novelraw Chapter 269: Level 7 Knight, Running Into an Acquaintance
Chapter 269: Level 7 Knight, Running Into an Acquaintance
Lin Mo jumped down from the carriage without drawing his sword. Although these monsters were slightly higher quality than the goblins they had encountered earlier, they weren’t much stronger, so it made no difference to him.
Low-level monsters are naturally meant for leveling low-level skills, so Lin Mo summoned his crystalline shield again using Crystal Shield Technique, then channeled his qi and blood and threw the shield.
Spinning Shield!
This skill had already reached level 4 in that previous goblin encounter, so evolution was not far off. It had become one of Lin Mo’s main training targets.
He deliberately poured a bit more mana into the Crystal Shield Technique to make the shield larger. The huge shield was thrown, and those goblins who had been cocky and unaware a moment ago suddenly panicked and tried to flee. They barely had time before the massive shield landed on their faces.
There was no suspense—the goblins in the skill’s range fell in neat rows, each dying a miserable death.
The crystalline shield spun back and ruthlessly mowed down another group of goblins on a different path.
Spinning Shield proficiency +53!
That many?
Lin Mo blinked in surprise, then smiled. Among these goblins there seemed to be some Goblin Guards mixed in. Goblin Guards start at level 1, and killing one yields 8 proficiency points.One more hit, and this skill would evolve!
He reached out and caught the returning shield steady in his hand, then threw it again.
This time he aimed at those unusually large figures.
Mutated Goblins.
These monsters, which had once nearly trapped him when he first crossed over, didn’t look much different from ordinary goblins now. If anything, their larger size made them easier to kill.
Lin Mo was far too fast. The mutated goblins couldn’t react in time and were sliced open by the high-speed spinning shield.
Spinning Shield proficiency +48
He had just finished off six mutated goblins. Each mutated goblin gave 8 proficiency points, which exactly pushed Spinning Shield to level up.
“Skill Spinning Shield Lv4 (100/100) leveled up!”
“Current skill Spinning Shield Lv5 (Max)”
“Gained base attribute point Constitution +2!”
“Automatically evolved into new skill—Multiple Spin!”
“Learned skill Multiple Spin! Gained base attribute point Constitution +2!”
Multiple Spin Lv1 (0/10): Inject qi and blood into the shield, then throw it. The shield will spin multiple times (depending on the injected qi and blood), dealing damage again to enemies it collides with.
The upgraded version of Spinning Shield was still a fairly straightforward skill.
From the description, as long as enough qi and blood were injected, the shield could keep spinning and shuttle back and forth through enemy crowds. That was already quite good. Since it was an excellent-grade skill, Lin Mo wouldn’t demand more than that.
Ellie caught the returning shield, then used the newly acquired skill to throw it again.
Ellie still wasn’t fully proficient at manipulating qi and blood. When she controlled the shield to shuttle among the goblins, it didn’t have the same feeling of using qi to govern the shield. It was indeed more convenient than Spinning Shield, but the experience wasn’t as good as expected.
Finnie didn’t even have time to check her status panel.
The full upgrade of Spinning Shield and the learning of Multiple Spin together granted Lin Mo four base Constitution points.
His Constitution attribute rose to 72 points, and his Knight profession level increased from 6 to 7.
“Promotion conditions met, Knight (lv6) promoted—current profession Knight (lv7)”
“Gained profession attribute enhancement: Strength +1, Constitution +4, Agility +1!”
A small but welcome attribute boost. Lin Mo wasn’t very interested in examining his overall stats further and quickly returned his attention to the battlefield.
This wave of goblins was fairly large—over 300 in total—making it a sizable force.
They were probably a gathering of nearby goblins coming to repel intruders.
There were enough goblins here for Lin Mo to complete the task, but they lacked high-tier targets. The quest required killing at least ten Bronze-rank goblins, and in this group there wasn’t a single one to be seen.
That meant he’d have to keep searching later, and he might not be able to gather ten in one wave.
That was a bit troublesome...
Since these two tasks were only side objectives he planned to handle en route, Lin Mo didn’t intend to waste too much time. If he delayed too long, he wouldn’t reach the Royal Capital by tomorrow night.
Because the goblins came from all directions, Ellie and Sherfilia also joined the fight. However, their speed in clearing goblins wasn’t nearly as fast as Lin Mo’s. Neither Ellie nor Sherfilia had much in the way of crowd-control options.
Ellie was somewhat better, while Sherfilia, as an assassin, mainly had single-target skills.
But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Lin Mo extended his hand to recall the shield and deliberately slowed his killings. He planned to be a bit more measured, letting these goblins call for reinforcements.
