Rune Industry

[You successfully cultivated a powerful plant. Experience +100.]

[Your Plant Cultivator level has risen to Level 2.]

[Strength +1]

[Agility +1]

[Spirit +5.]

The panel notifications flashed, but Lincon had no time to inspect them.

He slowly rose to his feet. The black light in his hand continuously condensed and stretched along with him, while the scattered sword qi reached a terrifying peak, spreading like a storm and instantly shredding the Carrion Rats around him.

Countless sprays of blood splattered across the ground, as if celebrating the birth of the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid.

After a while, the ghostly light gradually drew inward, gathering into a grass sword in Lincon's hand.

The blade was shaped like a grass leaf, yet it gleamed with the luster of jade. The joints connecting the leaves bulged slightly, forming a simple crossguard at just the right place.

Sword qi flashed throughout the entire process, filled with cold glints and boundless vitality.

At that moment, a wisp of consciousness extended like a tentacle, cautiously linking itself with Lincon's mind.

"Mas...ter!"

A somewhat childish voice sounded in Lincon's mind.

Hearing that voice, Lincon raised an eyebrow slightly.

He knew that this wisp of consciousness must have come from the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid.

After all, a plant cultivated with 70 points of Sunlight was equivalent to seventy Dark Creatures. It was not strange for it to possess a bit of awareness.

"Can you help me kill enemies?"

Lincon raised the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid, pointing its blade at the Rot Rat King not far away.

"Yes!"

The Ghostshadow Sword Orchid's answer was crisp and decisive.

To the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid, Lincon was the god of life who had created it, its creator. Its mission upon birth was to protect Lincon and remain forever submissive to him.

Receiving a response from its master was the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid's greatest honor.

The next moment, boundless sword qi erupted.

Lincon only felt the sword in his hand buzz and vibrate as it took the initiative to guide his arm through a semicircular swing.

Clang—

The pitch-black sword light resembled a crescent moon. Under this slash, even the distance through space seemed to have been forcibly shortened by several inches.

The Rot Rat King's eyes reflected the sword light. Its instincts told it that the strike was extremely dangerous, but by the time it reacted and tried to move, it discovered that it had seemingly lost control of its body.

Then darkness filled its vision, and its consciousness completely disconnected from its brain.

Thud!

The Rot Rat King's body split open down the middle. The cut was smooth and even, without the slightest jagged edge. Its internal organs were even still wriggling.

The corpse fell to the ground, releasing a thick stench of blood.

Some of the Carrion Rats fortunate enough to survive saw that their king was dead and immediately burrowed into the forest behind them without looking back or hesitating in the slightest.

Lincon did not pursue them. In truth, after being rammed by the Rot Rat King, his body still had not recovered.

"Fuuu..."

After a long while, Lincon felt a little better. Only after confirming that there was no danger nearby did he turn his attention back to the panel.

Killing a mutated Carrion Rat granted 10 experience points to both his main and secondary professions, along with one point of Sunlight.

The Carrion Rat corpses scattered across the ground had provided him with 180 experience points in total, 30 of which had come from the Rot Rat King.

Both his main and secondary professions had also leveled up once.

He opened his personal status panel.

[Bound User: Lincon]

[Main Profession: Longwind Fortress Guardian (Novice Level 1)]

[Secondary Profession: Plant Cultivator (Novice Level 2)]

[Strength: 18—Agility: 15—Spirit: 19—Charisma: 9—Reputation: 1]

[Abilities: Plant Affinity, Accelerated Regeneration, Firearms Mastery, Xingyi Fist, Crude Shrine-Making Method.]

[Remaining Sunlight: 27.]

After his main profession reached Level 1, his Strength and Agility each increased by 5 points, while his Spirit and Charisma each increased by 1 point.

His attributes now far surpassed those of ordinary people. He was steadily transforming in the direction of an empowered individual.

Most normal people's Strength and Agility hovered around 7, which was roughly a passing standard. But Lincon had already completely broken past that limit, with every aspect of him roughly twice that of an ordinary person.

As for Charisma and Reputation, Lincon guessed that they were related to his main profession.

However, that was not what surprised Lincon the most.

Because a blinking red dot had appeared in the upper-right corner of his panel.

[Initial main/secondary profession levels achieved. Mission unlocked.]

[Mission Prompt: Accumulate 1,000 Reputation.]

[Mission Reward: Junior Rune Industry Blueprint.]

"Not an ordinary item, but some kind of industry?" Lincon could not help feeling curious.

Human development could not be separated from industrial revolutions. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution sparked by the steam engine in the eighteenth century, it drove transformations in human society, followed by the second, the third...

Every industrial shift greatly advanced social reform and change.

Yet whether in his original world or this one, Lincon had never heard of Rune Industry.

"Forget it. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Lincon thought.

He glanced over the corpses littering the ground and, after thinking it over, decided to bring the Rot Rat King's corpse back with him.

After Carrion Rat meat was roasted at high temperatures, the toxins inside it disappeared. It had always been one of Lincon's most important sources of protein.

Although he did not know why the Carrion Rat pack had mutated, their essence would not change.

He had been in the forest for so long that, judging by the time, it should be getting dark soon.

Lincon did not dare delay. Dragging half of the Rot Rat King's body, he headed out.

But as he moved the corpse, he suddenly noticed several pure white mushrooms poking their heads out beneath the ancient banyan tree beside it.

Lincon instinctively checked the mushrooms' information.

[White Banyan Fungus]

[Advancement Route 1: Beautiful Abalone Mushroom.]

[Required Sunlight: 10 points.]

[A type of fungus that becomes extremely delicious after cooking. It possesses exceptionally high nutritional value, and consuming it can quickly restore stamina.]

[Hidden Advancement Route 2: Giant Mushroom.]

