Chapter 130: Chapter 130

Earthen Shield was a defensive-oriented magic spell. Generally speaking, the primary purpose of such magic was naturally defense, especially for blocking magical attacks.

But if one insisted, this spell wasn't completely unusable for offense.

Even the skill scroll had mentioned a usage method involving manipulating the Earthen Shield to smash enemies, though it was only briefly noted, probably to give newcomers learning this spell some offensive capability.

However, Lin Mo was different from ordinary mages.

Besides being a mage, he was simultaneously a Knight class professional.

And as everyone knew, the Knight profession specialized in shields.

Coincidentally, Lin Mo possessed a skill related to "shields."

Through previous experiments, he had already confirmed this skill didn't have strict requirements for the "shield" used—it didn't necessarily need to be a large, formal shield; even a small buckler or arm shield could work.

If these two skills could truly combine, it wouldn't just provide an additional method to grind Earthen Shield's proficiency, but could even turn Shield Bash into a ranged skill!

Thinking of it, he immediately tried. Lin Mo directly cast Earthen Shield, earth-yellow elements rapidly gathering before him to form a not-very-large "earthen shield." Lin Mo then mobilized his Qi and Blood, attempting to use Shield Bash.

The familiar sensation arrived as expected. Lin Mo's eyes lit up, and he immediately used mana to control the Earthen Shield, sending it crashing forward.

With a "Boom!" sound, under the tremendous impact force, the struck Goblin was sent flying, along with several companions behind it who suffered heavy blows, feeling as if their internal organs had been rearranged.

This was clearly not power Earthen Shield alone could possess, but rather the combined effect of Earthen Shield and Shield Bash!

The prompt appearing before Lin Mo's eyes perfectly proved this point.

Earthen Shield proficiency +4

Shield Bash proficiency +4

Excellent, it worked!

A pleased expression crossed Lin Mo's face. This success not only allowed him to grind proficiency for both skills simultaneously but also signified that combinations between different class skills were entirely feasible.

In the future, he could develop more unique techniques using similar methods, which would not only be powerful but also faster to train.

This was incredibly satisfying.

Like a child who'd gotten a new toy, Lin Mo continuously experimented with combining these two skills.

The Earthen Shield empowered with Shield Bash acted like a bulldozer, sending several Goblins to their next life with each collision.

In no time, Earthen Shield leveled up.

"Skill Earthen Shield Lv1 (10/10) upgraded!"

"Current skill Earthen Shield Lv2 (7/20)"

However, as Earthen Shield leveled up, Lin Mo's spirit once again felt slight pressure. Although it was just a tiny amount, far from the previous overexertion sensation, considering potentially stronger enemies ahead, he didn't get greedy and temporarily stopped practicing this skill.

Next, it was time to switch forms...

While Lin Mo fought, the other adventurers also entered fierce combat.

The Goblins surging from the front seemed endless, impossible to completely eliminate.

Fortunately, most adventurers who came here were quite capable. Even if they weren't class professionals, they all had some skills, dealing with ordinary Goblins easily enough. Before their stamina ran out, mistakes were unlikely.

Ellie was also fighting bloodily, her ears and tail stained with blood, having slain dozens of Goblins in a short time.

However, she also understood the importance of conserving stamina, so she fought using ordinary means without tapping into her bloodline power.

On the other side, the strongest Landon remained calm and composed, using only the most basic Wind Blade spell. With casual gestures, he reaped Goblin lives like harvesting wheat.

Some had their heads sliced off, others lost half their bodies—their deaths were quite gruesome.

This was the power of a mage. These ordinary-grade spells consumed very little for Landon; even casting them a hundred times wouldn't be stressful.

Meanwhile, Finnie, protected within a circle of adventurers at the rear, couldn't contribute much for now.

Although she had support skills like Light's Assistance, on such a battlefield, single-target support skills had limited effect while consuming significant mana, making them impractical.

Better to conserve mana, recuperate, and wait to treat injured adventurers.

Meanwhile, Lin Mo, having temporarily set aside magic, drew his Black Sword, equipped his arm shield, and began close-quarters combat.

Facing these low-level Goblins, the skills he primarily focused on improving were naturally the warrior-class Consecutive Thrusts and the knight-class Shield Bash.

However, both skills had relatively small attack ranges, so efficiency wasn't very high.

Fortunately, the dense Goblin numbers somewhat compensated for this.

Lin Mo pierced through two Goblins with one sword thrust, then activated Consecutive Thrusts. The Black Sword thrust out again with remaining momentum, piercing two more Goblins like skewering candied haws.

