Chapter 200: An Arduous Task
Looking at Chen Ran’s gaze, the swordswoman replied naturally, “Although many things here have to be listened to by you, the command has always been controlled by the captain…”
Chen Ran interrupted, “I don’t know how the other groups are, but I need this power. This is one of the few meanings of my coming here.” Chen Ran turned his head and looked at Cheryl at the side. “Regarding the distribution of abilities in this group, you just need to do your best in combat. Leave the brain work like command to me. Comparatively speaking, I’m better at this.”
“I have no objection,” Cheryl replied very neatly. She turned around and instructed the girls around her, “After arriving in the Netherworld, all actions will be commanded by Teacher Chen Ran. We just need to do our best in combat.”
Seeing the captain’s attitude, the swordswoman pouted but didn’t say anything more. The other girls were relatively easy to talk to, and it didn’t matter who the leader was.
They were now in a monster-free zone. Except for this quiet and illusory world, there were no other creatures.
The bracelet in Chen Ran’s hand flashed. It seemed that the academy was trying to contact them. He turned on the communication mode.
At this time, a faint magic energy condensed in the sky, so weak that it was imperceptible. But Chen Ran knew that there was a pair of sky eyes watching them, and the people at the school were confirming the situation here.
Every once in a while, the school would observe the situation of each group for a while to confirm their respective news and facilitate recording. During the golden hours of the day, there would be a magic mirror in the academy showing the specific status of the competition, showing it to the students like a movie.
Chen Ran waved to the gray sky to show that his side was normal. The light of the bracelet faded, and the pair of sky eyes also began to disappear. They were probably confirming the status of the other teams.
“Alright, we should set off,” Chen Ran made a departure gesture to the team members and observed his positioning map.
Within a few miles, there were only a few scattered Netherworld creatures, and their tier was only about the fifth or sixth tier. But it was also just right to see what the creatures of the Netherworld looked like.
Under Chen Ran’s leadership, the group of girls began to move forward. It took half an hour for them to finally see the first Netherworld creature.
Beside a white ghost tree, an ancient creature composed entirely of energy armor was floating. The outer shell was a hard metallic texture, but the inner body was composed of energy.
That Netherworld creature had no legs, and it moved by floating a few inches above the ground. Its movement speed was quite fast. It held a small shield in its left hand and a special club in its right. As it moved, it left a trail of afterimages behind it.
“I have to say, teacher, your intuition is not bad. You can even find such a remote corner,” the swordswoman in the team was a little curious seeing that Chen Ran could find the first Netherworld creature so quickly.
Faced with a girl who didn’t give him any face, Chen Ran smiled indifferently and said to her, “That creature is not strong. I think you can easily handle it. I just happen to need to confirm your specific abilities. You go first and show your strength.”
“Hmph, piece of cake.”
The hot-bodied swordswoman brandished her sword and rushed toward the first creature they had encountered after arriving in the Netherworld. As she rushed closer, the ghost warrior also discovered her existence and swung the club in its hand.
A sudden shockwave…
She hadn’t expected the armored ghost warrior to have a long-range attack, and the attack speed was very fast. Even though the swordswoman was prepared, her reaction was still a beat slower. She blocked the shockwave with her large hand in front of her and was sent flying backward.
The swordswoman stood up, rubbed her sexy little butt, and looked at the ghost warrior who had embarrassed her, her eyes filled with anger.
Although the ghost warrior’s attack was fast, its attack intensity was average. The swordswoman who had blocked it was not injured. She stood up and rushed toward the ghost warrior again.
The shockwave came again. This time, the prepared swordswoman easily dodged the attack. She became more and more eager, raised the longsword in her hand high, shouted loudly, and slashed down neatly…
The ghost warrior wanted to block, but found that its strength was a notch lower than the human girl opposite it. The opponent’s two-handed greatsword cut rows of dazzling sparks on its energy armor and directly cut off one of its arms. The fallen arm fell to the ground, turned into a pile of energy, and gradually dissipated into the air.
Knowing that it was no match, the ghost warrior made a feint and started to run away very neatly. This annoyed the chasing swordswoman, and she started to chase and slash. But the girl found that although the attack of this Netherworld creature was average, its escape speed was really not slow, and the distance was getting further and further…
A sudden explosive fireball struck, hitting the fleeing ghost warrior steadily. A brilliant spark rose. In the flames, the ghost warrior let out a strange cry that seemed painful, and its whole body disappeared into a phantom, and the energy armor on its body also evaporated.
Cheryl withdrew her hand and looked at her somewhat exasperated companion. She went up and comforted the swordswoman with a smile, “Lucy, you could have finished it in a few moves, but you insisted on slashing it a few more times, giving it a chance to escape.”
