Make me leave the team? My beast girl and I can win easily.

Wujiang City Special Abilities Vocational and Technical College, Underground Training Area, Third Dungeon Entrance.

With her signature gentle smile on her face, Xia Yue said to her new teammate Li Xu, "Brother Xu, shall we start with the easy level 20 elite dungeon - 'The Poisonous Forest'?"

"We've run this dungeon many times before, so we're very familiar with it."

Li Xu was wearing a custom-made combat suit, the material of which looked extraordinary.

Under the lights at the dungeon entrance, it gleams with a faint blue light—this is the Li family's specially made mana-resonating cloth, which can enhance the effects of healing skills.

He nodded slightly, his tone carrying the composure typical of someone from a prominent family: "Sure, it'll be a good opportunity to practice teamwork."

"Don't worry, Brother Xu, we can clear this dungeon with our eyes closed!" Liu Hui patted his chest, his heavy armor clanging loudly.

Yang Mei and Zhang Tian nodded repeatedly, their faces full of confidence.

Indeed, the Dawn Squad has run this dungeon more than ten times in the past few months.

When they were "reclaiming wasteland", they didn't encounter any major difficulties.

Later, as my level increased and my equipment was upgraded, I became quite familiar with this dungeon.

The five people inserted their identity cards into the entrance verification device one by one, and with a burst of light, they were teleported into the instance space.

A familiar damp smell wafted over me, and before me lay a dark and gloomy expanse of trees.

Twisted tree branches stretched towards the gray sky at an eerie angle.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of humus, making it soft and spongy to walk on.

The distant hiss of an unknown creature sounded particularly jarring in the silence.

"Same as before, old tactics." Xia Yue commanded skillfully, "Liu Hui pulls the monsters, Yang Mei controls the field, and Zhang Tian and I deal damage."

Liu Hui shouted loudly and charged forward with his shield raised.

The Heavy Knight's "Taunt Aura" was activated instantly.

Attracted by the sight of three tree spirits covered in moss not far away, they rushed over, brandishing their branches.

"Ice Seal!" Yang Mei waved her staff, and icy energy spread across the ground, successfully slowing down two of the tree spirits.

Xia Yue drew her bow and nocked an arrow, and a burning arrow whistled out, striking the trunk of the nearest tree spirit.

Zhang Tian also drew his twin swords and slashed into the battlefield like lightning.

Everything was just like countless battles before—until the arrow struck its target.

"Huh?" Xia Yue exclaimed softly.

Based on past experience, this arrow should be able to reduce the tree spirit's health by at least 15%.

But at this moment, the tree spirit's health bar had only decreased by a thin layer, less than 7% by visual inspection.

Zhang Tian's twin blades only left two shallow wounds on the tree spirit, causing negligible damage.

"What's going on?" Zhang Tian also noticed the abnormality, dodging the tree spirit's branches with a backflip and retaliating. "Why is my damage so low?"

The commotion of the fight instantly attracted the attention of nearby monsters.

Three more tree spirits swayed their branches and joined the battle.

One of them was even an elite-level monster!

The pressure on Liu Hui's side has increased dramatically.

He was originally able to withstand the combined attack of these six tree spirits.

But now, the tree spirit's branches were lashing against the shield continuously, making his arms numb and causing his health to drop much faster than expected.

"Yang Mei, where's your crowd control skill?" Liu Hui shouted. "It can't be interrupted!"

"Why is my mana being used up so quickly!" Yang Mei replied anxiously, casting another "Ice Ring" spell.

A layer of blue mist exploded from the tree spirit's body, and its movements became extremely slow.

The battle situation has improved slightly.

Xia Yue and Zhang Tian attacked desperately, but the tree spirit's health bar dropped extremely slowly.

Liu Hui had to use defensive skills frequently, causing his mana to be consumed rapidly.

"Healing! I need healing!" Liu Hui's health had dropped to 40%.

This has never happened before when playing this dungeon – usually when clearing mobs, the health bar doesn't drop below 50%.

Li Xu frowned and raised his hand to release a "healing spell".

A soft green light enveloped Liu Hui, bringing his health back to 70%.

But the next second, the tree spirit unleashed its skill, and the continuous attacks caused the health bar to drop below 50%.

"What's wrong with your DPS?" Li Xu couldn't help but ask. "Why haven't you taken down these mobs after all this time?"

Xia Yue's cheeks flushed slightly, whether from anxiety or embarrassment, she couldn't tell: "I...I don't know either, I just can't deal any damage."

"Did the buff not activate?" Zhang Tian shouted while dodging. "Li Xu, where's your buff?"

