Chapter 85: Chapter 85
[Knight's Heart]: Having experienced countless battles, you have become a qualified knight, where protection is your life's creed. May you become the sturdiest fortress, fearless against all blades!
Skill Effect: Physical damage received in battle is reduced by 10%
Lin Mo was instantly shocked. Although Warrior's Heart had two effects while Knight's Heart only had one, the value of this single effect was in no way inferior to those two.
The Knight profession traded relatively weaker attack power for extreme defense.
With Knight's Heart, plus the already max-leveled [Fortitude], combined with his current Constitution stat of 21 points, Lin Mo didn't even dare to imagine how high his defense would be.
Probably ordinary professionals couldn't even break his skin!
If he had Alden's friends come for sparring practice now, even if Lin Mo stood still and let them beat on him all day, it would at most result in minor injuries.
Right, next, there's something even more significant!
However, when Lin Mo shifted his gaze to this new skill, he was directly stunned.
[Resilience] Lv1 (0/10): Strengthens own defense, reducing physical damage received by 20% for the next three instances
Up to this point, it was normal. Compared to [Fortitude], [Resilience] changed the number of activations from two to three, and the effect increased from [Fortitude]'s max level of 15% to 20%.
Please choose evolution direction—
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Lin Mo looked on curiously.
Evolution Path 1: Damage Reflection I: 40% of the damage reduced by the skill [Resilience]'s effect will be reflected back to the attacker
Evolution Path 2: Protection I: Skill [Resilience] can be used on other targets, consuming own Qi and Blood, effect is 40% of the original effect
It actually allows choosing additional skill effects?
This reminded Lin Mo of certain roguelike games he played in his previous life; this feeling of freely choosing branches had a bit of that flavor.
So, which one should he choose?
The first effect simply meant reflecting the opponent's attack—40% of the reduced damage, which is 8% of the original damage, would be reflected back to the attacker.
The second effect allowed him to cast [Resilience] on teammates, but while consuming the same amount of Qi and Blood, the effect would only be 40% of the original, providing only 8% physical damage reduction.
The former leaned toward personal combat power, while the latter leaned toward teamwork.
But comparatively, Lin Mo felt that consuming the same Qi and Blood for only 40% effect was quite a loss, whereas choosing the first option, Damage Reflection, was essentially an extra effect for free.
So ultimately, he still chose Evolution Path 1.
As the selection was completed, a line of small text appeared below the [Resilience] skill, noting the effect he had chosen.
With his strength significantly increased, it was time for a new adventure...
Around 2 PM at the Adventurers' Association, when Lin Mo pushed the door open, the other team members were already gathered around the slightly tipsy Alden, discussing the next mission.
Although he had drunk some alcohol, being an adventurer after all, it didn't affect his judgment that much. Alden looked at the mission board in front of him, carefully reading each one.
Most missions were of the type that could be done, but the rewards weren't very high.
If it were before Lin Mo joined, they could have been treated as daily tasks, but now with Lin Mo's combat power added to the team, doing such tasks felt somewhat wasteful.
Moreover, with one more person splitting the money, and his share being relatively high, the profit each person received became less.
As for missions with higher rewards...
Alden's eyes scanned through the D-rank missions, but after looking at just two or three, he repeatedly shook his head.
They were still far from being able to take on D-rank missions.
For now, they either needed to study the missions carefully like before, to see if they could pick a few that were conveniently located and could be done together.
Alden looked toward the special mission that the Association had just posted not long ago.
[Rescue Decree]: As the Goblin population continues to increase, villages near Roland Town have been repeatedly attacked by Goblins. To date, two villages have completely fallen. Therefore, the Association calls upon adventurers to go to the rescue and help villagers resist the Goblin invasion.
Optional areas: Falling Leaves Village, Marsh Village, Blue Orchid Village...
Current urgent area: Falling Leaves Village
There were six or seven villages in total needing rescue. Given the number of adventurers in Roland Town, even though the Association issued the Rescue Decree, it would likely be difficult to save all the villages.
That being said, they had to try; saving even one was good, and at the very least, they could buy time for the villagers to evacuate safely.
However, they were adventurers after all, not philanthropists. Whether they went or not depended on the rewards offered by the Association.
Lin Mo was also looking at this special mission.
Below the mission board, the reward section was written very clearly.
Mutated Goblin sub-adult bonus: 1.5 gold coins; adult bonus: 5 gold coins!
It was clear that the Association genuinely wanted to do something, as the rewards were quite generous.
First, the base salary was already not low. For those truly bottom-tier adventurers who couldn't even complete E-rank or F-rank missions, their income basically relied only on killing Goblins for bounties and occasional F-rank missions within their capabilities.
For them, a 15 silver coin base salary was quite attractive.
And professionals even had a 1 gold coin base salary.
Although this wasn't much for professionals, it represented respect.
Regarding the killing bonuses, the base price for Goblins increased by 50%, and if many were killed, there would be additional increases, reaching up to 5 times the current price!
This was already 25 times the price during non-emergency situations.
Furthermore, the Association considered the need for mission counts from adventurers wanting to advance and specifically added the third point.
At least Lin Mo was quite satisfied with this point.
His current total mission count was 5 Black Iron-rank missions. To advance to a Bronze-rank adventurer, he still needed 2 Bronze-rank missions and 13 Black Iron-rank missions.
If this rescue operation went smoothly, he might be able to get credit for 2 Black Iron and 1 Bronze mission all at once.
In terms of income, as long as the number of Goblins killed was sufficient, it would also be quite substantial.
Lin Mo and Alden exchanged a glance and almost simultaneously nodded.