But now, every profession is difficult to level up. Even a doctor with a team’s help would have a hard time reaching level 22.

Without a healer, even the strongest team wouldn’t be able to enter the dungeon.

We’ll have to wait.

Yinglong pondered this while completing the water monster’s pre-quest. Then, she returned to Xishi City and started clearing side quests casually. Side quests don’t give much experience, and they involve a lot of running around. The advantage is that they rarely require stealing monsters and can be used to gain various reputations and increase NPC favorability.

Finding a runaway boy.

Obtain several meat buns, which can restore health and mana outside of combat.

The secret recipe of the tavern was stolen by a thief. Defeat the thief. The thief said that the tavern owner had taken his family’s secret recipe by force, causing his family to be ruined. Now, he’s just returning what was rightfully his.

At this point, players need to make a choice: believe the thief and let him go, and he will give you a pair of speed-increasing shoes as compensation. Or, you can return him to the tavern owner and get a bottle of secret wine that can restore health and mana.

Both options have rewards, it just depends on which one the player needs.

Yinglong recalled. If she remembered correctly, she chose the shoes back then because she was a doctor.

This time, she’ll be a little mischievous and see if there’s a new gameplay.

She chose the third option: [Whether there are hidden circumstances is none of my business. Since you stole, I will send you to the authorities. If you have any grievances, tell the Lesser Magistrate. (This choice has no reward, only Wu State reputation. Please choose carefully.)]

The Lesser Magistrate, “who listens to the lawsuits of the people with the five punishments and attaches them to the punishments, using emotions to interrogate them,” was a judicial official in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Then, she sent the thief to the Minister of Justice. A soldier took the thief away.

The thief wailed: [You are helping the tyrant! You will surely be punished!]

Your answer:

A: [Uneasily expresses that she has done nothing wrong, it was he who stole first.]

B: [Boldly states that she has only done what she should have done.]

C: [I do not need the understanding of others when I do things.]

D: [Calmly looks at him, without reacting.]

Yinglong wanted to ask the game’s writers what they were thinking. How could this question be like a fill-in-the-blank?

First, she ruled out B. The thief’s story was a bit tragic. It was too cold-blooded. C was a bit arrogant. She wanted to trigger a Wangcheng encounter, so she ruled it out. A might trigger a follow-up plot, and D was uncertain.

After careful consideration, she boldly chose D. There was no reason, it just seemed the most abnormal.

The Thief: [……]

Pharmacist Exquisite: [A gleam of wisdom flashes in your eyes as you calmly stare at the other person. He slowly lowers his head, avoiding your gaze.]

“Damn!” Yinglong understood.

Whether this option can trigger a special plot doesn’t depend on the choice, but on whether the character has special attributes.

She has the title “Unmatched Sage,” so choosing D is the most fitting for a sage’s persona.

Fortunately, she didn’t choose A. How could a sage be uneasy? If it doesn’t match the title, she probably wouldn’t get anything.

This game is really well-made.

[The Tavern’s Stolen Secret Recipe · Completed]

She gained some experience and a small amount of Wu State reputation.

The time was already 2 am.

Yinglong took a nearby quest to help a blind old woman return home. Then, she helped her find her missing dog, earning some copper coins and animal affinity +1.

Animal affinity will have some bonuses in the pet-raising gameplay later, but it’s useless for now.

After completing this, it was 3 am.

The entire dormitory building was quiet. Most of the windows were dark, only a few night owls were still fighting. The other three people in Yinglong’s dormitory were locals. They all went home for the weekend and holidays, leaving only her. She didn’t have to worry about disturbing her roommates.

She rubbed her eyes and stood on the balcony for a while to relax her eye muscles.

Ten minutes later, she returned to her computer and saw a few new messages.

[Private Message] Cloud Dress Misses You: When will you reach level 22? We can open the dungeon together then?

[Private Message] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: Are you free to open the level 22 dungeon? We’re missing a healer.

…

The messages were all similar, asking if she was free to open the level 22 water monster dungeon. After all, she was a top-ranked healer. It was the easiest to ask directly from the leaderboard if you wanted to start the dungeon early.

Yinglong didn’t reply. She first checked the level of the people who sent her private messages.

Cloud Dress Misses You is a Yin Yang Family player at level 12, level 21.87. She hadn’t reached it yet, so she replied: [Still leveling]

Ten Thousand Men Enemy had already reached it. He was the first on the Military Family leaderboard, level 22.23.

Yinglong replied: [I’m still a little short of level 22]

Ten Thousand Men Enemy: [How long?]

Yinglong estimated the time: [Fifteen to twenty minutes]

Ten Thousand Men Enemy was a man of action and immediately sent a party request.

[Party] Pharmacist Exquisite: Wait for me

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: Okay, what are you specializing in?

