Chapter 161 Epic-Level Skill — Shadow Split!

A massive body barreled toward Lin Mo like a small mountain.

Lin Mo took a deep breath, his face unchanged.

[Fortitude]

[Rock Shield]

[Great Shield Charge]!

Three skills in succession—Lin Mo slammed forward with the rock shield in hand.

The curved blade in the Giant Goblin’s hand struck the rock shield, and in an instant numerous cracks spidered across it. Lin Mo’s stance was forced back;

his arm tingled.

“Ugh—!”

At last the rock shield shattered completely. Lin Mo’s sword-wielding right hand swung.

[Blood Qi Blade]!

The blood-red sword energy pushed the already exhausted Giant Goblin back. The aftershock continued to strike it while Lin Mo stepped forward;

his figure vanished in an instant and then reappeared.

[Charged Sword Slash]!

Several sword energies shot out in succession, aiming at one spot and leaving bloody grooves across the creature.

At the same time, a petite figure suddenly appeared and, moving at incredible speed, threw a throwing knife that precisely pierced the Giant Goblin’s neck and severed its cervical spine.

The massive body stiffened and collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Lin Mo watched all of this clearly. His own attacks weren’t lethal to the Giant Goblin—at best they would be severe wounds—but Sherfilia had finished it with a single move.

And she hadn’t even used anything flashy;

it was simply the “Shadow Strike” she had taught him earlier.

This Veteran-level skill in Sherfilia’s hands was in a completely different league—her movements were so fast they blurred. Even though Lin Mo expected her to act, he still couldn’t make out her motion.

Sherfilia’s strength was far beyond merely reaching Veteran Level.

She couldn’t be only level 6—at minimum she had to be level 7, maybe even level 8!

Vanish proficiency +38!

Accumulated Sword Combo proficiency +38!

The proficiency gains from the level-5 Giant Goblin were decent, and there was a reason he decided to feed these two skills. Ever since he obtained his first Excellent-tier skill, Vanish, some time had passed. Because he later gained many more skills and professions, his power rose faster but his focus became scattered, so he still hadn’t maxed out a single Excellent-tier skill. Therefore Lin Mo planned to grind the nearly-maxed Excellent-tier skills first, so he could unlock their corresponding Epic-level skills sooner.

Skill power doesn’t climb in neat steps;

it leaps. Excellent-tier skills aren’t massively stronger than Normal-tier, but there’s a clear gap between Excellent and Outstanding;

likewise, Epic-level skills will only be slightly stronger than Outstanding-tier skills. Naturally, Lin Mo was eagerly anticipating this. Before those 38 proficiency points posted, Lin Mo’s Vanish was only at Lv6 (282/300), very close to leveling up. Meanwhile, Accumulated Sword Combo, because he’d been using it less, still had a ways to go—currently Lv5 (143/180)—close to level 6 but missing a large chunk of required proficiency. He could only take it one step at a time... At least Vanish was accelerating quickly.

He needed to get up there and claim a couple more “kills” to max Vanish proficiency... Lin Mo was thinking precisely that when a chill swept over him from head to toe.

He turned and his eyes met a pair of empty sockets, inside which flickered an eerie green flame.

It stood farther back, deeper in the cavern where darkness pooled.

“Ugh— ugh—”

The skull, with only white bone left, moved its jaw, the sound clicking and grinding. It looked like an ordinary skull creature, but the strange green flame made Lin Mo wary.

An undead creature?!

How could one appear in a goblin cavern?

“Watch out!”

Before he could think further, Sherfilia shouted;

Lin Mo hurriedly retreated. In the next moment the green flame flared violently, growing bigger and swelling outward...

Not good—!

Lin Mo seemed to realize something. While backing away fast he activated [Rock Shield], using it to block in front of him.

For an instant the world fell into an eerie silence, and then the calm broke like a volcanic eruption.

“Boom—!!!”

