"Stop, wait a moment..."

Shachel directly interrupted her words, "Little Finnie, what did you just call me?"

"Aunt... Aunt Shachel?"

Finnie looked at her with a confused expression.

"Would you like to think again about what you should call me?"

Shachel's expression at this moment looked exactly like a creepy old uncle.

Finnie finally came to her senses, pursed her lips, and spoke somewhat reluctantly, "Sister Shachel..."

"Yes!"

Shachel finally smiled with satisfaction, then said, "1500 gold, you can take both potions."

That meant 750 gold per potion, a price that actually matched the potions' true value.

Lin Mo suddenly realized—was this old woman tricking him and Finnie?

Just for Finnie calling her "sister"...

Although it sounded somewhat ridiculous, judging by Shachel's expression, it was definitely possible, and very likely.

Regardless, they still got what they wanted. Lin Mo paid the money, looking at his wallet with only 23 gold and 55 silver left, feeling a bit emotional for a moment.

Money—it's truly hard to earn but easy to spend.

But it had to be said, this money was well spent.

Lin Mo first opened the lightning attribute element reagent and drank it.

The liquid slid down his throat, making the areas it passed through feel slightly numb... then a wonderful sensation spread throughout his body, similar to when he drank the Flame Reagent but not exactly the same.

"As for the other bottle, it's best to drink it after some time. Although they don't conflict with each other, using them consecutively might slightly affect the effectiveness."

Following Shachel's reminder, Lin Mo carefully stored the other earthy-yellow element reagent, planning to drink it tomorrow.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, they left Shachel's small shop. The group wandered outside for a while longer, but didn't buy any more snacks.

Mainly because it was approaching evening, and Sherfilia was worried it would affect dinner, so she wouldn't allow any more purchases.

Lin Mo and Ellie naturally didn't mind, but Finnie looked completely dejected, exactly like a greedy child.

This kind of simple-hearted girl behaved like an immature child in certain aspects, making people both amused and fond of her.

But no matter how pitiful Finnie's expression was, Sherfilia clearly wouldn't budge—no buying meant no buying, and even letting her act cute wouldn't work.

At times like these, she didn't seem like a maid at all, but more like a housekeeper or even an elder.

Returning to the city lord's mansion, they were again in the same dining room as before. Dinner was even more lavish than lunch. Finnie seemed to be venting her frustration from not getting snacks earlier by eating a huge amount.

She didn't even maintain the elegant eating manners from lunch, becoming much more casual.

That said, she still wouldn't get angry with Sherfilia at all, because Finnie knew she meant well.

After the sumptuous dinner, Lin Mo and Ellie returned to their room. Lin Mo took out the Skill Scroll again and began studying it once more.

After resting for a while, he indeed didn't feel the gradually increasing irritation from before, but he still couldn't find that so-called "single-minded focus" state at all.

After closing his eyes and trying for a while, Lin Mo helplessly opened them, just in time to see Ellie coming out after her bath.

The little wolf-girl didn't treat him like an outsider at all—she didn't even bother wrapping herself in a towel, just walked out boldly.

Uh... Ryukyu?

"Not going well?"

Ellie asked with concern while drying her hair.

"Yeah, having a bit of trouble finding the feeling."

"Then how about relaxing first? Release some pressure—maybe after releasing the pressure, you can find that feeling."

Ellie's eyes shifted as she made the suggestion.

She definitely had ulterior motives. Lin Mo instinctively planned to harshly criticize this improper behavior, but upon second thought, he suddenly felt she might have a point.

What was that term called... sage mode?

It seemed to have some similarities with the state described in the scroll.

So why not try?

Lin Mo met Ellie's gaze. Seemingly reading the meaning in his eyes, the next moment, Ellie wagged her tail and slowly walked over.

.......

Some time later, as Ellie slowly raised her head and gave him an incredibly charming look, Lin Mo sat up straight again, picked up the scroll, closed his eyes once more, and attempted to enter the "meditation" state.

Surprisingly, this time he actually felt something—like an insomniac catching a faint hint of sleepiness.

Lin Mo's spirits lifted immediately, and then...

Then that feeling disappeared just like that.

Because he had been completely stuck before, when he suddenly found direction, Lin Mo got too excited and immediately lost that feeling.

It was like when you're about to fall asleep but suddenly need to pee.

Then you get up to use the bathroom and can't fall asleep again...

Lin Mo sighed helplessly and could only open his eyes again.

"Again!"

Regardless, he had found the right method. Since that was the case, he just needed to keep working in this direction.

This made Ellie absolutely delighted. She wouldn't miss any opportunity to become stronger and naturally seized the "timing" to grow through continuous training.

