88: Chapter 88 Speed ​​Runners, Athletes, Chefs

The four of them left the dungeon at 5:30 PM.

The old man at the exit registration desk saw them walk out of the vortex, glanced up at the clock, and said with a smile, "Yo, a few hours slower than yesterday. You young people need to work harder!"

Hu Jinsi casually replied, "Definitely next time," and signed his name in the old man's register. The old man flipped through the previous records, muttering, "Most people have already come out from the first round. It seems the difficulty of this dungeon isn't up to par."

Indeed, the register was densely packed with names. It seemed that as everyone became more familiar with the dungeon, clear times were getting shorter and shorter.

Lin Rui walked to the side to call Teacher Fan, reporting the situation concisely: "Teacher Fan, our squad has finished our second dungeon run of the week and have come out early to rest. We won't wait for the school bus tomorrow; we'll take public transport back ourselves."

It was unclear what Teacher Fan said on the other end, but Lin Rui just grunted "Mm-hmm" twice and hung up.

"Let's go," he said, putting away his terminal. "Teacher Fan told us to stay safe."

The four of them took the bus that went directly from the dungeon entrance to the city, swaying all the way. The carriage was full of other students who had just come out of the dungeon, who also seemed to be planning to go home and rest. Some were discussing their gains excitedly, while others were dozing off against the windows. Hu Jinsi sat in the last row, watching the scenery rapidly receding outside the window, calculating the total earnings for the week in his mind.

It wasn't too ideal, but it wasn't too bad either.

By the time they returned to the city, it had already turned dark. The streetlights on the side of the road lit up one by one, the neon signs of the night market stalls flashed with colorful light, and the air was filled with the mixed smell of barbecue and cooking fumes.

"Let's eat first," Hu Jinsi said. "My treat."

"Yo, did the sun rise from the west?" Su Wan raised an eyebrow.

"Zhou Wen performed well this week, let's celebrate."

Zhou Wen scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly. The four of them found a night market stall to sit down at and ordered claypot dishes, fried rice, and a few bottles of soda. The stall owner was a man in his fifties with skilled hands, and the lamb skewers sizzling on the iron plate emitted an enticing aroma.

Halfway through the meal, Zhou Wen put down his chopsticks, his expression becoming serious.

"There's something I want to say."

"What is it?" Lin Rui asked.

"I won't participate in the distribution of the equipment dropped by the last two bosses this time." Zhou Wen's voice wasn't loud, but his tone was firm. "The [Focus Secret Ring] I received from the Cyclops earlier already exceeds the combined earnings of the three of you this time. Su Wan and Hu Jinsi didn't take much equipment throughout the whole thing, and I feel bad about it."

Hu Jinsi and Su Wan exchanged glances.

"Are you sure?" Su Wan asked. "Although the Golden Horn Pendant and Maze Crayon aren't very useful, they are at least accessories and tools..."

"I'm sure." Zhou Wen nodded. "That ring was a huge boost for me; it would be too greedy to take anything else."

Seeing Zhou Wen's resolute attitude, the three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad didn't stand on ceremony anymore. After all, the last two bosses really didn't drop anything valuable; the Golden Horn Pendant, Maze Crayon, and Giant's Foot Scrubber sounded more like a clearance sale from some general store.

[Golden Horn Pendant]

[Type: Accessory/Necklace]

[Maze Intuition: When you are in a dungeon, maze, or any complex passage built by people, you can vaguely perceive "which direction is the nearest exit." This perception is extremely hazy, only providing a rough direction, and it only takes effect once per day.]

[Psychological Comfort: If the wearer holds it while falling asleep, their dreams will tend to have imagery related to "returning home" or "exits."]

[Item Description: A fingernail-sized slice of golden ox horn, polished into a teardrop shape with a small hole drilled at the top, strung on a black leather cord to make a pendant. Looking at it against the light, one can faintly see extremely pale golden veins flowing inside the horn slice, like solidified honey.]

