Chapter 204: Advancing by Leaps and Bounds
Chen Ran stepped forward and grabbed Cheryl’s right hand, which was casting the spell. Cheryl’s fire magic gradually faded.
At the same time, Chen Ran took out a bag of specially made powder and handed it to the crossbow girl in the team.
“Sprinkle the powder on your fighting spirit arrow. Don’t shoot at the opponent’s vital points… Hurry up, it’s about to run away…”
Although the crossbow girl was a little puzzled, she still did as she was told. She sprinkled Chen Ran’s powder on her fighting spirit crossbow and then steadily shot the ghost warrior who was fleeing with minor injuries in the distance.
After the girl did this, Chen Ran breathed a sigh of relief and said to everyone, “Alright, everyone clean up the battlefield and pick up all the dropped Nether Soul Beads. Mmm, today’s progress is much faster than the previous few days. Keep up the good work.”
The swordswoman Lucy in the team walked up to Chen Ran in confusion. While picking up the Nether Soul Beads on the ground, she asked the question that everyone wanted to know, “Teacher, why didn’t you finish off the last one?”
“Cast a long line to catch a big fish. I thought you knew,” Chen Ran explained with a smile. “When you are injured and have the possibility of being killed at any time, what would you usually do?”
“Of course, find a place where I can protect myself…” The swordswoman opened her mouth wide, finally understanding. “So that’s it. Teacher, you want it to lead us to a new monster farming spot?”
“What else?” Chen Ran continued to pick up the pile of Nether Soul Beads on the ground. “Killing one more or one less won’t affect our overall progress much. But finding a nest where ghost creatures gather is different. It can speed up our progress as much as possible. This damn Netherworld, I don’t want to stay here too long. The air is obviously not as good as outside, and there are no girls to pick up. It’s boring to death.”
“Teacher,” the swordswoman blinked her electric eyes and pretended to be coy, “Aren’t we girls? So many girls accompanying you, and we are confident that we are all not bad-looking, and we are all single. You actually say there are no girls to pick up. It’s simply inhumane.”
“Hey, hey, these are two different things. I still have morals…” Chen Ran wagged his finger. Knowing that these girls who got along with him were used to joking with his good nature, he laughed, “Don’t make fun of your teacher in the future, or you’ll have to bear the consequences.”
“Hmph, what can you do to me?” The swordswoman Lucy puffed out her full little chest, looking proud.
Chen Ran was defeated on the spot.
“Alright, alright, I’m afraid of you. Work hard. I estimate it will be busier downstairs…”
Putting all the Nether Soul Beads into that big bag, Chen Ran and the others’ progress had reached 5%. He believed that as long as they found a few more nests and solved a few waves of monsters, the progress would soon catch up.
If that were really the case, even if they were still behind the other teams, they would probably catch up soon. He just didn’t know how the other teams were progressing.
For the time being, in the huge Netherworld, the six teams had not met yet.
Before any team produced a treasure map, “robbery” was not allowed. Otherwise, it would be too unethical. Until the first treasure map started, a special signal would appear. And after the signal appeared, almost all the teams would be on alert. The teams that were far from reaching the task volume would start to “rob” the companions of other groups in desperation, to shorten the gap with the first team as soon as possible. If they were closer to the location of the treasure, they might get the treasure earlier.
As for those teams that were “robbed” or defeated, they were almost equivalent to failure. After admitting defeat, they could not participate in the competition, hung the “dead” sign, and could only follow along as spectators.
There was nothing to be nervous about now. Just guard against the Netherworld creatures here. As long as one reached the requirements, they must complete the task as quickly as possible. Otherwise, any team passing by might engage in some special operations and “solve” you before you could exert your strength.
Following the traces left by the sixth-tier ghost warrior, Chen Ran and his group found a gathering place of ghost creatures as expected. Through Chen Ran’s remote observation, the creatures over there had begun to include seventh-tier ghost war beasts and ghost lords, and the strength of the confrontation had risen by another level.
When they arrived, it was already night in the Netherworld. Although the speed of those creatures had slowed down, their attack and defense had increased by a level.
As usual, Chen Ran did not intend to make a move at this time. They were not afraid of fast ones, but the close-range blood-colored ghost creatures with hard attack and defense that could raid would cause unnecessary small troubles. He was mainly thinking about the safety of the girls in the team. But this time, the group of girls seemed to have made up their minds.
“Teacher, we feel that always retreating at night is not a good thing. Although this allocates our rest and combat time very well, we feel that if we want to improve ourselves, we must deal with various enemies to increase our experience against enemies. Anyway, the night here is not dark. Let’s work hard and deal with those guys. At most, we’ll miss the usual ghost story time. Dealing with those guys is much more interesting than listening to ghost stories.”
This proposal received the unanimous agreement of the girls. Even the youngest, Dongfang, stood up to support her sisters’ statement.
