Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

When the final Kobold wielding a wooden spear before him had its neck completely twisted apart—

The entire lakeside actually fell into a brief silence.

It seemed that no new monsters were continuing to emerge anymore.

The excitement in Lance’s nerves relaxed slightly as he temporarily withdrew from that frenzied slaughter state from earlier.

Standing within the shallow water that submerged his ankles, he slowly exhaled a stream of scorching hot air.

Lowering his gaze, he surveyed the broken corpses scattered everywhere around him.

Roughly counting them, the monster remains lying across the shallow shore and the edge of the lake already numbered well over several hundred.

The monsters’ blood had dyed the originally clear Emerald Star Lake into a murky dark color.

Looking at this scene, Lance could not help letting out a heartfelt sigh inwardly.

He had never expected that Karen, who had not yet fully grown at the time, had actually managed to firmly protect the battle-incapacitated Ilysia alone while slaughtering the entire monster horde here.Truly incredible.

He himself only dared to recklessly squander Aether energy in such high-intensity close combat because he possessed the Infinite Stamina talent, allowing him to fully overdrive the Breathing Technique without restraint.

He genuinely had no idea how Karen, who had been an ordinary human back then, had managed to accomplish this feat.

He had never considered that perhaps the other person’s “clear method” might have been just a tiny bit different from his own.

At that moment, Lance sensed the panel within his mind vibrating.

With a slight movement of his thoughts, he immediately opened it.

【After ninety minutes of extreme overloaded operation, your lungs and internal organs devour Aether energy like an abyss!】

【Aether Energy Pool +7.6 Units】

【Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique proficiency greatly increased +527, Current Progress LV4 (864/1500)】

【You perfectly recreated the brutal posture of an ancient Dragon tearing apart its prey! Lizardmen, Gnolls, Kobolds… countless low-rank monsters were mercilessly crushed and slaughtered by you!】

【Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow proficiency massively increased +415, Current Progress LV4 (617/1000)】

【Your spirit grows increasingly delighted amidst bloody slaughter. Your soul is becoming more and more like a bloodthirsty Dragon. Base Attribute increased: Spirit +1】

Looking at the final flashing line of text, Lance’s eyes suddenly lit up.

He had never expected that within such a high-pressure real combat environment, he would actually obtain the rare increase of a Spirit attribute.

The Spirit attribute determined future resistance and strength against certain spells.

Just this forcibly elevated single point of Spirit was absolutely the greatest unexpected gain from this tedious defensive battle.

Just as Lance silently absorbed the clear and refreshing sensation brought by the attribute increase—

He heard a faint scraping sound coming from atop the towering white rock behind him.

Immediately afterward came a very weak voice calling out—

“Senior…”

Lance swiftly turned around.

To his surprise, Cecilia, who should have still been lying quietly upon the flat stone steps due to mana exhaustion, was now desperately supporting her heavy body with both hands while trying very hard to stand up.

“You fought down here for far too long.”

The Witch phantom floating in the sky slowly descended while casually explaining.

“This little girl’s soul probably recovered a tiny bit of strength from the mana exhaustion state because she rested long enough.”

As Ilysia spoke, she floated toward Cecilia.

Looking at the wobbling Half-Elf girl, she kindly attempted to persuade her.

“Little girl, you’d better not force yourself to stand right now.”

“Your impressive senior already completely resolved all the trouble below. You only need to obediently rest here properly. Once the spell formation’s energy runs out in a little while, the two of you will safely leave.”

Cecilia had absolutely no idea who the beautiful woman floating in midair before her actually was.

Her crimson eyes were filled with dense misty moisture.

The first thought after waking up was that she absolutely had to immediately find her senior and apologize face-to-face.

This pure-hearted girl had placed all the blame upon herself.

She believed it was because of her own carelessness—accidentally triggering the spell formation while organizing the node—that the two of them had fallen into this crisis.

Especially when she barely managed to open her eyes—

And under the bright moonlight, saw the mountain-like piles of monster corpses stacked beside the riverbank below, along with the familiar blood-covered figure standing amidst the mountain of corpses and sea of blood—

The girl’s heart felt as though it had been fiercely gripped by an invisible hand.

Her mind became completely filled with overwhelming guilt and enormous worry.

She no longer cared about anything else.

She absolutely had to personally walk to her senior’s side and use her own hands to carefully check whether he had suffered any severe fatal injuries.

But right now, she was playing the role of the Starry Night Witch Ilysia from back then.

Thus, her current body remained in a state of mana exhaustion combined with severe Mana Backlash-induced stiffness.

This weakness felt as heavy as though an entire mountain were pressing down upon her body, causing her limbs to barely obey her commands.

Yet she still bit her lip tightly.

After standing up, she stubbornly dragged her legs forward, trying to climb down from the white rock.

“What a stubborn little girl.”

Watching this desperate effort, Ilysia floating in the sky could not help letting out a soft sigh tinged with pity.

However, at that exact moment—

A heavy gigantic footstep suddenly echoed from deep within the distant dark forest.

The earth itself seemed to tremble slightly from that single step.

Lance immediately gathered his focus again and tightly clenched his fists while looking toward the direction the sound originated from.

An enormous shadow pushed apart the thick trees and heavily stepped onto the soft sand.

This was a monster Lance had never seen before.

The aura emitted from its body was unquestionably that of a genuine Professional-rank monster.

And this absolutely was not some bottom-tier brute like a Hobgoblin that relied solely on raw strength.

This was a rare mutant species.

A juvenile Forest Troll.

Although this monster was merely in its juvenile stage, its height had already reached an astonishing two and a half meters.

Its thick palms and feet appeared incomparably massive, with every step leaving deep pits in the ground.

The Troll’s skin possessed a disgusting dark green coloration. There was not a trace of fur upon it, only a sickening thick rubber-like texture.

Most scalp-numbing of all—

Upon the monster’s back, broad shoulders, and the rear of its head—

Dense masses of purple-black poisonous fungi parasitically grew there, while ugly rough keratin layers resembling tree tumors covered the surrounding flesh.

“See? This is all your fault!”

Ilysia flew beside Lance and spread both hands helplessly.

“Look what you’ve forced this rigid historical projection into becoming. It actually forcibly spawned this completely unreasonable mutant monster.”

“Me?”

Countless giant question marks instantly popped up inside Lance’s head.

He had clearly been working hard to complete the defense mission, so how had he somehow become the culprit who disrupted the balance of the spell formation?

However, before he could voice his confused rebuttal—

That towering mutant Troll had already violently turned its tree-tumor-covered head.

Its pair of muddy yellow eyes overflowing with brutality directly bypassed Lance standing within the water and locked onto the Half-Elf girl crawling down from the distant white rock.