My career aspirations have come true.

Chapter 18 Challenge the Blackthorn Tower

The four immediately summoned their marks and selected team mode.

Zheng Hong then led the three towards the registration desk, explaining the situation of the dungeon as he went.

"The Blackthorn Tower is a special dungeon. The entire dungeon is a tower with a maximum of 18 floors. Clearing a floor is equivalent to progressing through the dungeon. With each floor you go up, the strength and number of monsters will increase in a step-by-step manner."

"Under normal circumstances, a team of level 2 professionals with a balanced skill set and average strength should have no problem clearing the first five floors, but the sixth floor will depend on luck."

"With me on the team, we can set our goals a little higher and try to get past the eighth floor."

After the registration staff checked the four men's military ID cards, they waved them through.

The four of them arrived together in front of the gate of light.

"Don't be nervous. Once inside, if things look bad, you can always run down to the next level. As long as you're out of combat for more than ten minutes, you can leave the instance at any time. If you're careful, you generally won't be in any danger."

Seeing the barely concealed tension on Tang Wangshu and Zhuang Yi's faces, Zheng Hong offered a word of comfort while glancing at Lin Ze.

Newcomers entering a dungeon for the first time are bound to feel nervous, but Lin Ze remained completely calm and composed, demonstrating a mental fortitude far superior to that of many other newcomers.

"Go in."

Zheng Hong led the way into the portal, followed closely by Lin Ze and the other two.

The silvery-white light instantly engulfed the field of vision.

Lin Ze felt weightless, as if he had fallen into an endless void. There was no sound in his ears, but his consciousness was unusually clear. After more than ten seconds, his body suddenly sank, and he felt a solid touch under his feet. Only then did the feeling of weightlessness suddenly dissipate.

Opening his eyes, Lin Ze found himself in an incredibly spacious hall.

The hall was about the size of a standard football field. Underfoot was a pitch-black stone floor, cold and hard, covered with fine patterns. The walls and dome were made of countless sharp black thorns, the surface of which gleamed with a cold metallic luster, like solidified shadows, exuding a chilling aura.

Zheng Hong, Zhuang Yi, and Tang Wangshu also appeared one after another, forming a triangle with the four of them, taking in the entire hall.

"This is the inside of the dungeon? There really is only our team here."

Zhuang Yi couldn't help but marvel, reaching out to touch the thorny wall beside him, feeling a bone-chilling coldness at his fingertips.

"There is a mainstream hypothesis in the federal academic community that the copy is actually a projection of other worlds."

Zheng Hong explained with a smile, while also stretching his wrists, his knuckles making a cracking sound.

"Those worlds also experienced catastrophes, but ultimately perished. The remaining fragments of space were projected into dungeons. Because they are projections, the monsters inside can be resurrected infinitely, and different teams can be teleported to parallel spaces without interfering with each other."

"I've also read the relevant papers," Tang Wangshu continued. "Whether it's monster resurrection or the construction of parallel spaces, both require consuming the core energy of the instance. Once the energy is exhausted, the instance will collapse and dissipate. This is the fundamental reason why instances have a limited lifespan."

"How exactly did that copy appear?" Zhuang Yi asked curiously.

Tang Wangshu shook his head: "This problem has troubled scholars for more than 20 years and there is still no conclusion. Just like the appearance of the professional stone tablet back then, it is an unsolved mystery."

"Alright, enough of this small talk." Zheng Hong suddenly stopped smiling, his tone becoming serious. "Prepare for battle!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a series of clicking sounds rang out all around him.

The black thorn wall cracked open like a living thing, and giant scorpions, each over two meters long, emerged from the cracks.

Their bodies were covered with thick, dark brown armor, their pincers gleamed with a metallic gleam, and their tails were raised high. When they landed, they made a dull thud as they fiercely pounced on the four of them.

"Please cooperate!"

Zheng Hong had somehow donned a pair of metal boxing gloves and casually punched the giant scorpion charging towards him.

Bang!

The giant scorpion's hard shell shattered instantly, and its entire body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, disintegrating into countless pieces in mid-air. Strangely, not a drop of blood flowed out; only wisps of black mist dissipated into the air.