Seeing the group of girls in such high spirits, Chen Ran did not refuse. He blinked helplessly, hooked his finger, and made a departure gesture.
The ghost warriors at night had unstable red energy flowing at the joints of their armor. This appearance was much more eerie than during the day, and the sounds they made were also much weirder, like the howling of ghosts.
The reason why Chen Ran usually didn’t act at night was exactly this. Those guys’ attack and defense were quite troublesome, and the most important thing was that they looked a bit scary. He was afraid that it would affect the girls’ performance. Thinking that they wouldn’t stay in the Netherworld for long, he didn’t plan to take any special risks. But now that they were going to fight, he, the leading big brother, naturally had to show his spirit and not disappoint this group of little girls.
“Fortunately, the red Netherworld creatures on the opposite side are not too concentrated. If we manage the time difference well, we can selectively deal with them in batches. Each batch has about ten or so. No other tricks this time. We have to deal with them head-on with an active attack posture as quickly as possible, to deal with the other enemies that will come later,” Chen Ran turned to Dongfang at the side and said, “Little sister, this time you summon a combat phantom beast with strong crushing combat power. Just protect the sisters who are outputting damage in the rear as much as possible.”
“Okay,” Dongfang nodded, following Chen Ran’s instructions. Then she summoned a giant mammoth with four legs and two arms, more than two meters tall, holding a giant fork, from the summoning array. Its two long tusks were exceptionally spirited, and its sturdy and burly body was majestic and extraordinary.
“Good, let’s go! Big monster, take the lead!”
The mammoth, buffed with full status, stepped with loud footsteps in front of a group of blood-colored ghost creatures. After discovering the alien race, the ghost creatures neatly launched an attack.
Chen Ran planned to fight a complete frontal battle this time, emphasizing a quick decision. Using the time difference caused by the ghost creatures in the distance to defeat each ghost creature team one by one. If the speed was slower, they would gather more and more, making it even harder to deal with. Chen Ran specially instructed the girls to attack with all their might and not to hold back, otherwise it would be very troublesome. There were more than a hundred on the opposite side, and there were many elite creatures. They couldn’t be careless.
The training these days had allowed the girls to understand the characteristics of these creatures. The swordswoman Lucy in the team charged forward, killing the hard red ghosts on both sides of the mammoth. To kill those guys in one blow, she had to use her strongest power to finish them off at once. It was more than one level harder than dealing with the ghost warriors during the day. Every slash of hers would be accompanied by a clear shout.
The crossbow archer in the team gathered all her fighting spirit and released a fighting spirit arrow, accurately hitting the helmets of these ghost warriors whose mobility was greatly reduced compared to the day. A headshot in one blow. If it was just a little lighter, it wouldn’t cause fatal damage. And the assassin student in the team also had a decent one-hit kill ability. Her backstabs were played quite beautifully. But limited by the durability of the weapon and the physical fitness of her own professional system, she mostly played a good covering role for the team.
Cheryl was still the most powerful. Fire dragon pillars, flame bombs, and continuous fireballs divided the opposite formation just right. Not only did she deal decent damage, but she also shared the pressure of the team and helped her teammates harvest better.
Chen Ran tried his best to buff the big mammoth that bore the greatest impact with recovery status. With Chen Ran’s support, the output of that big guy was also quite considerable. The giant fork swung with great force could always sweep away a circle of sturdy ghost warriors. Even a sixth-tier ghost warrior would be smashed to pieces by its fierce chiseling…
The small team maintained a complete formation. Their opponents came wave after wave. Sometimes they had just finished fighting, sometimes they hadn’t even dealt with the previous batch, and the next wave arrived, giving them almost no time to breathe.
But the few teams of girls in the team didn’t feel tired at all. On the contrary, there was a hint of excitement. The more and more flashing beads on the ground became the motivation for their struggle.
Until the group of girls unexpectedly found that there were no standing ghost creatures left, the leading swordswoman Lucy finally couldn’t support her legs and slipped to the ground first, gasping for breath. Her body was covered in glistening sweat, steaming. It seemed she had reached her limit.
The other girls in the team performed similarly, collapsing into a pile. Even Cheryl closed her eyes tiredly and sat on the ground. The consumption was imaginable.
On the contrary, Dongfang looked excited. She only needed to provide the spiritual power for the existence of the combat mammoth and didn’t need to do it herself. Her physical strength was sufficient. The great task of picking up the ghost beads on the ground was given to this little girl who picked up “stars.”
The ghost beads on the ground varied in brightness. The dim ones were mostly fifth-tier Netherworld creatures, and the bright ones were sixth- to seventh-tier ghost warriors and lords. The harvest tonight was plentiful.
Until Dongfang picked up all the beads and put them into the bag specially for ghost beads.
The progress display on it reached 60%. This high-intensity hour or so had actually completed 10% of the progress.
“Fortune favors the bold…” Chen Ran weighed the bag. “If it’s like today, we only need four more waves to complete it.”
