The girl selling goods at the market had never seen money before.

The burly man extended his index finger, revealing a faint smile: "The guild doesn't know everything. They don't care about the undeveloped areas because there's no danger. But if they knew a beast tide was coming, they would immediately rush into the semi-developed areas. Don't you think they would do something about it?"

"What should we do?"

"Of course, it's to protect assets. If a swarm of snakes were to rush into such a large city, wouldn't it be chaos? If we inform them of this situation in advance and it's true, the union will pay us according to the severity of the matter."

"Really? Then we're rich!"

"Don't rush, let's talk to the guild first. Anyway, we won't lose anything, and we can sell the monster materials."

After saying that, the fear and worry on their faces instantly turned into anticipation and joy for the profits.

Meanwhile, Bai Jinxuan, who was being chased by a swarm of snakes, encountered a small problem.

She was kicked by a skeleton soldier.

Here's what happened: to avoid getting more people involved in her daily night runs, Bai Jinxuan planned to return to the cave she had been in before and repeatedly jump around.

But just then, she encountered a skeleton soldier with an extraordinary appearance, wearing bone armor and a bone shield.

She didn't care about any of that at the time, and casually stabbed it in the forehead. As a result, not only did it not cause any damage, but her own dagger shattered first.

Then the skeleton soldier seized the opportunity, kicked him in the stomach, and sent him flying.

Honestly, it hurts terribly.

Fortunately, Bai Jinxuan reacted quickly; upon touching the ground, she immediately merged into the shadow, avoiding secondary damage.

This gave her ample time to catch her breath. In the shadows, she clutched her stomach and frowned as she stared at the strange skeleton soldier.

The opponent was incredibly agile and was capable of fighting back amidst the overwhelming swarm of snakes.

The skeleton soldier's originally fragile skeleton seemed to have been strengthened by some kind of magic, becoming as hard as steel. When the Phantom Serpent bit into it, it only left a shallow scratch.

Not only that, the opponent can also detect the phantom snake's pounce trajectory, intercept it halfway, grab it, squeeze it, and a phantom snake is crushed, leaving only the snake skin.

Based on estimations, this skeleton soldier's combat power is comparable to a level 2 martial artist, and its defense power may even reach the level 3.

Unfortunately, although the Phantom Serpents were relatively weak, they were numerous enough that when the Skeleton Soldiers launched their attack, the other Phantom Serpents wouldn't stand idly by; they would swarm in and attack from all angles.

Feet, legs, joints, waist, arms...

Every gap that was torn open was accompanied by the mouth of a phantom snake. Under such a dense onslaught, even the strongest skeleton soldier had nowhere to fight. His joints could not move, his fingers could not bend, his shield fell, and he could only take the beating.

Soon, the skeleton soldier's ribs broke, then its spine, and finally, the ghostly blue soul fire in its empty eye sockets dimmed, and it remained motionless.

Bai Jinxuan, who had witnessed the entire process, couldn't help but exclaim, "Concentrated power can pierce through stubborn rocks."

With so many phantom snakes attacking together, the combined power might be too much for a third-tier explorer to withstand.

Come to think of it, there were such powerful skeleton soldiers on the first underground level?

Volume 1: Chapter 17: The Girl Who Came to the Black Market

23:30, the black market.

Bai Jinxuan had a slightly more mature face, wearing a trench coat, hands in her pockets, and walked briskly through the bustling street.

Her income underground today is not much, just a few dozen phantom snakes. She only earns a little money for the snake meat and skin when she sells them on the black market, and the profit is pitifully small.

Honestly, it's better to eat snake meat yourself than sell it. There's no chance of the vendors skimping on the nutrition, and you can better absorb the magic power from the monster meat.

However, that's what they say, but actually absorbing magic power through eating is not that simple.

This isn't something you can just cook up; it requires many steps, each one done with utmost care, to transform the magic within the monster's flesh into a form that's easier for the human body to absorb.

Otherwise, even if the magic is not lost in large quantities during the cooking process, it will be rendered useless because the human body cannot absorb it.

Nutritious meals like this are common in the catering industry. The canteen at No. 5 Middle School has processed Phantom Snake meat, which originally costs 120 yuan, but he sells it for 1200 yuan.

A truly aristocratic meal.

Bad memories made Bai Jinxuan...

His complexion worsened.

She clutched her slightly aching lower abdomen and approached a small stall.

The stall owner was a woman dressed in a black robe and wearing a witch's hat. As soon as she saw Bai Jinxuan, she smiled and said, "Miss Bai, you've arrived. Do you have any new stock today?"

"No, the market isn't doing too well."

Bai Jinxuan leaned against the wall, covering her stomach with her arm, and rested for a while.

Compared to usual, she came out earlier today, mainly because she was injured and not in the right condition to continue training and earning money. The secondary reason was that she felt something was wrong with the first underground level.

Yes, it's that weird-looking skeleton soldier.

How could a level 2 monster, or even close to level 3, possibly appear on the first underground level? And there has never been any similar news before.

No matter how you look at it, there seems to be something unusual about this undeveloped area on the first underground level.

Now that she knew something was wrong, Bai Jinxuan naturally didn't dare to move forward. Luckily, the skeleton was a shield soldier and could only kick her. If it had been a swordsman, would she be dead by now?

Thinking of this, Bai Jinxuan felt a cold sweat run down her back.

At this moment, the stall owner brought her a small stool and said in a worried tone, "You look terrible, do you need my help?"

"No, I was just thinking about some bad things."

She sat on the stool and began to think carefully.

