Chapter 74: Chapter 74

Alden watched the scene before him with keen interest.

"Looks like our luck's holding."

Solan set his bow aside, not intending to act.

In this situation, they should let both sides fight it out first; once the clash had gone far enough, they'd move in to pick up the spoils.

Alden nodded, but his expression remained tense as he continued to analyze the current situation seriously: "That mutated goblin looks like an adult form, and that big slime should be mature too."

Two adult elite monsters meant two tremendously powerful combatants comparable to professionals. In the past, even if Alden were just waiting to snag loot from the sidelines, he'd have to carefully weigh the risk of being discovered halfway through.

But now, with Lin Mo in the mix, those extra worries were unnecessary.

Two professionals, plus Ellie who was close to professional—if something unexpected happened, they still had a very good chance of getting out unscathed.

As the goblins grew more aggressive in their taunts, the slimes weren't about to cede territory for nothing. The big slime at the forefront leapt out first, smashing down and killing two goblins outright.

The remaining slimes followed closely, and battle erupted.

The mutated goblin wielded a large axe and charged roaringly at the big slime. The two elite monsters collided head-on, evenly matched for a time.

Their leaders were evenly balanced, but the underlings were not. In one-on-one duels, these two low-tier monster types gave the goblins a clear advantage, and the goblins also outnumbered the slimes. Once the two sides clashed, the situation quickly tilted in one direction.

Alden frowned slightly, watching the fight and gauging the elites' strength while calculating the right moment to strike.

Act too early and they might spook the monsters into fleeing or cause them to unite against the intruders. But if they waited too long while the slimes were clearly at a disadvantage, the battle likely wouldn't last much longer.

When that big slime realized the situation had turned against it, it would probably choose to retreat.

Monsters weren't stupid—they understood gain and loss. If the slimes retreated and ceded territory, the goblins would gain from it and wouldn't continue pursuit. At that point, they'd miss their opportunity.

Too bad there wasn't an assassin among them; then the decision would have been much simpler...

While Alden worried, Lin Mo was growing restless.

For the other members of the adventuring party, only the result mattered—no one cared how the monsters died as long as they got the materials and completed the quest.

Lin Mo was different. He needed to farm these monsters to raise his proficiency. Watching goblins and slimes fall amid the melee felt like his heart was bleeding.

"How about I give it a try?"

Seeing the team hesitating over when to act, he couldn't help but speak up.

Alden looked at Lin Mo and at first wanted to refuse—he'd long been used to being the team's core; if he couldn't do it, nobody else could.

But Lin Mo wasn't the same...

Recalling Lin Mo's clearly superhuman speed, Alden finally nodded: "All right. Be careful."

Lin Mo nodded and used the cover of the bushes to approach the battlefield stealthily.

"Huh, where'd he go?"

In a blink, Rick noticed Lin Mo's footsteps had disappeared.

Alden heard that and shifted his attention from the two elite monsters to searching the bushes, baffled.

The most shocked was the team's assassin, Carson. He replayed what he had seen when Lin Mo moved: one moment Lin Mo had clearly lowered his body and was sneaking through the bushes; the next moment his vision simply lost him and he couldn't find him again.

It was a technique Carson had only seen once before when training under an old mentor.

"It's a stealth-type skill... and it might already be at near-professional level!"

Solan was stunned. "Isn't he a warrior? Why would he have assassin skills?"

And at a very high level, apparently.

Alden finally understood why Lin Mo's speed had been so much greater than his own. Not only had Lin Mo advanced to the warrior profession at about eighteen or nineteen, but he had also trained an assassin skill to near mastery? This guy...

"Look over there—Lin Mo's moving!"

Ellie, with her keen perception, spotted the change first. At the instant the two elites clashed, a figure suddenly burst out from the side at great speed.

The blade flashed, glinting sharply in the sunlight.

In that instant of razor-edge speed, the unprepared mutated goblin couldn't defend or counterattack; two bone-deep slashes appeared across its body.

Blood sprayed as the Wolf Bone Sword's +1 strength boost and the 8% physical damage bonus from Lin Mo's Level 4 Stealth combined to full effect.

The mutated goblin howled and, unable to resist the frontal onslaught, was knocked away by the big slime.

Seizing the moment, Lin Mo followed up, and the instant the goblin hit the ground he delivered a cross-slash.

[Stealth] Proficiency +8

[Cross Slash] Proficiency +8

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The big slime wasn't grateful for his help in killing its foe; upon seeing the sudden human, its first reaction was to attack.

Lin Mo rose quickly and slashed.

The blade met the slime's body and seemed to sink into a strange fluid, giving a sensation of powerlessness.

Lin Mo's attack failed, but his eyes lit with joy because...

[Tenacity] Proficiency +1

After testing how Tenacity's proficiency increased earlier, Lin Mo had been pondering the matter.

Did Tenacity require the body to be actually hit to trigger, or would a collision suffice?

Now it was clear: the latter.

If so, Tenacity might not only be a damage-taking skill but could also serve as a semi-support skill.

"Enhance your defense so that the next two times you take physical damage, it is reduced by 10%." That physical damage didn't just mean direct hits; it also included recoil from collisions and possibly pressure from an opponent's body or weapon weight...

Though somewhat of a luxurious tactic, using Tenacity in combat would unquestionably give him an edge in head-on collisions.

Most importantly, knowing this made the skill much easier to train. He no longer needed to deliberately take hits—using it naturally in fight situations would suffice.

Knowing this, Lin Mo grew excited. While Tenacity still had one use left, he launched another attack against the big slime.