So after a moment, Lin Mo attempted "meditation" once more.

He easily found that feeling from before. This time, Lin Mo didn't waste the opportunity due to excitement but slowly sank into it. Following the scroll's instructions, while maintaining that single-minded state, he attempted to circulate his magic power.

But as could be seen from the literal meaning, these two things clearly had some conflict, so it wouldn't go smoothly.

A few minutes later, Lin Mo opened his eyes and sighed, "What a pity."

He was so close—he had almost felt his magic power and spirit beginning to enter a wonderful state, but at the final moment, he ultimately fell half a step short.

One more time—this time he would definitely succeed!

Lin Mo's continuous efforts moved Ellie to the point of tears, and for a moment she was dancing with joy.

And with her encouragement, Lin Mo made his third attempt.

This time, with his previous experience, Lin Mo progressed smoothly and finally gradually entered the state described in the scroll.

His body was more relaxed than ever before, his mind was completely clear, and his spirit and magic power entered a mysterious resonance.

After a long time, Lin Mo opened his eyes and exhaled a turbid breath.

Indeed, in the "meditation" state, he could clearly feel his mental fatigue being gradually smoothed away. As for magic power... since he hadn't really consumed much, the feeling wasn't very noticeable.

But that was fine—the proficiency panel would naturally tell him the skill's specific effects.

The relevant information appeared before his eyes. Lin Mo focused and looked:

"Learned skill [Primary Meditation Technique], gained attribute points: Spirit +2, Magic +1!"

[Primary Meditation Technique] Lv1 (0/10): Enter meditation state, increasing magic recovery speed by 20% and spirit recovery speed by 20%!

Note: This state requires high concentration and will significantly reduce insight!

Just from the added attributes, one could see this skill's extraordinary nature.

Learning an excellent-grade skill indeed added 3 attribute points, but this time it wasn't 3 magic points—it was 1 magic point and 2 spirit points!

This was an absolute bargain.

What Lin Mo urgently needed to improve now wasn't magic power—it was precisely the hardest-to-improve spirit.

Unfortunately, with this 1 magic point added, Lin Mo's base magic power just reached 19 points, only 1 point away from promotion.

But that wasn't a big problem—promotion was just a matter of time.

The Primary Meditation Technique's effects were quite good, directly increasing magic and spirit recovery speed by 20%. This might not seem like much, but remember—this was only level 1!

Based on past experience, at levels 2 and 3, these values would increase. Excellent-grade skills had 7 levels total—by level 7, the values would likely be quite impressive.

And this was only the Primary Meditation Technique—there were still Intermediate and Advanced levels above it...

But this skill also had drawbacks, as mentioned in the note. After activating this skill, you would enter the "meditation" state, which would significantly reduce your insight into the surrounding environment.

It could be said that mages were more vulnerable and more likely to be attacked while meditating than usual.

So when preparing to meditate, you must first ensure the surroundings were safe, and it was best to have a bodyguard keeping watch.

This was actually quite normal—as core damage dealers, mages naturally needed protection from teammates.

Lin Mo closed the panel and attempted to enter the meditation state again.

For ordinary mages, even if they succeeded in entering this highly demanding meditation state once by chance, it would still be very difficult to enter it again later. Mastering this skill completely required long-term continuous practice and attempts—very challenging.

But Lin Mo was different. With the proficiency panel, as long as he succeeded once, everything that followed would become familiar and straightforward—failure was simply not possible.

Oh right, there was also this...

Besides the information about [Primary Meditation Technique], there was another message that had just appeared before his eyes.

[Joint Cultivation] proficiency +1

"Skill [Joint Cultivation] Lv2 (20/20) leveled up!"

"Current skill [Joint Cultivation] Lv3 (0/40)"

"Gained attribute point Constitution +1!"

That's right—through Lin Mo and Ellie's persistent efforts during this period, the [Joint Cultivation] skill had finally leveled up again.

However, what differences existed between level 3 Joint Cultivation and level 2, Lin Mo couldn't determine yet.

To understand the differences between them, he needed practical experience—he needed Ellie to tell him the answer.

And regarding this, Ellie was of course very enthusiastic and willing to help...

Early the next morning, a servant knocked on the door. Lin Mo groggily opened his eyes to see Ellie's furry ears in front of him.

He reached out and pressed them, making Ellie immediately emit dreamy sounds and gently rub against his chin.

"Time to get up. Finnie is already waiting for us to have breakfast."

Although yesterday had indeed been quite strenuous, because Lin Mo had started studying skills right after dinner, his actual sleep time wasn't short. Combined with his naturally strong constitution, he had mostly recovered by now.

Lin Mo planned to take the next mission tomorrow. Before that, he had several important things to do today...