Free Web NovelChapter 154: Chapter 124: Unique Special Skill: Cultivator Companion
"Oh, right. There’s also this axe."
Lin Mo suddenly remembered something and took the Bull Chief’s axe out of his Magic Storage Bag.
Los took it, placed it on the counter, and examined it closely for a moment. He ran his hand over it, then picked up a hammer and tapped it a couple of times.
"The material is decent, but it’s a fairly common type. Normally, it’s worth around 10 to 12 Gold Coins. If you’re selling, I’ll give you 14 Gold Coins for it. That’ll round us up to a nice even 500 Gold Coins."
"No problem."
After leaving Los’s little shop, they went to a restaurant where Lin Mo tallied up the earnings from this mission.
"The mission reward was 101 Gold Coins, plus 500 Gold Coins from selling materials, for a total of 601 Gold Coins!"
Feney took out her wallet and produced 6 Crystal Coins and 1 Gold Coin.
"Here you go, Mr. Lin Mo."
Lin Mo was taken aback. "Does the money from selling materials also count toward the double reward?"
While some previous missions seemed to include the value of materials, this time was different. The materials weren’t a requirement for mission completion, so strictly speaking, they weren’t part of the mission. Besides, they had killed so many this time—16 Professional-Level Minotaurs in one go—and it just so happened that this Demon’s materials were the more valuable kind.
Feney paused. "It doesn’t?"
She thought about it seriously. "Mother didn’t specify, but it should count. Don’t worry about it, Mr. Lin Mo. This isn’t a lot of money."
Lin Mo saw that her expression was genuine. 600 Gold Coins was a huge sum for most people, even for Professionals. But for someone on a higher level, like Flora, it was probably nothing.
And for the Ravel Clan, who were the Lords of a city, their wealth would be far more extravagant than even Flora’s.
Since she had put it that way, Lin Mo certainly wasn’t going to refuse. After all, this was a full 601 Gold Coins!
Adding it all together, the total income from this mission came to a staggering 1202 Gold Coins!
Lin Mo began to think about how to split the earnings.
They were all quite familiar with each other by now, so it was natural to discuss such matters openly.
"How about I take half, and Ali and Feney each take a quarter?"
"You don’t have to give us that much..."
Feney waved her hand. "This mission was mainly thanks to you, Mr. Lin Mo."
Ali nodded in agreement. "I didn’t do much. A tenth would be fine, or even less..."
"Alright then, how about you each take two-tenths."
Although that might be true based on contribution, Lin Mo couldn’t possibly hoard eighty or ninety percent of the reward. For one thing, half of these Gold Coins came from Feney herself.
The final say on the double mission reward belonged entirely to City Lord Ravel. If he acted too greedy... well, it wasn’t like Feney had to stay in their party.
’Sixty percent is already a lot,’ Lin Mo thought. ’And giving Ali some extra money will let her upgrade her equipment.’
In the end, that’s how they decided to split the earnings from the mission.
Lin Mo received 60% of the reward, a massive sum of roughly 720 Gold Coins.
Adding the 253-plus Gold he had left, his total assets were now close to 1000 Gold Coins. He could finally afford the Secret Silver Gloves!
’I have a day off tomorrow. I’ll go check out the Alchemy Shop.’
It was getting late, so after dinner, it was time for Feney to go home.
The same short-haired Maid came to pick her up. Lin Mo hadn’t paid much attention to her before, but looking closely now, he saw that the Maid’s every move was crisp and efficient. She truly had the air of an expert.
’Judging by the weapon she used before, is she an Assassin?’
Lin Mo greeted the impressively skilled Maid. She gave a slight bow in return before leaving with Feney.
Lin Mo and Ali brought some food for Lena, then went to the Association to pick her up from work.
On the way, Ali was far less lively than she had been the past few days, looking preoccupied and troubled.
Lin Mo had a good idea why she was unhappy, but for the moment, he didn’t know how to comfort her.
As night fell, Lin Mo didn’t turn off the lights to rest. Instead, he sat on his bed and waited. Sure enough, a short while later, Ali opened his door and came in.
"Is Lena asleep already?"
Ali nodded, walked to the side of the bed, and threw herself onto him.
Lin Mo gently stroked her back, comforting her.
"Lin Mo, am I useless?"
Ali buried her face in the blankets, her voice more dejected than ever before.
"Of course not..."
Lin Mo gently stroked her hair. "Without you, Ali, we wouldn’t have caught that mutated giant rat so easily. And at the end, if you hadn’t spotted that Rotten Corpse in time, we might not have escaped safely."
"But I don’t want to only be able to help you with small things like that."
Ali looked up, her eyes shimmering with a storm of complex emotions.
Insecurity, sorrow, sadness...
Lin Mo was very familiar with this look. When he first met Ali, he often saw such feelings in her eyes, but they had gradually disappeared as they grew closer. He hadn’t seen it in a long time.
"I want to get stronger. I want to fight alongside you, Lin Mo. I want to always be by your side..."
