Free Web NovelChapter 149: Chapter 120: Bull Chief
Considering her status and family’s wealth, Lin Mo asked, a little uncertain.
"Yes."
Feney nodded. "It was a gift from my mother for my 16th birthday."
"..."
’It must be nice to be rich.’
Lin Mo couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, ultimately holding back the outrageous question, ’Is your mom looking to adopt a son?’
"About how much is this Magic Staff worth?"
Lin Mo was curious. A pair of gloves made of Mithril cost 800-1000 gold coins, and this Magic Staff clearly used far more material than gloves.
"Around 25 Crystal Coins? I’m not really sure..."
Feney’s eyes held the sort of vacant confusion unique to a pampered young lady.
Crystal Coins, 2,500 gold coins.
"Hiss—!"
Lin Mo sucked in a sharp breath. And to think she used such an expensive item to bonk Goblins on the head.
Although, given Mithril’s sturdiness, there was no need to worry about it getting damaged.
Besides being used as a material for Magic Staves and Magic Gloves, it could actually be used to make Armor as well.
It offered greater Defense Power than most steel, coupled with Lightness and even decent ductility.
However, compared to other materials in the same price range, such as Mountain Copper, armor made of Mithril had far inferior defensive performance, its Lightness notwithstanding. It also wasted the material’s powerful Magic Communication. For these reasons, it was generally only used by some nobles to show off or for casual protection, making it a very niche application.
As for using it to make weapons...
Mithril is indeed sturdy enough and has some ductility, but its Flexibility is only average. As a weapon material, it’s usable, but not Excellent.
Most importantly, melee weapons forged from Mithril had a fatal flaw—they were too light.
Lightness itself is an Excellent Attribute, but for Professions like Warriors and Knights, they prefer a heavier feel in their hands.
The sheer mass of the weapon also gives them an advantage in a head-on Collision during combat.
Even for an Assassin’s short weapons, there were cheaper materials with better overall Attributes.
That was why the "Demon Sword" Flora mentioned the other day would be so difficult to forge. Mithril wouldn’t work, while materials like Meteorite Iron and Profound Iron lacked Magic Affinity.
The only exception was the legendary refined gold.
But the rarity and preciousness of that material were on a completely different level than Mithril.
Rumor had it that refined gold was one of the Dragon Race’s favorite materials, and even in a Giant Dragon’s hoard, there usually wasn’t much of it—certainly not enough to forge a single weapon.
Most importantly, at present, the "Demon Swordsman" was basically a hypothetical concept. There was simply no one who could hone both Magic and Sword Skills to an extremely high level. Thus, even people with the ability wouldn’t waste such an extremely expensive material on a pointless endeavor.
’So Flora had set an impossible goal for him, a pie in the sky that he couldn’t reach for a very long time...’
After another rest, they finally reached their destination at around three in the afternoon.
Just as the quest description said, the mutated giant rat had led its kin in constantly digging tunnels, creating a dense network of underground passages throughout the area.
Under these circumstances, methods like using poisonous smoke to force them out, which had worked before, would be difficult to execute successfully.
For most Adventurers, this was actually a rather difficult quest.
The difficulty lay not in defeating the mutated giant rat, but in finding it and preventing its escape.
This was a time for an Assassin to shine.
Coincidentally, Lin Mo was an Assassin.
"Ali, what have you found?"
Lin Mo looked at Ali, who had been scouting the vicinity for a long time, carefully distinguishing scents.
"I can indeed smell a slightly different scent..."
Ali nodded, gesturing for the other two to follow.
Along the way, they could see holes dug by giant rats at frequent intervals.
Finally, they stopped in front of a completely unremarkable-looking hole.
"This is it. The place where the scent, different from that of an ordinary giant rat, has been the strongest recently."
Ali confirmed the scent here before making her judgment.
Lin Mo nodded. All they had to do now was wait patiently.
Giant rats were generally active at night, so at this time, they were all sleeping in their holes. They wouldn’t wake up and go out to forage until dusk.
The three of them squatted in the tall grass for a long time. It wasn’t until the sun sank in the west, at around six in the evening, that there was finally some movement from the hole up ahead.
"Don’t rush..."
Ali moved close to Lin Mo’s ear and reminded him in a low voice.
With an extremely faint sound, a giant rat poked its head out of the hole.
It was an Ordinary giant rat.
Then a second, and a third...
More than a dozen giant rats emerged from the hole in succession, but none of them seemed unusual.
Lin Mo kept Ali’s reminder in mind and continued to wait patiently.
Half a minute later, a head that was clearly a size larger finally poked out of the hole. It looked around cautiously, extremely wary.
For the sake of concealment, the patch of grass Lin Mo and the others were hiding in was quite far from the hole, so it didn’t notice anything unusual and slowly crawled out.
Compared to an ordinary giant rat, its body was noticeably larger, but not by a huge amount. What was more eye-catching was its fur, which was a much deeper color.
It looked sleek and glossy, quite beautiful even.
Unfortunately, due to the giant rat’s size, its fur couldn’t be used to make Leather Armor. It could only be used as a decorative item for some aristocrats. It had some value, but the price wasn’t particularly high.
