Chapter 32: Got Lost...

  "Shield bearers, forward!" Kris's loud voice boomed like thunder in the midst of the squeaking and chattering of the mouse people on the opposite side. "Anyone who dares to run away will be made to run ten laps around the lake when I return to camp later!"

  After some thought, the ridiculously large lake surface that even the longest-range magic crystal cannon couldn't hit targets on the opposite shore, a group of warriors carrying shields and sweating walked to the front of the team.

  "Alright. Now the cooks in the second row, long-range DPS and healers move back! Pay attention at times like these, those who fall to the ground are not pulled up!"

  You're kidding me, right?! You absolutely can't be serious, right?! And we're just up against a bunch of mobs, aren't we? Don't give me that "we're about to fight the boss" look!

  "Keep formation!" Kris shouted, raising her hand. "We'll advance in this manner and push straight to the gray rats' home... What? How is that possible?"

  Originally extremely timid, even if a large group of them were slightly impacted by an adventurous team, they would collapse. Now, the mouse people are holding up tattered and suspicious weapons that make one wonder if they usually survive by scavenging for garbage - if they really think those things can hurt people - against a large team composed of players who are all level 1 but elite.

  "Alright, who started this mess? Our buffs aren't even up yet." Elisia said helplessly.

  "Damn it!" Christy spat out the chocolate bar in her mouth, "I'm going to tie up that guy who's responsible for the monster intel at each trial location and whip him 100 times when I get back! These rats must have been strengthened by some kind of evil power, otherwise they wouldn't attack on their own initiative."

  "How detestable! To think that we'd encounter something like this. Warriors, prepare for close combat! Ranged units, be on alert... 3, 2, 1, free attack!"

  Eriol raised the academy's standard-issue staff and hurled a flurry of wind blades at Kris' command.

  And beside her, the primary magic of each system of the four elements also flew forward in a rainbow-colored manner. There, gray waves were surging forward to meet them. The mouse people had no good defense against any damage other than their fur that could withstand blunt blows, and this string of primary spells caused considerable damage, directly clearing away the gray wave crest, just like a cluster of charging infantry encountering rocket artillery fire.

  In this world dominated by cold weapons, the concept of skirmish lines is clearly non-existent, and even if it were, it would not occur to the minds of these rodents. Therefore, all they can do is fill in the gaps with numbers and continue charging.

  And this just happened to hit the students' weakness - these new students did not have a rich reserve of magical power, and after two months of study, being able to cast primary spells was already a testament to Kriss's good teaching. After intense casting of spells, these azure mages began to exhibit collective magic exhaustion...

  "After returning to the academy, every single person in the magic department has been giving me an extra 30 minutes of meditation every day!" Chris said with a very unsightly expression, then she glanced at Eliya who was still enthusiastically throwing wind blades and Cecilia who had transformed her staff into a human-shaped cannon with golden stars and other decorations that made it look completely worn out. "Except for those two."

  "Hey, Shuǐyín dēng. On our side, the long-range attackers are only me and Cecilia, plus a few archers led by Yuègē. Are you going to contribute some strength too?" Eriol said hastily to Shuǐyín dēng, who was holding a bottle of yogurt on one side.

  "A move that's about as powerful as a 5th-level spell, guaranteed to annihilate those giant rats and trigger a cave-in - what do you think?"

  "Are you kidding me?"

  "No, I did it on purpose. Normally, your friends are nothing to worry about, but do you really plan on having me cast advanced magic in front of everyone?"

  "Indeed, the alchemy level in this world isn't that high yet, and doing it this way is a bit too eye-catching." Eriol pinched the silver-haired doll's cheek, which was very soft. "Alright, I won't ask for your help, but just in case Instructor Kriss can't handle the situation, I'll still have to trouble you a bit. Although that kind of situation isn't likely to happen."

  The mercury lamp hummed and made no comment.

  "Prepare for close combat!" Chris still only directed, without any sign of taking action. With this command, a burst of metal scraping and colliding sounds filled the front row. The warriors spontaneously formed a tight formation, ready to meet the enemy's impact for the first time in their careers.

