Jiang Lin felt quite gratified by this, as his defense-breaking quests would be very easy to complete for a long time to come.
However, he also had some concerns:
If his reputation grew too large, his persona as the young master of some great family might become unsustainable.
Stowing away the letters he had received, Jiang Lin headed toward the elite class classroom.
This period was a combat simulation class.
The teacher was providing one-on-one specialized guidance to each student.
When it was Jiang Lin's turn, the teacher asked:
"Jiang Lin, you seem very proficient with the skill 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】. Is that your primary skill?"
After a moment of thought, Jiang Lin nodded:
"I suppose so. After all, the power of high-tier skills is relatively similar, and 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】 is quite powerful among high-tier skills."
Hearing this, the teacher nodded:
"Then do you know that the 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】 series of combat techniques isn't limited to just this light-attribute sword move?"
Jiang Lin was puzzled:
"What do you mean?"
The teacher explained for him:
"Because the creator of this combat technique didn't just create this one sword move. Based on the same principles, he also created sword techniques of different elements, such as 【Seven Star Sun Slash】 and 【Seven Star Water Wave Slash】.
"You should be able to pick up these techniques very quickly, and they can be fused with each other, allowing the original sword technique to exert even greater power. If you are proficient enough, you can almost ignore the fusion process and achieve instant casting.
"In other words, you only need the time required to release one high-tier skill to achieve the effect of releasing multiple high-tier skills."
Jiang Lin was very surprised to hear this.
He had only just learned that 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】 actually had other siblings.
To borrow a high-tier skill from the school library, a deposit of 50 gold coins was required.
The subsequent borrowing rule was 1 gold coin per hour, with a maximum of one book borrowed at a time.
He planned to go and look for them later.
"Teacher, does our school library have similar skills?"
Hearing this, the teacher nodded:
"If I remember correctly, the school should have a few in its collection."
Soon, class ended.
"Neil, lend me some money."
Jiang Lin found the student sitting in front of him.
He currently only had the 50 gold coins needed for the deposit, but no gold coins to rent the skill books.
"Sure, how much do you need?"
"Give me 20 coins. I'm going to borrow some high-tier skills to study."
Neil then took out 20 gold coins from his spatial ring and lent them to Jiang Lin.
"Thanks."
Afterward, Jiang Lin headed to the library while carrying Little Black.
After paying 50 gold coins as a deposit and 1 gold coin for the rental time, Jiang Lin successfully borrowed the fire-attribute sword technique from the same series as 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】, which was 【Seven Star Sun Slash】.
After a quick flip through, Jiang Lin found that this 【Seven Star Sun Slash】 was indeed very similar to 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】.
Even without Little Black, he could understand it himself.
However, that didn't mean he was going to rely on his own studying.
After all, if he studied it himself, it would take more than just an hour.
So, he handed 【Seven Star Sun Slash】 to Little Black.
After reading it once, Little Black indicated that it had learned it and could teach it to Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin then hurried back to the library to return the skill book.
The library administrator looked at Jiang Lin with some confusion.
Hadn't this kid just been here?
"You're back to return it so soon? We charge for a full hour even if it's less than that."
Jiang Lin nodded:
"That's fine, I've already learned it."
Hearing this, the librarian was enlightened.
'So he's a genius with a photographic memory.'
Afterward, Jiang Lin retrieved his deposit and ran to a corner with Little Black to start practicing.
Soon, as Jiang Lin swung the iron sword in his hand, a sword qi composed of flames flew from his blade.
He spent a skill upgrade point.
【Seven Star Sun Slash (initiated) → (superlative)】
After raising the proficiency to superlative, Jiang Lin began to try the fusion skill the combat teacher had mentioned.
Since the two skills originated from the same source, it was somewhat similar to the fusion of the low, mid, and high-tier strengthening techniques from before.
Therefore, Jiang Lin already had some experience.
After several hours of attempts, Jiang Lin finally mastered the knack of fusing the two skills.
He swung the iron sword again.
A sword qi shimmering with both flames and holy light flew from the blade.
Sensing it roughly, the power of this sword qi was more than double what it had been before.
The two skills achieved an effect where one plus one was greater than two!
Watching this, Jiang Lin was extremely excited.
It worked!
Then, he saw a somewhat familiar figure.
It was his front-row neighbor, Neil.
What was he doing here?
"Old Jiang? Why are you here? You've skipped several classes; the teacher is looking for you!"
Hearing this, the expression on Jiang Lin's face froze.