A massive explosion reverberated, shaking the entire cavern. Lin Mo had retreated quickly and the Rock Shield helped, but the blast still forced him to vomit blood;

his internal organs took a heavy hit and he couldn’t get up for a time. What raw power! And... it seemed the explosion had triggered something—a mechanism perhaps—because the whole cavern began to tremble as if it might collapse at any moment.

“No good!”

Landon, who had just killed the level-4 Goblin Spellcaster with Lute’s help, realized something too and shouted, “Don’t be sentimental—evacuate immediately!”

Torren froze for a moment. “But what about the girls who were taken inside?”

Lute, unusually speaking up, said, “Mages and warriors move out first if they’re slow;

rangers and assassins go rescue the people.” Then he immediately took the lead and rushed deeper into the cavern.

“I’m going too!” Torren prepared to follow, but Landon blocked him. “Listen to Lute. Warriors and knights must lead the wounded out!”

“But...” Torren clenched his fists, unwilling. If they couldn’t save anyone, what was the point of this dangerous expedition?

“Don’t act on impulse!” Landon scolded him in a rare lecturing tone. “Saving people is important, but the lives of so many adventurers here are even more important! You’re in charge of this operation—so you must make calm, rational decisions in moments like this!”

“I understand.” Torren finally let his hand fall and glanced into the cavern’s depths. “All warriors and knight professions—evacuate immediately with the wounded! Rangers and assassins may consider rescue operations.” His implication was clear: if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. The lives of powerful adventurers outweighed those of ordinary civilians—harsh but true. Before coming, Uncle Joel and even the City Lord had told him the same thing more than once: if rescuers encounter impossible danger, protect your adventurers first.

At those words everyone stopped lingering and began to withdraw, including most of the assassins and rangers. They weren’t fools—they understood what the cavern’s tremors meant. If they didn’t evacuate fast and the cave collapsed, they’d die here. There were brave souls among adventurers, but dying for chivalry is a different matter. In the end their main objective had been the quest reward. Only a few—like Lute—kept charging deeper into the cavern.

“Cough, cough—” Lin Mo kept coughing blood with every breath.

“You okay?” Sherfilia was also wounded. With her speed she could have put more distance between them, but at the explosion’s last instant she’d dashed over to pull Lin Mo away and was hit by the blast. Fortunately she’d been slightly farther back and behind him;

otherwise it might have been worse. She held an arm and was bleeding, but mostly superficially.

Lin Mo shook his head, healed himself with two Healing Arts, and drank a basic life potion;

he felt much better. When he stood up he nearly blacked out from the strain, barely keeping his balance. Still, he cast a Healing Art on Sherfilia.

“Enough—no more magic!” Sherfilia scolded, helped him steady himself, and prepared to leave the cavern.

“Landon!” Ellie and Finnie rushed over anxiously.

“Ellie, take Finnie and leave first.” Lin Mo looked deeper into the cavern. This large cave was relatively stable;

the collapse wasn’t immediate. With their agility they still had time.

“I’m going too!” Ellie was never stubborn;

she nodded solemnly and hoisted Finnie onto her back, quickly withdrawing with the other adventurers. Lin Mo exhaled, feeling marginally better, and exchanged a glance with Sherfilia before heading deeper into the cavern. There were almost no goblins left—those remaining were scattering. There wasn’t time to chase them. Sherfilia held a torch she’d taken from the wall;

by its light they quickly found Lute, who had arrived first. Many assassins and rangers stood beside him.

“What’s the situation?” Lute frowned, anger in his eyes. He strung an arrow and said, “We need to break this iron door first.”

Lin Mo hurried forward and discovered a dungeon at the cavern’s end. Behind iron bars lay many girls bound with chains, most with severe wounds—especially the ones... Damn goblins!

“I’ll do it.” Lin Mo’s expression hardened. He strode up and used [Rushing Punch] to blast the iron gate off its hinges;

the surrounding stone walls cracked.

“Rescue them!”

