133: Chapter 133: 20,000 steps a day should be reasonable for a dire wolf.

While eating, Hu Jinsi suddenly remembered to calculate the time; tomorrow should be when Lin Rui and Su Wan exit the [Unparalleled Hulao Pass] dungeon.

He put down his spoon and pulled out his communication terminal to check the calendar. Today is May 3rd, tomorrow is May 4th, the day after tomorrow, the evening of May 5th, he has to return to Wei City, and school starts on May 6th. The schedule was indeed quite tight.

Since the seafood congee at this place tasted quite good, Hu Jinsi took out his communication terminal and sent a message to Lin Rui and Su Wan, arranging to meet at this shop tomorrow at noon to discuss their follow-up plans.

He wrote down the shop's name and address in detail in the message and attached a photo of the seafood congee he had just taken. The congee in the photo was still steaming, with fresh shrimp and scallops appearing faintly in the rice porridge, looking very appetizing.

He hoped they would see it as soon as they exited the dungeon, because tomorrow was already May 4th. Calculating the time, the three of them had to return to school for classes on the 6th, so there definitely wasn't enough time for Lin Rui and Su Wan to restart another round of the [Unparalleled Hulao Pass] dungeon.

After Lin Rui and Su Wan came out tomorrow, Hu Jinsi could ask about their plans. If they didn't want to grind dungeons, they could wander around Daibei City and return with Hu Jinsi on the evening of May 5th.

Although Daibei City was a coastal city, besides the commercial district around the dungeon entrance, there were quite a few natural attractions in the surrounding area. Hu Jinsi had visited during the winter break before; whether it was the beach or the wildlife park, they were both good places to visit.

If Lin Rui and Su Wan didn't want to continue grinding dungeons, taking them to these places would make the trip worthwhile.

If they wanted to participate in dungeon activities, Hu Jinsi could consider taking them both to the [Temple of the Jade Serpent] first. Although it might not necessarily yield achievements, the scenery of the [Temple of the Jade Serpent] made it a great place to visit and relax as a casual dungeon.

At the very least, Hu Jinsi thought the scenery inside the [Temple of the Jade Serpent] surpassed many paid tourist attractions. Being able to use dungeons as sightseeing spots was a rare perk for professionals of this era.

Hu Jinsi recalled the first time he went to the [Temple of the Jade Serpent], he was stunned by the ancient ginkgo trees and the bluestone steps inside.

The tranquil atmosphere of that thousand-year-old temple was a completely different world from the fast-paced life outside. If Lin Rui and Su Wan hadn't been there, taking them to see it would indeed be nice.

...

Before leaving the seafood congee shop, Hu Jinsi casually placed an order online for a pet pedometer, setting the delivery date for May 6th, the first day of school after the holiday. The delivery location was the school's reception office.

He spent a long time browsing the professional mall before finally choosing a waterproof and shockproof model; after all, a Dire Wolf's activity level couldn't be compared to an ordinary pet.

As for the intensity, Hu Jinsi didn't care too much. After all, in just over two months, the Direwolf Cub would no longer be a cub and could participate in combat. At that point, the pedometer would be useless.

As for the daily step count for the Direwolf Cub, Hu Jinsi really couldn't find any information. After all, the Dire Wolf was not a common domesticated dog breed.

He had searched his communication terminal for a long time, but all the results were about exercise recommendations for dogs like Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes. For an extraordinary creature like the Dire Wolf, there was simply no information available online.

However, Hu Jinsi found that Alaskan Malamutes were recommended to take 16,000-18,000 steps a day, which was about 9-11 kilometers. Hu Jinsi glanced at the Dire Wolf's physique and decisively increased the number to 20,000 steps; after all, it was only natural for a wolf to run more than a dog.

He looked down at the Dire Wolf. This guy was still licking the bottom of the bowl, completely unaware of the fate awaiting it. Its iron-gray fur shimmered with a soft luster under the lights, and its amber eyes would occasionally glance up at him before it buried its head back into eating.

