Special Mission (Seeking Collection and Follow-up!)

On a country road in Colin Town, a four-wheeled carriage was slowly rolling along.

There were six people in the carriage, seated on either side. Five of them were young people dressed in mage robes or light cloth armor.

The person on the outermost side, however, looked completely different: a male orc with rugged features and blue-green skin, tall and broad, wearing leather armor inlaid with iron plates. A round metal shield was slung across his back, and at his waist hung a longsword whose hilt had been polished smooth with age.

"We'll arrive at the mission site in one hour. Remember, do not move more than ten meters away from me under any circumstances."

The orc warrior spoke in a grave tone. Seeing that the young people all looked nervous, his expression eased a little, and he continued:

"You are all excellent mages, and our target this time is a Demonic Beast that is especially afraid of magical attacks. It won't be very difficult. Don't worry—with me here, I won't let you get hurt!"

A chorus of thanks immediately rose inside the carriage. With such a reliable-looking warrior protecting them, the mages felt much more at ease.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a simple mission? Why does it feel like we're about to fight a boss?"

Lynn muttered inwardly. He sat low-key in the innermost part of the carriage, chiming in with the others a few times.

It really was not his fault for deliberately keeping a low profile. The main reason was that he truly looked ordinary and unremarkable. He wore a tattered piece of cloth armor reinforced with leather, his hands were empty, and he did not even have a staff.

The only thing that might make people give him a second glance was his delicate, handsome face.

Overall, he seemed to be the weakest member of this mage squad. After all, in this world, a mage without money was the same as a mage without strength.

Sigh, how am I still this poor even after transmigrating... Lynn sighed in his heart.

He had already transmigrated to this world of swords and magic for a week.

The original owner of this body had the same given name as him, only with the additional surname "Lowell," and had been a seventeen-year-old novice mage.

A week ago, while the original owner had been adventuring in the wild with his teammates, he had suddenly dropped dead. At the same time, the Lynn from reality had encountered a dump truck on his way to work, and had been honored with transmigration.

Luckily, it had been on the way to work. Missing a day of work was not bad either.

He had actually been quite optimistic at the time. Although the original owner's background was a little lowly, merely the son of a farming household from a remote town, he at least had some magical talent and had become a mage.

And mages were a profession that commanded great respect in this world. At their upper limit, they were legendary great figures, making Lynn feel yearning despite himself.

But after Lynn figured out the cultivation system of mages in this world, he could no longer smile at all.

In this world, mages needed to buy spellbooks to learn magic, and even then, they might not necessarily learn the magic recorded in them.

Spellbooks were already expensive to begin with. After one thing led to another, they were simply not something an ordinary family could afford.

Even more fatal was that the mana consumed when casting magic in this world actually could not recover automatically!

One needed to use specific mana conversion devices, such as staffs, magic stones, and other magical tools, or directly drink mana potions.

That was another large sum of money.

To sum it up, unless Lynn could rely on his outstanding looks to climb into the favor of some wealthy noble in the royal capital of Yaxia, he could only change his fate with a cheat.

Fortunately, he really did have a cheat on him.

His eyes lost focus slightly, making him look as though he had entered the meditative state commonly seen among mages.

A point of light soon appeared before Lynn's eyes.

He condensed his will and probed toward the point of light. The instant he touched it, the radiance spread outward, transforming into the appearance of a thick, heavy book.

[Codex of Origin]

This name was branded onto the ancient sheepskin cover in twisted lettering.

As Lynn turned it with his will, three stars slowly rose from above the opened illusory book.

Blue, deep and secluded as the ocean; purple, magnificent as the Milky Way; red, flaunting itself like blood.

These three stars represented three upgrade paths: [Wisdom], [Psionics], and [Bloodline].

The [Wisdom] star was easy to understand. Each time it upgraded, he could choose one spell from among three fixed ring-level spells.

He would master it directly, which was much more convenient than buying a spellbook and gnawing through it by brute force.

When Lynn awakened the system, he discovered that [Wisdom] had already automatically upgraded twice.

Only after digesting the original owner's memories did he realize that the way to upgrade this star was related to the "amount of knowledge" one possessed.