---

[Maze Crayon]

[Type: Consumable/Tool]

[Path Marking: You can draw marks on walls or floors. These marks will continuously emit a faint golden light for 24 hours (providing about 1.5 meters of dim illumination) before gradually dimming and disappearing. Each crayon can draw a continuous line about 300 meters long.]

[Tracking Sense: When you stand next to a mark you drew with this crayon, you can vaguely perceive "which direction the first mark you drew is in" (unlimited distance, but limited to marks drawn by yourself).]

[Item Description: A dark golden crayon about the length of a finger and the thickness of a little finger, with a texture between chalk and Grease. Places drawn with it leave a clear, slightly reflective golden mark that can be faintly seen even in dim environments.]

---

[Giant's Foot Scrubber]

[Type: Consumable/Daily Item]

[Callous Softening: Using this stone to rub rough skin areas (such as heels or palms) during a short or long rest can permanently make the skin in that area more supple.]

[Grinding Combustion Aid: Breaking this pumice stone into small pieces can serve as a high-quality combustion aid. A small piece can make damp firewood burn quickly, providing an advantage when starting a fire in rainy or humid environments.]

[Item Description: A pumice stone a size larger than an adult's fist, with a rough surface covered in fine pores. It still has some gray stone powder residue on it, clearly the tool used by the Cyclops to grind down the calluses on its heels.]

---

"You can tell from these drops," Hu Jinsi said, closing his panel with a sigh. "Ever since we accidentally dropped that Minotaur to its death in the second stage, the dungeon's malice has been following us."

"Forget the equipment; just look at these miscellaneous items, all with weird, oddball attributes—not a single one has any serious function." Su Wan rolled her eyes.

"I'm actually a bit interested in this foot scrubber." Su Wan picked up the pumice stone and weighed it. "I'm quite interested in this supple skin effect."

"Let's list the other two on the market to sell," Lin Rui said. "Whatever we get for them, we get."

"The problem is that it's an unknown how much stuff like this can sell for." Hu Jinsi smiled bitterly. "Who would buy a crayon that can only draw lines on a wall? And that pendant—dreams tending towards homeward imagery when sleeping? What kind of function is that? A psychological placebo?"

"Better than nothing." Su Wan stuffed the foot scrubber into her backpack.

After the meal, the group chatted for a while longer and agreed that on the day they returned to school, Zhou Wen would bring his classmate with the Barbarian profession to do some simple coordination training with the squad. Zhou Wen promised to resolve his friend's mount issue before the day they returned to school.

"Then it's settled." Hu Jinsi stood up and brushed the dust off his pants. "See you next week."

The three members of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad parted ways after reaching the residential complex entrance, each returning to their own home.

Hu Jinsi pushed open his door, threw his backpack onto the sofa, and slumped onto the sofa, spacing out for a while.

The city outside the window was brightly lit, and the sound of car horns and the shouting from street stalls could be heard in the distance. He took a deep breath, then climbed up from the sofa and walked to the bathroom.

Routine procedure: wash up, bathe, change clothes.

He adjusted the water temperature to just hot enough to sting his skin, the hot water washing away the fatigue on his body. Steam filled the bathroom, making his thoughts clearer.

"Time to draw a specialty again..." he muttered to himself.

After bathing, he changed into a clean set of loungewear and sat cross-legged on a cushion in the living room. A cup of hot tea was placed in front of him, the tea aroma curling and slowly drifting in the air.

The sense of ritual had to be maxed out. This was an experience Hu Jinsi had summarized; only when both body and mind were in their best state would the drawn specialty be the most satisfactory.

He closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and sank his consciousness into his body. Qi flowed slowly through his meridians, forming a perfect cycle. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze focused.

"Come on."

[Spend 8,000 EXP to draw a Level 14 class specialty?]

"Yes."

The panel flickered again, and three new specialty options appeared.

[Speedster: Your Agility or Constitution increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20. Your speed increases by 3 m/s, and difficult terrain no longer consumes extra movement.]

[Athlete: Your Strength or Agility increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20. You gain a climbing speed equal to your movement speed; when in a prone state, you can directly recover to a standing posture through a "Kip-up" action; you can achieve maximum jump distance without a running start.]

