78: The Last Night of Chapter 78 and the Discussion on Cheating

Facing Hu Jinsi's probing, Lin Rui said nothing, just reached out a hand toward Hu Jinsi.

Hu Jinsi knew the meaning of that gesture all too well. He bent down, unequipped the [lickers leg bind] from his legs, and handed it to Lin Rui.

Lin Rui took the leg bind, unequipped his own [Bone-Crushing Greaves], and strapped the leg bind Hu Jinsi had handed him onto his own calves.

Then he took off his excess equipment, dressed in only his casual clothes, and attempted to walk toward the cliff.

On the first step, Lin Rui had no issues. But after the second step, Su Wan noticed that Lin Rui's calves had started to tremble slightly.

A few seconds later, Lin Rui's second step finally landed, but the third step was slow to come. At this moment, Lin Rui was no longer just trembling in his calves; his entire body was shaking.

His complexion turned deathly pale at a visible rate, a layer of cold sweat seeped from his forehead, and his hands clenched and unclenched unconsciously.

He tried to control his body, but the fear surging from the depths of his spine was completely impossible to suppress, and every muscle was screaming in refusal to move forward.

Seeing this scene, Su Wan hurriedly nudged Hu Jinsi with her elbow, signaling him to clean up the mess quickly.

The helpless Hu Jinsi quickly pulled the [Web Grappling Hook] from his backpack, shot it at Lin Rui's belt, and tied the other end to a nearby boulder, forming a safety rope.

Only then did he walk to the edge of the cliff and activate [Parkour], sliding down the vertical rock wall, scooping up the frozen Lin Rui, and using the connection of the grappling hook to fly back to the platform.

Back on flat ground, Lin Rui's face was still stark white, his lips trembling slightly, his gaze unfocused, as if he had just woken from a nightmare.

In this state, Lin Rui didn't even need makeup to play a vampire: pale, rigid, and terrified.

And Hu Jinsi could only give Su Wan a helpless expression.

Yes, readers seeing this might realize that the previous conversation about [Spider Climb] was all just acting and performance between the two.

Regarding the issue of Lin Rui's acrophobia, it was impossible for the two of them not to know. Growing up, they had tried countless methods to help Lin Rui alleviate these symptoms.

From exposure therapy to systematic desensitization, from psychological counseling to physical training, they had tried almost every viable option on the market.

Today's topic just happened to be a good opportunity.

As a Bard, Su Wan couldn't possibly be unaware of her spell list. The reason she hadn't swapped out [Longstrider] or [Spider Climb] was because Bards could only change one spell selection whenever their level changed. If she could have changed it, Su Wan definitely would have done so long ago.

But this didn't stop the two of them from wanting to take this opportunity to stimulate Lin Rui again. After all, some acrophobia patients overcame this psychological barrier by relying on their own courage, and being pushed at a critical moment could actually help them break through their inner demons.

Strictly speaking, acrophobia is not actually a physiological disease, but rather a subtype of anxiety disorder.

Most acrophobia is actually a conditioned fear response, which can be cured through retraining the brain.

The most widely used therapy currently is actually exposure therapy—gradually encountering high-altitude stimuli in a safe and controllable environment, then letting the patient practice, relax their breathing little by little, and thereby achieve the goal of alleviation or even cure.

But clearly, this attempt at a cure by Su Wan and Hu Jinsi failed again.

Lin Rui was also well aware of this. That was why he cooperated with the two of them, putting on the [lickers leg bind] and taking those few steps.

Although it failed, he had no thoughts of blaming Hu Jinsi or Su Wan. He just silently untied the [lickers leg bind], returned it to Hu Jinsi, and put his previously removed equipment back on.

To this, Hu Jinsi didn't say anything more. At this moment, any verbal expression was clearly inappropriate. After all, he could not empathize with Lin Rui's feelings; that kind of full-body trembling, heart-pounding fear, as if he would fall into the abyss the next second, was something people who hadn't experienced it simply couldn't understand.

He could only silently take the [lickers leg bind] and strap it back onto his own calves.

And all Su Wan could do was silently walk to Lin Rui's side, hug him, and help him alleviate this fear bit by bit. Her arms wrapped around Lin Rui's back, patting gently, whispering "It's okay, it's okay" as if coaxing a child.