  Then they saw the super big-headed Norman, holding a staff and wearing a cloth armor, roaring from above and jumping over, directly rushing into the mouse people's team. Later, countless gray-haired old mice flew around like rough toys in the place where Norman passed... Okay, actually it was a born warrior with the title of a mage, but he got into the wrong class at the beginning.

  Norman's action caused great confusion among the ratmen, and in this terrain where it was impossible to fully deploy, having a two-legged tank come crashing forward was undoubtedly a very frightening thing. The ratmen's charge was disrupted, and the scattered impact did not cause much trouble for the shield warriors standing on the front line. The large pieces of garbage in their hands turned into fragments all over the sky on the shields made of metal or leather, and then continued to move forward under the push of their comrades behind them, receiving a warm welcome from the human soldiers' various weapons.

  The cave echoed with the shrill cries of the mouse people and the curses of humans. Blades sliced through fur and flesh; sharp fangs and claws tore open exposed skin that had not been protected; scalding hot blood splattered everywhere, leaving a Gothic horror aesthetic artwork on the ground and walls under the eerie light.

  Alright...... This book finally sees uncensored blood.

  When a splatter of hot, sticky blood, whose origin was unknown, burst forth at high speed and splattered onto Eriol's face, she finally realized that this wasn't a game or a 3D movie. Everything before her eyes was real, happening right now, with no option to Load Game or get a refund. The experience of adventuring and fighting monsters wasn't the romantic, legendary fantasy she had imagined, but rather one filled with danger, gore, and death.

  If previously Xiao Loli still treated her life in another world as a game, or thought of herself as an outsider looking on, now she was completely awake.

  Facing the enemy with a careless attitude will get you killed!

  Although it's not an easy task to kill her with this divine body... but the friends and classmates who are with her day and night don't have such a cheating physique, they are all still very fragile.

  When some of the ratmen tried to climb up the walls and bypass the front row warriors' defense line to raid the rear of the cloth armor profession, Chris finally threw out a few stone wall techniques between the ratmen and the team, temporarily blocking their follow-up troops. But it was too late, the ratmen had already completed their strategic deployment: another group of fewer ratmen appeared on the road where the team came from, planning to directly burst into bloom.

  "How can they even understand tactics?" Kristina's forehead suddenly sweated, "They must have evolved a Mouse King! How hateful, this time it's really getting out of hand...... Hey, I'm in charge of maintaining the frontline here and can't leave, who among you will go to the back to organize the defense? Hurry up, don't be shy or hesitant, this isn't the time for you all to be proud and cute!"

  "I'll go." Sophia volunteered, and after getting Kris' nod of approval, she began to name names. "Ilya, Lihua Yin, Batulu, Granna, you're in charge of the front line. Yuègē, take these few archers and handle long-range attacks. Mǐxuě bring them over for healing. Kris, may I borrow Eliyah?" (Kris hesitated for a moment before nodding) "Alright then, Eliyah, come with us too."

  Sophia then called up about a dozen boys who had exhausted their magical powers as reserves, and took this blocking squad to the rear of the team - they could already smell the stench on those mouse people who were eager to give humans a blooming flower.

  Sophia's original intention was to have Eriya act as a strong and stable DPS to suppress the opponent, but she only took one glance forward and knew that this plan would fall through, because the mouse people were already less than 20 meters away from them. The little loli's wind blade didn't last long before it had to stop - a mouse face appeared in front of her. After all, there are only four professions that can truly be called close combat, and those male mages are just making up the numbers. When facing the numerically superior mouse people, they were already lucky not to have been knocked down, let alone block the opponent's advance - that was simply an unrealistic expectation.

  The mercury lamp had already raised the feather-transformed Western slender sword to protect Eliya, but unfortunately there were other students nearby, so she couldn't use any big moves and could only rely on her sword skills to knock down one by one the mouse people who got close.

  "What's your bright idea?" Quicksilver Lamp said, flying in front of Eriol and striking down the mouse person who was showing off his appearance. "This is just a melee, dragging it out won't be good for ordinary students."

