Chapter 126: Increasing the Difficulty

The next day!

Before the sky had fully brightened, the group was jolted from their sleep by the faint tremors of the ground and the roars of magical beasts. Those with unhealed injuries quickly snapped to alertness, drawing their weapons and rapidly organizing into a defensive formation under He Chen’s command.

No sooner had they prepared than Lante darted past them, leaving behind a rapidly expanding group of one, two, three, four... five "Earth Puppet Worms" charging toward them.

"The main course starts today, everyone! Give it your all!"

Lante shamelessly retreated to the rear. The members of Soul-Extinguisher cursed wildly in their hearts: Did he really have to resort to such surprise attacks? Yesterday, four had left them half-dead; increasing the difficulty today was practically a death sentence!

"Standard procedure!"

"Vice-Captain Xu, take three. Kong Yue, one. Jiao Long and Bai Xi, provide support. Leave the rest to me. Remember, save your strength during the fight! Do not waste mana blindly!"

The members roared their acknowledgment and immediately began preparing their spells and combat techniques in an orderly fashion.

With the experience from before, the first wave of five earth puppets was neutralized before they could even get close—many members didn't even need to release their offensive magic. Everyone knew the real battle had yet to begin.

After several waves yielded no results, the "Earth Puppet Worms" lost their patience. The four-star humanoid earth puppets transformed into five-star beast-form earth puppets, their combat power surging. Even so, this merely forced the warriors to occasionally offer a token block to buy time.

"Are you kidding me?" Lante muttered, feeling frustrated.

Frowning, he vanished silently from behind the group. In the distance, he lured two more Earth Puppet Worms over, guiding them toward the fray amid a chorus of curses. Seven Earth Puppet Worms!

The pressure instantly mounted to a level the Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group could barely withstand. Everyone was forced to rise, firing at full power to repel the rapidly increasing number of earth puppets.

"Now that’s more like it." Lante remarked with satisfaction, taking a long, indulgent swig of strong liquor.

A beautiful grassland, uniquely shaped magical beasts, honest and diligent students, mellow and fiery wine, and a spectacular fight to watch—life, every once in a while, called for a little self-satisfaction.

That day, the Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group held out for only half an hour before four earth dragons and a swarm of puppet beasts completely tore through their line. Lante stepped in to guard the field, marking the end of the second day of limit training.

Everyone was exhausted to the point of collapse.

However, Lante did not allow them to rest today. Instead, he made everyone get off the ground and meditate on the spot. Once the tension had dissipated, they gulped down some meager food and began the afternoon session.

The group went into battle with their injuries, continuing the extreme training. Fortunately, the afternoon’s difficulty was slightly lowered to six Earth Puppet Worms. In the distance, another group of new mercenaries undergoing limit training had been tormented to the brink of collapse by their instructors over the past few days. While the difficulty of four Earth Puppet Worms was already high, they didn't even dare to complain—after being led to observe the Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group’s training for a day, they suddenly felt their own instructors were remarkably merciful.

Days passed.

The Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group, including Xu Wen, remained in the depths of misery, their nerves stretched to the breaking point. Aside from the cleric, everyone bore scars, and the warriors were covered in wounds.

Yet, Lante showed no mercy, roaring in their ears:

"Look at you! How many days has it been and you still don't understand? Minimize your movements, discard those useless, shitty flourishes... train your explosive power... save your battle qi, do you understand?"

"Little mages, are you all made of wood? Can you move? Please, coordinate with the warriors; don't just stand there like fools waiting to be bitten..."

"Bai Xi... aside from shooting, what else can you do? Do you know the characteristics of an archer? Speed! Your speed must be faster than the beasts. Sometimes you should learn to take the pressure off the mages."

"Sigh... as for the cleric, if you plan on working in a clinic after this to treat commoners, your performance is quite good. But as a mercenary cleric, the only one in the squad, remember to raise a contract beast when we return to the city. If you can't protect everyone better, let the beast protect you—be it a support, guardian, or combat type."

Lante criticized everyone without pulling any punches, and in the end, he didn't even spare Xu Wen!

"Don't think that just because your attack power is high, you're fine. Sometimes you must learn to communicate and help others improve. What's the point of 'running' so fast alone? Can you kill a wandering soul like that?"

"..."

Xu Wen felt a small tremor in his heart. Although he didn't show it at the time, over the next few days, he occasionally used his authority as vice-captain to offer tips and advice to his teammates—tricks and experiences he had summarized from other experts.

Among them, He Chen, Sa Keqi, and several fire mages benefited the most, followed by Ailin.

