With a loud, piercing scream, the wild boar struggled a bit longer and finally stopped moving.
Su Mo stared at the boar he'd just killed, feeling a bit confused.
How could an off-template monster show up this close to Celestial City?
Off-template monster: a creature that, for some unknown reason, has left its dungeon.
Unlike monsters inside dungeons, their bodies don't disappear after they're killed in the wild.
You still get the XP, but there's no loot drop, not even from the bosses.
Jiang Xueting was dressed in a deep blue battle outfit, the tight design outlining her athletic figure, long and powerful legs, firm waist—she looked just like a swift, agile leopard.
Her long black hair was tied up high, with a few loose strands dancing playfully in the wind.
In just a few quick steps, she was standing in front of Su Mo, moving with impressive agility. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed as she glanced at Su Mo and asked:
"You alright?"
Su Mo shook his head, then jumped down from the boar's head, lifted his left leg, and kicked the Wild Boar King in the jaw.
The fifteen-meter-long boar flew straight off from his kick, spun 180 degrees in the air, then crashed heavily to the ground.
The two-and-a-half-meter Horse-cutting Saber was still stuck in the ground, and, stained with fresh boar blood, its already red hilt now looked almost blindingly crimson.
Xueting's pupils contracted sharply as she witnessed the scene.
This guy… he kicked that off-template monster flying with pure strength, no skills at all!
What insane strength!
He doesn't look that old, and he's wearing a Celestial City High School uniform. Is he a student too?
But how could a student be this powerful?
Maybe he's from some influential family?
She stepped forward and politely greeted Su Mo: "Hey, I'm Jiang Xueting. Thanks a lot for helping me out just now."
"Su Mo."
Surprised by Su Mo's chilly reply, she started wondering which nearby family might have the surname Su.
Su Mo ignored her, walked up and gripped the scarlet Horse-cutting Saber in one hand, standing in front of the wild boar's corpse.
With a flashy flourish, he sliced the boar's belly open, and its colorful intestines spilled all over the ground.
The only real value in off-template monsters is their body parts, but Su Mo had no clue which bits were the most valuable.
Whatever, no big deal—he'd just cut some meat to bring home for his sister. Supposedly, this stuff is great for your health.
He chopped off a roughly sixty-pound chunk of boar meat and tossed it into his System Space.
Jiang Xueting quietly watched Su Mo from nearby as he went about all this, without speaking up.
She saw he only cut off sixty pounds of meat before abandoning the huge boar carcass entirely.
That only made her more convinced that Su Mo was the son of some rich family.
Everyone knows the most valuable parts of these escaped beasts are the bones and hide, plus some of the rare organs.
But Su Mo didn't even look at those parts, just sliced off some meat and called it a day.
Honestly, it was just because Su Mo didn't know what was valuable. And even if he did, he wouldn't bother.
He had eight million cash in his pocket now; wasting time on junk like this was nowhere near as efficient as just running dungeons for actual loot.
The only reason he took meat was because he felt like eating some.
"Su Mo, are you here to run the dungeon?"
Su Mo nodded, but didn't say anything.
"You're solo? Where's your team?"
"I don't have a team."
Xueting's eyes lit up at that, and she quickly said:
"My squad happens to need a DPS right now, want to join us?"
Su Mo paused for a moment at her words and thought, damn, this lady is really something.
I literally just saved her from an off-template monster, and now she wants me to carry her through the dungeon for shared XP? No way!
Without a shred of hesitation, he said straight out, "Nah, I'm good solo."
Xueting still wanted to say more, but her teammates appeared not far off, so after telling Su Mo to take care, she walked away.
After Xueting joined her group—a pair of guys and another girl—the other girl asked, "Xueting, who was that guy back there?"
"No big deal, he just helped me take down an off-template monster."
"Solo kill? Guess the guy's pretty strong. Wonder which family he's from."
"Didn't get around to asking after you guys showed up."
"Doesn't matter, we'll all meet again at college entrance exams soon enough."
"...…."
...
Su Mo picked up his Horse-cutting Saber and kept moving. Soon, he arrived at the Wild Boar Forest dungeon.
The Wild Boar Forest wasn't nearly as quiet as Ten-Mile Slope, actually there was a bustling marketplace right outside here.
Small clusters of people lined the road, shouting out offers: looking for party members, pro carries, professional runners, equipment sales—you name it…
He even spotted several merchant guilds with storefronts set up here.
Su Mo walked along, and before he'd finished on the short strip of street, he'd already gotten five or six invites to join up.
Some even wanted to charge for pro carries. He rejected them all.
He wouldn't pay for somebody to run a dungeon—and he'd turned down that girl's invite earlier, too.
Not only would they steal his XP, they wanted his money. Dream on.
Without so much as pausing, Su Mo went straight to the dungeon entrance, and under the shocked eyes of the crowd, chose Hell Mode and stepped inside.
"Holy crap, that kid's nuts, did he just pick Hell Mode?"
"I've been hanging around Wild Boar Forest for ages, this is my first time seeing somebody with such a death wish."
"Yeah, I've seen plenty of people get themselves killed here, but never like this."
"Man, if I'd known he was just gonna die, I would've lowballed him for his gear before he went in. What a waste."
"Totally, that blade looked pretty sick. Too bad, nice weapon gone to waste."
"Kids these days, I swear…"
...
Su Mo entered the dungeon and took a deep breath of the fresh air filling the primordial woods in front of him.
Sure, the air outside isn't awful, but inside the dungeon it's really on another level.
If anyone saw him acting like this, they'd probably curse him out!
This is a Hell Mode dungeon. You walk in, not on guard, and start enjoying nature? Are you asking to die?
But Su Mo didn't care about defense—what's that, anyway? Do I even need it?
Since my awakening, I've never bothered with defense!
As a responsible DPS, all I need to do is keep the damage coming! As for defense, my body can handle it.
A series of rustling noises came from the grass ahead, and next thing, three massive boars, each about seven or eight meters long, came charging at him, eyes blood-red.
[Swish!]
A flash of blade, and two pig heads weighing over a hundred pounds each soared off into the distance.
The last wild boar was about to ram into Su Mo when he reached out and grabbed one of its exposed tusks.
With a slight squeeze of his hand, he lifted the two-ton boar straight up!