Volume One: Hell-Level Lord World, Chapter 132: Chen Gu's Diligent Synthesis

With the new tavern, Chen Gu gained six new heroes. Unlike Zurich and the others who came before, these six varied in quality. Among them, four were of green quality, one was blue, and one was purple. Chen Gu did not look down on them based on their quality; instead, he made arrangements according to their individual characteristics.

The blue-quality hero was assigned to the Forest Garden to serve as an assembly hero. He would be primarily responsible for the construction and maintenance of the buildings within the Forest Garden. This assignment was made because his innate talent was in construction, which not only increased building speed but also allowed him to gain experience and level up through construction and maintenance tasks. Despite being only level 1, Chen Gu immediately placed him in the Forest Garden's assembly.

The four green-quality heroes were not as fortunate; Chen Gu sent them straight to work. Whether it was the legions or the city, there was a shortage of manpower everywhere. Chen Gu was eager to make one person do the work of several, so he would not let them idle.

As for the purple-quality hero, Chen Gu gave him an opportunity to lead a team alongside Kebas to clear out the undead near Changfeng Territory. If he could prove his worth in battle, he would become a member of the new legion. As for what position he might eventually hold, that would depend on his performance during this period.

In the days that followed, Chen Gu spent his time constantly synthesizing this and that. He adjusted his strategy, not setting out to create any specific type of unit, but rather synthesizing whatever came to mind. Once a unit was created, he would have his heroes evaluate whether it was usable and whether it had the potential to be deployed on the battlefield on a large scale. If no one wanted it, Chen Gu would not synthesize it in bulk, no matter how good the stats appeared.

Thanks to his efforts, many new unit types appeared under his command. Simultaneously, his heroes began to develop appropriate tactics for these new units. Soon, the first new hero completed the reorganization of his troops. This hero was one of the four green-quality ones. His talent was actually quite mediocre, and at the start, he only led three squads of Wood Elves, totaling just over 300 soldiers. Dissatisfied with this outcome, he was the most active participant whenever Chen Gu performed syntheses, and all the Wood Elves were drawn from his ranks. Consequently, he was the one to utilize the new units created.

Thus, he now possessed a batch of new elves. These were not the standard elven professions like Sword Dancers, Archers, or Druids, nor were they high-end units like Pegasus Riders or Huntresses. Instead, they were a type never before seen among elves: Phantom Elves. This was an idea Chen Gu had stumbled upon—using Phantasm spells on Wood Elves and then synthesizing the phantoms with the elves. Because the phantoms were essentially one with the Wood Elves, the success rate of the synthesis was remarkably high. The resulting Phantom Elves appeared no different from ordinary Wood Elves, but as they moved, three to five identical phantoms would appear around them. These phantoms possessed combat capabilities, and it was impossible for an ordinary observer to distinguish the real from the false. Furthermore, as the Phantom Elf grew, the number of phantoms they could manifest increased. Additionally, Phantom Elves could take on secondary professions; those with talent could become Archers, Sword Dancers, or Druids without losing the phantom effect.

The creation of the Phantom Elves opened up a new line of thinking for Chen Gu, and he decided to form a Phantom Legion. The green-quality elven hero, named Thor, was so focused on Chen Gu’s synthesis work that he even volunteered himself for a synthesis formula upon discovering the potential of the Phantom Elves. This touched Chen Gu, who promised that Thor would be the first hero of the Phantom Legion. As for whether he would be a squad leader or something else, that would depend on his future growth. One thing Chen Gu could guarantee, however, was that the elven soldiers under Thor would be the first to undergo synthesis.

With the success of the Phantom Elves, Chen Gu ventured quite far down the path of illusions. Since he had mastered Phantasm spells—capable of mimicking even carrion beetles and floods—other illusions were easily within his grasp. After achieving the powerful Phantom Elf unit, he synthesized small creatures like Flower Sprites, Fairies, and Wood Sprites, and later even creatures like Pegasi and Unicorns. He even toyed with the idea of creating a phantom city.

Ultimately, he reined in his impulses and did not follow that path to its end, as he had stumbled upon a new synthesis strategy. If the Phantom Elves represented addition, his new approach was based on subtraction. Normally, Chen Gu would not have chosen this route, but it was highly effective for enhancing the combat power of his soldiers, often raising their tier with a single synthesis. This idea was inspired by the Hydra. Although the Hydra's combat performance was lackluster, its level was genuine, and no one would deny that it was a high-tier unit.

Chen Gu first applied this to his Carrion Vines, transforming a three-headed vine into an eighteen-tendril version. His first new unit using this method was the Fairy—those creatures with butterfly wings. By synthesizing three together, he created a Greater Fairy. While the number of wings remained the same, phantom butterflies began to circle around the Greater Fairy. Each additional phantom butterfly doubled the Greater Fairy's combat power, and each Fairy synthesized into the unit added one more butterfly. This became one of Chen Gu's primary synthesis strategies for the coming period.

He followed a rigorous process: synthesizing individual soldiers, then their nests, and finally conducting bulk synthesis to form legions. By the time Chen Gu finished his work, seven days had passed.