There weren’t many girls—those kept here were the ones still alive, or rather those who still had “use” left, able to continue breeding. Many had already been abused to death. The ones they’d passed earlier who were barely clinging to life were mostly past the next childbirth and had been given as “rewards” to powerful goblins. There were about sixteen or seventeen girls in total;

the rescuers numbered seven or eight, so taking two each seemed feasible.

“Give them a little life potion... not too much, or they might not handle it.” Alchemical potions aren’t used casually, especially on commoners;

these girls were so weak that too strong a dose could kill them. They quickly cut the chains, took two each, and started moving toward the cavern mouth. The tremors grew more pronounced—like an earthquake—with falling debris and widening cracks in the rock. Most of the goblin “houses” had already collapsed into rubble. Fortunately these were agile adventurers;

the rescue didn’t waste time, and they soon caught up with the main force. The group moved away from the cavern and kept going until they felt safe, then collapsed to rest. Only a minority of adventurers were near exhaustion;

they panted and tried to recover. Those with energy checked the surroundings for threats. Less than ten minutes after they left, the entire cave collapsed. The rumbling never stopped;

although they’d evacuated successfully, everyone looked grim. The difficulties they’d faced far exceeded expectations, while their gains were limited. Counting those already saved on the path, only twenty-one girls had been rescued. But inquiries revealed that at least three to four hundred girls had been captured into this cavern over time! Most of them, once no longer “useful,” became goblin meals or trophies in goblin households. Torren sat defeated, dazed and bewildered. This operation had lost over ten adventurers—each at least career-level experts.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself.” Landon patted his shoulder. “From the final explosion, those new clues we followed really were a trap set by the goblins and the necromancer!” In other words, they’d fallen for a bait. A deliberate lure had cost them many lives and rescued few people. Imagine if their combat strength had been weaker or the cavern collapsed faster—they might all have died. But without knowing the cavern’s interior, they had to come. If many girls were still alive inside, even ignoring moral reasons, they couldn’t allow the goblins to keep using the girls to expand their numbers and spawn more powerful goblins. Plainly put, it was a stratagem. Things were grim, but given the circumstances, the result was as good as they could expect.

“Look at it another way,” someone with a brighter disposition said, “at least we cleared this cavern of goblins.”

“I wonder how the other teams did?” Landon asked with concern.

“For now, rest properly and set out early tomorrow.” The time was still before dusk, but everyone was exhausted and unfit to continue. After a while they set up a large camp for dozens of people. The mages’ tents were centrally protected. Lin Mo started a huge fire but didn’t intend to rest;

he set off with the rangers to hunt. He couldn’t wait to finish maxing Vanish. Thus a premium hunting squad led by Lute and Lin Mo departed. Because the camp was large, they needed more game to feed everyone;

they were on the outer edge of the Deep Forest Area of Roland Forest, so monster density was low. Soon Lin Mo spotted a sizable Rock-Horned Ox.

“This is a good catch!” Lute, out of combat, talked more. “Among all level-2 monsters, Rock-Horned Oxen are one of the tastiest.” He spoke like a seasoned eater—adventurers live in forests and can’t subsist only on rations. When time allows, competent adventurers hunt. Lute, a powerful ranger, had surely hunted and eaten countless monsters. If he said it was tasty, it was.

“Wait—let me do it.” Lin Mo stopped Lute from drawing the bow. “Let me practice.”

“All right.” Lute trusted Lin Mo’s strength and lowered his bow. Lin Mo immediately activated [Vanish] and stealthily edged behind the ox, then performed a [Backstab], plunging a dagger into its spine. Professional! After Sherfilia’s training, it wasn’t only his proficiency levels that improved;

his combat experience and assassin fundamentals grew greatly. As an assassin his basics were now fully competent. A level-2 monster could be one-shot even by a Normal-tier skill like Backstab.

Vanish proficiency +14

Backstab proficiency +14

Not enough yet... he had to keep killing. Backstab itself jumped to level 4.

