Blue sword shadows fell like rain, each imbued with powerful ice elental magic. Every goblin struck by these shadows was pierced through, pinned to the ground. Then, the formidable ice elental energy carried within the skill invaded their bodies, freezing their flesh and blood solid.
However, this was not the entirety of this move...
A combination of two Epic-level skills could never be so simple.
The skill [Phantom Sword Dance] was divided into two parts. The first part was the continuous unleashing of dazzling sword energy. After fusing with [Frost Storm], it produced the spectacle currently unfolding before their eyes.
The second part of this skill was a single, exceptionally powerful finishing sword energy.
In the skill combination, this finishing sword energy was naturally preserved.
Lin Mo's gaze continuously swept over the batches of falling goblins before him. Finally, he spotted an exceptionally conspicuous presence.
That goblin's body was a deep silver-gray, its form extrely agile. Although it had also been hit by several sword shadows and sustained serious injuries, they didn't seem fatal.
Its face wore a clear expression of terror as it fled in panic into the distance.
As the strongest leader of this goblin village, it understood more clearly than anyone the vast gap between itself and the human before it. This was not an opponent it could defeat!
Right now, the other's attention was drawn by the village's cannon fodder. It had to seize this chance to escape...
Just as it thought this, a feeling like needles pricking its back made it shiver involuntarily.
It cautiously looked up. Across a distance of over a hundred ters, it clearly saw that terrifying human now staring in its direction.
Had it been discovered?
The mont it realized this, it imdiately abandoned any attempt to hide, directly sprinting at its fastest speed away from the village.
Yet, Lin Mo was in no hurry, because he had already noticed the wounds left on the creature's body by the sword shadows that had rained from the sky earlier.
So...
This guy had already been locked on by him.
He simply watched as it ran farther and farther away, seemingly with no intention to pursue at all.
This gradually kindled a sense of hope in the Silver-level Goblin's heart. Perhaps due to the severe consumption from releasing that skill, or the need for continuous control, that human didn't seem inclined to chase it.
Although the village it had painstakingly built was destroyed, managing to save its own skin under such a terrifying attack was already quite an achievent.
This world was never short of goblins. As long as it lived, it could simply leave this forest, go sowhere farther away, find a tribe that wasn't so strong, and easily beco a leader again. Eventually, it could rebuild a powerful goblin village.
However, just as it indulged in this fantasy, Lin Mo finally slowly raised his hand.
In the sky above, a massive ice sword, forged from frost, slowly took shape. It carried a terrifyingly powerful surge of Qi and Blood.
"Fall."
With Lin Mo's utterance, the ice sword, as if it had eyes, shot forward at incredible speed, heading straight for the fleeing Silver Goblin.
The Silver-level Goblin was already a monster of considerable strength. It seed to sense sothing, but didn't dare to look back, or perhaps was unwilling to face reality, simply pouring all its effort into continuing its desperate flight.
Yet, that act of covering its ears to steal a bell was ultimately aningless. The sound of rushing wind reached its ears, and in the next mont, the giant ice sword effortlessly tore its body apart.
Not cut apart, but directly shredded...
The terrifying Qi and Blood beneath the ice sword erupted the instant it made contact. The imnse energy surged into the Silver Goblin's body. The essence of this Qi and Blood was "Sword Energy" that Lin Mo had altered in form. Therefore, it sliced the creature's body into fragnts from the inside out.
Not bad, very successful.
Lin Mo nodded in satisfaction.
The power of this combined skill was far greater than that of the singular [Phantom Sword Dance] or [Frost Storm].
Moreover, it also possessed the hands-free casting characteristic of a spell skill, unlike [Phantom Sword Dance] which required continuous slashing.
It's just...
In order to combine these two skills, he had to twist and adjust their original forms, needing to alter the circulation path of Qi and Blood and adjust the incredibly complex mana circuits of the Epic-level spell.
After getting familiar with it, these things weren't too difficult for Lin Mo, but they did consu a significant amount of extra Qi, Blood, and Mana.
The total consumption of this combined skill was roughly 1.5 tis that of the two skills used separately.
After Lin Mo unleashed this one skill, less than a third of the goblins in the village remained as stragglers.
Without needing words, Ellie and Sherfilia charged directly toward the village ahead to begin the cleanup work.
Lin Mo also took out his crossbow, shooting arrows as a pasti.
Of course, he also didn't forget to use the [Shadow Split] skill, both to prevent the scattering, fleeing goblins from escaping and to conveniently increase that skill's proficiency.
Honestly, because the goblins in the village were relatively elite, the proficiency they provided was quite substantial.
