Chapter 80: Chapter 80

"Are you telling me that the scene you carefully arranged has been destroyed?!"

The timeline returns to three days earlier. After the young mentor Flora from Saint Antonian Magic Academy departed, an utterly furious shriek erupted from Yunis Lawrence within the Lord's Manor of Roland Town.

"When did this happen?"

Facing her, Yunis's fiancé, Baron Rahl, stammered hesitantly, not daring to meet her eyes.

"I... I don't know..."

Baron Rahl's eyes darted away, but Yunis immediately grabbed him by the collar. "You'd better answer my question honestly, Rahl. If Mother finds out you've made such a colossal mistake, believe me, the Lawrence family has ten thousand ways to make you vanish on the spot!"

"I'll talk... I'll talk!"

Rahl trembled like a leaf. "It was ten days ago, the very next day after we finished setting everything up."

"I was afraid you'd blame me if you found out, so I..."

Yunis kicked him to the ground. "Something this important, and you're only telling me now?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Yunis, I know I was wrong. Please, I beg you, don't tell Lady Caroline. She'll definitely call off our engagement!"

Rahl crawled to her feet, desperately clutching her legs.

"Miss Yunis, I can't lose you..."

Yunis unceremoniously kicked him away again. "Get off me, you fool! Tell me, how are we going to deal with that bitch from Saint Antonian Academy now?"

"I... I never expected she would actually come here personally..."

Rahl covered his face. After discovering the scene he'd arranged according to Yunis's instructions had been sabotaged, he had clung to hope.

Although the loss of a Saint Antonian Magic Academy disciple wasn't a minor matter, when it happened over ten years ago, they only had local town officials investigate initially, followed by sending an academy administrator to take charge.

Who could have predicted they would take it so seriously this time, sending multiple messages and dispatching not some low-level administrator, but Flora, the kingdom's rising magical genius!

After her initial rage subsided, Yunis had to start considering their next move.

"You said the arranged scene was destroyed—what exactly happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure what occurred... Logically, that area is quite remote. Capable adventurers generally wouldn't venture that deep into the forest from that direction, and any adventurers who might pass by shouldn't have had the strength to kill that mutated goblin."

Rahl's tone carried a hint of grievance. After all, he had arranged everything exactly as Yunis instructed, using only his most trusted men. There shouldn't have been any mistakes.

"What about the items?"

"The mage robe and bones deliberately staged to look torn apart by goblins were still there, but that magic scroll was..."

Yunis frowned deeply. "Have your people check the missions submitted to the Adventurers' Association during those days. See if there were any related to mutated goblins."

"I've already investigated that. In the week following the incident, there were eleven relevant missions in total. I had people look into each one, but found no leads."

"And after the investigations..."

"Don't worry, they've all been silenced. No traces remain."

Yunis's expression relaxed slightly. "Not completely brainless, then."

She pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "What about the financial records for monster bounty payments during those days? Did you check those?"

Rahl froze—he hadn't thought of that.

Since the vast majority of adventurers were accustomed to submitting tasks at the Association, and he had coordinated with the Association to synchronize price changes before implementing the 100-copper-per-goblin policy, those who went to the specially established office to claim bounties were mostly lowborn individuals unqualified to register as adventurers and unable to exchange rewards at the Association, or a very few completely clueless newcomers.

So during his investigation, he had instinctively overlooked this group...

Because logically, such people couldn't possibly have killed a mutated goblin of that level.

"Investigate it... quietly. Make sure that woman doesn't detect anything!"

"Yes... yes, Miss Yunis. I'll handle it immediately. Please don't be too angry, get some rest. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything."

Rahl spoke while bowing repeatedly, then retreated from the room he had prepared for Yunis.

Watching his departing figure, Yunis snorted coldly. Remembering how she had been threatened by that woman earlier, she angrily punched the bed board.

She needed to vent her frustration...

She called outside, and soon the handsome blond young man entered the room, kneeling on one knee.

"What are your orders, Lady Yunis?"

Yunis crooked her finger at him.

Jim hesitated, glancing around. This was the bridal suite Baron Rahl had prepared in advance for their upcoming wedding.

"Stop wasting time, hurry up!"

Not daring to delay further, Jim turned to close the door, then removed his armor and approached the bedside.

This night passed as peacefully as expected.

They let the injured Ellie rest properly without assigning her night watch duties, dividing the work among the remaining five. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel※fire.net

Lin Mo still took the shift before dawn. Opening his eyes and taking over from Rick, who had the previous watch, Lin Mo added a few logs to the campfire and checked the traps set around their perimeter once more.

Although theoretically, no other magical creatures should appear within the Earth Bear's territory, exceptions could always happen, so caution was paramount.

After confirming everything was secure, Lin Mo leaned against a tree and checked his status panel.

Although the Earth Bear was powerful, there was only one of it, so yesterday's gains in proficiency weren't substantial. Surprisingly, the goblins they encountered on the way contributed more.

Only one skill was the exception.

Through various tests, Lin Mo had largely figured out how to improve the [Tenacity] skill.

This new upgrade method, different from offensive skills, actually delighted him. After all, he could only kill so many magical creatures each day, but had multiple skills to train, forcing him to make choices.

Having defensive skills like [Tenacity] open up a new training path was undoubtedly beneficial.

Thanks to traveling with the team and reasonable rest schedules, he could maintain relatively abundant stamina. During yesterday's battle with the Earth Bear, Lin Mo basically fought with [Tenacity] active the entire time.

Unfortunately, the Earth Bear's strength wasn't exceptionally high—only about 20% stronger than a typical elite adult creature—so the improvement to [Tenacity] wasn't significantly greater either.

Lin Mo used [Tenacity] five times in total, triggering it exactly ten times, gaining 12 proficiency points.

"Skill [Tenacity] Lv1 (10/10) has leveled up!"

"Current skill [Tenacity] Lv2 (6/20)"