It was only when Hilda pulled several seasonings from her emergency supply pack that Lynn realized her “secret recipe” was actually grilled mushroom skewers.
Well, he had never eaten such a thing before.
He wondered how it would taste.
...
“This is delicious!”
Lynn stuffed an entire skewer of mushrooms directly into his mouth. Beneath the savory sauce was a slightly crispy outer skin and a firm, springy texture.
The three of them quickly finished off the grilled mushroom skewers.
The sky had grown completely dark. Henry, who had been somewhat excited just moments ago, yawned slightly.
“How are we arranging the night watch tonight?”
Lynn, on the other hand, was still quite energetic.
Since coming to this world, this was his first time spending the night in the wilderness.
“How about you watch the first half of the night, and I take the second half?” Hilda suggested.
As for why she didn't assign Henry a watch...
Hilda didn't want to entrust her safety to a wet-behind-the-ears rookie.
Lynn had no objections. “Alright, you go to sleep first. I'll wake you if I can't keep my eyes open. As for Henry...”
Lynn glanced at Henry, who simply grinned foolishly back at him.
Well...
Lynn said helplessly, “If he ever feels like keeping watch, he can just get up and join me.”
With the watch order settled, Hilda and Henry retired to their respective tents. Lynn was left sitting alone by the campfire, silently listening to the rain pattering against the waterproof tarp.
With nothing to do, Lynn opened the monster encyclopedia.
On the goblin page, hundreds of Bloodline Points were waiting for Lynn to allocate.
The harvest from wiping out an entire medium-sized goblin tribe was a whopping 282 Bloodline Points.
It was a pity. If only these were Bloodline Points from some powerful magical beast.
Goblin Bloodline Points depreciated far too quickly.
Fortunately, when he chose his first Rune, he hadn't chosen 【Slacking Off】. Otherwise, he wouldn't even know how to spend those six hundred Bloodline Points.
Looking back at the goblin bloodline tree, both the “Goblin Warrior” and “Goblin Priest” bloodlines could be activated.
Originally, Lynn had been somewhat interested in the Goblin Warrior's talent skill, 【Swift Escape】. But now that he had 【Burst Step】, that skill no longer held any appeal for him.
Lynn first spent one hundred Bloodline Points to unlock the 【Goblin Priest】 bloodline.
After 【Priest】, this branch only had the final tier left: the 【Mana-Surge Mutated Goblin】 bloodline, which required a whopping eight hundred Bloodline Points to activate.
As nearly half of his points were poured into the bloodline tree, the goblin bloodline tree once again fed a surge of mental energy back into Lynn's mind.
The mana seed in his mind trembled slightly once more, showing faint signs of breaking its shell, but it still failed to sprout.
His mana pool had also expanded and grown.
If he continued to anchor one unit of mana to the cost of a single Magic Missile, Lynn's mana pool had been about 0.9 units when he first arrived in town.
Now, with 14 points of Intelligence, Lynn's mana pool had reached nearly 2.1 units.
Of course, with the help of his staff and “Evocation Control”, Lynn actually only needed to consume 0.5 units of mana to cast Magic Missile.
Thus, if he squeezed every drop, he could cast almost four Magic Missiles in succession.
Not to mention, he now had 【Mage's Juice Box】 as well.
Now, even if three or four Tier 1 monsters besieged Lynn simultaneously, they probably wouldn't pose much of a threat to him.
Lynn looked at the bonuses brought by unlocking this bloodline.
【Goblin Priest: Intelligence +2, Perception +1, Bloodline Contract (Available to Sign)】
The bloodline of a Tier 1 monster could now only provide Lynn with three attribute points.
However, he was rather interested in the Bloodline Contract listed at the end.
Lynn sank his consciousness into his mind.
A contract written on a parchment scroll had appeared deep within his mind at some point.
Yet, Lynn felt that this parchment had a distinctly sinister vibe to it.
Just glancing at it made an involuntary urge to sign the contract rise within his mind.
“Sign it... I will give you knowledge, power, and everything you desire!”
Countless voices whispered, trying to entice Lynn.
The temptation of the parchment grew stronger and stronger.
In reality, the [Mind Wall Pendant] had already grown burning hot.
Even with Lynn's thirteen points of Charisma, he was unable to resist this temptation.
However, Lynn's mind held more than just his own consciousness.
Without any mental command from Lynn, the monster encyclopedia began to flip its pages on its own.
The parchment scroll, which had been trying to entice Lynn, was instantly sucked into the encyclopedia by an irresistible force, turning into one of its pages.
In the shadows, a powerful gaze descended upon the material plane, instantly locking onto Lynn's location.
Having located him, this entity poured a massive amount of power into the area, attempting to tear the parchment scroll out of the monster encyclopedia.
Yet, the parchment stuck within the encyclopedia did not budge in the slightest.
The two sides reached a stalemate.
Or rather, the entity that had descended upon the material plane was throwing a fit of impotent rage.
A few seconds passed.
Then, two more gazes descended upon this place, one after another.
With the arrival of these two gazes, the entity that had first descended to reclaim the parchment from the monster encyclopedia instantly vanished.
A twelve-foot armored phantom appeared above Lynn.
Meanwhile, the white light gifted to Lynn by Treyer within his body lit up in resonance.
The parchment scroll inside the monster encyclopedia began to burn at the same time.
However, it did not burn to ashes in the end. Instead, its appearance changed, transforming into a letter that seemed to be woven from down feathers.
Lynn's consciousness finally recovered, and he hurriedly returned to reality.
Without his realizing it, he had been drenched in sweat.
What on earth was this “Bloodline Contract”?
Only when a new notification appeared in his mind did Lynn finally understand what had just happened.
To put it simply, this Bloodline Contract was signed between goblins and a certain higher entity.
Goblins had served this entity for generations, and in return, this entity lent power to the spellcasters of the goblin race.
This sort of situation was not uncommon among monsters, or even humans.
On the continent, creatures who signed contracts with higher entities to obtain power were collectively referred to as Warlocks.
Some Warlocks signed contracts with lesser deities, demons, or elemental genies.
The goblins, on the other hand, had clearly signed a contract with an evil god.
This evil god happened to have taken a liking to Lynn, so it wanted to entice him into signing the contract.
However, the monster encyclopedia had clearly marked that the contract was optional.
Therefore, even this evil god could not force Lynn to sign it.
In fact, the monster encyclopedia had even wanted to catalog the evil god's bloodline power—namely, the parchment scroll—into its pages.
Thus, the evil god's will had descended to the material plane to reclaim the parchment.
But it hadn't gone well.
Furthermore, the two righteous gods who had been watching Lynn also cast their gazes down at that moment.
As a result, the evil god immediately fled, retreating beyond the material plane.
Meanwhile, the monster encyclopedia utilized the power previously bestowed by Treyer to modify the parchment scroll.
The result of this modification was that feather-down letter.
Lynn would have to check its specific effects himself.
Having understood the full story, Lynn felt nothing but relief.
Thank goodness for the monster encyclopedia.
When it came to bloodline powers with negative side effects, the monster encyclopedia had always adopted an attitude of letting Lynn choose for himself.
Previously, the “Pain Block” passive from the 【Zombie】 bloodline had also been modified by the monster encyclopedia into an optional passive, allowing Lynn to freely choose whether or not to block pain.
For this, Lynn could only give it a five-star review!
Lynn opened the 《Monster Identification Manual》 once more.
“Information update detected for class 【Celestial Fighter】. Please check immediately.”
Rate on N.U.
