142: Chapter 142 Please Believe in the Power of Belief

When the three of them pushed through to the third stage, it was already the limit of their dungeon journey this time.

After all, when they saw the second-stage stage boss in this round of the dungeon, it was already the afternoon of the third day, and they were powerless to finish pushing through the third stage with the remaining time.

Spending another week's CD, the squad slowly finished pushing through the remaining few stages little by little. Fortunately, the focus of the difficulty increase later on did not put effort into the distance of the scenes.

The harvest was quite a lot.

The dropped equipment and Materials filled the backpacks of the three, but upon careful inventory, the squad couldn't use most of the things temporarily.

Either the attributes didn't match, or the style wasn't suitable.

Those fancy weapon skill stones, bizarre-looking Materials, and some weird props with indescribable uses, summing up altogether, were finally all thrown to the class monitor and vocational mall to handle.

After being completely sold, each of the three finally got more than seven thousand credit points in hand.

Although it wasn't a huge amount, it at least allowed the small treasuries of the three to recover blood temporarily, which could also be considered easing the economic pressure from the previous period.

"More than seven thousand…" Lin Rui counted the numbers in the account, "Enough for ammunition for me to run the dungeon five times."

"Enough for me to buy two months of Spell Materials." Su Wan added.

Hu Jinsi didn't speak.

His gaze fell on the pile of unsold food in the corner of the backpack.

Hamburgers, pizza, happy water, tacos, and all kinds of nameless high-calorie snacks.

After two weeks of dungeon pushing, their backpacks were stuffed with delicacies from various stages of [Double Dragon III], enough so that they wouldn't need to purchase food outside to bring into the dungeon for the next month.

This could also be considered a disguised harvest.

...

The only news during this period that might be memorable was that [The Cathedral] dungeon had quietly opened again.

The news was heard by Lin Rui while eating in the school cafeteria.

It was said that the spatial distortion and compression displacement of that dungeon had completely returned to normal, and that huge phantom had also shrunk back to the normal dungeon gate volume.

But strangely enough, even though the dungeon was open, very few squads were willing to go in and explore.

"Why?" Su Wan asked while peeling a roasted chicken leg dropped in the dungeon.

"The lesson last time was too painful." Lin Rui lowered his voice, "Dozens of students died, and the aftermath hasn't been completely handled to this day. Parents were scared and successively advised their children not to enter that dungeon again."

Hu Jinsi put down his chopsticks and looked out the cafeteria window.

Although the crisis was resolved, this matter was still unclear up to now.

What was the reason? It hadn't been figured out.

The aftermath issue of the dead students remained shelved, without any intention of being resolved.

It was just that a group of college students from Jin Province came in the middle and temporarily suppressed the crisis event of this dungeon.

Anyone would find this unclear handling method unbearable.

As squads with relatively advanced progress in the school, the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad and the Gunpowder Squad were each called out for a talk by their head teachers.

The content of the talk was cliché: to carry forward the spirit, win glory for No. 1 High School, make contributions to Wei City, and play a vanguard and exemplary leading role in exploring these dungeons.

The head teacher's tone was sincere and earnest, as if the three of them not going would be failing the school's cultivation and society's expectations.

The three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad obviously didn't buy this trick.

"Whenever there are benefits, you never think of us." Lin Rui returned to Hu Jinsi's home where the squad gathered, threw his schoolbag onto the sofa, "When it comes to needing physical labor and effort, you can always think of us."

"We were already pitfalled by the school once last semester." Su Wan took over the conversation, her tone plain, "I'm already immune to these chicken-soup motivational words."

Hu Jinsi didn't participate in the complaining.

He sat cross-legged on the sofa, closing his eyes, feeling the sense of transparency brought by [Transcendent Meditation].

Ever since acquiring this perk, his thinking during meditation had become exceptionally clear, and many problems that he usually wouldn't notice could be seen through at a glance.

For instance, the true purpose of the school's "exhortation" this time.

