Chapter 128: Chapter 128

Even though I knew her strength was formidable and she wasn't exactly young—probably at least twenty-five or twenty-six—this short-haired maid had such a petite figure. She looked about the same height as Lena, maybe even shorter, and combined with her maid outfit, it was really hard to feel any sense of authority from her.

But she's been following the carriage on foot this whole time?

While this was probably child's play for someone with her speed, getting to Silvermoon Town would take at least half a day—surely that was too exhausting.

Lin Mo felt somewhat guilty, so he tried waving toward the forest.

Might as well invite her to sit inside the carriage.

However, she didn't emerge to respond. But moments later, there was some movement from the carriage roof.

Lin Mo was taken aback for a moment, but thought—fine, that's still better than running alongside.

Her previous intervention had been just a flash, gone before Finnie noticed.

The carriage continued on its way, and for a while, they didn't encounter any goblins.

Silverstream City still had enough capacity to maintain the official roads, especially areas close to the main city, where magical creatures rarely appeared.

But as they moved farther from Silverstream City, the situation began to change.

Lin Mo started seeing goblin corpses on both sides of the road, most likely cleared away by adventurers ahead.

Growing anxious, he pulled open the carriage curtain and said, "Could we speed up a bit?"

The experienced driver readily agreed, cracking his whip against the horse's rear. The carriage immediately accelerated significantly.

"Hold on tight, passengers!"

With the driver's shout, the carriage's speed kept increasing. It didn't even slow down for turns, taking corners with "drifts" that left Lin Mo stunned.

This driving technique—definitely an expert driver.

Before long, they overtook several vehicles ahead and moved to the front.

After continuing for a while, Lin Mo simply moved to sit up front with the driver to observe the road ahead.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before he spotted goblins lurking furtively along the roadside.

There weren't many—only four in total. Lin Mo threw a [Fireball], accurately hitting one and making its head explode.

He had already put on his mithril gloves, so his casting speed was enhanced. Immediately after, another fireball flew out, killing another goblin.

As for the other two...

Lin Mo decided to try out his newly learned [Lightning Strike].

He extended his palm, and blue-white electricity instantly shot from his palm, spreading out in a net-like pattern. With the carriage's forward movement, it perfectly struck the two remaining goblins.

Instantly, sizzling electric sounds filled the air as the two goblins began "dancing" uncontrollably. Within seconds, they were foaming at the mouth and lying motionless on the ground.

All four goblins died by the roadside without blocking the path, so there was no need to stop and clear them away.

[Lightning Strike] proficiency +2

The power is quite impressive!

Of course, this was also because his magic power had now reached 7 points.

The fireballs he cast earlier, both in size and power, had also improved significantly.

With this level of magic power, plus the enhancement from the mithril gloves, even against sub-adult or adult mutated goblins, his magic could now have decent effectiveness.

Oh right, there was also the flame reagent he drank earlier, and the flame magic stone he had already embedded in his mithril gloves.

These two items together increased his fire element affinity by 25%.

—It should have been 26%, but his status panel showed only 25%. Perhaps element affinity experiences diminishing returns when stacked.

With too few data points, Lin Mo couldn't figure out the pattern yet.

He glanced at the current progress of his four magic skills.

Fireball was Lv4 (41/100)

Ice Spike hadn't been used since reaching level 3, still at Lv3 (0/40)

The newly acquired Earthen Shield currently had 0 proficiency, while Lightning Strike had just gained two points.

After some thought, Lin Mo decided to prioritize improving [Fireball] and [Earthen Shield].

The reason he didn't choose [Lightning Strike] was because this skill's consumption was quite substantial—four times that of normal-grade magic.

Although his magic power had increased somewhat, he still couldn't afford to practice excellent-grade skills frequently, making training efficiency relatively low.

Plus, his spirit attribute urgently needed improvement, which required leveling Fireball to max anyway.

He only needed 59 more proficiency points—not that far off.

As for [Earthen Shield], it was simply because of its low consumption, making it easier to practice. Getting it to level 3 would earn him 1 magic point.

Theoretically, this skill compensated for Lin Mo's lack of magic defense capabilities.

But a normal-grade defensive magic might not be that effective—it could only block normal-grade magic. With his current magic power, if he encountered magic that even his physique couldn't withstand, having an extra Earthen Shield probably wouldn't make much difference.

Even so, he still needed to practice it, and prioritize it too, because without practice there would never be improvement.

For the rest of the journey, the number of goblins they encountered wasn't as many as Lin Mo expected—just a few scattered ones, all becoming experience for his [Fireball].

"Almost there. About 5 kilometers ahead is Silvermoon Town."

Lin Mo looked forward, but at this distance he couldn't see it clearly yet. After traveling a bit further, he finally saw the outline of Silvermoon Town.

As a town, it was certainly much smaller in scale than Silverstream City, but compared to Roland Town, it was considerably more impressive.

