Chapter 7: Soloing a Normal-level Dungeon

"No thanks, I want to earn my qualification for the College Entrance Exam through my own efforts!"

Zhou Chu smiled and refused.

"Alright, if it doesn't work out, use the Teleportation Stone to teleport out. Don't try to be a hero!"

Seeing that Zhou Chu was very determined, Su Chang found it hard to say anything more, so she could only offer one last reminder.

Zhou Chu's decision immediately drew disdain and mockery from the other students.

"Trying to act tough! An F-Grade weakling actually daring to solo a Copy, this idiot is truly stupid!"

"A guy two tiers lower than the mobs' grade dares to come here and embarrass himself? If it were me, I would have already smashed my head against a wall!"

"You guys are really vicious! The guy's brain is already slow to react; wouldn't he become even more of a moron if he hit it?"

"Haha, hilarious! A moron wants to take the College Entrance Exam! That's the funniest joke I've ever heard!"

Facing the pointing and whispering of the crowd, Zhou Chu remained exceptionally calm, as if he hadn't taken it to heart at all.

He stepped up to the registration desk, took out his Registration Card, and handed it to the staff member, saying, "Solo!"

The staff member glanced at Zhou Chu's Registration Card and advised, "Given your situation, I suggest you give up. There's not much point in soloing!"

"Solo!" Zhou Chu repeated.

The staff member thought Zhou Chu was just being impulsive; he had seen plenty of stubborn students, but today he had encountered an even more outrageous one.

Are the students of this year this reckless?

Even those with bottom-tier Soul Professions dare to come and solo now.

"Student, I think you should just..."

"Teacher, could you please hurry up? Don't waste everyone's time."

The student standing behind Zhou Chu urged impatiently.

Only then did the staff member look behind Zhou Chu and discover that a long line had already formed in the row he was responsible for.

Helpless, he had no choice but to swipe Zhou Chu's card on the registration machine and handed over a Teleportation Stone.

But Zhou Chu only took the Registration Card and did not accept the Teleportation Stone.

When the staff member saw that Zhou Chu hadn't taken the Teleportation Stone, he couldn't help but be startled. He looked up, only to see that Zhou Chu had already disappeared into the crowd.

"Xiao Huang, quickly notify the medical team! There's an F-Grade newcomer who chose to solo and didn't take a Teleportation Stone!"

He hurriedly instructed a staff member behind him.

Due to the protection mechanism of the Novice Dungeon, newcomers will not actually die if they are defeated.

Instead, they will be forcibly teleported out in a state of injury and unconsciousness.

It seems the medical team, which hadn't been needed for many years, would have to be deployed because of that stubborn newcomer just now.

After a bout of dizziness, a bright light appeared before Zhou Chu's eyes, and he was already in a dark jungle.

Novice Dungeon, Normal Difficulty — Shadow Jungle.

Although it was only the lowest difficulty dungeon, the map was still somewhat large.

If soloing, one would have to waste quite a bit of time looking for monsters.

But for Zhou Chu, he didn't need to do the searching and fighting himself.

He only needed to send out all 300 Corpses.

However, first, he had to spend half an hour to summon all 300 Corpse Servants.

There was no helping it; the Necromancer is a fragile profession, after all.

Moreover, since he had no combat skills in the early stages, he could only rely on the help of his contracted servants to get through this Novice Dungeon.

But, he hadn't looked at the Epic-grade passive skill he had learned earlier; he wondered what effect it had?

【Soul Agitation (Passive, God-level): Reduces the cooldown effect of the Life Soul Artifact by 60 times, and simultaneously reduces the Soul Power Value consumption of using skills by 10 times.】

Seeing this passive skill that had become God-level, Zhou Chu's eyes widened instantly.

Never mind what it was like at the Epic quality; the fact that it was related to his Life Soul Artifact made it quite impressive.

Zhou Chu took another look at the current status of his Life Soul Artifact.

【Life Soul Artifact — Dead Man's Coffin (D-Grade, Evolving, can evolve up to God-level): Can automatically collect D-Grade quality Contract Material, and simultaneously produce one D-Grade quality Contract Material available for contract every second. (Evolving to the next tier requires consuming 100 Soul Fragments)】.

Just as expected!

Generally speaking, passive skills cannot accumulate proficiency, so their grade cannot be upgraded either.

But that is where the power of the God-level Comprehension talent lies.

It forcefully turned the impossible into the possible.

It not only broke the shackles of the grade but also directly raised it to the God-level.

Now, with the blessing of this God-level passive skill, Zhou Chu's Life Soul Artifact could produce one D-Grade Contract Material per second.

Even more heaven-defying was that Zhou Chu only needed to consume 1 point of Soul Power Value every time he used the Dead Man's Contract.

This meant that Zhou Chu could now contract 3,000 D-Grade Corpse Servants within 3,000 seconds.

The appearance of this skill not only solved Zhou Chu's problem of slow recruitment but also increased the number of recruits by 10 times.

Zhou Chu couldn't help but ponder; 3,000 seconds would be 50 minutes.

Even if he did nothing else and just kept summoning, he would be busy for 50 minutes.

According to the average results of past Normal-level Dungeons, it was about an hour.

If Zhou Chu could summon 3,000 servants within these 50 minutes and complete the dungeon clearance at the same time, this result would be considered upper-middle tier in the history of the exam.

In this way, obtaining the qualification for the College Entrance Exam was a sure thing.