Ali still remembered the helpless look in Alton’s eyes when they parted ways.
They hadn’t wanted to separate like that, but people with different power levels just weren’t suited to be in the same party. It was true for Alton and his group, and it was true for her.
During their time together, Ali had witnessed Lin Mo’s strength grow by leaps and bounds. Of course she was happy for him, but it also filled her with panic.
She couldn’t keep up with Lin Mo’s pace. The stronger he became, the wider the gap between them grew.
Ali didn’t want to leave Lin Mo, but even more, she didn’t want to become a burden to him.
If a day came when she truly couldn’t help at all, when staying by his side only held him back, then—
Ali’s thoughts were interrupted by Lin Mo’s sudden movement.
Lin Mo cupped the Little Wolf Girl’s pretty face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers again, interrupting her spiraling thoughts.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes...
The continuous contact gradually turned Ali’s mind blank. Her breathing grew heavy, and her worries faded away.
"We’ll figure something out. We can look for a solution together, okay?"
Lin Mo’s voice echoed in her ear. She murmured her assent, nodded, and then her hands began to wander mischievously.
At times like this, Ali was always very assertive—so much so that Lin Mo sometimes found it hard to keep up...
Some time later, Lin Mo let out a long, satisfied breath, and the room returned to tranquility.
Ali snuggled up beside Lin Mo, her skin flushed with a faint pink glow.
Lin Mo kneaded her tail, feeling the slight tremors running through Ali’s body.
After his release, however, Lin Mo grew somber and began to think about the future.
Adventuring alone was truly inconvenient. And if he was going to have teammates, he would, of course, much rather have the pretty and capable Little Wolf Girl with him.
But his strength was increasing too quickly. Even Flora, the Kingdom’s top genius, was far behind. Although Ali possessed the bloodline of the Ice Wolf Race, a Half-Beastman’s talent wasn’t guaranteed to manifest. Even if she did awaken it, it would take time.
It wasn’t just Ali, but also Feney, and any other potential teammates in the future...
Lin Mo rubbed the bridge of his nose. All he could say was that everything was a double-edged sword. If he had remained a drifter, moving from party to party, he wouldn’t have this kind of problem.
But that would also mean he’d have to be constantly on guard, his nerves taut even when he was resting.
After all, he couldn’t expect to meet good people every time. If someone had ill intentions and he wasn’t careful, things could easily go south.
Lost in thought, he subconsciously glanced at his status panel and suddenly noticed a message he had missed during their earlier frenzy.
’What’s this...?’
Lin Mo stared, his expression freezing in surprise.
’No way, it can work like that?’
"Learned Unique Special Skill [Cultivator Companion]! Constitution +1!"
[Cultivator Companion] Level 1 (0/10): Through deep exchange, create a resonance of Qi and Blood or Magic Power to improve mutual compatibility. Provides a slight, random correction to corresponding Attributes (i.e., Qi and Blood exchange randomly increases Strength, Constitution, or Agility; Magic Power exchange randomly increases Magic Power or Spirit).
Note: Requires "depth" and "exchange." The bonus flows from the party with the higher stat, and its magnitude is slightly positively correlated with the difference between their stats.
This was the second skill Lin Mo had obtained purely through comprehension since acquiring "Slashing" shortly after he transmigrated.
And compared to the commonplace Slashing, this "Unique Special Skill" he had just learned was absolutely incredible!
The description looked flashy and convoluted, but to put it simply, when he and Ali had an "exchange," it would slightly increase his own Qi and Blood-type Attributes that were already higher than hers.
By the same logic, if he had an "exchange" with someone whose attributes in a certain area were higher than his, like Flora, he would be able to slightly increase his own Magic Power or Spirit.
’But what exactly does "slightly" mean?’
’Also, this skill has a Level. It even gave an Attribute point upon learning it. So, will its effect get stronger after leveling up? Could it even evolve?’
These questions made Lin Mo eager to test it out right away.
And so, the hand that had been gently stroking Ali’s tail suddenly tightened its grip, grabbing the base of her tail.
"Huuu~"
Ali cried out in surprise, her whole body arching and tensing up at once.
She gave Lin Mo a surprised look, then smiled faintly and quickly got into the mood.
...
Some time later, Lin Mo looked at his [Cultivator Companion] skill, which now read Level 1 (1/10). ’Alright, I can confirm one thing now. The Skill Level increases per use.’
He then looked down at Ali, who was curled up in a ball in his arms.
"Ali, did you feel anything?"
"Feel anything?"
Ali looked up, confused.
"That it felt good?"
"Not that..."
Lin Mo lightly tapped her on the head. "I mean in other ways. Any physical changes."
"I don’t think so."
Ali shook her head, not quite understanding why he was suddenly asking this.
’Well, it is only a slight increase, after all. It’s normal not to notice anything after just one time.’
’Guess I’ll just have to work harder and experiment a few more times. It’s not like I have to go out adventuring tomorrow anyway.’
Lin Mo took a deep breath.
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night...
