Starting Unlimited Evolution from Grinding

Chapter 283: So you used your charm on my student?

【Shared Cultivation】 proficiency +22

That many?

Early the next morning, Lin Mo looked at the message before him, somewhat surprised.

Thinking about it carefully, it was probably because Lena had enough "room for improvement," so the effect that 【Shared Cultivation】 could achieve was also quite significant.

Continuing like this, it wouldn't be long before this skill reached Level 5.

However, from this, Lin Mo also discovered a problem...

Lena's body seemed a bit too weak.

This was also normal. After all, although Lena was a Half-Orc, she didn't have any particularly strong physical talents. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been unable to become an adventurer back then and could only work as a front desk receptionist at the Adventurers' Association.

And because she was now focusing on the Planter direction, the attributes she gained from 【Shared Cultivation】 were also magic-oriented attributes, namely Mana and Spirit.

Not being able to gain Constitution attribute growth through this method meant she would likely remain this "frail" in the future.Although Lin Mo would of course take care of her physical condition, it still felt a bit like a waste of time.

Not just Lena, actually Finnie had this problem too.

And originally, the time spent staying overnight in the city wasn't much. With four people, the waiting time was also a bit too long.

It seemed it was time to find a more efficient solution that wouldn't waste time...

One could only say, having a high Constitution attribute is truly an advantage.

Especially after yesterday's "make-up feast" of a big meal, and facing a relatively weak, even the weakest opponent, Lin Mo was now bursting with confidence.

Plus, he discovered an unexpected bonus—the green excellent-grade Knight professional skill named 【Endurance】 that he had learned earlier, which could reduce stamina consumption and collision impact, seemed to also take effect in some strange places...

In short, this issue could be seriously discussed later.

After all, improving strength is a very important matter.

"Lena, time to get up."

Looking at the soft girl collapsed on the bed beside him, Lin Mo gently pinched her cheek.

"Mmm~"

Lena had actually woken up a while ago, but she was too shy, so she had been pretending to sleep.

Pinched on the cheek by Lin Mo, she could only respond with a sound and slowly open her eyes.

How could she be this adorable?

Lin Mo couldn't help but reach out and rub the cat-girl's head. The feel was still that good.

"By the way, Lena, try to see if you can sense Mana now."

After teasing the cute girl for a while, Lin Mo finally remembered the main business.

"Oh, okay!"

Mentioning this, Lena's expression also turned serious. After all, previously, due to her lack of Mana talent, she had always been unable to sense Mana, and her development as a Planter had stalled because of it.

Hearing Lin Mo's words, she hurriedly tried and found that the previous feeling—like being separated by a thick barrier, finding it hard to sense Mana, as if looking at a mountain through fog—had suddenly disappeared.

She could clearly sense the surrounding elements, "see" the flow of elements.

There even seemed to be a stream of Mana already within her body...

"Mr. Lin Mo, I... I have Mana!"

She revealed an extremely excited expression, momentarily unsure how to express this excitement, so she simply hugged Lin Mo beside her.

Delicate skin pressed against him, making Lin Mo slowly take a deep breath.

This girl...

If it weren't Lena, but Sherfilia or Ellie instead, Lin Mo would definitely flip her over right now and do a set of morning calisthenics.

Perhaps because she was too happy, as she hugged him, Lena even started crying.

Lin Mo gently patted her back, understanding her emotions... In this world, having the aptitude to become a Professional was extremely important. Although talent is a major factor determining one's life trajectory everywhere, compared to Blue Star where it was more subtle, Professional aptitude... especially a direct difference like Mana talent, was much more brutal.

You either have it or you don't. Those without Mana talent could never learn magic no matter how hard they tried.

This was a "truth" deeply ingrained in people's hearts since ancient times. So before, even though Lena had been searching for a direction that suited her and putting in effort, her heart always felt empty because she knew that without gaining Mana, no matter what path she chose, she could only go a short distance.

But now, everything was different. She had Mana talent, and had even already gained Mana. This meant she had broader possibilities and the qualification to always follow behind the gentle, handsome Mr. Lin Mo.

"Alright, little crybaby, it's about time to get up... There are classes today, right?"

"Yes!"

Lena haphazardly wiped her tears, quickly got up, and put on her clothes. She was now full of motivation and couldn't wait to go to class.

At home, only Lena had classes to attend. Oh, wait, there was also the instructor, Flora...

Lin Mo walked out of the room and saw her. He felt her complexion looked somewhat haggard, with dark circles under her eyes, looking like a "workhorse."

Did she not rest well yesterday?

Lin Mo thought about it. Probably because of last night's meal?

After all, that meal was indeed quite nourishing, naturally having an invigorating effect that could indeed make it hard to sleep.

