Keep attacking girls and try not to be killed by them

(The advantage in movement speed is on our side.)

The speed advantage is the important guarantee for Jiang Ran to dare to challenge alone this time. If the tree monsters can run very fast, Jiang Ran will have to give up the plan and run away directly.

But even if the tree monsters cannot move quickly, the attacks they launch from underground with vines and roots should not be underestimated.

Jiang Ran sighed, if he hadn't been able to see the hint of the attack intention, he and Xiao Motorcycle would probably have become fertilizer by now.

(Four dryads... According to the plan, there's still a chance for a fight.)

When the smoke cleared, Jiang Ran rode his scooter carefully back to the place where the battle had just taken place. He found that the tree monsters had disguised themselves as dead trees again. If Jiang Ran did not have the ability to identify, he would definitely not be able to tell which one was the tree monster among this large number of dead trees.

(So ​​that's how they hunt, waiting for the prey to appear.)

Jiang Ran now understood that these tree monsters would judge the surrounding situation. As long as there were weak and alone prey, they would take the initiative to attack. If there were a large number of prey, they would quietly pretend to be dead trees and wait for the opportunity to come.

This seemingly clever hunting method was exactly what Jiang Ran wanted.

·

The range of Jiang Ran's bow and arrow is longer than the tree demon's vine attack, which is the basis for him to continue fighting tonight.

As the distance between him and the tree monsters continued to shorten, Jiang Ran began to prepare to attack, but at this moment, he noticed some strange little things on the ground.

(...fir seed bomb?)

The spherical fruits fell to the ground in scattered pieces. Jiang Ran looked at the description of the thing, which read:

"The fir tree seeds are endowed with magical powers. When subjected to pressure or impact, they explode. The power of a single seed is equivalent to that of a grenade."

Jiang Ran sighed, thinking that the identification ability was really thoughtful, and actually used the concept of the earth world to illustrate.

"Little motorcycle! Whoosh!"

Jiang Ran stopped his horse and said, "There is a minefield ahead and no passage is allowed."

However, it was not a big problem because the tree monsters had already entered Jiang Ran's shooting range.

·

Jiang Ran took a deep breath to relax his nerves. If he had not been careful enough tonight and had not had the ability to support him, he and Xiao Moto would have died three times.

During a battle, one must be focused while maintaining a certain degree of relaxation, which requires certain skills. Jiang Ran's current state is just right.

(Now that I know both skills, it's my turn now.)

Jiang Ran opened the oil barrel and dipped the arrowheads of 40 arrows into the oil.

Jiang Ran gave these arrows special treatment before setting off. He wrapped cotton around the arrowheads.

Now the cotton is full of oil, just waiting for Jiang Ran to turn the arrow into a rocket!

[img=675,1200]https://rss.sfacg.com/web/novel/images/UploadPic/2022/11/98a629a2-b3b5-4a39-ba7e-237b44a4945a.jpg[/img]

4.14 - Triumph

(Now is the time to witness the results of the experiment...!)

Jiang Ran had conducted an experiment in Sunny Town using the "broken roots of the fir tree demon." The wood of the tree demon could also be ignited. Now with the help of combustible materials such as oil, there was no reason why it couldn't be ignited.

Under the moonlight, Jiang Ran took out the flint and lit the first arrow.

There is no wind tonight, the terrain is open and the view is clear. The enemy stays within the range and does not move, making them a perfect living target.

——『Combat Class Skill "Focus - Lv2" has been activated and is currently in effect...』

Jiang Ran shot an arrow, and the fire drew a beautiful trajectory in the night sky, and then landed on the crown of the fir tree demon.

(Got it!)

But strangely, the fire flickered a few times and then went out.

Jiang Ran was a little surprised, so he fired three rockets in a row. This time, the tree demon's crown was actually set on fire!

Just when Jiang Ran thought he had succeeded, for some reason, the ignited flame only burned in a small area for a while and then gradually went out.

(Strange, could it be that the leaves and branches contain too much water?)

Jiang Ran felt that this was unlikely. First of all, this was a wasteland and very dry. Secondly, there were not many green leaves on the crowns of these tree monsters, and the branches were dry and cracked, so it was unlikely to be a problem of water.

