8: Level 8 monster, Lizard Elder!

Originally, at Rank 4, killing a Rank 7 Azure Stone Statue would grant 0.2 experience.

That meant five hundred Azure Stone Statues were enough to level up.

But now, killing a Rank 7 Azure Stone Statue only provides a 0.1 experience increase.

One needs to kill a thousand Azure Stone Statues, doubling the quantity.

At a speed of one every three seconds, it would take at least an hour.

"An hour isn't the problem; the problem is whether there are a thousand Azure Stone Statues here."

Xia Qi glanced at the surrounding monsters; although there seemed to be many, he wasn't sure of the exact number.

"In that case, other Ranks of monsters cannot be let go either."

Xia Qi thought for a moment and quickly made a decision.

His speed was very fast now, and using Thunder Control to kill enemies didn't consume much stamina, so he just had to kill them all.

Who knew how many wild monsters the First High School had set in the dungeon for the students' safety.

Adhering to the principle of rather killing by mistake than letting one go, for the rest of the time, as long as it was a monster, no matter its Rank, Xia Qi killed it upon sight.

With Quick Run and Auto-Aim, how could he not get a chicken dinner?

For Xia Qi, the time spent finding monsters was much greater than the time spent killing them.

However, as his Rank reached five, Xia Qi's running speed further increased, and the time spent exploring the map significantly decreased, so he wasn't worried about not having enough time.

Continuously advancing, when he encountered areas with high monster density, Xia Qi would stop and cast Nine Heavens Thunderclap, an indiscriminate attack within a hundred-meter radius.

Basically, once the skill was activated, a hundred-meter radius was scorched earth; Xia Qi now specifically entered the bushes that were not usually explored to investigate.

And indeed, he found many stragglers in the bushes.

No matter if you were a bird or a beast, they were all found and instantly killed.

More than an hour later, under Xia Qi's frantic monster-finding and monster-killing operations, the light of leveling up flashed as expected, and he went from Rank five to Rank six.

"It's been about 6 hours since I entered the dungeon; there's still half the time left. I'm probably the only one who can reach Rank six."

It had only been six hours since the beginner dungeon opened, and most people were probably still struggling between Rank two and Rank three.

Even Yun Qingyue, who had the same S-Rank Talent, couldn't level up as fast as Xia Qi.

The Thunder Control Talent was strong in speed and had extremely high damage, making its efficiency much higher than general S-Rank Talents.

Xia Qi believed that his leveling speed was faster than anyone else's.

Jiang City wilderness, fringe area.

If an Awakened were to pass by at this moment, they would find that the entire path was littered with the corpses of low-Rank monsters.

Advancing two hundred meters, three Professionals around Rank thirty were still fighting fiercely with monsters, looking exhausted.

Fifty meters behind them, Su Yuanchen was slurping down a happy drink, stopping to grumble.

"Faster, faster! Six hours have passed, and I haven't even reached Rank five. To reach Rank ten, won't it take until Acquired?"

The only support girl in the team was furious; she pulled out her dagger and continuously hacked at these low-Rank monsters of Rank five to six, and six to seven.

Because of the Rank gap, she was also forced to work, helping her teammates kill monsters, otherwise, efficiency would be difficult to improve.

However, even with the support joining the fight, after six consecutive hours of high-intensity combat, the teammates were all feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Killing these low-Rank wild monsters brought them no benefit, and their stamina was constantly being consumed; if it were just like this, they wouldn't fear it.

Taking a ten-minute break every two hours, plus the support girl's energy drink replenishment, grinding for three days and three nights would be no problem.

But the problem arose: when the captain suggested a break, he was mercilessly refused.

"According to the contract, if you delay my leveling progress, you won't get a single cent of those five hundred thousand."

Those were Su Yuanchen's exact words.

These words, even the good-tempered captain, couldn't tolerate, and he argued with Su Yuanchen on the spot.

But Su Yuanchen was not someone to be trifled with, constantly bringing up his family background; after all, in a small place like Jiang City, the Su Family's influence was second to none.

After much thought, the captain endured it, only able to transform into a ruthless harvesting machine, working diligently.

Now, even the support girl was dragged into the fight, hoping to quickly get Su Yuanchen to Rank ten and get rid of this plague.

"Hey, you, another happy drink, and remember to add ice."

Su Yuanchen shook his empty cup and casually threw it on the ground.

"None left, I'm out of energy."

The support girl plunged her dagger fiercely into the neck of a wild dog, imagining the dog was Su Yuanchen.

"No? I just saw you secretly giving your captain energy water. And you tell me you don't have any?"

Su Yuanchen scanned the support girl up and down with ill intent, and the support girl felt a wave of goosebumps.

"Captain, what do we do now? If I run out of this little energy I have left, you definitely won't be able to hold on."

Feeling creeped out by Su Yuanchen's stare, the support girl could only seek help from the captain.

But did the captain have a solution? Absolutely not.

His silver armor had lost its luster, stained and dirty with monster blood, and he continuously repeated mechanical actions: killing monsters, hacking monsters.

"Give it to him, give it to him. Once this job is done, let's leave Jiang City and take missions in other cities."

The captain's voice was a bit choked; it was a little late for regret now. If they didn't complete the mission according to the contract, the Professional Guild certainly wouldn't give them an easy time.

In over ten years, having done so many missions, this was the first time he had encountered such a troublesome employer.

Even the beasts in the production team wouldn't work like this.

Thinking of this, the captain gritted his teeth. This time, he admitted defeat.

Beginner dungeon.

Another hour passed, and after instantly killing all the monsters in the Rank six and seven monster zone, Xia Qi's Rank climbed to Rank six, eighty percent.

In another ten minutes or so, he would reach Rank seven.

However, all monsters below Rank eight had also been completely slaughtered, not a single one left.

Helplessly, Xia Qi could only delve deeper, heading to the Rank eight wild monster area.

Stepping into the Rank eight wild monster area, the map changed again; first it was a mountain forest, then a plain, and this time it directly led to a desert area.

Looking out, sand filled the air, a desolate expanse.

"No way, no monsters?"

Xia Qi squinted, feeling a bit strange.

Logically, if the Rank six and seven monster areas were so dense, why couldn't he see any monsters here?

Could it be?

They were hidden!

Xia Qi searched and pondered simultaneously. The next instant, a crimson, thick, long lightning bolt shot out like a flash.

Its speed was astonishing.

Fortunately, Xia Qi's reaction wasn't slow. Thunder Control energy enveloped his feet, instantly bursting with speed, and he leaped a short distance backward, thus dodging the attack.

At this point, Xia Qi finally saw what the Rank eight wild monster looked like.

This was a monster with a lizard head and a human body, holding two cleavers in its hands, accompanied by two smaller lizard monsters.