Without further ado, Zhou Chu began to continuously release the contracted D-Grade Corpses from his Life Soul Artifact, the Dead Man's Coffin.

Just as Zhou Chu was busy working, a sinister aura descended from above.

A black spider the size of a millstone slid down along a silk thread.

【Shadow Spider】 D-Grade

【Level: 2】

【Blood Value: 300】

【Attack Power: 30】

【Skill: Web Entanglement】

A Corpse seemed to sense danger.

It let out a low growl, swung its arms, and unleashed a flurry of frantic "scraping" attacks at the Shadow Spider.

Ten attacks per second shaved off one-tenth of the monster's Blood Value.

It really was quite a "scraping" performance to only shave off that much blood after 10 hits.

The next second, the Shadow Spider launched a counterattack, opened its massive maw, and bit the Corpse's head off in one go.

The fragile Corpse was killed instantly by a single strike.

Too squishy!

But it didn't matter; Zhou Chu was still summoning minions at a rate of +1 per second.

The next moment, several Corpses surrounded the Shadow Spider and immediately launched their "scraping" attacks.

As the saying goes, many ants can bite an elephant to death.

As more and more Corpses were summoned, how could this Shadow Spider withstand such high-intensity "scraping"?

After biting off the head of another Corpse, the Shadow Spider's Blood Value was scraped away entirely; it squeaked a few times and then died.

【Successfully killed "Shadow Spider", Experience +5.】

【Successfully collected Contract Material "Shadow Spider (D-Grade)".】

A D-Grade monster yields D-Grade material.

That's perfectly correct!

Zhou Chu walked up to the monster's corpse and fished out a pale purple Crystal the size of a thumb.

【Obtained Soul Fragment *1】

【You do not have any space-storage equipment; do you want to default to storing obtained items in the Dead Man's Coffin?】

Oh, this Life Soul Artifact can actually store items.

A coffin that holds everything?

Only then did Zhou Chu suddenly realize that his Life Soul Artifact actually had a storage space of up to 100 units.

It is said that every newcomer who successfully clears a Normal-level Dungeon can receive one D-Grade Space Ring.

But it only has 10 units of space.

Yet the Life Soul Artifact, the Dead Man's Coffin, is worth 10 D-Grade Space Rings.

This is just too awesome!

Fortunately, killing monsters yields Soul Fragments.

Kill one small monster, and 10,000 yuan is in the bag.

However, Zhou Chu planned to save up 100 of them to upgrade his Life Soul Artifact first.

While summoning without pause, Zhou Chu had his hired hands continue to push deeper into the jungle.

【Successfully killed "Shadow Spider", Experience +5.】

【Successfully collected Contract Material "Shadow Spider (D-Grade)".】

【Obtained Soul Fragment *1】

【Successfully killed "Shadow Spider", Experience +5.】

【Successfully collected Contract Material "Shadow Spider (D-Grade)".】

【Obtained Soul Fragment *1】

【Successfully killed "Shadow Scorpion", Experience +5.】

【Successfully collected Contract Material "Shadow Scorpion (D-Grade)".】

【Obtained Soul Fragment *1】

In the blink of an eye, 5 minutes had passed.

Not counting those that died prematurely, Zhou Chu had summoned a total of about 300 Corpses, and soon the experience from 20 monsters was successfully credited.

【Ding! Your level has increased to Level 2!】

【Your attributes have increased: Strength +5, Constitution +5, Soul Power +5, Agility +5!】

【Free Attribute Points +5!】

Leveling up as soon as entering the Copy!

This speed is super fierce.

What surprised Zhou Chu even more was that he didn't need to pick up the Soul Fragments dropped by the monsters himself.

The hired hands took care of that as well.

They not only had to find and kill monsters but also had to take on the heavy responsibility of cleaning up the battlefield.

Working without complaints, they were truly models of the modern era.

As for the free attribute points gained, Zhou Chu added them all to Soul Power without a moment's hesitation.

Moreover, these 10 points of Soul Power Value are equivalent to a full 100 D-Grade thugs.

After all, these D-Grade Corpse are still too weak.

At a time like this, one can only be more certain of success by relying on a massive advantage in numbers.

At this moment, on the other side, inside the Copy where Chen Bo is located.

A giant bear radiating a shimmering light is clashing head-on with three Shadow Spider.

It took less than two minutes for these three Shadow Spider to die under the giant bear's massive claws.

Immediately after, the giant bear's figure flashed, instantly transforming back into Chen Bo's appearance.

The S-rank Soul Profession Druid's Giant Bear Form.

While in Giant Bear Form, Chen Bo's Attack Power and defense will increase significantly.

These D-Grade mobs can be described as vulnerable.

Furthermore, his Giant Bear Form has already been upgraded to LV3 at this time.

Therefore, even when facing the siege of several monsters, he can deal with them calmly.

At the same time, he can also transform into Leopard Form, relying on excellent speed to quickly scout the map.

According to this progress, clearing this Normal Difficulty Copy will take no more than 20 minutes at most.

Thus, there is also a very high chance of coming out on top in the Expert Difficulty Copy!

Having transformed back into human form, Chen Bo casually cast Rejuvenation on himself to restore his state, then a confident, roguish smile appeared on his face.

"A Druid can tank, deal damage, and heal; this sustainability is simply incomparable to that fragile Fire Mage, Qin Ye."

"It seems this time the prize is destined to belong to me, Chen Bo!"

"He Muxue is going to become my, Chen Bo's, bride, hahaha!"