118: Chapter 118 The Gunpowder Squad's Crazy Plan

On the third day of entering the instance, the trio advanced to the five-kilometer line north of Lakeside Town according to their plan.

There were no surprises in that day's battle. The combination of Blackrock Renegade and Summoner had become familiar; they lured the monsters in batches and defeated them one by one. Lin Rui's shotgun roared at close range, Hu Jinsi's long staff targeted the waist and knees, and Su Wan's Siren's Voice Collar disrupted the casting rhythm. The three collaborated seamlessly, advancing faster than expected.

Relying on the one-time contribution from the Blackrock Orcs, Hu Jinsi quietly saved up enough profession experience to reach level 16. A large number of new skills were beckoning him. But Hu Jinsi wasn't in a hurry; he planned to deal with the level-up after returning home.

But the real harvest of the battle was a special item that condensed beside the corpse of a Blackrock Summoner.

It was a rune bone, its dark brown bone polished until smooth. Hu Jinsi picked it up, and the attribute interface unfolded in his vision.

[Blackrock Blood Rune Bone]

[Item Type: Bloodline Contract Item]

[Effect: Embed the rune bone into the left chest (Constitution must be greater than 16); the rune bone shatters and merges into the bloodline, changing the user's bloodline to Orc bloodline (Blackrock Clan).]

[Item Description: A piece of wolf fibula polished, with a thin piece of obsidian inlaid in the middle, carved with Blackrock fire runes. A faint pulse can be felt when held in the palm. "This bone carries the will of Blackhand. Merge it, and you shall possess the Blackrock bloodline—and also bear the enemies of the Blackrock."]

The three of them read it in turn. Lin Rui weighed the rune bone and handed it to Su Wan. Su Wan stared at the description for a few seconds, her brows furrowing.

"Bloodline change," she said. "Not a fusion, but a complete transformation into an Orc."

This was completely different from bloodline potions. When a bloodline potion is consumed, the user's original bloodline fuses with the alien bloodline to form a hybrid. For example, when a human consumes an Orc bloodline potion, they become a half-orc, but essentially, the human bloodline remains dominant.

But this contract item completely turned a person into an Orc bloodline. Not only did they gain the talents of an Orc, but they also bore all the burdens of an Orc.

The attribute interface continued to unfold, displaying the complete list of racial traits after the change.

[Orc Bloodline (Blackrock Clan)]

[Attribute Adjustment: Strength +2, Constitution +1, Charisma -2]

[Blackhand's Might: Passive effect. Your melee and ranged physical critical strike damage is increased by 3%.]

[Tribal Call: Cooldown 3 minutes, instant cast, effective range 10-meter radius. Let out a Blackrock battle roar, increasing the critical strike chance of your next major attack or spell, and that of your allies (or your summoned pets/servants) by 5%, lasting 10 seconds or until consumed.]

[Demonic Blood Tempering: Passive effect. Your Fel damage reduction is increased by 2%. When you stand on fire or lava terrain, the duration of stun and fear effects received is reduced by 5%.]

[Blackrock Soul Forging: Passive effect. When you equip two-handed axes, two-handed hammers, or fist weapons, the critical strike damage of these weapons is increased by 2%.]

[Wolf Rider Inheritance: If you summon wolf-type creatures as pets or mounts, their dodge chance is increased by 3%.]

[Berserker Whisper: You are more susceptible to enchantment/illusion spells (-2).]

[Appearance Adjustment: Your skin will turn grayish-brown within 4 weeks. Cheekbones widen, brow ridge protrudes, mandible grows laterally, and fangs sprout from the position of the upper canines. Body hair increases, hair texture becomes coarse and stiff. Iris color turns dark red or amber. This change is irreversible; even if you abandon the power of the Blackrock bloodline later, your appearance will not revert.]

Su Wan finished reading the last line and suddenly realized.

"So that's it." She returned the rune bone to Hu Jinsi. "『Berserker Whisper』, more susceptible to enchantment/illusion effects. That's why the Crown of Madness controls Blackrock Orcs so easily every time. This race is naturally susceptible to being influenced and controlled by spells."

"Seven racial traits," Lin Rui counted. "Five positive, two negative."

