After a simple breakfast, when they arrived at the city lord's mansion, Landon was already waiting with his team members.

"Gentlemen, please wait a moment."

The guards at the city lord's mansion entrance were quite polite to them. After all, even without Landon explaining their purpose earlier, just looking at their attire made it clear they were all capable adventurers.

Before long, an elderly man in formal attire came over: "Everyone, please follow me."

The group followed him into the city lord's mansion and were led to a spacious hall.

On both sides stood neatly dressed guards holding weapons. In the center of the hall was a round table surrounded by city officials and dignitaries.

Besides their two teams, there were some other adventurers who appeared to have provided support elsewhere and also made outstanding contributions.

Landon seemed to know them all, exchanging greetings with each other.

Some also cast curious glances at Lin Mo, greeting him proactively, and Lin Mo responded to each one.

These were all quite capable adventurers in Silverstream City. Getting to know and befriend them couldn't hurt.

After a brief silence, a middle-aged woman sitting at the round table slowly stood up: "Welcome back, adventurers who have made outstanding contributions. During this goblin offensive wave, you have all made remarkable contributions to defending Silverstream City's territory. The city lord is currently preparing your award ceremony, so please remain calm and wait patiently."

So formal...

This was something Lin Mo hadn't anticipated earlier, but thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Although it was the lowest-ranking title like "Honorary Third-Class Baron," it was still a genuine noble title that naturally required proper procedures.

A moment later, the lord of Silverstream City whom Lin Mo had met once before—Finnie's mother, Lady Bechila Lavell—finally appeared before everyone.

She wore formal attire, dressed elegantly and appropriately, looking both beautiful and authoritative.

"Brave adventurers, I'm delighted you could be here..."

What followed was very formal, very official pleasantries that gave Lin Mo a sense of déjà vu about school principal speeches.

Fortunately, this preamble wasn't too long, and soon Lady Lavell concluded her speech.

"Then, I will now present you with the 'Guardian' medals. From this moment, you will become honorary nobles of the kingdom, enjoying the privileges befitting your status. I also hope you will continue to work hard and make more contributions to the kingdom and its people."

As she finished speaking, attendants brought forward a golden tray containing several gleaming bronze medals.

Bechila distributed the medals one by one. When she reached Lin Mo, she winked at him, her eyes full of appreciation.

This genius that Flora had spoken of truly hadn't disappointed her—not only had he taken good care of Finnie, but his growth rate was incredibly astonishing!

When he first came to Silverstream City, he seemed to be just a level 1 Professional. In such a short time, even with Sherfilia's help, when she received Lin Mo's contribution documents, she had been speechless with surprise for quite a while.

And the evaluation from the maid who had witnessed everything firsthand was also very high.

So high that it surprised her—that child would actually affirm and praise someone so highly.

Lin Mo accepted the medal. Although his experiences with the lord of Roland Town and the Lawrence family had given him some negative impressions of this kingdom's nobility, as Flora had said, there were also some kind and people-loving nobles among them. Lady Lavell before him was exactly one such representative. Since she was presenting the medal, Lin Mo naturally accepted it gladly.

The seated officials also offered them applause and congratulations, and this lively atmosphere continued for some time...

"Then, the award ceremony is concluded. Everyone, please return to your work."

After speaking, Bechila looked at the adventurers before her: "Adventurers, please follow me. The additional rewards promised to you are ready."

Besides Lin Mo and the others who had just received awards, this included other adventurers whose contributions weren't as significant but were still quite notable.

Although they didn't receive awards, they could still obtain the additional rewards promised by Lord Bechila.

The adventurers followed her to an exquisite small room that seemed originally intended for storage but had been specially cleaned and organized. The room contained several large shelves holding various precious items.

First were those with less significant contributions. Judged by the content of their documents, some received varying amounts of additional gold coins or crystal coins, while those with greater contributions obtained high-quality weapons and equipment or valuable alchemical potions.

When it was Landon's turn, he chose an Excellent-grade wind elemental spell scroll.

Of course, such valuable items weren't given outright—they were only lent for study, to be returned within two years at most, and couldn't be lent to others. However, this time was enough for Landon to learn the skill.

There were also some other rewards. After collecting his rewards, Landon waved to Lin Mo and left first.

Only Lin Mo, Ellie, and Lady Bechila remained in the room.

"Truly astonishing."