It was fundamentally not some "winning glory for the school," but rather needing someone to test the current danger level of [The Cathedral] dungeon.

Those with strong backgrounds didn't need to go, and those with weak strength would find it useless even if they went.

Coincidentally, the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad belonged to the type with upper-tier strength but average background.

"Not going." Hu Jinsi opened his eyes, his tone plain but unquestionable.

Lin Rui and Su Wan exchanged a glance, both seeing the same decision in each other's eyes.

The three of them were completely impervious to this matter, but fortunately, on the surface, they hadn't torn Faces with the school teachers yet, merely being slapped with negative labels and evaluations such as lacking a sense of the overall situation and lacking a spirit of dedication.

...

The reaction over at the Gunpowder Squad was much more intense.

They loudly questioned in public those teachers who advised them to play a vanguard and exemplary leading role: "Why don't you go mobilize the classmates of that Tycoon Squad?"

Chen Yu's voice echoed in the corridor, "Speaking of progress, there is none faster than their Tycoon Squad; speaking of Rank, there is none higher than the average Rank of the Tycoon Squad. Since they have both high Rank and fast progress, and at the same time obtained the recommendation quota for directional bonus points, shouldn't they take on the leading role of the vanguard and model even more! Is it interesting to push us students whom you think have no potential every day?"

This passage spread wildly in the school forum, and the three members of the Gunpowder Squad became "heroes" in a certain sense.

At least in the eyes of those students who were similarly ignored by the school.

But heroes always had to pay a price.

The generously speaking Chen Yu carried a disciplinary record of a major demerit on his body, plus probation.

Li Hao and Zhou Hao each carried a demerit.

The three were collectively invited to the principal's office for tea, and their complexions didn't look too good when they came out.

"They simply indulged in momentary pleasure." Lin Rui shook his head when he saw the disciplinary announcement on the terminal, "Their mouths felt good, but the consequence…"

"The consequence is that they transferred schools three days later." Su Wan pointed at another message.

On the third day after the disciplinary action occurred, the three members of the Gunpowder Squad collectively transferred to No. 3 High School, which was the middle school where that pair of twin S-Rank professionals were located.

Obviously, their families had already arranged a way out in advance, and the disciplinary action merely accelerated the process of transferring schools.

This major event dealt a heavy blow to both the inner substance and Face of the school leaders and management of No. 1 High School.

Two squads with advanced progress—one openly resisted, got disciplined, and then transferred, while the other was completely impervious and refused to cooperate—this matter spread wildly among the major schools in Wei City.

No. 1 High School almost became a laughing stock among its peers.

"Serves them right." Lin Rui sneered.

Of course, the school leaders and management of No. 1 High School didn't try to save Face; instead, they attempted to continue secretly pressuring other squads to make them win glory for the school.

Some flexible-minded ones, after entering [The Cathedral] dungeon, camped in place for 72 hours before coming out, which could be considered completing the school's task, but it also delayed their own time.

But this trick no longer worked on the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad.

Through this incident of the Gunpowder Squad, the three also quietly gained inspiration.

When the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad once again faced multiple pressures from the head teacher, the director of academic affairs, and the principal, Hu Jinsi calmly pulled out his communication terminal.

He didn't say anything, just right in front of the three of them, clicked open the message list in the terminal.

The screen was densely packed with transfer invitations from almost all high schools in Wei City, ranging from the top-ranked key middle school to the ordinary school at the bottom, everything was available.

There were even some transfer invitations from many high schools in Daibei City, accompanied by detailed admission conditions and preferential policies.

The air in the conference room instantly froze.

Teacher Fan the head teacher's mouth twitched slightly, the director of academic affairs' fingers paused mid-air, and the principal's gaze moved from the terminal screen to Hu Jinsi's Face, then back to the screen.

The three looked at each other in dismay, and no one spoke another word.

Seeing this situation, these people didn't dare say anything more to the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad.

After all, if a squad with a high school ranking left, it could still be said to be the squad members' own problem—impulsive personality, disobedience to management, and lack of a sense of the overall situation.