[Required Sunlight: 20.]

[Unlock Conditions: Iron Block, Dark Matter.]

[A gigantic mushroom with a huge body and a hard exterior. It possesses no offensive ability. Once mature, its skin secretes a mucus that, after solidifying, is not afraid of flames.]

"???"

Lincon's eyes lit up. He had already been preparing to leave, yet he had unexpectedly encountered edible mushrooms at this moment.

The Seed Mark's ability to evolve plants generally enhanced their inherent traits, allowing the plants to undergo some kind of qualitative transformation.

Therefore, since White Banyan Fungus could advance into Beautiful Abalone Mushroom, it meant that it inherently possessed edible properties.

Since he did not have much Sunlight left anyway, Lincon simply advanced one White Banyan Fungus into a Beautiful Abalone Mushroom.

A warm glow flashed across his palm, and the snow-white mushroom rapidly changed.

Its cap became rounder and plumper than before, its color deepened slightly, and its size increased considerably. A layer of transparent gel coated its surface.

As soon as he leaned closer and sniffed, a refreshing fragrance surged into his nostrils.

Lincon plucked the Beautiful Abalone Mushroom and placed it in his backpack. He also picked all the White Banyan Fungus he could see nearby.

Even if this was the only edible mushroom in the forest right now, he could cultivate it and eventually develop an entire mushroom family.

"Although the Sunlight I painstakingly accumulated over three years by killing a hundred Dark Creatures has nearly been used up in a single day, the gains this time far outweigh the cost. You have to give something up to gain something."

Lincon dragged the Rot Rat King's corpse onward. The towering canopy blotted out the sky, while his active spiritual power continually sensed the affectionate thoughts the plants sent toward him.

Nearly half an hour later, Lincon walked out of the forest. By then, an inexplicable black curtain had covered the sky.

After thinking for a moment, Lincon found a withered tree, hollowed out its center with the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid, then took a Shrine from his backpack and placed it inside. He added an oil lamp within it.

Soon, a faint flame lit up in the forest like a ghostly fire.

When he looked at his main profession panel again, an additional point of light had appeared on it.

When he focused his mind on the light, he could vaguely see the surroundings centered around the Shrine.

"This Carrion Rat mutation is extremely strange. Although there were no material crystals like those found in Dark Creatures inside their brains, their danger level is already no less than that of an ordinary E-rank Dark Creature.

"Placing a Shrine here will let me observe the situation through the Lord's Talent whenever I have nothing else to do."

After finishing this, Lincon set off once more.

"Dave, record today's Carrion Rat mutation data."

"Carrion Rats have begun undergoing a second mutation. Their bodies have grown ten times larger than before, while both their aggression and intelligence have increased. They are capable of hunting in coordinated groups..."

As usual, Lincon recorded the unusual circumstances he encountered. Once he returned, he would organize them in his journal through his smart wristwatch.

It was a habit he had developed over three years.

However, after walking several hundred meters out of the dense forest, he inexplicably felt a chill run down his back. He turned around for a look, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

At the edge of the forest, a humanoid Pale Wraith was staring in his direction.

Lincon's heart suddenly pounded. From that wraith, he sensed an aura even more terrifying than every Dark Creature he had encountered before.

Even with the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid in hand, he still could not suppress that sense of danger.

He fixed his eyes on the wraith and did not dare let it leave his sight. This continued until the wraith completely vanished.

"Fuuu—It looks like something incredible has appeared near Longwind Fortress!"

Lincon fled at top speed. By the time he returned to Longwind Fortress, night had just fallen.

In the courtyard, the Sunlight Sunflowers and Sunlight Man-Eaters glowed like lanterns.

Lincon pushed open the gate and entered. The temperature in the courtyard seemed slightly higher than outside, creating a little world of its own.

He sat in the courtyard, slicing the Rot Rat King's meat into pieces, salting them, and slowly smoking the Carrion Rat meat over charcoal.

Night had arrived, bringing with it the creeping cold. The sky above was pitch-black, without even a trace of moonlight.

The surroundings were also silent. Looking outside, dense darkness surged forward like a tide, crashing against the halo barrier formed by the Sunlight Sunflowers before flowing past on both sides.

Lincon narrowed his eyes, retreated indoors, closed the door, and began cultivating Beautiful Abalone Mushrooms.

He took out a damaged metal container and began preparing a growing medium.

He used only a shallow layer of sand and gravel at the bottom for drainage, then spread a layer of soil over it. Afterward, Lincon carefully scraped off the Beautiful Abalone Mushroom's spores and scattered them evenly over the surface of the growing medium.

Accelerated Growth.

Lincon held his palm above it, faint light pulsing from his hand. In just a few seconds, the growing medium was filled with Beautiful Abalone Mushroom mycelium.

The white mycelium was like a living neural network, rapidly spreading and intertwining through the growing medium, forming a dense white blanket.

Then countless tiny points broke through the surface, growing and swelling upward.

Under Lincon's gaze, clusters of plump mushrooms stood gracefully inside the container after only ten minutes.

Their caps were thick, and their short stems were exceptionally sturdy.

Lincon lightly wrinkled his nose. A faint fragrance filled the air, making his mouth water.

"This time, the spiritual power consumption was much lower."

Lincon rubbed his brow gently. His mind was only somewhat fatigued, without that feeling of passing out after inducing growth like yesterday.

It was probably because his Plant Cultivator profession had leveled up, causing his spiritual power to increase.

"However, as my level rises, the experience required later will increase accordingly. It won't be as easy as it was in the early stages."

The appearance of the panel had brought a turning point to Lincon's uneventful life.

Before he met the messenger, the motivation supporting him had been his search for his comrades. But now, the panel had brought him new hope.

After all, who could refuse the thrill of leveling up?