Chapter 144: Clouds Dissipating

"Screech!"

A filth-covered, dark brown wooden club smashed onto the surface of an iron pot, leaving a small dent in the bottom of the pot, which had already been twisted and deformed by countless attacks during the battle.

Fortunately, the club itself was made of ordinary material, and the force of the swing was very average, allowing this pot, which hadn't been off the stove for long, to maintain its basic integrity.

"Hold on, everyone hold on!"

"The adventurers from Hegu Town will be here soon; hold on for a few more minutes, and we can all survive."

"For the village, for your wives and children, hold the line!"

The aged voice, filled with the traces of time, had long since become hoarse, and the clothes on his body had already been soaked through with sweat; the exhausted stamina made him feel as if he had used all his strength just by standing.

But as the village chief of Cui Xi Village, this stooped old man still stood in the most dangerous place, encouraging and boosting the morale of the villagers fighting the Goblins.

His experience serving in the Kingdom's army when he was young made him aware of the importance of "morale" and "formation."

Therefore, even though the entire defensive line had been destroyed by that Bugbear, allowing the Goblins to cross the trenches and traps they had prepared.

The village chief still led a considerable number of villagers, retreating all the way, attracting a large portion of the Goblins that had rushed into the village, delaying time and fighting for a chance of survival for the other residents of the village.

To tell the truth, the old man didn't count on those few passing adventurers to fight with all their might for the safety of a strange village, nor did he believe at all that these farmers, who didn't even have proper equipment, could handle an adult Bugbear.

In fact, just these few dozen Goblins were already driving the villagers into a desperate situation.

But he still didn't give up.

Just thinking that for every second more they held on, perhaps one more villager could escape and be saved.

A force inexplicably surged in his heart, supporting his aged and near-collapsing body.

He could naturally ignore everything and turn to run away directly.

And with the prestige he had accumulated in the village over so many years, he could just make up a couple of excuses, and there would be plenty of simple, honest villagers willing to protect him as they left the front line.

But if he really did that, the formation they were struggling to maintain would instantly collapse, and the villagers fleeing in all directions, like a flock of sheep scattered by a wild wolf, would have no room for resistance when facing these cruel Goblins.

"AH!"

A scream filled with pain suddenly sounded from the front.

A middle-aged man, whose clothes and pants were covered in patches, fell backward onto the ground in great pain.

His right arm was bent and twisted, as if suffering a heavy blow.

At his feet lay an iron pot that had been thoroughly smashed, with a hole in the bottom.

The formation, which was already on the verge of collapse under the Goblin's impact, instantly developed a huge gap.

The Goblin's high-pitched and excited sharp cries suddenly rose by a large margin, scrambling to rush toward the gap.

Seeing that the last line of defense was about to collapse completely.

A resolute light suddenly flashed in the village chief's eyes, and a force not belonging to his age erupted from his aged, thin body.

Picking up a pitchfork from the ground nearby, he prepared to rush up and desperately plug this gap.

And it was at this critical moment.

Hum—

It was the sound of air being torn coming from overhead.

Moving his steps forward, the old man's head instinctively lifted, and he subconsciously squinted to look at the sky.

Against the backdrop of the gloomy sky with thick leaden clouds, shrouded in the silver-white curtain of rain, was a human figure that appeared somewhat blurred due to falling at high speed.

Seemed somewhat familiar...

He hadn't had any contact with this person, nor did he know the other's name.

What truly made the village chief remember the other's identity was that sharp, iron-gray light that almost blended into the rain.

Seemed to be the adventurer who was traveling with "Green Blood" Adeline earlier, how...

"BANG!!!"

The next second, the sound wave that made his eardrums vibrate like an explosion, and the Goblin limbs flying and splashing, interrupted his train of thought.

Xia Nan didn't slow down.

After leaping high by controlling his own gravity, he didn't weaken the influence of Earth's gravity on himself to reduce the falling damage as he had before while falling.

Instead, he controlled the range and slightly increased it, enhancing the impact force upon landing.

Trying it for the first time, he was exceptionally careful and didn't overly enhance his own gravity, fearing it would cause unnecessary damage to his body.

But in reality, Xia Nan still underestimated the influence of 【Tidal Shaping】's "falling damage halved" (constant/rule) and his body's physical fitness after the promotion and strengthening.