And compared to physical professions, magic professions generally had weaker Constitutions, so the impact of poor sleep would be greater.

But that's not right either... Although the above were facts, mages weren't without coping methods, namely meditation.

Meditation was a highly efficient learning method. Some mages even simply didn't sleep, completely replacing sleep with meditation, and there were quite a few such people.

Of course, Lin Mo didn't want to become such a grind maniac, nor was it necessary.

Meditating for too long would actually reduce the effectiveness of meditation itself. It was the same as studying or working—efficiency inevitably decreases over time, eventually becoming a superficial form of "fake effort."

Getting off track, back to the present. With a method like meditation that could replace sleep, Lin Mo really couldn't figure out why Flora looked so exhausted.

She looked like a legendary pilot who had just finished flying a thousand consecutive flights...

Seeing Lin Mo looking her way, Flora suddenly stiffened, inexplicably feeling a sense of guilt.

She shouldn't have gone to last night's meal.

Actually, in daily life, because she was always busy with many things and had to cultivate herself, Flora often didn't pay much attention to that kind of thing.

But yesterday, after eating so many "highly nourishing" things, the usually not-so-obvious restlessness seemed to surge all at once, making her toss and turn in bed, unable to sleep.

So she went downstairs to the mana-powered icebox, planning to drink something cold to calm down.

The result...

She just happened to see Lin Mo leave his room and enter what seemed to be the Half-Orc girl's room.

This time, the usually suppressed "flames" completely couldn't be contained. Even taking a cold shower didn't help, so...

Well, in short, she didn't sleep well last night, almost didn't sleep at all.

Remembering the nonsense she spouted in her almost delirious state, Flora momentarily didn't know how to face the young man before her.

"I... I'm going to class."

And so, after hurriedly eating some breakfast, she quickly got up and left.

"In such a hurry?"

Lin Mo still hadn't quite figured out why Flora was acting so strange today, but he didn't dwell on it further.

A while back at the academy, he had given several of the elemental department's main course teachers at the Mage Academy a hard time. Now, asking them for help again would probably be a bit difficult.

But it didn't matter. Besides the Mage Academy, the Royal National Academy had other branch academies.

Asking them to be Lin Mo's sparring partners—they would absolutely refuse. But asking them to help contact teachers from other academies—they would be extremely enthusiastic, each and every one of them.

......

The first "victim" was Eve's mentor.

A woman who looked dashing and heroic, the big sister type, over thirty years old but appearing younger, roughly like twenty-five or twenty-six.

By the way, she was the one who actively sought him out.

The reason was that recently, Eve always looked somewhat defeated. This made the mentor, who took great pride in her student, unable to sit still. So she took the initiative to come and see just how amazing Lin Mo was, to make her usually unyielding, proud student willingly take a back seat.

During the meeting, Eve came along too, helplessly shrugging her shoulders, indicating she had tried her best to dissuade her.

Lin Mo held back a laugh and greeted this mentor...

"So that's it!"

After seeing Lin Mo in person, this mentor immediately revealed an expression of sudden understanding.

Though it wasn't clear what exactly she understood.

She patted Eve's shoulder and said with deep feeling, "I understand, Eve. So that's how it is..."

Eve looked at her mentor, face full of question marks.

"His thoughts, teacher, you can understand them too. After all, he's also at that youthful age, of course he'll have some thoughts typical of boys his age."

"However, I still have to remind you, compared to your future prospects, emotions aren't always as important as you think."

"Marcelia Teacher, I don't have..."

Eve wanted to explain.

But Marcelia interrupted her, "I know, I know... 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' right? It's fine. So-called 'the onlooker sees most of the game.' Watch, teacher will make you understand that you're still the best student in the academy!"

With that, she drew her sword and pointed it at Lin Mo, "Come on, young man who used a handsome man scheme on my lovely student! I won't go easy on you like she did!"

"......"

Lin Mo looked at Mentor Marcelia, who had suddenly started a one-woman show, and helplessly rubbed his forehead.

Right, those Mage Academy teachers definitely wouldn't go around spreading their embarrassing experiences. So his current "bad reputation" hadn't spread too widely within the academy yet.

From a mentor's perspective, Eve, as her most outstanding student and the most outstanding student in the entire Royal National Academy, how could she be so easily surpassed by a new transfer student?

It's just that she, in such a short time, used her rich imagination and overthinking ability to instantly conjure up a set of self-consistent "story," which was really too outrageous.

Lin Mo didn't intend to explain either. As she said, the real test would be in actual combat.

So he also drew his sword. Of course, since it was just practice, he wasn't using the "Frost Dragon Scale Sword," but a practice sword he picked up at the training ground.

Mentor Marcelia on the other side did the same.

