Chapter 424: Purchasing Super Elemental Reagents

Although a bit surprising, upon closer thought, this actually wasn't strange at all.

Dwarves and Half-Orcs, especially Half-Orcs, were common members of low-to-mid-tier adventurer teams.

Back in Nasadok Town, Lin Mo had seen quite a few of them.

But that was within the Empire's territory, where Half-Orcs were ultimately unwelcome.

Here, however, things were different. As a remote area not belonging to any nation, it was only loosely managed by the Adventurers' Association. Most people living here were adventurers, and while adventurers might not particularly like Half-Orcs, compared to the general populace or nobles, at least they didn't discriminate against them.

So for Half-Orcs, this place was well-suited for living, and naturally there were more of them here.

Here, Ellie's presence wasn't unusual at all. When people saw her, they all had a look of accustomed familiarity.

Aside from some scattered, makeshift stalls, there were also some proper shops. Though their exteriors looked crude, the level and quality of the items sold inside were in no way inferior to those in the cities.

Speaking of which, Lin Mo still had quite a bit of money on hand.

Just from participating in that war earlier, the reward from the Elven race alone amounted to 80,000 Crystal Coins!

What did that mean? 80,000 Crystal Coins was equivalent to a staggering eight million gold.

Having rushed over here in a hurry, he had forgotten to spend that money.

But that wasn't a big problem...

Lin Mo wandered around a few shops, and while the items sold inside were decent enough, given their limited scale, most were low-to-mid-tier goods. There were none of the "high-quality items" he needed.

It was about time to head to the Adventurers' Association.

Lin Mo walked straight toward the Association's direction.

This settlement was built by the Adventurers' Association itself, so naturally, the Association's branch here was the core of the settlement.

Compared to the surrounding buildings, the Association branch before him looked far more sophisticated. Although it certainly couldn't compare to branches in places like the Imperial Capital, it still looked impressive, no worse than branches at the level of a kingdom's capital.

Surely the Adventurers' Association would have what he needed.

Entering the Association hall, it was packed with adventurers. Most were crowded around the quest board and the counter area, a sea of people stretching as far as the eye could see.

The seating area was equally full, though not as congested. Lin Mo swept his gaze across the hall and headed straight for the second floor.

Like the design of most Association branches, the second floor was where items were sold. There were plenty of people here too, many adventurers carefully browsing for what they wanted.

However, there was nothing Lin Mo needed here.

He continued higher up the Association. By the time he reached the sixth floor, it was nearly deserted.

On one hand, entering this floor required at least being a Gold-level adventurer, which filtered out the vast majority. On the other hand, the items here weren't things just anyone could afford.

"Hello, is there anything you need?"

An Association staff member approached warmly and asked.

"Do you have Super Elemental Reagents here?"

Ellie got straight to the point.

"Super Elemental Reagents?"

The staff member was clearly startled. He sized up Lin Mo and the girls behind him before nodding. "Please follow me."

He then led them to the innermost part of the sixth floor, to a particularly exquisite counter.

Lin Mo looked closely. Inside the large counter, there were only two potions placed.

One was a cyan-green, the other an ice-blue.

They likely corresponded to Wind and Ice elements.

Lin Mo glanced at the price of the reagents and couldn't help but suck in a breath.

The price for the Wind-element Super Elemental Reagent was 260 million, while the Ice-element one was a staggering 310 million!

Damn, that's expensive.

But Lin Mo had a rough idea of the price for reagents of this grade, so his surprise was brief; he wasn't shocked.

Reagents at this level weren't just expensive—many times, they were simply unavailable even if you had the money. Even in Association branches on the level of the Imperial Capital, or in massive chain merchant associations, you might not be able to buy the specific Super Elemental Reagent you wanted.

For instance, here there were only two Wind-element and Ice-element Super Elemental Reagents. If you wanted reagents of other elements, they simply weren't in stock.

The reason Wind-element and Ice-element Super Elemental Reagents were available was because this place was near the Endless Snowfield, where magical creatures of these two elemental types were relatively more common.

"I'll take both of these potions."