Li Xu's face darkened: "'Agile Aura' has been continuously active; I activated it the moment I entered the dungeon. Didn't you guys notice?"

Only then did the five people notice that they were indeed enveloped in a faint blue halo.

Even so, why can't I deal any damage?

"Concentrate our firepower and kill them one by one!" Xia Yue said through gritted teeth.

After a dazzling array of attack effects, the first tree spirit finally collapsed with a mournful cry.

Then the second and third were also knocked down in turn.

At this point, Liu Hui's health had dropped below 30%.

"No, I can't take it anymore!" Liu Hui shouted. "Yang Mei, control them, let me catch my breath!"

Yang Mei gritted her teeth and unleashed her ultimate skill, "Blizzard," as ice shards rained down from the sky, damaging and slowing the remaining tree spirits.

However, this skill consumes a great deal of energy, and her mana was instantly depleted.

Xia Yue and Zhang Tian seized the opportunity to unleash their full power, and finally killed two more tree spirits when Liu Hui's health dropped to 30%.

When only the last elite tree spirit remained, the five of them were already panting heavily and in extremely poor condition.

"Is this...is this really elite difficulty?" Yang Mei slumped to the ground, her mana completely depleted.

With his health nearly depleted, Liu Hui managed to use his shield to block the tree spirit's attacks.

Each impact forced him to take a half-step back.

Li Xu cast "Healing Spell" three times in a row before stabilizing Liu Hui's health at around 40%.

His mana was also mostly depleted.

Finally, after a fierce battle, the last tree spirit fell.

After the battle ended, the five people felt no relief whatsoever. Instead, they looked at each other, their faces filled with confusion.

"How long did we fight just now?" Zhang Tian asked, panting.

Xia Yue glanced at the battle log: "One minute and seventeen seconds... In the past, it would take us at most half a minute to clear out these tree spirits."

"And my health almost dropped to zero," Liu Hui said with lingering fear. "I almost never needed healing when I played this dungeon before."

Li Xu's expression grew increasingly grim.

He crouched down to examine the tree spirit's corpse, then looked up at the four people: "What were your previous output data?"

Xia Yue recalled: "When I fight tree spirits, one arrow can deal an average of about 1000 damage, and a critical hit can reach 2000. Zhang Tian's dual swords deal about 500 damage per hit, and his skill damage is even higher."

"What just happened?" Li Xu asked.

Xia Yue pulled up the combat data and her face turned pale: "Average...455, critical hit only 910."

"I can't even get 240 damage per hit." Zhang Tian's voice also lowered.

Li Xu stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked at him with scrutiny: "In other words, your output has dropped by more than 50%."

"Could it be a problem with the equipment?" Yang Mei asked tentatively, "Or maybe I'm not in good form today?"

"All my equipment is level 20, excellent quality, and I just had it serviced yesterday," Xia Yue said, shaking her head.

Zhang Tian also checked his twin swords: "My equipment is fine too."

Li Xu was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "What buffs did Lin Yu give you when you were doing dungeons?"

The four of them were taken aback and looked at each other.

"He..." Xia Yue tried hard to recall, "He said he would give us pills, what were they called again..."

"Blood-Activating Pills and Spirit-Boosting Pills can restore health and mana."

"But this isn't something we actually eat; it's something given to us directly."

"So we don't know if we have these buffs on us."

"Is there anything else?" Li Xu pressed.

"It seems... there will be a phantom image of a pill furnace around us during battle, which can give us a shield," Liu Hui added.

"How much is the shield value?"

"How long does the buff last?"

"Which attribute should I upgrade?"

Li Xu kept asking questions.

The four fell silent again.

They really didn't know.

In the past, when they were doing dungeons, they only cared about how nice their damage numbers looked and how cool their skills were.

No one ever noticed when or what buff Lin Yu provided.

Anyway, your health will recover quickly when it gets low, your mana will be replenished quickly when it runs out, and your shield will regenerate when it disappears.

Everything was so natural, so natural that they took it for granted.

Li Xu took a deep breath, suppressing the irritation in his heart.

He now feels that the "strongest second-year team" that the butler found for him is somewhat undeserving of its reputation.

"Let's keep going," Li Xu finally said. "In the next area, let's play it safe."

The five men, having gathered their strength, slowly advanced deeper into the dense forest.

The second area is a swamp.

Five swamp crocodiles and two venomous flower fairies with ranged attacks lurk here, one of which will randomly transform into an elite monster.

Following the Dawn Squad's usual tactics, Liu Hui would gather all the monsters together at once.

