62: Chapter 62 Setting Off Again

During the holidays, Hu Jinsi was not idle.

He spent his time at home gaming while researching his upcoming travel plans.

A rough map of surrounding cities appeared on his panel, marked with known cities and dungeon information.

Hu Jinsi's gaze scanned the map, looking for cities suitable for his current level with a high density of dungeons.

He planned to visit the dungeons around Wei City with Lin Rui and Su Wan after school started.

During the break, he preferred dungeons where he could leverage his class advantages and solo.

After filtering, Hu Jinsi discovered another city about a day's drive from Wei City—Bin City.

This city was formerly a satellite city, but it had gradually developed into an emerging city over the past few years.

In the level range of 10 to 20, Bin City boasted several public dungeons, and the two names that made Hu Jinsi's heart race were Xianling Island and the Upper Levels of the Demon Locking Tower.

"If everything goes as expected, it seems the world fragment of Chinese Paladin 1 has been absorbed by Water Blue Star."

Hu Jinsi stared at the dungeon list on his panel and grinned.

Chinese Paladin was one of the most classic domestic RPGs he had played before transmigrating.

Li Xiaoyao, Zhao Ling'er, Lin Yueru, Anu... those names and stories were still vivid in his mind.

If this world fragment truly retained the settings of Chinese Paladin 1, it should contain a wealth of familiar items, medicinal herbs, weapons, and perhaps even cultivation techniques.

[Dungeon: Xianling Island] [Access Level: 5-15] [Suggested Players: 1]

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[Dungeon: Black Spider Forest] [Access Level: 10-16] [Suggested Players: 1-3]

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[Dungeon: Mass Grave] [Access Level: 11-17] [Suggested Players: 1-3]

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[Dungeon: Upper Levels of the Demon Locking Tower] [Access Level: 13-20] [Suggested Players: 3]

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The problem was that Hu Jinsi's current permission level was too low.

While in Wei City, he could only see basic information about the dungeons—names, level ranges, and suggested player counts.

He couldn't access the local professional forums to view detailed guides.

That information would only be available once he arrived in Bin City.

"Forget it, I'll figure it out when I get there."

Considering that the difficulty of these dungeons was acceptable to him, and with two weeks of free time, he decided to go and take a look.

Besides, he was grinding levels and experience anyway; a little more or less didn't matter.

The main draw was that this series of dungeons should contain a large number of items and weapons he was familiar with, and he could consider acquiring some.

Especially since Hu Jinsi had chosen the new Life Stream Sect style.

The Life Stream Sect specialty [Master the Life Stream] allowed him to gain class experience through medical-related activities, and the Xianling Island dungeon happened to drop a large amount of medicinal herbs, prescriptions, and finished pills related to traditional Chinese medicine.

This was a brand-new way for him to gain experience, and it was far more efficient than the tedious process of meditation.

Without much hesitation, people of his age were always ready to just pick up and go.

Hu Jinsi bought his ticket, locked his door, turned off the water, electricity, internet, and gas in his home, checked that the windows were securely closed, then shouldered his backpack and set off again.

That evening, Hu Jinsi arrived in Bin City.

This city was similar in scale to Wei City, but being a coastal city, the architectural style was more laid-back, the streets were wide and clean, and the streetlights illuminated the entire city at night.

Hu Jinsi checked into a pre-booked homestay; the room was small but clean and tidy, with a private bathroom and hot water.

He tossed his backpack onto the bed without even taking off his jacket and couldn't wait to open the local professional forum.

The Bin City professional forum was similar to the interface in Wei City, but the content was much richer.

As an emerging city with dense dungeons, the activity level of the Awakened here was very high; strategy posts, equipment trading, party recruitment... the sheer volume of information dazzled Hu Jinsi.

He quickly filtered for the dungeon information he cared about and clicked on them one by one.

First was Xianling Island.

Unexpectedly, while he had assumed Xianling Island would be a combat dungeon based on his online search, it was actually a puzzle-solving dungeon.

More accurately, it was a maze-running dungeon.

According to the experiences shared by professionals on the forum who had been there, after entering the dungeon, you would randomly appear next to a giant lotus pond, and you then needed to smash six statues within the pond to clear the maze and complete the dungeon.

