Brothers, give it your all

[You have entered the Level 5 Dungeon [Red-Eyed Monkey Mountain]. Current Difficulty: Hell.]

[Clear timer has started!]

Upon entering the dungeon, a continuously rolling timer appeared in the top right corner of his vision.

Currently, the record for the Red-Eyed Monkey Mountain dungeon was 30 minutes, 59 seconds, and 99 milliseconds.

The last time the record was broken was 128 years ago.

"Brothers, full firepower!"

After entering the dungeon, Song Gua did not even take a clear look at the map before directly releasing all two hundred of his clones at once.

The clones were like wild beasts released from their cages, howling and screaming as they lunged at the nearby monsters.

"Don't fight me for it! I'm still a fucking Level 0!!"

"I'm the main DPS! I'm the main DPS! Give me the heads! Give me the heads!"

"There are no human heads here, they're all monkeys!"

"Give me the monkey heads! Give me the monkey heads!"

The Red-Eyed Monkey Mountain dungeon was exactly as its name suggested; the entire dungeon map was a monkey mountain.

Professionals had to start from the foot of the mountain and fight their way up, clearing out all the monsters and defeating the Monkey King boss at the summit to clear the dungeon.

"You guys are killing way too fast. At least leave one monster alive so I can check its details."

Although he had the advantage in numbers, Song Gua also knew that dungeon speedrunning required skill and attention to detail.

The prerequisite was a thorough understanding of everything inside the dungeon.

Terrain, environment, hidden paths, traps, monster attributes, and so on could all determine the difference of a single minute or second.

Although there were introductions in the textbooks.

But what is learned from paper always feels superficial; it is much more concrete to see it in person.

The monsters at the foot of the mountain were a group of monkeys with bloodshot eyes, wearing tattered cloth garments and wielding wooden sticks. They were strolling around, seemingly on patrol.

[Red-Eyed Monkey Minion]

[Level: 10]

[Rank: Elite]

[Strength: 86]

[Constitution: 78]

[Spirit: 25]

[Agility: 90]

[Skills: Monkey Stick Smash (Normal, Lv5), Monkey Stick Sweep (Normal, Lv5)]

[Description: The most common little monkeys on the monkey mountain. They are always shouting "Protect the King!", but they have probably never even seen the Monkey King.]

Monsters were classified into five ranks: Mob, Enhanced, Elite, Chief, and Boss.

In Hell difficulty dungeons, the monsters started at the Elite rank, and their levels were higher than those in lower difficulty dungeons, reaching Level 10.

Furthermore, their skill levels were higher, which meant higher damage and stronger effects.

However, monsters like the Red-Eyed Monkey Minions were ultimately just forced upgrades of regular mobs. They had no talents and poor skill mechanics.

Facing the swarm of clones charging up the mountain, their only advantageous attribute, Agility, lost its edge entirely.

There were simply too many people; there was no room to maneuver even if they wanted to.

"Holy shit! This damn monkey's stick actually hurts! It almost sent me to the afterlife with one hit!"

"They are Level 10 monsters after all, and Elites at that! Squishy classes stay in the back! Defenders and crowd controllers, charge forward! Form a human wall and steamroll our way through!"

"These monkeys have very low Spirit attributes! Magic damage classes, start blasting! Physical classes, protect the magic damage classes!"

"Fuck! Brothers in the Summoning sequence, stop summoning! We have way too many fucking people here already!"

"Tch! What's wrong with a few more summons? Do you think this is early DNF, where too many summons will cause lag?"

The clones bickered noisily, but their hands never stopped moving. They steamrolled their way up from the foot of the mountain, sprinting the entire way at an extremely fast pace.

Song Gua did not even need to command them.

The clones took very good care of themselves.

Song Gua could only trail behind and pick up the loot.

And he was only picking up what the clones had left behind.

"Monkey Mountain Leather Armor! I have Leather Armor Mastery, I'll take it!"

