17: Chapter 17, let's do this too!

As Su Xiaoxiao finished speaking, a new system notification immediately popped up on Chen Xi's student wristband.

【Ding! A temporary team joining request from 'Su Xiaoxiao' has been detected. Do you accept?】

Chen Xi clicked "Accept" on the light screen without hesitation.

【Ding! 'Su Xiaoxiao' has temporarily joined the team. Current team size: 3/5.】

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Seeing that Su Xiaoxiao had officially joined the team, Li Murou immediately stepped forward excitedly. She reached out her small hand, her deep eyes sparkling with a sincere and enthusiastic light.

She felt genuinely happy that this legendary figure, whom she could only look up to on the school's prestigious rankings in the past, had become her teammate.

Facing Li Murou's enthusiasm, a rare, soft smile appeared on Su Xiaoxiao's cold face.

She reached out and shook Li Murou's hand gently.

"Hello, the pleasure is mine."

After a simple welcoming ceremony, Chen Xi clapped his hands, drawing the attention of both girls.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, let's not waste any more time."

With a wave of his hand, he said spiritedly:

"Let's go!"

Afterward, Chen Xi led the two figures—one lively and one quiet—straight through the administration building toward the trial grounds located on the other side of the campus.

The trial grounds of Jiangcheng Professional University were a massive open-air plaza.

In the center of the plaza stood dozens of giant portals emitting a faint blue light.

In front of the portals, there were rows of virtual light screens where Professionals could select the dungeon they wished to enter.

Chen Xi brought the two girls to one of the light screens.

Scrolling across the screen was information for hundreds of dungeons.

Chen Xi carefully began to select their target.

Su Xiaoxiao's hidden class advancement was the Ice Thunder Battle Method.

This meant that the class core card created for her must contain both powerful ice-attribute and lightning-attribute materials to be perfectly compatible with her.

After witnessing the effects of the S-rank class core card embedded by Li Murou, Chen Xi's standards had been raised infinitely.

Any class core card he made in the future had to be S-rank or higher!

Therefore, those common, low-tier materials could no longer catch his eye.

This time, when running a dungeon, he had to choose one that could drop S-rank advancement materials!

Chen Xi's gaze swept rapidly across the light screen, passing by one dungeon after another.

Finally, his eyes rested on a single dungeon.

【Frost Dragons Lair (Lv.20)】

【Difficulty: Hell】

【Recommended Level: Lv.20 - Lv.30】

【Recommended Players: 5】

【Possible Drops: Frost Young Dragon Scale (B-rank), Frost Dragon Crystal (A-rank), heart of the frost dragon (S-rank)...】

heart of the frost dragon! S-rank!

Seeing these words, Chen Xi's eyes immediately lit up!

This item would definitely allow him to synthesize a high-quality ice-type base card for Su Xiaoxiao!

Only S-rank materials were worthy of her SSS-rank potential!

Consequently, Chen Xi turned his head to look at Su Xiaoxiao and Li Murou beside him:

"Found it. Let's run the Frost Dragons Lair."

"Frost Dragons Lair? That Lv.20 Hell-difficulty dungeon?"

Upon hearing the name, a look of undisguisable surprise instantly appeared on Su Xiaoxiao's cold face.

In this world, there were two core conditions for judging the overall difficulty of a dungeon.

One was the dungeon level, which represented the average level of the monsters inside.

The other was the dungeon's difficulty rating.

Dungeon difficulty was divided into four levels from low to high: Normal, Hard, Hell, and Nightmare.

The higher the difficulty, the stronger the monsters within the dungeon, but correspondingly, the rewards obtained after clearing it would be better.

In fact, Chen Xi had originally wanted to challenge the highest difficulty, the Nightmare-level dungeon.

However, this was the first time the three of them were officially teaming up.

They were still completely unfamiliar with each other's combat styles and skill synchronization.

Furthermore, the error tolerance of a Nightmare-level dungeon was extremely low.

Added to the fact that they were challenging it above their level, any minor mistake in coordination could easily lead to the serious consequence of a total party wipe.

Therefore, he decided to settle for the next best thing and choose a Hell-level dungeon first to test the waters and break in the team.

"Just the three of us... can we clear it?"

Hearing Chen Xi's choice, Su Xiaoxiao furrowed her brows slightly and voiced her doubt.

A Lv.20 Hell-level dungeon—this difficulty was one of the regular dungeons she often ran back when she was in the Nightfall Squad.

However, back then, they were a full team of five people.

Moreover, everyone in the team was a top-tier Professional hailed as a genius.

But now, this bizarre team with two supports and one damage dealer... could they really pass?

Chen Xi looked at her eyes filled with suspicion and responded without hesitation:

"Don't worry, I've got it covered."

Choosing this dungeon was naturally something Chen Xi had carefully considered.

On one hand, it was, of course, to farm that S-rank 【heart of the frost dragon】 and lay the most solid foundation for Su Xiaoxiao's class core card.

On the other hand, it was also because, according to the research he had done beforehand, although this dungeon was extremely difficult, its process was relatively simple, the scenery was not complex, and there were not many flashy puzzles or detours.

With Li Murou's current mental energy reserves, it was sufficient to support her in covering the entire run with control skills, so there wouldn't be a situation where she ran out of mana midway.

Meeting the gazes of the two beautiful figures, Chen Xi confirmed once more:

"Are you ready? If you're ready, we're setting off."

"Mm." Li Murou nodded heavily.

"Let's go." Su Xiaoxiao also replied. Although she still had doubts in her heart, she chose to trust Chen Xi's judgment.

"Let's go!"

Chen Xi's finger tapped lightly on the virtual light screen.

The next second, ripples appeared one after another on the portal in front of them, constantly emitting a chill from within.

The three of them exchanged a glance, leaped forward, and jumped into the portal.

...

Meanwhile.

Lin Feng, accompanied by the four members of the Shenfeng Squad, also arrived at the school's trial grounds.

The crushing defeat in the arena just now had caused everyone to harbor a bellyful of anger, and they desperately needed to find a place to vent it.

Lin Feng, in particular, was eager to prove the strength of their team to Yan Zidong.

Just as they arrived at the portal area, the sharp-eyed Zhang Xinyu happened to see the scene of the three of them jumping into the portal.

She hurriedly tugged on Lin Feng's sleeve and pointed at the ice-blue portal that had not yet fully dissipated, saying:

"Captain Lin, look! I think I saw Brother Xi! It looks like they just entered a dungeon!"

"Oh?"

A hint of surprise flashed across Lin Feng's face.

He subconsciously raised his head and looked at the huge real-time information panel above the portal area.

Sure enough, in one corner of the panel, he found a piece of information that had just refreshed.

【Team: Nirvana】

【Current Dungeon: Frost Dragons Lair (Lv.20) (Hell Difficulty)】

【Current Team Size: (3/5)】

Looking at this information, the corners of Lin Feng's mouth couldn't help but curl into a playful arc.

Three people?

Where did this Chen Xi find some misfits to act as teammates?

And...

Three people, daring to challenge a Lv.20 Hell-level dungeon?

Had Chen Xi lost his mind?

Judging from the performance just now, his support teammate indeed had abnormal control abilities, but zero damage output.

Challenging a Hell-difficulty dungeon while above their level—could they really do it with just the few of them?

"What dungeon are we running?"

Standing below the light screen, Lin Feng turned to ask the others.

However, before anyone else could answer, Yan Zidong, who had been silent all this time, spoke up first.

His voice was cold and filled with unarguable decisiveness.

"We're running the Frost Dragons Lair too!"