Sea of Trees Instance Dungeon.
"Smack!"
[ Ding! You killed a Green-Armored Mantis (LV4), experience +40 ]
[ Ding! Points +1, current points: 10 ]
After tearing a mantis bigger than a person in half, Jiang Yuan's points reached 10.
He bent down and picked up a green steel blade shaped like a scythe from the materials dropped by the giant Green-Armored Mantises. It was covered in serrations and gleamed coldly.
"This feels pretty useful."
Jiang Yuan held the scythe and swung it twice. Its sharp blade flashed past, instantly slicing a thick, highly resilient vine in half.
Nodding with satisfaction, Jiang Yuan looked around.
"I didn't expect this Instance Dungeon to be so big. I've been heading deeper for ages, and I'm still on the outskirts."
"The monsters are way too weak."
"Wait, did I go the wrong way?"
Jiang Yuan scratched his head as he wondered.
He wasn't directionally challenged, but this area was filled with giant trees, making it difficult to tell which way was which. It was easy to take a wrong turn, and there wasn't even a map of the Instance Dungeon.
Jiang Yuan looked troubled. "It'll be a pain if I went the wrong way."
"Should've learned a scouting skill."
He sighed.
He couldn't open the Star Domain Network to trade anymore, so he had to try something else.
He bent his knees, gathered his strength, and pushed off hard.
"Boom!"
The hard ground caved in and burst apart. Jiang Yuan shot into the sky, leaving a faint sonic boom in his wake. He only began to slow down after reaching a hundred meters above the ground.
He drove the green steel blade in his hand into a thick tree trunk, then looked into the distance.
"It's the same scenery everywhere. Which way am I supposed to go... Hm?"
He looked in one direction.
Flickering firelight from an explosion could be seen in the distance.
"Boom!"
"Bang!"
Jiang Yuan approached the area.
More than ten Goblin Warriors wielding clubs, shields, and axes were closing in on three students.
Two boys and one girl—the standard combination of a warrior, a Great Shield, and a mage.
The female mage didn't seem to have much combat experience. She frantically launched fireballs, but the large Goblin standing at the front blocked every one.
"Stay back! Stay back!"
Once her mana ran out, the three of them would be surrounded and killed.
"Zhang Xuan, calm down!" the male warrior shouted. "This isn't working!"
"Damn it, all we did was kill one Goblin. How did so many suddenly show up?!" The thick-browed Great Shield was drenched in cold sweat. "What do we do now? I don't want to be eliminated this early."
As the two boys were still trying to figure out what to do, things got worse.
The girl stopped casting and slumped to the ground, exhausted.
"I-I can't go on..."
A group of Goblins emerged from behind the large Goblin. They looked at the students with wicked grins.
"%￥&@34%#!...(Can't go on, can you, foolish humans?)"
"◎★▲△■※￡¤￠℃...(Prepare to die!)"
"%￥#@...(Let's get them! Grab that woman!)"
"Damn it!"
The male warrior gritted his teeth and used Thrust to rush forward, blocking the club aimed at the girl.
"Urgh... They hit hard! Help me!"
The Great Shield hurried forward and used Taunt to draw the attacks, but the large Goblin smacked him aside, sending his shield flying.
The warrior deflected the Goblin in front of him, activated a skill, and was enveloped in a blood-red glow.
"Blood Rage! And now, Earth-Splitting Cleave!"
Gripping his greatsword with both hands, he swung it down hard. The blade cut through the Goblin's tough body, opening a deep gash and draining most of its health bar.
"#@...(Aah!! It hurts like hell!! You damn human demon!!)" The wounded Goblin let out a piercing scream of pain.
Just as the male warrior was about to deliver the finishing blow,
the Goblin seemed to be struck by something invisible. Its scream abruptly stopped, its eyes popped, and its health bar instantly emptied.
The male warrior froze, then his eyes widened.
No way! Someone stole his kill?!
You've got to be kidding.
He'd been counting on the experience from killing this monster to level up!