If another one left, and in this manner, it would blatantly tell everyone that it really was a problem on the school's side.

Hu Jinsi withdrew his terminal, turned around, and left the conference room.

Lin Rui and Su Wan followed behind him, neither able to hold back as the corners of their mouths raised slightly.

...

Actually, the ultimate reason why Hu Jinsi was able to produce so many school transfer invitations was because after finishing the [Double Dragon III] dungeon previously, he unexpectedly discovered that he had gained an extra perk.

That was an ordinary Friday afternoon.

Hu Jinsi was brewing potions in the pharmacy room as usual, and when the third batch was almost done brewing, a line of small golden characters suddenly flashed at the edge of his vision.

He thought it was a message notification, casually clicked it open to take a look, and then froze.

Perk: [Lucky Pharmacist]

He flipped through the entire attribute list, from the perk column to the achievement column, and then to the backpack and mailbox, finding no related information notification at all.

This perk appeared just like that quietly, like a thief sneaking in late at night, stuffing things into his pocket when he was completely unaware.

If it didn't truly exist and couldn't be shared for Lin Rui and Su Wan to see, Hu Jinsi would have even thought he had been hit by some Spell that caused hallucinations.

He repeatedly confirmed it three times, even casting a [Renewing Mist] on himself, and meditated for another half hour to confirm it again.

That line of golden text still quietly lay at the very bottom of the perk column.

[Lucky Pharmacist: Perhaps the beginning of everything was just a harmless joke, but now you have truly mastered this craft of stimulating luck. Just remember—luck is never free, and greed always has a price.]

[Effect: For potions personally crafted by you, you can endow them with an additional special negative effect (determined by the drug's properties, cannot be specified);]

[In exchange, the potion will gain a tiny positive special effect: Luck Accumulation (+0.01 Drop Rate Bonus).]

[Each time you consume such a potion personally crafted by you, the character's Luck Accumulation value increases by +0.01;]

[This accumulation value takes effect for all drop determinations;]

[The accumulation value will not decay over time, but will be completely cleared after triggering a drop event once.]

(Remarks: Please believe in the power of belief)

---

After acquiring this perk, Hu Jinsi quietly brewed a small portion of rabies cure potion himself.

He poured the potion into a clean glass bottle, lifted it up under the light, and observed it carefully.

A few seconds later, a line of almost transparent enchanted text emerged on the bottle body:

[Luck Accumulation: +0.01]

Sure enough, the special effect of Luck Accumulation appeared on the item's description.

But similarly, the original unpalatable taste of the potion itself, as well as the foul-smelling nature after consumption, were also enhanced into negative effects, generated on the potion.

Because the change was too obvious, it caused Hu Jinsi to be completely unable to cover it up.

After all, the attribute description of the potion was right there, and anyone who touched this potion could perceive its description.

How did those transfer invitations come about?

It was because after having this perk, Hu Jinsi's life became different.

Before that, about the "lesser luck potion", it was just a folk rumor; after this, it was solidified and recognized by the World Consciousness of Water Blue Star.

In most people's cognition, this might be because Hu Jinsi had brewed too many related potions during this period, causing his potential to be stimulated, thus gradually manifesting from a low, imperceptible bonus to 0.01, the lowest bonus that could be captured by attributes.

This was a typical "quantitative change triggers qualitative change" theory. Although this theory didn't always hold true in this world, it at least sounded reasonable enough.

But only Hu Jinsi himself knew the most core point of this perk.

It was actually the line of small text at the bottom that only he could see: Please believe in the power of belief.

The core of that power was actually due to too many people believing that this matter was true.

Put in Hu Jinsi's past life, this was just a superstitious thing.

What "the power of belief", "mind determines reality", those were all standard rhetoric of self-comfort or successology swindlers.

But in this world where transcendence and legends already truly existed, belief might be a kind of power in itself.

Especially since the cost of this belief was so low.