Landing in the Goblin colony like a missile, the heads of the Goblins beneath his feet were stomped to pieces on the spot by his thick leather boots, and the shockwave he stirred up sent the surrounding Goblins flying.

His legs, which were firmly planted on the ground and corpses, felt not the slightest discomfort.

It was clear that he was still far from reaching the limit.

Estimating his current physical strength in his heart, facing the Goblins surging toward him like a tide from all around.

Xia Nan's gaze suddenly froze, and a gray light flashed deep in his pitch-black eyes.

The colorful world before him instantly left only a pure black and white.

Although it was far from the detailed degree of entering the microscopic world during his promotion, it still revealed the gravity ripples, like fine ripples in water, in the surrounding space to his vision.

【Heart-Drawing Vision】

Category: Specialty

Effect:

1. Gravity affinity significantly increased

2. Sense gravity radiation (Active)

Introduction:

Under gravity wave radiation, you are like a fish in water.

Note:

"Space... is twisting, time... will also stagnate, I... witness eternity."

—Star-Track Weaver · Era · Primordial Time Dragon · Zachariah

Having obtained the ability for no more than a few dozen minutes, Xia Nan hadn't fully grasped the role of the 【Heart-Drawing Vision】 specialty, but he tried to use it in battle.

As for the specific effect...

It was hard for him to describe.

He just felt that under the strange black-and-white perspective before his eyes, the gravity ripples in space became much clearer, making the use of 【Gravity Control】 much easier and less strenuous.

With a light downward press of his sword tip, a circle of green-skinned Goblins around him knelt on the ground, wailing.

【Spinning Slash】!

The iron-gray arc passed in a flash.

Fragmented limbs and severed heads flew up accordingly.

Pondering in his heart, the surface of the decapitation longsword in Xia Nan's hand was suddenly covered with a layer of ochre-red light.

The color was similar to the "Deflection Field" of the 【Deathline】 ring, but the energy itself was more condensed, looking like some kind of constantly changing and flowing rune.

This was the only professional combat technique granted to him after taking the job of "Meteor Blade Ranger":

【Gravity Etching】.

Unlike the two specialties in front, its ability effect appeared simple and easy to understand.

—Adds force field damage when attacking.

3/3 (can be used 3 times consecutively in daily state), recharges once every six hours.

"BOOM!"

The sword blade tore through the Goblin's fragile flesh, and the ochre-red force field energy condensed like runes on the surface of the sword suddenly exploded.

To test the combat technique, Xia Nan deliberately moved the position of the sword blade's slash down a lot, from the original neck to the waist and abdomen.

Making the ochre-red force field energy that exploded like a miniature firework under the effect of 【Gravity Etching】 almost instantly swallow the Goblin's pelvis, chest, and abdomen, along with half of its shoulder.

Only the head and limbs exploded and flew away with the energy wave, just like toy blocks that had been played with and discarded.

"Hmm... single-target damage, the effect is not bad."

Xia Nan muttered to himself.

The specific lethality of 【Gravity Etching】 naturally couldn't be fully explored just through these weak Goblins before him.

But just that one strike was enough to make him initially judge that the power of this combat technique would not be much weaker than 【Spinning Slash】, which had already been practiced to Lv5.

Of course, by comparison, the latter could be used infinitely as long as stamina allowed, and it could perform large-scale attacks.

While the former had a usage limit of three times.

After using them all at once, one had to wait eighteen hours for them to fully recharge.

"Consider it a small trump card that can be frequently used in battle."

Considering this in his heart, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his brain.

Recalling the small trick of combining and alternating 【Tooth Hunt】 and 【Spinning Slash】...

The effect of 【Gravity Etching】 itself was just to add damage when attacking, and it had no conflicting points with 【Spinning Slash】 or even 【Tooth Hunt】.

Did that mean it could also be combined with the other two combat techniques, "1+1+1," to explode the power of the three combat techniques in an instant?

Xia Nan's heart moved, and he had already recorded this idea in his heart.

His body moved slightly, the sound of a wolf's howl echoed in the air, then suddenly dissipated.

He glanced at the villagers not far away, then swept his gaze over the considerable number of Goblins around.

He had already extinguished the thought of trying it on the spot.

After all, having just obtained a professional level, even the core ability of the profession, 【Gravity Control】, was not yet mastered.

