Legendary Son-in-Law: The Man with Poison Talismans

Further on, aside from the warrior who tried to take the Woma Guardian from him on the first floor last time, he had never tugged at monsters like this with anyone else. But that time, the monster's aggro had also shifted to the warrior.

Why is this time different?

As he pondered this, Gu An and Cai Ling's attacks never ceased. The red poison damage intensified, the monster relentlessly pursued Lin Mu without resistance, and Gu An's attack speed was incredibly fast; his Judgment Staff whistled through the air, unleashing a barrage of fire spells, assassinations, and attacks. Cai Ling's lightning bolts followed one after another, white light flashing incessantly in the darkness. On average, at least 400 points of damage were dealt per second. The Woma Guardian, with 12000 health points, didn't last long before collapsing to the ground.

Lin Mu stood at a distance, watching the Woma Guardian fall, and sighed. This time, he still couldn't determine how many minutes the poison would last.

He even misses the feeling of fighting the Woma Guardian for the first time. Back then, he had to maneuver, dodge, and find opportunities to replenish his poison. It was tense and exciting, and he would be covered in sweat after the fight.

And now? Just stand there and stare blankly.

Right, Lin Mu suddenly remembered that his luck that time was 1 point, but now it's 2 points.

However, Lin Mu couldn't care less about that at the moment; the monsters were exploding, so he quickly picked up the items.

Strangely, Lin Mu noticed that Cai Ling only bent down to pick up the magic potions, and then stopped moving after picking them up.

Gu An stood still, arms crossed, chin slightly raised, and gestured towards Lin Mu with his lips.

The meaning was clear: I don't like any of these things, you should pick them up.

Lin Mu immediately understood. The prince was indeed arrogant; he didn't even glance at the loot dropped by the Woma Guards. He ran over and squatted down.

A pile of golden coins, pick them up.

20 gold coins.

A long, silver sword, its blade curved like a snake, gleamed coldly in the torchlight. Its forked tip, like a snake's forked tongue, sent chills down one's spine at first glance.

Lin Mu's eyes lit up. Silver Serpent! This is a high-level weapon for Taoists, on par with Purgatory.

He quickly picked it up, his hands trembling with excitement. He weighed it in his hand; the weight was just right, it felt good in his hand, and the curve of the blade was perfect, making it feel almost alive.

Then he slowly started looking at the attributes. Just like a gambler shuffling cards, he looked at them one by one.

[Silver Serpent, Attack 7-14] Normal, no extra points, but it doesn't matter, it's just attack power, not important;

Next item.

[Taoist Arts 1-3] His heart sank halfway, no, it sank ninety-nine percent. What use was it if his Taoist arts were so low, no matter how powerful his other attributes were?

Next item.

[Accuracy +1, requires level 26]

Okay, Lin Mu's hands stopped shaking, but his heart almost stopped beating.

You got all excited for nothing. It's just average. Taoist skills 1-3; aside from looking a bit advanced, they're not even as good as the demon-slaying techniques you got from looting corpses.

He examined the silver snake several times, turning it over and over, as if to confirm that he wasn't mistaken. The sword was still the same sword, the silver light was still the same silver light, but the excitement he had felt earlier had completely dissipated.

He sighed and put the silver snake into his Qiankun bag.

Next item.

It was a necklace, seemingly made from the horn of some animal, curved, grayish-white, with fine lines engraved on its surface, and felt warm and smooth to the touch. Lin Mu held it up to the torchlight; the light shone through, revealing the delicate, intricate patterns within.

[Ghost Necklace, Attack 0-5, Requires Level 24]

Well, it's still just average.

It seems those guys at the dock were right; the top-tier item from last time was guaranteed to drop.

There are also two more "Eternal Snow Frost" roots.

What remained were just some filler medicines, healing potions, and junk equipment; not a single top-tier item. Lin Mu put the items into his storage bag, feeling relatively calm. After all, he couldn't expect to get top-tier items every time; getting something was already good enough.

He stood up and clapped his hands. Looking up, he saw Gu An's face leaning close to his, which startled the unsuspecting Lin Mu.

Chapter 67 Equipment and Bottlenecks

Gu An lowered his voice and said, "You have quite a few secrets."

His tone was amused, but his eyes held a deeper meaning, implying that Lin Mu's poison had rendered the monsters senseless.

Lin Mu calmed himself down and didn't respond at all. He lowered his voice, just like her, and said, "You have quite a few secrets too."

The meaning was quite clear: they wanted to know my secret? Let's make an exchange; you go first.

Gu An pouted and snorted.

Lin Mu didn't care whether she hummed or not. He put his arm around her shoulder and said casually, as if he were saying that the weather was nice today: "After traveling all day and fighting several waves of monsters, you've been accepted by me and are now my teammate. But I'm a little tired and hungry."