Marcelia observed the student opposite her. His posture was casual, his stance seemed weak, looking like he was full of openings.

Could someone like this really have dealt such a blow to Eve?

Holding this mindset, she waited for Lin Mo to attack.

Lin Mo was also waiting for her to make a move. So the two stared at each other, big eyes glaring at small eyes, for a full five minutes.

"Hey, aren't you going to make a move?"

Finally, Lin Mo couldn't hold back.

"Me?"

Marcelia pointed at herself, face full of confusion.

A mentor, sparring with a student from the academy, and taking the initiative to attack?

Wouldn't that be a loss of face?

"Weren't you the one who proposed the fight... So you should make the first move."

Lin Mo shrugged. Although he said this, he didn't really expect the other party to listen.

After all, judging from her earlier performance, this mentor was a bit "unreasonable."

However, unexpectedly, after hearing Lin Mo's words, Mentor Marcelia seemed to have a sudden realization, knocking her palms together, "Oh, right!"

......

Lin Mo looked at Eve, whose eye was twitching beside him, and sent a look.

"Is your mentor... not very bright?"

Eve avoided his gaze. This refusal to respond actually seemed more like an evasive affirmation.

In any case, Marcelia really did listen and took the initiative to attack.

She swung her sword towards Lin Mo, not using any skill, just a simple, unadorned movement.

But the speed was extremely fast, and the movement was very precise and clean, hardly wasting any effort.

Lin Mo's eyes immediately lit up, and he parried the strike with a backhand.

Pretty fast...

Marcelia raised an eyebrow. Looks like an agility-type Swordsman too?

However, the moment the practice swords in both their hands made contact, her expression changed drastically. That immense force nearly made her lose her grip on the sword. Even though she instinctively used force-dispersing techniques, she was still overwhelmingly suppressed. Her arm went numb with soreness, and her whole body was sent flying backward.

Such terrifying strength!

Marcelia's expression immediately changed. With such powerful strength, how could he also have such speed?

His speed wasn't far behind hers!

And his strength was even greater than that, stronger than some of the younger strength-type Warrior mentors in the academy!

What kind of monster was this?

Only now did Marcelia remember that Eve had mentioned something like this before. But back then, she didn't take it seriously, thinking Eve was exaggerating, because it sounded completely unreasonable.

Only when such "unreasonableness" stood solidly before her could she truly understand that there really were people like this in the world.

Marcelia set aside her casual attitude and became somewhat serious.

Her speed became faster than before, her movements more precise, like a perfect textbook example.

Lin Mo immediately activated 【Swiftness】 and cast 【Attribute Increase】 on himself, so he wouldn't fall too far behind in speed.

Compared to the younger mentors, this thirty-something-year-old Mentor Marcelia was indeed stronger, and not just in terms of attributes... more importantly, her movements and experience.

Those machine-like standard movements and exquisite, varied swordsmanship allowed her to avoid direct confrontations with Lin Mo as much as possible, perfectly utilizing her own strengths.

Lin Mo was soon injured. Of course, the other party was very measured, only causing superficial skin-breaking wounds, which also demonstrated her precise control over techniques and force.

This instead made him even more interested. He activated the Eagle Eye skill, carefully observing her every move and stance, and immediately applied what he learned.

The expression on Marcelia's face changed from surprise to ease, and quickly from ease to understanding.

As a mentor of the Swordsmanship Academy, how could she not see that the other party was learning her combat techniques on the spot?

In fact, in class, she often had her students do this.

But those students could never do it, always requiring her to repeat things hundreds or thousands of times.

But now, this young man before her... whether it was swordsmanship, footwork, even the movements for generating force, the angles of his sword strikes—without any reminder from her, he was imitating everything that needed to be learned.

And the learning speed was astonishingly fast. He seemed to understand after seeing it once, and became proficient after using it twice...

Marcelia, as she fought, began to break out in a sweat.

Her arm couldn't stop trembling, and even her shoulder felt numb from the shocks.

If not for the boost from Qi and Blood, based on pure strength alone, she couldn't have withstood even a single direct clash with Lin Mo!

The fight reached a pause. Both sides separated. Marcelia looked at her trembling, twitching arm, her expression somewhat dazed.

She actually couldn't defeat a student?

Subconsciously, she looked towards Eve beside her, only to find her proud student wearing a helpless expression, as if saying, "See, I told you but you didn't believe me..."

Marcelia's face immediately flushed red.

Of course, not from shyness, but from overheating.

If it ended so hastily like this, wouldn't her face be completely lost?

So, gritting her teeth, she continued attacking Lin Mo.

This time, she used a skill.

Lin Mo noticed this and, of course, didn't hold back either.

He immediately countered with a 【Meteor Thrust】.