Anyway, taking advantage of the fact that the Dire Wolf couldn't speak yet and had no chance to refute him, Hu Jinsi happily made the decision.

The corners of Hu Jinsi's mouth curled up slightly as he imagined the sight of the Dire Wolf wearing the pedometer. 20,000 steps a day should be reasonable for a Dire Wolf. If it couldn't reach that, he would have to find ways to increase its other exercise.

Meanwhile, the other party involved, our Xiaoquan Yilang, was lying at Hu Jinsi's feet with a round belly, acting cute and showing loyalty to its owner/alpha wolf, completely unaware of the ordeal it would face in a few days.

The little Dire Wolf let out a burp, rubbed its head against Hu Jinsi's calf, and let out a satisfied whimper. Its belly was round like a little ball, forming a stark contrast to its agile posture while running earlier.

...

On the way back to the dungeon after the meal, Hu Jinsi calculated the time. His progress in this round of the [Dark Martial Arts Tournament] had reached the Round of 16. From the Round of 16 to the final, if he could win all of them, that meant four more matches.

He calculated as he walked. Round of 16 to 8, 8 to 4, semi-finals, finals—four matches. If each match went smoothly, two tonight and two tomorrow, the time would indeed be sufficient. But if he encountered a troublesome opponent and it dragged on too long, he might have to adjust his plans.

Just then, there was a supermarket on the way back, so Hu Jinsi went inside and bought a large box of energy bars. He had been terrified by that feeling of being so hungry his stomach was sticking to his back earlier.

He spent a long time picking in front of the shelf before finally choosing a high-protein, high-carbohydrate mixed flavor pack. There were twelve bars in a box, with various flavors like chocolate, peanut, and oatmeal, enough to last him for a while.

Although there were still plenty of high-calorie foods like burgers, pizza, and hot dogs in his backpack, compared to those main meals that required slow digestion, Hu Jinsi felt that energy bars were more reliable.

Energy bars were small in size, high in calories, didn't need to be heated, and were convenient to eat. When fighting in the dungeon, he could munch on one during halftime and replenish a lot of energy in just a few minutes. Compared to main meals that required sitting down to eat slowly, energy bars were indeed more suitable for this kind of high-intensity, continuous combat.

Hu Jinsi paid the bill, stuffed the energy bars into his backpack, and continued walking toward the dungeon entrance with the Dire Wolf. The night grew darker, the neon lights of the commercial street began to flicker, and the beam of light at the dungeon entrance was particularly striking in the darkness.

...

He teleported back to the preparation room with the Dire Wolf, rested briefly, and then started the Round of 16 match.

For the Round of 16 match, Hu Jinsi encountered the Mo Xiao Team again.

Since he was already familiar with the opponents' tactics this time, Hu Jinsi found the fight very easy.

Even the most troublesome one from last time, the monster "Jin" who could fly in the sky, was caught by him half an hour into the match; he aimed and hit it with a single [Spirit Gun].

After the monster was hit by the [Spirit Gun], it lost its balance and fell from the sky. Hu Jinsi didn't give it any chance to catch its breath and charged straight at it.

Of course, facing the monster that had been knocked down, Hu Jinsi certainly wouldn't give it a second chance to fly again. Ignoring his own Chi consumption, he immediately unleashed a combo: [Flurry of Blows] + [Touch of Death] + [Flurry of Blows].

His fists fell like raindrops, each strike precisely hitting a vital point. The monster didn't even have time to steady itself before it was beaten into total helplessness by the continuous attacks. The final [Touch of Death] severed its life force, and the monster's projection dissipated into specks of light.

As for the remaining few, Hu Jinsi could basically ignore the ones using mist and illusions. For the one playing with freezing air, Hu Jinsi had basically learned to ice skate; although not smooth, he could manage to charge in front of the opponent to output damage.