However, the maze layout was randomly generated each time, which tested wisdom and patience and was quite time-consuming.

"A maze..." Hu Jinsi rubbed his chin. "That's quite faithful to the original."

He remembered that in the original game, the core gameplay of Xianling Island involved stepping on lotus leaves, solving puzzles, and finding the way.

It seemed the dungeon in this world had preserved that mechanism.

For many professionals who preferred direct combat, this kind of purely brain-teasing dungeon was not friendly.

Even more troublesome was that moving through the lotus pond required stepping on lotus leaves, which was quite unfriendly to classes with poor balance or those wearing heavy armor.

During the movement, some weak little monsters would come to harass you—really weak ones, under level 10, that could barely cause any damage to professionals.

But their goal wasn't to kill you; it was to distract your thinking or even try to destroy the lotus leaf beneath your feet.

Once a lotus leaf was destroyed, you had to swim to the nearest one yourself or simply swim through the lotus pond to find the statues.

If you couldn't swim—congratulations, you would drown.

"This setting..." Hu Jinsi twitched the corner of his mouth. "It's quite maliciously fun."

Therefore, this dungeon wasn't very popular locally.

Most professionals preferred combat dungeons where they could fight monsters head-on and loot equipment, rather than floating around in a pond solving puzzles.

However, for some professionals who weren't strong in combat, this dungeon was quite suitable.

Additionally, some classes skilled at taking shortcuts, such as athletes, simply didn't step on the lotus leaves and swam between the statues the whole time; fishermen or sailors also moved through the dungeon by swimming or floating.

This dungeon didn't offer many rewards because it was entirely puzzle-based, and the little monsters didn't drop any equipment.

Occasionally, some credit points, fish catches, and medicinal herbs would drop, but other than that, you were only rewarded with some experience for destroying each statue.

"Giving direct class experience rewards; this is the first time I've seen such a mechanism."

Hu Jinsi calculated in his mind: six statues, each giving experience—it should add up to something decent.

The key was that this dungeon was short, and it could be paired with other dungeons for grinding.

As for the peach blossom forest and the Water Moon Palace on the island that Hu Jinsi remembered, they weren't in this dungeon.

It seemed the world fragment only absorbed the lotus pond part, and other scenes weren't included.

Seeing this, the first thing Hu Jinsi thought of was whether he could exploit the dungeon's mechanics like the athletes or sailors.

Because he had [Parkour].

This skill allowed him to move on non-solid surfaces, such as water.

In other words, he could sprint across the water surface without needing to rely entirely on lotus leaves to float around.

He could run in a straight line from one lotus leaf to the next, or even use [Chi Torpedo] or [Water Bird Steps] to dash through mid-air for closer spots.

"If I can take a shortcut like this..."

Hu Jinsi's brain began to turn.

He could enter two different dungeons every day.

If he could visit Xianling Island early in the morning and leave quickly, he could go to another dungeon before noon, maximizing efficiency.

The time saved from solving puzzles in Xianling Island could be fully invested in Black Spider Forest or other combat dungeons.

He calculated the time: running the maze in Xianling Island took about one to two hours, and clearing the Black Spider Forest took about three to four hours.

If he entered Xianling Island at seven in the morning, came out at nine to rest, and entered Black Spider Forest around ten, he could finish by three or four in the afternoon.

This way, running two dungeons a day was completely feasible, and the efficiency was much higher than when he was fighting alone in Daibei City.

Thinking of this, he settled his mind and continued to look at the information for the remaining dungeons.

Black Spider Forest, as expected, contained no other types of monsters besides spiders.

All kinds of spiders: the small monsters included Colorful Spiders, Flea Spiders, Little Spiders, and Little Tree Spirits; the three bosses were Black Spider Spirit, Poison Lady, and Six-Legged Spider.

"In a sense, this dungeon is also a nightmare for Ron."

Hu Jinsi recalled a certain magic-themed work he had seen before transmigrating.

"It would be great if there were wands that sold 'Spider-Be-Gone' spells."

He casually flipped through the professional mall, and as expected, he didn't find any items related to a 'Spider-Be-Gone' spell.

