The extraction of the Stone-Shell River Crab’s racial talent had already been successfully completed.
So there was no longer any need to waste time continuing to grind the remaining progress.
As for the Goblins, the Level 3 research progress was also nearly complete.
【Biological Codex: Monsters · Goblin】
【Current Research Progress: LV3 (63/100)】
He only needed to slaughter a little over thirty more green-skinned dwarfs before he could draw another reward.
Lance reached out and picked up the 《Copper Creek Forest Monster Manual》 beside the table.
The reason he had previously selected Stone-Shell River Crabs as his hunting target was precisely because he had carefully searched through this thick book.
In truth, the forest’s ecosystem was extremely complex.
Now that summer had already arrived,
the manual clearly recorded that hot and humid environments were precisely the golden season in which Slimes would soon enter a phase of explosive reproduction.
Although Slimes did not possess strong offensive power, once they began spreading uncontrollably, the consequences would be disastrous.
These sticky monsters would swarm into water sources in groups, directly polluting clear streams.
Their slightly acidic bodies would corrode crops in farmland and would even run around devouring metal near people’s homes.
Thus, every year during this season of summer,
aside from the fixed extermination missions issued by the Adventurers’ Guild for Copper Creek Forest, many small villages around Graystone Town would also deliver all kinds of urgent request commissions to the guild.
Those village commissions that were not completed within the forest core region were generally funded by poor villagers pooling their money together.
As a result, they would not provide Adventurers with much monetary compensation.
However, for this type of village mission, the merit rewards granted by the Adventurers’ Guild were often slightly higher than those of regular commissions.
And he could also use these missions to test whether his Mission Panel would undergo any changes.
He needed to try more of them.
The shallow shores around the outskirts of Copper Creek Forest were no longer breeding Slimes on a large scale anyway, so when the time came, he could conveniently accept those village missions.
Thinking this, Lance wrote down the name “Slime” on a sheet of rough paper using his quill.
He had officially incorporated Slimes, the classic low-level monster, into his upcoming talent-grinding plan.
After all, the Slime’s regeneration talent was widely acknowledged among low-rank monsters.
If stacked onto himself, perhaps it would make him even harder to kill.
Stack the thickest shield, endure the most vicious beatings.
Lance flipped through the heavy Monster Manual.
A map of the western region of Copper Creek Forest entered his sight.
The joint extermination operation organized by the Adventurers’ Guild some time ago had indeed eradicated many large monster strongholds.
However, according to the manual, there were still numerous small Gnoll tribes surviving by relying on the dense terrain.
He wrote down “Gnoll” on the parchment.
Lance rubbed his chin.
Unfortunately, there were no traces of Kobolds within the monster ecosystem around Graystone Town.
Although Kobolds and Gnolls sounded somewhat similar by name, they belonged to completely different species branches.
Rumor had it that Kobolds possessed traces of Dragon bloodlines within their bodies.
This unique bloodline trait was highly compatible with the Second Source Essence he had just unlocked.
He could only let out a sigh.
Once he had the opportunity to leave Graystone Town in the future, he would definitely find a Kobold camp and properly grind some talents there.
He withdrew his wandering thoughts and continued searching the pages with his gaze.
Very quickly, he discovered that
on the edge of the Gnoll gathering grounds marked on the map, there was an activity zone belonging to Giant Wolves.
These pack-type low-level monsters had luckily avoided the previous extermination because they did not possess fixed camps.
Not only were their numbers vast, but both their physique and perception attributes were exceptionally outstanding.
This happened to fill the attribute shortcomings he urgently needed right now.
Lance put down his quill.
Looking at the long list of hunting targets written on the paper,
once he finished grinding all these targets, he would completely satisfy the hard requirements for class advancement.
With his current terrifying strength, there was already very little in the outer forest capable of posing any substantial threat to him.
Logically speaking, this rocket-like growth speed in power should have made him feel reassured.
Yet sitting inside this quiet room, Lance instead felt a burst of irritation.
The moment he thought about an unseen mastermind secretly peering into his life from the shadows, he felt that even this speed was still far too slow.
What if that manipulator belonged to a long-lived species?
What if the other party had already lived for several hundred years?
No, he had to work even harder.
Originally, he had planned to take advantage of giving Cecilia a holiday by also staying in town tomorrow and resting properly for a day himself.
But now he decisively abandoned that thought.
Tomorrow, he would head into the forest alone and slaughter monsters like mad, first finishing the remaining Goblin progress before conveniently clearing out a batch of Giant Wolves or Gnolls along the way.
Time was truly too tight. He had to complete his rank ascension before the enemy made any moves.
He picked up the parchment, preparing to place it into the desk drawer.
The instant he pulled open the wooden drawer, a brass object entered his sight.
It was the Guiding Compass he had looted from Buck’s corpse yesterday.
A flash of inspiration suddenly passed through Lance’s mind.
He took out this Curious Object of Fire Theft covered in cracks and recalled the activation method recorded within Buck’s secrets.
He brought the compass close to his mouth.
“Please help me find a person…”
“The mastermind who, over the past dozen years, has treated this body of mine like a Marionette and woven a life script full of lies and falsehoods for me.”
After speaking these detailed qualifiers, he held his breath and stared fixedly at the dial.
Within the quiet room, only the sound of his own heartbeat could be heard.
More than ten seconds passed.
That dark-red pointer remained as motionless as if it had been welded in place, not trembling in the slightest.
Lance slowly exhaled a long breath.
This proved that the mastermind himself was not within the compass’s one-kilometer sensing range at all.
The other party was not hiding in the town and monitoring him every second.
This counted as a rare piece of good news.
However, Lance had no intention of giving up the test just because of that.
He had already thought of a method to drag out that hidden fox tail.
Lance changed the direction of his questioning and spoke to the compass once more.
“Please help me find an object…”
“An item related to the person or organization that treated the first half of my life as a Marionette and used countless lies and falsehoods to weave a life script for me.”
The moment his words fell,
a piercing sound of mechanical friction rang out from inside the compass.
That dark-red pointer immediately began spinning frantically.
Lance let out a sigh of relief.
Just as he had guessed, if that mastermind had been capable of fabricating the first half of his life out of thin air, then it would have been impossible for no physical traces whatsoever to have been left behind.
“I’ve caught your tail.”
Holding the compass, he slowly followed the direction indicated by the pointer.
After taking only two steps, his entire body froze in place.
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