novelraw Chapter 243: The Seedling of "Demonic Qi"? Possibilities of Spell Tank and Spell Thrust!
Chapter 243: The Seedling of "Demonic Qi"? Possibilities of Spell Tank and Spell Thrust!
Morning sunlight filtered through the window and spilled across the sheets, and just like that the night had slipped away.
Of course, for Lin Mo, his night had not been so peaceful.
Although they had picked a random inn, this was the Royal Capital after all, so the lodging was decent and the soundproofing was pretty good.
Naturally, right when Lin Mo had finished washing up and was about to rest, the ill-intentioned big tail mercilessly knocked on his door.
Perhaps because she had hardly contributed to the mission this time and felt stung by it, Ellie’s desire to improve flared much stronger than usual.
She wanted to get better, and Lin Mo naturally had to "suffer" for it.
Although his constitution attributes far outpaced Ellie’s, she had her own innate advantage: when she was tired she could just lie down and do nothing.
In short, Lin Mo endured another exhausting night.
But although Ellie gained some attributes from him, Lin Mo did not come away empty-handed.
First, his Shared Cultivation skill leveled up to level 2 because of it."Skill [Shared Cultivation] Lv1 (10/10) upgraded!"
"Current skill [Shared Cultivation] Lv2 (1/20)"
But that wasn’t the most important result from last night. After this special skill evolved, it also gained a chance to learn the partner’s skills.
The probability was low, which was why Lin Mo had never triggered it before.
Last night, however, the effect finally triggered for the first time.
"Skill learned through 'Shared Cultivation'—Frost Slash!"
Yes, this was Ellie’s skill.
[Frost Slash] Lv1 (0/10): Activate the clan blood’s ice power, unleash a slash imbued with icy breath to attack the enemy, and apply a small slowing effect.
This is a green excellent-grade warrior skill. Ellie had used it many times before, and its power was quite decent.
But Lin Mo had a question...
From the skill’s description, this ability was clearly a special type, akin to a racial talent;
normal warriors would definitely be unable to use it.
They did not possess Ice Wolf Clan blood, so they had no so-called ice power in their veins. Not only could they not use it, they could not even learn the skill under normal circumstances.
Unless the skill was modified to remove the requirement for ice power, but then it would be no different from a regular slash.
So could he actually use this skill?
Lin Mo had no certainty.
It was still early. Everyone had drunk a lot last night and probably would not rise too early, and they had arranged to head to the Association around noon.
So it was a perfect chance to test it in the courtyard.
Ellie shifted the small tail tucked under her, got up to change and wash, and walked out of the room.
Inn standards in the Royal Capital were generally modest;
the one they stayed at was the same, with no free breakfast provided.
Of course, when they said "no free breakfast," those costs were essentially already rolled into the room fee.
Staying here for a night was not cheap.
They went downstairs to the dining area for a simple meal, and Lin Mo then went to the empty yard behind the inn.
In this world, adventurers made up a huge population and were the main customers at inns. So most decent inns provided an open yard as a practice ground for adventurers.
Some even built a proper ring.
The inn they stayed at didn’t have one, but Lin Mo only intended to test a skill, so it didn’t matter.
There were some tattered wooden and iron posts in the courtyard. Without using the Frost Dragon Scale Sword, Lin Mo drew a practice iron sword from a nearby rack and tried to mobilize his qi and blood.
[Frost Slash]!
He executed a clean slash, but the blade did not leave the ice-blue “trace” like Ellie’s did.
As expected...
Lin Mo was not surprised;
after all, this was entirely predictable.
It wasn't that it was a total failure, just an incomplete skill release.
So was there no way to truly use this skill?
Lin Mo was not ready to give up, and tried to resonate his mana with ice elements inside him.
[Frost Slash]!
...
Watching the ice-blue energy blade fly out, Lin Mo shook his head helplessly.
This did not mean he had succeeded. That ice-blue energy blade was merely sword energy simulated by manipulating ice-element mana;
in essence it still belonged to magic, formed from elements, not from qi and blood.
If combining qi-and-blood with magic were really that easy, Spellswords wouldn’t still be a legend.
Lin Mo continued to study carefully. Frost Slash presented a very promising opportunity. Researching this skill might determine whether he could truly become a Spellsword.
If his research progressed well and he could finally release it properly, he would have a significant chance to change profession into Spellsword when he advanced to Elite Level.
Conversely, if he made no headway, even if he advanced as both a warrior and a mage, the chance to become a Spellsword would remain slim.
Lin Mo kept adjusting his qi-and-blood and mana, trying again and again to bring the two closer and fuse them.
But every attempt to merge the two energies produced a strong repulsion, and progress was nearly zero.
[Frost Slash]!
Another ice-blue "sword energy" flew out. Lin Mo sighed, shaking his head.
As he’d said before, at bottom this thing was just a transformation of the Ice Spike spell by using subtle manipulation of mana.
And using only qi-and-blood to perform Frost Slash would be no different from an ordinary slash.
Progress was stuck.
Just as he prepared to rest briefly and think over other possible approaches, he turned and saw Sherfilia carrying a tray over.
On it was a steaming cup of tea.
He didn’t even know when she had noticed him here...
It could only be said that the little maid was truly attentive and thoughtful.
Lin Mo took the cup from Sherfilia and sipped the tea lightly.
"Do you need help, Master?"
Lin Mo shook his head, about to decline, then suddenly noticed Sherfilia’s finely braided hair and froze for a moment.
"This?"
A faint unnatural expression appeared on Sherfilia’s usually calm face.
"Miss Finnie said she wanted to learn how to braid hair...
So she used her as practice?"