As for the remaining one playing with earth/stone defense + binding, and the one playing with runes + gravity application, Hu Jinsi didn't give them time to unleash their full power; he used a blitz attack at the start to send them all away.

Anyway, regarding these skills that he couldn't exchange for in the short term, Hu Jinsi had absolutely no patience to slowly deal with them. The sooner the battle ended, the sooner he could rest.

In just over an hour, Hu Jinsi completed the five-man sweep and successfully won the Round of 16 knockout match. He returned to the preparation room for a short rest, recovered his physical condition, ate something, and then continued with the quarter-final match.

...

For the quarter-final match, Hu Jinsi ran straight into the Toguro Brothers Team. When he heard Zhen Jin talk about his experience before, he thought Zhen Jin was joking when he said he had encountered the Toguro Younger team in the Round of 16.

He didn't expect this dungeon to be so unreasonable; these match schedules were completely randomized and calculated in real-time.

If some team were unlucky enough to encounter the team currently in front of Hu Jinsi in the very first round of the knockout stage—a tiny probability—wouldn't that mean wasting their 15-day cooldown instantly? That would be truly frustrating.

After all, no matter which team it was, when coming to this dungeon for the first time, they might not be able to handle the sudden increase in difficulty from the qualifiers to the Toguro Younger team.

It was just a pity that this battle against the Toguro Brothers Team didn't trigger any special duel storyline. Hu Jinsi honestly fought a gauntlet match against them on the gravel field.

The Toguro Brothers Team was said to be a 5-person team, but in reality, only four people participated. The other person, just like the Direwolf Cub on Hu Jinsi's side, did not participate at all.

The first person, or rather the first monster, to fight for the Toguro Brothers Team was known as Karasu in everyone's data. He was a long-range explosive damage dealer who specialized in demolition.

His ability was to release Demon Energy bombs in his normal state. In his burst state, he would self-destruct; he was a senior expert in the art of explosion.

Basically, it could be understood that this monster "Karasu" could condense invisible Demon Energy bombs. These Demon Energy bombs included timed ones, homing ones, and triggered ones. People without sensory means couldn't see these Demon Energy bombs.

But it just so happened that Hu Jinsi's perception was at the maximum value before transcending, which was 20 points.

Therefore, the Demon Energy bombs that this monster Karasu placed on the arena were as obvious as traffic lights on the road to Hu Jinsi; it was truly the kind of thing that was hard not to see.

Before the battle began, Hu Jinsi had already discovered the opponent's little tricks; the opponent was laying Demon Energy bombs on the field while the match hadn't started yet.

Hu Jinsi stood in the center of the gravel field, closed his eyes, and felt the flow of Chi around him. In his perception, the Demon Energy bombs on the field were like glowing markers—red, yellow, and blue—distributed in every corner.

The timed bombs emitted a steady pulsation, the homing bombs moved slowly, and the triggered bombs lurked under the ground like landmines.

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly; this level of trap was simply child's play to him. Therefore, he didn't call out the opponent's little tricks, or rather, even if he did, no one would care.

But after the match started, Hu Jinsi didn't even give this monster a chance to show the self-destruct ability mentioned in the data; he dodged all the Demon Energy bombs and beat this guy to death on the field with a few strikes of his staff.

Objectively speaking, if this monster hadn't encountered Hu Jinsi, its ability would actually almost counter melee classes like Lin Rui's; after all, there were few melee classes that had perception as their main attribute, so it was a really harsh counter.

Perhaps Su Wan could rely on her perception of sound waves to discover these bombs condensed from Demon Energy when facing this monster, but for Lin Rui, there was no other choice but to walk through them head-on.

Hu Jinsi shook his head and cast the thought out of his mind. Now was not the time to think about these things; the next battle was about to begin.

...

The second person the opponent sent to the field was unexpected to Hu Jinsi. Originally, Hu Jinsi thought the second one to come up would be Bui, the heavy-armored melee monster in their team. As it turned out, it was actually Elder Toguro. He was a purely evil and perverted monster, and this guy's fighting style was a bit more disgusting.