[Chef: Your Constitution or Perception increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20. You can gain general EXP through cooking activities; as part of a short rest, as long as you have ingredients and cooking tools on hand, you can cook a special gourmet meal. At the end of this short rest, any creature that eats this food can recover an additional 8 HP.]

Three specialties with attribute bonuses—it was truly rare. Hu Jinsi pinched himself, almost unable to believe what he was seeing. In previous specialty draws, he had never encountered a situation where all three options had attribute bonuses. It was like they were giving him a benefit.

Suddenly, he felt that this dungeon trip might not have been a bad thing after all. Perhaps he had accumulated enough luck—luck from so many bosses—and it finally exploded this time. He calmed down and began to analyze them one by one.

First, [Athlete] definitely had to be ruled out. The improvements brought by this specialty were completely useless to Hu Jinsi right now.

His own [Crane Stance] and [Unarmored Movement] could completely cover the effects of this specialty. Climbing speed? He was already running on walls. Kip-up? His Agility had long since exceeded the threshold needed for that action. Jump without a running start? His [Crane Stance] let him walk on air as if it were flat ground.

What remained were [Speedster] and [Chef].

Reason told him he should choose [Speedster]. A speed increase of 3 m/s and difficult terrain no longer consuming extra movement was practically tailor-made for him. Combined with his current equipment and skills, his mobility would reach a terrifying level.

But Hu Jinsi was also a bit covetous of the [Chef] effect. Gaining general EXP through cooking meant he could allocate it to any class, which also had benefits for the Monk class. It was just unclear what the efficiency was like. If it was like alchemy before, only adding one point at a time, it would be a bit underwhelming.

He hesitated for a moment between the two options. To be safe, he still chose [Speedster]. After all, this was the safest choice, and there would be plenty of opportunities in the future. He believed he would meet the [Chef] specialty again; perhaps next time he would choose it without hesitation.

"Select [Speedster]."

[Unlocked Level 14 Specialty: Speedster]

As for the attribute, Hu Jinsi chose Agility, first pushing Agility to the transcendent critical point of 20.

"Agility: 15+2 (Class Change Bonus) + 2 (Crane Form: Lonely Phoenix Style Bonus) + 1 (Speedster Bonus)."

Because common sense told him that the more attributes he had pushed to 20 points before the Level 30 advancement, the more powerful the transcendent class choices he would receive upon advancement would be.

In the current situation, he had already maxed out Perception and Agility. At Level 20 and Level 30, he should be able to obtain two more draws from other Monk schools in the multiverse, and he believed he could at least max out one more attribute point.

After drawing the specialty, Hu Jinsi watched his EXP bar drop back to less than half. He composed himself and once again immersed himself in a state of meditation.

The next morning, after Hu Jinsi finished meditating, he opened his phone. Sure enough, news of their squad obtaining the achievement [Victory Through Strategy] had flooded his social media feed again.

The speed at which the news spread was faster than he had imagined. Various posts, screenshots, and forwards filled the class group chat and the school forum. Some people were envious, some were skeptical, and others didn't believe it, thinking it was farmed using some kind of bug.

Fortunately, the four of them already had a response plan. When they were eating last night, the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad had already discussed it with Zhou Wen. Because it was Zhou Wen's plan to begin with, Zhou Wen would publish the detailed process of how to obtain this achievement as a guide today.

As for the achievement information, it would also be announced uniformly by Zhou Wen's side, while Hu Jinsi and the other two would maintain a unified narrative: this time, it was an achievement discovered by Zhou Wen, and they were merely assistants.

"Let Zhou Wen be the protagonist, and we'll be the supporting roles," Hu Jinsi had said at the time. "Anyway, he doesn't lose out, and he gets face from getting the achievement."

When Hu Jinsi went downstairs to have breakfast, he walked a few laps around the residential complex. The changes brought by the new specialty [Speedster] pleasantly surprised him; his normal movement speed was already close to 7 m/s, and he felt like he had wind under his feet when walking, with every step much lighter than before.

He tried sprinting at full speed on the residential complex's running track.

