Starting Unlimited Evolution from Grinding

Chapter 303: Half-Step Epic-Level Treasure: Mist Crystal Flower

"Beast, the real fight is just about to begin...."

As Lin Mo's words fell, his figure suddenly flashed, appearing before the giant serpent. The chillingly cold blade in his hand thrust forward, and a dazzling flash of thunder erupted instantly. The fully charged [Demonic Lightning Piercing Kill] was unleashed, blue electric arcs almost filling the entire space.

The ice armor on the giant serpent's body shattered under the terrifying power of this move, the beam of light nearly piercing through its torso.

Yet soon, powerful ice element condensed around it, actually freezing the wound shut, and the ice armor on its body repaired itself.

"Tsk."

Lin Mo clicked his tongue. "What a pain."

Immediately after, he quickly sidestepped and retreated, dodging the opponent's follow-up counterattack.

The massive serpent head struck empty air, but the giant serpent's assault hadn't stopped. It opened its maw and spewed a cloud of ice mist, heading straight for Lin Mo.

Lin Mo directly swapped positions with the shadow split he had prepared earlier, simultaneously appearing on the other side.

[Space Slash]!An invisible slash bypassed the ice armor, directly striking the giant serpent.

However, as an Exceptional-Grade skill, this move's inherent power was somewhat lacking. Facing an opponent of a higher level than himself, achieving an instant kill effect was very difficult.

Then—

Lin Mo raised his hand, powerful ice element converging. An ice-blue magic circle took shape in the air above the cave.

[Swordshadow Storm]!

The next moment, countless frost-condensed "blades" attacked the giant serpent, wrapped in powerful sword energy.

The dense hail of ice sword energy was nearly impossible to dodge in such a narrow environment. Caught off guard, the giant serpent took dozens of sword energy strikes head-on.

By the time it regained its senses and tried to shrink back to dodge, it was already too late.

The sword energy pierced through the ice armor on its surface, striking its body.

The giant serpent was already severely injured. If not for the ice armor on its surface and that suddenly surging power, Lin Mo would have already slain it.

Now, with the ice armor briefly shattered and not yet repaired, it could no longer withstand Lin Mo's assault, its body riddled with countless sword holes.

The giant serpent let out a mournful cry, its surface gradually encased by a layer of frost....

This wasn't ice armor, but the "freeze" effect attached by Lin Mo's skill.

It finally took effect!

Because the opponent's level was relatively high, plus it was an ice-element magical creature, the "freeze" effect was hard to trigger. It was only the dual effects of [Frost Storm] plus "Breath of the Frost Dragon" that successfully froze it. Even then, it was only a very brief effect, disappearing within one or two seconds.

But that was enough.

Lin Mo flashed again, arriving before the giant serpent. His figure then flashed past, appearing behind the opponent accompanied by a dazzling sword light.

Subsequently, a blue-purple thunder dragon, amidst roaring cries, coiled around the already unleashed sword light, violently crashing into the giant serpent's body, churning large chunks of its flesh into pulp.

[Thunder Dragon Devour] + [Iaido Flash] — another new combination named [Thunder Dragon Flash].

Plus, the giant serpent was just in a "frozen" state. Under the "Breath of the Frost Dragon" effect, it dealt an additional 5% true damage to enemies in a "frozen" state.

True damage completely ignored any protection; it was literally true damage. Combined with this move's own formidable power, it finally completely slew the giant serpent.

The ice armor on the giant serpent's body shattered accordingly, its massive form collapsing to the ground, the entire cave seemingly trembling.

That wasn't easy....

Lin Mo calmed his breathing. Had he overestimated himself? Were level 18 magical creatures actually stronger than he thought? Or... was there truly something special about this giant serpent before him?

Lin Mo wasn't quite sure of the answer, which was also what he planned to investigate next.

[Thunder Dragon Devour] proficiency +160 (+160)

[Iaido Flash] proficiency +160 (+160)

Having slain a level 18 magical creature, 3 levels higher than Lin Mo, he gained an additional 100% proficiency bonus.

[Thunder Dragon Devour] leveled up from 3 to 5 (40/360). [Iaido Flash], being an Exceptional-Grade skill, required relatively less proficiency at higher levels, leveling up from 4 to 6 (60/300). It wasn't far from evolving into an Epic-Level skill.

Lin Mo quite liked this skill—clean, efficient, and stylish—so he also looked forward to its further enhancement.