[Party] Ten Thousand Women Charm: I have everything. She can specialize in whatever she wants.

Yinglong smiled. Couple names. They either weren’t a real-life couple, or they were a couple from another game who came to play this one.

[Party] Pharmacist Exquisite: Needles and poison

[Party] Ten Thousand Women Charm: OK, hurry up

Yinglong checked the sect leaderboard. As expected, her level had dropped to second place. The first was Ten Thousand Women Charm, level 22.05.

[Party] Pharmacist Exquisite: You level up so fast ^_^

[Party] Ten Thousand Women Charm: I have better equipment, I guess.

Yinglong guessed so.

The best weapon a doctor can get in the early stages is the throwing knife she bought from the village blacksmith. Just based on that, she probably wouldn’t be able to make up for the massive amount of experience she gained in the Hundred Knowledges Trial.

She must have completed the main quest first and quickly changed her equipment to grind monsters.

But equipment is so expensive, you can’t just rely on quest money.

[Party] Pharmacist Exquisite: Is it very expensive to buy game currency now?

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: 1 copper for 1 yuan

Yinglong: “Tsk.”

100 copper = 1 silver. After completing the main quest, you get a little over 1 silver, which you can sell for over 100 yuan. She even wanted to sell it.

They’re a team of rich people. She sped up her monster grinding. Fifteen minutes later, she successfully reached level 22 and rode her little donkey to the pond.

There, she saw Ten Thousand Women Charm and Ten Thousand Men Enemy.

Ten Thousand Women Charm was wearing the “Quiet Woman” costume, a deep robe with white trim. She stood out among the dusty characters, with moon-white silk wrapped around her arms, and a throwing knife in her fingertips flashed with a faint green light.

Ten Thousand Men Hero joined the party.

Young Master Hate joined the party.

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: Everyone’s here, let’s enter the dungeon.

The party leader, Ten Thousand Men Enemy, activated the level 22 dungeon [Water Pond Horror (Normal)]. Please prepare yourselves, and be at the gathering point to enter the dungeon within 5 minutes. Countdown: 04:59.

[Party] Young Master Hate: How do we distribute the equipment?

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: Monster drops are distributed among the same class based on contribution, regardless of quality. We’ll discuss the boss drops based on the previous distribution.

Everyone’s equipment is bad. To clear the dungeon smoothly, they will definitely wear whatever they get. If they get trash first and good stuff later, they’ll just have to accept it.

Yinglong didn’t care. She replied “Okay” and just wanted to start.

It was almost 4 am. She didn’t know if she could make it through today. She’d just have to push through.

Two or three minutes later, Young Master Hate and Ten Thousand Men Hero arrived. Young Master Hate is a Confucian Family disciple, while Ten Thousand Men Hero is a Military Family disciple. He was wielding a long spear, clearly following another branch of the Military Family, focusing on melee DPS.

Yinglong saw that the configuration was fine and clicked on the NPC to enter the dungeon.

The blue light of the water permeated the entire screen. In the distance, several red-named shrimp were wielding spears, vigilantly patrolling their territory.

The characters entered one after another. Everyone was cautiously observing the situation in the dungeon.

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Enemy: Let’s clear the small monsters first. I’ll pull one to see. Get ready.

[Party] Ten Thousand Women Charm: 1

[Party] Ten Thousand Men Hero: 1

“1” in the game usually means “confirm, received, ready.” They three were obviously an old team with good coordination.

Yinglong and Young Master Hate had leveled up so quickly. They were obviously not newbies, and they also typed “1” to confirm.

Ten Thousand Men Enemy locked onto a nearby monster and activated the Military Family’s signature skill, [Challenge].

[Challenge]: Challenge before battle, attracting a small amount of aggro, increasing attack power.

The monster was attracted and charged towards the players, raising its spear and stabbing it hard.

Ten Thousand Men Enemy lost one-tenth of his health. The monster’s damage wasn’t too high. He carefully ground down its health. After a few moves to secure aggro, he said: [DPS]

Ten Thousand Men Hero raised his spear, Young Master Hate waved his brush, and Yinglong also urged Pharmacist Exquisite to release a cloud of smoke.

Working together, they quickly killed the first monster.

A string of experience prompts floated across the interface. The monsters in the dungeon gave out generous rewards.

Although it was already early morning, everyone was energized. Ten Thousand Men Enemy slightly replenished his mana and charged forward again to pull monsters. This time, he pulled three monsters over. His health bar dropped rapidly. Ten Thousand Women Charm was afraid of attracting aggro, so she didn’t dare to use a big heal and used Hemostasis to restore health bit by bit.

Yinglong used Intoxicating Heart Flower to put the monsters to sleep, occasionally healing a bit, and she wasn’t flustered.