Chapter 103: Chapter 103

Because he was deliberately farming skill proficiency by killing slowly, despite the chaos, a few goblins still managed to escape the settlement.

Lin Mo watched their retreating figures fading into the distance and decided this was a perfect opportunity to test his newly upgraded Level 3 Fireball.

He raised his hand, burning flames gathering above his palm. With his magic power increased by 1 point plus the skill upgrade, the fireball before him was clearly much stronger than before.

Lin Mo hurled the fireball in his hand, accurately striking one fleeing goblin.

Flames erupted as the goblin screamed in agony, its entire back charred black. After convulsing a few times on the ground, it fell completely still.

[Fireball] proficiency +1!

Finally able to kill the lowest-level magical creatures with a single spell. This would make farming proficiency much more convenient going forward.

A pleased expression appeared on Lin Mo's face as he immediately threw three more fireballs in succession.

After using these four fireballs, the magic power he had just gained was nearly depleted again.

I wonder if there are potions that can quickly restore magic power?

Since he hadn't encountered this issue before, Lin Mo genuinely hadn't looked into it.

Being out of magic actually removed Lin Mo's restrictions. He picked up his Wolf Bone Sword and began hunting down the remaining goblins with full force.

With his current agility of 20 points—more than four times that of ordinary goblins—even though these goblins were scattering in all directions, they stood little chance of escaping his grasp.

The only pity was that he didn't have many skills left to practice, so he could only casually train [Vanish] and [Accumulated Sword Combo] along the way.

Fortunately, while the proficiency gains were small, they weren't completely stagnant. After this round of slaughter, he still made some progress.

[Vanish], which had already accumulated considerable proficiency, successfully advanced to Level 4.

Meanwhile, his newly acquired skill [Accumulated Sword Combo] also improved to Level 2.

A series of notifications appeared before his eyes, but Lin Mo didn't have time to examine them carefully because the two sub-adult mutated goblins had already gotten quite far away. If he didn't pursue them soon, they might actually escape.

Losing a few ordinary goblins was acceptable, but these two mutated ones absolutely couldn't get away.

Lin Mo quickly gave chase, noticing his speed had increased yet again.

It seemed the second attribute gain point for exceptional-grade skills was indeed at Level 4.

Thanks to this, Lin Mo easily caught up with them and eliminated them one by one.

[Vanish] proficiency +3

[Accumulated Sword Combo] proficiency +3

Compared to the previous 5 points, exceptional-grade skills now only gave 3 proficiency points for killing sub-adult mutated goblins—2 points less.

However, monsters above Level 1 remained unaffected. For example, the adult mutated goblin from earlier still gave the same 8 points as before.

With this, the mission to clear out the goblin settlement could be considered complete.

Only about a few goblins had escaped, which wouldn't cause any significant issues.

Lin Mo returned to the settlement site and looked at the cluster of goblin infants gathered together. Without hesitation, he cast a fireball that incinerated them all.

These evil seedlings couldn't be allowed to survive.

Somewhat surprisingly, this group of goblin infants actually added 1 proficiency point to his Fireball skill.

So he simply waited a bit longer for his magic power to recover and gained a few more proficiency points for Ice Spike.

Reaching the maximum Level 5 for Fireball probably wouldn't be easy. For now, Lin Mo planned to first raise Ice Spike to Level 3 to obtain that additional 1 point of magic power.

The battle was over, but Lin Mo's work wasn't finished.

The ground was littered with goblin corpses, each requiring him to cut off an ear...

This was another disadvantage of working alone.

Setting aside the filth and stench, the process was genuinely tedious.

Since he had become the main combatant in his team due to his strength, Lin Mo hadn't done this kind of dirty work for quite some time.

It took him about twenty minutes to collect all the trophies. By then, evening was approaching, and it was time to return.

Lin Mo remained cautious throughout the journey, not letting his guard down until he had left Roland Forest. Only then did he relax slightly and turn his attention to the notifications he hadn't had time to examine during the battle.

"Skill [Accumulated Sword Combo] Lv1 (10/10) has leveled up!"

"Current skill [Accumulated Sword Combo] Lv2 (3/20)"

This was nothing special—just a normal skill level up. The real highlight came next.

"Skill [Vanish] Lv3 (40/40) has leveled up!"

"Current skill [Vanish] Lv4 (3/100)"

Acquired attribute point: Agility +3!

Indeed, reaching Level 4 with Vanish had just increased Lin Mo's agility by 3 points, bringing his base agility to 17 points—also approaching the benchmark for a Level 2 assassin.

Please choose evolution direction—

Evolution Path 1: Extreme Speed I: Movement speed increases by 10% while in Vanish state!

Evolution Path 2: Persistence II: Vanish duration extends by 30%

As Lin Mo had speculated not long ago, his guess was now confirmed.