The latter once seized a moment of free time to quietly slip him a note that read: "I won't tell anyone about that secret."

The note had since turned to ash, scattered across the nameless grass.

Ten days passed. He Chen advanced to the first rank of the five-star level, forming a chaotic sea of consciousness, and his combat power improved slightly. Others also saw varying degrees of improvement, with the highest rising by two levels. The team's combat power surged!

As for Xu Wen, due to the illusion of his realm created by his chaotic sea of consciousness, he climbed all the way from the fifth rank of the four-star level to the ninth rank with astonishing speed.

On the thirteenth day of limit training, following He Chen, he became the second advanced mage in the squad!

A complete chaotic sea of consciousness!

The moment he broke through the barrier to become an advanced mage, unlike He Chen, who was flushed with excitement, Xu Wen felt incredibly calm. The first thing that flashed through his mind wasn't the five-star Profound Heaven-level magic, but the yet-to-be-completed four-star Earth Emperor-level spell, "Flame Beast Summoning."

It was an elemental entity-type Earth Emperor spell, derived from the agile "Firebird" spell. By materializing the Firebird and constructing a pure fire-element condensation array within its body, the duration of the Firebird’s materialization could be significantly extended.

Xu Wen had spent over ten days on this spell and had only figured out a small part of it. Its difficulty even surpassed that of the three-star Profound Heaven-level mysteries. If not for the Firebird's special utility and its unheard-of attack characteristics, he wouldn't have been willing to waste so much time on it—the Flame Beast's attack strength was only equivalent to a mid-level five-star magical beast, and it took an eternity to condense, equivalent to three "Golden Snake Wild Dances."

Of course... the benefits were also obvious.

Once successfully created, as long as the elemental body didn't suffer fatal damage, the Flame Beast could absorb elements through its internal magic array to recover slowly and automatically. Furthermore, the subsequent mana consumption was minimal, and its independent combat capability was not weak, acting purely on the caster's will without fear of pain.

In other words, while the Flame Beast was a waste of time and mana, once successful and used wisely, it could become a great asset in battle.

As for the five-star Profound Heaven-level magic... it was not the time to research it during limit training. Exploring a five-star spell on his own without an instructor would be too shocking! Moreover, while his previous spells could be explained away, once a five-star spell appeared, Dean Harman’s magic manual would be exposed.

The other members of the Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group, except for Ailin who was still at the mid-level four-star Magic Swordsman tier, had all reached the edge of the eighth and ninth ranks of the four-star level.

The difficulty of the limit training had unconsciously increased from seven Earth Puppet Worms to thirteen, and the twice-daily sessions had doubled to four!

At night, fewer and fewer people slept. Aside from the necessary rest, most chose to train during their free time, consolidating what they had absorbed during the day and pushing for further improvement. Compared to previous seclusion or combat-style training, the effects of this extreme training were too obvious!

But they didn't know that as the Soul-Extinguisher Mercenary Group strengthened rapidly, Lante began to feel overwhelmed. He had to attract the Earth Puppet Worms in two separate batches every time! Toward the end, his confidence in controlling the situation dwindled. Sometimes, when seven or eight earth dragons—or even more than ten—charged the line simultaneously, he would be nervous to the point of death. A person, no matter how skilled, had their limits. A first-rank seven-star swordsman could handle a few six-star magical beasts at most, but any more, and mistakes would inevitably occur.

If not for the Soul-Extinguisher members' increasingly tacit cooperation, which allowed them to turn danger into safety each time, he would have long since stopped this limit training, which usually took a standard team three months to finish!

Twenty-one people had completed the limit training course for recruits in less than a quarter of the normal time, leaving Lante both proud and troubled. His course was supposed to last three months, and only one-third of that time had passed.

He truly couldn't think of anything else to teach. "It seems I have no choice but to let them move on to the lesson of life-and-death combat a bit early." Lante frowned, hesitating; this was the final lesson before graduation.

The Earth Puppet Worms were, after all, anomalies among six-star magical beasts—summoning types that were relatively lazy. Other six-star beasts wouldn't be so easily handled. Without him present, if the team relaxed even for a moment, a six-star beast could seize the opportunity to break their defense and cause casualties, leaving no time for rescue.

Although the Qingyun Empire had hinted that a small number of deaths were acceptable among this batch of excellent students, having spent so many days with them, Lante still didn't want to see anyone sacrifice themselves during the course.

"It seems I'll have to work a little harder and have them fight individually."

Lante finally came up with a plan... The next day, the twenty-one were divided into four teams, each facing the attack of two Earth Puppet Worms, with the difficulty increasing based on their performance.