Lin Jun had said he wanted to thoroughly search this floor for suitable acceleration skills.
But what he was looking for were demonic beasts that could stably provide fixed skills. This time, sending out a reconnaissance Puffshroom was also meant to scout the situation in the gnoll forest.
He hadn't expected that before encountering any gnolls, he would first come across this—
A dead human.
More precisely, a freshly dead human mage whose blood hadn't even coagulated yet.
Though Lin Jun couldn't see a dead person's status panel, the standard mage attire was quite recognizable.
The man had obviously suffered severe injuries while fleeing through the forest, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.
Unfortunately, having just escaped, he collapsed on the spot from excessive blood loss. When Lin Jun discovered him, he was already no longer breathing.
Human adventurers generally operated in groups, but judging by his condition, he had either been separated from his team or everyone had been wiped out inside the forest.
The lives of these bottom-tier adventurers were truly harsh—all of them risking their necks just to make a living.
According to Inanna, resurrection existed in this world.
But what they called "resurrection" seemed more like necromancy to Lin Jun.
First, they would use various methods to perfectly restore the physical body, then expend vast amounts of rare resources that could bankrupt a nation, and finally perform a ritual to summon the hero's soul back into their body to complete the resurrection.
Under normal circumstances, no one would organize a resurrection ritual. Such things hadn't occurred in over a hundred years.
Ordinary people might even consider it mere legend—only someone like Inanna, with a duke for a father, could know so much.
Just from this simple explanation, one could see that this process not only had absolutely nothing to do with common adventurers, but even had no connection to nobles. Only truly legendary existences had the chance to experience it.
In summary, unlike some games and anime from his previous life that treated death as child's play, in this world, death meant truly being dead.
Lin Jun briefly searched through the unfortunate mage's shoulder bag.
A small metal plate bearing the mage's portrait and other information—an identification card?
A small booklet filled with notes he couldn't understand, a yellow potion bottle half-full, and the rest consisted of some coins and collected plants.
Adding the staff embedded with a C-rank magic crystal beside his hand, this was the entirety of the mage's legacy.
The magic robe on his body should have been valuable too, but it was already half-burned, with the remaining portions tattered like rags, obviously worthless.
Rustling sounds came from the forest as several hunched gnolls emerged, carrying wooden bows or sword and shield.
Particularly that sword and shield, stained with blood but obviously well-maintained, clearly didn't match the gnolls' trash-like attire.
Most likely equipment freshly stripped from the mage's companion's corpse.
So he hadn't successfully escaped after all—the gnolls had deliberately allowed their severely wounded prey to exhaust their last bit of resistance while fleeing?
Their intelligence was truly considerable.
The gnolls also noticed the reconnaissance Puffshroom beside the corpse. They exchanged glances and actually began mocking in a very human-like manner.
The gnoll with the sword and shield even sheathed its weapons and walked over.
It seemed unwilling to cleanly finish off the Puffshroom, apparently planning to toy with it.
The gnoll grinned wickedly as it extended its blood-stained claws toward the Puffshroom, but failed to touch its target—its entire claw vanished without a trace.
"Garooooo—"
The agonized howl didn't last long, as another mushroom cannon blasted this best-equipped gnoll's head to smithereens.
This startled the three remaining gnolls, who hastily gripped their weapons and looked toward the direction from which the attack had come.
Seven strange Puffshroom they'd never seen before!
Seeing the Puffshroom launching another attack, the gnolls scrambled behind large trees, returning fire with wooden bows.
Lin Jun had already called over the Puffshroom to transport the mage's corpse when he first discovered it—he just hadn't expected to have to fight these gnolls as well.
Fine then, it was a perfect opportunity to test the new Puffshroom's power.
Two Puffshroom curled into balls and rolled rapidly toward the forest, quickly locating the gnolls hiding within.
**[Self-Destruct LV3]**
Accompanied by thunderous roars, two gnolls missing arms and legs were blasted out.
The last gnoll, who had hidden farthest away, was so frightened by this scene that it wet itself, dropping its weapon and fleeing desperately into the forest. Lin Jun was too lazy to pursue.
Lin Jun was quite satisfied with the performance of his new self-destructing Puffshroom.
As a kamikaze skill that killed enemies by first killing oneself, even at just LV3, its power was quite considerable.
What was even more valuable was its ability to coordinate with Rolling Charge. Previously, self-destruction required using magic power to overload magic crystals, making it impossible to execute during charging situations.
Now, switching to skill-based self-destruction made operations much simpler.
The two blasted gnolls were severely injured but didn't die on the spot. They now lay on the ground, emitting "whimpering" wails toward the Puffshroom's direction.
What did this mean? Begging for mercy?
Even if they survived with these crippled bodies, what then?
Gnolls didn't seem like a race that would support the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled. Returning in this state wouldn't lead to a good end anyway.
Lin Jun was kindhearted and couldn't bear to see such misery, so he immediately gave them a swift end.
Subsequently, the Puffshroom gathered up all items and corpses to transport back to the marsh area.
————
**[Sin of Greed Triggered]**
**[Plundered Skill: Precision LV4→LV5]**
**[Plundered Skill: Archery Mastery LV1]**
**[Plundered Skill: Wind Magic LV1]**
**[Plundered Skill: Human Common Language LV1]**
The first two came from the gnolls, the latter two from the mage.
Though he hadn't found acceleration skills, there were still some gains.
Archery aside, it was useless to Lin Jun, but Precision had much higher practical value—it could coordinate with mushroom cannons.
Wind Magic looked promising, but he still lacked a skill called Magic Power Manipulation. Without it, he couldn't precisely control magic power to form spells, so this skill could only be temporarily shelved.
What most surprised Lin Jun was that languages could actually be acquired through this method!?
This was an unexpected pleasant surprise.
However, he clearly hadn't seen this Human Common Language skill on other adventurers' status panels, though he had seen Ancient Elvish LV2 on Inanna.
Did native languages not display?
Speaking of which, gnolls should also have communication abilities, right? Why didn't they yield any languages?
Was it because he didn't draw it, or because their language system wasn't complete enough to qualify as a skill?
He couldn't figure it out. In any case, he should now be able to understand human writing, right?
Excitedly pulling out the small booklet, Lin Jun immediately experienced what it felt like to be illiterate.
Out of a long string of characters, he could only recognize two or three...
Damn it, he still couldn't read it!
Did he need to reach LV10 to fully understand all written language?
Bear in mind that his highest skill level so far was only LV7.
Forget it—these were all unexpected gains anyway. Perhaps while looting corpses in the dungeon, he'd max it out eventually. No need to rush.
He hadn't even completed his goal of finding acceleration skills yet. Tomorrow he'd check the other side.
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