Starting Unlimited Evolution from Grinding

Chapter 256: Hello, Classmate

"Could you explain in more detail? What happened on your side..."

Hearing the students' indignant and furious curses, Lin Mo couldn't help but ask curiously.

Could it be that this matter wasn't as he had just thought, but had another reason behind it?

"It's Satt!"

A student with a rather impatient temperament said excitedly, "That bastard is a student of the Kingdom's Ranger Academy, and also the top student of the Ranger Academy... But this isn't because his talent is particularly high or because he works particularly hard, but because he has a good father."

"Oh?"

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Satt's father is one of the most powerful Grand Dukes in the Kingdom, Duke Sted Morin."

The calmer male student beside him answered.

Him again?Lin Mo was momentarily stunned. Should he call this a coincidence, or is this Duke Sted Morin truly so wicked that he commits every evil?

Why does it feel like every time something bad happens, it's more or less related to him?

"Satt is usually flamboyant and aggressive, relying on his power and influence to frequently bully students in the academy. Big Sister Eve has had several conflicts with him because of this. Plus, his strength can't compare to Sister Eve's, and he's often overshadowed by Big Sister's limelight. Over time, he's grown to resent her even more, constantly resorting to underhanded tricks."

"It's just that we never expected his audacity to be this great this time!"

"This isn't the kind of minor scuffles that happen within the academy."

Eve shook her head. "Nor is it a decision Satt could make alone."

"That's right. This matter must involve his father, that Duke Sted Morin."

Milun, listening to everyone's conversation, had also understood the ins and outs of the situation. "So, they want to win first place in the upcoming Hunting Competition, but are afraid they can't compete with Sister Eve, so they chose to eliminate the competition in advance using this method?"

"That's probably exactly how it is."

The calmer male student nodded. "And the reason they're taking such a huge risk is probably related to the recently rising Noren Trading Company."

"I see..."

Lin Mo nodded thoughtfully.

He remembered his own shopping experience at the Noren Trading Company back then;

it was indeed quite satisfying, and the prices were very competitive.

This meant the backing behind the Noren Trading Company must be a very large force. After all, without substantial financial resources, it's difficult to compete with such a low-price strategy. Moreover, without the strength to completely disregard the Morin Family, they wouldn't dare to so blatantly snatch business from the Morin Trading Company.

The Noren Trading Company's background is clearly deep enough to make Duke Sted Morin dare not use other methods, those dirty, underhanded tricks. So, to protect their existing market share, they can only boost their family's prestige, using this method to attract customers and compete with the opponent.

Simply put, they want to win first place in the Hunting Competition, using this opportunity to advertise.

To achieve this, he would stop at nothing, even going so far as to try to eliminate Eve, a top-ranking student at the Royal National Academy. This is enough to show how much impact the emergence of the Noren Trading Company has had on the Morin Family's industries.

After all, the risk of doing so is extremely low. The Morin Family has already offended the Vice Dean of the Mage Academy, Elvish. If they were to create conflicts with other academies as well, the combined pressure from the entire Royal National Academy would be difficult for even the Morin Family to bear.

Moreover, what the Mage Academy lost back then was just an ordinary student. But now, over there are relatively elite students from various academies, and Eve is even the top student of the Warrior Academy. If something were to happen to them and the investigation pointed to the Morin Family, the already shaken foundations of the Morin Family would certainly accelerate their decline, or even have fuel added to the fire, possibly leading to direct removal.

As for them being dragged into this incident, Lin Mo estimated it was most likely just a coincidence.

Although it would be very easy for Duke Morin's side to obtain their itinerary, the final task selection was ultimately decided by themselves. At most, after Duke Morin learned about the task they accepted, he conveniently added them to the cleanup list as well.

The general outline of the matter was now clear. Based on the information they currently possessed, there should be that mage who just acted not far from them.

Being able to directly disintegrate and destroy such a large area of "ground," the other party should be an earth-element mage, and their strength must at least reach Flora's level.

