Chapter 422: Sherfilia's Guidance on Servitude

The Endless Snowfield was an exceptionally vast wasteland located in the northern reaches of the continent.

Its scale was even larger than the Barbarian Forest in the southern part of the continent, but unlike the Barbarian Forest, which teemed with life and was rampant with magical creatures, the Endless Snowfield was relatively empty overall. The number of living beings within it was far fewer, nowhere near the density of a forested region.

The magical creatures capable of surviving in such a place were all either extremely powerful or possessed unique traits.

Compared to the Barbarian Forest, the Endless Snowfield had significantly higher entry requirements.

The vast majority of bottom-tier adventurers could head to the outskirts of the Barbarian Forest to hunt magical creatures and gather materials to make a living, but within the bounds of the Endless Snowfield, you would hardly find any newcomers or low-level adventurers.

Only seasoned adventurers with rich experience and formidable strength dared to set foot in this region.

Of course, correspondingly, the rewards from exploring and taking risks in the Endless Snowfield were higher than those in the Barbarian Forest, and also higher than most areas on the Heavenly Continent.

So even though the environment was harsh, many adventurers were still willing to come to this remote, bitter, cold place to operate. After all, for adventurers, higher rewards meant faster money-making, which in turn meant being able to buy better equipment and even skills to enhance their own strength.

For those ambitious adventurers, the Endless Snowfield was an excellent place.

To facilitate this, the Adventurers' Association had specifically established a temporary large-scale adventurer settlement near the Endless Snowfield.

This settlement was like an exceptionally large village, and the vast majority of people living in it were adventurers who had come here for adventure.

Lin Mo and the others’ first destination was this massive adventurer settlement.

However, since they had just left the Serya Empire and were still a considerable distance from the settlement, Lin Mo chatted for a while with these people from the Adventurers' Association along the way. After all, they would likely be cooperating together for some time.

Given the rank of this secret realm, the people sent by the Adventurers' Association were, of course, no ordinary figures.

All five of them held relatively important positions within the Association and were of quite high status.

In terms of strength, all five had reached the Heroic Realm, naturally making them Epic-level adventurers.

This made it seem like Lin Mo and his group, who were still only Gold-level adventurers, were lagging behind.

Strictly speaking, they could have already been promoted. After all, although Lin Mo was still short on the number of completed tasks, the Adventurers' Association wasn’t so rigid... well, that couldn't be said either. In the vast majority of cases, the Association’s relevant rules were enforced very strictly.

More accurately put, it was that Lin Mo's current strength and influence had reached a level sufficient to make the Adventurers' Association change its rules and grant a special promotion.

Moreover, because of Lin Mo's unique nature, these decisions would not be opposed by anyone.

Ordinary Heroic Realm experts didn't get such treatment.

However, when he had met with the two Vice Chairmen of the Adventurers' Association before, their discussions had focused on the Dark Tide or the secret realm, so they had temporarily forgotten about this matter.

When he had free time later, he could go to the Association's headquarters, or a large-scale branch at the Imperial Capital level. Such branches all had Vice Chairmen stationed there from the Association’s headquarters, and they should be able to handle the procedures. He would just need to go through the motions.

Speaking of which, these few individuals had not only reached the Heroic Realm but were also among the stronger ones within that tier.

The lowest-level member was the Assassin in the team, whose strength had reached level 35.

The strongest was, naturally, the captain of this temporary squad. His level had reached 40, which was the Peak of the Heroic Realm!

Looking across the entire continent, they were truly renowned weaklings.

Yet, even with that level of strength, facing this mysterious SS-rank secret realm, there was no guarantee of safety.

When the Adventurers' Association said they had no available personnel, it was partly an excuse, a favor to Lin Mo, but on the other hand, it was also half true.

Even for an SS-rank secret realm like this, which had existed for less than a decade and was very stable, challenging even the weakest magical creatures on the outer periphery would require at least two Peak Heroic Realm weaklings to lead, plus a team of Heroic Realm companions, just to be safe.

