Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

Lance felt as if something had been forcibly stuffed into his mind.

A large number of fragmented combat scenes flashed past his subconscious like fleeting images.

But in just an instant, that swelling pain vanished without a trace, as if the sharp sensation earlier had been nothing more than an illusion.

Before he could focus and carefully check the changes in the panel, a rapid rustling sound came from the bushes nearby.

Cecilia rushed out from her hiding spot at a run.

The forest camouflage woven by magic on her body had already dissipated.

During her hurried approach, her skirt and cloak had inevitably become covered in dry leaves and thorny burrs, and there was even a smudge of dirt on her fair cheek.

But she had no time to care about her appearance.

Just moments ago, when she saw that massive warhammer nearly graze her Senior’s body, she felt like her heart had almost stopped.

Only now, after rushing over and seeing that aside from being splattered with Goblin green blood, Lance had no obvious injuries, did Cecilia finally let out a breath of relief.Her tense shoulders finally relaxed.

Lance glanced down at his own disheveled state, raised his left hand, and with a slight thought—

the Cleanse spell attached to his ring activated instantly.

After cleaning himself up, he turned to look at the half-elf girl in front of him, who was dirty yet filled with concern.

Lance found it a little amusing. He stepped forward and directly placed his broad hand on Cecilia’s small head.

He casually cast Cleanse on her as well.

Cecilia’s body stiffened instantly.

This was the first time in her life that someone of the opposite sex, other than her elders, had touched her hair so intimately.

Feeling the warmth from his palm brought an overwhelming sense of reassurance.

All the panic and fear accumulated during the battle seemed to be completely wiped away by that gentle touch.

Even the surrounding air seemed to change.

The breeze passing through the forest became incredibly quiet, and the rustling leaves around them seemed to have stopped moving altogether.

Was it because all those noisy Goblins had been killed?

This strange question popped into Cecilia’s dazed mind.

As the white glow of Cleanse faded completely, her coarse cloak became spotless once again, and her entire appearance was refreshed.

Standing in this blood-soaked camp filled with severed limbs and scattered organs, the two of them seemed completely out of place.

Lance didn’t have time to dwell on the girl’s subtle emotions.

He turned and walked to the nearby bushes, retrieved the large collection pack he had hidden earlier, and threw it onto the bloodstained ground with a thud.

Pointing at the scattered corpses, he urged casually,

“Time to get to work.”

“We still need to bring back the mission proof.”

Cecilia, who had just been immersed in her pink daydream, froze for a moment.

That atmosphere shattered instantly.

“O-oh, got it.”

The girl could only pout helplessly as she crouched down, drew her Skinning Knife, and began cutting off the ears from the Goblin corpses.

Lance, meanwhile, took his dagger and walked toward the massive Hobgoblin’s body.

He pried open the monster’s heavy jaw and carefully removed the flesh attached to the gums, preparing to extract the two thick fangs intact.

These were the exclusive mission proof of a Hobgoblin.

By the time the two of them finished packing up all valuable materials from the camp and retraced their path back to Graystone Town, quite some time had passed.

Although this Goblin camp was only located in the mid-peripheral area of the Copper Creek Forest on the map, the complex terrain caused their return journey to take much longer.

This long trek made Lance realize a serious issue.

If he wanted to take on deeper, higher-level commissions in the future, spending the night in the Copper Creek Forest would be an unavoidable challenge for any adventurer.

As he walked, Lance opened the system panel and shifted his gaze directly to the knowledge section.

【Wilderness Survival LV1 (89/400)】

Since they had always gone out and returned on the same day, the proficiency of this skill had been increasing very slowly.

If he truly wanted to consider staying overnight in the wild, then this knowledge skill would have to be upgraded as soon as possible.

Relying solely on his own exploration and learning in the wild was far too slow.

Looking at the progress bar, a speculation suddenly surfaced in Lance’s mind.

Since combat skills could grant powerful specialties after reaching certain levels, what about knowledge skills?

If Wilderness Survival were raised to Level 4, would it also grant some kind of special benefit?

He glanced at the balance in the upper right corner.

【Knowledge Experience: 260】

Unfortunately, it wasn’t even enough to reach Level 2 yet.

Lance shook his head and decided not to think about it for now.

He refocused his attention on the special enhancement granted by the system after killing the Hobgoblin.

To see what kind of benefit the Biological Research had produced.

【Weakness Insight (Mutation: Action Prediction)】

【By personally killing a mutated elite within the Goblin species, your research into the physiological structure and force application habits of the Goblin base population has deepened. You can now predict the attack actions of this species 0.5 seconds in advance.】

The moment he read the description, Lance’s eyes lit up.

This ability was ridiculously powerful! In life-and-death combat, a 0.5-second advantage essentially meant that as long as the opponent’s Agility didn’t surpass his, their attacks would find it extremely difficult to deal any real damage to him.

This was practically a Goblin-specific cheat ability.

For other types of monsters, encountering mutated elites was extremely rare.

But Goblins, a disgusting species that evolved through sheer population size, could be said to produce mutations everywhere—Hobgoblins, Shamans, even Goblin Centurions could appear.

And his Biological Research panel would continuously mutate and strengthen its results as long as he killed these special variants.

Looking at this highly targeted effect, Lance couldn’t shake a strange feeling.

It was as if this system panel held a particular grudge against the Goblin race.

“Did you also watch Goblin Slayer in your past life?”

Lance silently joked to the system in his mind.

“If that’s the case, then we’re kindred spirits.”

……

By the time the two of them finally walked out of the forest and returned to the Adventurers’ Guild, the street lamps on both sides of the road had already lit up.

The hall was bustling with noise.

This time of day was the busiest period for the guild, filled with adventurers returning from the wild carrying large packs.

The smell of sweat mixed with loud bragging about battle achievements created a chaotic atmosphere.

Carrying the heavy collection pack, Lance scanned the area.

He saw that in front of Nia’s counter, there was already a long queue—

so long that it even curved around the corner.