Goblin Dependency
Chapter 321 - 169 Etching and Charging_2

Chapter 321: Chapter 169 Etching and Charging_2

After contemplating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and casually called over a subordinate:

"You, yes, you, come over here!"

"Go bring the box from under my bed, the small one hidden way inside, go quickly!"

...

"Buzz... boom!"

The russet glow seemed like some kind of ever-changing rune, condensed on the iron-grey sword blade.

Xia Nan could vaguely sense some intangible connection between himself and the red glow.

The body, moving at high speed under the guise of a wolf’s howl, suddenly halted, and the longsword thrust straight out.

Without deliberately aiming, the sword blade enveloped in red light pierced the body of an unlucky Grey Skinned Rat, which squealed in pain and struggled.

Meanwhile, the russet glow, that converged on the sword blade in a peculiar manner, flowed and emitted an unstable dangerous aura, but it didn’t erupt following the intense strike of the sword.

Instead, it waited obediently until Xia Nan willed it, then erupted like an explosion.

It transformed into a cluster of russet fireworks, instantly engulfing the Grey Skinned Rat pierced by the sword, along with parts of three or four of its kind nearby.

"Skill Level +1"

"[Gravity Etching]Level 1: (62/100)"

Panting—

His attention slightly diverted by the translucent text that appeared before him, his body, which had paused slightly due to the use of a battle skill, resumed moving under the wolf’s head’s cover.

Unlike the [Teeth Hunting] that had already undergone a transformation from Level 2 to Level 3 entering the "Skillful" level.

[Gravity Etching], as a battle skill accompanying the profession [Fallen Blade Hunting], had been acquired just over a month ago.

The "Level 1" beginner skill level allowed it to improve at a relatively fast pace.

At present, Xia Nan had practiced it to over sixty points.

Moreover, he found the training process significantly simpler than other battle skills.

Not to mention [Gravity Control], which only had a pitiful "3" skill points so far, taking [Teeth Hunting] as an example.

Even without actual combat, dedicating an entire afternoon to [Teeth Hunting] training might not gain even a single skill point, progress being slow.

But [Gravity Etching] was different.

A low skill level was one aspect.

Another aspect was its consumption-based usage method of "3/3 (can be used three times in a normal state)" and the cooldown period of charging every six hours.

This meant that when Xia Nan trained this battle skill,

maintaining two usage opportunities in reserve to adapt to any sudden battles was a prerequisite.

If he wanted to make the most out of each opportunity and fully train the skill itself,

he had to time it to the "charges once every six hours" points.

Every time the 6-hour cooldown ended, restoring the usage number to "3/3", Xia Nan needed to use it as soon as possible to maximize skill level acquisition speed.

After exploring for some time, he even combined the waiting time for the skill cooldown with his daily routine flexibly.

He trained once before sleeping, allowing him to complete charging during his six hours of sleep, letting him train again upon waking up.

Then he would wash up, do morning exercises until noon when the six-hour charge would complete again, allowing another practice session.

He would then decide in the afternoon whether to train or rest, use it once before dinner, and finally, the last time before going to bed at night.

Perhaps it was precisely due to the limit on usage number of this battle skill, its training efficiency was very high, with improvements almost daily.

Moreover, it didn’t require the tedious and sustained long-term training like other battle skills.

You just needed to wait for the charging to complete and practice that one time.

In just a few dozen days, the skill level progress bar was already more than half filled.

It was truly effortless.

On the other hand, its fixed charging time also capped the upper limit of training speed.

Anyway, once every six hours, you couldn’t improve even if you tried hard.

It’s fine now at a low level, the skill level improving quite quickly.

But when reaching Level 3 or Level 4, the training speed of [Gravity Etching] would probably decrease significantly.

Xia Nan only hoped that with the increase in battle skill level in the future, the usage times or charging duration of [Gravity Etching] could also correspondingly change and upgrade.

The battle didn’t last too long.

Just like a group combat creature’s commonality, when the Grey Skinned Rats turned into fragments of corpses amidst the howls of wolves, and the previously covering ground number rapidly decreased at a visible speed while the enemy didn’t show any sign of slackening,

The rats living in the sewers also finally suppressed the berserk and bloodthirsty mental state due to the advent of the "Moon Feast" under the survival instinct.

From the first few, then a whole bunch, they fled in panic with long tails dragging, towards the dark overlooking exit gaps around the pipe corridor.

The complex, dark terrain and the scattered formation of the escaping rats dissolved Xia Nan’s thoughts of pursuit.

Just wielding the longsword, he utilized [Teeth Hunting] to strike twice through the densely packed rat swarm.

On the field, no Grey Skinned Rats dared to attack him again.

A shadow flashed by the corner of his eye.

Accompanied by the gradually approaching footsteps, Wood, clad in black leather armor, appeared before Xia Nan.

The surface of the two daggers in his hand stained with some blood, his clothes showed no obvious tear, but there were indeed a few beads of sweat on his forehead.

He, of course, also participated in the battle against the rat swarm.

However, his [Wanderer] profession and battle skills he mastered seemed more inclined towards one-on-one combat.

He had no effective way to deal with hundreds or thousands of rats.

Also, due to a hasty departure, he hadn’t brought consumable tools like "Kerosene Bombs".

So he could only wander on the battlefield’s sidelines, plugging gaps for Xia Nan or taking out a few slightly larger Grey Skinned Rats.

His battling style was inherently so, and he was still willing to spare time to help Xia Nan complete his task, so Xia Nan certainly wouldn’t think otherwise.

He nodded in greeting as the other approached.

Instead, Wood’s gaze towards Xia Nan turned peculiar once again, just like when they met in the tavern earlier discovering Xia Nan had already gained a Professional Level.

Clearly, Xia Nan’s performance in combat had exceeded his understanding of a typical new professional.

If he didn’t know Frogon had already left River Valley Town and probably wouldn’t take apprentices shortly, he might even suspect the other had shared some bottom-drawer inheritance secret techniques with this young man.

He frowned while removing a few mouse hairs off the Beheading Longsword’s blade surface.

Sword sheathed, Xia Nan stood there, his gaze sweeping over the scattered rat corpses around, a faint hint of regret showing in his expression.

Unlike those high-level demons, whose body organs and materials alone could fetch high prices in related shops.

Monsters like goblins or Grey Skinned Rats, which were abundant, had no value for their bodies to be retrieved.

The former at least had the possibility of finding some broken equipment or mineral crystal stones in a goblin nest.

The latter wouldn’t even leave a single bone.

The only value might be taking a few relatively intact bodies to see if any restaurants in the city would buy them.

"I wonder how much they could sell for; it would be nice to get a Gold Coin."

"But with this many, can I really carry them out on my own?"

The habit formed over months of adventure made Xia Nan always think about scouring for spoils after a battle.

But these filthy long-haired rats in front of him seemed to have no valuable items.

He pondered in his heart.

Meanwhile, the rescued members of the Gray Badger Gang, under the lead of the gang leader "Eight Finger", were walking towards Xia Nan.