Archers have a special advantage when tackling dungeons.

The last two waves of minor monsters took a full twenty minutes to clear, with several close calls that nearly resulted in casualties.

The damage output was still low; if the attack power could be doubled, it wouldn't be such a struggle.

Xiao Chen was quite satisfied with his attack performance; he wasn't at the bottom of the rankings, with two others behind him.

For his level, achieving such a ranking was quite impressive, and at least no one could criticize him.

Fortunately, he upgraded his equipment at the last moment; otherwise, he would have ended up last.

The damage output among the group was actually quite similar.

After dealing with the minor monsters, everyone took a moment to rest and recover their status.

"The hardest part of this dungeon is enduring wave after wave of minor monsters. Once they're cleared, the boss is easy."

Crossing the canyon, they saw a necromancer mage holding a staff.

Those ten waves of monsters were summoned by it.

Now, looking at the mage's state, its mana was completely depleted.

A mage without magic is as good as dead.

From a distance, Xiao Chen began attacking with his bow and arrows.

The others did the same, rushing forward at the fastest speed.

"Ding, you have killed the Death Mage, Guild Contribution Points +8."

"Your Experience +4000, Silver Coins +40."

"Dropped Necromancer's Staff, you do not have distribution rights."

"Dropped Undying Divine Fire, you do not have distribution rights."

The drops caused a wave of exclamations; not only did a weapon drop, but also a special item.

"Haha, we're rich!"

"This weapon is worth a hundred gold, and the key is this black iron-grade Undying Divine Fire, which sells for over two thousand gold in the marketplace."

Even a regular Undying Divine Fire costs a thousand gold, so selling a black iron-grade one for two thousand is perfectly normal.

"Too bad, I can't afford it."

However, Xiao Chen was still very satisfied; today's luck was incredible.

"Indeed, bringing a newbie results in special drops!"

Xiao Chen was speechless; he, the newbie, wasn't even at the bottom.

Clearing a level four dungeon for the first time, he unexpectedly made a fortune.

"Team Gold Distribution +203."

The earnings were quite considerable.

Xiao Chen immediately opened the marketplace and bought a regular class skill book.

[Regular Class Skill Book: Randomly awakens or enhances a skill, each person can use ten.]

"Ding, your Multishot +1."

That's it?!

So, does this count as an enhanced skill?

Xiao Chen was somewhat dissatisfied; it wasn't quite the skill he wanted.

However, with an additional attack, his efficiency in solo dungeons would improve significantly.

In the next dungeon, his damage output would also increase greatly.

"Actually, it's not bad, but I wish it consumed some mana."

Some archers, if they awaken skills like Flame Arrow or Frost Arrow, would see a significant boost in damage output.

The rewards from a level four dungeon were quite substantial; with so many minor monsters, the total experience gained was decent.

Of course, the total experience needed to level up has increased significantly now.

Xiao Chen somewhat understood why it took humans hundreds of years to barely reach level one hundred.

The leveling up process later on was too difficult.

Even with so many minor monsters in a level four dungeon, it still required twenty runs to level up once.

A single level four dungeon takes at least two hours, so continuous dungeon runs would take three days to level up once.

A stable team is needed for dungeon runs, and Xiao Chen, having finally joined a team, naturally continued with them.

The team members were quite diligent.

They consistently ran five dungeons a day, totaling ten hours.

In the remaining time, Xiao Chen would join other teams for two or three more runs. He couldn't just be diligent; he had to give it his all.

After four days, Xiao Chen finally reached level 31.

Running level four dungeons daily, his luck wasn't as good later on, with no more special drops.

However, each time he completed a level four dungeon, he could earn two or three gold.

Level four dungeons were troublesome to tackle, but the rewards were quite substantial.

He had consumed almost all the regular herbs, and the next step was to purchase regular potions and snacks.

To contribute more to the team and gain more experience, Xiao Chen purchased a batch of attribute-enhancing items.

