16: Chapter 16: Strength Increases Again
At 7:30 AM, Lin Mo appeared at the camp entrance once more.
The soldiers on guard duty today had changed; it was now a recruit with an honest and simple face. Seeing the bandage on Lin Mo's arm, he hesitated for a moment: "Student, how did you get injured right after arriving?"
"It's just a superficial wound; it doesn't affect my movement."
Lin Mo walked out of the camp and headed north along the dirt road. However, this time he didn't take the small path from yesterday, but turned northeast at a fork in the road.
He had noticed last night that there was a dense forest in this direction. The trees there were exceptionally thick, making it the perfect terrain for ferocious beasts to hide and breed.
Quantity over quality—this was Lin Mo's current strategic policy.
With his arm temporarily injured, it wasn't suitable to go head-to-head with Tier 1 ferocious beasts. However, as for unranked ones, he would kill as many as came his way.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the edge of the dense forest.
The trees here were even taller than those on North Mountain. The canopies overlapped in layers, almost completely blocking out the sunlight. The ground was covered in a thick layer of decaying leaves, making a "rustling" sound as he stepped on them.
Lin Mo concealed his aura and moved forward slowly.
He soon sensed suppressed breathing behind a tree trunk thirty meters directly ahead.
Further back in a cave, there seemed to be the rustling sound of something crawling.
They were ferocious beasts, and there were many of them.
A sharp glint flashed in Lin Mo's eyes.
He drew his battle saber and moved in an arc, cutting into the target's location from the side.
The first beast erupted from beneath the decaying leaves. It was a Cave Badger—unranked, but possessing sharp teeth and a talent for ambushes.
Lin Mo sidestepped, his blade slashing upward.
The blade swept across the Cave Badger's throat, drawing a spray of blood. By the time the corpse hit the ground, he had already charged five meters forward.
[Killed unranked ferocious beast Cave Badger, slaughter value +1]
[Basic Saber Technique proficiency +1]
A second and third beast pounced at the same time.
They were two Spine-backed Lynxes, much faster than the Cave Badger, forming a pincer attack from the left and right.
Lin Mo didn't stop. He leaned his body forward abruptly, sliding almost against the ground as he passed beneath the pouncing trajectories of the two lynxes.
At the moment they crossed paths, his blade slashed upward in reverse, slicing open the belly of the lynx on the left.
Simultaneously, Lin Mo braced the ground with his left hand and whipped out his right leg like a lash, shattering the cervical vertebrae of the lynx on the right.
Two short, sharp cries rang out.
[Killed unranked ferocious beast 'Spine-backed Lynx' ×2, slaughter value +2]
[Basic Movement Technique proficiency +1]
He didn't linger and continued deeper.
In the depths of the dense forest, more and more beasts appeared. These unranked beasts swarmed toward him like flies drawn to the scent of blood.
Their intelligence was low, attacking purely by instinct, with no understanding of coordination or tactics.
And this was exactly what Lin Mo wanted.
He didn't strive for instant kills, but consciously controlled the rhythm of the battle.
Every swing of his blade left some room for adjustment, and every shift in his movement technique was calculated for the next landing point.
He was practicing, refining, and melting the cultivation and combat experience he had gained last night into his muscle memory.
The notification sounds chimed regularly in his ears. His slaughter value grew slowly but steadily: 1 point, 2 points, 3 points...
The efficiency wasn't high, but it was safe and stable.
Moreover, he had an unexpected harvest.
After killing a nest of Spiny-haired Rats, Lin Mo sheathed his saber, breathing slightly.
The set of evasive maneuvers he just performed had almost reached his current limit, dodging five attacks from different directions in less than two seconds, all relying purely on physical reflexes and footwork without using [God Speed].
[Ding—]
[Detected host completing five consecutive limit dodges in actual combat, unlocking the advanced sequel to the Basic Movement Technique—]
Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat.
In his vision, light blue text unfolded slowly like flowing water:
[Congratulations to the host for comprehending B-grade technique—Lingyan Steps]
[Skill Description: A natural evolution after pushing the Basic Movement Technique to its limit. The footwork is as if made of smoke and mist, excelling at maneuvering in tight spaces, with a powerful bonus to melee evasion.]