To some extent, Lin Rui's acrophobia was not extremely severe. At least he dared to take the elevator, dared to walk on pedestrian bridges, and of course, dared to live in high-rise buildings.

Even in a dungeon like [Burning Village], as long as Lin Rui summoned the courage not to look down, he dared to Charge straight across the suspension bridge in one breath.

But once it involved more intense situations, such as vertical rock walls, suspension walkways, or high places without guardrails, Lin Rui would start to experience anxiety and panic attacks.

If Lin Rui lived in a world like Hu Jinsi's past life, this would obviously be no problem.

After all, in that world, no one forced him to fight monsters in dungeons. Acrophobia at most just limited some entertainment activities, like not being able to skydive, rock climb, or ride roller coasters.

But in the current environment of Water Blue Star, everyone's awakening rate was almost 100%. If you had such an obvious defect, it meant that your fear would become the enemy's weapon in certain dungeons.

Now, this was only a dungeon for the second semester of high school, and the three of them were just climbing a mountain, yet Lin Rui had already shown such symptoms. Hu Jinsi and Su Wan found it hard to imagine that on the future path of dungeons, they couldn't always choose dungeons that advanced on the ground.

Not to mention anything else, even Lin Rui's own skills [Charge] and [Tactical Roll], with the blessing of certain specializations, could be used to run directly onto walls or ceilings. They couldn't just give up such skills and specializations because of fear.

But clearly, this test could only end here. Lin Rui's state didn't allow the three of them to do anything else.

---

After eating lunch, the three of them tidied up their equipment and continued to climb slowly toward the summit.

The afternoon's climb was still as boring as ever, but thanks to the Orcs and skeletons that popped out from time to time along the way, the boredom of the three during the climb was alleviated a little.

Unfortunately, these enemies on the mountain were all penniless; the Orcs of various colors combined dropped less than 200 credits in currency, and the skeleton warriors had nothing but bone powder.

Su Wan sighed while picking them up: "If these things are put on the professional mall, I guess they won't even earn back the listing fee."

"Something is better than nothing." Hu Jinsi had a good mindset, "Many a little makes a mickle."

Near 4 PM, the three finally arrived at the platform at the summit. The entrance to that temple was at the other end of the platform.

The huge stone door frame was covered with ancient runes, and a faint light shone through the crack of the door.

In the center of the platform stood a boss very similar to the Minotaur in the second level, but its build was more robust, and its entire body was covered in a layer of bronze-colored skin, shimmering under the sunset.

Hu Jinsi stared at the golden Minotaur for a few seconds and suddenly spoke: "This guy... did it just finish a bodybuilding competition?"

"What?" Lin Rui and Su Wan turned their heads at the same time.

"Look," Hu Jinsi pointed at the boss, "This bronze skin, these reflective muscle lines, this oily texture, doesn't it look like those bodybuilding champions who just stepped off the stage after applying bodybuilding oil? I can even smell the hair gel on it."

Lin Rui and Su Wan were stunned for a moment, then looked at the golden Minotaur at the same time. The afterglow of the sunset spilled onto it, and every muscle looked as if it had been meticulously carved, glowing with a metallic luster. The bronze skin presented an almost exaggerated three-dimensionality under the light, and even the outline of the abdominal muscles was clearly visible.

"Pfft—" Su Wan was the first to burst out laughing.

"Don't say that, it really does look a bit like it." Lin Rui also couldn't help but laugh, his expression, which had been dull all afternoon, finally loosening a bit, "Look at its pose, standing so straight, as if it's waiting for the judges to score it."

"This contestant," Hu Jinsi cleared his throat, imitating a host's tone, "Please show your front muscles!"

And the golden Minotaur in the distance obviously couldn't understand Hu Jinsi's ridicule and continued to strike a pose on the spot.

Before the battle, the three of them took out the data again to check the details of this golden Minotaur, confirming that their memory was not wrong.

Sure enough, the data also wrote about this golden Minotaur, and compared to the one in the second level, the skills did not show much change.

It didn't even have the skill that the Minotaur in the second level used to smash the ground. The only change was that it was stronger than before, with comprehensive attribute improvements, expanded attack range, and faster speed.