When challenging high-risk secret realms like this, people generally didn’t take reckless approaches. After all, experts who had reached the Heroic Realm were not easily expendable by any faction.

Not to mention that this was a newly discovered secret realm. Although temporarily classified as SS-rank, its specific situation had yet to be fully verified. Normally, if the Association was determined to thoroughly explore this secret realm, it might require the combined efforts of three or four Peak Heroic Realm experts.

The Adventurers' Association certainly had that many experts... but even for a top-tier organization like this, Peak Heroic Realm experts were extremely precious, and their total number was limited.

Gathering enough Peak Heroic Realm experts to explore this secret realm would require pulling personnel from various locations, which was very troublesome.

So cooperating with Lin Mo was not a bad option for them.

After all, this guy's strength was evident to all... fully comparable to a Peak Heroic Realm expert.

With him plus this Heroic Realm team, along with the personnel already stationed near the secret realm, this force should be sufficient.

After chatting for a while with these companions who were traveling the same path, the conversation gradually died down, and Lin Mo returned to the carriage.

During this kind of travel on the road, there were basically only two things he did: one was meditation, and the other was researching and developing the Portable Space.

But this time was a special situation; he could do neither.

After all, the [Spatial Creation] skill was nearing an upgrade. If he continued researching, the skill might evolve.

But Lin Mo's current situation was that his Base Mana Attribute had reached 897 points. This was a very "dangerous" number. With just three more points in Base Mana Attribute, he would undergo a universal promotion to a Heroic Realm Mage.

This was unacceptable to Lin Mo. All of his professions had to advance at the same time, to maximize the chances of unlocking more special professions.

The same logic applied to meditation. The act of meditating itself could increase the Base Mana Attribute. Moreover, as Lin Mo's level and base attribute values grew higher, the level of the meditation skill had also increased. The efficiency of gaining attributes during meditation had become much higher than before, making it easier to obtain attribute increases.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a good thing, but right now... it could only be described as somewhat frustrating.

So, during this leg of the journey, there was only one last thing Lin Mo could do.

That was to study the [Life Contract].

This [Life Contract] really needed studying... After the war earlier, Lin Mo's strength had taken a leap forward. At the same time, this meant that the room for improvement for Ellie and the others had also become enormous.

This room for improvement would eventually be filled. Since there was nothing else to do, this was the perfect opportunity to work hard.

Of course, sometimes this "hard work" didn't necessarily refer to Lin Mo.

To be fair, his body was tough enough already, and his Constitution attribute was quite high. But facing an endless war of attrition was still a bit tough to handle!

Let's just say, it was another period of arduous and bitter days...

It was worth mentioning that during this time, Finnie and Sherfilia—mainly Sherfilia, actually—generously and meticulously tutored the newcomers, the mistress and maid pair, Miss Noren and Shirleyas, as a senior would.

This maid conducted a series of knowledge dumps on them, even adding explanations using magical images of her own personal demonstrations to help them cram a bunch of information.

Throughout the process, Miss Noren's face was bright red, and she would occasionally blurt out words like "pervert" or "degenerate." Shirleyas, on the other hand, learned very seriously... very seriously indeed.

As a maid who had been evaluated by the elders of her family as "clumsy" and "more like a warrior," Shirleyas was practically failing in the daily work of a maid. But she knew very well where her strengths lay.

First and foremost was combat. Unlike her clumsiness in household chores, Shirleyas' talent in combat was exceptionally high.

This didn't just refer to her exceptional natural gifts and rapid leveling up, but also included her talent in combat techniques.

Sherfilia could already be considered a genius in combat. Back when Lin Mo was still a novice, he had frequently sought Sherfilia's advice on combat skills.

But when compared to Shirleyas, Sherfilia fell quite short.