Indeed, it's quite a journey from the dock to Woma Temple. After entering the temple, we went down two levels and fought two waves of monsters. We were definitely quite tired.

Actually, Lin Mu hadn't reached his limit yet, but the Woma Guardian hadn't produced any good products, so he was a bit disheartened.

Gu An didn't struggle when being held, as if she had gotten used to it and even felt quite comfortable and warm.

She was actually tired, not physically exhausted.

It's not that fighting these small monsters is interesting at all; the experience is low, and the loot is trash—it's not even as good as the unwanted stuff in the corner of the royal warehouse.

The things in the Prince's warehouse didn't seem as appealing as Lin Mu's poems.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, let's take a rest then, I'm tired too." She even gave a perfectly timed yawn.

"Eat first, then rest."

Cai Ling glanced at Gu An, said nothing, turned around and took out several exquisite oil paper packages from her Qiankun bag, spreading them out on the ground. Lin Mu had never seen several of them before. Lin Mu glanced at them and secretly sighed, "A prince is indeed different; even the provisions he carries when he goes out are like imperial cuisine."

Cai Ling then took out a copper pot of cold water from her Qiankun bag and placed it on the ground.

Unlike Shi Tou and the others, she didn't use the firewood she had prepared in her storage bag to start a fire. Instead, she held her wand, the tip pressed against the bottom of the pot, and a small flame emerged from the tip, steadily licking the bottom of the pot. The flame wasn't big, but the temperature was just right, and soon steam rose from the pot.

Lin Mu stared at the tiny flame for a long while.

Seeing Lin Mu staring blankly at the flames, Gu An explained softly, "This is the mage's precise control over the fireball spell, which requires a long period of practice to achieve. A Taoist's soul fire talisman can also do this. Even warriors with extremely high cultivation can use the power of fire, but the power of fire is too violent, and it is very difficult to control it precisely." She paused, her tone tinged with regret, "I can't do it myself yet."

Lin Mu suddenly understood and nodded. So that's how flames can be used.

Thinking about what Gu An had just said, Lin Mu felt a strong urge to try it himself. He took out a talisman from his storage bag, set up a pot of cold water, and used his spiritual power to test it. The talisman ignited at his fingertips, the flames leaping rapidly and fiercely before burning completely, almost exploding the pot. He tried again, this time reducing the pressure, and the flames became more stable, but they still burned quickly and fiercely, unlike Cai Ling who could steadily lick the bottom of the pot with the flames. Lin Mu tried several times, talismans burning out one after another, but the water in the pot remained cold.

Gu An watched from the side and shook his head: "Although both the Taoist's Soul Fire Talisman and the Mage's Fireball Spell are made of fire, their activation methods are very different. It is much more difficult for the Taoist to control fire than for the Mage."

Cai Ling also shook his head, indicating that he had no personal experience with the Taoist's skills and could not say anything about them.

Lin Mu sighed and put the talisman away. It seems he still needs to practice using the Soul Fire Talisman to boil water.

The water in Cai Ling's copper pot was finally hot, and the three of them sat down together to eat. Lin Mu ate heartily, while Gu An and Cai Ling ate slowly and deliberately.

After eating for a while, Lin Mu started to feel restless. Back when he played games, he would always use "Ctrl + right mouse button" to check the equipment and attributes of every person who passed by. Now, with a level 40 warrior sitting right in front of him, how could he resist?

"Brother Gu, what are the stats of all that equipment you're wearing? Let me see." Lin Mu put down his chopsticks, his eyes sparkling.

Gu An didn't say anything, but obediently took off her clothes and placed them one by one between the two of them, so that Lin Mu could look at them one by one.

[Staff of Judgment, Attack 0-38, Accuracy +2, Strength +2, Attack Speed ​​+2, Luck +7, Requires Level 30]

Upon seeing this, Lin Mu inwardly exclaimed "Holy crap!" several times! What kind of divine judgment is this! It grants 8 more attack, 2 more accuracy, 2 more strength, and 2 more attack speed than the normal one. As for the +7 luck, he was already prepared for that. In fact, it felt the most normal.

Next item.

[Memory Necklace, Attack 2-6, Luck +2, Requires Level 26]

and also,

攻击0-5，准确4的夏普尔手镯。攻击2-7的骑士手镯。

A demon-slaying ring with attack power of 1-9. A power ring with attack power of 0-10.

Black Iron Helmet with Attack 0-5.

Steel belt with 0-5 attack. Soul-avoiding boots with 0-5 attack.

She didn't take off the clothes to show Lin Mu; she said it herself: the Holy War Armor with attack power 1-6.

"As for my level, it's exactly level 40," Gu An said. "There's a bottleneck in leveling from 40 to 41; it requires 3600 million experience points, which isn't easy."

