31 031 Advancement Disparity

Runic World. Within the Labyrinth of Caves.

"Die, f**ker!"

Yellow suddenly bellowed out, shocking Wu Wei.

His voice was like thunder, echoing in Wu Wei's head. 

Simultaneously, Yellow had charged out with his knife.

As if chopping melons or vegetables, he began massacring the dozens of cave spiders stuck in the hardened soil.

Unfortunately, the Golem Doll reached his limit.

As its spiritual energy was drained, the hardening effect disappeared, and Yellow stumbled into the mud.

It started to seem as though the tables were turning once more.

Initially frightened by the sudden counterattack, the cave spiders were now looking to seize the initiative.

And unfortunately for Wu Wei, things were not worst yet. Wu Wei vaguely sensed the presence of something approaching from behind them.

When faced with this pressure, Wu Wei clenched his teeth and stamped on the ground.

"Yellow, change of tactics. Gather all the drops!"

As he spoke, Wu Wei waved his hand, and the Book of Runes appeared in his hand.

Almost at the moment that Wu Wei summoned his Book of Runes, he heard a sound behind him.

Suddenly, a strand of sticky web landed on Wu Wei.

The spider that had escaped earlier had reappeared.

With a huge tug, Wu Wei's body was pulled so hard that he lost footing. At this moment, Wu Wei was so afraid that he almost chose to log out there and then.

However, he ultimately resisted the urge and clenched his teeth.

Although Wu Wei's current physical level could be considered decent, he was evidently weaker than the spider pulling him in bit by bit.

Soon, the figure of the spider came into view, and it was baring its poisonous teeth.

Even though death seemed imminent, Wu Wei continued to wait.

Yellow was able to rush over in time, and he cut off the spiderweb to save him. Wu Wei then proceeded to store all the drops that Yellow had gathered in his Book of Runes. At the same time, he unsummoned both Yellow and the Golem Doll.

Next, Wu Wei set his login marker.

By the time he had finished doing all this, dozens of spiders had already surrounded him.

In this dangerous situation, Wu Wei tapped on 'Log out.'

Thankfully, there was no problem with the logout function this time, and Wu Wei disappeared, escaping death.

In the real world, Yuehua Academy, Dormitory 666.

Wu Wei returned to the dormitory in a sorry state.

When he returned to his dormitory, Wu Wei sighed a long sigh of relief.

"This feeling of escaping death's jaws is f**king exciting! This is so exhilarating!"

At this moment, Wu Wei began to suspect that he had been infected by Team 8566.

Otherwise, why would he have such strange thoughts at this moment?

"No, no, no, no. I should maintain my composure. I can't afford to be reckless. This will be the last time!"

Now that he had time to review the situation, Wu Wei affirmed that there wasn't much he could do.

He had even chosen to avoid the monsters when he encountered them! However, who knew that doing so would inadvertently lead him to their base camp?

It was plain bad luck.

"Thankfully, it wasn't completely fruitless!"

As he spoke, Wu Wei summoned his Book of Runes to check.

He first looked at the page that belonged to Yellow. At this moment, Yellow's page was quite bright. This was a sign that he was filled with 'experience.'

"What's so good about this Book of Runes? It doesn't even display an experience bar. I wonder if the experience that Yellow has accumulated now is enough to advance?

"Hmm… Yellow hunted over a hundred Treants and a few hundred Wild Boars in the past three days. He also killed twenty to thirty [Uncommon-] grade Runic Cave Spiders and even an [Uncommon+] grade Runic Cave Spider Queen's Guard!

"If it was based on the standard of normal-rank runes, or even high-rank runes, the accumulated experience points should be enough for advancement. However, because he is [Uncommon] grade, it's hard to say if this amount of experience points is enough."

This was quite the dilemma.

Of course, the root of the dilemma was not a bad thing.

For Runemasters, advancement was the key distinguishing factor regarding Core Runes.

When advancing, a Runemaster's Core Runes would undergo a vast transformation.

During this process, the Runemaster himself would also receive a significant boost to their body, spiritual power, and various other aspects.

Depending on the rank of the Core Rune, the growth was different.

If the growth rate of a Common-grade Core Rune was 1, an Uncommon-grade Core Rune would have a growth rate of 1.5, and a Rare-grade Core Rune would have a growth rate of 2.

In other words, theoretically speaking, Wu Wei would be twice as strong as a Common grade Runemaster – at least in these areas of growth.

Having twice as much physical strength or spiritual energy would make an extremely terrifying difference in combat.

Of course, for Runic Summoners, most of the growth from advancement benefited the summon itself. For example, Wu Wei would only receive about 30% of Yellow's growth.

In other words, since Yellow's rank was [Rare], Wu Wei would receive a boost equivalent to only about 60% of a [Common] Core Rune.

This low growth was detrimental in the lower levels.

However, the advantage that Runic Summoners like Wu Wei possessed was that they could advance as many times as the number of summons they had.

Now that he has two summons: Yellow and Golem, he could receive the advancement boosts twice.

Although the penalty did mean lesser initial growth than other classes, Runic Summoners would have the chance to surpass other classes in later levels.

However, that was all in the future.

Wu Wei was not that concerned with the future. Right now, he wanted to know if Yellow could advance yet. Should he make an attempt?

After all, if it succeeded, he could go back and wipe out the entire spider nest easily.

Suddenly, an idea came to Wu Wei.

"That's right. I wonder if my 'cheat' can see it?"

To his surprise, it worked.

When Wu Wei's eyes narrowed, a progress bar appeared on Yellow's page.

Wu Wei took a look, and the progress bar was labeled 89%.

"I guess it's not enough yet."

Wu Wei was somewhat disappointed. 

"I've long heard that higher-ranked Core Runes require much more experience to advance, but I didn't expect it to be this much.

"However, 89% isn't that far. It should be enough if we can take down that bunch of spiders!"

Nonetheless, Wu Wei knew that he would have to thoroughly prepare before returning to Runic World.

"First, let me check out the drops!"

As he spoke, Wu Wei began pouring out the loot…