Cleared: Normal · Goblin Camp

Su Mu looked down at the panel, weighing his options.

Thirty points of Soul Power were just enough to equip one E-rank card.

If he had an E-rank card in hand now, he could immediately add some fighting power to the dungeon.

Unfortunately, the academy's trial dungeons were mainly intended to let students undergo trials, and they didn't yield equipment or cards. Monster experience and level gains were all the trials offered.

For actual cards, materials, and rare items, one had to go to nests in the wild.

Su Mu shook his head and put those thoughts aside.

What he needed to focus on now was the final wave.

The fifth wave.

The rift appeared again, expanding farther than it had any time before.

A goblin far larger than others of its kind emerged from the rift.

It stood nearly two meters tall, its body knotted with muscle and its gray-green skin covered in dark scars.

It carried a massive spiked club studded with sharp iron plates, and every step it took landed with a heavy thud.

An elite goblin, level five.

Eight ordinary level-four goblins followed behind it.

This was the final wave of the normal trial: one elite and a gang of underlings.

Su Mu glanced at the elite monster's panel.

Name: Goblin elite (boss)

Rank: D

Level: 5

HP: 6500/6500

Attack: 400

Defense: 200

Speed: 120

Combat index: 4014

Skills: Heavy Strike (charges up before unleashing a powerful blow that deals 2.5 times damage), Berserk (increases attack by 50% when HP falls below 30%)

A standard D-rank elite template: high HP and attack, but slow, with an obvious windup to its movements.

Little Drill Wind's attributes completely outclassed its own.

Su Mu felt much more reassured.

Sure enough, the moment Little Drill Wind saw the elite goblin, a flicker of excitement flashed in his eyes.

He didn't even bother with the eight underlings. His figure blurred as he charged the elite goblin.

His short blade flashed coldly as it slashed at the elite goblin's neck.

But this time, he didn't kill it in one hit.

The spiked club blocked the blow in front of the goblin. The short blade struck its iron-bound handle, sending a shower of sparks flying.

The impact forced the elite goblin back a step and left a bloody gash on its arm, but it had indeed blocked the attack.

Little Drill Wind paused briefly, seemingly a little surprised.

Su Mu noticed it too.

This was the first time since Little Drill Wind entered the trial that he had failed to kill an enemy with a single slash.

The elite monster's HP and defense were indeed an order of magnitude higher than those of ordinary monsters.

Little Drill Wind's figure blurred as he attacked again.

This time, he didn't meet it head-on. Instead, he sped around the elite goblin, thrusting his short blade from every angle.

The elite goblin roared and swung its spiked club in a counterattack, but it was too slow. Every blow struck nothing but the afterimages Little Drill Wind left behind.

Little Drill Wind's blade, meanwhile, landed precisely on the elite goblin's back, knees, elbows, and neck. Every slash drew blood; every slash tore away flesh.

Su Mu could see clearly that Little Drill Wind was relying on pure combat instinct.

Spinning slashes, low slides, counterthrusts using his opponent's force-every movement was fluid and precise, full of a wildness honed through real combat.

By rights, the monsters in the school's trial nests had never undergone true Concept Bestowal. Their fighting styles relied entirely on instinct, and compared with dungeon creatures, they were like puppets facing living people.

But Little Drill Wind was different.

He was a yao.

In the world of Journey to the West, every yao with a name had fought its way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

After hundreds of years of cultivation and countless life-and-death battles, combat had long since been carved into their bones.

Even elite monsters couldn't hope to keep up with that kind of instinct.

In just a few breaths, the elite goblin had more than a dozen wounds on its body, each deep enough to expose bone.

It let out a roar of pain as its HP plummeted.

When it fell to 30%, the elite monster's eyes turned scarlet, a bloody hue spread across its skin, and its attack power soared.

Berserk.

Su Mu narrowed his eyes slightly.

But it made no difference.

Little Drill Wind didn't even change his rhythm. He sidestepped the spiked club, then swept his short blade upward in a reverse grip, driving it through the elite goblin's jaw and piercing its entire skull.

The blade emerged from the top of its head, and gray-green blood gushed out, mixed with brain matter.

The elite goblin's massive body stiffened in place, then toppled straight backward, crashing to the ground and raising a cloud of dust.

Level-five elite, slain.

At the sight, the eight level-four goblins were scared out of their souls and turned to run for the rift.

Little Drill Wind chased them down and finished off the remaining monsters with a few slashes.

Fifth wave, annihilated.

[Trial cleared: Normal · Goblin Camp]

Su Mu slowly let out a breath.

He had cleared the normal dungeon.

As for the time... he calculated it. From the appearance of the first wave of goblins to the annihilation of the last, it should have been only a few minutes in all.

That speed would definitely put him among the very best students in the entire school.

Su Mu glanced at his panel.

He was level four, nearly level five, and the same was true of Little Drill Wind. With a thought, he exited the dungeon space.

A flash of white light passed, and Su Mu reappeared outside the entrance to the trial grounds.

The white light before his eyes had yet to fade, but the clamor of voices outside the trial grounds was already filling his ears.

Su Mu stood where he was.

The entrance to the trial grounds was considerably quieter than when he had gone in.

Large numbers of students were still making their way over from the teaching building in twos and threes. Some looked through build guides on their phones as they walked, while others nervously rehearsed their dungeon's tactical plan in their heads.

And only a handful of people had already completed their clears.

Su Mu looked around but didn't see Li Ming.

The guy was probably still grinding through the last few waves of monsters in the dungeon.

In no hurry, he prepared to find a place to wait for a while.

Just as he took a step, his gaze suddenly stopped.

On the other side of the trial grounds entrance, a tall figure in white was emerging from the curtain of light.

Ye Qingxue.

Her pace was unhurried, and her expression was almost unchanged from before she entered the dungeon, as though she had merely gone inside for a quick look around.

Only the slight wrinkles at the hem of her white combat suit proved that she really had been in a fight.

As Su Mu saw her, she saw him too.

Their gazes met for an instant.

Ye Qingxue gave no response. She merely tilted her head slightly and looked away.

Then she turned and walked back toward the curtain of light.

She pressed her hand against the selection interface.

Several students nearby had already noticed what was happening.

"Ye Qingxue went back in? Didn't she just come out?"

"Wait, look... she chose Nightmare!"

"Nightmare?! She's already finished both Normal and Hard? It's only been a few minutes!"

"No way. Three minutes for the normal dungeon, and she was just as fast on Hard?"

Amid the chatter, the curtain of light abruptly changed color.

The pale blue curtain instantly turned dark red, slowly surging through the air like a clot of congealed blood.

The metal pillars on either side of the entrance hummed and trembled. Their fine blue lines of light turned dark red, interweaving into a more intricate sealing pattern.

Nightmare difficulty.