Lin Mu silently calculated in his mind. A level 40 warrior has an attack power of 7-8, and with these equipment, the attack power cap is exactly 104 points, exactly as he had calculated before.

However, he remembered something else and asked in confusion, "I've never seen you wearing the Holy War Armor when you fight monsters."

Gu An smiled and said, "Armor can be modified at great expense. Usually, no one does this because it's expensive and time-consuming, and it doesn't improve the attributes. But I didn't want to look like a lump of iron, so I modified mine this way." She paused, glanced at Cai Ling, and said, "Cai Ling's is just ordinary mortal clothing."

Lin Mu nodded and didn't ask any further questions. No wonder Gu An always wore a flowing, moon-white robe when fighting monsters, yet he was incredibly skilled in combat. It turned out that robe was the Holy War Armor, just in a different form.

"By the way, you just said there's a bottleneck at level 40?" Lin Mu asked. "What's the bottleneck? When I went from level 10 to level 11, I needed 12000 experience points, but when I went from level 11 to level 12, it only took 8000 experience points. Is that the bottleneck?"

Gu An thought for a moment and said, "That's the bottleneck. There's a bottleneck every 10 levels. 10 to 11, 20 to 21, 30 to 31... and so on. In ancient times, bottlenecks didn't exist; it only took 6,000 experience points to go from level 10 to 11. But now..." She paused, "...the required experience increases exponentially depending on your talent level. Those with high talent require less experience to overcome a bottleneck; those with low talent require more. And the higher the level, the higher the multiplier the experience required for a bottleneck."

She glanced at Lin Mu and added, "For example, someone like you needs twice the experience to go from level 10 to level 11, which is 12000. But going from level 20 to level 21 might require three or even four times the experience from the ancient times." She paused and then said, "Although you are a bit worse than me, don't be discouraged. Your talent has already surpassed 90% of people."

Chapter 68 Gu An's Opportunity and the Verification of His Conjecture

Lin Mu suddenly realized, and silently calculated Gu An's talent in his mind. He remembered that in the game, it only took 1200 million experience points to go from level 40 to level 41, while Gu An said that he needed 3600 million experience points, which was exactly the same as in the ancient era, or three times that in the game.

To reach level 41 from level 40 with only a three-fold increase in talent, that's truly exceptional. They are definitely one of the "one in a hundred among the top-tier talents" described in that book, "On Talent," perhaps even one in ten thousand.

He glanced at Gu An, secretly marveling to himself.

Gu An put away his equipment and asked casually, "Why don't you level up with your wife?"

She had been thinking about this question all the way here, wanting to ask it for a long time, but hadn't found the right opportunity. But after asking, she felt her heart skip a beat, her heart pounding, filled with anxiety, afraid that he wouldn't answer, and afraid that he would.

Lin Mu was stunned for a moment, his chopsticks hovering in mid-air. He was silent for a while, then lowered his voice: "She looks down on me. Our marriage was arranged by Old Master Qin to repay my father's kindness. After we got married, she told me to my face that I was of low status and not good enough for her. There is absolutely no possibility between us."

He chuckled, a self-deprecating smile in his eyes. "In the entire Qin family, apart from Old Master Qin and a little maid, nobody takes me seriously. So I've been leveling up all by myself, fighting monsters all by myself, figuring things out all by myself. Nobody taught me, nobody helped me."

Gu An listened without speaking, her fingers unconsciously tightening around her teacup. She felt a pang of sadness in her heart, a sadness for Lin Mu.

A son-in-law living with no relatives or friends in the vast Qin mansion, even his newlywed wife looked down on him. He carried everything alone, venturing into the Woma Forest alone, facing those monsters alone, and groping his way forward alone. She remembered the way he wept on the bow of the boat, and the loneliness in his voice when he recited "I wonder how many people will return by moonlight," and the bitterness in her heart intensified.

But she quickly suppressed the sour feeling. She lowered her eyes, looking at the tea leaves floating in the teacup, her face expressionless, but her heart was beginning to ripple, like a lake ruffled by the wind.

She glanced up at Lin Mu. Lin Mu was engrossed in his meal, head down, and didn't notice her gaze. The corners of her mouth twitched slightly, but she managed to forcefully suppress them.

Don't rush, and don't make it too obvious.

She took a deep breath, picked up her teacup, and took a sip. The bitterness spread from the tip of her tongue to her throat, but she found it somewhat sweet.

Lin Mu felt his eyelids getting heavy right after finishing his meal, so he took out his single tent from his Qiankun bag and set it up.

"I'm going to rest for a bit." He waved to Gu An and Cai Ling, then crawled into the tent. He lay down, closed his eyes, and quickly fell asleep.