He just hoped it would retain its clean, swift characteristics after evolution.

Next, there were important matters to attend to.

Lin Mo slowly approached the edge of the pool, observing carefully for a while.

Only after confirming nothing would suddenly leap out from below did he crouch down, touching the pool water with his hand.

Sure enough, as he suspected, the temperature of this water was abnormally low.

Logically, if it were normal water, at this temperature it would have long frozen into ice.

This pool was problematic... or more accurately, it concealed something.

[Shadow Split]!

Lin Mo used this clone skill again, summoning a shadow split, and directly had the split dive headfirst into the pool.

Cold, extremely cold!

If not for Lin Mo's strong constitution, plus the split being expendable, a normal Professional would be utterly incapable of diving into this pool. Even if they got in, they'd lose mobility due to the low temperature.

"Lin Mo" quickly adjusted his state, continuing to dive deeper into the pool.

The giant serpent's body extended quite far underwater, stretching nearly twenty meters down before its tail was visible.

At this point, only a few meters remained to the bottom of the pool.

But the closer to the pool bottom, the more ferocious that terrifying chill became. Combined with the accumulated chill from earlier, "Lin Mo" directly lost control of his body and had no choice but to detonate.

An explosion sounded from underwater. Lin Mo waited a moment, then created another split.

This time, no need to observe along the way; he directly dove straight to the bottom.

The moment he touched the pool bottom, Lin Mo realized what was underfoot wasn't mud, but an ice layer.

The pool wasn't large. "Lin Mo" hurriedly walked toward the back.

He could feel it—he was approaching the source of this chill!

Finally, he saw it.

Ahead, in the almost completely transparent pool water, an ice-blue flower bloomed within this incredibly cold pool.

That flower seemed carved from ice crystal, its petals a translucent light blue. Around that flower, nearly terrifying ice element converged. Its aura was exactly the same as the ice armor that had suddenly appeared on the giant serpent earlier.

The next moment, "Lin Mo's" pupils contracted. A cold current swept over his face, instantly freezing him into an ice sculpture.

Opening his eyes, Lin Mo controlled the split to self-destruct, then fell into deep thought.

That flower was clearly the source of all anomalies in this pool. This thing was undoubtedly what adventurers commonly called a natural treasure.

As for this giant serpent... it was probably the "guardian" of this treasure.

And judging by the situation, it wasn't a superior being waiting for it to mature to pick and consume it, but a subordinate controlled and utilized by that flower!

This flower's grade likely exceeded the ordinary Exceptional-Grade category, reaching Half-Step Epic Level!

This was quite an unexpected harvest....

Lin Mo estimated that if he could pick this flower, it might serve as material for high-level elemental reagents. Its intrinsic value could reach 30,000 gold coins, and after being made into elemental reagents, it could approach 50,000 gold coins!

That was almost equivalent to the value of an Epic-Level piece of equipment.

This flower absolutely could not be missed!

But how to pick it?

Lin Mo was somewhat troubled. He had already tried; relying solely on splits was clearly impossible.

Splits after all only possessed a portion of the main body's attributes and couldn't use skills for self-protection, making it impossible to approach this flower.

So he had to risk his main body going down, which carried certain risks.

Fortunately, the pool wasn't large or deep, less than 30 meters from the surface. At this distance, he could directly [Flash] away, so there was still some margin for error.

Let's give it a try.

Of course, before that, Lin Mo briefly explained the situation to Eve.

Afterwards, he used the [Shadow Split] skill again, creating a split to dive underwater.

The split could reach the bottom for him, and with a split present, it could also serve as an additional safety measure.

With the experience from previous attempts, soon, Lin Mo's split stood on the pool bottom.

The next moment, Lin Mo swapped positions with the split, his main body appearing in the icy cold pool.

He looked ahead; that ice-blue flower was faintly visible.

Lin Mo had already used the [Frost Guard] skill, creating a layer of ice-blue magic barrier around himself, isolating the pool water and slightly resisting the low temperature.

Plus, his main body's constitution was stronger than the split's, so for now he felt okay.

But continuing forward, he also began to feel his limbs stiffening from the cold.

Too bad there was no elemental resistance reagent. If he could spend some money to boost elemental resistance, it might alleviate this situation somewhat.

Elemental resistance was different from elemental affinity. The latter only improved one's mana's adaptability to that element, a relatively easy change. The former was the entire lifeform's resistance to a certain type of elemental damage. Compared to something energy-based like mana, lifeforms themselves were far more complex.

