Insight

Raine was born into a poor family.

Because of their poverty, he had grown up never knowing when his next full meal would come. He often had to work on an empty stomach, helping with household chores and simple farm work.

Even so, he still had happiness of his own.

His loving parents, and the life born into the family after him—his younger sister, Philly.

Philly was two years younger than him. Since their parents always had endless work to do, looking after his sister had become part of his life from the time he was five or six.

Waking her up every day, teaching her how to speak, watching over her while doing chores so she would not break the family's precious jars and bottles. Coaxing her into swallowing the unpalatable rice bran porridge, breaking the hard-to-eat black bread into tiny pieces for her...

When telling stories before bed each night, he would often imagine himself becoming a powerful adventurer, a valiant knight who could bring home soft, fragrant white bread every day, along with a creamy soup with slices of meat.

He told Philly those imagined adventure stories, telling her that life would not always be so poor. As long as they believed in hope and kept working hard, one day they too would live like those wealthy gentlemen, with enough food to eat and clothes to wear.

But all those hopes for a beautiful future had been squeezed away bit by bit as he grew older, finally crushed completely on an afternoon a few days ago.

He clearly remembered the despair of that day. As usual, he had gone out to buy black bread. But when he returned, he was greeted not by his parents' slightly forced smiles or his sister's expectant gaze, but by a shattered wooden door, overturned furniture, and an empty house...

Bright red bloodstains remained on the floor, and his vision seemed to turn red from the sight of them. He grabbed the family's only axe, so dull it could barely cut anything, and chased after them for several thousand meters, but ultimately found no trace of those damned Goblins.

And then, his younger sister Philly finally appeared before him again.

Torn clothes, wounds covering her body, and an ankle that had been forcibly snapped...

Her eyes were dull and unfocused as she stared silently at the ground. The faint rise and fall of her chest showed that she was still barely breathing.

Raine looked again at the scattered pile of white bones on the ground. In that instant, something seemed to surge from his lower abdomen to his chest before bursting upward and consuming his entire mind.

Without the slightest hesitation, he roared, abandoned the opponent before him, and charged toward the burly figure nearly half a meter taller than himself.

Larry quickly came back to his senses as well. He kicked the Goblin in front of him away and thought rapidly.

Leave, or stay?

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, leaving him unable to decide.

The next moment, a flash of sword light passed by. The Goblin charging at him again was decapitated with a single strike, and Lin Mo's voice sounded beside him.

"Uncle Larry, Uncle Leo, go help Raine. I'll deal with these Goblins!"

That big guy clearly would not be easy to handle. They could not possibly take it down in a short time, and if they also had to deal with sneak attacks from the other Goblins, their odds of winning would be almost zero.

The best option was to hold off the Mutated Goblin first, then clear out the remaining Goblins as quickly as possible.

And among everyone present, only he could do the latter.

Larry gave him a deep look. At that moment, he suddenly regained an astonishing calm. "All right, we'll do as you say... The name Mutated Goblin sounds scary, but it only looks about a head and a half taller than us. Maybe it isn't actually that strong. If we attack together, we might be able to take it down!"

"That's right. At the end of the day, it's just a Goblin, from the same race as those weak, cowardly little green-skinned runts!"

Leo met his gaze from the side and immediately echoed him, looking full of fighting spirit.

"Charge!"

Larry shouted, as if to bolster his own courage, and rushed toward the Mutated Goblin together with Leo.

At the same time, Lin Mo blocked the opponents the two had been facing moments ago: three ordinary Goblins.

Including the one Raine had abandoned, there were four Goblins left on the field.

He had to deal with them as quickly as possible!

The situation was extremely dangerous, yet Lin Mo became strangely calmer. He fixed his gaze on his opponents, lightly shifted aside to evade a Goblin's attack, then grabbed its wrist with a backhand and twisted hard.

His strength was not particularly high, but he still had a certain advantage over Goblins. The Goblin screamed, its weapon falling from its hand, before Lin Mo flung it away with force, sending it crashing into the other two Goblins.

The next moment, Lin Mo shot forward. A flash of sword light severed the head of the badly wounded Goblin Raine had abandoned earlier.

The three Goblins struggled back to their feet. Perhaps the Mutated Goblin's presence had emboldened them. Rather than retreating, they charged at Lin Mo again.

Lin Mo watched them with a cold gaze, gripping his sword in both hands as he steadied his breathing and focused his mind.

At that moment, he seemed to see a line before his eyes, vanishing in an instant.

Lin Mo's legs tensed, and he exploded forward. His 6 points of Agility were pushed to their limit in that instant. The sword in his hand moved as easily as an extension of his arm, slashing horizontally along that invisible line!

"Swish—!"

Accompanied by a crisp tearing sound, the rusted sword struck the first Goblin's neck at incredible speed. After a slight moment of resistance, an ugly green head flew into the air.

The force of the swing barely weakened. The full arc of the sword traced a perfect curve, blossoming into a splendid spray of blood.

At that moment, everything seemed to slow before his eyes. Droplets of crimson scattered into the sky, then fell...

Learn Skill: Slash! Strength +1!

Slash Lv1 (3/10)

As those words appeared before his eyes, the heads of all three Goblins hit the ground with a thud.

A new skill!

Delight appeared in Lin Mo's eyes. For an ordinary adventurer, learning a skill meant surpassing the vast majority of their peers and gaining the means to establish themselves. It was already an enormous surprise.

But for Lin Mo, it meant more than that.

A new skill meant even more skills after that skill evolved, and it also meant new Stat Points!

The enormous increase in Combat strength brought by two points of Agility had already made Lin Mo deeply realize how powerful Stat Points were.

It was no exaggeration to say that those two points of Agility alone had increased his combat strength by more than half!

Otherwise, with his body that had barely been trained, he could at most have performed about as well as the underdeveloped Raine.

But now was not the time to celebrate or relax.

Lin Mo took a deep breath and adjusted his breathing before turning to look to the other side.

That Mutated Goblin looked fierce, but there were three of them. They should at least stand a chance, right?

The faint upward curve at the corner of Lin Mo's mouth vanished instantly.

"Fuck!"