Chapter 54: A Second-Turn Summoner Releasing Saint-Rank Mage Skills — Is That Reasonable?

The second round of assessment tests sustained damage output.

【Candidates take note! The use of any equipment and magic potions is prohibited during this assessment.】

【Before you is a Level 100 Boss-quality Twin-Tailed Scorpion King. It will not launch any attacks against you, but it will summon 10 Level 40 ordinary-quality Twin-Tailed Giant Scorpions every second.】

【There are initially 100 Twin-Tailed Giant Scorpions surrounding you. After the countdown ends, all Twin-Tailed Giant Scorpions will attack you. The system will record the total damage output you deal before your HP drops below one-third, and assign a score.】

This assessment was quite interesting. If you could take hits, you could stall for a while longer; if you were agile and could dodge, you could also stall for a while longer.

To a large extent, it provided a fair test of the abilities of various combat classes.

This was Abyss difficulty. To choose this assessment, one needed at least Level 41 strength, and anyone with such strength at this point in time was at the very least an elite professional, whose combat power would not be lacking.

A Level 100 Boss-quality monster was on the same level as the boss, the Dread Knight, in the Cemetery of the Dead dungeon.

Lu Zheng could solo-kill it, but he worried that killing just this one wouldn't accumulate enough total damage, so he decided to try his newly obtained skill.

But before releasing that skill, he first cast a layer of defense on himself — the skill 'Dark Guard,' consuming ten thousand mana points to directly add one hundred thousand base defense.

Only then did he begin releasing his attack skill. With a cost of eighty thousand mana, a large expanse of cloud and mist instantly formed around him, enveloping all the twin-tailed scorpions including the Twin-Tailed Scorpion King.

The next moment, a massive explosion rang out, deafeningly loud! The cloud and mist from just now was instantly compressed, the air detonated, and a terrifying explosion swept across nearly the entire dungeon. Whether the Level 40 ordinary-quality Twin-Tailed Giant Scorpions or the Level 100 Boss-quality Twin-Tailed Scorpion King, all were blown to smithereens in an instant.

The violent shockwave struck the Dark Guard's defense and actually dealt a full sixty thousand points of damage! And this was at the edge of the explosion — it still had such enormous power.

Looking around, the hills on the desert were gone, and the Twin-Tailed Scorpion King didn't even leave a trace behind! Even Lu Zheng himself was shocked by this effect.

The skill he used was the skill 【Ride Clouds and Mist】 obtained from the three-star immortal-grade spirit pet. This skill could control clouds and mist for attack or defense. Last night, he had thought of using high-pressure clouds to ignite the air and create a cloud detonation effect, thus giving birth to this move 'Cloud Detonation Art'! The result, however, exceeded expectations — such enormous power, super large-area damage, output maxed out completely, and even the edge area a hundred and fifty meters away had sixty thousand points of shock damage.

You completed the assessment. Single-item score: 10000

In the viewing hall, Jun Xiaotian, upon seeing this scene, quickly asked, "The dungeon wasn't destroyed by his blast, was it?"

The person in charge snapped back to his senses and quickly checked, shaking his head as he said, "No, it can still be used. The Gaokao Abyss dungeon's strength limit can withstand a full-power strike from a Level 350 Epic-class Sword Saint, but it has already approached the critical threshold. We need to remind him — if his instantaneous damage goes any higher, I'm afraid the dungeon really will collapse."

When saying this, the person in charge was somewhat dazed.

This dungeon's strength was not set for students; rather, it was to prevent Saint-rank monsters from ambushing during the Gaokao, ensuring the dungeon wouldn't collapse so as to guarantee the safety of the students inside.

Yet the mechanism originally designed to defend against Saint-rank monsters was nearly wrecked by a single candidate!

This was truly absurd.

Jun Xiaotian nodded and said:

"Hurry, remind him immediately. I will report to the Imperial Capital shortly and request that they immediately reinforce the strength limits of all National Alliance Exam dungeons!"