Increasing a little each day, combined with the attributes from One in a Million, his damage output improved daily.

A week later, Xiao Chen's damage output ranked third among the six team members.

After rounds of dungeons, Xiao Qiang's improvement was very noticeable.

Xiao Chen spent a few more gold to buy Xiao Qiang a level 30 weapon, a long knife, black iron-grade.

With this, Xiao Qiang finally had some combat power, barely able to handle a level 30 minor monster.

From level 31 to 32, it took Xiao Chen ten days.

By this time, he was very familiar with level four dungeons and played an increasingly significant role in the team.

During this period, Xiao Chen heard another Plane Broadcast, announcing that another city on Blue Star had been breached.

Of course, there was also good news; Tiannan City had seen the emergence of over a dozen level 100 powerhouses.

The strength of the big shot, Xiao Yan, finally squeezed into the top ten of the Plane Rankings.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread.com".

With each level up, the experience required was supposed to decrease.

However, since experience was given based on contribution, Xiao Chen's high damage output meant the experience he gained each time seemed unchanged.

From level 32 to 33, it would take about half a month.

Xiao Chen was extremely busy every day, sleeping only a few hours like before.

Giving his all to improve daily, Xiao Chen felt he was doing his best.

Every day, Xiao Chen would spend some time browsing forums, checking out others' growth rates, and looking at dungeon strategies.

Xiao Chen saw an A-rank archer at the same level 32, with an attack power of over 9000, three times his own.

Tiannan City also produced some genius figures, with some professionals younger than him already reaching level 50.

The Tianxing Guild also had talents, but they couldn't compare to those in the top-ranked guilds.

Occasionally, Xiao Chen would check on the developments in Tiannan City.

"Stellar Guild obtained a silver-grade skill book from an eight-level dungeon, capable of crafting silver-grade weapons. Materials are self-provided, and crafting costs 100 gold each time!"

"Blazing Flame Guild has started selling bronze-grade spirit wine, with considerable attribute bonuses. Orders are welcome."

"Star Alliance has published a bounty list, encouraging all professionals to actively report and capture these fugitives.

Star Alliance reiterates that with the current great enemy, all Awakened must unite and move forward.

Anyone daring to attack their own kind will face the most severe punishment from Star Alliance."

Seeing the bounty list with thousands of names densely packed, Xiao Chen was quite puzzled.

Why attack other professions when there's no equipment drop or experience gain? What's the point?

If one were an assassin, they might try to find those on the bounty list, as the rewards from Star Alliance were quite generous.

After looking through the bounty list, another piece of news caught Xiao Chen's attention.

"The Artificers' Guild, combining Blue Star technology and interstellar crafting techniques, has developed a magic grenade.

Magic grenades are now in mass production and can be purchased at the marketplace."

"The successful development of magic grenades will greatly enhance the defense capabilities of cities and is a boon for professionals without awakened magic skills."

Xiao Chen had heard of grenades, a technological product from hundreds of years ago, with only three or four points of attack power, essentially useless.

Magic grenades, with raw materials replaced by higher energy density magic?

Can they be used without awakened magic skills?

Could this be just right for him?

Xiao Chen opened the marketplace and saw over a billion magic grenades for sale.

"Not expensive, 20 copper coins each."

Made from ordinary materials, they weren't exactly cheap.

One silver coin could buy 500!

Anyway, there's no real loss, so Xiao Chen directly bought ten.

"Infuse magic into the grenade; each grenade can hold 10,000 magic points."

Xiao Chen checked his magic points: 21,635.

Which meant he could craft two grenades at once.

Since his magic points were otherwise unused, he directly infused them into the grenades.

Soon, a magic grenade was crafted, consuming half of Xiao Chen's magic.

"Finished Magic Grenade, a masterpiece of the Artificers' Guild, Attack 800, Attack Range 5 meters."

Ten thousand magic points for just 800 attack?

If a mage of the same level consumed that much magic, the damage could be dozens of times higher.