Such people are very rare in the Kingdom and can be easily guessed.

So, just as Eve surmised earlier, they don't dare to attack directly.

Even though the chaotic mana fluctuations in the lower levels of the Boulder Mine can conceal traces of magic, if they directly attacked them with magic, that would be an entirely different situation.

With such large-scale losses, the academy would definitely investigate thoroughly, which naturally includes the cause of death of these students. By then, just by following the clues, everything would come to light.

But if he doesn't attack, then this collapse incident, in the absence of clear evidence, might be treated as a simple accident. In a place with unstable magic and powerful magical creatures running rampant, such accidents are indeed possible.

"But they will definitely try every way to lure magical creatures to attack us."

"Get ready, everyone!"

After learning the situation, Dirk had completely calmed down, returning to his usual self.

The current situation cannot be changed. Compared to complaining or cursing, what they should do now is try their best to do everything they can, find a way to survive, and wait for rescue to arrive.

"Mana communication cannot reach the academy. After some time, Teacher Flora and the others should realize something is wrong here, and then they will send personnel to investigate. If things go quickly, perhaps in about a day, or at the slowest, just a day and a half or two days, rescue will arrive."

"That's good..."

Hahn breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most worried about earlier was that no one would discover this accident. If that were the case, they wouldn't know how many days they'd be trapped here.

Right, these students are, after all, the treasures of the Royal National Academy, so they are naturally highly valued.

"Flora... teacher?"

What Lin Mo focused on was clearly something else.

"You are Flora's students?"

"To be precise, only she is."

The calmer male student pointed at Milun.

This girl looked at Lin Mo and asked curiously, "Sir, do you know Teacher Flora?"

Lin Mo nodded. "She helped me a lot. We met by chance back then, and she taught me some basic knowledge about magic, helping me open the door to spells. Looking at it this way, to some extent, we could even be considered classmates?"

"Hello, Classmate Milun."

"You... hello?"

Milun's mouth twitched. She quickly remembered the "angry words" Teacher Flora said when complaining about them in class.

Could it be that those seemingly fantastical deeds were not imagined out of thin air by Teacher Flora, nor was she reading too many bard's novels, but were facts that actually happened to her?

Milun recalled Teacher Flora's description at the time again. No matter how many times she heard it, it still felt utterly unreal... Just like the young man before her, strong to a point that doesn't seem human.

It seems... everything matches up?

Milun took a deep breath, and the look in her eyes when she looked at Lin Mo again had become somewhat strange.

This was like suddenly telling someone from Blue Star that there really is a monkey in this world called Sun Wukong, who would swing a staff and jump up to hit your knees...

"Let's leave the small talk here. In short, let's first try to find a suitable place to take shelter, to avoid being attacked from all sides. We'll have to stay here for at least a day or two, so we also need to consider the issue of rest."

"I'll handle it."

Lin Mo nodded and used the [Shadow Split] skill to summon his clone.

In such a dangerous place, rashly exploring the surroundings is obviously not the right decision. But as Dirk said, they need a place suitable for shelter, combat, and rest.

Using a clone for exploration at such a time is more than appropriate.

The clone set off, walking into the deep darkness ahead.

At the same time, Lin Mo finally had time to check his status panel again.

After the Blazing Fire Spear skill completed its evolution, Lin Mo gained a total of 7 more basic Mana attributes. Thus, his basic Mana attribute had now reached 115 points.

Correspondingly, his basic Strength attribute was now 117 points, and Lin Mo still had a newly acquired skill, [Blood Moon Sky Charge], that he hadn't leveled up yet.

Although the difficulty of leveling Epic-Level skills is relatively higher, it only needs to reach level 3 to obtain basic attribute points again. In a dangerous place like the lower levels of the Boulder Mine, getting this skill to level 3 is quite easy.

As for magic, it's a bit different from the previous plan.

Mainly because the basic attribute points gained were split, with a few points going to the Spirit attribute, so there's still a gap of 5 points.

