This technique fused four skills together: the Epic-Level Blazing Sky Fire Spear, the Exceptional-Grade Spiral Wind Vortex, the Exceptional-Grade Furious Thunder Spear, and the Legendary-Level warrior skill Shattering Void Fist serving as its core. Aside from Shattering Void Fist, the main skill, only Blazing Sky Fire Spear was an Epic-Level skill. The other two were merely Exceptional-Grade, both maxed out and fully evolved. Yet Lin Mo chose not to use their higher-tier upgrades, opting instead to downgrade them...
It wasn't that he didn't want to use higher-level skills; it was that fusing three elements together was far more difficult than fusing just two. Adding the warrior skill on top of that made it even trickier—any slight misstep in the process could prevent the technique from being unleashed smoothly.
After all, Lin Mo had no prior experience with three-element fusion techniques. To play it safe, he chose to downgrade deliberately to avoid mistakes.
Once he became more familiar with it later, he could consider upgrading the grades of the other skills step by step.
For instance, he could first try fusing one Legendary and two Epic skills, then one Legendary and three Epic skills. After mastering all of that, he might even attempt fusing two Legendary skills together!
Getting back to the present, although the magical grades of the fused skills weren't particularly high, the power generated by combining the three elements exceeded Lin Mo's earlier expectations.
Plus, since the core skill was still a powerful Legendary-level technique, the overall might of this move was terrifying.
After some thought, Lin Mo decided to name this skill [Thunder-Fire Wind-Shattering Fist].
The moment he made that decision in his mind, his fist had already been thrown, slamming fiercely toward the goblin in front of him.
Violent thunder and fire, churned within a wind vortex, carried by powerful, surging Qi and Blood, exploded with a bang!
"Shatter—!"
There was no loud explosion as expected, just a dull thud. All the fury of the skill didn't leak out at all—it all surged into the enemy before him.
Then, silent shattering descended. The space in front of him cracked like a spiderweb.
Equally covered in cracks was the weapon in the goblin's hand. Before it could even react, the weapon broke apart.
The goblin's pupils shrank instantly. As an Epic-Level goblin, it held a high position in the Gnome Kingdom. Naturally, the weapon it wielded wasn't cheap.
Although goblins, compared to races like humans or dwarves, weren't skilled at forging and didn't have abundant equipment reserves, it still used an Epic-Level weapon.
And yet, this Epic-Level weapon had been shattered by brute force?!
In the moment that thought flashed by, Lin Mo's fist also slammed hard into its face.
The next instant, the goblin's face visibly caved in. Its skull was deformed by the terrifying impact. It was sent flying backward, mowing down countless goblins along the way before finally stopping.
It wasn't dead, but it was close to death.
Its entire face was twisted beyond recognition, drenched in blood. Its skull was nearly completely shattered. If not for the Dark Tide's support, it couldn't even have remained standing.
Even with the Dark Tide's power propping it up, it now had almost no strength to fight back.
This was the overwhelming nature of the Spellsword profession. In truth, if you just compared raw stats, with the Dark Tide's boost, this goblin was no weaker than Lin Mo—it was even slightly stronger. But once Lin Mo used the Spellsword's skills, it was immediately suppressed.
And this was still just an ordinary Spellsword. The two-element or even three-element combination techniques were far more overpowered than ordinary Spellsword skills. With one move, he had blasted an opponent of similar strength to pieces.
"Still alive..."
Looking at the goblin still standing nearby, Lin Mo raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "The Dark Tide is really troublesome."
The next moment, he used Flash to close the distance instantly and landed another Shattering Void Fist.
This time, it was just a single Shattering Void Fist. After all, the three-element combination technique consumed too much energy, and he didn't need such a powerful move right now.
As for proficiency...
The magic used in the current three-element combination technique was all from lower-grade spells that had already been maxed out, so it didn't matter.
This time, there was no suspense. With one punch, Lin Mo's overwhelming power drove the goblin's head straight into its chest cavity.
