TSA Chapter 23

After the death of the Corrupted Chameleon, a wall at the back of its lair suddenly collapsed, revealing a downward passage.

This passage was dark and narrow, leading them down a slope to the second level of the mine. Here, the monsters were even tougher to deal with.

All around were enormous beehives, and swarms of fist-sized Corrupted Bees buzzed around them, their stingers, as thick as toothpicks, gleaming dangerously.

“Engage the enemies.”

As soon as Night Owl finished speaking, he threw a fireball, igniting the closest beehive. The bees became enraged and swarmed toward them like a tide.

Seeing so many bees flying straight at him made Gu Le’s scalp tingle. He felt like his trypophobia was about to act up, but he still remembered his role. Gritting his teeth, he raised his shield and charged forward, using his Revolving Sword to pull the bees’ aggro onto himself.

The bees furiously aimed their stingers at him, trying to stab him, but Gu Le deflected their attacks with his massive shield. The force of his defense even swatted some bees to the ground.

“Haha, watch me show off my shield skills!” Gu Le said triumphantly as he practiced his shield techniques against the bees.

The others quickly joined in, helping Gu Le to kill off the bees.

The bees dropped a lot of loot—copper coins, sharp stingers, and honey.

Xiao Bai perked up at the sight of the loot and quickly swooped in, picking up every item without missing a beat.

Ran Qi checked the items in his inventory and nodded in satisfaction. The stingers were good alchemy materials for crafting magic scrolls, and the honey was an excellent cooking ingredient for future meals.

Unfortunately, Night Owl’s fireball was too powerful, burning the beehive to ashes. Xiao Bai circled around the remains of the hive but couldn’t find anything to loot.

Ran Qi crouched down and sifted through the charred remnants of the hive, shaking his head regretfully. Inside, there were scorched bee larvae and dried-up beeswax. Such a big hive going to waste…

Ran Qi, influenced by his roommate from Yunnan, had developed a taste for eating insects. These ugly-looking bugs would turn into delicious snacks once deep-fried. Especially fried bee larvae—crispy on the outside, tender inside, and juicy, with a natural sweetness. Whether stir-fried with bean paste, braised with soy sauce, or cooked sweet and sour with sugar and vinegar, the taste was top-notch.

Just thinking about it made him drool.

“Night Owl, don’t use fireballs on the beehives later. There are valuable ingredients inside,” Ran Qi said to Night Owl.

Night Owl assumed Ran Qi was just collecting honey, so he agreed without thinking much of it.

From then on, he used magic bullets to knock down the hives, trying to keep them intact. However, Ran Qi, mindful of his teammates’ tolerance, refrained from opening the hives on the spot to extract the larvae. Instead, he stored the whole hives in his inventory.

After passing through the corridor filled with Corrupted Bees, they arrived at a cave covered in ice. Here, the next boss awaited—the Ice Lizard.

This boss resembled a Komodo dragon, with sharp teeth and claws, strong scales providing high defense, and the ability to freeze enemies in ice. It was a monster with a combination of offense, defense, and control abilities, making it extremely difficult to deal with.

Only a team as strong as Night Owl’s could face it. Ordinary players would likely give up and leave the dungeon after reaching this point.

Night Owl said, “This boss has a lot of HP, so we’ll need to prepare for a long fight. When it uses its freezing skill, Plume Ink, try to interrupt it with Triple Shot. If anyone sees it jumping, immediately fall back.”

Ran Qi realized that Night Owl hadn’t yet discovered the proper strategy for this boss. The lizard’s defense was incredibly high, and if they followed Night Owl’s approach, it would take at least 20 minutes to defeat the boss.

But that wasn’t surprising. Each dungeon they explored was new and unknown to them, and they didn’t have much time during the beta test to study every boss strategy. So, they resorted to the slow, cautious approach.

However, Ran Qi was a professional player. In his past life, he practically lived in game dungeons, leading pay-to-win players through them, so he knew all the boss mechanics inside out.

This could be considered his own form of a cheat…

Ran Qi said, “Let me add something. This boss’s weak points are its neck and belly. When it uses the freezing skill, it’ll raise its head. Everyone should attack its neck, and every hit will be critical. Also, when it jumps to attack, don’t try to dodge. Focus on hitting its belly right away, and you can knock it over, giving us more time to attack.”

“Really? There’s a strategy like that?” The team’s eyes lit up in understanding. No wonder their beta test runs had been so tough—they hadn’t figured out the right way to fight the boss.

“Did your brother tell you that? Your brother must be amazing to notice the boss’s weak points like that!” someone remarked.

“Not that amazing…” Ran Qi scratched his face, feeling a bit guilty.

With this strategy, the boss fight went smoothly. They completely overwhelmed the Ice Lizard. Once they knew its weak points, it was easy to crush it.

When the lizard prepared to use its freezing skill, attacking its neck had an 80% chance of interrupting the skill. When it jumped, targeting its belly made it lose balance, flipping the lizard over like an overturned turtle, struggling to get back up.

The sight was somewhat amusing. In less than five minutes, they finished off the boss.

[System Announcement] Congratulations to players [Night Owl], [Soul Chaser], [Plume Ink], [Sword at Fleeting Time], [Coke], and [Bai Ran] for clearing the Blackstone Mine experience dungeon in 30 minutes, achieving the Extreme Achievement, and earning the title [Unrivaled].