The sound of wind whistled in his ears, and the scenery turned into blurry shadows receding backward. With the boost from his Agility, his speed could potentially reach close to 20 m/s for a short time.

In his previous life, this speed would even be suspected of speeding on some roads. After feeling the changes brought by the new specialty, Hu Jinsi reined in his speed, maintaining a state similar to before. After all, energy is conserved; high speed = high consumption, and he, Hu Jinsi, hadn't even eaten breakfast yet.

After slowly finishing his breakfast, he returned to his room.

Since he had barely used any potions this week, Hu Jinsi had no plans to brew any new ones over the next few days. He devoted the remaining time to long, drawn-out meditation.

As for Lin Rui and Su Wan, Hu Jinsi hadn't seen hide nor hair of them during these two days of rest. He only occasionally saw the two little girls, Su Qing and Su Yu, happily flying around the residential complex with Su Wan's magic broom. The two little ones took turns, competing with each other with great delight, their laughter echoing throughout the complex.

Interestingly, there was more than just this one magic broom in the complex this week. A few parents had actually bought the same model of magic broom for their children, letting them ride and play around the complex.

For a time, the complex's plaza was filled with children flying their brooms at low altitudes, creating quite a spectacular scene. Some parents sat on benches chatting, watching the children fly back and forth with expressions of helpless amusement on their faces.

Hu Jinsi, having been reborn for over a decade, found this state of affairs quite ordinary, having seen it all before.

After all, at this time last year, the children in the complex were still holding wands, shouting "Key of hidden dark power—seal release!" while yelling "Balala energy—transform!"

Back when Hu Jinsi and the others were young, there was even a trend in the complex involving a spring water that could turn boys into girls when splashed on them. It only lasted 5 minutes and the effect only worked on children. Thinking back on it now, he and Lin Rui had it pretty rough back then, being chased by the little girl next door and unable to dodge the splashes.

(That dark history must never be known by anyone else, even if it kills him.)

When the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad arrived at school after the rest days, they discovered that the direction of everyone's discussion had indeed gradually shifted.

The originally simple [Grease] tactic had been expanded into all sorts of bizarre variations because the variables were too great and the success rate remained to be verified.

Some were preparing to take a bucket of soap solution directly into the dungeon;

Some were preparing to use blinding abilities to temporarily blind the Minotaur, causing its Charge to fail;

Some squads were even planning to dismantle all the battlements on the city wall to play bullfighting, letting the Minotaur Charge off on its own.

Watching everyone's enthusiastic discussion, Su Wan asked Hu Jinsi and Lin Rui with some confusion: "Why is everyone obsessed with this Minotaur? Why doesn't anyone bother with the other bosses?"

Whether Lin Rui was telling a cold joke or answering seriously, he simply said calmly: "Maybe it's because the Minotaur's intelligence isn't very high."

The arrival of the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad clearly ignited the enthusiasm of the classmates. Everyone swarmed over, asking the three of them about the specific implementation method.

"Tell us quickly, how did you cast that [Grease]?"

"How do you time it?"

"What if the Minotaur doesn't Charge?"

Fortunately, when they first implemented this plan, Hu Jinsi had playfully asked Lin Rui and Su Wan to take some cool photos of him. It was this unintentional action that captured the entire process. Otherwise, just based on the three of them describing it so simply, others would have really thought they were intentionally holding back.

Hu Jinsi projected the video onto the classroom's big screen, and the whole class gathered around.

In the video, Hu Jinsi stood in front of the Minotaur, wiggling and taunting it. The Minotaur lowered its head and began to Charge, and then Zhou Wen's [Grease] was precisely cast on the ground. The Minotaur stepped on it, slipped, lost its balance, got its weapon stuck in the ground, tripped, and then flipped off the city wall.

The entire process took less than ten seconds.

"Holy shit!"

"That works too?"

"That's so cool!"

The classroom exploded with noise.

After dealing with the chattering classmates, the three were pulled into a corner of the classroom by the Pear Garden Squad and the Gunpowder Squad, starting a second round of "interrogation."

