Soul Skill Book

Wang Hao's pupils contracted slightly.

He had thought Su Mu would refuse, make excuses, or say, "Why should you get to set the standard?" He had even prepared more taunts to back Su Mu into a corner.

But to his surprise, Su Mu hadn't hesitated at all.

A feeling of unease rose in Wang Hao's heart.

But he quickly suppressed it.

Impossible.

He had entered the nightmare dungeon himself and faced the fifth wave's elite monsters firsthand.

That oppressive feeling, that absolute power of high-level nightmare creatures, still made his heart tremble whenever he recalled it.

How could Su Mu, someone who had never even soloed a hard dungeon, possibly do it?

"What are the stakes?" Wang Hao raised his head, his arrogant expression returning. "Don't tell me the loser has to buy dinner or something. That's beneath us."

Su Mu thought for a moment, then said, "An E-rank soul skill book."

The crowd erupted again.

"A soul skill book?! Is he crazy?!"

"An E-rank soul skill book costs at least two hundred thousand Alliance Coins! That's way too much to bet!"

"Two hundred thousand... My parents don't even make that much in a year."

Wang Hao's expression changed too.

He knew perfectly well what a soul skill book was worth.

Once a dungeon master reached level 5, he could learn soul skills.

Soul skills gave dungeon masters a measure of control over the battlefield. Put plainly, they allowed the masters, who had always watched from the sidelines, to enter the fray and influence the battle.

Some soul skills could buff dungeon creatures, some could strike enemies directly, and others could affect terrain and rules.

But using soul skills required momentum. Killing monsters in trial dungeons didn't build momentum, so soul skills couldn't be used in trials.

In wild nests, secret realms, and other types of battles, however, soul skills were among a dungeon master's most important trump cards.

An E-rank soul skill book cost at least two hundred thousand.

"I can afford one," Wang Hao said coldly. "But what about you? What makes you think you can come up with something of equal value? That F-rank stone card of yours?"

Before Su Mu could speak, Li Ming stepped forward.

"I'll vouch for him." Li Ming's voice wasn't loud, but it was surprisingly firm. "An A-rank theme, Biochemical War, and an A-rank core card, the Biochemical Mothership. That should be enough collateral, shouldn't it?"

Wang Hao glanced at Li Ming, his expression changing repeatedly.

An A-rank theme and an A-rank core card would indeed be assessed at over two hundred thousand on the market.

"Fine." Wang Hao agreed through nearly clenched teeth.

But as soon as the word left his mouth, his eyes darted, and he suddenly sneered. "Still, an E-rank soul skill book is too low-end. If we're going to bet, let's make it a random-quality soul skill book."

The air around them froze again.

A random-quality soul skill book.

That was in a completely different league from an ordinary E-rank skill book.

An ordinary E-rank skill book had a fixed quality and a fixed price.

A random-quality skill book, on the other hand, granted a random skill ranging from F-rank to A-rank when opened. The higher the quality, the lower the chance.

Because the upper limit was so high, they were also extremely valuable. Any one of them on the market started at five hundred thousand. A "guaranteed-pool" random book capable of yielding an A-rank skill cost more than twice that.

"Wang Hao's raising the stakes."

"Su Mu won't agree to that, will he? Five hundred thousand is just too much."

Everyone's gaze focused on Su Mu.

Su Mu looked at Wang Hao, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

Raising the stakes?

Very good.

This suited him perfectly.

He had been worried an E-rank skill book wouldn't amount to much, but now Wang Hao had raised the value himself.

With a random-quality book, the chance of getting an A-rank skill wasn't high, but a B-rank or even an A-rank skill would be worth dozens of times the stake.

"Fine," Su Mu said, as casually as if he were agreeing on what to eat that evening.

Wang Hao froze.

Once again, he hadn't expected Su Mu to agree.

This isn't right.

This absolutely isn't right.

No matter how confident Su Mu was, he shouldn't have accepted a five-hundred-thousand bet so casually. That was enough money to change an ordinary family's fate.

Is he bluffing?

Yes, he must be.

Su Mu knows he can't win, so he's talking tough to make me lose my nerve.

Wang Hao quickly ran through these possibilities in his head, then said, "Su Mu, with this many people watching, you won't go back on your word when the time comes, will you?"

Su Mu smiled.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," he said. "With this many people watching, you won't go back on your word if you lose, will you?"

"Me?" Wang Hao looked as though he had heard the biggest joke in the world. "I'll lose? Don't worry. If I, Wang Hao, lose, I definitely won't go back on my word. But if you lose, don't even think about welshing."

"Of course." Su Mu nodded.

When he finished speaking, he called up his information panel, displaying his level and experience bar for everyone to see.

[Su Mu, level: 5, experience: 33%]

"According to your terms, I win if I reach the fifth wave and beat your result."

"In numbers," Su Mu said, "that means reaching level 6 with over 50% experience in the nightmare dungeon. You have no objection to that standard, do you?"

Wang Hao glanced at his panel instinctively and quickly tried to work it out, but the calculation was too complicated for him to figure out on the spot.

Still, Su Mu had put the standard out in the open, and so many people there had seen it. Even if Su Mu wanted to go back on it, he couldn't.

Besides, Wang Hao didn't believe Su Mu could really match his level.

"No objection." Wang Hao waved a hand, his tone confident.

The moment he nodded, Su Mu turned and strode toward the trial entrance.

The dark red nightmare light screen spread out before him, dull ripples spreading across its surface.

Su Mu reached out and pressed his hand against the light screen.

Hum...

His figure was swallowed by the dark red light.

"He's in! Su Mu really went in!"

"Damn... He just went in like that? Without preparing at all?"

"He only just finished the hard dungeon. His Soul Power hasn't fully recovered yet, has it?"

"Who knows? Maybe he has another trump card?"

"Trump card, my ass. Just watch. I bet he won't last past the second wave."

"No need to bet. Even S-rank Wang Hao could only last until the fifth wave. Su Mu will make it through three waves at most."

The students chattered among themselves, their eyes fixed on the nightmare light screen as they waited to see when it would spit out a disheveled figure.

In the data observation area farther away, several school administrators had watched the entire scene unfold.

"Too impulsive," the director of instruction was the first to say, his displeasure plain in his voice. "Youthful recklessness-someone provokes him, and he loses his head. He even dared to accept a five-hundred-thousand bet. He's an ordinary student; what will he pay with if he loses?"

"That boy Wang Hao too. How could he pressure someone like that in public?" the female teacher sighed. "They're students at the same school. Why did it have to come to this?"