This spell didn't exist in the original work; it was all made up in fan fiction.

But the good news was that, besides spiders, Black Spider Forest had all kinds of medicinal herbs that could be obtained from the monsters, and in significant quantities.

Furthermore, there were spider silk and spider eggs; spider silk could be used for weaving and manufacturing equipment, and spider eggs were said to be useful for alchemy.

Overall, it shouldn't be a loss.

Hu Jinsi secretly made up his mind: after entering this dungeon, he would not touch any spider monsters with his hands.

He would clear the field with [Spinning Crane Kick].

If he encountered a boss that couldn't be kicked mindlessly, he would use the Ironwood Staff to launch [Flurry of Blows] to beat the spider boss to death.

Letting him use his hands to strike those spiders covered in bristles and barbs—just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.

The psychological trauma caused by that sensation could not be compensated for by any small gains in the dungeon.

Even though his mental resistance was already stacked quite high, it was difficult for him to accept this kind of mental attack.

"I really don't know how Spider-Man's various girlfriends accepted an existence that could control its own bristles."

Hu Jinsi shook his head and cast this bizarre thought out of his mind.

This setting was comparable to Superman seeing his human girlfriend; with Superman's super vision, he would be able to see mites and various parasites moving in and out of his girlfriend's face.

If Superman could accept such a scene without breaking up, he was truly Superman; his psychological quality was at a Superman level.

Besides these two dungeons, there were two remaining dungeons formed from the same world system—Mass Grave and the Upper Levels of the Demon Locking Tower.

Just hearing the name Mass Grave, one knew it was a gathering place for undead monsters.

Hu Jinsi wasn't afraid of this at all, because the damage types he possessed were already rich enough.

Although undead monsters were immune to bleeding and poison, they were still susceptible to fire and lightning damage.

This dungeon could be scheduled for a day after he finished exploring Black Spider Forest.

It is said that the drops in the Mass Grave also include medicinal herbs, and there are many poison-type items, in addition to hidden weapons, sticky rice, realgar wine, and so on. Hu Jinsi looked at the item attributes posted by others and felt that they were actually quite suitable for him. However, time was limited, so he could only schedule the dungeons one by one.

The last dungeon was the Upper Level of the Demon Locking Tower. But this dungeon had a higher level requirement, with an entry level of 13 to 20, and the recommended group size was three people—not 1 to 3, but explicitly recommended as a three-person party.

Hu Jinsi was currently just barely above the level threshold to enter the dungeon. He had absolutely no idea what to expect from this dungeon, as the enemies inside the Demon Locking Tower in the original game were quite strong.

Judging solely from the information disclosed in the strategy posts on the forums, there were at least over 20 different kinds of Eastern demons in this dungeon, and the strategy process required dealing with a wide variety of enemy types and preparing various combat plans.

Unless one's strength had reached the level of crushing everything, dealing with so many enemies and so many counter-strategies was a significant disadvantage. It was said that a few Eastern-style classes had an advantage in this dungeon because their inherent skills and specialties included resistance against various minor demons and specialized attribute bonuses, making them more adept at handling the fights.

Conversely, those common, general-purpose classes, such as warriors, thieves, and hunters, performed mediocrely in this dungeon. Some minor demons were physically immune, while others had various elemental resistances, making the fights chaotic and messy.

What was even more troublesome was that this type of Eastern-style dungeon did not follow conventional routes; low-level minor demons might crawl out from under the walls to attack or emerge from the ground to ambush. It was said to be quite unfriendly to general-purpose classes.

Therefore, Hu Jinsi placed this dungeon last. He probably wouldn't challenge it during this holiday; putting aside the difficulty, the complex terrain alone didn't suit him. Perhaps one day he would bring Lin Rui and Su Wan along, and the three of them could try it together.

After collecting the information, Hu Jinsi set his plan for tomorrow: Xianling Island in the morning, Black Spider Forest in the afternoon. Then he closed the panel, sat cross-legged on the bed, calmed his mind, entered a meditative state, and stopped overthinking.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, a refreshed Hu Jinsi took public transportation to the seaside in Bin City.

