novelraw Chapter 299: Power Surge, Level 14 Mage, Flash Evolves!
Chapter 299: Power Surge, Level 14 Mage, Flash Evolves!
There were a great many monsters inside the Secret Realm, and their strength only kept increasing, especially in the latter half where the monsters encountered were all Lord Level.
More importantly, it was during the earlier twentieth stage, that desert area.
They stayed in that desert for a full day and a half! The weakest monsters they faced there were level 8, most were level 9 or 10, and each monster granted generous proficiency experience.
So Lin Mo’s gains along the way were absurdly high; the proficiency of many skills leapt forward dramatically.
First were the Warrior profession skills.
Whip Kick successfully reached max level.
“Skill Whip Kick Lv5 (180/180) upgraded!”
“Current skill Whip Kick Lv6 (Max)”
“Gained base attribute points: Strength +2, Agility +1!”
“Automatically evolved into new skill — Spiral Combo Kick!”Learned skill Spiral Combo Kick! Gained base attribute points Strength +2, Agility +1!
Spiral Combo Kick Lv1 (0/10): The body spins while launching consecutive kicks to strike enemies.
A relatively simple blue Exceptional-Grade skill, stylistically leaning toward the “Brawler” sub-branch of the Warrior profession.
Lin Mo casually chose an evolution route and continued to review the rest.
Also reaching max level and evolving was Furious Leap Cleave.
This, too, was a green excellent-grade skill. After evolution it became Crag Breaking Strike.
This move is similar in form to Furious Leap Cleave, but its qi and blood are even more frenzied. This reckless pursuit of destructive power is characteristic of the Berserker warrior specialization.
“Skill Furious Leap Cleave…
“Gained base attribute Strength +3”
“Learned skill Crag Breaking Strike! Gained base attribute Strength +3!”
.....
Then, Phantom Sword Dance rose to level 7, Demonic Light Piercing Kill jumped from level 4 straight to level 6, and Blood Moon Sky Charge likewise advanced to level 6.
The latter two both gained attribute increases and another chance to choose an evolution route.
“Skill Demonic Light Piercing Kill
“Gained base attribute Strength +5"
“Skill Blood Moon Sky Charge…
“Gained base attribute Strength +5”
For evolution choices, Demonic Light Piercing Kill offered two branches: “Charge” to increase hold-and-release power, and “Spiral Amplify” to boost the spiral beam’s damage when fully charged. Lin Mo picked the more directly beneficial “Charge.”
Blood Moon Sky Charge was simpler; Lin Mo didn’t want to sacrifice error tolerance for power, so he decisively chose Evolution Route 1 to reduce the skill’s self-damage.
Next were magic-related improvements.
Earlier, when dealing with lower-level monsters, Lin Mo picked up Earth Spike, a skill he had barely practiced, trained it to max, and it evolved into a new green excellent-grade skill, Rock Spike Combo.
Then the Exceptional-Grade skill Furious Thunder Spear rose from level 5 straight to max.
“Skill Furious Thunder Spear
“Gained base attribute Mana +5!”
“Automatically evolved into new skill — Thunder Dragon Devour!”
“Learned skill Thunder Dragon Devour! Gained base attribute Mana +5!”
Thunder Dragon Devour Lv1 (0/20): Condenses mana to resonate with the lightning element, transforming into a gigantic thunder dragon that bites and devours opponents.
Another purple Epic-Level skill.
Also, Frost Storm increased by one level, from level 6 to 7; Frost Guard rose to level 5, not far from max level 6. The rarely used Epic skill Gale Domain directly rose to level 4. For its evolution route, Lin Mo, naturally, chose without hesitation the Route 2 “Fragility,” which further strengthens the damage of other elemental skills.
Thunderfall increased to level 6 and is close to another upgrade; once upgraded it, too, will be an Epic-Level lightning spell.
Most importantly, the Flash skill improved.
This skill had already reached level 6; during the previous battles it had smoothly maxed and completed its evolution!
But this skill’s evolution was somewhat special…
“Skill Flash Lv6 (300/300) upgraded!”
“Current skill Flash Lv7 (Max)”
“Gained base attribute Mana +5!”
“Automatically evolved into new skill — Flash!”
That’s right, the evolved skill is still Flash, but its color changed from blue to purple, indicating this was no bug.
Lin Mo had originally thought he might get Teleport instead...
But thinking it through, Flash and Teleport are indeed different types of skills. Flash leans toward combat, prioritizing rapid, unexpected movement, while Teleport is more functional, used for relocating.
Lin Mo checked the info for the new Flash.
“Learned skill Flash! Gained base attribute Mana +5!”
Flash Lv1 (0/20): Uses mana fluctuations to affect space, instantly teleporting the user to any location within 200 meters.
“Hiss—”
Lin Mo was stunned by just how big that upgrade was.
Previously, even after evolution enhancements, Flash’s maximum distance was only 10 meters. This Epic Flash suddenly became 200 meters — an enormous increase.
As for evolution routes...
Please choose an evolution direction —
Evolution Route 1: Distance I: Increases Flash distance, max distance becomes 400 meters.
Evolution Route 2: Cooldown Reduction I: Reduces Flash usage interval by 30%.
Both are quite useful. Increasing distance to 400 meters would basically be a super-short-range Teleport while remaining instantaneous. Reducing Flash cooldown also has significant value.
At first, when Lin Mo was less practiced, the minimum interval between two Flashes was 10 seconds. Now, after long practice and repeated use, Lin Mo had shortened that interval to 3 seconds.
But that was about the limit — he couldn’t shorten it much more by effort alone.
Choosing Evolution Route 2 could lower that time to 2.1 seconds.