If he slaughtered them too brutally, goblins might stop coming for a while, and then finding them later would be even more troublesome.
So Lin Mo began practicing some of his other Knight skills.
For example, Taunt and Shield Riposte.
Under Lin Mo’s deliberate control, the battle soon extended beyond five minutes.
The goblins couldn’t get close to the carriage. They knew instinctively they couldn’t defeat these opponents, but their stupid minds couldn’t judge just how strong Lin Mo and his group were. They simply followed instinct: if they couldn’t win, call for help.
This was goblin territory, after all, and their numbers were still large. After a long chorus of squeals and clatters, reinforcements inevitably arrived.
These goblins varied in quality: small teams of ordinary goblins, patrols of a dozen or two led by Mutated Goblins, and even some more powerful individuals.
Lin Mo saw a Bronze Goblin approach and his eyes brightened, but he didn’t rush to kill it. He waited patiently.
More and more goblins poured in. After over ten minutes, Lin Mo judged the timing right and stopped playing along.
Charging Shield
He held the crystalline shield and launched forward.
This newly learned skill resembled his earlier Great Shield Charge in some ways, but only superficially. The qi and blood circulation and the final effects were noticeably different.
Great Shield Charge travels a short distance and emphasizes a “smash,” while Charging Shield emphasized a “charge.” It covered a long distance with greater momentum, like a vanguard unit on the battlefield, penetrating an enemy formation and disrupting their lines.
The charge sent goblins flying in a chaotic heap along his path.
With Lin Mo’s current strength, even a relatively simple skill could produce astonishing power. His massive qi and blood allowed him to affect a much larger area than what met the eye. Even goblins three or four meters away could be shattered by the aftershock.
One charge killed at least thirty to forty goblins.
That felt good!
Lin Mo grinned. Regardless of its raw power, the skill was extremely satisfying to use.
After the charge, he flicked blood off the shield and launched another charge without hesitation.
He didn’t bother distinguishing ordinary goblins from Goblin Guards, Mutated Goblins, or Bronze Goblins—everything in his charge path was treated the same.
After three or four successive charges, the goblins began scattering. Lin Mo then targeted the Bronze Goblins trying to flee, threw his shield, controlled Multiple Spin, and easily caught up to and eliminated them one by one.
Finished.
Lin Mo instinctively intended to cast Cleansing Flow to wash everyone down.
But he halted halfway through channeling mana.
Cleansing Flow was convenient, but afterwards everyone would be soaked. Even drying them with fire magic would take some time.
That would have been fine before, but now...
Since successfully advancing to Spellsword and mastering the merging of qi and blood with mana, Lin Mo could now perform dual casting: using two different elemental magics simultaneously, even blending them.
Such blending could, in some sense, be considered a form of creation.
Lin Mo tried to cast Cleansing Flow again, but this time he synchronized with water element and simultaneously resonated with fire element. He attempted a spiraling fusion to embed the resonating fire element into Cleansing Flow’s circuit.
It wasn’t particularly simple, but it wasn’t too difficult either. After a bit of tinkering, Lin Mo grasped the trick and discovered the correct method.
A miraculous scene occurred: everyone’s bodies were washed as if by clean water, but without any dampness left behind. The water was fully integrated with the fire element embedded in Cleansing Flow, and the fire dried everything. It felt like taking a thorough hot shower from the inside out—clean and comfortable.
“How amazing!”
Ellie touched her big tail, face full of wonder.
Because of her bold and brash fighting style, she often got filthy in battle. Her large tail, once stained with blood, was hard to clean. Previously, using Lin Mo’s Cleansing Flow would leave it wet and uncomfortable, needing half an hour beside a fire to dry.
But now it was all done in one step.
“Lin Mo, sir, what is this?”
Compared to the less knowledgeable Sherfilia and Ellie, Finnie—though not a mage—was clearly more astonished.
Lin Mo smiled faintly and gave a short explanation. “Remember when I demonstrated synchronizing fire and water elements down in the lower levels of Boulder Mine? I took that a step further and developed this application.”
He said it casually, but if those old researchers who had spent their lives in Mage Towers heard such a description, they’d probably be driven mad.
They dedicate their whole lives to painstaking research, standing on the shoulders of predecessors to make slow progress, only to have some youngster leapfrog them with a flash of insight...
It would be devastating.
Finnie didn’t have a precise grasp of all that, so she simply marveled. She was used to the strange things that happened around Ellie.
For example, a couple of days before this incident... her own power suddenly leaped to level 5.
After asking Lin Mo about it, she discovered that Sherfilia had somehow failed to replicate that slow, gradual method of strength increase for them!