The skill previously called "Air Slash" by Hu Jinsi now had a longer range for the energy attack swung forward; the energy wave swung by the golden Minotaur could directly affect the 3-meter area in a straight line in front of it.

And the skill called "Bull Charge" by Hu Jinsi now had an astonishing activation range of 30 meters, a distance far exceeding the activation distance of Lin Rui's [Charge] and [Tactical Roll].

Facing such an unreasonable Bull Charge, the team's tactical arrangement was very simple: let Su Wan apply the [Faerie Fire] debuff to the golden Minotaur and then move far away from the combat range, at least more than 35 meters away from this golden Minotaur.

And Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui would continue to follow the tactics from last time, accompanying the Tauren to repeatedly pull aggro on the A and B sides.

After making the plan, the three of them took advantage of the sufficient sunlight and quickly started the battle against this boss.

The battle process was similar to the Minotaur in the second level: Lin Rui attracted from the front, Hu Jinsi outputted from the back, and Su Wan assisted from a distance.

Although the golden Minotaur was stronger and had a larger attack range, it was essentially still that big idiot who only knew how to swing and Charge in a straight line. Under the tacit cooperation of the two, it was never able to form an effective threat.

About seven or eight minutes later, the golden Minotaur's huge body collapsed with a bang and dissipated into points of light.

This golden Minotaur was very generous and dropped a rare skill stone.

[Skill Stone - Bull Rush]

[Type: Consumable / Skill Stone]

[Effect: After use, learn the skill - Bull Rush. If the character already has a similar dash ability, it can be changed to gain an additional Charge count or obtain a skill improvement.]

[Bull Rush: Dash in a straight line for up to 5 meters. If you end this dash next to a creature or object, you can immediately perform a push-bash, with a chance to knock it down and push it 1.5 meters away; if the end point of the dash is a wooden door/weak barrier, you can forcibly break the door.]

[Item Description: A warm, dark red crystal with a faint shadow of a bull's head flashing inside. When pressed against the chest, one can feel a surge of brute force pouring into the limbs—that was the combat technique the Tauren Warlord was most proud of during his lifetime.]

Hu Jinsi picked up the skill stone, looked at the effect, bared his teeth, and said to Lin Rui: "This golden muscle-man cow dropped its Bull Rush."

"Besides, this skill is actually called [Bull Rush]. The problem is that this skill isn't as powerful as the boss's own version; it must be an extremely watered-down, castrated version. Also, the skill description is a bit interesting. Take a look yourself; it should be able to strengthen your skill or grant extra Charges. I can't see the specific effects, so you choose."

As he spoke, Hu Jinsi tossed the skill stone to Lin Rui.

After Lin Rui received the skill stone, sure enough, in addition to what Hu Jinsi said, there was an extra line of small text in his vision:

"Please select: Gain extra Charge count (1 time) / Gain a random enhancement affix (choose one of three)"

Lin Rui shared the information he saw with the team, wanting to consult everyone's opinion. After all, this skill stone was dropped by the team collectively.

Su Wan gave Lin Rui a conservative opinion: "Since your [Charge] currently only has one Charge, you might as well choose to increase the Charge count. This can increase the margin for error in battle."

Hu Jinsi refuted Su Wan's view: "Su Wan, your thinking is a bit too conservative. Lin Rui isn't lacking in movement skills right now; whether it's [Charge] or [Tactical Roll], the total number of Lin Rui's movement skills is sufficient. But if we can grant a new enhancement affix to Lin Rui's [Charge], I think it's possible for this skill to undergo a qualitative change."

"Although there is a certain risk of mediocrity, I think it's worth it. After all, things like Charge counts can be obtained in the future through dungeon rewards, perks, and similar items; it's not very difficult. But this kind of method to obtain a secondary enhancement for a skill affix is very rare. Therefore, I still suggest taking the gamble. Of course, Lin Rui, ultimately you choose yourself."

Lin Rui actually already had a preliminary intention in his heart. After listening to their opinions, he began his selection.

"Select gain random enhancement affix." Lin Rui thought to himself.

"Please select one of the following three affixes to integrate into your [Charge]. Please make a selection within 5 minutes; timeout will be considered as giving up:

[Maze Stomp: After the Charge ends, your Charge path is considered difficult terrain for 1 minute (for all creatures except you).]