No... the truth was Miss Finnie also wanted to groom her sister Sherfilia’s hair, right?
But if Finnie had said that outright, Sherfilia definitely would not have agreed.
So she used this excuse.
Finnie had plenty of experience in dealing with her elder sister.
After understanding this, Lin Mo smiled to himself;
the feeling of being bothered by a tricky problem and eager for quick results faded considerably.
Lin Mo picked up Sherfilia’s braid. Since Sherfilia had been helping with such things since childhood, he could see Finnie’s technique was awkward and the braid wasn’t very pretty.
But Sherfilia clearly liked it. Seeing Lin Mo fidget with it, she said nothing but a faint nervousness showed on her face.
A seemingly simple overlapping braid was actually not so simple, but made from three or four strands of hair crossing and twisting repeatedly.
Many things in the world are like that: complex essence forming a simple surface.
You see a mountain as a mountain, then it is not a mountain, then it is a mountain again...
First examine the surface, then understand the essence, and finally return to the starting point.
What looks the same at first has already been reconstructed;
comprehension has changed drastically.
Lin Mo’s movements suddenly stopped, as if an old monk had entered meditation, and he stayed motionless for a long time.
Sherfilia seemed to notice something and likewise stood still like a wooden doll.
Finally Lin Mo took a deep breath, put down the braid, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and entered a state of "meditation."
He tried again to mobilize qi-and-blood and mana.
These two energies, now extremely familiar to him, under his precise, subtle control twisted and interlaced like the movements of his hands, rather than simply approaching and fusing.
Within the entangling of mana and qi-and-blood existed very large gaps.
These gaps stemmed from the repulsion between the two, just like when he earlier tried to use both together.
If he blindly arranged them in mana, qi;
mana, qi order, they could never combine.
But what if he changed two strands into a three-strand group?
Mana, mana, qi...
Qi, qi, mana...
Mana, mana, qi...
Lin Mo kept trying to stack the energies in different sequences, like braiding hair.
No, still no luck!
Lin Mo frowned. No matter the arrangement, the two couldn’t cooperate well.
These attempts had probably been tried by predecessors long ago.
So what if he referred directly to the Frost Slash skill?
Lin Mo began applying his attempted sequences to the operation of Frost Slash.
Obviously, things did not go smoothly. No combination matched the skill’s operational logic, so he couldn’t get the skill route to run properly.
Was this route wrong too?
Lin Mo felt some disappointment.
He had thought he might have found the right path, but it seemed not.
The balance between mana and qi-and-blood could not be achieved;
whatever arrangement he tried, one side would temporarily dominate.
That prevented compressing the interlaced energies and eliminating the gaps caused by repulsion.
So what if he made it more complex...
For example, instead of directly interlacing mana and qi-and-blood, use composite strands made of mana-and-qi combinations to wrap around each other!
Mana, mana, qi.
Qi, qi, mana.
Follow that order and then entwine the two...
No change.
Then...
Lin Mo did not lose heart and tried again.
Mana, qi, mana.
Qi, mana, qi.
On the other side do the reverse: qi, mana, qi and mana, qi, mana... then repeat the combinations.
That produced three-strand composite energies: two starting with "mana, qi, mana" then reversed into "qi, mana, qi," and he combined those two composite strands.
Then he attempted to spiral them together...
Even with Lin Mo’s strong control of qi-and-blood and mana, he was sweating profusely;
one slip and all could be undone.
Not enough — he needed further subdivision and more combinations!
He reintroduced abandoned combos like "mana, mana, qi," continuously experimenting to find a configuration that might achieve balance.
The amount of energy inside him increased, and because of the large gaps it became increasingly "voluminous," or rather hollow and diffuse. Such unfocused energy could not be transmitted or used, and the skill operation stalled entirely.
Lin Mo remained composed, continuing to try.
Finally...
At one moment, the energy that had undergone countless "nesting" experiments experienced a brief, tiny compression.
Although it quickly rebounded and balance was broken again, that was enough!
Lin Mo opened his eyes, his expression ecstatic.
This proved his path might be correct!
Remember the last combination and keep adjusting;
perhaps he could find that delicate balance point and compress that hollow composite energy.
Until he could eliminate all the gaps between mana and qi-and-blood, then construct with smaller, more fragmented bits of mana and qi-and-blood in the same way, eventually shaping the complex energy into a "volume" and "form" similar to ordinary mana or qi-and-blood, and maybe then a brand-new energy could be born!
Lin Mo wanted to call this energy composed of mana and qi-and-blood "demonic qi."
This logic differed from the Paladin profession.
The Paladin profession existed not because historical paladins—like the saint Joan—had conquered the fusion of mana and qi-and-blood, but because the operational logic and routes of some knight and priest skills were similar, and they borrowed the god-given "Holy Light" to run their skills.
The "Holy Light" was essentially a very special light-element mana. Thus, the Paladin used the priest profession as a base, learned knight skills, then channeled Holy Light to unleash stronger defense and protection than a knight while retaining priestly support and healing.
After reading the church texts, Lin Mo actually wanted to call them "pseudo-Paladins."
Because their essence was not a true combination of the two physical-and-magical professions, but an alienated expansion of one of them.
Holy Light was a powerful energy;
a true Paladin might not necessarily be stronger than a pseudo-Paladin, but would certainly have greater operational flexibility. Their profession’s skills would not be limited to so-called Paladin abilities, but could freely use light-element magical qi to enhance any knight or priest skills.
And once he mastered the "demonic qi" composed of mana and qi-and-blood, Lin Mo could not only become a Spellsword and a true Paladin, he could also use demonic qi to reinforce and activate other professions’ skills, becoming a spell tank, magic archer, or spell-thrust!