Oh no!
He had gotten too used to skipping classes.
He had forgotten that this wasn't Radiant Junior Magic Academy in Boulder City!
Afterward, Jiang Lin followed him back and began attending classes normally.
However, now that he knew of the existence of the other sword techniques, Jiang Lin had a new plan to become stronger.
Then followed a steady and pleasant period of daily school life.
While Jiang Lin was catching up on various types of basic knowledge, he constantly went to the library to borrow the other sibling sword techniques of 【Seven Star Holy Glow Slash】.
...
Finally, one month later.
Jiang Lin's various attributes reached the minimum requirements for level 20.
At the same time, he also received a notification that he could no longer improve.
【stamina and mental power have reached the limit of the current life state. Daily quest rewards cannot be claimed. Please attempt to claim after breaking the life shackles】
Inside the Tower of Trials, Jiang Lin once again faced that elite-level thunder giant ape.
He grasped the air with his right hand, and a shimmering longsword appeared in his grip.
However, this time it was no longer the previous golden holy light longsword, but a blade shimmering with seven-colored light.
He gave it a gentle swing.
A sword qi shimmering with seven-colored light shot out from the seven-colored blade in his hand.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and thunder.
The seven elements of light shimmered within the sword qi, flying toward the thunder giant ape at extreme speed.
Facing this terrifying sword qi, the thunder giant ape no longer showed the same contempt as before. Instead, its entire body tensed up as it stood ready for a serious battle.
With a roar, a layer of thunderous shielding surfaced on its body.
However, all of this appeared somewhat futile.
As the seven-colored sword qi descended, the thunderous shield shattered almost instantly, and the qi slashed into the thunder giant ape's body.
With a piercing "shhh" sound, the sword qi sank into the flesh, and the phantom of the thunder giant ape was directly split in two.
This was not only an enhancement of Jiang Lin's sword technique but also an improvement in his physical attributes, causing the power of the sword qi to increase accordingly.
At this point, the text on the light screen shifted, and a new prompt appeared.
【Level 20 · commander-tier · shadow blade leopard】
Soon, the next level of demonic beast appeared.
Facing this shadow blade leopard, Jiang Lin also stood ready.
He took a deep breath, and the seven-colored blade in his hand gained an additional color.
It was the golden color representing the light-attribute!
With the addition of the light-attribute, the originally stable seven-colored light sword began to become active and unstable.
Jiang Lin concentrated his mind, stabilizing the elemental longsword in his hand.
At the same time, he took a deep breath, and an eight-colored sword qi slashed out from the blade in his hand, flying toward the distant shadow blade leopard.
Seeing this, the shadow blade leopard used some unknown method to merge directly into the ground, turning into a pool of black shadow.
However, the eight-colored sword qi was extremely unstable and exploded directly in mid-air.
The explosion of the eight-colored sword qi was quite terrifying.
Perhaps because there were too many elements, they triggered some miraculous magic reactions with each other.
The final explosion effect was even more terrifying than the explosion of more than ten of Jiang Lin's 【Arrow of Aurora】.
It "accidentally" blew the shadow blade leopard out from where it had merged with the ground.
And after being blown out, what awaited it was still Jiang Lin's eight-colored sword qi.
As if its position had been calculated exactly, Jiang Lin's sword qi flew precisely to its most fragile waist and abdomen, leaving it completely unable to dodge.
With a roar, most of the shadow blade leopard's body was heavily injured by Jiang Lin.
However, it still held on and did not fall, glaring at Jiang Lin with hatred. At the same time, the wound on its waist began to heal slowly under the influence of some ability.
However, Jiang Lin didn't care. A storm of eight-colored sword qi flew toward the opponent.
The flight distance of these sword qi wasn't as far as the previous seven-colored ones; generally, after reaching a certain distance, they would explode due to elemental instability.
For a time, light of various colors flashed within the trial room.
And the figure of the shadow blade leopard was submerged within this sea of explosions.
When the explosions subsided, the opponent's projection also disappeared.
At the same time, a new projection began to gradually manifest.
【Level 20 · king-tier · soul-devouring demonic spider】
A pressure dozens of times more terrifying than the previous shadow blade leopard emanated from the front.
Jiang Lin felt as if a mountain were pressing down on him.
He immediately chose to exit the trial ground.
He had already tried fighting this king-tier demonic beast; it was the type where he couldn't defeat the opponent, and the opponent couldn't defeat him either.
They could only wear each other down until they were exhausted.
