Spoils

The moment he made his move, the Slacking skill naturally became ineffective.

With no time to examine those messages closely, Lin Mo only felt his body grow much lighter in an instant. He quickly drew his sword and darted to the side, evading another goblin's attack.

Just as the nail-studded wooden club brushed past his shoulder, his sword blade had already swept up from below in a perfect arc, moving so quickly that even Lin Mo himself failed to react.

A scream rang out, followed by nothing but indistinct whimpering.

The not particularly sharp blade failed to sever its head completely, but it accurately cut through its throat. Dark red blood sprayed out, splattering onto him as a nauseating stench rushed into his face.

Lin Mo's mind went blank for a moment, then the ugly face before him jolted him awake. He exerted force through his sword again, completely finishing off the still-struggling goblin.

Glancing to the side, Lin Mo kicked the corpse before him away. It crashed into another goblin nearby, and he immediately followed after it, rushing before that goblin and slashing out once more.

The blade flashed, and an oval object flew through the air.

With the momentum of his charge behind it, this strike finally cleanly severed the goblin's head.

Larry, who had just been struggling bitterly against the goblins, froze on the spot. He stared at the flying head, his face full of disbelief.

Only half a minute ago, he had been barely holding on under the assault of two goblins. In the blink of an eye, the goblins were nearly all dead?

He swallowed hard and looked at Lin Mo as he slowly approached.

This kid...

At the same time, on the other side, the youth named Raine, who had been the first to charge in, finally killed his own opponent as well. Larry stopped staring blankly and took up his weapon to help his neighbor deal with the last goblin.

The battle ended, and the forest was filled with the smell of blood. No one spoke. Each of them found a tree to sit beneath and rested briefly.

Lin Mo leaned against a tree, breathing heavily. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, and the hand gripping his sword trembled faintly.

This was his first battle. Before this, he had never even killed a chicken. Yet perhaps because the ugly monsters before him placed little psychological burden on him, or perhaps because he was naturally strong-minded, aside from some slight nausea, he did not feel too uncomfortable.

On the contrary, he was excited!

Lin Mo looked at the semi-transparent panel before him, where his Agility had reached 6.

The increase of two points of Agility was far greater than he had imagined!

It was not a simple numerical addition, but a qualitative leap that was difficult to describe on paper.

It was as though his entire body had been remade. In an instant, he had gone from an out-of-shape shut-in to a top-tier sprinter—no, something even more exaggerated.

The moment he started running, he even had the illusion that the ground beneath his feet had turned into springs, as if his entire body were about to take flight.

And the benefits brought by Agility were not limited to speed alone—his earlier slash was proof enough.

A certain naval admiral skilled in dance had once said that speed was power. An increase in speed would likewise make his attacks sharper, allowing him to more easily unleash strength close to, or even beyond, his own limits.

Of course, this did not come without a price—

Lin Mo's arm was still trembling lightly, sore and swollen with a faint tearing sensation.

The human body was like a precision instrument. Forcing it to perform beyond its own "specifications" inevitably meant some degree of wear and tear.

Fortunately, it was not serious. He should recover after resting for a while.

Lin Mo continued reading through the panel.

Skills:

Stealth Lv1 (1/10): Having become proficient at slacking off, you have begun learning to reduce your presence in any situation. After remaining out of the enemy's line of sight for a period of time, you can enter the Stealth state. While in the Stealth state, you will not be the enemy's primary target. Attacking while in the Stealth state will break Stealth and grant your next attack a 5% Physical Damage bonus.

Just as the earlier message had said, his original skill, "Slacking," had disappeared—or rather, evolved.

It had become a new, more powerful skill.

Unlike the previous Slacking skill, the newly acquired Stealth skill was not displayed in white text, but in small green letters. When he focused on the skill's name, an annotation appeared below it—Grade: Excellent.

Based on the information currently available, Lin Mo made a reasonable guess about his Golden Finger.

During the battle just now, the new Stealth skill had gained 1 point of proficiency.

In other words, skill proficiency should increase through use... more precisely, through practical use in situations such as combat.

Once a skill reached its maximum level, he would likely gain Stat Points while it automatically evolved into a new skill.

This was utterly ridiculous...

Back when he was still in town, Lin Mo had heard several guards discussing skills.

Acquiring a Professional Skill was already incredibly difficult for commoners. It often required enormous amounts of training and actual combat, along with a certain degree of talent, for one to have a chance at comprehending one.

Some untalented adventurers fought goblins their entire lives without ever acquiring a skill.

Otherwise, they could buy Skill Scrolls like the wealthy did, studying the skills created by powerful professionals through those Skill Scrolls and practicing them.

This could greatly shorten the time needed to learn a skill, but the downside was that the skill learned might not necessarily suit the user. Furthermore, skill books were extremely expensive. An ordinary merchant would likely have to empty his savings and lose his entire fortune to buy one. Even noble lords had to consider such a purchase carefully.

And that was only for the lowest-grade ordinary skills. For advanced skills, the requirements would only be harsher.

Even after learning a skill, it took years, even decades of relentless practice to use it seamlessly and fully bring out its power.

During that process, there would often be long stretches where one could make no further progress, commonly known as bottlenecks. No matter how one practiced, it was difficult to improve.

But Lin Mo did not have those worries. He only needed to keep using his skills in battle to see his proficiency steadily rise. Once the proficiency was sufficient, the skill would naturally level up and become more effective.

And once he maxed out a skill's proficiency, it would evolve, automatically granting him a completely superior, more powerful skill!

After catching his breath, Larry pushed himself up against the tree trunk. "We shouldn't stay here long. Let's gather the spoils and leave as quickly as possible."

Calling it gathering spoils was a bit of a stretch. These goblins were dirt poor, and the materials on them were worthless, so there was not much to take.

Lin Mo took his knife and cut off a goblin's left ear.

Once they returned to town, he could exchange it for a bounty.

There were five goblins in total and four people, so it was clearly impossible to divide them evenly.

Although Lin Mo had killed three goblins, Larry had been involved with two of them, helping draw their attention, so Lin Mo could not possibly keep all three spoils for himself.

After each person received one ear, Larry did not hesitate much before handing the final goblin ear to Lin Mo.

"This time, Brother Lin Mo contributed the most. He should take one extra."