"But these two negative ones outweigh the five positive ones combined," Hu Jinsi said.

Indeed. The 『Berserker Whisper』 -2 resistance to enchantment/illusion meant that in front of a caster of the same level or even one rank lower, the holder of this bloodline was more ridiculous than the Emperor's New Clothes.

Once an illusion spell was cast, there was almost no possibility of resistance. And the irreversibility of the appearance adjustment completely blocked any path of retreat.

"Do we have some kind of fate with Orcs?" Lin Rui threw the rune bone back into Hu Jinsi's hand. "The only two bloodline-related items that have ever dropped are both Orc bloodlines."

"I hope it can sell for a good price," Su Wan said. "If the price is good, we can afford the Beast Taming Bag."

"But honestly," Lin Rui shook his head, "Even if a Summoner profession Awakening Stone or a Renegade profession Awakening Stone dropped, it would be worth several times more than this thing."

"Having a drop is better than having nothing." Hu Jinsi put the rune bone into his backpack.

On the fourth day of entering the instance, which was also the last few hours before leaving.

The three of them got up earlier than before. Just past five o'clock, before the sky was fully bright, Hu Jinsi had already climbed out of his sleeping bag and walked lightly to the fireplace to add firewood.

Lin Rui and Su Wan also got up one after another, washed, and packed their equipment. The Direwolf Cub lifted its head from the sleeping mat, its amber eyes shimmering in the dim light, clearly confused by the erratic schedule of these three humans.

"We're farming Gnolls today," Hu Jinsi divided the naan bread into three portions. "I'll try to get another skill stone for you before we leave the instance."

Su Wan took the naan and took a bite. "Just farm slowly. Anyway, Lesser Shadow Ray is just a cantrip; if worse comes to worst, we can buy it later when we have money."

"Save where we can," Hu Jinsi said.

Today's direction of advancement was opposite to the previous few days. The three moved southwest from Lakeside Town, targeting the valleys and foothills where the Gnolls appeared. The activity area of the Dark-Skinned Gnolls was more concentrated than that of the Blackrock Orcs, and the density was not low.

They didn't have the habit of hiding either; they appeared swaggeringly, relying on their numerical advantage to attack passing targets with 『Rabid Bite』.

The battle lasted from early morning until ten in the morning. Hu Jinsi's staff flew among the pile of Gnolls, specifically targeting those fangs with a diseased sheen. Su Wan's Siren's Voice Collar continuously emitted interference sound waves, causing the rhythm of the spellcasters among the Gnolls to become chaotic.

Lin Rui's flamethrower spewed a cone of flame at close range, instantly igniting several Gnolls that pounced up, and the stench of scorched fur permeated the air.

But the most frequent consumption was not ammunition, but the antidote for rabies.

Every time he was bitten by a Gnoll, as long as rabies was triggered, Lin Rui would gulp down at least one vial of the rabies antidote brewed by Hu Jinsi.

The dark brown liquid poured out of the glass bottle, emitting a pungent scent mixed with rotten grass roots and scorched leather. Lin Rui pinched his nose and gulped it down, a suppressed dry heave coming from his throat.

"That's the thirtieth vial," he wiped his mouth and threw the empty bottle back into his backpack.

Hu Jinsi stood upwind of him, keeping a safe distance. The potion was highly volatile, and the taste remaining in the mouth could spread within a range of several meters. He watched with his own eyes as Su Wan silently moved three steps to the side after Lin Rui finished the medicine.

But the price of thirty vials of potion was not in vain. Shortly after nine o'clock, beside the corpse of a Dark-Skinned Gnoll Arcane Mage, a gray-black skill stone finally condensed.

[Skill Stone · Shadow Bolt]

Su Wan picked it up, rubbing her fingers over the surface of the stone a few times. She let out a long sigh of relief, the corners of her mouth curling up.

"Finally got it. No need to rush for the rest for now."

The light of the forced teleportation dissipated, and the three people and one wolf stood at the instance exit.

The crowd watching this week had noticeably decreased. Most students had already heard about the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad carrying a Direwolf Cub; the novelty had passed, and the enthusiasm for gossip had faded along with it.

But there were still some students from other schools who hadn't come last week and had just started clearing this instance this week, seeing the Direwolf Cub for the first time and finding it novel.

