Wrong Ground, Spiral Twins

Chapter 29 Bottleneck?

Sumo

LV.1

力量:F405→E414 耐久:D509→D515 灵巧:E421→E430 敏捷:E418→E428 魔力:H191→G209

Su Mo looked at the updated ability value and remained silent for a long time.

I thought that by continuing to challenge the lower levels, I might be able to pull up the growth that had fallen below double digits, but it didn't happen.

More adventures and harder training didn't even maintain the original growth level. Over-reliance on weapons caused the 'strength' attribute to drop below double-digit growth, which Su Mo could accept. However, the 'durability' attribute actually dropped precipitously, and the growth was not as much as the 'strength' attribute. How could he accept this calmly?

It was only one day, but except for 'agility' and 'magic power', the growth of other attributes fell below double digits. The fastest growing attribute even became the slowest growing attribute... This ability value suddenly gave Su Mo a strong premonition.

Generally speaking, the rapid growth stage of a newcomer will not last too long, and after the rapid growth period, there will inevitably be a bottleneck. This is almost the consensus of all adventurers. Now, after more than a month of stable growth, has his bottleneck finally begun to arrive?

The situation was too sudden, making it difficult for Su Mo to calm down.

His steady growth had subtly given him the illusion that "as long as he worked harder and constantly challenged his own limits, he would be rewarded." It was not until this moment that he began to clearly realize why adventurers had the common understanding that "adventurers who leveled up for the first time usually ended up with abilities between 'C' and 'B', and 'A' was already amazing."

It is undoubtedly frustrating when redoubled efforts not only do not receive the due rewards, but the rewards are further reduced.

The same is true for Su Mo.

While he felt frustrated, he also knew that this was an obstacle he had to overcome.

He must break through the bottleneck and raise his ability to a higher level, at least one of which must reach 'A'. If he can't even do this, how can he become a first-level adventurer? If he completes the upgrade with the current ability, this approach of pushing the 'debt' directly backwards, I'm afraid that after completing one or two upgrades, he will face an even more insurmountable bottleneck.

In order to defeat 'him' who is constantly advancing deeper into the dungeon, he must at least become a first-level adventurer.

In order to break the bottleneck, we naturally need to work harder.

Reason kept convincing him. Su Mo raised his arms to block the light, covered his eyes, and lay on his back on the bed.

He needs to work harder...

……——……

Determination comes with subtle changes.

The first person to notice this change was not Hestia, nor Ryuu who was a half-teacher, but Welf who was a temporary teammate.

Seeing him wielding the Goddess Sword in one hand and holding a dagger-sized magic sword in the other, ignoring the surrounding demons and rushing directly towards the silverback ape and the orcs, Welf felt that he was going crazy. Although he was crazy before, he was also very calm and could accurately grasp the degree. But today, he seemed to put himself in danger, always facing challenges head-on, and his stubbornness was evident.

One against two... one against three... one against three with the interference of swarms of little demons, it was like constantly challenging one's own limits.

After a while, Welf felt like a balancer. When they encountered a lone monster, it was not difficult for the two of them to defeat it together. However, when they encountered three or more large monsters, or difficult monsters like armored rats, he would either fight one of them or, like now, rush forward to intercept the group of little demons.

It just happened naturally after any verbal discussion.

After Welf cleared the outer demons, the battle in the middle also came to an end. The orc, whose one leg was cut off, was completely unable to overturn the situation after the silverback ape was defeated, and soon followed the silverback ape's footsteps.

"Dong, dong, dong——"

But before Welf could breathe a sigh of relief, the ground shook far more strongly than any other time.

In the white fog, a figure about four or five meters tall was looming.

"——Baby dragon?!" x2

The figure in the white mist was not only tall, but also incredibly long. The outline of its long neck and long tail made Su Mo and Welf think of the rare monster that only occasionally appeared on the eleventh floor - the baby dragon - almost at the same time.

"Hoohoho-"

A deafening and shocking roar rang out.

Not only Su Mo and Welf, the roar was enough to attract the attention of all the nearby adventurers.

A long tail, amber scales, sharp claws, countless fangs, and blood-red eyes that kept turning... Looking at the monster that slowly revealed its true appearance after breaking through the white mist, Welf subconsciously took a step back.

The dragon race is known as the most powerful among many monster races. Even if it is just a young dragon and even if it has no wings and cannot fly, its strong body covered with hard scales can be seen at a glance to have potential abilities that far surpass those of orcs.