Lin Mo shook the Goblins off his sword, casually swung his left hand wearing the arm guard, and executed Shield Bash, smashing two Goblins' heads.

Landon noticed this peculiar youth again. Watching his relaxed, effortless performance of slaughtering Goblins left and right, he thought to himself: "Seems he wasn't lying when he said he was a warrior..."

Judging by this display, he wasn't just a level 1 warrior—at least level 2, possibly approaching level 3!

At this age, with such strength, he was truly accomplished for his youth.

"Everyone look ahead! Something big is coming!"

Just then, someone suddenly shouted in alarm. Looking forward, they indeed saw several exceptionally tall figures approaching amidst the ordinary Goblins.

Finally appearing, Mutated Goblins.

Landon's gaze sharpened. Just as he prepared to act, raising his staff, he suddenly saw a sharp sword streak cut through the air.

The next moment, the sword light vanished. The leading adult Mutated Goblin had already been pierced through the chest, collapsing to the ground with a mournful cry.

Given Landon's status and strength, he'd naturally seen many capable warriors. Even within his own team, he had two level 2 warriors, but clearly, none matched the speed of this youth named Lin Mo.

Moreover, Landon completely missed when he had moved—almost like an assassin!

Thinking this, he suddenly recalled Lin Mo's earlier magic casting scene...

Watching Lin Mo easily dispatch those Mutated Goblins, Landon withdrew his mana, setting aside his intention to intervene for now.

Lin Mo acted quickly and decisively, making the first move before anyone else, thus efficiently grinding a wave of proficiency.

Vanish proficiency +8

Consecutive Thrusts proficiency +8

Consecutive Thrusts proficiency +5

Shield Bash proficiency +5

With Lin Mo's current attributes, even Shield Bash—a less offensive ordinary-grade skill—could easily one-shot Mutated Goblins. The difficulty killing them wasn't much different from ordinary Goblins.

But this was only the beginning. Lin Mo looked ahead—increasing numbers of Mutated Goblins were appearing.

Clearly, as he had analyzed, these Goblins intended to launch a flank assault on Silvermoon Town's battle lines from here, thus deploying heavy forces, which could be described as investing heavily.

More and more Mutated Goblins charged forward under cover of numerous ordinary Goblins, suddenly increasing pressure on the adventurers.

Even professional-grade adventurers struggled to quickly defeat sub-adult Mutated Goblins, while adult Mutated Goblins could force them into difficult battles. Meanwhile, they had to guard against sneak attacks from other Goblins, fighting constrained and inevitably falling into disadvantage.

The Goblins' numerical advantage became increasingly apparent as these Mutated Goblins joined.

Finnie became busy, holding her staff and treating injured adventurers who retreated.

Ellie also utilized her bloodline power, continuing to move through the monster groups.

Landon raised his staff, stepped forward quickly, pointed into the distance, and cast the exceptional-grade Wind Cyclone spell used at the start again, placing it behind the Goblins. It swept up surrounding Goblins, including Mutated Goblins, tearing them to pieces.

The powerful magic created a temporary gap in the Goblin army, buying adventurers some breathing room.

But this time was quite brief. Soon, continuously arriving Goblins filled the vacancy.

Landon could only cast magic again, replenishing after each spell ended.

Continuous exceptional-grade spells made his expression no longer calm, growing increasingly solemn.

Exceptional-grade magic consumed 16 times more mana than ordinary-grade spells! The mental load couldn't be underestimated.

He could cast such spells at most three or four more times before stopping.

As the strongest combatant here, he needed to preserve about half his remaining strength. Otherwise, if stronger Goblins appeared later with his mana depleted, he'd be unable to respond.

Henceforth, he could only use less effective Wind Blades.

With Landon's magic bombardment halted, the adventurers' pressure immediately increased again.

The stronger level 2 professionals spontaneously began handling the more troublesome Mutated Goblins to reduce pressure on relatively weaker adventurers.

Amid this chaotic situation, Lin Mo had already lost count of how many Goblins he'd slain.

Shield Bash proficiency +1

Consecutive Thrusts proficiency +5

Shield Bash proficiency +1

Continuous prompts appeared before his eyes. Since Consecutive Thrusts, as an excellent-grade skill, wasn't ideal for this situation, Lin Mo simply used Shield Bash more frequently as his offensive method.

Consecutive Thrusts was reserved more for dealing with Mutated Goblins, ensuring one-hit kills to avoid wasting time.

Thus, for a while, Shield Bash's proficiency soared continuously.

"Skill Shield Bash Lv3 (40/40) upgraded!"