Yang Mei controlled the area, while Xia Yue and Zhang Tian used area-of-effect skills to quickly clear the area.

"How do we fight?" Liu Hui asked Xia Yue.

Xia Yue hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Li Xu: "Brother Xu, what do you think?"

Li Xu observed the terrain and monster distribution, then shook his head and said, "If you pull too many monsters at once, with your output efficiency just now, the monster clearing speed will be too slow, and the front line will be under a lot of pressure."

"My suggestion is to deal with them in batches: first take care of the two crocodiles, then the flower demons, and finally clean up the rest."

"But that's too inefficient." Zhang Tian frowned. "We used to clear them out in one go."

"That was then." Li Xu's tone turned cold. "Six tree spirits almost wiped out your forces just now. Now there are eight monsters. Are you sure you can wipe them out in one go?"

Xia Yue bit her lip and finally decided, "Let's listen to Brother Xu and play it safe."

Liu was somewhat reluctant, but he still followed Li Xu's instructions and only attracted the two nearest swamp crocodiles.

The battle has begun again.

This time, with Li Xu's clear command, the battle proceeded much more smoothly.

The two crocodiles were quickly dealt with.

Next up is the Venom Flower Fairy—this ranged monster poses a significant threat to the back row and must be dealt with first.

However, another problem soon arose.

When Liu Hui went to the front to pull monsters, he made a mistake in his positioning, which alerted three crocodiles and two flower fairies at once.

One of the flower fairies is even an elite-level one.

"Watch out!" Li Xu shouted, but it was too late.

Five monsters pounced on Liu Hui at the same time.

The flower fairy's venom spray hit his face directly, causing continuous damage and a slowing effect.

"Help me!" Liu Hui cried out in panic, his hand holding the shield trembling.

Dying in the school's instance is punished by experiencing an extremely painful ordeal.

This was set up by the school to remind students how brutal the battle was.

Liu Hui didn't want to experience it.

Xia Yue and Zhang Tian frantically attacked, but their damage was still not enough to quickly eliminate the monster.

Yang Mei tried her best to control the situation, but her mana was being depleted very quickly, and even after taking drugs, she couldn't recover it.

Li Xu kept casting "healing spells," but Liu Hui's health points were still dwindling like water from a burst dam.

40%...30%...10%...

"Unleash your ultimate move!"

"Brother Xu, unleash your ultimate move!" Xia Yue said urgently.

Li Xu gritted his teeth and finally unleashed the Spirit Healer's ultimate skill—"Spirit Healer's Witch Dance".

He raised his hands high and began an ancient and mysterious dance movement.

Green light radiated outwards from him.

A semi-transparent green shield appeared on all teammates at the same time, and their health began to gradually recover.

In particular, Liu Hui's health bar finally stabilized and quickly recovered.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the four of them unleashed their full power and finally managed to defeat the five monsters with great difficulty.

As the last elite flower fairy fell, Li Xu's dance also came to an end.

Sweat beaded on his forehead; his mana was nearly depleted.

"How long is the cooldown for the ultimate skill?" Xia Yue asked cautiously.

"Half an hour," Li Xu said in a deep voice, his face extremely grim. "We're out of tricks up our sleeves."

A silence fell over the squad.

Liu Hui slumped to the ground, his heavy armor stained with swamp mud and monster blood.

Xia Yue and Zhang Tian were panting heavily, and Yang Mei's mana had been depleted multiple times, only recovering with the help of potions.

And this was only after they had finished the second area.

The entire instance has five areas, and there is a final boss.

"We..." Zhang Tian swallowed hard. "Should we continue?"

"We have to keep going," Xia Yue said through gritted teeth, but her voice no longer held the confidence it once had. "We'll get through this eventually, if we just take it slow."

Looking at his four so-called "top of the grade" teammates, Li Xu felt a strong sense of unease.

Their tactics were simplistic, their teamwork was basic, and their skill usage was arbitrary; they didn't resemble a mature team at all.

Liu Hui, who was in the front row, panicked while pulling monsters and accidentally attracted more targets.

If it were on the hard difficulty, they would have been wiped out by now.

And Yang Mei, she hasn't done any research on how to better control the situation.

Even though he had controlled four monsters, he still used his crowd control skill on the remaining one.

How can you possibly have enough mana if you keep using skills like this?

What puzzled him even more was how such a team managed to get first place in the grade.

Is it really as my father said, that the average level of Wujiang Vocational College has fallen to this level?

"We'll change tactics in the next area," Li Xu finally said. "Xia Yue will pull the monsters from a distance, and Liu Hui will taunt them when they get close."