The first level of the Blackthorn Tower is not difficult. The total attributes of these giant scorpions are less than 10 points on average, which is not even at the level of level 1. Professionals can handle them easily.

Zheng Hong deliberately slowed down his movements, leaving most of the monsters to the three newcomers, wanting to take this opportunity to observe their strength so he could make arrangements later.

A crimson talisman lit up in Tang Wangshu's palm. With a slight movement of his fingertips, a condensed bundle of lightning suddenly shot out, striking a giant scorpion with precision, like an arrow released from a bow.

With a crackling burst of electricity, the giant scorpion was instantly roasted into charcoal. However, the lightning did not dissipate but instead bounced across the void, striking another giant scorpion, and so on.

After striking seven giant scorpions in succession, the bolt of lightning slowly disappeared as if its energy had been exhausted.

In just two or three seconds, seven giant scorpions perished at Tang Wangshu's hands.

Zheng Hong nodded secretly; the talisman master's abilities were indeed very suitable for dealing with a large number of miscellaneous soldiers.

On the other side, Zhuang Yi and Lin Ze simultaneously drew their longswords and charged into the swarm of scorpions to engage in close combat.

Zhuang Yi's performance was consistent with Zheng Hong's impression of the level 2 sword soul's strength level; it was average and nothing particularly outstanding.

But Lin Ze's performance really surprised him.

The sharp sword light darted through the swarm of scorpions like a streak of light, each swing landing precisely on the gaps in the giant scorpion's carapace, breaking through its defenses as easily as a hot knife through butter, perfectly embodying the sword spirit's lightness and high attack speed.

Despite not using any skills and only performing simple basic attacks, his kill efficiency was in no way lower than that of Tang Wangshu.

"His agility attribute is at least 5 or higher, which is better than many veteran sword masters."

Zheng Hong's eyes twitched slightly as he watched Lin Ze cleave a giant scorpion in two with a single sword stroke.

"But how can this power be so exaggerated?"

Insufficient attack power has always been a weakness of the Sword Soul class, but this common trait seems to have failed in Lin Ze's case.

Judging by strength alone, an uninformed person might think he is a berserker with a high power level.

In less than a minute, the three men had wiped out more than thirty giant scorpions. Only black mist slowly dissipated in the hall, leaving a faint smell of burning and rust in the air.

Lin Ze immediately brought up the panel, and a newly added line of text at the bottom caught his eye:

Potential Point: 14

"Exactly fourteen were killed, with each kill contributing an average of 1 potential point."

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Ze invested all his potential points into the Draw Sword Slash.

【Draw Sword Slash Lv1 (73/100)】

"Let's go to the next floor."

After resting for a while, Zheng Hong led the way towards the stairs at the back of the hall.

Upon arriving at the second floor, the environment was exactly the same as the first floor, still a circular hall filled with black iron thorns.

The monsters are still giant scorpions, and their numbers are roughly the same, but their combat power has increased, reaching the threshold of a level 1 professional.

Fortunately, there is still not much pressure for their team.

Zheng Hong didn't even need to lift a finger; Lin Ze and his two companions dealt with all the monsters.

After the battle, Zheng Hong raised his hand to signal everyone to rest.

"Everyone, rest where you are and wait until you've recovered your strength before heading to the third floor. Make sure you're at your peak for each floor."

There was no time limit for the dungeon, so there was no need to rush. Everyone found a clean place to sit down.

Lin Ze leaned against the wall and summoned the control panel again.

He gained a total of 38 potential points in the battle just now, which was just enough to fill up the experience bar for the Draw Sword Slash.

Your skill "Draw Sword Slash" has been upgraded to Lv2, Strength +0.2, Agility +0.4.

A warm current instantly flowed through his body, and Lin Ze could clearly feel the positive changes within himself.

The attribute boost from skill upgrades depends on the skill's level and quality, as well as the user's current attribute values.

The Draw Sword skill only increased his total attributes by 0.6 from Lv1 to Lv2, which is quite good considering that his Strength and Agility both exceeded 5.

It truly lives up to its reputation as an excellent skill.

"I've already upgraded one skill after just clearing the second floor. As expected of a dungeon, the leveling up is really fast."

A surge of excitement rose in Lin Ze's heart, and he looked forward to the challenges to come even more.