This was a monster that could easily destroy a junior adventurer team. The entire group of junior adventurers that was annihilated by it would probably take three days and three nights to read all the related reports.

He opened his mouth to say retreat, but before he could say it, Welf saw Su Mo take a step forward.

"Run when you see the situation is not right."

Hearing this reminder, Welf's expression was filled with astonishment.

While telling him to run, he rushed directly towards the young dragon. A low-level adventurer whose average ability value had not even reached 'D' actually wanted to fight a young dragon alone. Is there anything crazier than this?

Panic, surprise, astonishment, worry... a complex array of emotions swirled in his heart. Looking at the figure that dodged the sweep of the dragon's tail, leaving a shallow scar on the young dragon's flank, Welf gritted his teeth and rushed over with a roar.

How could he just run away at this time?

"clang--"

But the embarrassing thing was that when the big knife hit the foreleg, it was like hitting solid steel. It failed to completely break the scales. Instead, it was rebounded by its own strength and retreated half a step.

"Back off!"

The moment he heard the warning, Welf also felt the darkness covering the sky. The moment he raised his head, he saw the bloody mouth of the young dragon.

The sharp and intimidating fangs approached with an indelible stench and saliva. Welf dodged to the right, but the dragon's long neck was quite flexible and it also turned to chase. At the critical moment, two light blue wind blades cut through the air and hit the dragon's open bloody mouth with a sharp force, stopping the dragon's attack.

"Ho ho ho ho!!!!!!"

The young dragon roared in pain, and its attitude became more and more violent.

"……Feel sorry!"

Although he hated the magic sword, Welf knew that the magic sword in Su Mo's hand was his life-saving tool and could only be used a few times. He even didn't use it at many critical moments, but this time he used it directly for him.

"If you see the situation is not right, just run away. Don't worry about me."

Before he could finish his words, Su Mo dodged the blow from the dragon's tail, jumped up, stepped on the young dragon's thigh to gain leverage to rise into the air again, and slashed the young dragon's neck with a sword.

Chapter 30 Letter

The gushing blood proved the sharpness of the Goddess's sword, but even if it could break through the protection of the dragon scales, such a wound was obviously still too shallow.

The wound was not fatal enough, and it was difficult to hit the magic stone directly with the length of the Goddess's Sword, so the most suitable target was the head... The body completed a second turn in mid-air, and Su Mo wanted to go up along the neck, but the violently shaking dragon neck made it difficult to gain leverage, and as soon as he made contact, he was thrown out by the young dragon.

The hot dragon breath condensed in the young dragon's mouth. Without any hesitation, Su Mo ran towards the wall the moment he landed.

A burning sensation came from behind him. Su Mo dodged behind a dead branch, but although he avoided the center of the attack, he could not avoid the impact of the exploding flames and the aftermath.

After a few awkward rolls to get rid of the aftermath of the impact and the burning sensation that swept across his body, when he stood up again, the young dragon had clearly appeared behind him.

Through the white fog, the wall was visible dozens of meters away. Su Mo continued to run towards the wall while accurately calculating the distance between him and the young dragon.

Launching an attack from the ground, with no leverage in mid-air, he simply did not have the strength to penetrate the young dragon's head directly. If he wanted to defeat the young dragon, he would have to use the wall as a foothold to stand a chance.

"Click..."

A familiar voice was heard, and the wall began to crack and break. A silverback ape was about to break open the dirt from the inside of the wall and crawl out.

Dungeon always likes to kick someone when they are down.

"Here, break free—"

Time and space are torn apart, and the flow of time in reality slows down instantly.

Stepping on the wall and the silverback ape that was about to break through the wall, Su Mo climbed up quickly and finally jumped high.

His eyes were fixed on the young dragon's raised head, its rough horns were so obvious.

Under normal circumstances, such behavior would be like sending himself into danger, as the young dragon would open its bloody mouth and bite him to pieces, as he was unable to change his position in the air. However, with the blessing of double speed, Su Mo could clearly see the young dragon's biting action and could seize the opportunity in that split second.

Su Mo jumped over the young dragon's raised head, just out of its reach. Finally, taking advantage of the opportunity when the young dragon was too close to the wall to turn flexibly, he stretched out his left hand and dangerously grabbed the young dragon's horn.

Seizing the leverage point, Su Mo swung his body violently. The next moment, the strength that had been accumulating in his body suddenly burst out and poured into the tip of the sword, piercing into the dragon's head.

