

However, no matter what, a treasure of that level was not something the players could touch at present.

Rather than expend tremendous effort and waste time just to obtain a quest clue, Xuan Sheng would much rather lie back and earn a large amount of experience for free.

That was why he had smashed the support and sent the kobolds to their doom.

Now, after gaining a massive amount of experience, he had already reached level eight. He wasn't far from completing the mission, reaching level ten, and avoiding being erased by the system.

"Hey, want to add me as a friend?"

After returning to Lone Star City by carriage, Zhao Min had failed to get Yi Qing's friend request. She could only walk over to Xuan Sheng with a sour expression and ask him grumpily.

"What, you want me to carry you? Let me tell you, you won't be getting a share of this kind of good fortune next time. Next time, I'm teaming up with Yi Qing and leaving you out. You can forget about leeching experience off us."

He had already helped her as much as he could. As for whether this girl could survive afterward, Xuan Sheng had no intention of caring.

"You... Who asked you to help me?! I was the one carrying you, all right?! Are you adding me or not?!"

The shameless man's damage was clearly less than half of hers, yet he wore a dead-fish-eyed expression as though she had begged him to carry her. Zhao Min instantly lost all her earlier gratitude and felt her teeth itch with irritation. She wished she could bite this shameless bastard.

"Tsk, fine. You're a weak girl, so I suppose I should pity you. Since you're begging me like this, I'll add you as a friend."

The young man raised his head. Looking at the girl's puffed cheeks and gritted teeth, her mind filled with fury but unable to vent it, the corners of his mouth rose wildly.