"Skill [Cross Slash] Lv5 (180/180) upgraded!"
"Current skill [Cross Slash] Lv6 (max)"
With this notification appearing before his eyes, Lin Mo glanced at the goblin tribe that was on the verge of collapse, suddenly stopped his attacks, and turned to leave.
This left the mutated goblin, who had been at a loss and extrely anxious since colliding with Lin Mo, completely bewildered. It had just been contemplating its own death - why did he suddenly leave?
Perhaps this person was just here for so fun... or maybe he actually ran out of stamina?
However, watching Lin Mo's retreating figure, it still had no intention of pursuing.
Even the mutated goblin couldn't figure it out, so the ordinary goblins were naturally even more confused. They only knew that the terrifying enemy had finally retreated under their brave resistance, so they raised their arms and cheered as if they had won a great victory.
The jubilant atmosphere gradually affected their leader, so the mutated goblin stopped overthinking, patted its chest as if it had accomplished so great feat, and joined in the celebration.
...
"Gained attribute point Strength 3!"
Not having gone too far, just over a kiloter away, Lin Mo stopped and focused on examining the information before him.
Like the previous green excellent-grade skill [Stealth], after reaching max level, Cross Slash also provided Lin Mo with 3 points of strength.
But beyond that, what Lin Mo looked forward to even more was the new skill that evolved from this ability.
"Automatically evolved into new skill - Accumulated Sword Combo!"
"Comprehended skill [Accumulated Sword Combo]! Strength 3!"
[Accumulated Sword Combo]: Gather qi and blood to unleash powerful slashes, releasing 3 sword energies. Additional sword energies can be released based on charging ti, with maximum charge of 3 seconds releasing 3 additional sword energies!
This skill...
Lin Mo looked at the skill description before him and fell into deep thought.
How to put it... the advantages and disadvantages of this skill were quite apparent.
Literally speaking, it was indeed an upgraded version of [Cross Slash], with a baseline of 3 sword energies, 50% more powerful than before.
And the upper limit was precisely this skill's highlight - after charging for up to three seconds, it could directly unleash 3 3=6 sword energies, which was quite terrifying in power, directly reaching three tis that of [Cross Slash]!
But the disadvantage was also obvious - it required 3 seconds of charging ti, which was basically impossible to execute in combat against opponents of similar strength, unless used to ambush soone. It could serve as a burst damage thod in special situations.
Overall, it was a skill with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses. Even disregarding the so-called "upper limit" and just looking at the baseline, it was actually a pretty good skill.
Of course, like previous excellent-grade skills, [Accumulated Sword Combo] also had selectable evolution directions.
Please choose evolution direction -
Evolution Path 1: Rapid Charge Ⅰ: Charging ti reduced by 33%
Evolution Path 2: Concentrated Charge Ⅰ: Maximum sword energies provided by charging increased to 4 (requires 4 seconds to reach maximum)
Both evolution directions corresponded to this skill's main characteristic, focusing on the charging chanism.
One improved charging speed, while the other increased the maximum number of sword energies from charging...
If he chose Evolution Path 1, the ti to fully charge sword energies would decrease from the original 3 seconds to about 2 seconds. If he chose Evolution Path 2, he could stack up to 7 sword energies.
After careful consideration, Lin Mo ultimately chose Evolution Path 1.
There were two reasons.
First, he noticed that all excellent-grade skill evolution paths had level identifiers.
If there was Rapid Charge Ⅰ, it most likely ant there would be Rapid Charge Ⅱ or even Ⅲ. If Rapid Charge Ⅰ reduced ti by 33%, what about Ⅱ or Ⅲ?
If he could continue to reduce charging ti, perhaps this move could be used more regularly.
Conversely, rely increasing the number of sword energies, while indeed improving power, would keep this skill constrained by its awkward usage limitations.
Furthermore, situations that 7 sword energies could solve, 6 sword energies could probably handle as well. And situations that 6 sword energies couldn't solve, adding one or two more probably wouldn't make much difference.
As for discussing upper limits... this was after all just an excellent-grade skill. In terms of upper limits, it couldn't compare to higher-grade epic or even legendary skills anyway, so there was no need to obsess over this with a blue-grade skill.
After making his choice, Lin Mo opened his panel and checked his current attributes, sothing he hadn't done in a while.
[Na]: Lin Mo
[Professions]: Warrior Level 1, Knight Level 1, Assassin Level 1
[Attributes]: (Outside parentheses are base attributes, inside parentheses are attributes after profession bonuses)
Strength: 18 (23)
Agility: 14 (20)
Constitution: 16 (23)
Spirit: 5
Magic: 2
Additional Attributes: Fire Elent Affinity: 13%
After two consecutive "Strength 3" bonuses, Lin Mo's base strength had reached 18 points, quite close to the level of a Level 2 Warrior professional!
He only needed to raise [Accumulated Sword Combo] to Level 3, or learn so other warrior profession skills, and he could advance again.
