Starting Unlimited Evolution from Grinding

Chapter 254: This is a True Genius

Eve's gaze, in particular, fell on Lin Mo.

It was very clear that this person, who looked even younger than her, was the core of this group of adventurers.

Because after he appeared, the gazes of the other adventurers immediately focused on him.

This made Eve even more curious.

Although she had said that to Milun last night, someone this young, even if they had talent on the same level as Instructor Flora, should theoretically have only just reached the Veteran Level in terms of strength by now, right?

Or could his talent surpass Instructor Flora's, surpassing the person hailed as a once-in-a-century magical genius?

No matter how she thought about it, this was simply too exaggerated.

Wait a minute?

Didn't Milun say yesterday that during the time Instructor Flora was out investigating, she had encountered someone with talent higher than her own?

Of course, when Instructor Flora said those words back then, no one in their class took it seriously, treating it merely as a motivational tactic Instructor Flora used to spur them on.Including Eve herself, who thought the same yesterday. But in reality, was that truly the case?

Eve recalled the few rare occasions she had met Instructor Flora. Although their interactions were never long, she could still clearly see that Instructor Flora, just like herself, was someone with exceptionally strong self-esteem.

In fact, for geniuses like them, it would be strange if they *didn't* possess a very strong sense of self-esteem.

Would someone like that really easily admit that someone else was stronger than them?

Even if it was used as a teaching method...

Eve's train of thought didn't continue, because the Crystallized Spiders outside had already caught up.

"Prepare for battle!"

Dirk reminded them.

In the next instant, the adventurers readied themselves for combat and quickly formed up into ranks.

"Ladies, let's leave other matters for later. For now, let's work together to deal with these monsters first."

Hearing Dirk's words, Eve nodded.

If it were just their student team originally handling those monsters, the chances of victory would have been quite low. But now, with an additional group of adventurers, the situation was different.

Those who dared to adventure in the middle layer of the Boulder Mine and take on a Crystallized Spider nest mission were definitely not ordinary adventurers. Their strength, at the very least, wouldn't be weaker than their own.

With both sides combining forces, completely wiping out the Crystallized Spiders before them wasn't impossible.

The Crystallized Spiders arrived very quickly, and soon one charged right up to them.

Dirk took the lead, charging forward while brandishing the sword in his hand.

The Qi and Blood within his body rapidly circulated as he unleashed a dazzling Sword Energy slash, instantly cutting that Crystallized Spider in two.

Indeed!

As they say, a true expert reveals their skill with a single move. With Eve's discerning eye, she could naturally see the power of Lin Mo's strike. It wasn't far off from her own. He was undoubtedly a Level 10 Warrior, and very close to Level 11, the Elite Level.

Eve wasn't surprised by this. Without such strength, he wouldn't dare come to a place like this.

But such a person seemed to be only the second-in-command of this group. So how strong was this young man?

Could he really be at the Elite Level?

An Elite Level this young... forget the Kingdom, even in the Empire, that would be an astonishing level... No, at this level, terms like 'rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns' wouldn't suffice. You'd need words like 'earth-shattering' or 'mind-boggling'.

Eve looked forward to seeing him act. However, she didn't just stand and watch. When the second spider charged in, she also swung her longsword, unleashing a golden Sword Energy slash that similarly cut that Crystallized Spider in half.

And compared to Dirk's earlier move, hers was even more clean and decisive.

"So strong!"

Dirk was somewhat surprised. This young girl's strength was actually slightly higher than his own.

In fact, in terms of pure level, the two of them were very close. But Dirk, being a self-taught fighter, was clearly inferior to Eve, a proper student of the Royal National Academy, in terms of raw power, foundational skills, and skill repertoire.

If they were to really fight, Dirk might have the edge in experience and could tangle with her for quite some time, but the final outcome would basically be without much suspense.

In the past, seeing a genius of this caliber might have made Dirk sigh with emotion.

