[Ding! You have exited the Dungeon while in a combat state. 1 Talisman use consumed. All gains and rewards have been preserved.]
[Ding! Calculating results for the Wolf King Mountain Dungeon!]
[Heavily Injured Blood Wolf King (Complete)!]
[Blood Wolf King (Incomplete)]
[Clearance Grade: D]
[Dungeon Reward: Wolf Soul Blood Crystal]
[An A-rank grade or higher was not achieved. This god-level Dungeon cannot be unlocked.]
[Would you like to spend 100 Soul Energy Points to enter the Wolf King Mountain Dungeon?]
[Ding! All core stats have reached 10. Rank advanced to Soul Apprentice!]
"I... I’m a Soul Apprentice now?!"
Although all his injuries had vanished, the battle left Li Heng mentally and physically drained, his limbs aching with soreness.
The mental exhaustion, the soreness, and even the memory of the pain from his injuries had not been erased.
However, the moment the system announced his advancement to Soul Apprentice, all those negative feelings were washed away. Li Heng sat up excitedly, his heart filled with joy.
He looked at his status bar—his rank had changed to Soul Apprentice!
He wasn’t sure if it was the euphoria or the advancement to Soul Apprentice, but Li Heng felt his body had become a little lighter, and it seemed easier to focus his mind.
Beaming with delight, Li Heng began to take stock of his rewards from the Dungeon.
1,060 Soul Energy Points! (He had killed four more Blood Wolves before fighting the heavily injured Blood Wolf King.)
A few Soul Energy materials dropped by the wolves!
His core stats had reached 10, and he had advanced to Soul Apprentice!
And, of course, this Dungeon’s special reward!
Name: Wolf Soul Blood Crystal
Category: Soul Energy Item
Rarity: Rare
Effects:
1. When consumed directly by a creature with a wolf-type bloodline, it can purify said bloodline.
2. Can be used to temper wolf-type equipment.
3. When consumed by a creature without a wolf-type bloodline, there is a chance it will grant one.
4. Can be used as a catalyst for certain medicinal pills.
[Would you like to spend 10,000 Soul Energy Points and 1 Legendary Point to upgrade this item?]
’Legendary Points? What are those?’
Li Heng knew the Wolf Soul Blood Crystal was valuable. It was a rare item with four different uses, but he wasn’t sure how to use it for now, so he decided to set it aside.
But he was dumbfounded by the upgrade cost. To upgrade the Wolf Soul Blood Crystal, he would need to spend Legendary Points.
But other than Soul Energy Points, Li Heng had never seen anything called Legendary Points.
’I’ll worry about that later! I’ll deal with it when it actually shows up!’
Li Heng had gained a lot from this trip. Caught up in his excitement, he didn’t want to waste energy worrying about such things. He decided to go home, rest for the afternoon, and get ready to return to school the next day.
He put the Cyan Blade Longsword into his Space Stone. As he did, Li Heng noticed that the stone was almost full, packed with materials from the wild wolves.
As for all the wolf heads, pelts, and other parts, Li Heng planned to find a good time to sell them. His other option was to tell his parents not to go through his room and just stuff everything under his bed.
He planned to keep the wolf meat, however. After all, it was food—food that could be freely carried into and out of the Dungeons!
As for the two ten-year-old stalks of Wolf Blood Grass, Li Heng planned to try upgrading them later, once he had some spare Soul Energy Points.
But the next time he had enough Soul Energy Points, his first priority would be to upgrade the Space Stone. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to hold all the loot from farming Dungeons in the future.
This was his plan for the items in his Space Stone for the time being. He’d deal with everything else later. Right now, all he wanted was to go home, rest, and wait for school the next day.
After returning home, Li Heng ate dinner and went to bed. The night passed without incident...
「The next day, at Maple City Thirteenth Middle School.」
The first major event of the third year had arrived!
It was time to make a choice after the Dungeon placement exam!
1. Take the standard college entrance exams, get into a regular university, or just graduate and find a job.
2. Take the Dungeon college entrance exams and get into a Soul Energy University established by the Soul Energy Alliance.
"Did you hear? The scores for the third-year placement exam are being posted today. And this year’s class is full of monsters! Someone got an insane score of 496 on the Dungeon exam!"
"Huh? 496... Is the max score 500? That’s inhuman!"
"Are you an idiot? The Dungeon exam doesn’t have a maximum score; it’s always been uncapped. The reason everyone’s calling it insane is because that 496 is 136 points higher than second place!"
"!!! Let’s go! We have to get to school and see!"
...
Li Heng was just outside the gates of Thirteenth Middle School when he overheard several students discussing the Dungeon exam scores.
Ever since advancing to a Soul Apprentice yesterday, he’d noticed that his hearing seemed to have improved as well.
The students’ chatter, their hurried pace, and the curious expressions on their faces all served to pique Li Heng’s own curiosity.
Although he had already decided to take the Dungeon college entrance exams, he remembered Teacher Wang saying back in the Wild Wolf Valley Dungeon that their scores on this placement exam were extremely important.
As someone who had actually participated in the exam, Li Heng’s curiosity was even greater than that of the other students.
He entered the campus and walked toward the familiar third-year student area. Li Heng found it unusually crowded today. Normally at this time, students would be in the cafeteria, at morning reading sessions, or on the training grounds.
Li Heng only briefly marveled at the size of the crowd. The announcement of the placement exam results was one of the "major events" of high school, so a large gathering was to be expected.
In the central plaza of the third-year academic area stood a large electronic display. A long list of names scrolled across the screen, with the top thirty being particularly eye-catching—they were twice the size of all the others!
Seeing the Dungeon placement exam results on the display, Li Heng immediately started scanning the list, looking for his score and rank.
First Place: Wang Zhipeng: 496
Second Place: Lin Tao: 360
Third Place: Huang Zhengyang: 351
Fourth Place: Bai Shasha: 267
...
...
Tenth Place: Li Heng: 234
...
’Tenth place, huh? I have no idea how these scores are calculated. But Sister Sha is such a beast... and she didn’t even break the top three? Just how monstrous is the person in first place?’
Li Heng wasn’t bothered by his own rank; in fact, he felt it was a little on the high side.
After all, many students had already been in the Dungeon before he even reported to the tent on the first day. On top of that, he had given nearly all the Soul Energy Items they had found in the forest to Bai Shasha, who had also received the Wolf Claw Curved Saber.
If she had reported all those items, her fourth-place rank made perfect sense.
He remembered Huang Zhengyang—the guy who used throwing knives. He had even rejected Li Heng’s invitation to team up.
As for the names in first and second place, Li Heng didn’t recognize them at all. He’d never heard of them before.
Li Heng wasn’t jealous or envious of those ranked above him. He was confident that if the proctoring teachers knew he had killed the heavily injured Blood Wolf King, his rank would have definitely been in the top three!
Tenth place was a good spot—not too high, not too low. He wouldn’t attract too much attention, and it was best to develop while keeping a low profile. At the very least, Li Heng felt his score was more than enough.