The cost of two credit points, under Hu Jinsi's bartering restriction, flowed into their hands looking like four credit points a bottle.

A bottle of unpalatable potion exchanged for a sliver of hope that could increase drop rates—for the Awakeners risking their lives in the dungeon, this calculation never lost out no matter how you counted it.

This visible luck bonus or luck accumulation was much more real and much cheaper than those temporary prayers to gods and Buddhas or purchasing so-called lucky rabbit's feet.

Regarding the process of this matter from fermentation to producing results, Hu Jinsi was too lazy to comment on anything.

Because the success of this matter was almost irreproducible, there were jokes, malicious fuel added to the fire, and even greedy middlemen.

All kinds of accidents led to the birth of this result.

The outbreak of rumors, the massive circulation of potions, the "verification" passed by word of mouth among people, and finally the birth of this expertise in this collective belief.

Without any single link, the current situation would have been impossible.

But he knew one thing: he would absolutely never consume this kind of potion added with negative traits.

After all, this expertise stated it very clearly.

"Luck is never free, and greed always has a price."

But anyway, it was precisely because of this expertise that Hu Jinsi easily obtained transfer invitations from various high schools, and it also helped the squad tide over the immediate disaster.

Those invitations were not just verbal.

Every single one came with specific conditions: tuition waivers, priority selection of mentors, dungeon resource bias, and even the promise of directly providing extraordinary-stage class information.

The conditions were more generous than the last, and the wording was more sincere than the last.

Hu Jinsi stared at those messages, knowing clearly in his heart what this meant.

Reasonably speaking, Hu Jinsi should accept these invitations and leave the muddy waters of No. 1 High School.

But every time he wanted to put it into action, his intuition would issue warnings to him.

He didn't know why this was, but he believed the intuitive warning brought by the extraordinary expertise [Supernatural Meditation] (Damaged).

...

He began to receive private messages sent by people he didn't know.

Some claimed to be members of the Pharmacist Association, some claimed to be mentors of the pharmacy department of a certain university, and some directly revealed their identities as headhunters of a certain pharmaceutical company.

Their rhetoric was largely similar: they expressed willingness to offer class Awakening stones related to pharmacists or pharmaceutists, hoping that Hu Jinsi could consider changing his class to a pharmacy-related direction.

What's more, they directly promised to provide all resources for advancing to extraordinary, as well as relevant information on extraordinary classes.

"Classmate Hu, your pharmacy talent is rare. Although the Monk class is not bad, its upper limit is limited. If you switch to a pharmacist, we can guarantee that you will advance to extraordinary within two years."

"Hu Jinsi, we have a complete extraordinary pharmacist advancement route here, and every step from extraordinary to legendary has detailed records. As long as you nod, all the Materials will be sent to you immediately."

Hu Jinsi looked at them one by one, replying to none of them.

Perhaps if it were someone else, facing such demands, they would have already agreed.

After all, a cheap class Awakening stone would cost tens of thousands of credits at every turn, and extraordinary resources were priceless and hard to find.

For a second-year high school student, these conditions were simply a pie falling from the sky.

But Hu Jinsi knew very well in his heart that it was precisely because of his own talent that he persisted on the path of the Monk.

From the moment of Awakening, he knew that the path he walked was different from others.

It was not how strong the Monk class was, but only by persisting in walking down it could those hidden sublimation and expertise chains be triggered.

Because he persisted in the path of the Monk, he obtained [Supernatural Meditation] (Damaged).

This extraordinary expertise allowed him to gain a moment of sobriety during meditation to see a certain truth of Wei City clearly.

Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for him to give up his Monk class.

He archived all those messages and set up an auto-reply: "Thanks for the over-praise, no job transfer plan for now."

In short, the impact of this storm lasted from the end of May to the end of June.

The members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad also concluded their second-year high school careers; when school started again next time, they would be third-year high school students, and the college entrance examination was still a year away for them.