"Can we take a picture together?" A girl wearing glasses approached, holding a terminal in her hand.

"Sure," Hu Jinsi nodded.

He and Su Wan stayed in place, accompanying Xiaoquan Yilang to deal with these enthusiastic classmates. The Direwolf Cub was surrounded in the middle, its iron-gray fur shimmering with a dark golden luster in the sunlight.

Its ears were perked up, its pupils carrying a kind of exhaustion from being forced to work, but it never showed any aggression. Lin Rui went to the teacher to report the instance progress first, avoiding the awkward situation of being surrounded.

After dealing with the crowd, the three took the wolf back to the No. 1 Middle School assembly point. There were significantly more students from No. 1 Middle School this week; as everyone's levels slowly increased, more and more people met the minimum entry requirements for the Lakeside Town instance.

The Pear Garden Squad also said on Friday that if things went well, they should be able to enter this instance next week.

As soon as Hu Jinsi arrived at the No. 1 Middle School assembly point, he was strongly condemned by everyone.

"Hu Jinsi! Is this medicine meant for humans to drink?"

"It's like having a dead fish in my mouth for three days!"

"When the wind blows, you can smell it ten meters away!"

The condemning crowd spontaneously divided into two groups. One group was those who had drunk the medicine; as soon as they opened their mouths, that strange, rotten mixture of herbal smell wafted out.

The other group was those who hadn't drunk it; in order not to be fumigated by this smell, they stood far away, keeping a distance of at least five meters from those who had drunk the medicine.

Hu Jinsi spread his hands, his expression sincere.

"The cost of this potion is only two credit points per dose," he said. "What else can you expect from me?"

Someone in the crowd shouted: "Then can you improve the taste?"

Hu Jinsi shrugged. "Unfortunately, I am a Monk, not a professional pharmacist. Learning recipes and making medicine is already my profession's limit. If you want to improve the recipe, you should see if there are any professionals in the school willing to take a shot."

Most students were actually reasonable. In this era where even cold medicine costs a dozen credit points, a potion that cures rabies only costing single-digit credit points—what else could they say?

Although those who came to this instance were students with relatively high levels in the school, high levels and full wallets are two different things. After complaining, they still had to drink it until they no longer needed to farm this instance.

Hu Jinsi squeezed out of the crowd and walked towards the squad meeting point. From afar, he saw Lin Rui and Su Wan standing next to the three members of the Gunpowder Squad, their expressions dazed, as if they had heard something unbelievable.

Hu Jinsi walked over quickly and put his arm around Zhou Hao's shoulder.

"What story?" he asked. "I didn't hear the beginning, keep telling me."

Before he could continue to cozy up to them, Lin Rui and Su Wan simultaneously extended their fingers, blocking their lips, and made a "shh" gesture at him.

Zhou Hao waved his hand nonchalantly. "Actually, there's no need to be overly cautious. Because as soon as we get some loot, everyone will know what we've actually been up to."

"What on earth is it?" Hu Jinsi was completely confused.

Lin Rui turned his head from the side, his voice lowered to a whisper: "They went to farm Black Whelps."

Hu Jinsi froze for a moment. He turned to look at the three members of the Gunpowder Squad, his gaze sweeping from Zhou Hao's face to Li Hao, and then to Chen Yu. Then, he spoke in surprise: "Not bad, you guys tease us every day about hiding our strength, but it turns out you are the ones hiding the deepest. Farming Black Whelps as a full team and still managing to get out unscathed—you guys are the real bosses."

"They used RPGs to farm them," Lin Rui added.

Hu Jinsi looked at Zhou Hao, puzzled: "Can you break even?"

Zhou Hao nodded. "We can break even. We specifically calculated it. According to what everyone shares on the forum, the average loot value of a single Black Whelp is two hundred credits. The price of one RPG is ten thousand credits. As long as we ensure that we can gather more than fifty Black Whelps together when luring the mobs, then that one shot won't result in a loss."

"How many did you fire?" Hu Jinsi asked, somewhat incredulously.

Li Hao, beside him, happily held up one hand and spread his five fingers: "Five shots. Five whole shots."