Its body tissue could be twisted at will, its limbs could stretch freely, and its fingers and torso could lengthen and sharpen, turning into sharp blades to pierce enemies. Simply put, you could think of it as an alternative version of Dr. Richards from the Fantastic Four.

In addition to this ability to distort its own flesh at will, this guy also possessed super-strong regeneration abilities; even if his limbs were detached from his main body, they could still crawl back to the main body to reorganize.

Of course, it was not as strong as the regeneration ability of Deadpool from Marvel; his severed limbs still relied on the existence of the main body, and if the severed limbs were far away from his head and torso, these severed limbs would also deactivate within a period of time.

What made his enemies even more frustrated was that this monster would sometimes split many small pieces of flesh from its own body, throw them around the combatant, and then rely on the bodies of these pieces to launch sneak attacks, disrupting the opponent's rhythm.

Hu Jinsi felt a chill when he saw Elder Toguro enter the arena. The appearance of this monster made people feel uncomfortable; its body was constantly deforming like a melting wax figure, its fingers and torso twisting in the air, emitting an ear-piercing, grinding sound.

If it had been the day before, Hu Jinsi might have really been troubled about how to deal with this disgusting and troublesome guy.

But the problem was that he had just finished the finals against their team in the previous dungeon run this morning.

Also facing Toguro Younger's somewhat perverse physical recovery ability, Hu Jinsi already knew that his [Touch of Death] could severely restrain the recovery ability of their monster bodies.

Therefore, this match was just like the previous match against Karasu, ending very quickly.

Although Elder Toguro still followed his usual routine at the start, throwing out pieces of his own body, and then transforming his hands and torso into sharp shapes, attempting to attack and harass Hu Jinsi.

But Hu Jinsi didn't fall for this at all, directly using [Chi Torpedo] to get in front of Elder Toguro, and starting off with four consecutive [Touch of Death] strikes directly on Elder Toguro's head.

[-28], [-27], [-28], [-26]

Four damage numbers floated up from Elder Toguro's head; its body trembled violently, and its twisted limbs danced crazily in the air. It tried to counterattack with its deformed limbs, but Hu Jinsi's speed was too fast, and all its attacks missed.

At first, Elder Toguro's state was still that of an indifferent attitude, as if he didn't care about being attacked. But immediately after, he realized that every part that had been hit by Hu Jinsi's [Touch of Death] had already lost its ability to recover in a short time.

The expression on Elder Toguro's face changed from confidence to terror. It tried to urge its demonic energy to heal the wounds, but those parts hit by [Touch of Death] were like being sealed by some kind of force, completely unable to heal.

Before Elder Toguro could even think about running away, Hu Jinsi followed up with a [Nanto · Dragonfly Slash], completely separating its head from its body, causing massive bleeding and dismemberment damage.

Then he followed up with the final blow, [Touch of Death], completely smashing this disgusting guy on the ring.

As the final blow landed, Elder Toguro's head completely lost its vitality. And the other body parts that had lost the head also gradually lost their vitality after moving for a while, slowly collapsing to the ground.

Actually, regarding the way to restrain his immortality, it wasn't just the one Hu Jinsi used. On the forums, everyone had summarized various ways to restrain this kind of immortality; whether it was fire, holy water, holy light, or lightning, they could all weaken his immortality to a certain extent.

Hu Jinsi compared it silently in his heart. Although Elder Toguro's regeneration ability was troublesome, it was still far inferior to the top-tier regeneration monsters in the anime from his past life.

Cell's regeneration was at the cellular level; as long as one cell survived, it could fully recover; Majin Buu was even more exaggerated, as he could instantly restore himself even after being blown into pieces. Elder Toguro's regeneration ability would completely fail as long as the head or main body was severed; this weakness was too obvious.