Lin Mo hadn't shot many arrows before the [Returning Arrow] skill reached Level 4, and the [Double Shadow Return] skill also rose from Level 1 to Level 3.
However, compared to these, the harvest from that combined skill earlier was clearly more important.
A conservative estimate was that this one move had killed at least three hundred goblins.
However, since both skills were Epic-level, the proficiency gained suffered varying degrees of reduction.
[Frost Storm] Proficiency 482
"Skill [Frost Storm] Lv4 (200/200) has leveled up!"
...
"Current skill [Frost Storm] Lv6 (1/600)"
"Gained basic attribute points: Mana 3, Spirit 2!"
Luck was good, hitting the threshold exactly and allowing this skill to reach Level 6.
It also unlocked the third evolution route choice.
Evolution Route 1: Freezing Current I: During the skill's duration, damage dealt to enemies within the area will increase with each hit received, stacking up to 45%!
Evolution Route 2: Bone-Chilling Cold II: The "Frost" effect will additionally reduce the enemy's Qi and Blood and Mana circulation speed by 15%!
Both skills were on their second evolution route choice, and the benefits compared to the first choice were sowhat reduced. At such a ti, increasing power was naturally more substantial, so Lin Mo chose Evolution Route 1.
Next was the second skill of the combined technique.
[Phantom Sword Dance] Proficiency 449
"Skill [Phantom Sword Dance] Lv4 (200/200) has leveled up!"
"Current skill [Phantom Sword Dance] Lv6 (33/600)"
"Gained basic attribute points: Strength 3, Agility 2"
It seed the higher the level of an Epic-level skill, the greater the reduction in proficiency gained. Although both started at Level 4, [Phantom Sword Dance] had higher proficiency and leveled up earlier, so the final proficiency gained ended up slightly less than that of [Frost Storm].
Then ca the sa choice of evolution direction.
Please select evolution direction—
Evolution Route 1: Sword Dance III: Maximum number of Sword Energy projectiles changed to 10 Agility/10
Evolution Route 2: Target Lock I: Number of "Guaranteed Hit" Sword Energy projectiles adjusted to the final 3
If it were before, Lin Mo would most likely have chosen Evolution Route 1, continuing to increase the maximum number of Sword Energy projectiles.
But now, with skill combinations, he had to reconsider.
Choosing Evolution Route 1, after combining skills, would most likely increase the density of the ice sword shadows. If he chose Evolution Route 2, it would grant this skill greater operational flexibility, perhaps allowing for further adjustnts to the combination form.
For example, splitting that final massive ice sword shadow into three parts to reduce waste when facing multiple formidable enemies. Alternatively, integrating the other two guaranteed-hit Sword Energy projectiles into the final one to further enhance the finishing move's power.
This kind of operability, for further adjustnts to combined skills, greatly interested Lin Mo.
Thus, he chose Evolution Route 2.
Additionally, with the level-up of [Phantom Sword Dance] granting 3 basic Strength attribute points, Lin Mo's basic Strength attribute had reached 142 points, reaching the standard of a Level 12 Warrior.
"Promotion conditions t. Profession Warrior (lv11) promoted—Current profession Warrior (lv12)"
"Gained profession attribute enhancent: Strength 6, Constitution 3, Agility 3!"
A total of 12 enhancent attribute points. A decent improvent.
Soon, the cleanup work ended, but the subsequent battlefield scavenging was quite troubleso.
Considering goblins weren't particularly valuable monsters, they simply abandoned the nurous cannon fodder, only cutting off the ears of those few powerful goblins.
...
The Hunting Competition had officially begun for nearly half a day.
This wasn't a long ti, but for so powerful contestants, it was enough for them to showcase their strength well and accumulate a certain advantage.
At this mont, outside the Silent Forest, a large crowd had gathered, people concerned with this Hunting Competition.
So were simply onlookers or family mbers of contestants. Others were staff from the Adventurers' Association. There were also nobles from various kingdoms and academy representatives.
As the chief representative dispatched by the Royal National Academy for this event, Elvish was naturally among them.
After all, the contestants were all important talents. The other participating kingdoms also had figures of similar stature present.
Elvish was quite familiar with them.
This large group of esteed nobles and academy higher-ups gathered to chat, also catching up.
Of course, the main focus of their discussion was the current Hunting Competition, primarily centered on the achievents of their respective students or juniors.
"It's truly a gathering of masters. Our Frost family's young master scored over 400 points in half a day, yet barely made it into the top 100... I recall that a few years ago, this score would have been enough for the top 10."
"Yes, even last year, this score would definitely have made the top 30."