"Current skill Shield Bash Lv4 (3/100)"

"Skill Shield Bash Lv4 (100/100) upgraded!"

"Current skill Shield Bash Lv5 (Max)!"

"Gained attribute points Constitution +2!"

"Automatically evolved into new skill—Great Shield Charge!"

"Comprehended skill Great Shield Charge! Constitution +2!"

A total of 4 Constitution points provided some replenishment to Lin Mo's considerably consumed stamina. With these 4 Constitution points, his base Constitution attribute reached 21 points, meeting the benchmark for level 2 Knight.

"Promotion conditions met, profession Knight (lv1) promoted—current profession Knight (lv2)"

"Gained profession attribute bonuses: Strength +1, Constitution +2!"

Constitution received another 2-point increase, giving Lin Mo an additional chunk of stamina out of nowhere.

However, the newly acquired skill didn't seem very friendly.

Amid the busy fighting, Lin Mo took a quick glance.

Great Shield Charge: Use a shield to launch a fierce charge against enemies (requires shield to reach certain size)

Meaning, the small arm shield he currently wore definitely couldn't execute this skill.

But perhaps the shield created by Earthen Shield could still work?

Lin Mo remembered Earthen Shield's shield wasn't particularly small.

So he tried, but it didn't work.

So later, he'd need to specifically acquire a larger shield?

Lin Mo frowned. Without a Magic Storage Bag, carrying a large shield would be quite troublesome.

He looked at the mithril gloves in his hand.

These gloves had an effect called "Mana Amplification" he hadn't used yet.

Mana Amplification III: Increases mana output limit by 20% when using magic

This effect allowed him to use more mana to enhance spells. If he used the amplification effect to strengthen Earthen Shield...

Lin Mo directly proceeded. Indeed, the newly appeared Earthen Shield became slightly thicker, and its size noticeably increased.

He again attempted to mobilize Qi and Blood, then simultaneously activated mana and Qi and Blood—

The enlarged Earthen Shield shot out, directly crushing the face of an adult Mutated Goblin charging forward. Ordinary Goblins affected along the path were sent flying.

Great Shield Charge proficiency +12

Earthen Shield proficiency +12

Lin Mo smiled slightly, nodding with satisfaction.

Moreover, with these 12 proficiency points, Earthen Shield's proficiency reached the upgrade standard again, reaching level 3.

"Skill Earthen Shield Lv2 (20/20) upgraded!"

"Current skill Earthen Shield Lv3 (0/40)"

Gained attribute Mana +1!

Another 1 Mana point. Including bonuses, Lin Mo's Mana attribute had reached 15 points!

Unfortunately, he had cast quite a few spells earlier, so remaining mana was still insufficient. Most importantly, his mental state wasn't great. After successful testing, Lin Mo contentedly stopped.

The adventurers' battle line had retreated multiple times. The front was piled with Goblin corpses. Finnie's mana was almost exhausted; she nearly fainted from mental load and was supported by Ellie—who had also exhausted her bloodline power and strength—and taken to the rear to rest.

Some injured, less capable adventurers also had to withdraw from the battlefield.

The good news was that the previously departed adventurers returned after the battle at the Mountain Pass concluded, somewhat replenishing combat strength.

"Goblin numbers are starting to decrease!"

At least three thousand Goblins had died in this area. Such casualties finally reduced the Goblin density before them.

But this also meant the Goblins would launch their final, most ferocious assault.

The Goblins screamed increasingly madly. Casualties inevitably began appearing among the adventurers.

Lin Mo casually severed a Goblin's head while panting, looking ahead.

Within the darkness, something dangerous seemed hidden.

Landon's mana was mostly depleted. The heavy mental load made his head dizzy, his condition somewhat concerning.

But he couldn't stop now. Without his magical support, they couldn't withstand the Goblins' final assault.

Landon tightly gripped his staff, knuckles turning white.

However, just as he forced himself to focus, preparing to cast Wind Cyclone again, a short figure hiding among the Goblin group suddenly attacked him with extreme speed.

Landon seemed to realize something. He interrupted his spellcasting, preparing to use Wind Shield for protection.

But, it was too late!

That figure was too fast. Landon had just raised his hand when the opponent closed in.

He saw that ugly face, similar to ordinary Goblins but with bluish-gray stripes.

The moment this thought emerged in Landon's mind, several Sword Energy blades suddenly flew out from nowhere, precisely severing that Goblin's arm.

Lin Mo's figure subsequently appeared, shielding him.

Landon regained his composure, looking at Lin Mo's back, still terrified.

That sharp blade had almost sliced his head off!