Afterward, as the crystal at the entrance flashed with a dazzling golden light, Jiang Lin calmly stepped out from the opening metal door.
Seeing his composed manner, with not even the corner of his clothes being dirty, the surrounding students looked over in surprise.
However, after clearly seeing the person's appearance, everyone retracted their expressions of surprise.
Today was the end-of-term assessment for the elite class, and the combat test was being conducted inside the Tower of Trials.
Since they knew Jiang Lin wanted to try reaching the rank-0 limit before breaking through, no one was surprised that he could achieve a gold rating.
After all, it would be strange if he didn't get a gold rating.
It was just that the values of his stamina and mental power had given them a huge shock during the test just now:
【stamina】: 100,000
【mental power】: 100,000
This was already at the basic level for level 20, wasn't it?!
Although, as students of the elite class, the top ten in the class had already reached level 20.
Furthermore, in order to gain higher combat power within the same rank, they were also in no hurry to break through, instead slowly accumulating their physical attributes, which were much higher than Jiang Lin's values.
But that was because they possessed stronger breathing techniques and could accumulate attributes at a faster rate.
It wasn't like this guy Jiang Lin who was still rank-0 yet could reach this level.
This was simply a monster?!
Did his muscles grow automatically?!
Fortunately, in the past few days, Jiang Lin had stated that he had reached the limit of rank-0 and could no longer accumulate attributes, and planned to complete his breakthrough after the end-of-term exams. Otherwise, they really would have had their defenses broken.
"Old Jiang, so impressive? How far did you get this time?"
Neil leaned over and asked with his arm around Jiang Lin's shoulder.
Jiang Lin told him the truth:
"I made it to the king-tier, but the king-tier demonic beast was still too powerful; I couldn't defeat it."
Neil patted Jiang Lin's back:
"It's perfectly normal that you couldn't beat a level 20 king-tier while at rank-0.
"In our class, only a small handful of people can beat them."
"Then can you beat them?"
Jiang Lin asked curiously.
Hearing this, Neil smiled:
"Old Jiang, this is the elite class of Saint Brilliance Magic Academy; who here isn't a genius?
"I'm already level 20, so of course I can beat them!"
Jiang Lin nodded silently upon hearing this.
He gained a rough understanding of the gap between himself and these genius classmates.
"Oh, you're about to break through anyway. I reckon that once you break through, surpassing us will just be a matter of time."
Jiang Lin smiled:
"That's natural."
Neil was stunned for a moment; he hadn't expected Jiang Lin to just accept the compliment directly.
Then, Jiang Lin's next statement shocked him even more.
"While you might be better at fighting demonic beast projections than I am, if we were to duel, you might not necessarily be my match."
Hearing this, Neil's expression turned from shock to confusion.
Where did this guy Jiang Lin get his confidence?!
At the same time, he also became suspicious.
Did the opponent have some methods that weren't easy to use against demonic beasts but were extremely effective against humans?
"Forget it, I won't bully you. I'll come spar with you once you're at the same level as me."
He didn't want to be used as a stepping stone by Jiang Lin.
It would be one thing if he won, but if he actually lost, it would be quite embarrassing.
And even if he won, with such a large level gap, he wouldn't feel much of an achievement.
As for waiting until they were at the same level?
By the time Jiang Lin reached level 20, he would have broken through to 2nd-rank long ago. What 'same level' would there be then!
The other guy would certainly also need time to solidify his foundation, and by then, he would be able to leave him several levels behind again.
As long as he didn't fight him, he would always remain undefeated!
Plan success.jpg
However, Jiang Lin didn't know that this honest-looking guy in front of him had so many twists and turns in his mind.
He just felt a bit of regret that he couldn't get free skill upgrade points from him.
However, he hadn't lacked opportunities to strike these past few days.
He had encountered a few children of great families who walked with their noses in the air, and he had given them a thorough lesson.
The other party had shouted about going back to find their parents, but after finishing their complaints at home, they only ended up coming back to apologize obediently.
As a result, the matter of Jiang Lin being from a great family became even more real in the eyes of others.
As for what the others had experienced after going home, Jiang Lin didn't know either.
But the Random Skill Upgrade points they sent over were very real.
During these days, he had learned all the seven-star sword moves for the metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and thunder elements.
Furthermore, 【Light Blade】 also had sibling skills.
They were 【Metal Blade】, 【Wood Blade】, and so on.
Jiang Lin had learned them all as well.
Rate on N.U.
