Originally, Lin Mo had thought that only needing to kill 300 level-75 ordinary venomous snakes to complete the dungeon quest was far too easy.
Needless to say, a single SSS-grade magic scroll, Lethal · Spatial Annihilation, would prove everything.
He hadn't expected to be proven wrong so quickly.
"Is this a threshold specifically designed for those entering the Snake King Island secret realm?"
Originally, the dungeon quest only required the party to kill 300 venomous snakes together.
But according to the system's prompt, to obtain the Snake Clan Mark, one's individual kill count had to reach 1,000.
If both Lin Mo and Ning Xi wanted to obtain the mark, they had to reach 2,000 kills.
The difficulty had increased to a hellish level.
However, it was still acceptable.
After all, as a Gold-grade secret realm of the rare Snake Clan in the Divine Oracle world, Snake King Island itself didn't require a special secret-realm key to activate.
Players only needed to possess five layers of Snake Clan Marks to enter.
Compared with other secret realms that required a secret-realm key to activate, Snake King Island's entry requirements were already much lower.
So, using the Snake Clan Marks to raise the threshold for entering the secret realm slightly was only reasonable.
At the very least, this was a Gold-grade secret realm of a rare race.
If anyone could enter whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted, it would make this secret realm seem like a bus. That would be far too cheap.
For ordinary players, having to individually kill 1,000 venomous snakes to obtain the Snake Clan Mark might be as difficult as reaching the heavens.
Even if the five experts ranked on the Heaven Ranking of the Inferno City joined forces, they might only barely be able to obtain a mark for one person in a day.
But for Lin Mo and Ning Xi, what difference was there between killing 2,000 and killing 200?
Thus, without another word, Lin Mo immediately took an SSS-grade magic scroll out of his backpack, Lethal · Spatial Annihilation.
[Scroll Effect: After use, instantly kills all ordinary mobs within a 1,000-yard radius of the user whose level is no more than 5 levels higher than the user's.]
Lin Mo was currently level 70.
And the venomous snakes in the Serpent Demon Hinterlands dungeon were all level 75.
They were exactly at the scroll's maximum annihilation level.
Only when an SSS-grade magic scroll could be used to its fullest extent would Lin Mo not feel that using the scroll was a waste.
It seemed to have sensed the killing intent coming from Lin Mo.
Just as Lin Mo was preparing to start with the SSS-grade magic scroll and instantly kill everything in the sky, on the ground, and even the air...
Swish! Swish! Swish! swish!
The large groups of level-75 venomous snakes spread throughout the surrounding hinterlands suddenly turned to stone all at once.
"What skill is this? Stone Skin?"
"Whatever, who cares? Even if you're a stone woman, I'll still break you!"
SSS-grade magic scrolls were the natural enemy of all flashy tricks!
Whoosh!
The instant Lin Mo crushed Lethal · Spatial Annihilation.
The surrounding air suddenly compressed to an extreme degree.
The intense pressure rushing toward them made it impossible to breathe, as if a giant hand had grabbed their hearts.
An invisible force instantly annihilated all the venomous snakes within a 1,000-yard radius around Lin Mo.
In an instant, countless venomous snakes died one after another.
At the same time, a system notification sounded beside Lin Mo's ears.
[Ding~ You used the SSS-grade magic scroll Lethal · Spatial Annihilation and obtained a permanent passive enhancement: Final Damage to Monsters +1% (5/100 stacks)!]
[Ding~ You killed 1,089 level-75 venomous snakes. EXP +2,352,240,000! Divine Artifact Nirvana Luck +10.89%! Divine Artifact Black Dragon Emperor Ring Normal Attack Speed +0.1089%!]
"Over a thousand monsters with a single annihilation?"
The system's kill notification gave Lin Mo a pleasant surprise.
Because previously, whenever he used an SSS-grade magic scroll to clear monsters, he basically only cleared five or six hundred at a time.
His previous record had only been 910.
"Looks like the monsters in dungeons are more densely packed."
"Using scrolls to clear monsters in dungeons really is the most worthwhile."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two beams of golden light descended simultaneously from above Lin Mo and Ning Xi's heads.
[Ding~ Congratulations, you have reached level 71...]
[Ding~ Congratulations, you and your teammate Liuli have completed the dungeon quest Slay the Demon Snakes and cleared the level-75 dungeon Serpent Demon Hinterlands. Please submit the quest to receive your rewards!]
[Ding~ Congratulations, your individual demon-snake kill count has exceeded 1,000. You have obtained the Green Snake Mark!]
Lin Mo raised his left hand. A green snake mark that flickered in and out of sight had appeared on the back of his hand.
The first Snake Clan Mark, secured.
That easily.
Beside him, Ning Xi looked at Lin Mo, her clear eyes filled with envy, "I'm so jealous of your Soul Flame talent, Brother Lin Mo."
"SSS-grade magic scrolls and SSS-grade skill books can be used whenever you want. Gold titles and Ancestral-grade pets are easy to get."
It was rare for Ning Xi to have a moment where she admired him.
Lin Mo also felt a little proud.
After all, back in the Dark Dungeon, when Ning Xi had instantly killed the level-75 Tier 6 Blood Ghost King with terrifying killing power, Lin Mo had been incredibly envious of the tenfold damage effect possessed by Ning Xi's SSS-grade talent, Supreme Emperor.
At this moment, the more Ning Xi envied Lin Mo's SSS-grade Soul Flame talent, the more Lin Mo envied Ning Xi's SSS-grade Supreme Emperor.
Fortunately, the two of them weren't enemies.
Otherwise, with two SSS-grade talents colliding, the entire Inferno City probably wouldn't have a peaceful day.
Lin Mo's mark was done.
Next, Ning Xi still had to reach 1,000 kills.
At this moment, Lin Mo's talent advantage once again became apparent.
Ning Xi couldn't use an SSS-grade magic scroll to clear the entire map in one go.
And the SSS-grade magic scrolls Lin Mo had evolved could only be used by himself; he couldn't use them for Ning Xi.
So Ning Xi couldn't take a shortcut and could only kill the monsters one by one herself.
Seeing Ning Xi hanging her head, Lin Mo smiled and said, "Don't worry, I won't abandon you."
"I'll help you kill them. Once you get the mark, we'll move on to the next dungeon together."
Ning Xi nodded and giggled, "Thank you, Brother Lin Mo!"
Thus, the two of them spent a full ten minutes just crossing the area that had been crushed by [Lethal · Spatial Annihilation].
This showed just how clearing the entire map too quickly with an SSS-grade magic scroll wasn't necessarily a good thing.
They finally crossed that area of death.
And once again, they saw the living spicy strips in the hinterlands ahead.
Without another word, Lin Mo took the Tier 5 Illusory World · Wrath of Thunder from his back and entered manual combat mode.
He activated the set skill, Thunderous Might.
He planned to weaken the monsters and leave the final hit to Ning Xi.
He then locked onto a Green Snake within a 50-yard attack range ahead.
Rustle! Rustle!
Just as Lin Mo was preparing to attack, the Green Snake sensed his hostility, and its body suddenly turned to stone.
Its reaction was exactly the same as that of the venomous snakes when Lin Mo had been preparing to use the magic scroll earlier.
Lin Mo didn't pay it any attention.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
SSS-grade Heaven-Slaying · Seven-Star Volley!
Seven consecutive star arrows cut through the air, descending from above and striking the petrified Green Snake one after another.
The next moment, the numbers that popped up above the Green Snake's head left Lin Mo stunned.
Miss!
miss!
miss!