Could it be that tombstone from before? But the problem is that the assessors said back then that the skeletons summoned by that thing couldn't even mine, so it shouldn't have such combat power.

Could it be a superior replacement, a stronger and rarer item?

Bai Jinxuan's eyes flickered, and she felt that this possibility was more likely.

If a tombstone can grow in one corner, then it's reasonable for an even stronger tombstone to grow in another corner, right?

Dungeons are places where you can find special items; who knows, some good stuff might spawn there?

Thinking of this, her furrowed brows relaxed, and the pain in her abdomen lessened considerably.

There's treasure there!

The stall owner was somewhat startled to see Bai Jinxuan, who had just been frowning, suddenly start laughing again.

Could she have suffered some kind of shock and gone insane? Is the underground market really that bad?

After hesitating for a moment, she carefully moved closer to Bai Jinxuan.

"Um, Miss Bai, are you alright?"

"Ok?"

Bai Jinxuan was taken aback. Her relationship with Miss Jia was purely professional; they usually talked about how to make money and rarely cared about each other's health.

After all, those who come to the black market all have some secrets they don't want others to know.

But why is the other party suddenly showing concern for me today? Could it be that they want to discuss a big deal?

She couldn't figure out the other person's intentions, so she simply answered whatever was asked, waving her hand and saying, "It's nothing, what could possibly be wrong with me?"

Such a cheerful answer surprised Jia Ruolin.

What could possibly happen to you? When you first came to the stall, you looked like you were about to die, you know?

It's only been a short while since we sat down, and suddenly we've become so cheerful, it's terrifying!

Was I dreaming? No way!

Putting aside everything else, Jia Ruolin is very confident in her memory. It is precisely because of her good memory that she can judge the market price of various commodities and tell at a glance whether it is a profit or a loss.

Therefore, to prepare for the worst, Miss Bai might go mad from gaining nothing...

"Gulu."

She swallowed hard, lowered her voice, and tried her best to appear gentle.

"Miss Bai, today might just have been a bit unlucky. Maybe tomorrow you'll be lucky and earn back today's earnings? Don't worry too much about short-term gains..."

"What happened?"

Before Jia Ruolin could finish speaking, Bai Jinxuan suddenly stood up and smiled with unusual confidence: "I know why there are so few pieces of equipment that can be traded underground lately."

"Why...why?"

"Because there's a big one."

Bai Jinxuan said very seriously.

Even a random skeleton soldier has near-Tier 3 strength, so she can't even imagine how valuable a high-level tombstone must be.

Now it's really possible to use dead people to mine. Strictly speaking, if this tool can turn any dead person into a skeleton soldier, then some living people might be less valuable than the dead.

Then offer a high price to sign undead labor contracts, with a term of 5 or 10 years. After enjoying themselves, they will voluntarily become skeleton soldiers to mine for hundreds of years. There is no training cost. Anyone can become a miner.

If the price were higher, these people could instantly transform into tireless top-tier workhorses, any one of them capable of generating endless profits.

It's practically a capitalist's dream tool!

If we could get our hands on this thing, then resell it at auction and take a cut, wouldn't we be able to make money lying down from now on?

She had already decided that since she didn't have the resources to create skeleton soldiers or the connections to mine them, she might as well auction them off. The small share of the profits would be enough for her to make a fortune.

An enhanced tombstone? Wrong! A get-rich-quick scheme!

If I could get it, not only would going to No. 2 Middle School be possible, but even buying No. 2 Middle School itself wouldn't be impossible.

In this world, magic crystals will never depreciate in value. As a basic energy source, magical artifacts powered by magic crystals are found everywhere. Consequently, the industry of mining magic crystals will never lose money.

In other words, a continuous, stable, and incredibly profitable opportunity is right in front of you—it's like a pie falling from the sky!

Volume 1: Chapter 18: The Girl Who Has Let Go

"big?"

Jia Ruolin thought for a moment and then came to her senses.

"You mean there's a powerful artifact underground that's causing the recent poor harvest?"

"Although this is just my guess, I think it's pretty close."

In the black market, Miss Jia was Bai Jinxuan's only business partner, so she believed that Miss Jia was trustworthy.

At least when it comes to making money, they share a common goal.

"Could you gather some information for me? You're more knowledgeable in this area. If I find anything, I'll share some with you."

"Row."

After receiving a response, Bai Jinxuan smiled calmly, turned around and left the stall.

Seeing this, Jia Ruolin returned to her stall and looked up at the sky.

"The underground...it's truly something to yearn for."

--------

The black market, a place where unusual goods are traded, is usually busiest at night to avoid being noticed, and also because of the customers themselves.

After all, it's only at night that people have time to escape from their heavy work and studies and come to the black market to find what they want.

Bai Jinxuan walked through the bustling crowd with her hands in her pockets.

She was looking for items that could improve her physical condition.

Besides taking medicine, there are other ways to improve one's physical condition, such as eating monster meat, renting a training room with high magic concentration, taking a medicinal bath, etc.

Bai Jinxuan is not considering the first two options for now, as they are too expensive. She came to the black market today mainly to buy materials for medicinal baths.

Compared to drinking potions directly, medicinal baths seem very basic; they not only take a lot of time, but also don't provide the same speed of improvement as drinking them.

The medicine works much slower, so the materials for medicinal baths are usually not too expensive, costing only a few tens of yuan.

After browsing around for a while, she stopped in front of a stall owner who looked quite pretty.

How much is this medicine powder?

"200 yuan a bag."

The stall owner looked like a high school student, had a nice voice, but his prices were unappealing.

Bai Jinxuan immediately frowned and pointed with her index finger.