Over the next few days, Lu Mao's life was as orderly as clockwork.
In the early mornings, he practiced archery at the range. After hitting fifteen out of fifteen on static targets, he would add practice on moving targets, pulling his accuracy up from sixty percent all the way to eighty percent.
In the afternoons, he took on Low-Tier subjugation quests—goblins wandering near nearby villages, mutated venomflies by the swamp, giant rats in the city sewers. He specifically picked quests with high numbers of targets.
In the evenings, after turning in his quests, he returned to the inn. Balen would be bragging in the front hall, and Lu Mao would sit in the corner, eating his food while listening. Occasionally, if his name was called, he would just nod. Once he finished eating, he went upstairs and fell fast asleep.
On the evening of the fifth day, the system panel popped up with a Level Breakthrough Quest: defeat any fifty Low-Tier monsters.
Lu Mao took on a subjugation quest for the lower floors of another dungeon. He spent half an hour slashing slimes on the first floor, then went to the second floor and spent the whole night shooting scattered goblins.
Before midnight, the quest was complete, and a warm current spread from his chest to his limbs.
Lu Mao leaned against a collapsed stone pillar, closed his eyes, and waited for the familiar sensation of reconstruction to finish.
The system panel lit up line by line.
【Physique +3, exceeded level 4 threshold. Unlocked passive: Iron Bones (Low-Tier)—Slightly increases bone resilience, enhances tolerance to blunt-force impacts. Weight capacity increased.】
【Agility +4, exceeded level 4 threshold. Unlocked passive: Quick Step (Low-Tier)—Increases short-distance sprint speed, allows faster center-of-gravity adjustments when turning.】
【Perception +1, passive "Faint Awareness" upgraded to "Keen Awareness"—Expands the detection range of malicious stares, and can distinguish the general direction of hostile sources.】
【Archery proficiency limit expanded. Unlocked active skill: Rapid Fire (Low-Tier)—Increases the success rate of shooting three consecutive arrows within three seconds to ninety percent.】
【Shadow Affinity Dagger growth progress +1%, cumulative 27%.】
【System upgrade progress: 75%. Unlocked new feature: Target Weakness Analysis (Low-Tier)—Can mark weak defensive points on scanned targets. The accuracy of the marking is affected by the host's Perception level.】
Lu Mao opened his eyes and moved his fingers.
The changes in bone density brought by Iron Bones were subtle—he felt a new sense of stability between his knuckles when he clenched his fist, as if his joints had been recoated with a thin layer of glue.
He drew his dagger and twirled it in his hand, the control at his fingertips even finer than before.
Then he stood up straight, brushed the stone dust off his leather armor, and walked back along the tunnel.
By the time he returned to the inn, Balen's snoring was already thunderous. He folded his leather armor and placed it at the head of the bed, tucked his dagger under his pillow, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Tomorrow morning, he still had five hundred moving targets to shoot.
On the morning of Novia's arrival, Lu Mao had tipped off Rayne and the others so they could prepare in advance.
Lu Mao only shot three hundred arrows at the range in the morning. After grabbing a bite to eat, he arrived early at the hall.
The other adventurers were more well-informed than he had imagined. When he stepped into the Sixth Hall of the Rhode City Adventurers' Guild, three or four parties had already gathered in small groups.
Rayne and his group were among them.
Lu Mao greeted Rayne and the others, then took his place at the end of the line.
Balen turned around and winked at him, mouthing “Dragon Rank” while giving a thumbs-down. He only quieted down after Gerak nudged him in the ribs with his knee.
The other Silver Rank parties arrived one after another, and the hall gradually filled with people. The whispering voices sounded like the buzzing of bees trapped in a jar.
Lu Mao stood at the end of the line with his back against the wall. His breathing was steady, but his fingers unconsciously rubbed the pommel of the dagger at his waist.
The door opened.
The person who walked in was still Novia—she was actually still alive.
Lu Mao was a little surprised.