"Monkey Mountain Cloth Shoes! I have Cloth Armor Mastery, I'll take it!"

"Give me this longsword, my Weapon Mastery is swords!"

"I call dibs on the Mana Potion! I've been spamming too many skills, I'm completely out of mana!"

"Who picked up a Health Potion? Give me a bottle! I accidentally took a hit from a stick just now!"

"Big brother~~ Why drink a health potion? Let me give you a sweet little heal~~"

"Blegh!!! Stay the hell away from me, you sissy!"

The clones took what they needed from the loot, fighting and picking up items simultaneously.

One by one, the equipment on their bodies became increasingly complete.

Fortunately, this was a Hell difficulty dungeon, which was why there was so much loot.

If it were Normal difficulty, it might take several monsters to drop a single item. That would never be enough to distribute among this group of bandits.

Names like Monkey Mountain Leather Armor and Monkey Mountain Cloth Armor were actually abbreviations.

Equipment with just those four-word names were Fine quality items produced in lower difficulty dungeons.

The ones dropped in Nightmare and Hell dungeons had prefixes and were of higher quality.

[Equipment Information]

[Name: Agile Monkey Mountain Leather Armor]

[Slot: Top]

[Type: Leather Armor]

[Quality: Excellent (Green)]

[Level: 5]

[Durability: 100%]

[Effects:

- Physical Defense +30, Magic Defense +10, Health Points +500.

- Constitution +1, Agility +5

- Monkey Mountain Set (1/4): Physical Skill Damage +10%]

If it were a Fine quality defensive gear from the Monkey Mountain dungeon, it would only increase base stats and would not have the four core stat modifiers or set effects.

There were four types of defensive gear: Cloth Armor, Leather Armor, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor.

Their defensive capabilities improved in that order, but their weight also increased accordingly. Encumbrance would affect the actual performance of Agility.

Therefore, higher defense wasn't always better; it depended on one's class mastery.

The defensive gear dropped in the Red-Eyed Monkey Mountain dungeon only consisted of Cloth Armor and Leather Armor.

Another Level 5 dungeon, Spider Cave, only dropped Light Armor and Heavy Armor.

The two basic dungeons in each level bracket followed this logic for defensive gear drops.

In the early stages, a Professional's primary method of obtaining equipment relied on drops from wild monsters and dungeons.

Wild monsters only dropped Common white gear, which was sold by weight and disdained by everyone.

Equipment dropped in dungeons was what First-Advancement Professionals wore the most.

"This experience is rising really fast."

Normally, a dungeon party killing monsters inside a dungeon would share experience based on their contributions, such as damage output, healing amount, and crowd control duration.

Because they definitely had to form a party; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to enter.

However, after entering, Song Gua still had not used the party function.

Whichever clone killed a monster, the experience would go to that clone.

Song Gua did this to make it easier to cultivate top-tier fighters.

If the experience were distributed equally among all two hundred clones, the consequence would be that everyone leveled up slowly.

That wouldn't do. Low levels meant weak combat power.

Song Gua wanted the first to level up to pull the rest along, so they could all sprint toward greatness together.

Song Gua, who had his hands in his pockets and did not need to do a single thing, had his experience bar pass the halfway mark by the time he reached the halfway point up the mountain.

And this was a Level 10 experience bar!

"Despicable humans, stop right there!"

Suddenly, a giant fireball over a dozen meters in diameter appeared out of thin air. It descended from the sky, bringing with it a howling, rolling wave of heat.

"Detecting an incoming super fireball strike!"

"Incoming—"

"Scatter! Scatter! Scatter!"

The terrain on the mountain was narrow, with even fewer places to step and no spacious areas.

With two hundred clones scrambling over each other to steal kills, it was truly crowded.

In their panic, a stampede even broke out.

Seeing that many clones would not be able to dodge the attack.

Song Gua made his move.