Instead, it was the unnatural change in the tree demon's magic value that made Jiang Ran suspicious.

(Why did the dryad's mana decrease even though it didn't move at all...?)

Jiang Ran saw very clearly that every time he set the tree canopy on fire, the tree demon's magic power began to decrease, but its vitality, which should have decreased somewhat, remained unchanged.

(Could it be…?)

Jiang Ran once again shot three arrows in a row to set the tree demon on fire. Then, whenever the flames began to weaken, he would immediately shoot new arrows to rekindle the fire!

After two minutes of this arson relay, the tree demon's magic power was exhausted! Immediately afterwards, a raging fire ignited its body!

——『Combat class skill "Focus - Lv2" has been disabled』

(So ​​that's how it is!)

After losing its magic power, the tree demon's health points dropped rapidly. Unable to bear the pain of the burning flames, it could no longer continue to disguise itself as a dead tree. It uprooted itself, crawled and rolled on the ground, trying to put out the flames on its body.

Unfortunately, this was in vain. Not long after, the fierce fire burned away all the health of the tree monster, leaving only its corpse still burning.

——『Successfully killed "Fir Dryad - Lv43", Class Experience +0, Current Experience 4200/4200』

When the other fir tree spirits saw their companions being burned to death, they no longer hid, pulled out their roots from the ground and began to move.

Jiang Ran rode on his horse and watched from afar, taking in all the movements of the tree monsters.

Of the remaining three fir tree monsters, some wanted to escape, while others wanted to fight Jiang Ran to the death. However, based on their movement speed, which was almost the same as that of ordinary people walking, the result would be death whether they escaped or fought.

"Drive~ little motorcycle!"

Jiang Ran spurred his horse into a gallop. Leveraging his horse's speed advantage, he never let the fir tree demons get close to him, until...

Until they were all burned to charcoal.

·

·

——『Successfully killed "Fir Dryad - Lv41", Class Experience +0, Current Experience 4200/4200』

——『Successfully killed "Fir Dryad - Lv39", Class Experience +0, Current Experience 4200/4200』

——『Successfully killed "Fir Dryad - Lv42", Class Experience +0, Current Experience 4200/4200』

After all four fir tree monsters became corpses, Jiang Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In this encounter, it seemed that Jiang Ran was unilaterally killing the tree monster, but if he was not careful, the situation could be reversed at any time.

Because the combat profession level experience has been fully utilized, the experience points of the four fir tree sprites were wasted regrettably.

But Jiang Ran didn't care, because he gained something more valuable in this battle.

Real combat experience is far more important than a numerical level.

Tonight, Jiang Ran defeated the strong with the weak alone, and the feeling of victory made him feel excited.

He hadn't felt this way for a long time. The last time he felt this way was when he used "Useless Man" to challenge "Valkyrie Malenia" in "Old Man Ring".

Looking back now, Jiang Ran realized that when he played various games before, didn’t the protagonist always defeat the strong with the weak despite the huge numerical gap?

However, Jiang Ran's situation is much more dangerous than the characters in the game.

In the game, if a character dies, he can start over and practice how to fight the big boss countless times. But if Jiang Ran dies, there will be no next chance.

After this battle, Jiang Ran realized the importance of mobility. The key to defeating the strong with the weak lies in extremely strong displacement ability (dodge ability). In extreme cases, even if you can't win, you can choose to escape.

But now, apart from his warhorse "Little Motorcycle", he does not have excellent mobility ability, which is a shortcoming that he urgently needs to make up for.

"Thank you for your hard work, little motorcycle."

Jiang Ran got off the horse and let Xiao Moto eat some grass and rest.

Little Motorcycle's qualities as a warhorse are truly extraordinary. Even when it was fighting the monster head-on just now, it was not frightened and ran around uncontrollably. It is a good partner worthy of trust.

From the remains of the fir tree monsters, Jiang Ran dug out four magic cores that were not burned by the fire.

In addition, he also picked up two thick branches that were not burned by the fire. He felt that they should be the essence of the fir tree demon, so he took them back with him. Maybe he could find a weapons shop to make a new hunting bow.