The three had no choice but to explain the process again, while also showing the photos and videos from that time. Finally, Lin Rui cautioned them: "I don't know if it was an accident or what, but on the dungeon run where we got the achievement, not a single piece of equipment dropped. The only drops were some toys or household items. If you want to do this achievement, you need to prepare for the worst."

"No equipment?" The members of the Gunpowder Squad looked at each other, confused.

"Right, not a single piece." Lin Rui nodded, "Everything was stuff like hearthstones, combs, and pumice stones."

As for the rest, although they also explained the way their squad accelerated their movement within this dungeon, it was clear that this plan wasn't very feasible for the Gunpowder Squad and the Pear Garden Squad.

Because neither of these squads had any magic-type classes, unless they were willing to pull in two extra temporary magic-type teammates, the rapid movement plan that Hu Jinsi and the others shared wouldn't be easy to replicate.

As for the Gunpowder Squad, they tried to tackle the Black Tower on the Black Marsh in the [The Cathedral] dungeon this week, but gave up after reaching the third floor.

According to Zhou Hao, the terrain inside was really not suitable for the Gunpowder Squad. Not only were there many blind spots, but it was also a layout of room after room, which was quite inconvenient for users of long-range firearms like them.

"There were often many monsters ambushing in the blind spots of the rooms," Zhou Hao frowned, "Even though you've already washed the floor with gunpowder, you'd still get ambushed by monsters in the blind spots after entering a new room, which gave us a huge headache. Therefore, we didn't push to the top of the tower and gave up; it was mainly because the consumption of potions was a bit too high."

"And the rooms were too small," Chen Yu added, "My hand-cranked automatic machine gun didn't even have a chance to deploy. The depth of the rooms wasn't enough, and the squad basically had to rely on Zhou Hao's output, making it extremely difficult."

"We also discovered that the next map after the outer corridor is the barracks, and a boss monster called the Blacksmith inside the barracks," Zhou Hao continued, "It has thick skin and flesh, and ordinary firearms do no damage to it. The squad was originally planning to force it with an RPG, but the room was really too small and there was no lighting, so we had to give up."

Chen Yu sighed: "Our squad is actually not afraid of this kind of thick-skinned boss at all. Outside, in open terrain, we are confident that we could deal with even 3 of these monsters at the same time. But the problem is that the rooms in the barracks are too complex."

Therefore, the Gunpowder Squad stated that they actually planned to change dungeons next week to change their mood. That's why they came to ask Hu Jinsi and the others about this new achievement, preparing to do an achievement first. If they could get a suitable affix and strengthen their skills, perhaps there would be a qualitative change.

As for the Pear Garden Squad, their progress this week was clearly much better than the Gunpowder Squad's.

Wu Yingyu (the Sword-and-Horse Dan professional, who hasn't appeared for a long time) stated that the enemies in [Double Dragon III] all knew some fighting skills to a greater or lesser extent, but they were definitely not the martial arts masters everywhere that Teacher Fan had described.

"Most of the small monsters inside are just enhanced versions of street thugs," Wu Yingyu said, "They might use a move or two, but they definitely don't have systematic skills."

"The weapons are diverse, though," Wang Jingshan interjected, "Throwing knives, chains, manhole covers, oil drums, boxes... everything you can think of. But the comprehensive combat power is at most only twice that of those Defias Thieves in Goldshire before."

"As for the elite monster called Abobo that Teacher Fan specifically mentioned," Wang Jingshan scratched his head, "We also encountered quite a few in the first two stages."

"The attack power is indeed not low; I tried to take a hit head-on and it took away 1/4 of my health in one go. But the weaknesses are also quite obvious: the overall movement speed is slow, and it attacks empty-handed without weapons, so its movements are slower compared to agility-type enemies."

"The most critical thing is that this type of humanoid monster is susceptible to crowd control skills; Mo Yan's debuff skills are basically 100% effective on them, with no reduction whatsoever."

Wu Yingyu nodded: "The bosses are also humanoid enemies with conventional physical builds; there aren't that many tricks, and they don't have any magic skills."

"Of course," she added, "We have only pushed to the third stage for now and haven't even seen the third stage boss."