  "If I were to take out two Colt M1911s, it would be settled in a matter of minutes." Eriol's face contorted in distress. "But the problem is how do I explain these two non-regulation weapons afterwards? Last time with Huayin and the others, they're friends so they wouldn't leak anything, but ordinary students won't be able to keep it under wraps."

  "Just use it if you want to, why worry so much? Even if the three major empires are after you, won't your cheap brother have your back? The mercury lamp's eyes were full of disdain. "At worst, you can just transform into a magical girl and push down a few cities, by then I think no one will bother you anymore."

  "Excuse me, is my character setting supposed to be the final BOSS of the villainous organization?"

  "No, you are a loli-faced, evil-hearted military advisor under BOSS."

  "I say, aren't we in a battle? Why has it turned into this bizarre situation where we're just sniping at each other?"

  "Because the author's integrity has long been thrown into the trash."

  Suddenly, Ilya's pained cry interrupted the two people's already hopeless daily life. When Eriol turned her head to look, she found that Ilya had been brutally bitten on the arm by a ferocious ratman in order to protect the completely defenseless Misha...

  Took a bite.

  "Will he be infected with the plague?" Alicia asked calmly.

  "I think he should get a tetanus shot first." Shuǐyín Dēng's face was equally calm.

  But Sophia was not as calm as they were. Although the light of several people's aura almost blinded the countless yellow eyes of the mice, and the nearby mouse people seemed to fall down in a piece like rice ears, they could not block all the mouse people. A large group of gray-haired mice rushed in and started attacking the students in the back row, many of whom were injured, the formation was shaking, and it might collapse at any time.

  "Alicia, you retreat first and then use magic to suppress the mouse people." Sophia shouted anxiously under the protection of several archers including Yue Ge, "Others wait until the magic suppression starts before slowly retreating."

  "It's no use retreating!" Eriol denied, "I won't be able to hold them back from rushing over. As soon as they come over, it'll immediately turn into this situation again."

  I should have learned some practical crowd-killing spells earlier.

  "But this can buy us some time." Sophia tried to persuade Little Lori, "Once the main force on the other side of Coach Kris is resolved, we will naturally have reinforcements coming over."

  "Let's not mention what if they get caught and can't escape, in this current situation, how long do you think everyone can hold on? The little loli pointed at the several boys covered in blood in front of her, "They're not warriors! If we drag it out any longer, someone will die!"

  Sophia fell silent, her original plan was to sacrifice a few people in exchange for time. Otherwise, once the defense line here collapses, it will cause even greater casualties. Although it's cruel, she still prepared to do so.

  If it weren't for Eriol's next move that left her speechless.

  "How despicable, where did these mouse people get their courage from? Their reckless and biting appearance is no different from that of a mad dog! Hmm... mad dog? Ah, I see, why didn't I think of this interesting idea before?"

  Alicia shouted while casting under the cover of the quicksilver lamp: "Sophia, hurry up and get some mages who can still cast earth wall spells from behind! I have an urgent need for them! Maybe this time we can hold on thanks to them!"

  Although it was inexplicable, Sophia still followed through out of trust for Eriol. The two pale-faced girls, who were clearly on the verge of magical exhaustion, were quickly taken to the front lines.

  "Alright, in a bit I'll use Earth Wall technique in front of those boys who are about to hang on. My request is that two earth walls will seal off the mine tunnel, and leave a small door in between that only one person can pass through at a time. Tsukino, you come with me to guard the door, while others take those boys to the back for treatment." Eriol took a deep breath and shouted, "Now!"

  The earth wall appeared with a loud noise. The mice, who had been separated, indeed came in one after another from the small door that was intentionally left open, just as Eriol had guessed - and were then quickly knocked down by the ruthless little Loli and Tsukino.

  Zhuoer's literary history is the most shameless, most despicable, and most unscrupulous road-blocking tactic that has lost all limits...

  Alicia didn't need to turn around to know that the ground behind her was definitely covered with sparkling shards of broken glasses.

  The chairman, having finished cleaning up the scene, even found a flat stone and spread out a tablecloth on it, arranging red tea and pastries: "Dessert before dinner, would anyone like to try some?"