Suppressing his anger and agitation, he turned to look around. He quickly spotted Jiang Yuan sitting on a Stone a hundred meters away.
"Hey, classmate, you're a candidate too, right? How about we form a party?"
The male warrior stifled his anger at having his kill stolen and forced a smile as he called to Jiang Yuan.
What he really wanted was to lure Jiang Yuan over to draw the Goblins' aggro, giving them time to escape.
"You can see how dangerous it is here. If you're alone, you'll be eliminated in no time. Why don't we all party up? The experience..." He was cut off by a Goblin's attack before he could finish.
The female mage and the Great Shield had spotted Jiang Yuan too. As if they'd seen a glimmer of hope, they pleaded desperately:
"That's right! Come on, classmate, let's party up!"
"I can block their attacks and absorb the damage. The four of us can definitely take down these Goblins... Ah!"
"If you help us, I... No, I could be your girlfriend! Look..." The female mage pulled open her robe, revealing a trembling expanse of pale skin to Jiang Yuan.
The sight made the warrior beside her seethe with rage.
That little tramp!
He'd fawned over her for ages, spending money and doing everything for her before she agreed to be his girlfriend. He hadn't even held her hand yet, and now she was showing her breasts to a stranger just like that...
Jiang Yuan yawned, his expression unchanged. Their words didn't affect him in the slightest, and he had no intention of helping.
They were all competitors. Why should he help them?
It was generous enough that he hadn't eliminated them himself.
Actually, it'd be even better if they were eliminated.
Then all these monsters would be his.
Seeing what Jiang Yuan was up to, the male warrior lost his temper. "You're really going to stand by and watch us die?! And you stole my kill, you—"
Before he could finish, the large Goblin brought its club crashing down. He had no choice but to crush the Teleport Stone in his hand.
"I can't hold out either..."
The female mage closed her eyes in despair. Before the Goblins could bring their axes and clubs down, she crushed the Teleport Stone in her hand and vanished in a flash of white light.
"Damn it!"
With all his companions gone, the Great Shield had no choice but to crush his Teleport Stone, however reluctant he was.
After the three of them left,
Jiang Yuan finally stood up from the Stone. He looked at the group of experience... no, Goblins in the distance and smiled.
"They're finally gone. Now I don't have to worry about sharing the experience."
The Goblins yelled furiously and smashed everything around them.
"%!$# ...(Damn humans, where'd they go?)"
"@#!$# ...&...(Come out!)"
"Swish!"
A green flash of a blade came out of nowhere, slicing through a Goblin's body without resistance.
In an instant, its health bar emptied!
It didn't even have time to react before its body was cut in half.
"!$# ...(Who's there?!)"
The other Goblins immediately fell into an uproar, letting out piercing shrieks.
"Whoosh!"
A gust of wind roared past.
Jiang Yuan appeared among the Goblins. He swung the green scythe in his hand in a wide arc. Accompanied by a sharp whistling sound like glass being sliced apart, a curved flash of green swept through the area, instantly cutting several Goblins in half!
Even without using any skills, Jiang Yuan's monstrous attributes made any ordinary attack enough to kill low-level monsters like these.
[ Ding! You killed a Goblin (LV5), experience +50 ]
[ Ding! You killed...]
The system notifications kept ringing.
"#!$# &...(It's the human demon!)!"
"△■※￡¤￠℃...(You coward! Come out!!)"
The remaining Goblins shrieked and swung their clubs at Jiang Yuan, the weapons whooshing through the air.
"Thud, thud, thud!!"
The attacks rained down.
-1, -1, -1, -1.
Jiang Yuan didn't even need to dodge.
He casually swung the green scythe, cutting down every last Goblin. Even the large LV8 Goblin, with over ten thousand health, had its health bar emptied by a single hit.
Every one of them was killed instantly with a single strike!
"More junk materials."
"The experience is way too low."
Looking at his experience bar, which had only reached 50% at LV9–LV10, Jiang Yuan couldn't help sighing.
"Second-tier beasts give a lot more experience."
"Ugh..."
He picked a random direction and continued deeper into the Instance Dungeon.
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