“Skill [Backstab] Lv3 (40/40) upgraded!”

“Current skill [Backstab] Lv4 (5/100)”

With so many people, one Rock-Horned Ox wouldn’t be enough. They split it among a few to carry back—this was when accompanying warriors were useful, because rangers alone would struggle to carry such a large beast. Several warriors hoisted the carcass, while the rest continued hunting. After about an hour, Lin Mo carried a boar back and returned to camp with Lute. Considering the rescued girls needed food, they’d specifically hunted some low-level monsters. Such low-level meat wouldn’t overwhelm them. Next came the chores: boiling water, plucking, gutting... Those tasks fell to those who hadn’t gone hunting. Traps around the camp were already set and the area had been checked multiple times—crowds make camps not only lively but safer. Lin Mo sat by the fire and finally sorted through the scattered information at leisure. The situation in the cavern had been too urgent earlier;

he hadn’t even had time to choose the evolution route for [Blizzard]. Please choose an evolution direction: Evolution Route 1: Layered Flow I — During the duration, enemies in the area take increasing damage with each hit, stacking up to 20% maximum. Evolution Route 2: Frost I — After the slow effect stacks to maximum, there is a 20% chance to freeze enemies. One boosts damage;

the other grants control. Both require enemies to remain within the Blizzard’s radius to stack—tough to decide. Lin Mo wrestled with it for a while and ultimately chose Evolution Route 2. Damage is fine—Blizzard is an AOE skill and isn’t stellar for single-target scenarios. An extra 20% wouldn’t dramatically change outcomes. Control effects are rare for Lin Mo right now;

freezing enemies and letting Blizzard run its course could be as effective as Route 1. Compared to choosing a Blizzard evolution, the real highlight came next: his Vanish skill finally hit max level!

“Skill [Vanish] Lv6 (300/300) upgraded!”

“Current skill [Vanish] Lv7 (Max).”

“Gained attribute point: Agility +5!”

“Automatically evolved into a new skill — Shadow Split!”

“Learned skill [Shadow Split]! Agility +4, Strength +1!”

Maxing an Outstanding-tier skill granted 5 attribute points! Plus the 4 agility from learning the new skill—this nearly equaled a level-up! Lin Mo’s base Agility skyrocketed from 26 to 35.

“Promotion conditions met—Assassin profession (lv2) promoted to current profession Assassin (lv3).”

“Gained profession attribute bonuses: Strength +1, Agility +3!”

Lin Mo’s Assassin profession advanced to level 3, granting another +4 attribute points. In the past this would have been a joyous milestone, but now something more important awaited: the Epic-level skill, Shadow Split! Staring at the skill icon’s noble purple, Lin Mo forced himself not to get carried away and read carefully.

[Shadow Split] Lv1 (0/20): Turn your shadow into a clone to fight alongside you! The shadow inherits 50% of the caster’s attributes but cannot use skills. While the clone exists it continuously consumes Qi and Blood, and its maximum duration is 300 seconds.

Is it really this kind of skill? Lin Mo raised an eyebrow in surprise. A shadow clone—this was interesting: basically creating another person to fight with you. Though the clone only inherits 50% of Lin Mo’s stats, based on past experience that ratio would likely increase with skill level—eventually maybe 70% or 80%! Lin Mo’s attributes were well-rounded, so a Shadow Split clone would be a full pentagonal fighter like him. Even without skills it could act as a powerful brawler... The skill might also synergize with Vanish! He realized Vanish could render him invisible while the shadow might not become invisible. If the Shadow Split clone counts as a shadow, then in future he could let the clone draw fire upfront while he hides with Vanish—perfect invisibility without worrying about revealing himself through a shadow—and coordinate with the clone for a surprise on the enemy! The skill’s ceiling and operational potential were enormous. Lin Mo then looked at the evolution routes and his eyes brightened again. Are there more experts?