He had thought Chen Jiu would directly erase Novia from the world—given the tavern owner's immense aura, wiping out a Dragon Rank expert should have been effortless.
But on second thought, if he had actually done that, the disappearance of a Dragon Rank adventurer would have definitely prompted the headquarters to send even more and stronger adventurers to investigate. That would have poked a hornet's nest.
However, the scene this time was somewhat different from before. The two officers who had accompanied Novia last time were nowhere to be seen.
Whether they were coming later or simply hadn't come at all this time, he didn't know.
But Novia had indeed changed. She had become quieter, her scrutinizing gaze was lighter, and she even skipped the opening remarks entirely.
She picked up the files and flipped through them, casually asking a few questions about their battles. When it came to the details of their party's achievements, she was incredibly perfunctory, though Rayne still answered all the detailed questions seriously.
And Novia didn't even bother with the details of the necromantic scroll.
Lu Mao was a little tense. According to how things had gone before, it would soon be his turn to be harshly interrogated.
“Who is Lu Mao?”
Under the gloating gazes of many, Lu Mao stepped up from the end of the line to stand beside Rayne.
Novia looked up from the files, her slitted pupils lingering on him for two seconds.
Then, she lowered her head, wrote a few words on the last page of the file, closed it, and pushed it in front of Dowal.
“The battle achievements are authentic. The promotion procedure was non-compliant. Dowal, submit a supplementary document to headquarters for Lu Mao's exceptional promotion. That is all.”
She pushed the files toward Dowal, turned around, and floated toward the door.
She paused for a brief moment as she passed by Lu Mao's side, glancing sideways at him.
There was no killing intent in her slitted pupils, nor was there any scrutiny. There was only a faint, subtle look of resignation, as if she had been choked by something.
Then she withdrew her gaze and floated out the door of the Sixth Hall without looking back.
How bizarre. What on earth happened?
Lu Mao was completely dumbfounded. He had spent several hours preparing a whole list of explanations, yet he didn't even get a chance to speak before it was over just like that?
Not only was Lu Mao dumbfounded, but the other Silver Rank adventurers in the hall were also left bewildered.
A few Silver Rank adventurers standing in the front row exchanged glances, and one of them lowered his voice to speak to his companion next to him:
“Didn't they say this morning that Lady Novia has the worst temper among the Dragon Ranks? Those Gold Ranks were scolded the harshest by her, and she even tore up their badges on the spot—so why is she being so lax here with the Silver Ranks?”
His companion was also utterly clueless:
“Who knows. Isn't she supposed to absolutely detest people who bypass procedures to rise through connections? This Lu Mao... she actually didn't react at all?”
“Well, it's fine. At least it didn't even get to our turn, so we don't have to worry about being demoted.”
Behind the counter, Dowal was more bewildered than anyone.
Seeing that Novia had already floated to the doorway, he finally snapped out of it and called out:
“Lady Novia! Are you not going to audit the rest?”
Novia's figure paused in midair, but she didn't turn around.
“In such hot weather, you didn't even place a few cooling stones in this hall, and you still expect me to stay for another afternoon?”
She glanced sideways at Dowal, which immediately frightened him into shutting his mouth. He tapped his thick fingers on the edge of the counter and answered crisply:
“Have a safe trip.”
After Novia left, two Silver Rank adventurers near the door voluntarily closed it.
Everyone gradually relaxed their tense nerves, and Balen was the first to speak up:
“That's it? And here I thought she'd be something else!”
Elliot reached over from the side and patted Balen on the shoulder:
“Wipe your sweat first before you brag.”
Balen looked down and saw that the collar of his leather armor's lining was already soaked in a dark ring, and even the tips of his beard were hung with a few beads of sweat.
He wiped the sweat off his beard in one swift motion and argued back, stiffening his neck:
“It's from the heat! With so many people packed together in the middle of the day, aren't you hot? Feel the back of your own neck—it's covered in sweat!”
Everyone burst into laughter.
Rate on N.U.