"What if the monster charges at me and Liu can't catch up?" Xia Yue asked blankly.

Previously, when it was necessary to remotely pull monsters, Lin Yu would do it herself.

She has been well protected.

Li Xu was taken aback: "Wait...you guys haven't practiced this combination?"

The four looked at each other, their faces showing embarrassment.

Previously, Lin Yu handled all the complex tactical arrangements, positioning, and skill combos.

At specific locations, there will be projection marks made by Lin Yu.

He will clearly explain when to go to which place and what to do.

They only need to follow Lin Yu's instructions to easily pass the dungeon.

However, Lin Yu always directed the alchemy process while simultaneously refining pills.

Everyone thought he was too idle and embarrassed, so he took on the responsibility of command.

Commanding isn't difficult; they could handle it just as well.

Now that Lin Yu is gone, they realize that even teamwork requires Lin Yu's command to be effective.

"We..." Xia Yue's voice trailed off, "...it used to be Lin Yu who was in charge..."

"This guy, is he giving such detailed instructions?" Li Xu felt a headache coming on.

"Alright, follow my instructions." He rubbed his temples. "The next area is the Stone Giant Zone, with three rock giants..."

He began to meticulously plan the tactics, including everyone's positioning, skill release order, and focus fire targets.

The four listened attentively, but a sense of unfamiliar bewilderment lingered in their eyes.

They were used to being told what to do, and suddenly having to accept a tactical system that required them to think for themselves was a bit overwhelming.

"Do you understand?" Li Xu asked.

"I...I think I understand," Liu said uncertainly.

"Then let's go."

The ensuing battles were fought more cautiously and more slowly.

Each region takes two to three times longer than before, and every decision is carefully considered.

Li Xu gradually took over command, but his command style was completely different from Lin Yu's:

Lin Yu's command is meticulous and she adjusts it according to each person's habits and characteristics;

Li Xu's command leans more towards standardized tactics and lacks consideration for the individual characteristics of his teammates.

After all, it's only the first day, and he's not familiar with his teammates yet.

Moreover, he doesn't have the patience to go into detail.

This leads to various minor problems arising during the execution process:

Xia Yue was not used to the DPS position assigned by Li Xu, Zhang Tian was not used to the new timing of entry, Yang Mei's control rhythm was disrupted, and Liu Hui often made mistakes in pulling monsters.

But in any case, they are still making difficult progress.

The five were exhausted when the last monster in the fifth area fell.

"The BOSS area is just ahead." Xia Yue said hoarsely, looking at the ancient altar that was faintly visible in the distance.

In the past, they should have taken down the BOSS in one go and completed the dungeon.

But now...

"That's enough for today," Li Xu said, his face filled with exhaustion and disappointment. "We've run out of potions; going to fight the boss now would just be suicide."

No one objected.

The five silently used the dungeon to escape the scroll and returned to the entrance in a flash of white light.

Stepping out of the instance, the sunlight outside was a bit dazzling.

Other teams were also coming and going in the training area, their laughter, the clanging of equipment, and the sounds of skill demonstrations all mixed together, creating a vibrant atmosphere.

But the five members of the Dawn Squad were all dejected.

"Today..." Xia Yue tried to say something to boost morale, but swallowed the words back.

Li Xu glanced at her, then at the other three, and finally said, "Let's continue the practice at the same time tomorrow."

"I hope you can study the dungeon guide in advance and familiarize yourselves with the basic tactics."

"And most importantly, improve your skills."

After saying that, he turned and left without even mentioning the "hot pot and clubbing" incident.

Watching Li Xu's departing figure, the four of them stood there, motionless for a long time.

"We..." Zhang Tian finally broke the silence, "What exactly happened to us today?"

"Could it be because of Lin Yu..." Yang Mei whispered. "Could the impact of his leaving the team be more serious than we thought?"

Xia Yue bit her lip, and the thought flashed through her mind again: Was kicking Lin Yu out a mistake?

But the next second, she dismissed the idea.

No, it's impossible.

Lin Yu was only a C-level alchemist, while Li Xu was a B-level spiritual physician with a distinguished family background and abundant resources.

In the long run, Li Xu will definitely be a greater help to the team.

Today's poor performance was simply due to everyone being out of form and not being used to Li Xu's commanding style.

Once everyone gets to know each other and works together, everything will be fine.

Most definitely.

"Cheer up, everyone!" Xia Yue forced herself to cheer up. "When we get back, everyone should study the strategy carefully. Tomorrow we're going to show Li Xu what we're made of!"

The three nodded reluctantly, but the confusion and unease in their eyes were impossible to hide.