  "If you're really bored and have nothing better to do, then trade with me!" Elisia shouted at the small doll.

  The chairman elegantly sipped a mouthful of red tea, and the birds didn't even notice her.

  Sophia stopped the situation from developing into an absurd daily routine, wiping the sweat-drenched hair on her forehead and letting out a long sigh: "Alright, once everyone's magic recovers, we'll take turns with you. But Eliyah, how did you come up with this method?"

  “……”

  "Nothing to report?"

  "No, actually I don't know how to start."

  "That's nothing. But thanks to you, I've gained some new knowledge today."

  Alicia's eyes welled up with tears. She really couldn't bring herself to say that she had learned this skill from a game where humans fought cockroaches in outer space!

  I am a divider line

  In Eriol's expectation, the few people outside the earthen wall had enough strength to hold on until the main force arrived while relying on the terrain to form an array. Didn't see that the only milk mom, Misha, was there too? As for the advantageous terrain, there are narrow and winding paths everywhere here, any of which can be used to stage a tragic drama where one man holds off ten thousand.

  But little loli absolutely didn't think such a thing would happen.

  "What is this?" Kris asked, biting into a chocolate bar with eyes wide open.

  Alicia rubbed her forehead speechlessly and said, "This is a transmission array that should have been scrapped many years ago, but under the arrangement of that unscrupulous author, it suddenly exploded today and sent the five people who entered here together to who-knows-where. Heaven knows where they are wandering around now."

  Here is the translation:

  Above, this is Kris who successfully escaped from the battlefield and returned to support with a large army, searching for the five-man team left outside the earthen wall by Eriol along the road where the mouse people's bizarre hunting trophies were placed. As a result, no one was found, but at the end of a small alley in a dead-end alley, a magic teleportation array that should have been recovered and utilized was discovered.

  Eriol could even imagine the crowd of mouse people forcing their way and retreating to this place, only to discover that the transmission array, which should have been exhausted a hundred years ago, was rekindled by a curious touch. However, she had to accept the reality that the five-man squad and the main force were lost...

  What's worse is that everyone else besides Bartholomew was her friend - perhaps one of them should be called a girlfriend?

  "Alright, let's head back! We'll return to camp and get some rest!"

  "Are you going to give up on them?!"

  "I couldn't possibly put more students in harm's way because of them." Chris said unexpectedly in a very soft tone, "I have to be responsible for the other students. Sorry, everyone is exhausted now, we can only go back and rest for tonight, and come back to look for them tomorrow."

  "They don't have any supplies on them now, and there are probably more mouse people lurking around!" Charsi cried out.

  "I'd love to go and drag those troublesome souls back to the camp right now and give them a good scolding!" Chris roared in exasperation, "But I can't just leave my defenseless students out here unattended while I go off on my own to look for people!"

  "So I'll go then." Eriol said suddenly, and then she asked Suigetsu, "What's the situation?"

  The mercury lamp jumped down from the transmission array: "Fortunately, after emergency repairs, it can barely transmit once, but the transmission target can only be one adult, no more. And this thing will be completely scrapped after this transmission."

  "That's it, let's go together with the mercury lamp." Eriol said as she walked to the center of the transmission array.

  Chris furrowed her brow: "It's not that I'm underestimating you, but what can you do even if you go? Although your talent is high and you're already a 2nd-level mage, after such a long battle, don't you have almost no magic left?"

  Alyssa waved her wrist with the spatial bracelet: "I have the food and water they urgently need, and there are also some therapeutic medicines inside. With this logistics warehouse of mine, we can at least hold on for several days, right? Maybe we can even find our way back ourselves. And... who says those idiots aren't my friends?"

  Sophia hesitated for a moment before looking up and saying, "This is the most effective method for now. Kris, let's do it this way. Eriol, I'm sorry but I won't be able to go with you. So, please be careful. By the way, didn't you just say that you could only transport one adult? But there are two of you, Mercury and you, even if you're a bit small."

  The little loli didn't say a word, she just picked up the chairman - under the gaze of everyone's thunderous eyes, everyone suddenly understood...

  These two kids take up less space than one adult!