Mages were the most fragile profession. Even a level 4 mage's Constitution remained weak, not much stronger than a mage apprentice.

This issue would only see slight improvement after reaching level 6 and becoming a senior-level mage professional.

If Lin Mo hadn't suddenly appeared just now, he would definitely be a corpse!

He hurriedly expressed gratitude, then quickly looked at the one-armed figure.

When Goblins reached Bronze or quasi-Bronze rank and above, they gained different innate talents at birth.

Some were strength-based, some were magic-based, and naturally, some excelled in agility as assassins.

And assassins were the profession mages and rangers feared most.

Lin Mo also watched the assassin Goblin screeching angrily before him.

From earlier, he had been thinking: such a large-scale Goblin army, even if following orders, couldn't maintain such high organization without continuous subsequent command.

Therefore, among this assaulting Goblin group, there must be an even stronger presence that hadn't appeared yet.

But the Goblins had launched their final assault—shouldn't it have appeared by now?

Even if it was a spellcaster needing protection, it should have used spells earlier to aid its kin.

If it wasn't a frontline profession like warrior or knight, nor a mage, then what could it be?

Lin Mo soon turned his gaze to Landon.

As a mage, he initially had protection, but as battle persisted and dragged on, those warriors had to fully commit to combat, unable to concern themselves with protection anymore. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel✦fire.net

And Landon himself had his attention completely captured by the ongoing battle.

If the enemy had an assassin...

The moment Lin Mo realized this, he had been moving toward Landon. Sure enough, trouble occurred shortly after.

This assassin Goblin was quite cunning—similar height to ordinary Goblins, even looking very alike. Hiding among its kin in chaos, it was indistinguishable.

Even upon closer inspection, one could only notice its somewhat inconspicuous bluish-gray patterns; otherwise, it looked completely ordinary.

But its strength was considerable. Based on its earlier attack speed, it was even faster than Lin Mo, with a threat level of at least 2.5, possibly higher!

"I'll handle this guy."

Lin Mo said to Landon behind him: "You focus on the front with peace of mind."

Landon nodded, trustingly shifting his gaze away, casting Wind Cyclone again to sweep the front battlefield.

The assassin Goblin immediately panicked. Gripping a dagger with its remaining hand, it attacked Landon.

Lin Mo activated Vanish, using the invisibility advantage to block its path. His left hand drew the dagger from his waist, blocking this strike. His right hand held the sword, thrusting fiercely toward its abdomen.

His sword thrust was conservative, not aiming for vital points, but this made it harder to dodge.

Although the assassin Goblin reacted immediately, its waist was still grazed, leaving a long wound.

Lin Mo's gaze sharpened. The nearly still blade suddenly exerted force again, pursuing the direction it dodged.

The sudden pursuit caught the Goblin off guard. This thrust pierced its abdomen, blood continuously gushing out.

Assassins were undoubtedly fast but also fragile. With Lin Mo's successful thrust, it had no chance of struggling anymore.

Lin Mo's left hand, having discarded the dagger, grabbed its wrist, holding it firmly.

His right hand released the sword hilt, pressing his palm against the Goblin's forehead.

Next, Lin Mo smiled slightly, lightning flickering in his hand.

Brilliant electricity surged through the Goblin's body, electrocuting it until charred black.

Lin Mo released his hand, rubbing his numb palm. Once mana formally formed into magic, it could no longer be completely controlled—at least he couldn't manage it yet—so he got electrocuted a bit too.

Fortunately, it was just slight exposure, and the spell's power wasn't too strong—just some hand numbness.

Need to be careful next time; such seemingly cool methods shouldn't be used...

Although a minor mishap occurred, Lin Mo's primary objective was undoubtedly achieved.

Lightning Strike very smoothly killed the not-particularly-strong assassin Goblin, so the proficiency naturally went to this powerful lightning magic.

Lightning Strike proficiency +20

Indeed, this guy's threat level was very close to level 3!

Lin Mo remembered the Crimson Flame Tiger he killed earlier gave only 23 proficiency points.

Such abundant proficiency naturally allowed the level 1 Lightning Strike to smoothly upgrade.

"Skill Lightning Strike Lv1 (10/10) upgraded!"

"Current skill Lightning Strike Lv2 (12/20)"

Not only did it level up, but it was already close to level 3.

This was the benefit of conserving some mana... using magic to secure big "kills."

Lin Mo smiled contentedly, casually cut off the assassin Goblin's ear, and rejoined the battle.

With their leader's death, the Goblins' final assault quickly ceased, soon scattering and fleeing...