With no outsiders present, Lady Bechila appeared much more relaxed. "When Flora told me your talent might even surpass hers, I was somewhat skeptical. Now it seems she wasn't exaggerating at all."

Lin Mo smiled somewhat modestly, offering polite words, but his gaze was already drawn to the skill scrolls on the shelves.

Each level represented a profession: the first level was Warrior, the second Knight, followed by Assassin, Ranger, and finally the top level—Mage.

The number of skill scrolls on each level wasn't large—probably only part of the inventory—but there were thirty to forty in total!

Bechila followed his gaze and chuckled lightly: "Do you want to choose skill scrolls? Based on your contribution, you can choose to borrow two Excellent-grade skill scrolls, or directly receive two Good-grade skill scrolls."

He could choose to directly obtain relatively lower-value scrolls, or borrow higher-value scrolls for a certain period—this was the rule already explained earlier. But... Lin Mo had another idea.

"Lady Lavell."

He looked up at the lord: "Could I choose shorter borrowing periods in exchange for more scrolls?"

"You mean..."

"For example, reading them right here, without taking them away."

"Oh?"

Bechila raised an eyebrow, guessing his intention but not daring to confirm it immediately.

Was he planning to learn them on the spot?!

But since he suggested it, Bechila had no reason to refuse. Keeping the skill scrolls within the city lord's mansion also meant greater security, avoiding potential loss.

So after brief consideration, she nodded: "If that's the case, you can choose all three Common-grade skills, two Good-grade skills, and two Excellent-grade skills;

or three Excellent-grade skills, one Good-grade skill, and one Common-grade skill."

Lin Mo scratched his head, showing an honest, simple smile: "Can't I have them all?"

Bechila laughed involuntarily: "Young man, being too greedy isn't a good thing."

As she spoke, she glanced subtly at Ellie beside them.

Then she continued explaining: "These scrolls aren't all my personal property. Most are Silverstream City's own inventory, belonging to the kingdom. As the lord, I can give you some preferential treatment within limits, but overall, I must follow the rules."

"After all, the condensed spiritual power from the creators on these scrolls also diminishes."

"Each learning takes away a portion. After multiple uses, the scroll's effectiveness decreases. If used too many times, it eventually loses its miraculous effect of helping people quickly comprehend skills."

Which would mean it becomes useless.

So that's how it worked?

Lin Mo was momentarily stunned, recalling Madam Shachel who had previously lent him scrolls.

That was truly exceptionally generous.

However, in reality, Shachel had completely never imagined someone could learn a skill just by looking at it for a while.

"I'll choose the former option."

After some thought, Lin Mo gave his answer. For him, since skills automatically evolved when upgraded, choosing more skills was naturally more cost-effective.

Biting off more than one can chew—although learning skills alone could increase attributes, since it wasn't possible, it wasn't good to insist. Choosing a few suitable skills was satisfying enough.

"Then, go choose the scrolls you want."

Lin Mo nodded and walked to the shelf, starting to examine them from the bottom row.

First were Warrior profession skills: Common-grade skills [Upward Slash], [Heavy Chop], [Jumping Slash], [Rushing Punch]...

Good-grade skills [Barbaric Charge], [Iron Mountain Lean]...

Excellent-grade skill [Blood Qi Blade].

Many weren't sword techniques but close combat skills.

Warrior was a broad profession classification that certainly included not just swordsmen who used swords, but also blade masters who used blades, martial artists who used arm guards or gauntlets, etc...

Since [Mithril Gloves] could also serve as melee weapons, Lin Mo could consider skills in this area.

But he'd look further first.

Next were Knight skills.

Common-grade: [Shield Toss], [Block]...

Good-grade: [Swift Charge Thrust], [Heavy Shield Swing]...

Excellent-grade skill: [Strong Shield Whirlwind Slash]

Lin Mo carefully examined each skill one by one.

Next were Assassin skills, Ranger skills, and finally the most important—Mage skills.

Naturally, Lin Mo ultimately devoted the most attention to Mage skills.

Among them, Common-grade magic included: [Water Bullet], [Wind Blade], [Lightning Bullet], as well as skills Lin Mo already had like [Fireball], [Ice Spike], etc.

Overall, the categories were quite comprehensive.

As for Good-grade magic, there were fewer, only three.

One was the upgraded version of [Ice Spike]—[Large Ice Spike], which had no selection value for Lin Mo.

