"How many levels are you now?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Mark Lin opened his eyes and saw Snow Xia.
Her delicate face was smeared with some dirt, and there were lingering elemental energies around her.
Clearly, she had just come out of a battle—fresh from a dungeon run.
She stared at Mark Lin, her face full of defiance.
"Level 14," Mark Lin replied calmly.
"What?!" Snow Xia cried out. "How can you level up so fast?!"
She had teamed up with others and cleared the West Sea Mine dungeon on normal difficulty twice in a row, climbing from level 10 to 11.
Two back-to-back runs had already exhausted her.
Even if Mark Lin could solo dungeons, there was no way he should be leveling this fast.
What she couldn't possibly imagine was that Mark Lin was running Nightmare difficulty.
Mark Lin didn't continue explaining.
Believe it or not.
Snow Xia knew Mark Lin well enough to know he wouldn't lie.
If he said he was level 14, then he was level 14.
Her eyes flared with even more unwillingness.
The higher the level, the slower the progress.
On the first day of the Novice Dungeon, she had been level 5, and Mark Lin was level 7.
A two-level gap.
Logically, that gap should've narrowed by now.
But instead, she was only level 11, while Mark Lin had pulled ahead to level 14. The gap had actually widened.
"Hmph, I won't admit defeat!" Snow Xia huffed and turned to leave.
Mark Lin watched her go, unsure of what to say.
For years, he had always been a step ahead of Snow Xia.
Before class advancement, he had always ranked first in every subject, while Snow Xia perpetually held second place.
After the class advancement, his level had skyrocketed again, leaving her behind once more.
Mark Lin understood that Snow Xia had always been unwilling to lose to him—whether before or after becoming a classed adventurer, she always wanted to compete.
But he had never given her a real chance.
Suddenly, he noticed Snow Xia entering the dungeon again with a team.
"Strange. Didn't she just come out?"
"How can she go in again so soon?"
"Why is there no cooldown for the dungeon?"
Mark Lin witnessed something that defied common sense.
He had tested it himself—whether on normal or nightmare difficulty, there was always a cooldown period.
And the cooldowns were shared across difficulties.
After clearing a Nightmare dungeon, he couldn't enter even a normal one within 12 hours.
But Snow Xia had just exited the dungeon not long ago.
The aura of battle still clung to her—she hadn't fully cooled down yet.
There were even lingering traces of the Goblin King's presence.
That couldn't be faked.
While meditating, Mark Lin had his Skeleton Warrior observe her.
Two hours later, Snow Xia reappeared at the dungeon entrance.
She had finished another run.
As she emerged, she glanced over at Mark Lin.
From the look on her face, Mark Lin saw fatigue—true exhaustion from extended combat.
Then, barely ten minutes later, she joined another party and reentered the dungeon.
Mark Lin noticed that just before entering, she seemed to use a special item.
A faint shimmer of light had pulsed over her body.
He guessed it was this item that allowed her to bypass the dungeon's cooldown.
"If I get the chance, I'll have to ask her," he thought to himself as he returned to his meditative state.
His mental strength gradually recovered.
As his level rose, the importance of Spiritual Power became more apparent.
His base spiritual stat had already reached a whopping 700—far beyond any of his other attributes.
That was the hallmark of Mage Class: immense Spiritual Power.
The trade-off was pitiful stats in all other areas.
No balance at all.
Every class had its own traits, and Mark Lin accepted his.
Several hours later, the sound of heavy, dragging footsteps broke the silence.
Snow Xia plopped down beside him, utterly exhausted.
Even without a cooldown limit, she couldn't run dungeons endlessly.
Her body couldn't take it.
"I'm dead tired…"
She collapsed to the ground, not caring about her image at all.
She didn't show any fear of the Skeleton Warrior beside Mark Lin.
After all, Mark Lin was her classmate—nothing to be afraid of.
After a short rest and catching her breath, she perked up a little. "This lady is already level 12! I'll catch up to you soon!"
Level 12.
If she stuck to normal dungeons in a party, it would take at least three or four runs per level.
Catching up was going to be hard.
Mark Lin looked at her fatigue-ridden face. "Aren't you tired?"
Snow Xia snorted, "Of course I'm tired. I don't even want to lift a finger right now."
"Why?"
She shot him a glare. "Why? You're seriously asking me that? I've been living in your shadow for years—I have to surpass you!"
"That's the only reason?"
Mark Lin hadn't realized how deep her grudge ran. Maybe he should've let her take first place in a test or two back in the day.
Snow Xia stared at the sky. "Of course not. I want to get into Summer Capital Academy. You're aiming for it too, so you get it, right?"
To qualify for Summer Capital Academy, one needed to be at least level 14. To be safe, level 15. The best odds came at level 16.
There were only two days left.
Mark Lin figured Snow Xia might just reach 14, 15 would be a stretch.
Unless...
"You should run Nightmare dungeons," he said quietly. "It'll help you level faster."
"Are you kidding me? You think it's easy to find elite teams? Those teams only take level 16 or 17 adventurers. I'm only 12—no one would want me."
Snow Xia rolled her eyes as if to say: Do you even understand the situation?
Looking at the elite teams recruiting near the dungeon gate, it was clear: they had strict requirements—not just on level and class, but also on equipment.
Only Support Classes like healers could sometimes get in with lower requirements.
For an offensive class like hers, the bar was even higher.
When Mark Lin didn't respond, she kept talking to herself.
"So, this lady will just keep running normal dungeons. I'll definitely hit 14. If I really push it, 15 might be possible too."
Listening to her, Mark Lin finally asked, "Why can you ignore the cooldown timer?"
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