But conversely, if you had elemental resistance, it meant your entire body—whether surface or interior, even including your mana, qi and blood—would have reduced damage and effects from that element.

For example, if you gained ice element resistance, the difficulty for effects like "slow" or "freeze" to take effect on you would greatly increase.

Similarly, if you had fire element resistance, you'd also be less susceptible to status effects like "burn" or "scorch."

Skills of that element hitting you would also be proportionally reduced, and this reduction was calculated with the highest priority, reducing the total damage received. So it effectively enhanced your other defensive means like armor, shields, etc.

Based on what Lin Mo currently knew, elemental resistance basically only existed on specific high-level magical creatures. For humans to obtain it was almost impossible... though sub-human species might have it.

For example, Ellie.

If her bloodline revived and her awakening degree increased, she would gain a certain amount of ice element resistance accordingly.

The icy sensation made Lin Mo's thoughts slow down as well, quickly returning to the present.

Now, he was less than 10 meters away from that flower.

And simultaneously, just like with the split earlier, the flower before him launched an attack against him.

A cold current swept toward his face, striking the [Frost Guard] barrier. Because it was the same element, the effect wasn't that great, but it still easily destroyed the barrier.

As expected!

But Lin Mo didn't mind. He continued observing the ice flower before him.

When the split approached earlier, he had vaguely sensed something. Now it seemed clear: the flower's position indeed differed from what was visually perceived.

Around this flower, there seemed to be many completely transparent ice crystal walls, distorting its exact location, making it easy to misjudge.

This was clearly another self-protection method.

Indeed, high-level natural treasures possessed a certain degree of consciousness.

If he forced his way through, not only would he continue to be attacked by cold currents, but he might also be blocked by invisible ice layers.

It could be said that Professionals below Transcendent Level, even at level 20, would find this situation somewhat troublesome.

Well then, all or nothing!

The next moment, Lin Mo's pupils contracted.

The attack the opponent launched earlier had allowed Lin Mo to confirm its actual position.

So....

[Flash]

Lin Mo's figure directly appeared a thousand meters away. He reached out, quickly plucking the flower.

During this process, Lin Mo clearly felt intense resistance. If he weren't a strength-type Professional, he probably couldn't have pulled it up at all.

But strength-type Professionals, unless they stepped into the Transcendent Level, would find it difficult to reach behind that flower. Even if Transcendent Level, it probably wouldn't be that easy.

It must be said, this was a tough opponent to deal with.

It was also because Lin Mo was well-rounded enough, with enough methods, that he could handle it.

The moment he grabbed the flower, Lin Mo immediately swapped positions with his split, returning to the shore.

In that brief instant, the arm holding the flower had already been frozen into an ice block.

Lin Mo hurriedly stuffed this thing into his Spatial Ring. Only after being isolated into another space did that bone-chilling cold finally disappear.

Slowly melting the solid ice on his arm with fire element, Lin Mo shook his hand, exhaling a turbid breath.

That wasn't easy, but the harvest wasn't small either....

Lin Mo looked at the information identified by the system.

[Mist Crystal Flower]

Grade: Exceptional-Grade (Half-Epic)

Uses: Crafting high-level ice element reagents (low quality), crafting Epic-Level equipment (auxiliary material), strengthening and amplifying large ice element magic circles, aiding the revival of ice attribute bloodlines....

As Lin Mo had guessed, it was indeed material approaching Epic-Level, and its uses were numerous.

Especially that effect of aiding the revival of ice attribute bloodlines.

Although relying on the [Shared Cultivation] effect could allow Ellie and the others to quickly improve their strength alongside Lin Mo, not falling too far behind, relying solely on this still made it hard for Ellie to keep pace with him.

After all, this skill's improvement largely depended on the attribute gap between both parties. The smaller the gap between Ellie and him, the lower the skill's effect.

They still needed to find their own unique paths.

And for Ellie, there was a path she could try right now.

That was the Ice Wolf Clan bloodline within her.

The Ice Wolf Clan bloodline, as one of the top bloodlines among Orcs, if revived, was quite powerful.

Within the Ice Wolf Clan, there were still several powerful experts who had reached the Heroic Realm today. Even in historical records, more than one Legendary-Level powerful expert had appeared!

The development value of this bloodline could be said to be quite high.

If progress went smoothly, Ellie's strength might very well achieve a leap-like improvement....