"That means you eliminated at least two hundred and fifty," Hu Jinsi pressed. "Did the situation not change? Did they just let you kill them freely, without triggering any other events?"

Chen Yu added for the two of them: "The reason we fired five shots wasn't because we only brought five. It's because after the fifth RPG hit, those Black Whelps didn't take any damage at all."

"There was a magical glow on them, and the RPG damage became ineffective," Chen Yu said. "The three of us don't have any magic-type classes, so we only saw the glow but couldn't identify what spell it was. We were also afraid of triggering other mutations, so we stopped there."

Hu Jinsi was silent for a moment. He remembered his analytical deduction from that night: where there's a nursery, there's a nanny. The Gunpowder Squad's encounter, to a certain extent, verified his hypothesis. Five RPG shots, two hundred and fifty Whelps—it triggered some kind of protection mechanism.

"You guys use RPGs like this," Hu Jinsi looked at Zhou Hao, "has no one told you about the concept of Class Deviation? Aren't you afraid it will affect your future advancements?"

"Lin Rui was just explaining that to us when you came over," Zhou Hao said. "But it actually doesn't matter. My class is already Firearms Expert. How much more could I deviate by using an RPG? Will the only class available to me when I advance be Heavy Weapons Expert?"

He paused and shrugged nonchalantly: "Anyway, for me, using all these weapons is my core skill. No matter how much I deviate, it just means I won't have class experience with pistols for my future advancement classes, and I'll only be able to use large-caliber weapons. It's nothing."

Hu Jinsi thought about it. Indeed, for Zhou Hao, this impact was negligible. Following the Gunpowder Squad's current train of thought, Zhou Hao was already heading down the path of large-caliber firearms; this Class Deviation might even help him lock in his direction.

"I can't learn that," Hu Jinsi shook his head. "This playstyle is too extravagant."

The risk was indeed high. The Gunpowder Squad had the Mechanic Chen Yu, who could use remote-controlled equipment to gather mobs and detonate the RPGs from a safe distance. But the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad didn't have that capability. If they had to gather the mobs themselves, no one could withstand the concentrated fireball attack of fifty Whelps.

Su Wan chimed in from the side: "Then did you drop any good items? After all, that's at least two hundred Black Whelps."

The three members of the Gunpowder Squad shook their heads one after another. Zhou Hao's face wore a complex look of regret: "We were betting that these would have high-value drops. But it turned out there was nothing. To be more precise, there wasn't even a single piece of equipment. Really, it was just the materials from their bodies. Although we didn't lose money, it still feels like a loss. It's rare to come up with a tactic like this, only to have no extra rewards."

Su Wan comforted him: "You can't think like that. Two hundred Black Whelps every dungeon run—with such a large base number, maybe you'll get something in a couple of weeks."

Zhou Hao smiled bitterly. "We can only console ourselves with that now. After all, we didn't lose money, so we'll just take it slow."

The bus engine emitted a low roar in the distance, the doors opened, and the students began to board one after another. Hu Jinsi patted Zhou Hao on the shoulder, said nothing more, and the group walked toward the bus.

...

As everyone had arrived, they boarded the bus for the return trip one after another. Hu Jinsi sat by the window, with the Direwolf Cub curled up on the floor by his feet, its iron-gray fur rising and falling slightly with the bumps of the bus.

The seats in the carriage were gradually filled, the roar of the engine starting up came from beneath his feet, and the bus gave a gentle jolt before it began to drive back along the road.

Hu Jinsi was also quite moved. As everyone's levels increased, the differentiation of these tactics would become increasingly apparent. When levels were low, they could still borrow each other's playstyles, but as they leveled up, other teams' tactics became increasingly difficult to replicate for squads with different class compositions.

The Jack-of-All-Trades Squad's advantage in the early stages was that they knew a little bit of everything. Their squad had Su Wan, so they could implement the tactics of other squads with spellcasters; they had Lin Rui, so they could also use firearms to attack like the Gunpowder Squad.

As for Hu Jinsi himself, with so many specializations under his belt, he was confident that in a one-on-one fight, he could defeat any physical-side melee class of the same level, even S-rank ones.