Under the blessing of [Supernatural Meditation] (Damaged) and gaining experience from refining a large number of potions, Hu Jinsi not only rose to Rank 17, but his experience to Rank 18 was also less than 30% away.

On the day of the Rank 17 expertise draw, Hu Jinsi specially chose a quiet day.

He sat cross-legged on the floor of his room, took three deep breaths, and then clicked open the expertise draw interface.

A familiar name: [Drunken Fist], once again came into Hu Jinsi's view...

This was an expertise he had encountered at some previous Rank, and at that time he regretfully gave it up because the other two options were more attractive.

Meeting again now, the remaining two options were not as attractive as [Drunken Fist].

He clicked confirm almost without hesitation.

[Drunken Fist] turned into a stream of golden light and integrated into Hu Jinsi's body.

He stood up, moved his shoulders, and felt that new power circulating within his body.

Simple, direct, and fitting his combat style.

At that moment, Hu Jinsi even felt that the three Monk schools of Azeroth—Brewmaster, Windwalker, and Mistweaver—had a tendency of Fusion within his body, but the nutrients were not enough; perhaps with continued accumulation, there would be a day when miracles were born.

...

Over on Lin Rui and Su Wan's side, they also raised their Ranks to Rank 16 at the end of June.

Although on the surface they were only 1 Rank behind Hu Jinsi, in reality, with the expanding experience gap between Ranks afterwards, the gap between the two of them and Hu Jinsi not only didn't shrink, but instead widened.

For Rank 16 Su Wan, her Bard main class gave her two new tunes: [Silver Accompaniment] and [Healing Hymn].

And the String Manipulation Academy school gave her a skill [Fascinating Performance] and an expertise [Dual-String Joint Play].

[Silver Accompaniment: Allies within the chanting range have their weapons and unarmed attacks treated as silver weapons. In addition, when any devil within the chanting range attempts to cast a Dimensional Door or tries to enter the magical range through a Dimensional Door, the Spell will automatically attempt to counterspell the Dimensional Door. If the devil is successfully counterspelled when using a Dimensional Door to enter the Spell's range, it will stay in place. This chanting can last for a maximum of 30 seconds.]

---

[Healing Hymn: Your magnificent singing can repair wounds and temporarily soothe allies' pain. The target gains 2 health recovery per second. When you begin chanting this tune, the target gains 10 temporary hit points, lasting for 6 seconds. This chanting can last for a maximum of 24 seconds.]

---

[Fascinating Performance: You attempt to influence the will of an audience member, and the other party has a probability of entering a dazed (unable to move in place), charmed (under your simple control), or incapacitated (loss of action capability) state. Any effect takes effect for a maximum of 6 seconds, and after taking effect, the target enters a 10-minute temporary immunity state to this effect.]

---

[Dual-String Joint Play: Your Plucking·Initial Movement can now simultaneously target two targets (must be within your Strings of All Things perception range). They each make saving throws and bear the effects separately.]

---

The skills Su Wan acquired at Rank 16 can only be said to have both good and bad aspects.

After all, for the Bard class, most of her offensive capabilities came from spellcasting, so the skills she acquired were mostly auxiliary and control-based.

[Healing Hymn] just happened to make up for the regret that Su Wan's current Spell slots did not arrange healing Spells, which was indeed a great draw.

Looking at the effect, at least this healing amount could allow Su Wan to not need to replenish any healing Spells all the way until before extraordinary.

Except for the fact that the speed of health recovery for this chanting skill was not very fast, everything else was perfect.

As for [Silver Accompaniment], it was not very easy to evaluate, because the application range of this tune was a bit too small, and it could only take effect against devils.

But if you looked at it from the perspective of actual effects, treating all weapons and unarmed attacks as silver, and also being able to interfere with the dimensional doors released by devils, it was somewhat overly powerful.

Perhaps it was precisely this extreme scope of application that could have such a powerful effect.

But judging from the squad's current progress, they had never encountered enemies that required silver to restrain, nor had they encountered devils.

