Chapter 26

026 Team 8911’s Return

In total, the Golem Doll had fulfilled 3 advancement conditions.

However, Wu Wei did not choose to advance it yet.

On the one hand, since Yellow was now [Rare] and Wu Wei felt he had sufficient combat strength, there was no need to rush things.

On the other hand, he also wanted to use the Golem Doll as an experiment.

He wanted to know how many conditions there could be for advancement.

Yellow had upgraded after completing four conditions. Could the Golem Doll do better with five or six?

If it were possible, what grade would the upgraded Golem Doll have?

Wu Wei was not about to give up such an excellent opportunity to test things out.

“Since the first three conditions have been completed, it’s time for me to leave Wild Boar Valley.”

He then prepared to log out to make further preparations for the trip to the cave.

Just as he was about to log out, the silhouette of a Runic Wild Boar appeared in the distance.

“I’m getting déjà vu!”

As the silhouette drew closer, its appearance was slowly revealed – it was a 4- to 5-meter-long Runic Wild Boar King!

Seeing the Wild Boar King again after just a few days apart was a delightful surprise to Wu Wei.

“Is this… a parting gift? Well, if that’s the case, I won’t stand on ceremony!”

Before he had finished speaking, his Golem Doll had already started to make a move!

It used Earth Manipulation to transform the area around the runic boar king into a swamp of mud.

Having practiced the skill over a thousand times in the past three days, using Earth Manipulation had become second nature.

The Runic Wild Boar King was trapped in an instant.

At the same time, the numbers [1278/3000] appeared in front of Wu Wei’s eyes.

Afterward, a yellow figure arrived in a flash at the side of the Runic Wild Boar King.

Drawing his arm back slightly, Yellow unleashed a slash!

Next, the boss that had taken his former party of 5 to bring down – the boss that had required a careful plan involving poison to deal with, died on the spot, and four drops flew out – two were transparent, and two were [High]-quality

Wu Wei took a look and found nothing remarkable.

There wasn’t a single item that he would have considered keeping for himself. He estimated that they would earn him around 70 to 80 runic stones.

Apart from helping to progress Yellow’s advancement condition from [1/20] to [2/20], that was all he got from the boss.

“I guess I really should leave this place!”

With a sigh, Wu Wei summoned his Book of Runes and lightly tapped log out to return to the real world.

After returning to the real world, Wu Wei first took a bath. He had not bathed for three days and three nights – after all, bathing in Runic World was the least of his concerns.

Having relaxed for a bit, Wu Wei headed to the canteen next.

There, he sold many ingredients to the chef who had previously made him Wild Boar’s Heart Soup. The generous chef gave Wu Wei a very reasonable price.

Upon leaving the kitchen after the trade, Wu Wei encountered a group of people he hadn’t expected to meet.

The leader of the group was a haughty-looking girl with dyed blazing-red hair. She was followed by two guys and another girl.

The group of four were none other than Wu Wei’s former teammates!

When he was informed by Moonlight Organization that they could have been wiped out, Wu Wei had written them as goners in the back of his mind. Seeing them alive caused some emotions to stir within Wu Wei. After all, they had spent time together.

He had not expected to bump into them in the cafeteria today.

“It seems their disappearance might have been related to Treant Forest. I guess the academy was able to rescue them!”

Wu Wei conjectured so.

As for whether that was how things had happened, Wu Wei did not really care.

Yes, it was a good thing that they had been able to return alive. However, Wu Wei’s concern stopped there. They weren’t that close anyway.

Wu Wei did not yearn to continue any form of relationship with them.

However, as fate would have it, Zhou Hong – perhaps with her women’s intuition – seemed to notice that someone was looking at her. Her gaze fell upon Wu Wei, who was blatantly looking at her!

Upon noticing how she was being looked at, Zhou Hong grew slightly annoyed at first. Still, when she looked up and saw that it was a handsome man, her eyes immediately lit up. She leaned in his direction and flashed a bashful smile, teasing: “Classmate, are you looking at me?”

“Yeah.”

Faced with the warm-hearted approach of his former captain, who didn’t recognize him, Wu Wei remained cool.

However, his cold response did not fetter Zhou Hong.

“Does my face remind you of someone? Or perhaps, do you know of me?”

“You must have heard of me! You want to ask about the secret dungeon within Treant Forest, don’t you?

“Well, if you treat me to a meal, I’ll tell you anything you want!”

Wu Wei was about to leave, but his eyebrows narrowed when he heard what Zhou Hong said.

“Is there really a secret dungeon in Treant Forest? Is that where you’ve been this entire time?”

Wu Wei’s reaction of interest edged Zhou Hong on. “Of course! The academy has already announced it. Could it still be fake?”

“We went to the forest about seven or eight days ago and chanced upon a secret dungeon there.”

“Although there was a minor accident and we were trapped inside for those seven or eight days, we were able to make it out. Of course, we didn’t just make it out with empty hands.”

When she hinted that they had not come out empty-handed, she couldn’t hide the smugness on her face.

She was clearly trying to show off.

“I’m currently choosing a [Uncommon]-quality rune to form my second Core Rune contract.”

“Is that so?”

Based on Wu Wei’s understanding of her, she was not the type to exaggerate even when bragging, so he estimated that she had probably earned about 150 runic stones.

To put things into perspective, this sum was not even worth one-tenth of what Wu Wei had earned from Treant Forest. In fact, it came nowhere close to the value of the items he had casually gifted Brother Black Robe.

Seeing his former captain, who had kicked him, gloat over such a small profit, Wu Wei’s started to have mixed feelings.

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you. Oh right, little brother, What’s your name? Shall we add each other as friends?”

Wu Wei looked at Zhou Hong and then glanced toward her team members. After a moment’s hesitation, he rejected her. Since she did not recognize him, he thought of leaving the matter at that instead of embarrassing her.

“I don’t think so! See you again!”

After bidding farewell, Wu Wei walked past Zhou Hong and continued to the cafeteria entrance.

As he left, Wu Wei thought about how much of a coincidence it had been to bump into people he knew.

Then, when he reached the entrance, he saw another group of people coming in his direction.

When he saw this group of people, Wu Wei started to get a bad feeling.

All of them were covered in bandages from head to toe.

Due to their injuries, they were walking by supporting each other comically.

Upon seeing Wu Wei, their eyes collectively immediately lit up. “Hey, it’s Brother Wu!”

“Greetings, Big Brother Wu!”

All four greeted in unison.

The unexpected politeness they displayed was a stark contrast to their usual dumb demeanour.

Meanwhile, the recently-rejected Zhou Hong, who heard their greeting, realized that the man she had been talking to was some kind of big shot!