In terms of other attributes, including profession bonuses, 20 agility and 23 constitution could definitely be considered excellent. It was just that spirit and magic were really lagging behind compared to the other attributes.
This was precisely why Lin Mo had chosen not to completely wipe out that goblin settlent earlier.
After goblins form settlents, they're actually similar to human villages - they gradually develop simple social structures and systems, and build so basic structures at their settlent locations. So even when facing enemies, unless absolutely necessary, they won't easily abandon their settlent.
Therefore, he didn't need to worry about those goblins running away. He could simply wait for his magic to fully recover, then go back to grind so magic skill proficiency...
The ti reached around 3 PM.
Lin Mo's magic had mostly recovered, so he headed back toward the goblin settlent.
This ti, he encountered no obstacles along the way, proceeding directly to the location marked on the map.
Just as described in the mission information, although it was a newly ford small settlent, there were clear signs of "construction."
The settlent periphery was simply enclosed with a circle of stones, with so areas beginning to incorporate mud to form low walls.
Inside the "walls," one could vaguely see simple huts built from roughly cut, uneven wood. Of course, with goblin intelligence, they could only lay foundations and couldn't build them high, let alone talk about roofs.
But regardless, it at least counted as a "ho."
Inside so "houses," one could see recently born goblin infants, huddled together in groups of several to over a dozen.
In the center of the open space was a huge bonfire, with most goblins gathered around it at this mont, using branches to skewer at from unknown animals and gathered wild fruits, noisily celebrating.
The mutated goblin surrounded in the center was holding roasted at in one hand and juice squeezed by its subordinates in the other, proudly holding forth with a smug expression.
In fact, when Lin Mo had just left, it had been quite anxious, afraid that Lin Mo was only temporarily leaving and would return soon. It had even considered abandoning the tribe and running away.
But driven by wishful thinking, it ultimately didn't do so. Now that several hours had passed with no sign of that human, it had finally completely relaxed, returning to its "king" ntality and extravagantly boasting to its tribe mbers about its glorious story of repelling the strong enemy through bravery.
Although it hadn't actually done anything earlier, that didn't matter.
In the goblin world, strong power and bloodline were everything. Noble-blooded goblins spoke truth regardless of content, and they didn't have enough brains to distinguish truth from falsehood.
"Ho ho ho..."
The mutated goblin laughed loudly, eating at while showing off its robust muscles.
Just at its mont of greatest triumph and satisfaction, a glint of sharpness suddenly appeared at the edge of its vision.
It turned its head and clearly saw a dagger pierce a fellow tribesman's chest, imdiately followed by a very familiar fireball flying over, leaving a charred crater in its chest.
That terrifying human had returned!
It imdiately stood up, and the two sub-adult mutated goblins beside it cast questioning looks.
They looked around and only then noticed the slain companion, becoming alert as well.
However, the surrounding grass was completely silent, with nothing visible.
This atmosphere increased their unease, especially for the leader, who had previously fought Lin Mo and understood his opponent's strength. It was already breaking out in cold sweat, wanting to run but not knowing where to go.
Many tribesn around still hadn't grasped the situation, remaining imrsed in the celebratory atmosphere. The chaotic strange cries made it increasingly irritable, so it roared angrily, ordering them to be quiet.
The leader's anger was clearly effective - the goblins closed their mouths, casting puzzled looks at their boss.
Just as the surroundings quieted down, a barely audible sound reached its ears.
[Accumulated Sword Combo]
The next mont, several sword lights suddenly shot out from less than five ters ahead. There was no space to dodge at all - it had just registered what was happening when its body was sliced into pieces on the ground.
[Vanish] proficiency 8
[Accumulated Sword Combo] proficiency 8
What a vicious skill!
Even Lin Mo himself was startled. Although [Cross Slash] had been quite effective against mutated goblins before, it was far from achieving such visually terrifying effects.
This was partly due to his increased strength, but the main reason was definitely the high power level of the [Accumulated Sword Combo] skill.
The six fully charged sword energies just now had wasted at least three or four of them... Forget one mutated goblin, even two stacked together could have been instantly annihilated.
With their leader inexplicably slain, the remaining ordinary goblins panicked. So went for weapons, so tried to flee, creating complete chaos as they crowded together, making it impossible for those who wanted to escape to break free.
Even if they managed to squeeze out of the crowd, there were still stones blocking the way around them. Originally intended for protection and aesthetics, these now beca obstacles hindering their escape.
Lin Mo leisurely pursued these goblins, naturally prioritizing magic skill training as before - first landing a basic attack, then finishing them off with magic. In no ti, the remaining 9 proficiency points were maxed out.
[Fireball] proficiency 1, current proficiency (20/20)
"Skill [Fireball] Lv2 upgraded! Current level Lv3 (0/40)"
Gained attribute point Magic 1!
Finally, another magic point.
As this notification appeared before his eyes, Lin Mo imdiately felt that his nearly depleted magic reserves had increased sowhat.
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