Lin Mo thought for a moment and ultimately chose Evolution Route 2.
All the above skill improvements together increased Lin Mo’s base Mana by a full 30 points!
Lin Mo’s Mage level jumped directly from 12 up two levels to 14!
Additionally, his Warrior profession rose to level 13, a very significant boost.
“General advancement conditions met, Warrior profession (lv12) advanced — Current profession Warrior (lv13)”
“Gained profession attribute boosts: Strength +8, Constitution +3, Agility +3!”
“Gained profession attribute boosts: Constitution +2, Agility +2, Spirit +4, Mana +6!”
“Gained profession attribute boosts: Constitution +2, Agility +2, Spirit +4, Mana +8!”
The consecutive upgrades and attribute increases gave Lin Mo’s status panel another hefty bump.
Now at level 14, he could easily defeat monsters of at least level 16!
That gave Lin Mo the confidence to push on through the Secret Realm’s 30 stages.
Otherwise, with his former strength, it would have been somewhat difficult...
(The improvements from earlier chapters that weren’t written were lumped in here, so this section is mostly skills and figures; I tried to condense it.)
Because there were so many upgrades, Lin Mo spent a while reviewing them before noticing the situation beside him.
“Awake?”
He turned to look at Eve; her condition was clearly much better than before. Although she had only rested for three or four hours, she seemed to have slept deeply and quickly entered critical deep sleep.
So this amount of time had been entirely sufficient.
Eve nodded. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s go.”
The two walked to the large door at the end of the room. Lin Mo slowly pushed it open, revealing a familiar maze corridor.
There were still many branching paths, now numbering a dozen or so, but that didn’t matter… absurd as it was, Lin Mo really could always rely on his intuition to find the correct path.
After another short stretch, the path’s end widened considerably from the formerly narrow space.
As for why...
Lin Mo looked up at the monster teleported in. Large monsters over five meters tall need open space to fully harness their strength.
Before Lin Mo could move, Eve charged out first.
Her movements seemed a few ticks faster than when they first entered the Secret Realm. Part of it was the gem that had been embedded previously, and part of it was that her strength had indeed improved through prolonged combat.
The ability to rapidly grow stronger through trials and fights is also a sign of talent.
An ordinary person, no matter how hard they tried or how much pressure they endured, simply cannot do what a gifted person can. Talent is that harsh and brutal.
Eve’s figure flickered continuously around the monster; her thin sword left one wound after another. That speed-based fighting style looked dazzling.
When facing opponents stronger than themselves, speed advantage gives such professions room to maneuver, often allowing escapes or even attempts to fight above their weight.
That was exactly Eve right now.
The monster before them was a mid-level Lord-Level monster at level 11.
Eve had previously managed to handle mid-level Lord-Level monsters, and now being stronger, she was even more at ease.
The monster roared in anger, but as a strength-type creature it remained relatively clumsy; each attack was easily evaded by Eve, leaving it capable only of impotent rage.
Agility-based professions obviously have weaknesses...
Compared to strength-based classes, agility-based classes’ raw attacking power is undeniably a bit weaker.
Although Eve looked relaxed on the surface, in reality the monster had not suffered severe damage. Those sword cuts, relative to that huge body, were only surface scratches.
Furthermore, agility classes have the weakest sustain among physical types. If Eve wanted to solo-kill this monster, she probably could, but she would almost certainly exhaust her qi and stamina.
That would be bad, since there was still a long way to go...
Just as Lin Mo was preparing to act, the monster, momentarily unable to catch Eve, turned its gaze toward Lin Mo standing “behind” her.
It swung its claws and brought a paw down toward Lin Mo.
Lin Mo smiled faintly; this was a good chance to test a new skill.
He gently lifted his hand and effortlessly caught the incoming attack, his body not even quivering.
His strength was far greater than that of the monster!
In the next moment, lightning flickered in his palm.
In an instant that dazzling electricity condensed into a massive thunder dragon some twenty to thirty meters long. The space had expanded for the fight—otherwise it might not have fit.
Before the thunder dragon, the monster suddenly looked tiny.
It showed fear as it realized it had messed with the wrong target and instinctively tried to flee.
But there was no escaping here.
The thunder dragon roared and charged, opening its jaws to bite the creature. The blinding lightning lit the entire space in blue-white.
Eve instinctively shut her eyes; when she opened them again, the monster had already been fried to a crisp, reduced to black powder scattered on the ground.
His power seemed to have grown substantially again!
How did he do that?
This time Eve had been almost entirely following him and had noticed nothing strange—just continuous fighting, then rest and meditation. If you had to say anything strange, it would be that he had inexplicably learned a new skill from a Secret Realm treasure chest at an unbelievable speed.
After pondering for a moment, Eve let out a helpless laugh.
Isn’t this like the students at the academy who don’t understand why she’s strong?
Perhaps this is just how it is—there are always people beyond people.
Talent has no summit. Before seeing a true genius, everyone thinks they have some talent.
“Let’s keep moving.”
After a short rest, Lin Mo was fully charged and eager to continue.
Eve fell into step with him. Looking at his figure ahead, her gaze slowly shifted from previous envy and amazement to appreciation and even reverence.
Perhaps it was time for her to follow Dean Elvish’s suggestion and put down that competitive heart.
The road ahead looked smooth.
Even though the monsters along the way kept getting stronger—strong enough that Eve would struggle or even be unable to handle them—in front of Lin Mo they still felt like oversized speed bumps, hardly a challenge.
Level 13 monsters couldn’t even force him to use his full strength?
Watching the fallen monsters ahead, Eve suddenly had the feeling that this guy was the real boss to be defeated—the invincible demon lord—while those monsters seemed like tragic “heroes” in a bard’s tale.