Li Meixi said speechlessly:

"This guy is a Summoner, yet his spell power is already no weaker than a Saint-rank Mage. How is that even fair? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I definitely wouldn't have believed it. Lord Prefect, you need to show the video to the higher-ups. Who can handle this?! No, I still can't figure it out — just how strong must his base attributes be? Has he already reached the Saint-rank tier? A Summoner — on what basis!?"

She had to admit that, as a Saint-rank Mage, she felt jealous of Lu Zheng, this junior.

Because she was a Saint-rank Mage, she knew very well that the spell skill just now was absolutely a Saint-rank skill. Such a large area, such tyrannical destructive power — compared to it, the skills she mastered were actually somewhat weaker.

If Lu Zheng were an Epic-rank Mage professional, if Lu Zheng had also reached the Sixth-Turn Saint rank, she wouldn't have felt anything. There's always someone stronger than her, right?

But the thing was, this kid was just a Summoner — a Level 100 Summoner who hadn't even reached the Third Turn!

You're a Second-Turn Summoner releasing Saint-rank spell skills — is that reasonable? It honestly made me, your auntie, break down a little!

Over here, Lu Zheng was once again enveloped by the light screen. Just as he was reading the rules for the third round of assessment, a prompt sounded by his ear.

"Attention, student Lu Zheng! Your attack intensity is about to exceed the limit. During the third round of assessment, do not exceed the instantaneous damage limit from the second round, otherwise the dungeon will collapse!"

This voice rang out three times in a row, showing how urgent the other party felt, afraid that Lu Zheng wouldn't hear it.

Lu Zheng quickly responded. As a dungeon destroyer, it wasn't his first time destroying a dungeon. The previous dungeons were fine since he had been discreet about it, but if he destroyed this Gaokao dungeon, it would no longer be a matter of paying compensation.

He couldn't bear the responsibility of delaying the progress of the National Professional Gaokao.

"Lu Zheng, copy! Leaders, rest assured, I guarantee I'll keep my damage under control in the next round of assessment!"

Seeing his demeanor, Jun Xiaotian couldn't help but laugh, "This little fellow has very high awareness!"

The third round of assessment — this time, what was tested was comprehensive ability.

【Candidates take note! The use of any non-class-specific equipment, magic potions, and items is prohibited during this assessment.】

【Detected class: Summoner. Now matching a same-level monster — Level 100 Lord-quality monster: Lich Lord.】

【After the countdown ends, the assessment concludes when the target is killed or when your own HP falls below one-third.】

【Monster: Lich Lord】

【Quality: Lord-rank】

【Level: LV. 100】

【HP: 150,000/150,000】

【Mana: 40,000/40,000】

【Strength: 2000】

【Agility: 4000】

【Spirit: 8000】

【Constitution: 4000】

【Skills: Dark Summon, Ice Armor, Dark Frost, Soul Howl】

The third round of assessment was directly a same-level boss, and its traits were also matched according to different classes. Lu Zheng was a Summoner, so he was matched with the Lich Lord, because it also excelled at summoning.

Sure enough, the moment it appeared, it directly summoned two Level 100 Skeleton Knights and two Level 100 Skeleton Mages.

Lu Zheng actually had the confidence to clear them all with spells, but considering the potential impact on the dungeon, he chose a gentler approach.

With a raise of his hand, the Level 110 Cave Phantom Azure Snake appeared and activated the skill Blood Phantom Divine Light. With fifty thousand mana infused, it shot directly toward the Lich Lord in the center. Once hit, any target with a Spirit stat below 9000 would have their soul instantly dissipate, judged as dead.

In an instant, the Lich Lord, having just completed its Dark Summon, dropped dead, and its summons, losing mana support, collapsed directly!

You completed the assessment. Single-item score: 10000

Across all three rounds of assessment, the most time was spent on the countdown of the protective barrier. The entire assessment took only two minutes!

(End of this chapter)