Free Web NovelChapter 118: Chapter 103: Bexilla Ravel
Because he was killing them slowly to grind his Skill Proficiency, a few Goblins still managed to escape the settlement despite the chaos.
Lin Mo watched their retreating figures and decided it was a good opportunity to test his Fireball Technique, which had just reached Level 3.
He raised his hand, and a raging flame gathered above his palm. With one more point in Magic Power and the skill upgrade, the Fireball before him was clearly much stronger than before.
Lin Mo hurled the Fireball in his hand, striking a fleeing Goblin with great precision.
A burst of fire erupted. The Goblin shrieked, its entire back charred black. It fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and then went still.
[Fireball Technique] Skill Proficiency +1!
’Finally, I can kill the lowest-level Demons with a single spell. This will make grinding Skill Proficiency much more convenient later on.’
A pleased look appeared on Lin Mo’s face as he consecutively threw another three Fireball Techniques.
After using those four Fireball Techniques, the Magic Power he had just gained was nearly depleted again.
A Mage’s lack of mana was a major problem.
’I wonder if there are any potions that can quickly restore Magic Power?’
He had never faced this particular problem before, so Lin Mo hadn’t really looked into it.
Without Magic Power, Lin Mo was ironically freed from his restrictions. He picked up his Wolf Bone Sword and began to hunt down the remaining Goblins with all his might.
With his current Agility as high as 20 points—more than four times that of an ordinary Goblin—it was difficult for them to escape his grasp, even as they scattered in all directions.
The only shame was that he didn’t have many skills left to practice, so he could only work on [Invisibility] and [Sword Storing and Continuous Slash] along the way.
Fortunately, although the amount of Skill Proficiency gained was small, it wasn’t zero. After a round of slaughter, he had still made some progress.
Among them, [Invisibility] had already accumulated a lot of Skill Proficiency, so it smoothly leveled up to Level 4.
And his newly acquired skill, [Sword Storing and Continuous Slash], also rose to Level 2.
A series of messages appeared before his eyes, but Lin Mo had no time to read them. The two sub-adult Mutated Goblins had already gotten a bit far, and if he didn’t give chase now, they might get away.
It was fine if a few ordinary Goblins escaped, but he couldn’t let these two mutated ones get away.
Lin Mo quickly pursued them, noticing that his speed had increased another notch.
’It seems the second attribute-granting threshold for Excellence Level Skills is precisely Level 4.’
Thanks to this, Lin Mo easily caught up to them and killed them one by one.
[Invisibility] Skill Proficiency +3
[Sword Storing and Continuous Slash] Skill Proficiency +3
Compared to the 5 points he received before, the Skill Proficiency gained from an Excellence Level Skill for killing a sub-adult Mutated Goblin had also decreased by 2 points.
However, monsters at Level 1 or higher were unaffected. For instance, the Adult Mutant Goblin from earlier still gave the same 8 points as before.
With that, the task of clearing out the Goblin Settlement was considered complete.
Only a few Goblins had escaped, which wouldn’t have much of an impact.
Oh, right...
Lin Mo returned to the settlement’s location. He looked at the Goblin young huddled together and, without hesitation, smashed a Fireball Technique into them, burning them all to death.
’Not a single one of these evil seedlings can be spared.’
To his pleasant surprise, this group of Goblin young actually added 1 point of Skill Proficiency to his Fireball Technique.
So, he waited a short while for his Magic Power to recover and then ground out a few more points of Skill Proficiency for his Ice Cone Skill.
It probably wouldn’t be so easy to raise Fireball Technique to the Full Level of 5. Next, Lin Mo planned to raise Ice Cone Skill to Level 3 first to get that 1 point of Magic Power.
The battle was over, but Lin Mo’s work was not.
The ground was covered in Goblin corpses, and he had to cut the ears off every single one...
This was another downside of going solo.
Putting aside the filth, mess, and stench, the key thing was that it was just really troublesome.
Before, as the main force of his team due to his strength, Lin Mo hadn’t had to do this kind of dirty work for some time.
It took him a good twenty minutes to collect his spoils. By then, it was nearly evening, and time to head back.
Lin Mo remained cautious and didn’t let his guard down on the road. Only after leaving Loran Forest did he relax slightly, turning his attention to the notifications he hadn’t had time to examine during the fight.
"Skill [Sword Storing and Continuous Slash] Lv1 (10/10) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Sword Storing and Continuous Slash] Lv2 (3/20)"
There was nothing special about this; it was just an ordinary skill upgrade. The next part was the main event.
"Skill [Invisibility] Lv3 (40/40) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Invisibility] Lv4 (3/100)"
"Gained Attribute Points: Agility +3!"
Just as he’d thought, raising Invisibility to Level 4 had just increased his Agility by 3 points. This brought his Basic Agility to 17, which was also close to the benchmark for a Level 2 Assassin.
And besides that...
Please select an Evolutionary Direction—
Evolutionary Path 1: Swiftness I: Movement speed increased by 10% while in Invisibility.
Evolutionary Path 2: Endurance II: Invisibility duration extended by 30%.
Just as he’d thought, Lin Mo’s earlier guess had now been confirmed.
