The man in black fell silent too.
With their breadth of experience, they had naturally seen countless highly difficult class advancement quests.
Every full member of Heavenly Dragon had been a one-in-ten-thousand monster back in their day.
Even so, Lu Fang's quest was still absurdly excessive.
The middle-aged man in gray robes could not help saying,
"Earn ten million in twenty-four hours. The basic objective looks manageable."
"After all, with his ability to speedrun dungeons, farming materials and equipment drops should let him scrape together ten million without much trouble."
"But the problem is the ratings beyond that."
"Fifty million for S."
"One hundred million for SS."
"Five hundred million for SSS."
At that point, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Has this class advancement crystal gone insane?"
"For his first class advancement quest, it wants an eighteen-year-old class holder to generate five hundred million in earnings within twenty-four hours, without using existing assets or accepting help?"
"Is this even meant for a human?"
The man in black said evenly,
"The class advancement crystal doesn't make mistakes."
The middle-aged man in gray robes looked at him.
"Of course I know the class advancement crystal doesn't make mistakes."
"But this quest is far too difficult."
"At his level, even the two of us combined couldn't earn an SSS rating on this quest."
He paused, then added,
"Forget SSS. Even SS would be a stretch."
Had an outsider heard those words, their jaw would have dropped.
What sort of beings were Heavenly Dragon members?
They were monsters who stood at the very pinnacle of the Dragon Nation's entire class system.
Yet now, a member of Heavenly Dragon had personally admitted it.
At the same level, even the two of them combined would struggle to earn an SS rating on Lu Fang's quest.
This was no longer ordinary difficulty.
It was beyond the scope of the test.
The man in black said thoughtfully,
"The greater a class's potential, the harder the quest the class advancement crystal assigns."
The middle-aged man in gray robes fell silent.
Naturally, they knew that rule.
Class advancement quests were not random.
They generated the most suitable trial based on the class holder's class, potential, ability structure, and past performance.
The stronger the class, the harder the quest.
The more monstrous the person, the more outrageous the assessment.
In a sense, the quest's difficulty was itself a reflection of potential.
The middle-aged man in gray robes looked at the screen of light again, his gaze gradually changing.
"So..."
"The class advancement crystal believes Lu Fang's potential is so great that it needs a quest of this caliber to match it?"
The man in black did not deny it.
The middle-aged man in gray robes drew in a sharp breath, then his expression grew grave.
"This is trouble."
"If he only completes the basic objective and gets an ordinary rating, he can still advance his class, of course."
"But if he doesn't get an SSS rating, it could seriously hold back his future ceiling, given the level of potential his class has."
"If his first class advancement rating is too low, it means a substantial chunk will be missing from his very foundation."
The man in black silently watched below.
On the streets of Jiang City, Lu Fang had already left the Class Center.
Seen from high above, his figure was unremarkable.
Compared with the countless pedestrians in the city, he even looked somewhat slight.
But at that moment, both members of Heavenly Dragon knew very well.
This eighteen-year-old youth was standing before the first great hurdle of his life.
If he cleared it, he would soar.
If he failed, his first class advancement rating would suppress a portion of his potential.
Elsewhere.
Lu Fang did not act immediately.
He had to work out what to do first.
If he only wanted to complete the basic objective, ten million dragon coins would not be difficult for him.
But his goal had to be SSS.
"Earn five hundred million in twenty-four hours."
"There are too many restrictions."
The most direct method was farming dungeons.
With his current strength, he could steamroll level 100 Hell-difficulty dungeons.
The equipment and rare materials dropped by bosses were worth a fair amount.
Hell difficulty in particular offered drop rates and quality far beyond those of ordinary dungeons.
But the problem was that large quantities of ordinary materials might be a fortune in the eyes of an average class holder.
The only truly valuable things were the core materials, rare equipment, and special items dropped by bosses.
Even if he farmed nonstop for twenty-four hours without resting for a single minute, selling the drops alone would probably net him a little over one hundred million dragon coins at most.
That was far short of the five hundred million required for SSS.
Lu Fang frowned slightly.
If simply selling materials would not work, he needed to increase the returns on those materials.
He quickly thought of the quest area in the Class Center.
Various merchant associations, potion workshops, equipment workshops, and research institutions posted procurement quests there year-round.
Some rare boss materials might only fetch a few million if sold directly to a dealer.
But if a merchant association happened to urgently need that material and posted a dedicated quest, the price might double or even multiply several times over.
Examples included a particular boss's heart core, some special mineral crystal, or a potion base that only dropped on Hell difficulty.
If he farmed those things with specific targets in mind, then matched them to high-priced procurement quests in the quest area, his earnings would definitely be much higher than from simply farming random dungeons.
But Lu Fang soon shook his head again.
"Not enough."
Even in the most optimistic scenario.
Farming nonstop for twenty-four hours and pushing his earnings to two hundred million would already be extraordinary.
But that still left him a full three hundred million short of five hundred million.
He had to change his approach.
Lu Fang continued thinking.
"Carry people through dungeons?"
He dismissed the idea as soon as it occurred to him.
His dungeon speedruns did not rely solely on the Money Ghosts' strength.
They also relied on his own movement speed.
The terrifying movement speed provided by the Rich Man's Boots let him progress through dungeons far faster than class holders of the same level.
Often, what truly limited his clear speed was not the strength of the monsters, but the distances across the map.
If he took people into a dungeon, they would not be able to keep up with his pace at all.
Forcing himself to carry them would only slow down his clears.
Besides, the quest restrictions stated very clearly that he could not accept gifts or assistance.
If someone deliberately paid an inflated price to help him complete the quest, the class advancement crystal probably would not count it either.
Lu Fang rubbed his brow.
For the first time, he truly felt a bit of a headache.
It was not that he could not win.
He simply was not fast enough.
If only he could farm multiple dungeons at once.
The moment that thought surfaced, Lu Fang suddenly stopped walking.
Wait.
Farm multiple dungeons at once?
A gleam suddenly flashed through Lu Fang's eyes.
That's right.
I have ten Money Ghosts.
The Money Ghosts were summons.
They could act independently, carry out his orders, and fight on their own.
In theory.
Ten Money Ghosts, plus himself.
That made eleven combat units.
If each combat unit could enter a dungeon on its own...
Then he would not be farming dungeons alone.
He would be farming eleven dungeons simultaneously all by himself!
Lu Fang's heartbeat briefly quickened.
The idea was crazy.
So crazy that ordinary class holders would never even think along those lines.
Because even if ordinary summoners had summons, they could not let those summons stray too far from them, much less enter dungeons independently.
"Why not give it a try?"