But now... let's just say that after being impacted by a certain someone, Dirk had become completely immune to these so-called geniuses.

No matter how much of a genius they were, they couldn't possibly be more of a genius than that monster...

One after another, Crystallized Spiders charged in from outside the nest. The adventurers all joined the fight, including the academy students. Everyone's strength was not weak. Although they couldn't handle these Crystallized Spiders one-on-one, by cooperating with each other, they could still put up a decent fight.

For a time, the situation on the battlefield looked very favorable.

Lin Mo naturally wouldn't let go of this proficiency that had fallen into his hands. He raised his palm, and a blazing fire spear instantly gathered in his palm.

Milun, the only other Mage in the current combined team besides him, was immediately drawn to this, her face showing surprise.

"Such powerful Mana! Such fast casting speed!"

She had only seen this level of skill from her own teacher.

[Blazing Fire Spear]

Lin Mo silently chanted. The flame spear was immediately hurled, crossing the battlefield at an extreme speed in an instant and striking a Crystallized Spider that had just squeezed its way in.

Without any suspense, that Crystallized Spider was instantly pierced by the powerful flame spear. The scorching high temperature almost instantly incinerated its internal organs. In less than two seconds, the Crystallized Spider stopped moving.

Eve's eyes instantly widened.

Without a doubt, Lin Mo's move was faster than both hers and Dirk's, and the kill was even more effortless.

His strength was indeed above Dirk's, and even above her own!

But he looked only eighteen or nineteen. How was this possible?

Eve remembered very clearly that when she was eighteen or nineteen, she was only below Level 5... Even Instructor Flora, when she was nineteen, had only barely reached Level 5.

Could it be that what Instructor Flora said was all true, and the genius who surpassed her that she encountered was this young man before her eyes?

For a moment, Eve was lost in a daze, while Lin Mo continued to hurl Blazing Fire Spears one after another.

Milun beside her had long been dumbfounded. *Bro, is this how you cast magic?*

*Is your Mana infinite? No mental strain? Why can you cast an Exceptional-Grade spell continuously like this?!*

This truly somewhat exceeded Milun's imagination and was completely different from what she had learned in school. One could say it practically tore her existing worldview to shreds.

"That big guy is coming!"

Unlike the astonishment of Eve, Milun, and the other students, the adventurers on Dirk's side were already accustomed to Lin Mo's exaggerated strength, so they could better focus their attention on the current battle.

Dirk heard the heavy footsteps and immediately called out a warning.

Hearing this, Lin Mo also grew excited. The proficiency from such a large monster was much greater than from these scattered creatures.

However, it was a bit awkward. Given the monster's size, while his [Blazing Fire Spear] would definitely deal considerable damage, killing it would still be somewhat difficult.

For monsters of such enormous size, what's needed to kill them isn't just the power of the skill itself, but also the ability to inflict damage over a sufficiently large area.

A piercing wound of the same size on a human versus on an elephant or even a blue whale would definitely have completely different effects.

As for magic like Frost Storm that could cause enough damage, it couldn't be used in this terrain, or it would definitely injure their own people.

Forget it. No need to think about promoting to Elite right now. Just get the proficiency. Let's just use skills like Phantom Sword Dance and Demonic Light Piercing Kill that won't level up in the short term to resolve this.

Having made the decision, Lin Mo directly charged towards the direction of the cavern entrance.

Eve was instantly stunned. Wasn't he a Mage? A profession like Mage should be casting spells from a safe distance. Why was he charging out?

Her confusion soon grew even stronger.

Because Lin Mo suddenly pulled out a sword from somewhere.

And it was an extremely high-level sword!

Even from a great distance, Eve could clearly see the faint blue glow emanating from the sword's body.

As the chief of the Kingdom's Warrior Academy, the sword in Eve's hand was actually very good—an upper-tier Exceptional-Grade weapon.

At her level, obtaining a weapon of this grade was already somewhat over-the-top.

One must know that most Elite Level experts still used only mid-tier Exceptional-Grade weapons.