This thing was somewhat of a letdown, but it had some utility.

"Considering the price, it's acceptable."

Once his magic points were depleted, it would take an hour to fully recover.

Without any magic recovery bonuses, his mana regeneration was much slower than that of a mage.

"Crafting two grenades an hour, could I make some money?"

A finished magic grenade sells for one silver at the marketplace.

This thing's power is indeed limited, but if hundreds were buried in the ground, wouldn't the damage be terrifying?

Having a summoned creature carry a bundle of grenades into a monster horde could also be effective, right?

Regardless, not using Xiao Chen's magic would be wasteful.

"Let's spend ten silver coins to buy 5000!"

The grenade itself isn't valuable; what's valuable is the magic infused into it.

Normal professionals wouldn't waste their mana like this.

Xiao Chen was different; his magic was otherwise useless.

"From now on, let those little skeletons throw grenades during dungeon runs!"

If that doesn't work, selling these finished grenades could still earn a profit.

Even if it only slightly increases earnings, Xiao Chen is more than happy to do it.

Being able to develop such grenades means stronger ones will surely be developed in the future.

For humanity's current situation, this is actually quite beneficial.

"If the grenade's power increases tenfold, I could solo a level four dungeon."

As it stands, soloing is still a long way off.

The appearance of magic grenades was just a minor episode, and it didn't change much for Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen continued running dungeons in the city every day, occasionally receiving messages from friends.

"High-level monsters outside the city are increasing, and the guild just killed a level 70 elite monster."

"The members of Gale Squad are about to reach level 32."

"Captain, want to come outside the city to level up with us? We're about to level up again."

Indeed, his friends were leveling up quite quickly.

Xiao Chen's growth was also rapid; after three months of continuous level four dungeon runs with the squad, Xiao Chen reached level 36.

At this level, he was considered a core member of the team.

Xiao Chen wanted to continue running dungeons, but the team had to disband for now.

Xu Wan and the others had leveled up, and regular dungeons no longer provided experience. They needed to start tackling level four hard dungeons.

"Finally, I ranked second in damage output, and now we're not running anymore!"

Xiao Chen was a bit frustrated; he definitely couldn't join the hard dungeons yet.

Although leveling up was slow during this time, Xiao Chen's personal growth was satisfactory.

He didn't know how many Undying Crystal Cores he had fused into Xiao Qiang, but its health had reached 3600, with a defense of 80.

Over the three months, Xiao Chen's daily kill count increased, triggering One in a Million numerous times.

After three months of hard work, he obtained a bronze-grade class skill book and once a pharmacist's skill book, earning quite a bit of money.

By the time Xiao Chen was about 18, he had 1209 gold in his bag.

This money could buy six regular class skill books or a regular Undying Divine Fire.

One Undying Divine Fire costs a thousand gold.

Xiao Chen deliberated for a while before making a decision:

"Finally saved up a thousand, let's spend the big portion first."

Xiao Chen gritted his teeth and bought a white Undying Divine Fire.

"Xiao Qiang, this is the biggest expense I've made; you better perform well."

When using the Divine Fire, Xiao Chen's hands trembled slightly.

"Ding, your summon has been upgraded to black iron-grade."

"Undead Skeleton, Health +3000, Attack +100, Defense +40.

Summoned skeleton clones retain twenty percent of the attributes!"

This upgrade was quite decent, and now it was at least usable.

[Undead Skeleton, Grade: Black Iron, Level: 36

Health: 6600 Attack: 421 Defense: 120

Skill: Summon]

[Xiao Chen, Level: LV36 Total Attributes: 3001 Health: 8100 Defense: 521

Attack 3857 Attack Range: 50 meters Attack Speed: 0.4]

"With two hundred gold left, let's buy a skill book!"

Awakening skills is random, and what skill awakens is really up to fate.

"Ding, you have awakened Armor-Piercing Arrow!"

"Armor-Piercing Arrow: Each attack carries an armor-piercing effect, damage +10%."