Sherfilia, after all, had left the Oxivis Family's branch. Shirleyas was different. Not only was her talent clearly a cut above Sherfilia's, but she had also received the most comprehensive and professional instruction and training since childhood. Her teachers were all top-tier experts from the family, with strength starting at the Heroic Realm.

Therefore, Shirleyas was practically flawless in combat.

However, as a maid, only being able to fight and protect was far from enough... After all, if all she could do was fight, what was the difference between a maid and a bodyguard?

As a maid, she had to have other things she could do for her master.

Throughout her upbringing, Shirleyas had pondered this question more than once and had finally come to a conclusion.

Besides combat, she had another uniquely advantageous trait.

That was her sultry body.

Unfortunately, because her master and younger sister, Miss Noren, were both female, this advantage had never been able to shine before.

But now, the time to realize her talent had arrived.

Shirleyas had always been a serious and determined person. So after clearly recognizing her own strengths, she naturally spared no effort in this domain.

Furthermore, if it were someone else, Shirleyas might have only been serving out of her identity as a maid.

But as it happened, the other half of her future master, Miss Noren, was Lin Mo.

Someone so powerful, so dazzling.

Especially for someone like her, who had gotten to know Lin Mo very early on, she was even more aware of his astonishing rate of progress and the many miracle-like feats he had accomplished along the way.

For Shirleyas, whose heart was more like a warrior than a maid, she felt genuine admiration and worship for Lin Mo.

Having the opportunity to serve someone like this was, in her eyes, her honor...

Therefore, she had to do well!

Sherfilia's instruction of Noren and her maid was a secret.

Although they all lived together, the fact that they frequently communicated was impossible to hide. However, due to the special relationship between Finnie and Noren, no one found it strange. They just thought they were chatting about everyday life and exchanging feelings, completely unaware that they were actually discussing some very outrageous content.

Lin Mo was busy helping the many girls improve their strength, constantly engaged in a war of attrition, and had temporarily forgotten about Noren and her maid.

Three days passed like this.

On the night of the third day, after several days of traveling, they would finally arrive tomorrow at the adventurer settlement built by the Adventurers' Association outside the Endless Snowfield.

And after three days of busy work, Lin Mo was...

Well, basically not feeling tired at all.

Although it might have looked a bit rough at certain moments, in reality, the situation had always been under Lin Mo's control from start to finish.

He only needed a short rest to be back at full strength immediately.

Sitting on the sofa, Lin Mo idly rubbed Lena's ears as she lay on his lap, waiting for dinner.

"Please have some tea, my esteemed master."

Shirleyas placed a cup of tea on the low table in front of him with extreme seriousness. Her expression looked even more nervous than when she was fighting magical creatures.

After Noren had lost her bet with Lin Mo, she no longer intended to evade her family's and mother's decision.

Therefore, Lin Mo had naturally become her future husband-in-law. Consequently, Shirleyas had officially become his maid, just like Sherfilia.

During these few days, she had also started doing the work of a maid.

But compared to Sherfilia, Shirleyas' talent in this area was still far too poor... or rather, her talent for making a complete mess of household chores was far too strong.

Even something as simple as serving tea was enough to demand her utmost effort.

After successfully completing this task, Shirleyas let out a long breath, revealing a look of immense relief.

Lin Mo found it amusing, but he couldn't bring himself to discourage her. After all, even telling her it was okay if she couldn't do it well would just add pressure and burden for Shirleyas.

After all, her self-identity had always been that of a maid.

So, doing the work expected of a maid was something she could never give up.

So he could only encourage her: "Very good, you're improving quickly. Keep it up like this, and Shirleyas might soon be able to do things as well as Sherfilia."

Upon hearing this, Shirleyas shook her head. "As long as I don't cause trouble for my master, that's enough."

She knew very well that surpassing Sherfilia in household chores was basically impossible. But if it was in other areas... it might just be possible...

She would start working hard from today!

Shirleyas silently encouraged herself in her heart.