Some Transcendent Level experts were still using upper-tier Exceptional-Grade weapons.

But the one before her eyes... if Eve's judgment wasn't mistaken, was that thing... an Epic-Grade weapon?

But that wasn't even the main point of the issue...

The point was, why would a Mage pull out an Epic-Grade sword? Could it be he wanted to get close and slash at the monster?

From a normal person's perspective, this seemed like madness, like deliberately seeking death.

But judging by the expressions of his companions, that was clearly not the case.

Could it be that while being a Level 10 Mage, he was also a Warrior?

Excessive shock and confusion made Eve even forget to help, to deal with the Crystallized Spider Queen charging into the nest.

And by the time she reacted to this, the situation seemed to no longer require her involvement at all.

[Phantom Sword Dance]!

This skill, unused for some time, was unleashed once again. Consecutive, dazzling sword lights slashed towards the colossal creature before him. Each sword light that landed on the Crystallized Spider Queen's body left a deep wound.

Inside this cave, the Crystallized Spider Queen had no space to dodge. It could only continuously roar and attack Lin Mo.

However, its attacks couldn't even touch the hem of Lin Mo's clothes. While executing Phantom Sword Dance, Lin Mo very easily dodged its attacks. The motion of unleashing Sword Energy was almost completely unaffected.

In a short while, the Crystallized Spider Queen's body was already covered in wounds.

Finally, the last sword energy, carrying the power accumulated from all the previous hits, shot towards the head of the Crystallized Spider Queen before him.

The Crystallized Spider Queen, truly worthy as one of the strongest among low-tier Lord Level monsters, even in this situation, still reacted. It raised two thick spider legs to block this finishing sword energy.

The remaining power of the sword energy landed on the Crystallized Spider Queen's head, directly shearing off half of it.

The Crystallized Spider Queen's aura instantly withered. Its massive body no longer had the oppressive presence it did when it first appeared.

But even so, it didn't die immediately. Its vitality was truly formidable enough.

If it were a smaller monster, even a Level 11 or 12 middle-tier Lord Level monster, it probably wouldn't have survived.

However, its current state was no different from being dead.

Lin Mo immediately gathered another flame spear and shot it at the monster before him.

The Crystallized Spider Queen had long lost the ability to resist. The flame spear pierced through its remaining half-head without any suspense. The massive body, standing four to five meters tall and ten meters long and wide, completely stopped moving.

It was resolved... just that easily?

Dirk and his team naturally took it in stride, but the academy students were far from that calm.

One must know they had previously witnessed their own captain, the chief of the Royal National Academy's Warrior division, battle this monster.

Although it was only a brief fight, it was clearly evident that while their captain could gain a certain advantage in the battle, actually killing this monster would be quite strenuous, requiring a very long time.

But this young adventurer who appeared out of nowhere before them had used only two moves... Actually, to be precise, it was just one move. The second was merely for cleanup.

With just one move, he rendered that terrifying monster powerless to resist.

This level of strength... even an Elite Level expert would be no more than this, right?

Eve took a deep breath and slowly exhaled...

She wasn't an overly arrogant person, but even so, her objectively superior talent within the Kingdom had long accustomed her to leaving her peers far behind.

In her eyes, she usually only paid attention to those few geniuses on the same level as herself, such as Flora, who had already become an academy instructor.

But even Flora, or the other few geniuses, in Eve's view, weren't that much stronger than her. At the very least, they were still within the same tier of talent.

Yet Lin Mo's performance just now had genuinely given her a feeling of awe, of being daunted by the sight.

It was a sense of powerlessness, a feeling that no matter how hard she tried, no matter how many fortuitous encounters she had, no matter how powerful a master instructed her, she could never surpass him...

This... was a true genius.

The kind of dazzlingly brilliant youth from historical records, the kind of protagonist in the popular stories of Bards that people yearned for.

And people like them were merely stepping stones before such geniuses, slightly notable and possessing a bit of presence.