[Shattering Void Fist] Proficiency +600 (+1200 +300)
The base proficiency gain from killing this goblin was 600 points. However, Lin Mo's current level was only 28, while the goblin was level 33. The level-difference kill bonus added 1200 proficiency points. Additionally, the Dark Tide's enhancement provided an extra 50% proficiency boost, adding another 300 points.
In total, this goblin provided Lin Mo with 2100 proficiency points!
That was an incredibly satisfying number. On top of that, while sending the goblin flying earlier, he had also taken out quite a few ordinary goblins, which contributed a decent amount of proficiency as well.
In the end, Shattering Void Fist directly rose by two levels, reaching level 7.
That might not sound like much, but it was actually astonishing... After all, Shattering Void Fist was a Legendary skill, and at its current level, the amount of proficiency needed to level up was ridiculous.
Being able to jump two levels was partly because it was already close to leveling up. Otherwise, it would have only gone up by one level.
...
Obtained base attribute points: Strength +10
"Skill [Shattering Void Fist] Lv6 (1800/1800) upgraded!"
"Current skill [Shattering Void Fist] Lv7 (40/3000)"
The proficiency required to go from level 7 to level 8 had already reached 3000 points. Compared to future levels, this was probably just an appetizer.
Lin Mo had never heard of any skills above Legendary, but he was certain they must exist.
It was hard to imagine that divine beings like the Ice Dragon King or the Goddess of Holy Light only used Legendary-level skills...
Lin Mo was convinced that there was a higher peak beyond Legendary.
But reaching that peak would undoubtedly require an absurd amount of effort. After all, it was truly stepping into the realm of the gods.
An Epic skill maxed out at level 9. So, what about Legendary skills?
Based on previous patterns, going from Exceptional-Grade to Epic increased the max level from 7 to 9. By the same logic, going from Epic to Legendary would add at least two more levels. That meant a Legendary skill's max level would be at least 11, possibly even higher.
Judging by Epic skill proficiency requirements, a Legendary skill at level 8 to level 9 already needed 6000 proficiency. Level 9 to level 10 would undoubtedly require even more, likely breaking into the tens of thousands.
On top of that, the proficiency needed for level 10 to 11, or even 11 to 12, was unimaginably absurd.
In short, it was unattainable anytime soon.
Of course, Lin Mo wasn't impatient. He believed in taking things step by step. Although to outsiders, he wasn't just walking or even running—he was flying straight through the sky...
Next came the usual skill evolution route selection:
Please choose an evolution direction—
Evolution Route 1: Shattering Void II: Increases skill damage by 45% and enhances the "Shattering Void" effect of the skill.
Evolution Route 2: Powerful Blow II: Increases the knockback effect of the skill by 75% and locks the enemy's Qi and Blood and Mana during the knockback for 2 seconds!
Both evolution routes for this skill had already been selected once. The improvements from further enhancement were half of the original, going from 30% to 45% and from 50% to 75%.
Lin Mo didn't hesitate for long. After a brief moment of thought, he chose Evolution Route 1 to continue increasing the skill's power.
In truth, the "Powerful Blow" effect was quite useful. For example, when he used this skill on the goblin earlier, the enemy had no way to fight back or even deflect the damage while being knocked back. It could only take the full force of the skill.
If Lin Mo hadn't thought the move was already strong enough to finish it off, he could have used Flash during the process to add extra force.
But having the effect was good enough. Plus, with the Level I Powerful Blow already providing a 50% enhancement, further strengthening wasn't as necessary. Directly boosting power was more practical.
Lin Mo's battle ended smoothly. Although the goblin that appeared before him had stats that actually suppressed him, and the fight had momentarily stalled, once Lin Mo got serious and went all out, it was still no match and was quickly taken down.
But for other human powerhouses, that wasn't necessarily the case.
