Lin Mo watched the adventurers conversing before him, his gaze drifting to the side.
Ellie sat alone in the corner hugging her knees, the sunlight filtering through the branches creating dappled patterns on her body, making the fur on her head shine brightly and stretching her shadow long across the ground.
She was quietly, very seriously, staring blankly at the grass before her.
The rest period ended quickly, and everyone returned to the cave area where the smoke had completely dissipated by now.
About thirty to forty giant rat corpses lay scattered on the ground. These low-level magical creatures didn't have much useful material on them, so they thodically cut off their left ears as proof of task completion.
"Next we can head to the Roland Riverbank to search for traces of the Giant Sli... if everything goes smoothly, we should be able to complete both tasks within today."
The largest river in Roland Forest was called Roland River, and the banks along this river constituted the main dense distribution area for slis.
The giant rat caves were located in the shallow areas of Roland Forest, while the riverbank they needed to reach was sowhat farther away.
By the ti the group finally arrived at the riverbank, it was already noon.
So they took the opportunity to rest and have sothing to eat.
Unlike creatures like cat demons and giant rats, slis didn't have strict activity periods—they remained active whether it was day or night.
Thus there was no need to torture themselves under the scorching noon sun.
Interestingly, while they were eating, a group of goblins suddenly erged from the woods not far away, intending to fish by the river.
So Lin Mo permanently solved their hunger problems while conveniently gaining a few proficiency points.
Around three in the afternoon, when the sumr heat gradually subsided, the team set out on their journey again.
......
"Whoosh—!"
A sharp arrow accurately pierced through the semi-transparent body, pinning it to the ground.
Compared to the inexperienced newcor Miriam, Solan's archery skills as a veteran ranger were clearly much more precise.
This shot, fired from over a hundred ters away, not only successfully hit its mark but perfectly avoided the sli's core.
Collecting the sli condensate, this was the seventeenth sli they had eliminated.
Experienced adventurer teams clearly had expertise in finding these common magical creatures, their efficiency significantly higher than when Lin Mo had first started.
However, they still hadn't found their target—the evolved form among slis, the Giant Sli.
Alden glanced at the sky: "Let's keep looking. If we haven't found anything in another half hour, we'll find a place to set up camp and rest, then continue tomorrow."
Being an adventurer required patience; one shouldn't rush things. Anxious emotions could affect judgnt, leading to poor decisions.
As the leader of an adventurer team, maintaining calm thinking at all tis was his responsibility.
"Alright."
Everyone nodded and continued moving along the riverbank.
Simultaneously, they penetrated deeper into the forest, gradually entering the deep woodland areas of Roland Forest.
"Damn goblins, their numbers keep increasing..."
After shooting an arrow through a goblin's head, Solan complained while cutting off its ear.
"This is already the third wave today, right? We didn't seem to encounter this many during previous missions..."
Ellie also easily chopped off a goblin's head with her sword.
"Is this really okay if it continues? A few days ago I saw the town guards putting on a show by mobilizing a few tis, but these past couple days they've started slacking off again."
"These matters aren't our concern, Rick."
Carson shrugged, "Killing any goblins we co across is all we can do."
"Who can truly understand the thoughts of noble lords?"
Alden sneered, his words carrying clear sarcasm.
The longer one stayed in this town, the more deeply one felt their lord's greed, laziness, and foolishness.
His eyes seed never to have held any concern for so-called "public welfare," and he fundantally didn't care about commoners' lives, rarely even intervening in the town's administrative affairs—just perpetually looking down from on high, indifferent to everything except tax collection.
Lin Mo shook the blood off his sword, looking thoughtfully at his proficiency panel before him.
【Stealth】Lv4 (47/100)
【Cross Slash】Lv4 (6/100)
Not long ago, his Cross Slash had reached level 4, but that wasn't what made him thoughtful.
Lin Mo continued looking downward.
【Fortitude】Lv1 (2/10)
This skill learned from the scroll in the secret realm was one Lin Mo hadn't previously found a thod to gain proficiency in.
Unlike previous offensive or status-enhancing skills, this was a defensive skill, making it impossible to kill magical creatures using this ability.
Lin Mo had tried using 【Fortitude】before killing magical creatures, but the proficiency didn't increase.
It was only just now that he finally discovered the correct thod to improve this skill.
Fortitude's effect was "strengthen own defense, reducing next two instances of physical damage taken by 10%," and the condition for gaining proficiency was triggering this effect.
To put it bluntly, it ant taking hits.
And not every instance of taking damage granted 1 proficiency point—during previous battles, Lin Mo had intentionally let goblins attack him several tis before the skill's proficiency increased by 1 point.
If it always remained like this, this skill might be quite difficult to level up...
While walking and pondering this dilemma, Carson, who was responsible for scouting, suddenly jumped down from a tree: "Found it."
These three simple words imdiately energized everyone.
After struggling for nearly half a day, killing nurous ordinary slis and encountering two waves of goblins, were they finally about to encounter their main target?
Carson's expression seed sowhat subtle: "But the situation over there is rather complicated..."
"What do you an?"
Alden asked, puzzled.
"It seems like goblins and slis are fighting each other?"
"Oh?"
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow.
That magical creatures would fight among themselves was common knowledge—after all, even without predatory relationships, they would compete for living space and resources, naturally leading to conflict.
But this was the first ti he'd actually witnessed combat between magical creatures.
Everyone concealed their presence, slowly approaching the direction Carson indicated through areas with thick grass.
After a mont, their eyes indeed confird the scene of two groups of magical creatures confronting each other.
On one side stood a tall mutated goblin leading twenty to thirty ordinary goblins, while the other side consisted of over a dozen slis plus one Giant Sli several tis larger than the others, standing over a ter tall.
"Roar—!"
The combat power comparison clearly favored the goblin side, making these bullies particularly arrogant now.
The mutated goblin roared fiercely, and the underlings behind imdiately responded, filling the forest with the unpleasant screeches of goblins.
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