Compared to that, magic fusion seemed less shocking.
They quickly tidied the battlefield. That’s the downside of having a small group: fighting is easy if you’re strong, but all the prep and cleanup—like cooking and washing the dishes afterward—is tedious.
As adventurers, they were all experienced, and it didn’t take long.
Thanks to Lin Mo’s deliberate waiting, the reinforcements that arrived later finally filled the requirement for the ten Bronze-rank or higher goblins needed for the quest.
The first task was thus completed.
Next came the second task...
Lin Mo checked the sky. Though it was getting late, there was still time before dark, so it wasn’t yet time to rest.
They climbed back onto the carriage and continued toward the second quest location: Area 15 of the Silent Forest.
By the time night fell, they had reached the vicinity of Area 15. Night fighting wasn’t necessary, so Lin Mo parked the carriage in a relatively open spot, did a quick scout of the surroundings, handled the necessary tasks, and called it a day.
Dinner was fairly abundant. Thanks to the Spatial Ring, they had brought plenty of tasty and some high-quality ingredients from Fargard City. Lin Mo and Sherfilia cooked while Lena and Finnie helped, producing a hearty meal.
As for Ellie... she wanted to help but wasn’t good at it. She was clumsy, and not causing trouble was already an achievement.
The night passed quickly.
One more person rode on the carriage, but it didn’t feel crowded—Lena was petite and didn’t take much space. Still, she rarely slept outdoors and didn’t rest well even in the more comfortable carriage compared to a tent.
Fortunately, she wasn’t a fighter, so she could catch up on sleep during the day.
The next day the carriage rolled on. Sherfilia scouted from the front, Lena lay curled on Lin Mo’s thigh, sleeping soundly.
Finnie looked at the empty space on Lin Mo’s other thigh, hesitated, and didn’t say anything.
Ellie, however, was brazen and immediately flopped down there without embarrassment and didn’t sleep. She was always full of energy. Except for occasional nightly practice, once she slept she bounced up full of vigor.
Even lying on Lin Mo’s thigh she couldn’t keep still. Taking advantage of Lena being asleep, she pawed and groped like a naughty cat. If scolded she’d behave, but soon she’d try again.
Now wasn’t the time to “teach her a lesson,” or Lin Mo would have to properly set household rules so she learned her place.
Finnie watched Ellie’s antics with envy.
She regretted hesitating—if she’d been braver, she could have taken that spot. Now it was too late.
Lin Mo didn’t notice any of this. He checked the rewards from yesterday’s fight again.
Multiple Spin proficiency +1
Multiple Spin proficiency +8
...
A string of proficiency notifications accumulated to an astonishing total of 214 points!
That immediately pushed the recently evolved excellent-grade skill up in levels.
“Skill Multiple Spin Lv1 (10/10) leveled up!”
“Current skill Multiple Spin Lv3 (40/40)”
“Gained base attribute point Constitution +2!”
...
“Skill Multiple Spin Lv4 (100/100) leveled up!”
“Current skill Multiple Spin Lv5 (44/180)”
An excellent-grade skill’s max level is 6, so it was only one level away from evolving again.
Charging Shield, also an excellent-grade skill, saw good gains too.
A series of proficiency gains totaled 162 points, pushing it to level 4 and close to level 5.
“Gained base attribute point Constitution +2!”
“Skill Charging Shield Lv3 (40/40) leveled up!”
“Current skill Charging Shield Lv4 (92/100)”
Between the two skills, they gained another four base Constitution points—quite a haul.
Taunt and Shield Riposte also improved a bit, though not enough to level up.
Finnie’s disappointment didn’t last long, because they soon entered Area 15.
Though the second task wasn’t particularly difficult in theory, adventurers must never be careless. Respect for the task was essential.
Soon Lin Mo encountered a quest target: a Gale Tiger.
These beasts might lack intelligence, but they were better at sensing power than goblins. The instant it spotted Lin Mo, it realized it couldn’t take him on and turned to flee.
It hadn’t run far before a shield flew from behind and neatly severed its head.
Multiple Spin proficiency +25
The task didn’t state how many to kill, but each one dropped additional material rewards. Although the payout wasn’t huge for Lin Mo, he wasn’t going to stop after just one, so he continued searching the area.
Compared to goblins, these monsters were much less numerous. In half an hour, counting the first one, they encountered only five in total.
Five... five was certainly not enough.
Lin Mo planned to kill a few more, at least to reach a double-digit count. He continued searching the area for a while, when he suddenly heard activity in the distance—sounds of combat.
Curious, he approached and saw a familiar figure.
“This is...”
Finnie and Sherfilia both froze for a moment.