The morning sea breeze carried a faint salty scent and felt a bit chilly on the face. In the distance, the sea level merged with the grayish-white sky, making it impossible to distinguish where the sky ended and the sea began. Seagulls circled in the sky, emitting loud cries, occasionally diving into the water to snatch up a small fish.

As expected, the entrance to Xianling Island appeared lonely on the sea surface, about a hundred meters from the shore. To facilitate entry and exit, the state had built a pontoon bridge between the dungeon entrance and the seaside. The pontoon bridge was made of white plastic floats and wooden planks spliced together; it wobbled a bit when stepped on, but it was still stable enough.

Hu Jinsi couldn't help but joke to himself that every time he came to a new dungeon, he had a new experience, and the dungeon entrances always managed to come up with new tricks. He was now not only looking forward to seeing what the dungeon entrances for Blackrock Spire and Blackrock Depths would look like in the future but was also looking forward to dungeons like Tempest Keep; if they really appeared, would there be a building similar to a space fortress floating in mid-air?

There were things he hoped to see, and things he hoped not to see. As for those dungeons related to the Old Gods and those related to the Maw, Hu Jinsi still hoped they would never appear on Water Blue Star. The existence of Old Gods, with their level of mental corruption, was simply a dimensionality reduction strike for most Awakened.

After completing registration on the shore, Hu Jinsi entered the dungeon. Since the Spring Festival had just passed, there were almost no people at the dungeon entrance, so he didn't need to queue and walked directly onto the pontoon bridge into the dungeon.

The moment he entered the dungeon, the scene before him made Hu Jinsi hold his breath.

An expanse of stagnant emerald green spread out before his eyes. Huge lotus leaves densely covered the lake surface like a flawless jade plate. Each lotus leaf was the size of a tabletop; the leaf surfaces were thick and smooth, with edges slightly curled upward, and crystalline water droplets rolled on the surface. Pale pink lotus flowers were sparsely dotted among them, some budding and some already in full bloom, their petals unfolding in layers, exuding an aloof, celestial aura. Occasionally, a dragonfly would land on the stamen, its wings refracting rainbow-like luster in the sunlight.

The lake surface steamed with milky white mist, winding like light gauze, obscuring the other shore and making this body of water appear deep and unknowable. The mist was sometimes thick and sometimes thin; where it was thick, one couldn't see their own fingers, and where it was thin, it suddenly opened up, revealing the outline of another group of lotus leaves in the distance. It was dead silent all around, save for the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the lotus leaves, the faint chirping of water birds from afar, and the slight swaying sound of the lotus leaves underfoot. The air was filled with a faint fragrance—the freshness of lotus leaves, the delicate scent of lotus flowers, and an indescribable flavor of spiritual energy that made one feel invigorated upon smelling it.

Underfoot, there were only a few lonely, disc-shaped lotus leaves floating on the water, appearing within reach but separated by the bottomless lake water. The distance between the lotus leaves varied from a few meters to over ten meters, with no obvious path to follow; only after stepping on one would you know which direction it would drift.

This kind of beauty was breathtaking, and it also carried a sense of awe for the unknown, as if stepping in meant no return.

Hu Jinsi, of course, wasn't silly enough to try some light-foot water-walking technique and rush straight across the water. After all, the surface of this lake was larger than expected; standing at the entrance, he couldn't even see the position of the first statue. If the duration of [Parkour] wasn't enough and he fell into the water halfway, it would be troublesome. Although he could swim, finding his way in the water was much slower than on the lotus leaves.

With no other choice, Hu Jinsi could only honestly follow the rules, first stepping onto a lotus leaf and drifting slowly along with it.

The lotus leaf moved quite fast on the lake surface. Although it couldn't be described as lightning-fast, it was definitely much faster than Hu Jinsi's walking speed on flat ground. Within five minutes, the outline of the first statue appeared in the mist in the distance.

Unfortunately, the lotus leaf under his feet was not so obedient. It didn't head straight toward the statue but turned halfway, taking Hu Jinsi to another group of lotus leaves. The dungeon seemed to be guiding him to choose another nearby lotus leaf to continue his movement.

"As expected..." Hu Jinsi nodded.