The information for the first and second stages, I believe, can also be found online. Overall, the first stage is just at the level of some street thugs, except they use various props like controlled knives, iron chains, manhole covers, boxes, and oil drums.

Then the boss is a person named Dalton, who is also not very strong; he only knows a few moves over and over again, and is a type that is relatively easy to deal with.

The scene of the second stage starts to become somewhat like this world forty or fifty years ago. The types of enemies also change from the street thugs of the first stage to some martial artists who know a simple move or two, but Wu Yingyu stated that they are really just at the level of knowing one or two moves.

"The only trouble is that this stage has a scene similar to the Great Wall," Wu Yingyu frowned, "It's steep and long, and very exhausting."

"The boss of this stage is a Drunken Fist master," Wang Jingshan said, "We don't know how others solved it, but our own way of solving it was to follow our own rhythm and ignore the opponent's moves. Because our squad's fighting style has elements of performance in it, and some of the Drunken Fist moves are also intended to be performed for the opponent, we simply ignored them and dealt with this boss step by step."

"We have only reached a little over halfway through the third stage now," Wu Yingyu sighed, "The main thing is that this stage is full of traps back and forth; they might pop out from the ground, they might pop out from the walls, or they might pop out from the ceiling, so the three of us have to advance slowly. And because it's inside a building, we can't use transportation to cheat like your two squads."

Wang Jingshan summarized: "Overall, we feel that the style of this dungeon is quite suitable for us, and the equipment drops are all from humanoid monsters, so there won't be any situations where we can't wear them or they aren't suitable. Although our drops this time were average, at least they won't be useless."

As he spoke, he showed the other two squads an item drop and a martial arts skill drop:

[Red Baseball Cap]

[Type: Hat]

[Effect: Reduces the duration of shock/stun after being hit in the head by 10%; slightly increases aura intimidation (reduces aggro from small monsters slightly).]

[Item Description: Dalton's iconic red baseball cap, usually worn backward. The coarse, wear-resistant fabric is suitable for street-level wanderers and is the most common accessory for city thugs and street drifters. The rough brim cannot provide substantial protection, but the casual and flamboyant way of wearing it will weaken the aggressive desire of low-level grunts.]

[Martial Skill: Man's Strength]

[Usage Requirement: Strength 16+]

[Effect: Dash distance 3 meters, deals blunt damage on hit; has a chance to shock the attacked unit for 1 second; can break a normal Block.]

[Skill Description: Dalton's signature dash punch, Charges up and lunges forward, landing a solid punch; a god-tier skill for street brawls.]

Seeing the descriptions of this equipment and skill, Hu Jinsi couldn't be bothered to complain. Because he had long known that this was a mixed world of [Double Dragon Fighting] and [Double Dragon]. But the descriptions of this skill and item were just too simple; he really couldn't imagine who would use such a weak skill.

A 3-meter dash? In Hu Jinsi's eyes, this didn't even count as a "dash"; at best, it was called "taking two steps forward."

But even so, Wu Yingyu still tried to sell [Martial Skill: Man's Strength] to Hu Jinsi.

"Jinsi, do you want to consider it?" Wu Yingyu handed over the skill scroll, "Although it's a melee skill, your strength isn't low, right?"

Hu Jinsi didn't speak, just simply took a step forward.

The next second, he was already standing 5 meters away from his original position.

Wu Yingyu widened her eyes, not having reacted yet.

Hu Jinsi took another step, returning to his original position, and shrugged: "I think I have better skills."

In reality, Hu Jinsi felt that this skill was just too trashy. His own movement speed per second was already more than twice this dash distance; who would want a dash skill that was slower than their own movement speed? This was purely a reverse enhancement for himself.

Wu Yingyu clearly didn't understand the logic of this skill. This was a skill prepared for strength-type classes with poor mobility; trying to sell it to Hu Jinsi was just too whimsical.

"Alright," Wu Yingyu took back the scroll and smiled awkwardly, "Forget I said anything."

Hu Jinsi patted her shoulder: "Call me next time you have something that suits me."