[Wall-Breaking Momentum: This Charge can ignore non-magical wooden or stone fragile walls/doors (thickness not exceeding 30 cm). You can choose to crash directly through an obstacle, appear on the other side, and end the Charge action normally.]

[Broken Horn Slam: If you hit the target with a Charge, you can choose not to perform a push, but instead perform a headbutt. This attack deals an additional 6 points of blunt damage that ignores physical damage reduction.]"

Lin Rui quickly took a screenshot of the three options and sent it to Hu Jinsi and Su Wan, saying to them: "Quickly help me make up my mind, there's only 5 minutes of selection time."

After Su Wan saw the three options, she glanced at them quickly and didn't give a clear suggestion, just saying to Lin Rui: "I don't recommend you choose 'Broken Horn Slam'. After all, we are normal humans. If you use your head to strike the enemy, who knows what state the enemy is in? Covered in barbs or pus? If you use a headbutt to strike him, it might be a choice that sends you straight into the wolf's den. The application range of this affix is too narrow."

Hu Jinsi said: "The remaining two options—'Maze Stomp' and 'Wall-Breaking Momentum'—are actually both enhancements to your essence. 'Maze Stomp' is more inclined towards splitting the battlefield, because after traveling for these few days, we also know how painful difficult terrain is for many creatures."

"'Wall-Breaking Momentum' is applied more to indoor scenes; it can prevent your Charge from being interrupted by obstacles. Actually, the two affixes are about the same; both have miraculous effects in special scenarios. Therefore, we don't have a strong preference; you choose yourself. They are both about the same; I agree with Su Wan, just don't foolishly choose 'Broken Horn Slam'."

After listening to their words, combined with his own feelings and his experiences over the past few days, Lin Rui decisively chose the first affix, "Maze Stomp".

After selecting, Lin Rui's [Charge · Maze Stomp] skill indeed gained a new affix.

Hu Jinsi stopped Lin Rui's eagerness to try and crash into something, and quickly said: "While there is still time, let's clear a wave inside the temple first, and strive to sweep away all the mobs except for the Cyclops before dinner. In this way, tomorrow's work will be easier."

Although Lin Rui and Su Wan were already very exhausted, Hu Jinsi's words were indeed very reasonable. None of the three of them knew how big this temple was; after all, in the dungeon world, the exterior of a building and the interior were completely different things.

To be safe for tomorrow, it's better to leave the cleaning work for today.

Hu Jinsi, of course, could also see Lin Rui and Su Wan's fatigue. He directly suggested to the two: "I will be the main force for the cleaning work in a while, you two just follow slowly behind."

After obtaining their consent, Hu Jinsi entered the interior of the temple from the entrance alone.

Pushing open the heavy temple doors, a thicker scent of stone dust and stale incense rushed towards him. Before his eyes was not an open hall, but a wide stone staircase extending upwards.

Each step of the stone staircase was high and deep, the surface worn into depressions by countless footsteps. The walls on both sides were unadorned, rough limestone, with gravel and unknown tiny bone fragments scattered at the base of the walls.

An unexpected treat was that there was actually light inside this temple; eternal torches hung on the walls, illuminating the interior of the temple. Unfortunately, these eternal torches could not be taken out of the dungeon; otherwise, just relying on these torches, Hu Jinsi felt he could make a small profit when going out.

The staircase seemed to have no end, but Hu Jinsi could feel that there was heavy breathing above, one after another, accompanied by the scratching sound of some metal dragging across the stone floor.

Walking up this spiraling staircase was quite strenuous. Hu Jinsi was somewhat glad that he persuaded Lin Rui and Su Wan to clear the inside of the temple first today, and at the same time, they could walk up a portion of the staircase.

If they started cleaning this temple tomorrow morning, I'm afraid this string of steep stairs would consume more than half of a person's stamina before the battle.

Hu Jinsi cleared all the mobs along the way inside the temple; there were only two types of enemies: red-skinned Orcs and skeletons. He kept clearing until he reached a large door; inside the door was the final boss of this dungeon, the Cyclops.

Obviously, Hu Jinsi didn't want to be so close to the boss tonight. Although the size of this door was not enough for the boss to come out and give Hu Jinsi a night raid, for safety's sake, he still wanted to stay further away to feel more at ease.