Lin Mo pointed at the two Super Elemental Reagents before him and said to the staff member.

The man was clearly taken aback again. Then, somewhat hesitantly, he spoke up: "Sir, that will cost quite a lot."

"I know."

Lin Mo nodded, pulling out a card.

This was a savings card from the Continental Merchant Bank, jointly established by the three great empires, the Holy Light Church, and the Adventurers' Association, backed by the combined authority of these five top-tier powers. It could be used anywhere on the continent for spending.

Back when he had been idle for a few days in the Roxez Empire after the war ended, Lin Mo had taken the time to get one of these cards and deposited a considerable portion of his money into it. After all, it was much more convenient than counting piles of coins.

The amount he deposited should have been just enough to buy these two reagents.

After quickly paying, Lin Mo opened the Wind-element Super Elemental Reagent right there and downed it in one gulp.

In theory, elemental reagents of this grade required at least being at the Heroic Realm to consume, otherwise they would place an enormous burden on the body.

But Lin Mo never followed the rules.

Although he hadn't yet reached the Heroic Realm, all of his attributes were already at the top level of the Heroic Realm, so he had nothing to fear.

As he gulped down the reagent, many changes occurred within his body.

An intense surge of wind element filled his entire body, slowly integrating into his limbs and core...

"Whoosh!"

After a long moment, Lin Mo let out a refreshing breath of stale air. He opened his status panel and checked his elemental affinity information.

Fire Element Affinity: 57.82%

Ice Element Affinity: 99.5%

Lightning Element Affinity: 42%

Earth Element Affinity: 42%

Wind Element Affinity: 63%

Water Element Affinity: 42%

Light Element Affinity: 44%

A very noticeable improvement. Setting aside the Fire and Ice elements, which had other bonuses, the affinities of Lin Mo's remaining elements had all been roughly similar before.

Now, after drinking that bottle of Wind-element Super Elemental Reagent, his Wind Element Affinity had jumped to 63%!

That was nearly 20% higher than the other elements!

The actual effect brought by this 20% increase was far greater than the number itself suggested.

Lin Mo could clearly feel that his control over the Wind element had reached a new level.

Unfortunately, as for the other one...

Lin Mo looked at the remaining Ice-element reagent in his hand and shook his head helplessly.

To be honest, he didn't even really want to drink this one. It felt like a bit of a waste.

After all, because of his Ice Dragon King Bloodline, his Ice Element Affinity was already ridiculously high, reaching an astonishing 99.5%!

Drinking another Super Elemental Reagent would probably bring almost no improvement at all.

But there was no helping it—this shop only had reagents of these two elements.

As for saving it for Ellie, she was still far from reaching the Heroic Realm and being able to withstand the effects of this reagent.

Whatever. Just drink it. Even a mosquito leg is still meat.

Lin Mo finally uncorked the bottle and downed the reagent.

Compared to when he drank the Wind-element reagent earlier, the effects of this Ice-element reagent were clearly very limited. Lin Mo barely felt anything.

He opened his panel and checked—the Ice Element Affinity had only increased from 99.5% to 99.7%.

But as for the actual improvement...

Lin Mo felt it for a moment, trying to resonate his mana with the Ice element. To his slight surprise, although the pure numerical increase was only 0.2%, the actual sensation was quite noticeable.

This feeling was subtle, hard to put into words.

It was hard to say exactly how much of an actual boost it provided, but it was certainly much more than the 0.2% on paper.

That being the case, spending that 3.1 million gold wasn't entirely unreasonable.

Lin Mo nodded with satisfaction. He decided not to spend the remaining money for now, saving some to later buy equipment and reagents for Ellie and the others.

During the time he had been browsing and shopping, the senior members of the Adventurers' Association had finished their meeting with the several Heroic-level colleagues stationed at this branch.

More precisely, the branch's higher-ups had been waiting for reinforcements from the headquarters all along.

After all, they were eager to explore that mysterious new Secret Realm too, but lacking sufficient strength, they had kept putting it off.

When they learned that, aside from the personnel sent by the Association, the one joining their expedition was none other than the recently famous Lin Mo, they were all a bit surprised.