Because the original owner really had read a lot of books...

So this is what a small-town exam grinder looks like? Lynn immediately felt a surge of respect.

In short, he had carefully selected two first-ring spells.

[Frost Ring].

This was a decent offensive spell that could continuously control and cut apart enemies.

The other was [Blink Step].

This was a divine skill! Its effect was to teleport him to a fixed point somewhere within his perception range. The limit was three hundred meters, and if his field of vision was clear, the positioning would be even more precise.

However, it could only be used once every six hours.

Such a powerful spell is actually first-ring? Lynn was pleasantly surprised. This was truly a powerful life-saving ability!

At this moment, a slender branch extended from the [Wisdom] star, splitting midway and connecting to two smaller stars.

And beyond it was an even deeper void, symbolizing the road of infinite upgrades.

However, the "inspiration" required to level up was not so easy to obtain. At the very least, Lynn had yet to figure out a suitable method.

When he crossed over, he had only gained 1 point of inspiration. After some thought, he allocated it to the [Psionics] star, so the specific functions of [Bloodline] were still unknown.

[Unlocked talent: Mana Web]

[Effect: Base mana pool expanded. Spreads a web centered on oneself, allowing the absorption of natural mana within a certain range. Absorption speed is related to the total amount of ambient mana.]

[Shareable units: 5]

[Title "Mana Web Weaver" unlock progress: 0/5]

In Lynn's view, the effect of this [Mana Web] was utterly heaven-defying!

Because it had directly broken this world's rule that spellcasters could not automatically recover mana!

And what was more, it could actually be shared!

If these shared slots were openly priced, people would probably fight over them like mad, wouldn't they?

Lynn cheerfully did the math in his head. Unfortunately, he had not yet had time to find his target customers.

After crossing over, his whole body had felt as if it had been hollowed out, and he had lain in an inn for a week before finally recovering.

Then he had taken this urgent commission at the Adventurers' Guild.

Mages only, generous reward!

The key point was that the difficulty was not high, either.

For that reason, five mages, who were usually hard to see at all, had gathered all at once.

It did not look like many, but Lynn estimated that every mage in this town who was also an adventurer was probably here.

Mage professionals were noble by nature; talent and comprehension could not be lacking. Afterward, they either tested into magic academies for further study or joined one of the great mage towers to take up a post. Very few were willing to risk their lives fighting Demonic Beasts.

Only someone as poor as a clanging empty bell like Lynn was an exception.

But even among these five people, his poverty stood out.

Never mind his clothes for the moment—even the staff that was the iconic item of a mage was something he could not afford.

Thinking of this, Lynn put away the Codex of Origin and looked with envy at the person sitting opposite him.

The figure wrapped in a white cotton dress was petite and slender. Beneath the hem of the skirt was a pair of small black square-toed leather shoes, and between the hem and the shoes, a short stretch of smooth, fair calf skin was revealed.

With such quiet and elegant attire, she looked exactly like a student from a magic school...

But none of that was the point. The point was the wooden staff she held in her hand. It was small and exquisite in shape, with a clear, translucent green gemstone embedded at the top.

It looked very expensive... Lynn could not help feeling curious. Carrying such a precious staff, why had this person still gone to the Adventurers' Guild to take on a commission?

His gaze moved farther upward, and a sweet face with a bit of baby fat leapt into Lynn's view: brown hair, emerald-green eyes, and skin as fair and delicate as porcelain.

More importantly, she had a pair of pointed ears, though they were only slightly longer than human ears.

This was a beautiful half-elf girl.

Although he had already seen her appearance before getting into the carriage, inside the slightly cramped carriage now, the distance between them was especially close.

And Lynn only now realized that she seemed to have been sizing him up the whole time as well...

Their eyes met. The girl blinked playfully, the corners of her mouth lifting into a smile that was extremely approachable.

She was very used to dealing with people... Lynn immediately thought. Combining that with the girl's behavior and bearing he had observed earlier, he judged that she was a very well-bred girl from a well-off family.

It was very strange. Why would someone like that appear in Colin Town, on this carriage that was about to head to the outskirts of the Whispering Forest to exterminate Demonic Beasts?