During the final stages of the fight, a group of striped hyenas were attracted by the firelight and came over, growling softly as they wanted to eat Jiang Ran and the motorcycle as a midnight snack.

Jiang Ran didn't hesitate and used his last three rockets to kill two of them, easily scaring away the pack of striped hyenas.

——『Successfully killed the "Striped Hyena", career experience +100, current experience value 650/600』

——『If the upgrade conditions are met, "Orion-Lv2" will automatically upgrade to "Orion-Lv3"』

At this point, Jiang Ran’s hunting tonight came to an end.

·

·

The next day, Jiang Ran took some sleep to recover his magic power, and it was already past ten in the morning when he arrived at the Quest Guild.

Many reward hunters were still discussing the commission from the wasteland tree demon in the hall, but they didn't know that the tree demon had been hunted down by Jiang Ran overnight.

"Hey, don't bother trying. Wait until my brother Nasar comes back. We can take care of this kind of stuff in minutes."

"Yes, if Nassar hadn't gone to Gude Town, this tree demon wouldn't have been able to survive in the wasteland for so long."

"I really want to learn the skills of hunting monsters from Brother Nassar if I have the chance..."

The reward hunters were all talking about a man named "Nasar", but Jiang Ran didn't care.

He walked straight to the front desk with the "Magic Core of the Fir Tree Spirit" in his arms, and was somewhat surprised to notice that Emilia also seemed quite interested in the man named Nassar.

"Emilia."

Jiang Ran put a cloth bag on the front desk and made a "hush" gesture to Emilia.

"Don't let anyone know it was me. Also, tell the branch chief to meet at the usual place in an hour."

Emilia had a rare look of confusion on her face. She was about to confirm with Mr. Banning what was going on, but Banning just walked away without looking back.

When Emilia confirmed what was in the cloth bag, she was so surprised that she immediately ran to call the branch chief.

4.15 - Oleg's unexpected surprise (plus more)

In the branch director's office on the second floor of the Task Union, Oleg was sitting at his desk with a frown on his face.

Oleg originally wanted to ask the mayor for help regarding the tree demon appearing in the Sangbei Wasteland.

If Sunny Town is willing to send out a patrol team of about 20 people, and the Task Union also organizes 20 to 30 people, then it should be possible to complete the search of the Sangbei Wasteland within a day and catch and eliminate the tree monster.

However, because Oleg had not given the mayor face in the matter of "trial management" before, he was rejected twice this time.

Regarding "Trial Management", the mayor proposed an idea, which is to charge a fee for the "Level 1 Difficulty White Trial". This will generate income for the town, and secondly, it will solve the problem of "White Trials are hard to come by, while Yellow, Orange, Red and Purple Trials are rampant."

Oleg disagreed with the plan proposed by the mayor. He thought that this would force the poor to death and that this should never be done... So the two of them became enemies.

Oleg's current idea is that since he can't gather enough people to conduct a carpet search, he can only wait for "Nasar" to come back, let him take the risk and go to the wilderness alone as bait to lure out the tree monster, and then let the other reward hunters in ambush rush in to eliminate the tree monster.

The reason why Nassar had to be chosen was because Nassar was the reward hunter in Sunny Town whose strength was second only to Oleg. At the age of 26, he was already a level 36 swordsman.

Considering that Oleg is too old to fight fiercely, Nassar is actually the strongest fighter in Sunny Town.

Only in this way can we ensure that the person serving as the "bait" will not die.

——(Nasar should be back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... I hope the dryads don't reproduce too quickly...)

“Branch Chief…!”

Just when Oleg was worried, a golden light walked in quickly from outside the door. It turned out to be Emilia.

"What's wrong Emilia? You're out of breath."

"It's... it's about... the Dryad's... commission..."

Emilia put a cloth bag on the table, then turned around and closed the door of the room.

"What kind of magic cores are these?" Oleg opened the bag and took out the contents. Based on his experience, he could tell that these four spheres should be magic cores of second-level monsters, but what exactly they were still needed to be determined by an appraiser.

"It's the magic core of a dryad, a fir tree demon."

Emilia took out an appraisal report and handed it to Oleg. Oleg took it in disbelief and read it three times before he was sure that he was not mistaken.