But no one doubted Lin Mo's strength anymore.

After all, the recent battlefield involved top-tier powers from across the continent. There was no room for misinformation or exaggeration.

In other words, everything they had heard about Lin Mo lately was completely true.

And based on those reports, this young man's strength had likely approached or even reached the peak of the Heroic Realm!

No one had any objections to the Association's arrangements.

After all, he was simply too authoritative.

All preparations were complete. Now, it was time to set off officially, heading toward the Endless Snowfield.

The terrain of the Endless Snowfield was complex and varied, but fortunately, most of the area was flat plains, so carriages could still be used.

However, the environment inside was exceptionally cold. Whether the horses pulling the carriages could adapt to such a frigid climate was also a challenge.

But these were problems only low-to-mid-tier adventurers needed to worry about. For their team, there was certainly no concern.

To deal with the cold, they only needed to set up an insulating fire-element barrier around the carriage.

As long as it wasn't in an exceptionally frigid place, this barrier could at least ensure the horses pulling the carriages weren't affected by the low temperatures.

Once they officially entered the Endless Snowfield, Lin Mo wasn't in a hurry to go back into the carriage. After all, even if he went back now, there was nothing for him to do, so he decided to stay outside and enjoy the air.

Most areas of this snowfield looked rather monotonous. With few signs of human activity, magical creatures were rarely seen either.

The oncoming wind was blocked by the elemental barrier, leaving ripples across its faint red surface.

This endless expanse of white might grow boring after a while, or even feel oppressive. But when first entering the snowfield, it was still quite interesting.

Staff members from the Adventurers' Association were leading the way; they just needed to follow the carriage ahead.

Lin Mo had no intention of casually killing the magical creatures they passed along the way. When he was at a lower level, these low-grade creatures were somewhat appealing, at least providing some improvement.

But now that he was at the verge of advancing to the Heroic Realm, and they had just entered the snowfield, the occasional creatures they encountered offered negligible improvement.

At the very least, they would need to reach the inner region of the Endless Snowfield, where magical creatures were level 10 or above, for them to be worth his time.

The density of magical creatures in the Endless Snowfield was indeed much lower than in the adventure areas Lin Mo had visited before.

At the speed their two carriages were moving, they often went several minutes without seeing a single creature.

The snowfield was also vast. In theory, tens of thousands of adventurers were active year-round in the outer perimeter, but after driving for over an hour, they had only encountered two or three groups of adventurers.

Having had enough of the wind and grown tired of the endless white scenery, Lin Mo returned to the carriage. He drank the hot tea Sherfilia had prepared and chatted with the girls as time passed.

Time flew by, and soon they entered the inner region of the Endless Snowfield, also known as the Deep Snow Zone.

This area covered more than half of the Endless Snowfield's total area.

Of course, the ultimate destination of their journey—the newly discovered SS-rank Secret Realm—wasn't located within the Deep Snow Zone.

But the magical creatures in the Deep Snow Zone were already worth Lin Mo's time.

Besides, he wasn't worried about lacking skills to practice. Not long ago, he had heavily expanded his skill pool, so whenever he encountered a creature, he would casually toss a skill at it. The proficiency gained from killing these creatures was modest, but for the low-grade skills he had just learned, it was still quite decent.

Just as Lin Mo thought this journey would continue peacefully until they reached the Secret Realm's location...

The carriage ahead of them suddenly slowed down.

Because not far ahead, they had suddenly spotted a group of adventurers under attack.

These adventurers weren't weak, but they weren't particularly strong either, mostly around level 10. Among them, the majority were Veteran-level professionals, with three or four having reached the Elite level, meaning level 11 or above.

In theory, this level of strength was just right for operating in the nearby area.

Moreover, the group of adventurers before them was quite large, looking less like a simple adventurer team and more like an adventurer group.

Normally, a dozen or so adventurers moving together should have been relatively safe.

But now, they were caught in a tough battle, looking precarious.

Because the magical creatures attacking them had all reached Mid-Level Lord-Level, equivalent to the Elite level.