Chapter 330 - 190: Lania City’s "Goods
Even from so far away, he could seemingly feel the immense force of the wind and the biting chill.
This was definitely not a level of power an Entry Level Mage could possess. Even an average Senior Level Mage would be far from capable of such a feat... Without a doubt, Lin Mo, who had been less than a Level 1 Mage when they first met, had already beaten him to the punch. He had crossed the threshold into the realm Landon had always dreamed of—the Senior Level!
Even though Landon had known Lin Mo for a good while and had honed a tenacious mentality, he still couldn’t stop himself from cursing aloud:
"Shit!"
To be fair, you couldn’t really blame Landon for being so sensitive; anyone in his shoes would have had a meltdown.
If it had been Flora, for instance, she would have cursed far more foully than he did.
Meanwhile, Lin Mo was busy reading the messages that had appeared before him.
After both Skills reached Level 4, he could choose their second Evolutionary Direction.
First up was [Spiral Wind Vortex], the Skill he had just acquired.
Please select an Evolutionary Direction—
Evolutionary Path 1: Pull I: The pulling effect of Spiral Wind Vortex is increased by 25%!
Evolutionary Path 2: Elemental Vulnerability II: The Ice, Fire, and Thunder Element vulnerability effect of Spiral Wind Vortex is increased by an additional 7.5% (inclusive of the Level 1 bonus)!
Compared to the choice he had when first acquiring the Skill, the effect of Evolutionary Path 2 this time was to increase the vulnerability effect by an additional 7.5%. This meant it was only a 2.5% increase over the Level One version, making its value proposition not very high.
Besides, the pulling effect of the Skill just now had genuinely exceeded Lin Mo’s expectations. So, to balance things out, he chose Evolutionary Path 1 this time.
Next was the Evolutionary Path for [Blizzard].
Please select an Evolutionary Direction—
Evolutionary Path 1: Overlapping Flow I: For the duration of the spell, damage dealt to enemies within its range will increase with the number of times they are hit, stacking up to a maximum of 20%.
Evolutionary Path 2: Frost Freeze II: Once the slow effect has stacked to its maximum, there is a 30% chance to inflict the Frozen status on the enemy.
Last time, Lin Mo had chosen Evolutionary Path 2, the Frost Freeze effect. This time, the enhancement to Frost Freeze was an additional 10% chance to inflict the Frozen status.
It was the same issue as before: the benefit from an Evolutionary Path was generally highest when going from 0 to 1. In comparison, the value of going from 1 to 2 was lower.
Therefore, in most cases, when choosing an Evolutionary Path for the second time, Lin Mo would pick the option he hadn’t chosen previously, unless that path was truly useless.
Unquestionably, this time Lin Mo chose "Overlapping Flow" to increase Blizzard’s damage potential.
The battle was still raging. However, their position was just a small section of the peripheral defensive line. After Lin Mo’s last two Skills instantly wiped out over 200 Goblins, the number of Goblins in front of them began to show signs of thinning out.
Although new Goblins continued to pour in from the rear to fill the gaps, they posed little overall danger to these powerful Adventurers.
With Skill Level points up for grabs, Lin Mo certainly wasn’t going to stop. After finalizing his Evolutionary Path selections, he immediately unleashed the same combo again.
Gales howled and hail rained down, swallowing hordes of Goblins in a tide of powerful Magic. Just as he’d hoped, the Wind Vortex, now enhanced by its new Evolutionary Path, was much stronger, pulling in Goblins from a wider radius. As a result, even though the Goblin density had decreased slightly, the Skill Level points Lin Mo gained were virtually the same as before.
[Spiral Wind Vortex] Skill Level +69!
[Blizzard] Skill Level +69!
Watching his Skill Level skyrocket while his Magic Power remained plentiful, Lin Mo couldn’t help but reflect on how great it was to have a high Magic Attribute. ’I’m no longer constantly short on mana like I used to be.’
’Let’s keep going!’
As if addicted, Lin Mo attempted the combo once more.
[Spiral Wind Vortex] Skill Level +54!
[Blizzard] Skill Level +54!
...
[Spiral Wind Vortex] Skill Level +41!
[Blizzard] Skill Level +41!
After unleashing the combo twice more in quick succession, the decrease in the number of Goblins became even more pronounced, and the Skill Level points he earned dropped significantly as a result.
After consecutively casting eight Excellent Level Magic spells, Lin Mo finally felt a slight strain on his Magic Power, having consumed a little over a quarter of it.
As for the mental strain, that was barely a concern.
Lin Mo’s Spiritual Attribute was already quite high. Plus, with "Mage’s Heart" reducing the mental load from spellcasting and the effect of the "Peaceful Spirit Bracelet," he no longer had to worry about getting headaches from casting spells.
And after unleashing the spell combo several times in a row, both Skills had gained 164 Skill Level points, smoothly leveling up again.
"Skill [Blizzard] Lv4 (100/100) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Blizzard] Lv5 (64/180)"
"Skill [Spiral Wind Vortex] Lv4 (100/100) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Spiral Wind Vortex] Lv5 (64/180)"
...
’I should slow down a bit. The number of Goblins has dropped noticeably, so using large-scale AOE Skills isn’t as efficient anymore.’
The battle tonight was far from over, after all. The Goblin offensive wouldn’t let up so easily, so even though Lin Mo’s Magic Power reserves were now quite ample, he still couldn’t afford to be too reckless with it.
It was worth noting that the Goblins weren’t entirely stupid. Having noticed the absurdly high death rate in this sector, they had stopped pointlessly sending more troops over.
Lin Mo drew his Steel Splitting Sword and began to engage in close-quarters combat.
His progress as a Mage was accelerating, causing his other Professions to start falling behind. While this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Lin Mo was ultimately aiming for well-rounded development, so he wanted to catch his other Professions up when he had the chance.