For him, having already read the dungeon strategy in advance and having previously understood the original game, this lotus-leaf-stepping gameplay was essentially a multiple-choice question where only one path was correct. You had to trial-and-error it one time after another, stepping on different lotus leaves and observing their movement directions, to eventually reach the vicinity of the statue.

Hu Jinsi visually estimated the distance between him and the first statue. It was probably a little over fifty meters.

He estimated the distance. Although it was still a bit far, and there was a high probability that he would end up falling into the water, it was still better than drifting around on the lotus leaves and wasting time. He estimated that he had at most two hours for Xianling Island, and he wanted to leave as much time as possible for the Black Spider Forest in the afternoon.

"Let's try it."

Hu Jinsi first loosened up his body, doing a few simple stretching movements to get his muscles and joints warmed up. Then he did a short run-up on a few lotus leaves; although the leaf surfaces were slippery, with his sense of balance and agility attribute, running on them was no problem at all.

When he reached the edge of the lotus leaf, [Parkour] was activated directly!

Hu Jinsi's soles stepped on the water surface, and every touch of his toes stirred up a circle of fine ripples, drawing a straight white line across the lake. His body leaned forward, his arms swung naturally, and his whole body streaked out a straight afterimage, sprinting across the water.

The duration of [Parkour] was very short, lasting only a breath. At the moment the skill was about to end, Hu Jinsi used the last bit of strength to leap high, directly activating [Water Bird Steps] in mid-air. His body suddenly became light, gliding in a straight line through the air and covering another five meters.

The moment [Water Bird Steps] ended, his body began to fall. At the instant he was about to fall into the lake, Hu Jinsi activated [Parkour] again, lightly tapping the water surface with his soles to continue sprinting.

After three such cycles, Hu Jinsi's Chi finally could not be maintained. About five meters away from the stone platform of the first statue, his foot found nothing, his body lost support, and with a "splash," he fell into the lake.

The icy lake water instantly enveloped his whole body. Although the Spring Festival had just passed, the water temperature in the dungeon was actually not too cold, probably due to the influence of the spiritual energy of Xianling Island. The lake water was crystal clear, and he could see water plants and fish several meters deep below. Those fish had strange shapes; some had a faint fluorescence on their bodies, while others had fins as transparent as gauze, swimming leisurely in this water area rich in spiritual energy.

Hu Jinsi adjusted his posture in the water and paddled his arms to swim toward the statue. His swimming technique could only be considered average—after all, he wasn't a professionally trained athlete—but the five-meter distance was no problem for him. A few seconds later, he swam to the stone platform at the foot of the statue.

This last five meters had no impact on him. He braced his hands on the edge of the stone platform and flipped onto the platform with a push.

Hu Jinsi didn't rush to smash the statue; instead, he first dealt with a wave of trouble—the commotion of him falling into the lake just now had attracted a group of minor demons. Those little things swarmed in from all directions, some emerging from the water, some crawling up from under the lotus leaves, chattering as they pounced on him.

Just as the seniors on the forum had said, these minor demons' HP was fragile. Hu Jinsi waved his hand casually, [-15], and a minor demon dissipated into points of light. He kicked out again, [-12], and another one was kicked into the water. Their HP was probably all below 10 points; they would die with just a touch.

Although fragile, they were indeed very annoying underwater. They would tug at your pant legs, interfere with your breathing, and even try to crawl into your ears and nose. Hu Jinsi spent about a minute clearing out this wave of minor demons, and only then did he have time to carefully check the drops.

The drops were better than he had expected and not as useless as everyone on the forum had said. A dozen or so minor demons left Hu Jinsi with three portions of Hemostatic Herb (restores 5 to 8 HP), three portions of Fruit (restores a small amount of Stamina), and two heads of garlic—ordinary ingredients.

"Why would minor demons drop garlic..."

Hu Jinsi looked at the two white heads of garlic in his hand, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Surely it wasn't meant to be used to remove the fishy smell from fish ingredients? The problem was that these minor demons actually did drop certain edible fish...

"Forget it, no point thinking about it."

He put the Hemostatic Herb and fruit into his backpack and stuffed the garlic in as well; it was free, after all, and he got it for nothing.