Flora was right—the entire Silverstream City region, including its subordinate towns and villages, was more developed than the Lania City area.

They didn't see any goblins all the way until reaching Silvermoon Town, making Lin Mo wonder if the local adventurers and military had already wiped them out.

However, upon entering the town, the somewhat heavy atmosphere told him this wasn't the case.

After asking some local residents, he learned that Silvermoon Town had done relatively well in defense, temporarily preventing goblins from approaching the town. But on the eastern side of town, the defensive line set up by the local lord leading the military had already suffered multiple assaults.

Especially last night's attack—if not for the assistance of local adventurers, the line would have nearly been breached.

So it seemed the disaster caused by the proliferating goblins was becoming increasingly severe.

Lin Mo remembered when he left Roland Town, only villages suffered large-scale attacks. As for Roland Town itself, while poor town defenses allowed frequent goblin intrusions, there were no signs of large-scale goblin assaults.

But now, had the goblin army grown large enough to threaten an entire town?

He wondered how things were in Roland Town now...

Even though Roland Town's lord was a scoundrel, the people there were innocent, and he still had friends like Bern and the others.

Shaking his head, he temporarily set these thoughts aside. Lin Mo brought Ellie and Finnie, following other adventurer teams to the local association. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novelFɪre.net

As for the drivers, local officials would arrange their food and lodging while waiting for the situation to resolve.

The number of adventurers in Silverstream City was indeed incomparable to small towns. Just this batch of arriving adventurers numbered over a hundred, with many more on the way, arriving continuously.

The Silvermoon Town Adventurers' Association president personally received them and explained the current situation.

"You've arrived just in time... Soon, when night falls, those goblins will launch another attack."

"These goblins specifically choose nighttime?"

An adventurer couldn't help but ask.

They had traveled a long way and were somewhat fatigued from the journey.

"Nighttime is unfavorable for rangers—their archery accuracy decreases, and the battlefield becomes more chaotic. It's definitely advantageous for goblins..."

Before the president could answer, another adventurer helped explain the confusion.

"I see. Well, no choice then, we'll have to fight."

"Before that, I need to brief everyone on the current situation."

The association president brought out a map with detailed markings in different colors.

"This is the defensive line constructed by the lord leading the town's soldiers."

He pointed to the yellow line on the map, then continued, "Currently, Silvermoon Town's adventurers are also assisting in the defense. Based on last night's situation, we can hold for now. The problem lies here..."

He pointed to another corner of the map: "There must be intelligent goblin spellcasters in this goblin army. After finding frontal assaults ineffective, late last night they suddenly commanded a small group of goblins to attack from the flank of our defensive line. The patrolling soldiers were caught off guard and suffered heavy casualties!"

Goblins are using military tactics now?

Lin Mo was also shocked to hear this.

It seemed this goblin spellcaster was smarter and stronger than the one he encountered last time.

"So tonight, we need your help defending this area."

Lin Mo studied the map carefully, then suddenly frowned. He stepped forward and pointed at the map, saying, "This pass is indeed easy to overlook, but it requires a long detour that's unsuitable for large-scale assaults. After last night's failed surprise attack, they might not choose the same route today."

The association president thought about this and agreed, looking at him with some surprise: "Young man, any other insights?"

Lin Mo stared at the map, his brow furrowed tightly: "Do you have a detailed terrain map?"

The association president quickly handed one over.

Lin Mo took the map and compared the two side by side carefully.

From the crowd, an adventurer wearing mage robes also realized something, pointing to the same location almost simultaneously with Lin Mo.

The Adventurers' Association president carefully examined where they were pointing. After a moment, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

This area was some distance from the town. Even if goblins attacked from this direction, scouts would detect them halfway, giving them ample time to organize the remaining personnel in town for defense. It didn't seem particularly threatening.

This location wasn't far from the main battlefield and happened to be on downward sloping terrain.

"If they position their main force here, or even just elite units, not heading toward the town but using the terrain advantage to strike the main defensive line from the flank..."

The frontal defensive line was already under heavy pressure. Faced with sudden flanking attacks, localized or even complete collapse could easily occur!

The surprise attack target didn't necessarily have to be the town—it could be the personnel on the main defensive line!

Once heavy casualties occurred in the chaotic situation, even if they barely stabilized, they would have to retreat their battle lines. With diminished forces and lacking strategic buffer, Silvermoon Town's operational space would be continuously compressed. Faced with ever-increasing numbers of goblins, they could slowly become besieged.

Once completely surrounded by goblins, even subsequent supplies would become problematic!

By that time, if Silverstream City couldn't spare sufficient troops for rescue, relying solely on adventurers responding to the Rescue Decree wouldn't be enough to salvage the dire situation.

Ultimately, when facing massive numbers of goblins, their biggest problem was personnel shortage and too low margin for error...

The goblins could easily accept high casualty ratios—they reproduced quickly anyway, and ordinary goblins were just expendable. But they couldn't afford such losses.