You are all my wings...

At this moment, Leon finished the last cut and took out the medicine and silk cloth to wipe away the bloodstains and foam stuck together on the cowhide.

“Elise, I hope you can keep this a secret. I believe you can guess that I used divination to learn many secrets, and used these secrets to acquire knowledge of various extraordinary professions, which enabled me to successfully work in three different professions. But this will undoubtedly offend those in the court and the papacy who possess secret knowledge.”

Leon, busy wiping, didn't see that Iris was wearing an unusually complex expression.

There was the confirmation of the conjecture, the renewed admiration for Leon, and the feeling that doubts had been confirmed.

Could it be that what I found odd and suspicious about him before was this very thing he was hiding? But shouldn't he have been more careful about hiding it? Or perhaps, Leon simply needed a reliable teammate?

“I understand. Even if you have the ability to divine, the hardships you must have endured to obtain these three professions must be unspeakable. You are not someone those who monopolize knowledge and look down on others can insult. Don’t worry, I will keep this secret for you.”

Iris's voice was more solemn than ever before. Regardless of whether she had misunderstood him or not, the hard work he had put into his three professions was indeed admirable. Moreover, his meticulousness and steadiness in battle just now proved that he had put in a lot of training to be so reliable.

In her mind, she unconsciously imagined Leon seizing every moment, gritting his teeth and constantly training with passion and sweat.

Despite his remarkable talent, he worked incredibly hard to overcome the racial disadvantages of humanity.

What a respectable person he is.

Those lines, those muscles...

The more she imagined such a scene, the softer her eyes became without her realizing it... Then she came to her senses and wondered what was wrong with her.

Iris, be careful! We've only known each other for a short time! He's only temporarily proven that he's not a bad person; I still need to continue observing him!

She silently recited a few words to herself, suppressing the strange emotions she had just felt.

Lyon paused for a moment.

He was still working on that piece of paper and didn't look at Elizabeth.

Besides hearing Iris's unusually serious expression, he also noticed other updates on the panel.

[Elise's character affinity +5, current affinity 64%]

Has this broken the 60% favorability threshold?

Isn't it harder to increase favorability as you progress?

What exactly was Elise imagining?

Chapter Nineteen: I must visit your hometown if I have the chance.

Since we don't know how Iris imagines it, there's no need to rack our brains trying to figure it out.

You'll understand once you spend more time together.

Lyon began the second data collection operation.

As a powerful monster recorded in mythology, Minotaur is more than just useful for its fur.

This tender, chewy beef is also a rare and excellent tonic.

With long-term consumption, one's physical attributes and magical potential will definitely see a significant improvement.

Even its blood contains magic and can be used as an alchemical material.

Unfortunately, in order to defeat this guy, a large amount of Minotaur's magic-rich blood was extracted.

The remaining blood has very little magic power and won't fetch a good price. Considering the weight, we can only keep a little.

Leon picked up the butcher's knife and began to cut.

Once the skin is peeled off, the meat is much easier to cut.

Iris watched in astonishment as Leon swiftly sliced ​​meat like a skilled butcher, and asked:

"Leon, you can even butcher meat?"

Normally, if you find a good monster in a dungeon, you would usually bring it back to the Adventurers' Guild and hand it over to a professional monster dismantler.

There are techniques for knowing which ones are useful, which ones are poisonous, and which ones should not be cut.

If the disassembly is done incorrectly, puncturing certain poison sacs, blood sacs, or damaging too many magic meridians, the entire decent-looking monster meat will be ruined.

Therefore, the Adventurers' Guild usually receives 5%-20% of the dismantling fee, depending on the type of monster.

Lyon smiled faintly: "Who told me I'm a country bumpkin?"

The truly poor people in the countryside can't afford to eat meat more than a few times a year, so they don't have the time or inclination for it.

Although he was poor overall, he was still better off than most people, despite his background as a baron.

In the early stages, when Leon was short of money and combat power, he spent money to learn from local dismantling masters in order to make full use of the monsters he hunted.

Although I failed to master it into an extraordinary profession, dismantling first and second-tier monsters is nothing special.

Of course, this is the first time that such a powerful monster as the Minotaur has been dismantled, and it is indeed quite difficult to dismantle it.

Fortunately, Leon possessed physiological knowledge from his previous life, and by combining the two, he could solve most of the disintegration problems.

If you encounter a situation where you don't know how to make a cut, avoid it and then observe and judge how to make the cut.

After completing the initial disassembly, Leon placed the internal organs on a white cloth.

Then, using the ribs and shinbones of the Minotaur, most of the meat is skewered and arranged in a circle on the ground, forming a very spectacular little forest of meat skewers.

The mountain of flesh formed after the four-and-a-half-meter-tall monster is completely disintegrated is very visually striking.

Elizabeth touched her face with both hands, her eyes flashing with the excitement of watching a spectacular performance:

“When I usually explore dungeons with my mother, after killing monsters, I either take the most valuable items or bring them back to the Adventurers’ Guild to dismantle it. Someone as meticulous as you, Leon, is one of a kind among the adventurers I know.”

"There's nothing we can do about it, that's just how people in the countryside are. Besides, if it were just an ordinary monster, we wouldn't need to be so meticulous."

Iris nodded, not doubting that Lyon was from a rural area: "I see. Is this common in the countryside? It seems my understanding of the world is still too limited. I definitely want to visit your hometown, Lyon, to see for myself."

"I'll definitely do it next time."