"It's just that there are more and more contestants. This ti, many additional participants from other kingdoms were added."
"Who says otherwise? This should have been an event for our Doria Kingdom, but now..."
These nobles from the Doria Kingdom discussed, their faces carrying a touch of worry.
Because it was the first ti they decided to participate, the nearby kingdoms hadn't entered on a large scale, only sending so of their dostic geniuses to test the waters.
In total, there were only about 3,000 of them, making up just a quarter of the 12,000 total contestants.
But now, among the top 1,000 on the leaderboard, contestants from other kingdoms occupied nearly 700 spots!
While part of the reason was that those sent to participate in the Hunting Competition were geniuses from their own countries, one must not forget that these kingdoms also had many top-tier prodigies who hadn't co.
Whether in terms of quantity or quality, the younger generation of the Doria Kingdom was clearly far inferior to those of the surrounding kingdoms.
This was, of course, to be expected...
In terms of area, population, financial resources, including the resources that could be provided to this new generation, the Doria Kingdom couldn't compare to these main kingdoms in any aspect.
It was only in recent years, with the rise of the Orc Empire and the constraints imposed by the three great empires, that human infighting and disputes were brought under control. Otherwise, these kingdoms would likely have long since launched wars against the Doria Kingdom.
Continuing like this, whether commoners, nobles, or those in power, would gradually lose confidence in the kingdom, leading to a vicious cycle of increasing weakness.
At such a ti, so heartening events to help this kingdom regain confidence beca very important.
Real, bloody wars couldn't be won, nor would they occur, so they could only focus on other aspects.
Such as trade, culture, or success in so competitive events.
Because the Morin Family controlled nearly half of the alchemy market, the Doria Kingdom also found it hard to gain an advantage in trade. However, with the recent rapid developnt of the Noren Trading Company, this had been sowhat alleviated.
Culture... let's not even talk about that. That left only the competitive level, which the kingdom valued most.
Originally, they would have to wait for the later Empire Academy Grand Competition to see the real results... but now, through this Hunting Competition, they could get a glimpse.
And the current results were clearly not optimistic.
Although many had already guessed it would be like this, they couldn't help but feel disappointed.
"Everyone, don't be anxious yet. Although overall we have fallen behind, it doesn't an we've completely lost... Don't forget, in this kind of competition, the most important part isn't the lower rankings, but the top of the leaderboard—the top fifty, the top ten... especially the champion. That's the key!"
"Yes, I recall the Warrior Academy seems to have a very talented genius? What's her na..."
"Eve."
"Right, her! The sword genius who once entered a Secret Realm, obtained a powerful legacy, and rose to prominence since!"
"If she can win the championship in this Hunting Competition, it could sowhat salvage the kingdom's honor and also accumulate so confidence for the upcoming Empire Academy Grand Competition."
On the other side, Elvish and a few "old friends," higher-ups from the Royal National Academies of the surrounding kingdoms, were also focusing on this point.
"I heard your academy produced another sword genius this year... Last year it was a magic genius, this year a sword genius. It seems the Doria Kingdom is on the rise!"
The head of the Lisad Kingdom's Warrior Academy said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Although it sounded like praise, anyone could hear the less-than-friendly subtext in his words.
"Mr. Reid, you flatter ... However, that child Eve does indeed have good potential. Not long ago, she also just reached Level 10."
Elvish responded flawlessly, modest and humble.
Upon hearing this, Reid's expression imdiately showed surprise.
Level 10!
That was a very high level. In their kingdom, students who could reach Level 10 were also extrely rare. Currently, there were only two.
And only one of them had co this ti.
The academy representative from the Donis Kingdom also looked surprised.
Only the academy representative from the Lonia Kingdom remained calm.
As a large kingdom, their kingdom's national power was not sothing these small and dium-sized kingdoms could compare to.
"Level 10? That's not bad either..."
He said nonchalantly, "In our academy, she might barely make the top ten."
Level 10, and only barely making the top ten?
Not only Elvish, but the representatives from the other two kingdoms were also stunned.
Although they all knew the Lonia Kingdom was powerful, they hadn't imagined the gap was this vast.
"Might I ask how many from your esteed academy have co this ti?"
Reid probed.
The other smiled slightly, extending three fingers.
"These three aren't that important for the upcoming Academy Grand Competition, so I brought them along to have so fun."
Students at Level 10 couldn't even be considered main forces for the Academy Grand Competition?
Reid smiled sowhat helplessly. Truly worthy of being a large main kingdom.
Elvish clenched his hand tightly, then quickly released it.
If it were before, this situation would indeed be despair-inducing, but...
Today, that might not necessarily be the case.
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