116: Continue to brush the dungeon, experience penalty mechanism

Meanwhile, Song Ming was slightly surprised after seeing Guo Jun's miserable state.

He had originally planned to properly teach this arrogant fellow a lesson after clearing the Dragon Island Instance.

But he didn't expect that by the time he came out of the dungeon, Guo Jun would be in this condition.

Since he had already received his due punishment, it saved him a lot of time.

Song Ming averted his gaze, no longer paying attention to Guo Jun.

Instead, he looked thoughtfully at the dungeon entrance behind him.

According to the description on the mission panel earlier, only by defeating the BOSS and clearing the hell-level Dragon Island Instance could he obtain a drop of spring of life.

Moreover, he could only clear it a maximum of three times.

After three times, the dungeon would automatically disappear, and it was unknown when it would reappear.

Since that was the case, Song Ming did not plan to return immediately.

Instead, he chose to continue clearing the hell-level dungeon.

Although clearing the same dungeon multiple times within 24 hours would incur an experience penalty, as long as he could consistently get the spring of life, he would not be at a loss at all.

The so-called experience penalty meant that Professionals who entered the same dungeon of the same difficulty multiple times would have their experience and rewards reduced by 10% after the first clear.

In other words, the second time Song Ming entered the hell-level Dragon Island Instance, the experience and loot he would receive after clearing it would decrease by one-tenth.

The third time he entered, it would decrease by two-tenths, and so on.

Until after the eleventh time, he would no longer receive any experience or loot.

It was precisely because of this mechanism that Professionals would not enter the same dungeon multiple times in one day, or rather, very rarely.

After all, expending the same effort would yield progressively less.

No one was willing to waste time and effort, so they all avoided entering the same dungeon multiple times.

However, Song Ming did not feel too much of a loss.

Anyway, clearing the dungeon barely consumed any of his energy; it was simply a matter of instantly killing any monster he encountered.

A mere one or two-tenths reduction was acceptable to him.

Moreover, his main goal was still the spring of life.

The value of this item was quite high, and Song Ming was unwilling to return empty-handed.

After all, the drop he currently held still needed to be handed over to the academy, and as for the remaining two drops, he would under no circumstances let them go.

While he was contemplating, Ning Hua softly spoke, "Junior, since the spring of life is already in hand and the mission is complete, it's time to return to the academy!"

Song Ming shook his head upon hearing this and said indifferently, "Senior, you all go back first, I plan to solo the dungeon a few more times!"

Ning Hua was a little puzzled, then suddenly understood, "Okay, we'll wait for you!"

She said no more, took Guo Jun aside, and waited quietly.

Jiang Rong did the same, standing beside Ning Hua, silently tallying the loot gained from this trip to Dragon Island.

Song Ming, without hesitation, continued to walk towards the glowing portal representing the hell-level difficulty and stepped right in.

The remaining Professionals immediately looked at each other, their faces filled with confusion.

"Why did the boss go in again? Could it be that he failed to clear it?"

"I knew it! Coming out so quickly, it would be a miracle if he cleared it!"

"Nonsense! You didn't witness the strength of this boss just now, otherwise, you wouldn't say such foolish things!"

"Hmph, just a freshman, and they say he can kill three Dragons. I don't believe it anyway."

"Yeah, are you Azure Dragon Academy people deliberately saying that just to prevent us from going in!"

The Professional teams from other academies looked disdainful, ignoring what others said, and walked straight towards the dungeon entrance.

Without a word, they directly chose the hell-level difficulty dungeon entrance.

The Professionals from Azure Dragon Academy all looked puzzled; with the boss's strength, even three Dragons would not be his match.

How could he possibly fail to clear the hell-level Dragon Island Instance?

Inside the hell-level Dragon Island Instance.

Standing in the familiar underground cave, Song Ming was unaware of the thoughts of the Professionals outside, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care.

External flattery and slander could not affect him in any way.

Because his strength did not come from the praise of outsiders, but from him adding skill points one by one.

Pushing open the massive metal gate in front of him, Song Ming, with practiced ease, immediately unleashed a Blazing Sun Divine Thunder.

The dazzling lightning instantly illuminated the passage inside, making it as bright as day.

At the same time, several Wyverns wandering within were swallowed by the endless purplish-red lightning before they could even let out a scream.

After clearing the monsters in the outermost passage, Song Ming quickly arrived at the fork in the road.

He summoned most of his Black Shadow Spirits, each led by a Dragon, and began a large-scale sweep.

Song Ming, meanwhile, took out the Zhu Xie Sword, cast a Divine Speed Magic Ring and Celestial God Incantation on himself, and rushed towards the central passage.

Last time, with Ning Hua and Jiang Rong, their speed was inevitably much slower.

Aside from dealing with monsters, almost half the time was wasted on the journey.

So Song Ming immediately boosted his speed, aiming to clear the hell-level dungeon in the shortest possible time.

With the blessings of the Celestial God Incantation and Divine Speed Magic Ring, his four-dimensional attributes were enhanced to an unprecedented degree, and any Wyvern he encountered along the way could barely escape his Zhu Xie Sword.

With a strength attribute of 400,000, Song Ming could be described as unstoppable, slaying gods and Buddhas alike.

Any monster, upon seeing him, couldn't even react to block before being decapitated and dying on the spot.

At the same time, the special effect of the Zhu Xie Sword activated, providing him with one point of strength for every monster killed.

Compared to his monstrous strength attribute, this small increase was somewhat negligible.

Thus, he instantly killed his way through.

What was originally an hour's journey was compressed into ten minutes by him.

This was still with him being a bit unfamiliar with the route.

After that, he, without suspense, slew the two-headed Dragon and its subordinate Draconian species.

Finally, he arrived in the magnificent hall deep underground.

Looking at the Black Dragon sleeping on the throne, a trace of pity appeared in Song Ming's eyes, "Brother Dragon, don't worry, it will be over soon!"

"Roar!"

The Black Dragon awoke from its slumber, still a bit dazed, and then saw a flash of sword light constantly enlarging in its vision.

Pfft.

A sudden sword strike directly severed its right claw.

The Black Dragon roared in pain, about to fly into the sky to create distance.

However, it saw a dark, circular chain bind it, completely freezing it in place, unable to move a single inch.

"Roar?"

Before it could figure out what had happened, the sword light struck again.

It successively severed its four limbs and two wings, and the final strike cut off its head.

Song Ming let out a long breath, looking at the message prompts before him.

The experience indeed decreased by 100,000.

However, it had refreshed the hell-level clear record for this Dragon Island Instance.

He additionally received a treasure chest.

Opening both treasure chests together, he received 900,000 experience points, a drop of spring of life, a level 100 red top-tier equipment, and a class-specific skill book.

There was nothing else.

Song Ming sighed inwardly, indeed, the rewards had decreased a lot.

Next time, it would probably be even less.

However, his goal was originally the spring of life; as for the rest, less is better than nothing!

The reduction in experience points, and as his Rank got higher, the experience needed to level up would also increase.

Clearing the hell-level dungeon this time only increased his Rank by five levels.

"Indeed, I still need to go to higher-level dungeons or special places, otherwise, I'm still very far from reaching Rank 100!" Song Ming muttered as he exited the dungeon.