After raising Invisibility to Level 4, he had gained a second opportunity to choose a Skill Evolutionary Direction.
Last time, he had chosen "Endurance," which increased the duration by 20%, or 1 second. But this time...
’Level 2 Endurance only adds 10% more than Level 1—a mere 0.5 seconds. It doesn’t seem as good as choosing Swiftness to increase my movement speed.’
Lin Mo decisively chose Evolutionary Path 1.
...
By the time he returned to Silver Stream City, the sky had already darkened.
Lin Mo first went to the Association to turn in his task.
"Task number E4485 has been completed. Your current task count is 8 E Level Tasks and 1 D Level Task."
It was Lena again. She was just about to get off work, so after he submitted the task, they walked back to the inn together.
The base reward for the task was 10 Gold Coins, plus 3 silver coins for each of the 85 Goblins, 1 gold coin for each of the 2 sub-adult Mutated Goblins, and 4 gold coins for the one Adult Mutant Goblin.
All together, Lin Mo’s earnings from this task were 17 gold and 55 silver coins, bringing his total assets to 174 gold and 59 silver coins.
In the past, Lin Mo wouldn’t have known what to do with all this money. But now...
Recalling the Mithril Gloves that Flora had told him about—starting at a price of 800 Gold Coins—Lin Mo felt a headache coming on.
At this rate of earnings, he would have to complete about forty more tasks just to afford a pair of Mithril Gloves.
Moreover, after prolonged combat, the Wolf Bone Sword in his hand was also showing some wear. He wasn’t in Roland Town anymore, so he couldn’t get it repaired by Edgar for free. Besides, some of the damage was irreversible; maintenance and repairs might not even help.
After a few more tasks, he would have to replace the Sword in his hands...
’Sure enough, there’s no one in this world who doesn’t need money,’ he thought. ’Ordinary people earn money to cover food and drink. Regular Adventurers earn money for weapons and equipment. But Mages have it rough—not only are their weapons countless times more expensive than others, but they also have to save up for Elemental Potions and Skill Scrolls, which are more expensive and rarer than those for other Professions.’
’It’s not easy being a cool Mage!’
Compared to these problems, even the age-old dilemma of what to eat for dinner seemed friendly and approachable.
He led Lena back to the inn. The inn did offer meals in the evening, but they were rather ordinary, with a monotonous menu.
Unlike breakfast, for which he had low standards, Lin Mo wanted to eat a little better for dinner.
He was indeed short on money, but he wasn’t lacking the few Copper Coins needed for a good meal. Adventuring was hard enough; he should treat himself a little better in his daily life.
So, Lin Mo planned to eat out.
Back at his room, just as he was about to push the door open, the door to the adjacent room suddenly swung open. Ali darted out and came right up to him.
"Where did you go?"
The Little Wolf Maiden had a resentful look on her face, exactly like a pet left at home when its owners go to visit relatives for the New Year.
"Didn’t the captain say we were taking a few days off? I just went and did a task by myself."
Lin Mo was still a little unaccustomed to Ali’s sudden proximity and instinctively placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"Why didn’t you ask me to come along? I can help..."
After saying that, Ali added, "For free."
Lin Mo gave a helpless smile. She could say that, but he couldn’t actually let her work for free. Besides, it was more convenient for him to be alone, especially for grinding Skill Proficiency.
"It was just a simple little task, I could handle it myself... By the way, want to get dinner together?"
Lin Mo changed the subject.
"Okay!"
Hearing this, Ali’s attention was indeed captured, and she nodded repeatedly.
The restaurant Flora had recommended was pretty good and had plenty of dishes they hadn’t tried yet, so they decided to just go there.
After the meal, Ali insisted on paying, and Lin Mo didn’t argue with her.
’It wasn’t necessary to argue over such a small amount of money. I’ll just get it next time...’
Next, it was time to think about tomorrow’s task.
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At night, in Silver Stream City’s City Lord’s Mansion, Flora followed a servant into a spacious reception hall.
"This place is still the same as it was a few years ago..."
Flora glanced at the table before her, which was clearly quite old, and at the tableware on it, which, though polished to a shine, had a noticeable little chip.
"You are as frugal as ever, Lady Ravel."
She looked up at the elegant, smiling lady.
"I simply dislike waste."
Bexilla said this while making a "please, sit" gesture. A servant to the side brought out the dishes for the evening banquet. It was a lavish spread, but all of it consisted of rather common fare, with no particularly expensive or exotic delicacies.
"How have you been lately, Little Flora?"
"I was doing alright... before this incident."
Before coming here, she had already written a letter to Lady Ravel, telling her what had happened recently.
Upon hearing this, Bexilla’s expression darkened. "Regarding this matter, I will do my best to help you... The Lawrence Clan has been a little too quiet lately. Behind this tranquility, there might be some unknown conspiracy brewing."
As she finished speaking, her expression softened slightly. "But let’s talk about these things later. For tonight’s dinner, we can chat about more pleasant topics."
Flora nodded and looked around. "Where’s Feney?"
"She went to the church and hasn’t returned yet..."
Bexilla seemed to recall something. "Oh, right. Can you tell me about that Adventurer Squad you brought from Roland Town?"
