"I'm sorry, Lu Lin, I misunderstood you!"

The small squabble didn't stop the trio from advancing; instead, it made the small team more harmonious and their steps more grounded.

Ye Shenghua's few words of explanation made Xi realize her mistake, and her eyes grew moist, even shedding tears: "Wuwuwu, Lu Lin, I shouldn't have speculated about you casually..."

Under Ye Shenghua's meaningful glance, Lu Lin carefully hugged Xi and gently patted her back.

Xi's height was about 167cm, a bit shorter than Lu Lin. She buried her head in Lu Lin's chest, and warm tears soaked into Lu Lin's underwear, making it damp...

A male's mental alarm warned him: You're taking advantage, let go right now, you bastard.

Another part of his mind told him: Western style comfort is just like this, regardless of gender!

By the time Xi stopped crying, the two had already smoothly held hands, the yuri situation looking very promising.

With the party's atmosphere stabilized, Ye Shenghua once again steered the discussion back to the company quest:

"I assume neither of you have joined the 'Adventurer's Association', nor can you see the handbook. The slimes we just killed raised the dungeon 'Exploration Rate' by 1.2%. Plus the dungeon environment and materials we've seen are also recorded. The Exploration Rate has already reached 5%. Based on experience, that basically meets the company's guaranteed reward requirement. We can exit now to take the guaranteed reward, or we can continue exploring to increase the rewards. What do you two want to do?"

It was still early. Only three hours had passed since they entered the game, and the two said in unison, “"Of course, keep exploring."”

The three continued to grope their way forward.

At the same time, Lu Lin asked a question she'd been wanting to ask for a while: "What exactly is the 'Adventurer's Association'?"

The path was free of attacks, and the surrounding scenery was extremely dull. Ye Shenghua took the initiative to explain:

"Simply put, the Association is a loose in-game official organization that issues quests, provides rewards, and has some internal member benefits. The biggest benefit is that Association members can obtain the 'Adventurer's Guide'. It records all the dungeons, monsters, and material information you've encountered. Once you reach a certain level, the Association will give you very generous rewards. You can also rent out your guide to other players and customize the profit. The guide's most powerful function is that it can show you the 'Exploration Progress' of the dungeon you're currently exploring. Used well, it can help you navigate."

It sounded like all pros and no cons. But Ye Shenghua's tone clearly implied that not everyone was willing to join.

"You've finished listing the advantages. What about the disadvantages?" Lu Lin asked.

"There are three costs. First, players only have usage rights to the guide, not ownership. The Adventurer's Association has the right to revoke it, and the player's guide information will be synced and uploaded to the Adventurer's Association headquarters. It's essentially unpaid labor. Second, the Association agreement explicitly states that after joining, you can never withdraw, nor can you join other official in-game organizations. This point doesn't seem to have an impact now, but after the open beta, there will clearly be more official game organizations, giving players more choices."

"You mean the current closed beta won't wipe our characters?" This was something Lu Lin completely hadn't expected.

"Correct. And each person can only bind one character, unless they delete the character and wait for the cooldown period to end before creating a new one."

‘No way!’

Bitter thoughts churned in Lu Lin's heart:

‘Wouldn't that mean after the open beta, if I want to play a male character, I'd have to delete this one and start over? Wait, no. After I pay off my debts, I'm going to seriously focus on university. What game would I play? Even though games bring in quick money, that's only during the test phase. Maybe after the open beta, they won't need testers anymore.’

While Lu Lin was having these inner thoughts, Ye Shenghua also explained the last point.

"Third, all income of Association members, including even experience points, will automatically have 5% deducted for the Association as membership dues. This is lifelong. Making a major contribution or becoming a legendary adventurer can remove this clause."

‘This third point…’

After hearing it, Lu Lin had only one thought:

‘A draconian contract, a completely one-sided deal. No wonder Ye Shenghua thought neither of them had joined. It also made sense that Ye Shenghua's level was two below Xi's, likely influenced by this third point.’

The three walked and chatted, and a sudden glimmer of light appeared in the empty darkness.

"There's a path over there." Xi had the best eyesight and was the first to confirm.

Seeing that the other two hadn't stopped their steps, Ye Shenghua signaled them to halt:

"Don't rush. If there's only one path, it means this is a simply structured dungeon. After we finish this 'Lightless Zone', the area ahead is the 'Central Zone'. The number and strength of monsters will increase, and the terrain might change abruptly. We need to be prepared."

Then, Ye Shenghua made a prayer gesture, and a skill was activated:

[Knight's Oath lv10: Intermediate aura skill]

[Effect: Takes 30% of the damage received by all designated allies within a 10-meter radius and transfers it to yourself. This transferred damage can be reduced by damage reduction effects.]

[Cost: 100 Mana Points/hour]

"A knight's blue amount is very low, so I didn't have it active before."

Xi also cast several blessing skills on herself. A swift breeze seemed to appear around her. She explained, "My class direction affects this, so I don't have any team-based skills. I can only buff my own stats."

After doing this, the two of them stared at Lu Lin with bright eyes, as if to say, “Our hidden-class VIP, surely you have some amazing team support skill."

Lu Lin carefully looked over her skill panel and actually found one.

[Saint White Enchantment Magic lv8, Saint White Academy exclusive enchantment skill]

[Effect: Perform attribute enchantment based on the enchanted item's past usage habits and the caster's Magic Points consumption.]

[Minimum Magic Points cost: 500]

‘My Magic Points cap is 2300, and the magic consumed by the fireball illumination is almost outpaced by my magic recovery speed. If I perform three instances of enchantment at the minimum level, the remaining 800 Magic Points should be enough. I can recover slowly anyway.’

Lu Lin made a decision: "I can enchant everyone's weapons. It consumes a lot of magic, so I can only do three enchantments."

Lu Lin had initially thought she didn't need to enchant her own weapon, but after the previous incident, she was afraid Xi might throw a tantrum again. In the end, she decided to split the three enchantments evenly, one per person.

After a round of operations, the Purplewood Staff on Lu Lin gained 5 extra Spell Power, bringing the total bonus to 15, a 50% increase in that single stat. The blue amount effect remained unchanged.

The main stat of the other two players' weapons also received a 50% upgrade.

Although such a degree of improvement was astonishing, the most unbelievable part was that the enchantment Lu Lin applied was a special enchantment, not counted towards the limited number of enchantments a weapon could hold.

Even the duration was: <Permanent>

"Whoa!" Even someone as composed as Ye Shenghua couldn't help but exclaim, "Lu Lin, you could become rich just from this enchantment skill alone. Why sell your equipment for money? Could you possibly be more short on cash than me?"

"I am short! I owe the hospital over nine hundred thousand... plus various loans and interest exceeding a million..." Lu Lin's voice grew softer as she spoke.

"Alright, that really is quite broke."

Meanwhile, Xi's eyes were already sparkling, the kind of gleam a gamer gets when they see treasure. She stared fixedly at Lu Lin: "I'm not short on money, Lu Lin. I'll transfer funds to you, and you enchant my entire body!"