「Outside the dungeon.」
「Inside the City Academy Alliance Hall.」
The teachers and parents watched the real-time player rankings displayed on the large screen, engaging in small talk. Due to the rapid changes in the rankings and the tight competition, with scores closely bunched and no significant gaps emerging, there hadn’t been much to capture their particular attention.
However, it wasn’t long before someone noticed something amiss.
Suddenly, on the 100-person leaderboard for the five-star Five Spirits Gathering Dungeon, two individuals were seen rapidly surpassing others. In the span of just a couple of breaths, they had surged to the very top.
"So fast, what’s happening?!"
"These two practically leaped up the ranks simultaneously, meaning they must have killed hundreds of monsters in an extremely short period."
"Hmm? I just turned around to grab a piece of cake, and suddenly there are players with three-digit kill counts?"
"I wasn’t paying close attention just now; how did these two suddenly shoot up there?"
"So fast! In less than three seconds, they shot from the bottom of the list to the top. That speed is somewhat beyond belief."
"According to the mission parameters for this Five Spirits Gathering Dungeon, competition for monsters should be intense. How could there be several hundred monsters that no one else killed, found exclusively by these two?"
"That’s not even the critical point. Even if such a cluster of monsters existed, do either of their professions have the capability for such wide-area monster clearing?"
Instantly, the crowd couldn’t help but look towards the area where the teachers from Seaside Second Middle School were seated.
They were quite familiar with the strength of Chen Mo’s profession at this stage. Yan Yingyue’s profession, however, was not something most people understood well. After all, every initial five-star profession is unique. This meant that for every newly emerged five-star initial profession, no one had any prior understanding of it. One could only make judgments based on the heaven-and-earth phenomenon triggered during their awakening.
The heaven-and-earth phenomenon Yan Yingyue triggered that day was an exceedingly potent healing phenomenon. It was quite apparent, then, that this five-star profession possessed formidable healing capabilities. As for its other abilities, those were not clearly known, unless she herself was willing to fully disclose them.
However, a professional’s abilities are equivalent to their trump cards; they are generally unwilling to reveal them easily. More common professions, on the other hand, were known by too many. Even if individuals didn’t want to reveal details, among those with the same profession, there would always be one or two willing to divulge a few secrets. And, once a secret is known by more than one person, it’s no longer a secret. Therefore, the existing professions were mostly understood by everyone. Only the five-star professions, each one of them, remained exceptionally mysterious.
The only people in the hall who could possibly know the full details of Yan Yingyue’s profession would be the teachers from Seaside Second Middle School, especially Yan Yingyue’s homeroom teacher.
Seeing everyone looking at her, she quickly shook her head and said, "That child hasn’t disclosed the details to me, so I’m not very clear. However, she did mention that her professional abilities are primarily related to healing effects. She shouldn’t possess such strong area-of-effect offensive power."
Just as she finished speaking, Shen Rulong, who was nearby, couldn’t help but speculate, "It might still be possible. Do you all remember the Dark Priest that once appeared?"
"Are you referring to that four-star Priest who could convert healing power directly into offensive power?"
"Yes. That profession hasn’t appeared for a very long time. But I recall that this Priest had no healing capabilities; instead, they could cast all their single-target and group Healing Skills as corresponding damage Spells."
"I see. As a five-star profession, it should be more comprehensive than a four-star one. She might be a superior version of the Dark Priest, capable of both healing and dealing damage."
"No, look at their kill count! With that scrolling speed, can their Skill Cooldowns even keep up? Even if she has sufficient offensive power, area-of-effect Skills, and there are enough unengaged monsters nearby... this relentless, rapid monster-farming speed is somewhat off, isn’t it? It’s as if a large group of people are killing monsters simultaneously!"
It’s unclear which teacher voiced this, but instantly, everyone couldn’t help but feel a jolt in their hearts, their gazes shifting in unison to Chen Mo at the top of the leaderboard.
"Could it be this Skeleton Mage?!"
"Impossible, right? How much combat power can a Skeleton Mage’s skeletons even have? Let alone at his current Level 11, even if he were Level 21 and had undergone the first-transition, it’s doubtful they’d have this kind of monster-killing speed."
"What if he obtained some kind of top-tier Skill with no level restriction?"
"Well, that brings us to a paradox. Have you heard this joke? It goes something :
A: I have a trash profession. How do I get stronger?
B: Get a top-tier Skill with no level restriction, and you’ll be stronger.
A: So, how do I get a Skill like that?
B: You just need to go to a high-difficulty dungeon and complete the relevant high-difficulty hidden mission challenge.
A: But my strength isn’t enough. I can’t even handle high-difficulty dungeons, let alone complete a high-difficulty hidden mission challenge.
B: Then hurry up and get stronger!
A: So, how do I hurry up and get stronger?
B: Get a top-tier Skill with no level restriction, and you’ll be stronger...
This dialogue can continue indefinitely."
Upon hearing the teacher’s joke, many other teachers chuckled. The logic was indeed sound. How can a Skeleton Mage, initially weak, possess formidable combat capabilities? Naturally, he would need to acquire powerful, early-learnable Skills to assist him. And such Skills are found within extremely difficult dungeons, obtainable only by completing even more challenging hidden missions therein. If he lacks formidable combat strength, how could he possibly complete such arduous hidden missions? This, therefore, forms a paradoxical loop.
"It’s not entirely undoable. As long as he first possesses a set of extremely high-rank equipment, which helps him obtain a set of extremely high-rank Same-Level Bound Equipment, then by wearing this set of extremely high-rank Same-Level Bound Equipment, there might be some chance."
Although the argument from the joke made sense, professionals could also alter their combat power through equipment, so this paradoxical loop could indeed be broken.
The current key issue, however, was that Chen Mo was not a student from any elite academy. He was just a student from Seaside Second Middle School, a Civilian Academy. It was common knowledge that students from Seaside Second Middle School generally had ordinary family backgrounds. How could a family with an ordinary background afford to equip their child with extremely high-rank tradable equipment to help him acquire high-rank Same-Level Bound Equipment?
The crowd was perplexed by this. At this moment, they found it more plausible to believe that Yan Yingyue possessed some special ability for rapid harvesting than to believe Chen Mo was the one clearing the monsters.