If some unexpected change occurred after combining the three combat techniques, accidentally injuring the villagers or affecting the plan to clear out the remaining Goblins, causing a sudden turn of events on the field, that wouldn't be very good.

Being cautious and waiting until he returned to Hegu Town to slowly try and train wouldn't be too late.

His lively thoughts calmed down, and his heart, which had been leaping and fluctuating due to becoming a professional, gradually returned to peace.

"Screech."

The longsword in his hand had already slashed again.

Blood sprayed.

Before him were three bare Goblin heads that had spun off their shoulders.

The dark gray clouds surged and rolled, but the edges appeared slightly fluffy, leaking down a few streaks of brilliant golden sunlight.

The silver-white curtain of rain shrouding the world was sparse and scattered, and the rain fell in a drizzle, no longer possessing the violent and fierce momentum from earlier, clearly about to stop completely soon.

The battle didn't last too long.

Xia Nan, who had obtained a professional level and advanced to 【Meteor Blade Ranger】, even if it was only the most basic "Lv1."

Cutting off a Goblin's head wouldn't be much harder than kicking a wild dog on the side of the road to death.

【Spinning Slash】, 【Tooth Hunt】, 【Gravity Control】...

Xia Nan, who no longer thought about saving strength to test his newly acquired abilities and focused on slaughter, was like a green-skinned harvester.

No Goblin could live for more than two seconds under his sword light.

Wherever he passed, only fragmented Goblin corpses remained.

Sweeping and clearing,

Every house and every grass shed was carefully checked to ensure no omissions.

In a few dozen minutes, not a single green-skin could be seen in the entire Cui Xi Village.

"Tsk tsk... is this what a professional is?"

Carrying a blood-stained cloth bag filled with Goblin ears, Abi looked at the open area ahead, which had been completely leveled within a radius of fifty feet.

He was so surprised he could almost not close his mouth.

Even Adeline, who was covered in bandages beside him, couldn't help but click her tongue secretly when she saw such a scene.

She had been in Hegu Town for so many years; to say she hadn't seen a professional was, of course, impossible.

In fact, at the White Tit Tavern next to the Adventurer Association, one could almost see veteran adventurers suspected of possessing a professional level chatting and bragging every night.

It was just that for the bottom-tier adventurers in town, this was another circle that one could see but could never reach no matter what.

Adeline, who only took missions related to Goblins, had never teamed up with a professional.

Therefore, although she had heard others mention the powerful performance of these people, she had never truly seen it with her own eyes.

She hadn't expected that today, in this seemingly ordinary mission, a "professional" would appear before her eyes in such a way.

On her dirty face, stained with Goblin blood, a complex expression appeared, and she couldn't help but turn her head to look at Xia Nan, who was wiping his longsword on the other side.

With such a big commotion and such clear changes in his own body.

Xia Nan didn't hide the fact that he had become a professional during the battle from the two.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why he, who had been exceptionally disheveled and barely holding on when facing the Bugbear's attack earlier, had turned the situation around in just a few seconds and shattered the opponent's head.

In fact, there was nothing to hide; he wasn't a novel protagonist feared by various forces in his previous life who needed to hide his strength to deal with dangers that might come at any time.

It wasn't impossible that after returning to Hegu Town, he would still need to ask Adeline about professionals and the second floor of the Adventurer Association.

Of course, he didn't mention some specific details of the battle to the two.

For example... the strange device that suddenly appeared in the center of the battlefield because of the 【Fate Coin】, and helped him upgrade 【Gravity Solidification】, which he had been practicing slowly, to 【Gravity Control】—

"Titan Umbilical Cord" Type II - Gravity Core.

Thinking of this, Xia Nan couldn't help but recall the item information panel that had been triggered unintentionally due to his highly concentrated attention during the battle.

"Superconducting ring, curvature parameters, spacetime continuity, captain..."

These strange words were clearly not something that should appear in the fantasy world he remembered.

Recalling the silver-white Gravity Core, its surface smooth and its textures emitting a faint blue glow, its style completely different and full of technological sense.

For some reason, what flashed through Xia Nan's mind was the dark cave where the snake corpse was coiled, the dazzling gourd vine drop,

And the wooden sword 【Green Pine】 on his back, which clearly came from another world.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 145 =====