After all, an enemy with simple, strong recovery power that couldn't be killed would eventually be figured out by people. Only by developing one's own unique fighting style combined with this recovery power can one establish an effective career path.

Strong warriors from hundreds of years ago might not have had any way to deal with trolls with strong recovery, only being able to think of trapping or sealing them. Now, even unawakened junior high students, like Su Qing and Su Yu, could learn schemes to restrain these monsters in textbooks.

...

However, after this match, Hu Jinsi didn't show off on the field anymore, but quickly ran back to the waiting area with the help of the rules, starting to meditate urgently to recover his Chi.

After all, in the burst just now, in order to achieve a quick victory, he had used up more than half of the Chi in his body. And he didn't know who would be on stage next, so it was safer to fully recover.

Hu Jinsi sat cross-legged on the mat in the waiting area, closed his eyes, and began to adjust his breathing. During the meditation process, he could feel his body rapidly absorbing the surrounding energy, replenishing the consumed Chi. Similarly, he also felt a hint of hunger coming from his stomach.

Hu Jinsi, with his status fully restored, returned to the arena again. Of course, since there was still some time allowed by the rules, he walked onto the stage slowly while taking the opportunity to stuff a hot dog into his mouth.

After all, the recovery of this Chi was the same as the recovery of the number of times Spirit Gun could be used; it couldn't be created out of thin air. Hu Jinsi didn't know what it felt like when Su Wan and the others restored their spell slots, but he often heard Su Wan say that if they restored too many times in a day, their heads would hurt.

But Hu Jinsi always felt very hungry after recovering his status. Therefore, he wasn't sure about other things, but the only thing he was certain of was that it was hard for the Monk profession to produce big fat people; after all, the consumption was truly huge.

Or to put it another way, only big fat Monks were the strong ones among Monks, because being able to retain so much fat and muscle on their bodies proved that their endurance must be very strong.

Hu Jinsi chewed on the hot dog while thinking about this strange logic. His own physique was currently on the thin side; although his muscle definition was obvious, his body fat percentage was not high. He was so hungry after every battle that his chest stuck to his back; if he could really eat his way into being a big fat guy, maybe his endurance would indeed be stronger.

Perhaps in the future, he could pay attention to some specializations that could enhance the body's ability to absorb nutrients. Although it would cost some physique and attractiveness, as long as he was strong enough, even if he wore his underwear on the outside, others would have to admit he was Superman, and even if he had no hair, others would have to admit he was Superman.

He shook his head and threw this absurd thought out of his mind. Now was not the time to think about these things; his third opponent had already taken the stage.

...

Now, the third opponent was the heavy-armored melee monster Bui mentioned earlier. He wore heavy armor from the old era, held a huge iron axe, and had an exceptionally tall and sturdy body. This look was unique even in this dungeon filled with monsters.

Bui stood at the other end of the field, nearly three meters tall, covered in heavy black armor, revealing only two eyes glowing with red light. The iron axe in his hand was at least two meters long, the blade gleaming with the light of demonic energy, each swing bringing up a gust of wind.

This type of enemy was also the one Hu Jinsi hated the most, because his unarmed attacks would be greatly weakened.

Even though this monster was described in everyone's data as having clumsy movement, often failing to dodge in the face of extremely high-speed continuous raids, only knowing how to attack head-on, not understanding flanking tactics, etc.

But for Hu Jinsi, he always had an embarrassing problem when facing this type of enemy: his unarmed attacks could barely break through defenses.

Even though his hands were now considered +1 sharp weapons when attacking, being able to easily cut through an enemy's skin didn't mean they could cut through an enemy's armor. At least not at his current level; perhaps one day in the future, when his unarmed attacks could be considered as hard as adamantine, would it be possible not to fear this type of heavy-armored enemy.

Therefore, the only solution was to rely on the ironwood staff in his hand to strike this enemy stick by stick, slowly grinding down its health.