After Vanish reached Level 4, he gained a second opportunity to choose his skill evolution direction.

Last time he had chosen "Persistence," which increased duration by 20% (1 second). This time...

Level 2 Persistence only offered 10% more than Level 1—just 0.5 seconds—so it seemed better to choose Extreme Speed for the movement boost.

Lin Mo decisively selected Evolution Path 1.

By the time he returned to Silverstream City, darkness had fallen.

Lin Mo first went to the Association to submit his completed mission.

"Mission number E4485 completed. Your current mission count is 8 E-rank missions and 1 D-rank mission."

It was Lena again, who happened to be nearly off duty. After submitting the mission, they returned to the inn together.

The base reward for this mission was 10 gold coins, plus 85 goblins at 3 silver each, 2 sub-adult mutated goblins at 1 gold each, and 1 adult mutated goblin worth 4 gold.

Altogether, Lin Mo earned 17 gold and 55 silver from this mission, bringing his total assets to 174 gold and 59 silver. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel_fіre.net

In the past, Lin Mo wouldn't have known how to spend this much money, but now...

Remembering what Flora had told him about the mithril gloves starting at 800 gold, Lin Mo felt a headache coming on.

At this income rate, he'd need to complete about forty more missions just to afford a pair of mithril gloves.

Moreover, after prolonged combat, his Wolf Bone Sword was showing signs of wear. Since he wasn't in Roland Town anymore, he couldn't get free repairs from Edgar, and some damage was irreversible—maintenance might not even help.

After a few more missions, he'd need to replace his current sword...

Indeed, nobody in this world ever had enough money. Ordinary people worried about food and drink, average adventurers worried about weapons and equipment, but mages were on another level—not only were their weapons exponentially more expensive, they also needed to save up for elemental potions, and their skill scrolls were more expensive and rarer than those of other professions.

Being a cool magic user wasn't easy!

Compared to these problems, even the age-old question of what to eat for dinner seemed almost welcoming.

Bringing Lena back to the inn, he found that while the inn provided evening meals, they were quite ordinary with limited menu options.

Compared to his undemanding breakfast standards, Lin Mo preferred to eat better in the evenings.

He was indeed short on money, but not so short that he couldn't afford a decent meal with a few copper coins. Adventuring was hard enough—he should treat himself better in daily life.

So Lin Mo decided to eat out.

Returning to his room, just as he was about to push the door open, the neighboring door suddenly swung open and Ellie popped out, rushing up to him.

"Where have you been?"

The little wolf girl wore a resentful expression, remarkably similar to a pet left alone at home during holiday visits.

"The captain said we were taking a few days off, so I went to do a mission by myself."

Lin Mo still wasn't quite accustomed to Ellie's sudden closeness, instinctively placing his hands on her shoulders to maintain some distance.

"Why didn't you take me with you? I could have helped..."

Ellie added: "For free."

Lin Mo smiled wryly. She might say that, but he couldn't actually make her work without pay. Besides, working alone was more convenient for farming proficiency.

"It was just a simple little mission, I could handle it myself... By the way, want to get dinner together?"

Lin Mo changed the subject.

Hearing this, Ellie's attention was immediately captured as she nodded repeatedly.

Since the restaurant Flora had recommended was quite good and had many dishes he hadn't tried yet, they decided to go there directly.

After the meal, Ellie insisted on paying, and Lin Mo didn't argue with her over it.

For such a small amount, it wasn't worth making a fuss. He could pay next time...

Now, he needed to plan tomorrow's mission.

Evening at Silverstream City's lord's manor. Flora, guided by a servant, arrived at the spacious reception hall.

"Everything here remains exactly as it was years ago..."

Flora glanced at the clearly aged table before her and the tableware that, though polished to a shine, showed obvious small chips.

"You're still as frugal as ever, Lady Lavell."

She looked up at the elegant lady smiling before her.

"I simply dislike waste."

Bechila made a "please sit" gesture as she spoke. Servants brought forth the evening's dishes—plentiful but consisting of common varieties without any particularly expensive delicacies.

"How has little Flora been lately?"

"Manageable... until this incident happened."

Before coming here, she had already written to Lady Lavell informing her about recent events.

Bechila's expression darkened upon hearing this: "Regarding this matter, I'll provide whatever assistance I can... The Lawrence family has been unusually quiet recently. This tranquility might conceal some unknown scheme."

After saying this, her expression softened slightly: "But we can discuss these matters later. For tonight's dinner, let's talk about lighter topics."

Flora nodded, looking around: "Where's Finnie?"

"She hasn't returned from the church yet..."

Bechila seemed to remember something: "Oh, by the way, could you tell me about that adventurer team you brought from Roland Town?"