Not everyone had the ability to effortlessly crush enemies at the same level or even challenge higher-level foes like Lin Mo could. Especially with the Dark Tide's enhancement, these goblins' strength was clearly on a completely different level from usual—far surpassing it.
In the past, these human powerhouses might have been evenly matched with goblins of the same level, even holding a slight advantage... After all, Epic-Level goblins were generally much weaker than most Epic-Level magical creatures. So, at the same level, they had no advantage over humans.
But now, things were different. With the Dark Tide's boost, these goblins were even stronger than Epic-Level magical creatures of the same rank. And humans were nearly incapable of defeating an Epic-Level magical creature of equal rank.
Thus, aside from Lin Mo, most human powerhouses were locked in bitter struggles. Some were even in extremely dangerous situations.
The Gnome Emperor had chosen wisely. The goblins it had dispatched to ambush the particularly powerful humans were roughly on par with those human powerhouses. They might have been slightly weaker than their human counterparts, but with the Dark Tide's power, they could hold their own—or at least stall them.
Their mission was simply to keep these powerhouses occupied, leaving them no chance to help others.
Meanwhile, for the less powerful humans, the emperor had sent goblins whose base strength already equaled or exceeded theirs. With the Dark Tide's enhancement, these goblins firmly suppressed the human powerhouses, even threatening their lives.
In simpler terms, this strategy was similar to "Tian Ji's horse racing." The goal was to pick off the weaker ones first, crushing those who were easier to eliminate.
This was why many human powerhouses were now in dire straits.
But among the crowd, there were always some special individuals. Even though everyone on the battlefield was already among humanity's top geniuses, there were still distinctions among them.
The gap between generation-defining geniuses and ordinary top-tier geniuses was sometimes even greater than the gap between geniuses and regular people.
Setting aside Lin Mo as an exception, these generation-defining geniuses still existed.
For example, the famous twin adventurers—the Lake brothers. Both were Heroic Realm adventurers, both at level 36. They were generation-defining geniuses, individually stronger than other geniuses of the same level. But more importantly, they always acted together. Their flawless teamwork allowed them to achieve a 1+1>2 effect.
The goblins that targeted them stood no chance. They died only a little slower than the one that had targeted Lin Mo.
In addition, there was Largas, the son of Langar, the Vice Chairman of the Adventurers' Association's headquarters and a Legendary Realm adventurer. He, too, was once a dazzling figure.
Now 39 years old, he had inherited his father's talent and was already a level 38 Professional. His level was almost catching up to his age!
His combat strength was equally formidable, and his fighting style was incredibly fierce. At the cost of minor injuries, he swiftly took down his opponent.
These special generation-defining geniuses, after dealing with their own foes, immediately began helping those in danger.
Lin Mo did the same... These high-level goblins gave way too much proficiency. Killing one was worth who knew how many ordinary goblins. So, the more he could kill, the better.
Compared to other adventurers who also had the leeway to help others, Lin Mo's efficiency was much higher.
The main reason was that he saved a lot of time on travel. After his battle with the goblin ended, he immediately used the Shadow Split skill to create two clones, sending them to different areas of the battlefield.
He himself headed toward the nearest adventurer who was at a disadvantage and in danger.
Lin Mo's strength was already formidable, and on top of that, the current situation involved goblins and humans locked in a stalemate, allowing him to ambush them...
Lin Mo really loved the feeling of suddenly attacking from behind.
Unlike ordinary assassins, who—even at the Epic level—had to use various covert methods to sneak up on enemies, Lin Mo was different.
No matter how skillful their stealth, their targets weren't pushovers either. Once they got close enough, the enemy would eventually sense something.
Even if the goblins themselves couldn't detect it, the Gnome Emperor or goblin priests who could communicate with them would notice and relay the information immediately.
This made assassination and ambushes much harder for assassins.
But Lin Mo was different...
He wasn't sneaking in with stealth at all. He just openly used Flash to appear behind your back and hit you hard.
Chapter 400: The Mighty Thunder-Fire Wind-Shattering Fist
11 min read