“Hmph, who told that guy to embarrass me? I just didn’t expect that guy to be so fast that I couldn’t catch up. It’s a good thing you made a move, Cheryl.”
The swordswoman picked up a ghostly green bead from the ground, which should be the so-called Nether Soul Bead. This thing was very small, about the size of a marble, emitting a faint light.
The swordswoman in the team threw the Nether Soul Bead to Chen Ran.
“Even if the opponent is weak, never underestimate the enemy. You suffered a loss facing a creature one tier weaker than you. What if you encounter a powerful creature?” Chen Ran put the Nether Soul Bead into a special pocket and saw that the progress bar on it had risen slightly, less than 0.1%, or even less than 0.04%. In other words, if they looked at creatures of this level, they would have to kill at least a few thousand…
The few girls also realized this, and their faces changed. They hadn’t expected the workload to be so large this time. No wonder they heard that some teams in the past were not known for their efficiency in fighting monsters, but for robbing students from other groups to win earlier.
Chen Ran clapped his hands to encourage them, “Alright, it’s just killing a few more monsters. I’ll show you how efficient grinding monsters can be.”
While comforting everyone, Chen Ran himself was a little puzzled.
He had just dealt with a ghost warrior. Although it could also bring him a certain amount of blood essence, the amount it gave was less than half of that of an ordinary creature. Chen Ran had thought that this was also an opportunity to improve his strength, but this result of twice the effort for half the result made him a little unhappy.
But it was better than nothing. He observed the increasing number of Netherworld creatures on the other side of the map and led the girls toward there.
In half a day, Chen Ran’s Team 4 killed more than a dozen ghosts, most of which were the ghost warrior type they had seen for the first time. And the attack abilities of these creatures were all capable of both long-range and close-range combat, and their speed was very fast. Although their strength was average, it was not efficient to deal with them.
Faced with this situation, Chen Ran was not in a hurry to clear the monsters. Many times, he let the female members of the team fight one-on-one to figure out their respective combat skills and decide on the subsequent battle deployment. Sharpening the axe does not delay the chopping of wood. As they entered deeper into the Netherworld, the tier and strength of the monsters became stronger and stronger. Chen Ran had to pay attention to every detail as much as possible so that there would be no other mistakes.
After a few small battles, Chen Ran also understood the specific strength of this team of girls.
The most lethal was naturally Cheryl, without a doubt. Facing ghost swordsmen or spearmen one by one, with just one face-to-face attack, her flame explosion could accurately deal with the Netherworld warriors, without having to show her true strength at all.
The warrior girl who used a two-handed sword had high skills in her attacks, which were very suitable for small-scale entanglement. One-on-one combat was very suitable for her. But in team battles, for close combat effects, she was only slightly better than the short-haired assassin girl in the group who used dual short swords. As for the fighting spirit crossbow archer, to be honest, except for being able to provide a certain containment effect when dealing with bosses, the effect was pitifully small.
This lineup was really too unscientific. Faced with the workload of needing thousands of ordinary ghost creatures, Chen Ran’s ideal configuration would be a shield warrior who could hold the front, a heavy spearman, a sword warrior, plus two fire or lightning mages. Grinding monsters would be absolutely awesome.
Now with this lineup, the offensive power was insufficient, the DPS was limited, and no matter how strong the single-kill ability was, they would kneel after a set of control skills. But he would make do for now. To be honest, he didn’t think much of this team either, but since he was leading the team, he had to be strong.
Before long, Chen Ran followed the map navigation function and gradually found a place dense with Netherworld creatures. The advantage of having a navigation map was that finding monsters was not a problem, and it also reduced unnecessary scouting work.
Many times, a skilled member of the group would act as a scout to detect the approximate ability and number of monsters, so as to decide how to deal with them. But Chen Ran’s existence reduced these trivial matters. Although the assassin girl in the team expressed doubt about this, seeing that Chen Ran had organized things up to now without a single mistake, she did not express her opinion.
At this time, all members of Team 4 were hiding behind a giant rock. Not far from them, there were forty ghost warriors of about the fifth tier, including several ghost mages. Those ghost mages were often a little more troublesome than ghost warriors. Not only did they have strong long-range strike capabilities, but their intelligence was also a little higher than ordinary ghost warriors.
The number of forty was a bit too much, and they all had long-range strike capabilities. Charging rashly would only turn them into sieves.
“Teacher, what should we do next?”
The swordswoman Lucy in the team seemed to want to see Chen Ran make a fool of himself. Faced with the first trouble they encountered, she deliberately put on an expectant expression.
“What to do? Of course, we mix it up!” Chen Ran looked confident, and at the same time, he looked unkindly at the swordswoman who always went against him.