Unsurprisingly, he fought for nearly half an hour in this battle. Even though the monster didn't have any effective chances to counterattack throughout the whole process, Hu Jinsi's staff hits were mostly [-1], [-1] type damage, with only very rare instances of [-2] damage.

Coupled with the need to offset the monster's own recovery power, Hu Jinsi could actually only deal three to five points of damage to this type of enemy per minute.

Mainly because the enemy wasn't a real wooden dummy; he still had to dodge the giant axe infused with demonic energy that the monster swung hard from time to time. Overall, the efficiency just couldn't be improved.

Although Bui was clumsy, every axe swing carried immense power. Hu Jinsi didn't dare to take it head-on, only able to dodge constantly with his agile movement. Sometimes when an axe came down, it would split a crack in the ground, sending gravel flying. Hu Jinsi had to be distracted to dodge these flying gravels, and his attack rhythm was interrupted quite a bit.

The ironwood staff hit the armor, making a clanging metallic sound, like the sound of blacksmithing, stimulating Hu Jinsi's mind. Although many true gods had emerged from the blacksmithing world, their fates weren't very good; none of them died of old age, and Hu Jinsi didn't want to get himself into this unlucky small group.

Actually, halfway through the fight, Hu Jinsi had taken out the [thunder spirit bead (fake)], wanting to give this guy a few lightning missiles.

As a result, he watched helplessly as the lightning missile hit Bui's battle axe and was deflected by the demonic energy shield on the axe surface, flying toward the edge of the field. The missile exploded on the wall, leaving a patch of scorch marks, but it didn't cause any damage to Bui at all. Hu Jinsi was dumbfounded by this situation.

Although he was mentally prepared that this [thunder spirit bead (fake)] shouldn't be too useful for battles of this level, he hadn't expected that "not too useful" and "completely useless" were two different concepts.

Hu Jinsi put the [thunder spirit bead (fake)] back into his backpack and sighed silently in his heart. This equipment could only be used to beat up newbies; when it came to this high level of battle, it really couldn't be of any use. It was a pity his wallet was really too empty, otherwise, he would definitely upgrade it.

Since no tricky methods worked, Hu Jinsi could only insist on grinding hard against the guy in front of him.

He adjusted his breathing, gripped the ironwood staff again, and continued to smash it down stick by stick. The clanging, clanging, clanging sounds echoed in the field, and he continued his blacksmithing career. At this moment, he was not fighting alone; the God of Blacksmiths from Milan was blessing him, and the God of Blacksmiths from Doom Point in Malibu was also blessing him.

Although he eventually won the battle, his nearly half an hour of continuous clanging, clanging, clanging blacksmithing also left his hands numb.

When a Monk uses a staff, they use agility checks instead of strength checks to deal damage.

But the problem is that the action of force is mutual; this underlying logic always exists, and the counter-shock caused by this staff hitting the enemy still needed to be hard-resisted by Hu Jinsi's own body.

He looked at his hands; the webbing between his thumb and index finger was already rubbed red, and his knuckles were a bit stiff. This kind of long-term repetitive attack really put a heavy burden on the joints.

Although Hu Jinsi had raised his perception and agility to 20 points, the awkward thing was that his strength had always stayed at 15 points, which was the limit attribute for ordinary people before awakening.

Therefore, this dungeon, or rather, many enemies in this dungeon, taught him a lesson: sometimes being too biased in attributes would really make one suffer a big loss.

Even if he couldn't raise his strength to the 20-point cap before becoming transcendent, at least he had to raise it to 16 points; he couldn't stay at the 15-point awkward attribute anymore.

Because the enemies he was facing now were becoming more and more powerful, the 15-point value that an ordinary person could reach was still too insignificant when facing these monsters or enemies.

Hu Jinsi stood in the pillar of light of victory, shook his numb hands, and secretly made up his mind. After the May Day holiday ended and he returned to Wei City, he must find a way to raise his strength to 16 points. Even if it was just a 1-point increase, it could significantly improve his attack efficiency when facing this kind of heavy-armored enemy.