Lyon gave a perfunctory reply, set aside the few parts that hadn't been dismantled, and walked towards the meat skewers nearby.

“This floor is damp and there’s not much fuel for combustion, so let’s keep it simple and just air-dry the meat skewers. That way we can use the magic to replenish our food supplies for the next few days. Iris, could you please use the Light of Light spell on these meat skewers, focusing the area in the middle of them? That will improve the drying efficiency.”

"To reduce the range of magic? That seems interesting."

Elizabeth seemed to be deep in thought.

This is just a basic elemental spell, which, given Iris's pureblood elf status and the unique nature of her elementalist profession, can be easily activated without chanting.

The key challenge is controlling the magic's range to within just a few meters.

Because Illumination of Light is a large-scale illumination magic, its duration and coverage are much greater than that of Dazzling Light magic. To specifically compress it to a few meters requires extremely high magical control and proficiency.

Soon, as the magic power in Iris's palm gathered, a bright halo covering more than ten meters appeared.

“Elise, continue compressing; the key is to engage your magical imagery.”

"clear."

At first, Elizabeth didn't quite get it.

But after a few tries, the light quickly compressed to a range of several meters, just covering the meat skewers. She successfully completed the compression operation that Leon had been training for a long time to achieve. Her talent for purification and focus was indeed top-notch. This also made Leon envious of Iris's talent, and his favorability towards her was over 90%. He also had a chance to acquire this ability!

At this moment, as the light focused, the temperature quickly rose.

Having accomplished this, Iris's eyes revealed obvious excitement. She frequently glanced at Leon, her face full of praise.

“You learn very quickly, Iris.”

Lyon spared no praise.

Iris immediately raised her neck, looking pleased, but then remembered that she still needed to be wary of this person and couldn't just open up the distance, so she turned her face away so that Leon wouldn't see her.

Leon smiled, unconcerned. He believed she would gradually trust him and he would take his time. He cast a basic water vapor extraction spell to help draw out the moisture from inside the meat skewers.

This water vapor extraction magic is also Leon's own creation. It can be used simply by combining a miniature magical breeze, a small fire, and water in a certain order.

Micro-magic is used by beginners in magic or those with insufficient magical power to practice.

The magic consumption is very low; the three combined only consume about 1 point of Leon's magic.

Although its power is weak, it is very effective in daily life and production.

And so, with Leon's unique magic and Iris's small-scale light-spreading magic, the jerky was made in just 5 minutes.

The total magic consumption for the two of them combined is no more than 2 points, which is very cost-effective.

It's simply impossible to let it dry in this damp underground environment for several days.

The meat shrinks in both volume and weight after being air-dried.

The two of them took out their packages and put most of them inside.

The rest of the food was eaten on the spot, and then they rested and waited for their magic and stamina to fully recover.

Lyon took out a large piece of jerky and started chewing.

It's dry and firm at first bite, but the strong muscle fibers and the rich, slightly fatty meat make for a pretty good texture.

It just takes a lot of effort to chew it.

After eating the three large pieces, Leon felt his magic and stamina quickly recover by 1 point, which took 4 minutes.

Wow, Lyon is awesome.

This is quite effective. Even if it's not as good as a mana recovery potion, it's still a decent supplement.

“This is the first time I’ve ever eaten freshly dried monster meat,” Iris suddenly said.

Because this layer of ground is damp, it is covered with fluorescent moss and has a large, closely spaced vertebrae.

Lyon turned his head and saw Iris's slightly flushed profile.

In the somewhat dim fourteenth underground level, Elizabeth's skin continued to glow faintly.

This is likely a special symptom resulting from the Light Elementalist's pure blood constitution.

"This experience is novel and has a pure sense of adventure, just like the kind of life I longed for when I was a child."

"Iris continued."

Lyon's heart skipped a beat; it seemed they were about to move into a deeper, more intimate conversation.

“Elise, tell me about your story and your mother’s story. From what you’ve said before, it seems that you’ve been exploring various dungeons with your mother since you were very young.”

Chapter Twenty: The Great Discovery

"But if I were suddenly asked to talk about something, I wouldn't know what to say."

Elizabeth brushed a strand of light blue hair from her forehead, her eyes glazed over.

"Then why don't you tell me what happened before and after your mother disappeared? You know that if the divination knows more details, it will be easier to interpret."

"so it is!"

Iris thought to herself that she should be able to trust him a little more now.

Lyon's divination does not actually require knowing the cause and effect of events.

However, the information he had seen in the previous documentaries was only superficial. More information would be helpful.

Elizabeth took a deep breath and began to speak.

In her words, Hamra is a strong, beautiful, kind, and righteous heroine who has traveled the continent for many years and accomplished countless great deeds, such as rescuing suffering slaves, driving away slave traders, punishing evil nobles, and fighting fierce monsters.

Lyon nodded, agreeing that this was largely consistent with Hamra as depicted in the documentary.

Before his fall from grace, Hamra was undoubtedly a very positive person, and he was also a very skillful and methodical person.

Elizabeth added that due to her early experiences, she had little affection for the vast majority of nobles.

In response, she deliberately turned to look at Lyon and emphasized:

"Leon, rest assured, I do have many prejudices against the nobles of the Kingdom of Horsha, but that does not include you."

Lyon laughed and said, "Actually, I'm not exactly a member of the royal family of Horsha. I'd be happier if you treated me like a country bumpkin."

"I will no longer use labels to define you."

Iris looked away, unsure why she had suddenly spoken so frankly. Had she unknowingly begun to believe him? No, she had to stay on guard!