“Roar, roar, roar…!!!!!!”

The dragon scales provided solid protection for the skull, and the sword could no longer penetrate the dragon's head after only one-third of the sword had penetrated.

The deafening roar immediately pressed on Su Mo's eardrums.

Facing a fatal threat, the young dragon roared and shook its head madly, trying to throw Su Mo off its head.

But how could Su Mo let the other party get what he wanted? To withdraw from the state of time and space rupture, Su Mo tightly grasped the dragon horn with one hand and the hilt of the sword with the other, and stuck his body between the two dragon horns. No matter how the young dragon shook its head, he just used all his strength to press the goddess' sword down.

The pursuit suddenly turned into a tug-of-war.

Ten seconds... thirty seconds... one minute... two minutes... three minutes... When Welf had already conquered the newborn silverback ape, more and more adventurers noticed this place and began to gather around. The young dragon went from being violent to agitated, from roaring to wailing, and finally chose to bang its head against the wall. Not only did it injure Su Mo, it also lost its own life.

In the cracked wall, blood was flowing from Su Mo's forehead and the corners of his mouth, but the sword of the goddess finally pierced through the young dragon's brain.

The huge body of the young dragon collapsed with a loud bang. Welf rushed to Su Mo immediately, took out a bottle of healing elixir and poured it into Su Mo's mouth.

"fine?"

"good."

Su Mo took the elixir, drank it, and stood up.

Seeing this, Welf breathed a sigh of relief, and the adventurers who had gathered around him began to disperse.

If you want to take advantage of others, you can only do it in secret unless you have a legitimate reason. After all, once such a thing is discovered, the guild's blacklist is no joke.

A magic stone the size of two fists and a dragon horn, these were all that the young dragon had left.

"Good stuff! This is probably the top-grade material in the upper layer."

Welf took the dragon horn and examined it carefully. The powerful dragons were usually monsters in the lower layers. There were not many dragon monsters in the middle and upper layers. As far as he knew, young dragons usually only dropped dragon scales, claws and teeth, and the chance of dropping dragon horns was quite small.

"No match for the Minotaur!"

"Minotaur? That's a mid-level monster, and the materials they drop may not be as precious as this."

Su Mo shook his head slightly.

What he meant was that Bell had to defeat the enhanced Minotaur to complete his upgrade, and the young dragon's strength was clearly far behind that of the Minotaur.

"...Let's eat first."

Looking around, Su Mo found no signs of any monsters. He took out food and water and started eating during the break.

Dungeons often choose to repair themselves before monsters are born. This place was just ravaged by a young dragon, and the power of the dragon species still remains, making it a relatively safe place.

Welf nodded, quickly put away the magic stones and ingredients, and took out the food.

"What stimulated you today?"

“I want to upgrade.”

——Achieve 'A' with the lowest ability value limit.

"Your ability value should still be growing steadily, right? I am a blacksmith, which is somewhat different from a real adventurer. It is actually not cost-effective to upgrade in advance when there is still room for growth."

"I won't do this rashly."

"That's good."

……——……

Back on the surface, I was suddenly overwhelmed by fatigue.

After washing off the blood, Su Mo returned to the closet, his eyes fixed.

At some point, a letter appeared in his closet, a round crystal the size of a ping-pong ball, glowing slightly.

The appearance of the crystal immediately evoked some memories of Su Mo. It seemed to be a magic prop that could enable long-distance communication. Fels used it to communicate with the heretic.

Realizing the 'mastermind', Su Mo quickly put on his clothes, picked up the letter and began to read it.

Perhaps knowing that he was still learning common characters, the letter was not long-winded, but simply used the most concise words to describe the usage of the crystal props.

In other words, this is an instruction manual, except that it has the name of the writer.

After putting away the letter and crystal props, Su Mo left the bathroom and came to the trading hall.

From a distance, Su Mo saw Welf standing at the window, arguing with the delivery clerk.

"What's wrong?" Su Mo walked forward and asked.

Hearing Su Mo's words, Welf turned around and stuffed the dragon horn into Su Mo's arms. "Don't sell it. If you sell this kind of material in the market, you can easily get 80 fares. The guild's purchase price is only 50. The price difference is too much."

"I'm sorry, sir! That's the reserve price."

Welf waved his hand and stopped getting angry. He said to Su Mo, "This is why the clan usually sells materials themselves. Low-level materials are fine. The price difference is not that big. On the contrary, the more precious the material, the less cost-effective the purchase price."