Once he maxed out his Ice Spike skill, this skill would naturally evolve from it.

The second Good-grade magic was [Flame Arrow], which should also be a single-target damage spell, probably more powerful than Lin Mo's current [Explosive Fireball], but with the drawback that it could usually only attack one target, unlike [Explosive Fireball] which exploded in a small area upon impact.

Overall, since Lin Mo's current main goal was to increase his Mage level, he could temporarily consider it as an option.

The last Good-grade magic was the water-element [Cleansing Flow].

Seeing this name, Lin Mo's eyes immediately lit up.

Compared to offensive magic, he was now more interested in functional magic.

An introduction was specially attached beside the scroll. Lin Mo read it—this magic had two effects.

The first effect was quickly cleaning oneself, including body, clothing, and equipment, though it inevitably left some water stains that needed to be dried.

The second effect was reducing the burn effect of fire-element magic and the erosion effect of dark-element magic, serving as a special countermeasure against these two situations.

Looking at these two effects, they were useful but not particularly so.

In most situations, they weren't very applicable or necessary.

This disappointed Lin Mo somewhat, making him reconsider whether to choose this skill.

Let's look at the final Excellent-grade skills first.

[Primary Meditation Technique]

This name...

Lin Mo immediately looked eagerly at its effects.

Indeed!

Enter a meditative state, slightly increase mana recovery speed, slightly nourish spirit, alleviate mental fatigue.

Holy crap, god-tier skill!

What's the most important thing for a mage?

Without question, it's mana and spirit.

As a mage, everyone has experienced insufficient mana or excessive mental fatigue to some extent.

Especially the latter—extremely uncomfortable, not only affecting spellcasting but, for Lin Mo, also affecting his ability to use other professions in combat.

With this skill, although it said "slight," however slight, it finally provided a method to accelerate recovery.

This skill could be considered a core skill for mages!

Without doubt, this skill was a must-choose.

For the other Excellent-grade skill, Lin Mo chose the Warrior-class [Blood Qi Blade].

As for Good-grade skills, Lin Mo directly selected two Good-grade magics.

Yes, he ultimately decided to choose [Cleansing Flow]. Besides the convenience of cleaning during adventures, since there were undead creatures appearing deep in Roland Forest recently, it might come in handy when venturing there later.

This kind of skill might not be used often, but it's better to have it than not.

Then for the three Common-grade skills, Lin Mo finally chose the magic-class [Wind Blade], Warrior-class [Rushing Punch], and Ranger-class [Lightness].

There was naturally a reason for choosing a Ranger-class skill.

"Are you sure?"

Bechila had been observing his choices throughout.

"Yes, confirmed, just these few."

"Then, take the scrolls and come with me."

Lin Mo took those scrolls and followed Bechila deep into the city lord's mansion, eventually stopping before a guest room.

"Learn your chosen skills here. Don't worry, no need to rush—three days, five days, or longer are all fine. Since you're Finnie's friend, I can help with these small favors."

Lin Mo wanted to say it wouldn't take that long, but seeing the room's environment, he nodded in thanks.

This was much more comfortable than the inn.

Although the inn they stayed at was relatively high-standard, they had to consider Lena's financial pressure, and no matter how good an inn was, it couldn't really compare to the city lord's mansion guest rooms.

Resting here for a day or two would be quite nice.

And Finnie was also in the city lord's mansion, so going to the association together later would be convenient.

Just needed to inform Lena...

Lin Mo certainly hadn't forgotten this cat-eared girl working at the association. After obtaining the [Joint Cultivation] skill, he had even considered whether to help enhance her attributes too.

But thinking carefully, his interactions with Lena weren't that numerous. Although they were familiar and considered friends, they didn't have the experience of fighting side by side like with Ellie, nor any process of emotional progression—she might not have feelings for him.

Most importantly, even setting aside emotional factors, Lena herself wasn't a combatant. The life of adventure and conflict didn't suit her, so it was better not to disturb her current stable, peaceful life.

In a family, besides those working outside, there always needs to be someone managing the household frugally.

Lin Mo explained the situation to Ellie, and Ellie went to the association to inform Lena.

As for Lin Mo, naturally he closed the door and began studying the acquired skills.

Naturally starting with the simpler ones first.

Among the three Common-grade skills, Lin Mo first picked up the [Lightness] scroll, studying its qi and blood circulation.