But this flexibility was very effective in low-level games; the higher the level, the more difficult it became to replicate tactics. Every playstyle required corresponding equipment and skill support. At low levels, everyone had basic gear, so copying each other had no barrier to entry.

But once everyone had formed their own specialization systems and equipment routes, it was almost impossible to temporarily switch to someone else's playstyle.

Hu Jinsi looked at the fields rapidly retreating outside the window and decided not to think about these annoying matters for now. He took out his terminal, opened the local news page, and checked the latest progress status of [The Cathedral] dungeon.

Unsurprisingly, it was all good news. According to the news reports, the phantom of The Cathedral had shrunk to fifty percent of its peak size. Those areas that had been displaced by spatial compression were gradually returning to their original positions due to the contraction of The Cathedral's space, but the damage to the buildings certainly couldn't be restored.

Several commercial buildings in the center of Wei City had previously been squeezed crooked; although they were no longer shifting, the cracks in the walls and the shattered glass curtain walls obviously couldn't be repaired just by the space rebounding.

Hu Jinsi quickly browsed through a few related reports, confirmed there were no new casualty reports, and closed the news page. He leaned back in his seat, eyes half-closed, swaying gently with the bumps of the bus.

...

Considering that next week was the May Day holiday, there certainly wouldn't be any school-organized dungeon operations. Hu Jinsi began to consider where he should go during the May Day holiday.

Actually, Hu Jinsi really wanted to continue going to the [Wonderful Adventure] dungeon to exchange for the remaining useful skills. But considering that the May Day holiday wasn't very long—the same as the previous Qingming Festival holiday—the back-and-forth travel would be too tiring, so he postponed the time to go to the [Wonderful Adventure] dungeon until the summer vacation.

So he opened his terminal and wanted to search for any interesting dungeons in other cities near Wei City, perhaps he could get Lin Rui and Su Wan to go with him.

After opening the terminal and using the filter and search functions, Hu Jinsi discovered that the closest city to Wei City was actually Daibei City, which required a half-day drive. This result deviated significantly from Hu Jinsi's memory.

Hu Jinsi began to mutter to himself: "That's not right. Two hundred kilometers next to Wei City there should be... where did all the other cities near Wei City in my memory go?"

But the next second, just like the countless times before, before Hu Jinsi could continue thinking, this train of thought in his mind disappeared inexplicably. It was as if someone had used an eraser to wipe clean the name, location, and even all related images of that city in his mind, leaving not a trace.

Hu Jinsi quickly accepted the fact that the closest city to Wei City was Daibei City. His expression didn't change, and his eyes didn't flicker, as if the confusion from that moment had never happened.

...

He lowered his head and continued to scroll on the terminal screen. His fingers tapped a few characters on the virtual keyboard.

He sent a message to Zhen Jin: "Zhen Jin, what are the recommended dungeons currently organized by schools in your Daibei City?"

After sending the message, Hu Jinsi didn't pay any more attention to it. Because he wasn't sure which day the schools in Daibei City organized students to enter dungeons, and he didn't even know if Zhen Jin was inside or outside a dungeon right now.

Hu Jinsi wasn't too anxious either; in any case, there were still a few days of class next week before the May Day holiday, so there was still time.

He leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and began Deep Meditation.

True Qi circulated slowly within his body, rising from the Dantian, passing through the Shanzhong point, sinking into the Qihai, and then spreading to his limbs. The bumps of the bus were like a cradle with a fixed rhythm, allowing his consciousness to quickly sink into a semi-conscious state. The sound of the wind outside the window and the hum of the engine gradually became distant, leaving only the sound of his breathing and heartbeat rising and falling rhythmically in the darkness.

Before the bus had driven back to the First Middle School, Hu Jinsi's terminal emitted a ding-ding-ding-ding notification sound. He opened his eyes and checked it; it turned out that Zhen Jin had sent the list of dungeons they had been going to recently over to Hu Jinsi.

[Dragonman Tower] [Access Level: 11 to 18] [Recommended Party Size: 1-4 people] --- [Unparalleled Hulao Pass] [Access Level: 12 to 20] [Recommended Party Size: 1-5 people] --- [Dark Martial Arts Tournament] [Access Level: 13 to 22] [Recommended Party Size: 1-5 people]