[Current Level: Lv.1 (0/100)]
[Attached Special Effect: Smoke Trace—Produces white smoke underfoot when performing the footwork, slightly interfering with the enemy's lock-on (Effect increases with skill level).]
Lin Mo's eyes lit up.
"It can even work like this?"
By frequently using a certain skill in actual combat and breaking past the original technique's limits, one could unlock higher-tier techniques?
[Ding~ Host has unlocked a B-grade or higher technique for the first time, completing the achievement—Breaking the Limit, achievement points +2]
"2 achievement points! Not bad!"
Lin Mo grinned.
It seemed his luck today was quite good. Not only did he unlock Lingyan Steps, the advanced version of the Basic Movement Technique, but he also gained 2 extra achievement points. Combined with his existing four, he was only four points away from being able to perform a ten-pull.
"Continue!"
Full of motivation, Lin Mo continued grinding monsters.
...
As noon approached, a system prompt popped up, and Lin Mo finally maxed out the proficiency for Aurora Flowing Cloud Slash at one hundred points.
[Ding~ Aurora Flowing Cloud Slash proficiency +1, level increased to Lv2 (0/100)]
[Ding~ Aurora Flowing Cloud Slash skill effect increased, Flowing Cloud Continuous Slash frequency coefficient increased by 0.1, number of slashes increased to 5.]
Lin Mo leaned against a large tree, munching on the compressed rations he carried while pulling up the system panel to check.
His slaughter value had reached 198 points.
Today's harvest was quite a bit less than last night's, but Lin Mo was already very satisfied.
After all, he was killing unranked beasts today, so the efficiency would naturally be slower, but it was much safer.
Furthermore, 198 slaughter value points were enough to upgrade his cultivation once.
"System, upgrade cultivation!"
Lin Mo gave the order directly.
A moment later.
[Ding~ Host's cultivation has been upgraded to Tier 1 Level 5, remaining slaughter value 58 points.]
The cultivation upgrade restored a large portion of Lin Mo's stamina.
Moreover, due to the explosion in physical stats, the arm he injured last night had almost completely recovered, the wound sealing up entirely.
He looked at the attribute panel.
[Name: Lin Mo]
[Class: Awakener]
[Trait: God Speed (Purple High-grade)]
[Cultivation: Tier 1 Level 5]
[Strength: 39]
[Agility: 49]
[Constitution: 37]
[Spirit: 40]
[Techniques: Flowing Cloud Aurora Slash LV2 (0/100), Basic Saber Technique LV9 (6/100), Lingyan Steps LV1 (0/100)]
[slaughter value: 58]
[achievement points: 6]
"Strength and agility both increased by 4 points, while constitution only increased by 3..."
Lin Mo did a quick calculation and concluded that at this rate of increase, by the time he reached Tier 2, his attribute points would far exceed those of a normal early-stage Tier 2 Awakener by a large margin.
Normally, an early-stage Tier 1 Awakener's various attributes are around 20.
An early-stage Tier 2 Awakener's attributes are around 50.
An early-stage Tier 3 Awakener's attributes are around 100.
Because of the boost from God Speed, Lin Mo's attributes at Tier 1 Level 5 were already close to those of a late-stage Tier 1 Awakener.
By the time he reached late-stage Tier 1, his attributes would certainly catch up to an early-stage Tier 2 Awakener. Once he broke through to Tier 2, his attributes would likely match those of a Tier 2 Level 3 or 4 Awakener.
This was the terrifying aspect of a Purple Trait Enhancement-type Awakener; their physical fitness would far surpass Awakeners of the same tier.
This was the advantage of Enhancement-type Awakeners, truly deserving of being called the strongest type in direct combat. If it were a Purple Trait Awakener of any other type, their base attributes wouldn't differ much from normal Awakeners.
After eating his rations, Lin Mo rested for nearly half an hour, and his stamina fully recovered.
"Back to grinding!"
Just after killing two unranked beasts, a system prompt popped up again.
[slaughter value +1]
[Basic Saber Technique proficiency +1]
[Ding~~ Congratulations to the host for completing the achievement—Hundred Beast Slayer, achievement points +1]
Before he could take a closer look at the system prompt, his communication bracelet suddenly let out a series of beeps.
"Attention everyone, emergency assembly in fifteen minutes!"
"Repeat, emergency assembly in fifteen minutes!"