Therefore, it is estimated that the fate of this skill would most likely be washed away by Su Wan using a skill redraw ticket at some point.

As for the two skills of the String Manipulation Academy school, [Dual-String Joint Play] was inherently a skill that this school fixedly acquired at Rank 16, so there was nothing much to say; Su Wan had known about it long ago.

[Fascinating Performance] was quite an interesting skill, different from [Plucking·Initial Movement] which plucked and interfered with the opponent's actions through external causes.

[Fascinating Performance] affected the opponent's actions by interfering with their will, which coincidentally formed a complementarity with the entire [Plucking·Initial Movement] and its subsequent series of expertise systems.

It could be considered a powerful supplement.

...

As for Lin Rui's side, the Rank 16 Soldier class fixedly acquired [Tactical Fortifications (Elementary)] replacing the previous [Tactical Fortifications (Simple)], and besides that, there was also a passive called [Suppressive Fire].

And his Gyro Impact school gave him two passives: [Gyro Deployment] and [Iron Torrent Formation].

[Tactical Fortifications (Elementary): Your training in field fortifications has progressed further, enabling you to construct more stable and functionally diverse defensive structures.

Effects: You still need an entrenching tool or similar tools along with a field toolkit, but the construction time is shortened to 30 seconds, and you can choose one of the following two structures to build:

Reinforced Cover: Replaces the simple version of half-body/full-body cover. In addition to providing the corresponding cover level, the cover you build also becomes sturdier and more durable.

The cover has a certain structural strength and can withstand a small amount of attacks before shattering; after shattering, the cover effect decreases by one level (from full-body down to half-body, or from half-body down to ineffective). In addition, creatures hiding behind the reinforced cover are harder to be pushed down or dragged out.

Tactical Obstacle: Replaces the simple version of simple obstacles. The obstacles you build are more complex, and you can choose any seed type among spiked chevaux-de-frise / sandbag low walls / tripwire nets.

Additional Ability: Emergency Repair. You can spend a little time to quickly repair a nearby friendly cover using some Materials from the field toolkit, making it recover some structural strength. The same cover can only accept repairs once every certain period of time.]

---

[Suppressive Fire: Takes effect passively. When using firearms for continuous shooting, a suppression zone can be formed on the target area. Enemies within the suppression zone must pass a will check; upon failure, they fall into a cowering state, unable to actively move, but can still perform other actions. The suppression zone lasts until you cease fire, reload, or transfer targets.]

---

[Gyro Deployment: Takes effect passively. When you use Tactical Roll, you can use the weapon-switching action to adjust the position of a shield (such as changing from back to chest).]

---

[Iron Torrent Formation: Takes effect passively. When you are adjacent to an ally, you share the "Steadfast" state (immune to pushing effects).]

---

Regarding the four skills Lin Rui acquired this time, they could only be said to be mediocre.

After all, the Soldier class was just like this; among the Soldier's main class skills, you couldn't learn any skills with surprises, and most of them were such unpretentious skills.

If you wanted some fancy skills, you could just go get them in dungeons yourself.

Look at the skills Lin Rui got this time, and you would know what the routines of Soldier skills were: [Tactical Fortifications (Elementary)] and [Suppressive Fire]. These two skills, one offensive and one defensive, were both main class skills of the Soldier, and they both followed a plain and practical path.

But actually, thinking about [Suppressive Fire] the other way around, it wasn't bad either, at least it was an offensive-oriented passive skill.

Moreover, with the adjustment of tactics, Lin Rui was using firearms more and more in combat.

It's just that the fire rates of shotguns and flamethrowers were somewhat not good for triggering this skill; maybe switching to firearms with faster fire rates would be better, but the ammunition economic pressure brought by that would probably plague Lin Rui for a while.

As for the two skills Lin Rui obtained from the Gyro Impact school, Hu Jinsi admitted that he didn't quite understand them; perhaps when it came to actual combat in the Late Stage, Lin Rui would explain them.

Anyway, Lin Rui was quite satisfied with these two passives.