Physical skills were always relatively simple, especially Common-grade ones, so Lin Mo quickly mastered this skill, with a prompt appearing before his eyes.

"Learned skill [Lightness], gained attribute point Agility +1!"

[Lightness] Lv1 (0/10): Consumes minimal qi and blood, you will have lighter footsteps, movement speed +5%!

The effect was simple and clear—just this short sentence, but its value was quite high.

This was exactly why Lin Mo chose this skill.

5% movement speed—for someone with no attributes and few skills, if this were their first initial skill, it would be a disastrous start.

No offensive means, just this bit of movement speed increase, and it consumed qi and blood... would be a huge trap.

But for Lin Mo currently, this was absolutely a cost-effective "god-tier skill."

The qi and blood consumption of Common-grade skills was negligible to him. Paying this tiny cost for percentage speed increase was extremely worthwhile!

And this skill should be relatively easy to train—since consumption was low, he could just keep it active.

Next was the Warrior-class [Rushing Punch].

This skill somewhat enriched Lin Mo's combat style.

Now he had sword techniques and magic, theoretically covering both close and ranged combat. But he wielded his sword single-handed, so during close-quarters combat, if mana was exhausted or using magic was unsuitable, his non-sword-wielding left hand seemed idle.

Coincidentally, he had mithril gloves, so choosing a [Rushing Punch] skill and occasionally throwing a punch might achieve surprising effects in close combat.

Also a simple Common-grade skill, Lin Mo opened the scroll, carefully read it, tried circulating the energy, and quickly learned it.

"Learned skill [Rushing Punch], gained attribute point Strength +1!"

[Rushing Punch] Lv1 (0/10): Consumes qi and blood, launches a rushing punch to attack enemies.

The last Common-grade skill was magic—[Wind Blade].

This was slightly more troublesome than the previous two skills, but not by much.

Lin Mo was now quite familiar with learning magic. After studying this skill's circuit structure—such basic magic had only two circuits, both simple—he quickly mastered them and attempted combination.

Although adapting to the new unfamiliar attribute took extra time, ultimately in about half an hour, Lin Mo learned this new magic.

"Learned skill [Wind Blade], gained attribute point Magic +1!"

[Wind Blade] Lv1 (0/10): Consumes mana to form wind elements, creating wind blades to attack enemies.

The three Common-grade skills provided quite limited attribute increases. A 1-point attribute increase wasn't a significant boost for Lin Mo now.

Next were the two Good-grade magics, [Flame Arrow] and [Cleansing Flow].

The learning difficulty of Good-grade magic was incomparable to Common-grade magic.

Last time when Lin Mo learned [Lightning Strike], he failed many times initially, then practiced for another hour at home before barely mastering it.

This time's [Cleansing Flow] was even more difficult than that!

Functional magic wasn't actually easier to learn than offensive magic—in fact, it was more difficult.

Plus, Lin Mo had never learned water-element magic before, so it took a full hour and a half to finally learn it.

The next fire-element magic [Flame Arrow] was much easier.

The first magic Lin Mo learned was the fire-element [Fireball], and he used fire-element skills quite frequently, so his familiarity with fire elements was high.

He successfully mastered it in less than an hour.

"Learned skill [Cleansing Flow], gained attribute point Magic +2!"

[Cleansing Flow] Lv1 (0/10): Consumes mana to release cleansing flow, purifying oneself, and weakening received "Burn" and "Erosion" effects.

"Learned skill [Flame Arrow], gained attribute point Magic +2!"

[Flame Arrow] Lv1 (0/10): Consumes mana to create flame arrows shot at targets, causing damage and applying "Burn" effect.

The two Good-grade skills directly increased Lin Mo's Magic attribute by 4 points!

Lin Mo glanced at his current status panel.

His base Magic attribute, after learning these several skills, had reached 18 points!

But just having strong magic wasn't enough. As a mage, Spirit was also an extremely important attribute.

Having magic without spirit would result in effects like a certain unreliable mage skilled in "Explosion Magic"—skill power was indeed fierce, but after casting one, they'd be completely drained.

Only two skills remained unlearned—[Primary Meditation Technique] and [Blood Qi Blade].

But Lin Mo temporarily didn't plan to continue.

First, the learning difficulty of these two skills was certainly not low.

Second, prolonged learning was indeed tiring—he was somewhat fatigued.

And it was mealtime now, so having a meal would be good...