The sword momentum was fierce, the power swift and violent. But Marcelia, now serious, was clearly no pushover either. She thrust out her sword, and the sharp Sword Energy actually broke through Lin Mo's sword technique.

"Impressive!"

Lin Mo's eyes lit up. He saw it clearly. That move just now actually landed on the Qi and Blood node from which he released his Sword Energy, using a very clever method to neutralize the attack with minimal consumption.

As expected of someone who could become Eve's mentor. He learned something again.

Lin Mo felt excited and immediately tried to mimic the same operation.

Marcelia's pupils contracted again.

The good news was he wasn't skilled at it, so naturally, he didn't do it well at first. The bad news was this kid's Qi and Blood was really strong... With great power, even crude techniques didn't matter much.

Soon, she was suppressed by Lin Mo again.

To make matters worse, the young man opposite her still looked full of enthusiasm, as if saying, "Don't you have any more novel tricks? Hurry up and use them all."

Marcelia instantly understood Eve's feelings. She lowered her sword, no longer wanting to continue fighting.

The atmosphere on the scene immediately became awkward.

After a good while, she took a deep breath and clasped her hands together, "I'm sorry, classmate. I judged by appearances and underestimated you."

Lin Mo was momentarily stunned.

Shouldn't you expose your belly when apologizing? Sister, what do you mean by exposing a scar? And... such a big scar!

Do you mentors all have such good nutrition?

And what does "judging by appearances" mean?

Can't good-looking people be strong? What kind of strange prejudice is this...

Lin Mo helplessly shook his head and could only respond, "It's fine, I don't mind... and I'm already used to it."

"Used to it?"

Marcelia tilted her head in confusion.

"A few days ago, he was sparring with the mentors from the neighboring Elemental Academy..."

Eve explained from the side.

Then added another sentence, "He's a student of the Mage Academy."

"..."

This final blow of silence combined with breaking defenses directly rendered her own mentor speechless.

After a long while, she patted Eve's shoulder, "Good child, don't be sad. Let's not compare ourselves to him..."

..........

The practice with Marcelia was greatly beneficial.

Besides learning many techniques, several of Lin Mo's skills also gained significant proficiency.

Among them, the 【Unyielding Body】 skill finally leveled up, reaching Level 2, and the 【Eagle Eye】 skill also broke through after previous accumulation, rising to Level 5.

"Skill 【Unyielding Body】 Lv1 (20/20) leveled up!"

"Current skill 【Unyielding Body】 Lv2 (2/40)"

"Skill 【Eagle Eye】 Lv4 (100/100) leveled up!"

"Current skill 【Eagle Eye】 Lv5 (3/180)"

Afterwards, just like the once-enthusiastic Mage Academy mentors, at Lin Mo's request, Marcelia also very enthusiastically and generously invited her colleagues to give some pointers to this "harmless" student eager for improvement.

However, Lin Mo didn't devote all his energy to these places. Instead, he allocated some to the girls at home, spending more time with them, eating, playing, and enjoying life...

A little over two days passed in the blink of an eye.

During these two days, Lin Mo proposed a certain idea he had previously considered. Regarding this, Sherfilia had no objections, expressing willingness to team up with Young Mistress Finnie. Although Finnie was a bit shy, she wasn't resistant either. Both Ellie and Lena also expressed acceptance.

In short, efficiency saw a noticeable improvement.

Through everyone's diligent efforts, on the eve of the Hunting Competition, Ellie had already become a Level 7 Warrior and wasn't far from Level 8. Finnie had also become a Level 7 Priest.

Even Sherfilia, due to sufficient effort, gained an increase in her main attribute and was already close to Level 9.

Tomorrow was the day the Hunting Competition would begin.

The Hunting Competition was held in Fargard City. The reason they were still in the Royal Capital now was, of course, for a reason...

"Teleportation arrays? Does this kind of magic really exist?"

Lin Mo looked utterly amazed.

Flora, however, looked somewhat speechless, "The existence of Space Magic isn't some secret... And don't you yourself know simple Space Magic? The teleportation array here at the academy was built a long time ago at great cost, with the help of a Heroic Realm mage from the Empire who mastered Space Magic. Using it once consumes a lot of resources, so it's not used casually under normal circumstances. However, for large events like the Hunting Competition, it's naturally time for the teleportation array to be put to use."

"In short, tomorrow morning, the academy will arrange for all students participating in the Hunting Competition and the supervising mentors to be teleported together. You just need to 'rest well' and adjust your condition."

She specifically emphasized the words "rest well," her eyes fixed on Lin Mo, implying something, her face carrying a bit of "resentment."

Although she knew this was a normal thing, ever since that day, her wild thoughts had completely stopped...