He directly retreated to a corner platform in front, set up a camping tent there, and waited for the arrival of Lin Rui and Su Wan.

Hu Jinsi was not idle either, sorting through the mob drops obtained in this temple.

Unexpectedly, having killed so many Orcs of various colors in so many levels before, they didn't drop anything valuable. Yet, in this one trip inside the temple, he directly obtained the axe in the Orc's hand and that helmet with sharp horns.

Unfortunately, neither was equipment with attributes; they were just the most ordinary white-tier items. Hu Jinsi helplessly put them into his backpack, and could only deal with them after exiting the dungeon.

In the interval of waiting, Hu Jinsi first used a gas stove to boil a pot of hot water, brewed three cups of hot cocoa, and waited for Lin Rui and Su Wan to arrive. Then he took out a frying pan, small pancakes, eggs, and two small cans of Ancient Dragon meat sauce from his backpack.

Accompanied by the sizzling sound of eggs frying, the small pancakes were reheated, emitting the fragrance of wheat. The figures of Lin Rui and Su Wan finally appeared at the corner.

Seeing Su Wan, she picked up the cup of hot cocoa on the ground without any regard for her image and poured it directly into her throat. After finishing the hot cocoa, without consulting Hu Jinsi, she grabbed eggs, small pancakes, scooped a large spoonful of Ancient Dragon meat sauce, rolled it into the pancake, and stuffed it into her mouth.

That eating manner was like a different person from her usual elegant and quiet image; obviously, the day's climbing had completely exhausted her strength to maintain her image.

As for Lin Rui, he was in a slightly better state than Su Wan, but he was also drenched in sweat. He waited until Su Wan finished scooping the meat sauce before he slowly sat down next to the gas stove, picked up his own cup of hot cocoa, and drank it slowly.

Seeing this scene, Hu Jinsi had already estimated that the ingredients prepared just now were insufficient, so he took out some eggs, small pancakes, and bacon from his backpack again, and put them back into the frying pan to continue heating.

Not until the first small pancake was eaten did Su Wan's expression slowly recover.

She said to Hu Jinsi with some apology: "I had previously misunderstood that you might have some exclusionary thoughts about Zhou Wen. Until today's trip, I realized completely that with Zhou Wen's physique, coming to this dungeon is a form of torture for himself."

Su Wan said: "I feel our journey is already quite fast. Looking at it this way, actually, even if we finish fighting the Cyclops tomorrow, our remaining time will only be about two hours. It's completely insufficient to run this dungeon twice within 72 hours."

But after Su Wan finished speaking, Hu Jinsi slowly took a sip of hot cocoa, and then said: "Actually, there are many ways to take shortcuts in this dungeon. It's not impossible to run it twice or even more within 72 hours, but these methods rely more on financial resources. Anyway, with our current financial resources, it's very difficult to achieve."

Lin Rui and Su Wan both became interested at this moment. Although the physical fatigue was still there, it didn't affect their interest in this shortcut gossip, and they quickly asked what ideas he had.

Hu Jinsi said: "Actually, when we were on the Ghost Ship at the fifth level, we had already seen the castle of the second level, and the speed of the Ghost Ship moving forward was not fast either; we could feel this point."

"Then is there such a hypothesis: the beach starting from the castle of the second level to the sixth level is actually not too far away, it's just that the land distance between the two might require going around a large circle, similar to a C-shaped fjord, but actually the straight-line distance on the sea is very short."

"If this hypothesis holds," he continued, "then as long as one possesses enough flying items, under the premise of finishing the second level castle, one can directly ride flying items to fly to the ship at the fifth level, or even the beach or mountaintop of the sixth level. It can be considered as achieving a certain degree of level skipping, only this kind of level skipping is a physical level skipping."

Being told this by Hu Jinsi, the two also began to recall the terrain and scenery along the way.

Indeed, as Hu Jinsi said, the scenes of these levels are actually continuous to a certain extent. On the castle of the second level, one can see the Orc Village of the first level, and from the platform where they cleared the Wyvern in the third level, one can also see the castle of the second level.

Except for the karst cave of the fourth level which was underground, the other levels were actually places that could be directly seen from the previous level. Therefore, Hu Jinsi's statement was completely possible.