[World] Qian Duoduo: Oh my god, am I seeing things? Someone actually clear the Blackstone Mine dungeon in less than half an hour? Isn’t the final boss supposed to have a ridiculously thick HP and be super hard to beat?

[World] Novice Wants to Fly: Friends, let’s all type ‘awesome’ in the public chat together!

[World] September Sky: I suspect that Night Owl has discovered a new strategy again.

[World] June Snow: Darling, be more confident—take out the word ‘suspect’…

Windstorm Jiangnan also sent a message asking how they cleared the dungeon so quickly.

Sword at Fleeting Time asked, “Boss, Brother Ran, Jiangnan is asking how we cleared the dungeon so fast. Is there any secret? Can I tell him?”

Since Sword at Fleeting Time had written the previous dungeon strategies on the forum, Windstorm Jiangnan had messaged him directly.

Night Owl looked over at Ran Qi, who nodded in agreement before replying, “Go ahead, tell him. Have them leveled up quickly so everyone reaches level 30 today, and we can go run the Abyss dungeon together.”

It was already past 6 a.m., and at 8 a.m., when the cooldown reset, a new round of dungeons would begin.

“Got it!”

The GM had promised to give them their rewards before 8 a.m., and at 7:51, the rewards were sent through the mailbox.

“The GM sent over the Physical Exchange Coupons they promised, but they were all sent to my mailbox. I’ll trade them to you guys,” Sword at Fleeting Time said after checking the mail.

“Great.”

Sword at Fleeting Time sent trade requests to everyone on the team, giving them each four coupons.

“We got four coupons?!” Gu Le exclaimed in surprise, feeling like a windfall had just fallen into his lap. Four coupons could get a lot of good stuff!

“Yep. The GM promised to give us two coupons each for writing a strategy. I submitted two strategies, so of course, we got four coupons,” Sword at Fleeting Time said with a smile. “Once the cooldown resets, we’ll get the first clear for Forest Cemetery and Blackstone Mine, and I’ll write two more strategies. We’ll get four more coupons each.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Everyone happily agreed to Sword at Fleeting Time’s proposal. After all, Physical Exchange Coupons were rare and valuable.

Gu Le immediately went to the shop to redeem strawberries, mangoes, grapes, and apples. This time, he was going to indulge.

[System] Congratulations to the player for successfully exchanging 500 grams each of strawberries, mangoes, grapes, and apples, deducting 4 Physical Exchange Coupons.

“Ranran! I exchanged it for a ton of fresh fruit! This time, it’s my turn to treat you!”

“Alright, I’ll skip fruit this time and get something else.” Ran Qi browsed the exchange shop for a while before exchanging for pork, tomatoes, and eggs.

System] Congratulations to the player for successfully exchanging 500 grams each of pork, tomatoes, and eggs, deducting 6 Physical Exchange Coupons.

Meat required three coupons, making it pricier, but it was still worth it. Pan-fried pork belly with just a pinch of salt would be delicious, and with tomato egg soup, he and Gu Le would have a great meal.

“Boss, the GM is asking again about the live stream. What’s your decision?” Sword at Fleeting Time asked Night Owl.

“What’s the rush? We haven’t gathered all the Abyss fragments yet. Let’s talk about it when the time comes.” Night Owl was in no hurry.

“Alright then…” Sword at Fleeting Time relayed the message back to the GM.

After the dungeon cooldown reset at 8 a.m., the team ran Blackstone Mine five more times. Night Owl leveled up to 35, Soul Chaser and Plume Ink reached 34, Sword at Fleeting Time hit 33, Gu Le got to 31, and Ran Qi finally reached level 30, meaning the entire team was now level 30 or above.

Night Owl said, “Let’s run all the level 30 and below Challenge Dungeons. Once we gather enough Abyss Fragments, we can head to the next main city and start preparing for the Abyss dungeon.”

Abyss dungeons were the toughest type of dungeon in <Magic Realm>. If experience dungeons were the easy mode and Challenge Dungeons were the hard mode, then Abyss dungeons were the hell mode.

Though the difficulty of Abyss dungeons was high and came with certain risks, the rewards were equally substantial. Rare materials for crafting Grade A gear dropped there, along with most level 30 Grade A gear pieces, profession skill books, and guild summons—rare items that could quickly make players stronger and wealthier.

As <Magic Realm> progressed, leveling up became more difficult, and both wild monsters and dungeon bosses grew stronger. So they needed to run Abyss dungeons to upgrade their equipment and skills.

“We have to go offline for class… Let’s run the Challenge Dungeons after class,” Ran Qi said a bit apologetically, as the system had sent him a health reminder.

Night Owl replied, “No problem. We need to go offline for training anyway.”

“Huh? Boss, are you serious?!” Soul Chaser looked at Night Owl in disbelief. He thought Night Owl had been joking about this yesterday…

“Of course I’m serious. The competition is next month, and we can’t neglect training just because of the game,” Night Owl said seriously. “Each of you will spar with me for half an hour.”

“Ahhhhh… Noooo!!!”

Amid Soul Chaser and the others’ wails, Gu Le and Ran Qi logged off.