The newly acquired skill [Blazing Sky Fire Spear] is in the same situation. Although reaching level 3 with one skill will again yield basic attribute points, just like when acquiring the skill, it will likely also allocate 1 point to the Spirit attribute. That would leave a gap of 1 attribute point.

So he needs to first gain at least one more basic Mana attribute.

Fortunately, this isn't difficult either. Lin Mo checked his list of magic skills and finally focused his gaze on an Exceptional-Grade skill he had used relatively little since obtaining it.

[Thunderfall]

Actually, besides this skill, there are other choices. For example, the common-grade skill [Earth Spike] is also currently at level 4, only one level away from the max level of 5.

But this is, after all, the lower level of the Boulder Mine, with many powerful magical creatures, and many of them are also very large in size.

The common-grade skill [Earth Spike] might not be capable of killing those powerful magical creatures.

But switching to the Exceptional-Grade skill [Thunderfall] solves the problem.

The power of an Exceptional-Grade skill, combined with Lin Mo's Mana attribute, is enough to kill even level 10 magical creatures.

The lower levels of the Boulder Mine, while containing many mid-level Lord-Level magical creatures, doesn't mean they are all of that level...

There are also level 7, level 8, and even level 6 magical creatures.

Having settled on his plan, Lin Mo shifted more of his attention to the clone.

In the darkness, even with the Eagle Eye skill's enhancement, Lin Mo's clone could only see relatively nearby areas. He continuously explored forward along the edge of the broken mountain wall beside them.

The place they were currently in was a large open area backed against a mountain wall. This kind of terrain is vulnerable from three sides—no, four directions...

After all, they are in an underground mine. In such a place, there are many underground-dwelling magical creatures, so the ground beneath their feet is also a direction they must guard against.

The most ideal resting place would preferably be a triangular area at a corner or a relatively narrow cave.

Such places would allow them to reduce the range they need to guard and make it harder to be ambushed.

Especially caves with narrow passages. Large magical creatures would have difficulty passing through these places, and even if they forced their way through, they would create a lot of noise, giving them enough preparation time and eliminating worries about being ambushed.

Unfortunately, after searching for a while, "Lin Mo" still hadn't found a suitable place.

The clone's duration had run out.

Lin Mo frowned. "It seems there aren't any suitable places nearby."

"In that case, we'll have to do it ourselves."

As he spoke, he turned to look at the mountain wall behind him, mobilizing the Qi and Blood throughout his body and entering a charging state.

A few seconds later, he raised his hand and unleashed a [Demonic Light Piercing Kill], blasting a large hole in the mountain wall.

However, Lin Mo controlled the flow of Qi and Blood, not making the hole too deep, only about ten meters or so. This way, if anything unexpected happened, they could evacuate immediately.

The diameter of the hole entrance was about a meter or so, not quite sufficient...

Lin Mo charged up again and unleashed another [Demonic Light Piercing Kill], opening another hole above it.

"Let's go."

With that, he walked into the cave under everyone's dumbfounded gazes.

The cave was somewhat narrow. Such a place was clearly not spacious enough for living, but it wasn't a big problem. After walking a short distance, Lin Mo began to mobilize his Mana, resonating with the earth element, "compressing" the surrounding mountain walls, forcefully expanding a relatively spacious "room."

This way, they could have enough space for movement while also making the surrounding mountain walls more compact and solid, harder to destroy.

The downside was that it consumed a lot of Mana and required a high degree of Mana control.

But for Lin Mo, these weren't major issues.

Milun was completely stunned.

She could now understand why Teacher Flora was so frustrated with them.

She even started to think that the teacher was being quite gentle and restrained when scolding them...

How can one person master so many elements while also mastering multiple professions?

His level of Mana usage is also frighteningly high. Even the academy's instructors might not have such effortless control over Mana as he does.

"Although I'd like to say let's all work together to set up this temporary shelter, it seems some people aren't as patient as we are."

Listening to the faint but heavy footsteps in the distance, Lin Mo sighed helplessly.

"Let's go, let's go see our first opponent..."