In the end, Lin Mo held back the urge to use Soul Flame to evolve A'Li.
Because—
'Once I use Soul Flame to evolve A'Li, she'll bind to me and won't be usable by Ning Xi anymore.'
'And forcing her evolution might skip the chain hidden quests of the Sky Fox Clan that are unlocked at each tier within her.'
A'Li was different from ordinary pets. She already had the ability to grow.
There was no need to use Soul Flame to evolve her.
Her growth path had to be taken step by step, steadily.
"Let's first bring A'Li up to level 20 and get her a Poison Set to equip."
Lin Mo said, "While the Favor buff is still active, pet experience requirements are reduced by 50%. Later, just taking her through one round of a dungeon should be enough to get her to level 20."
"As long as she reaches level 20 and equips a Poison Set, she'll be able to fight."
Just as he finished speaking.
Ning Xi smiled sweetly, "No need! She can reach level 20 right now."
As she spoke—
Whoosh!
As Ning Xi opened the pet summoning space.
From the summoning array that appeared beside her, a pink Piggy Pig walked out.
Lin Mo was surprised to find: the Piggy Pig Ning Xi summoned was actually the same level as her, level 42.
At this moment, Ning Xi opened the pet panel and clicked "Refine."
The next moment—
Whoosh!
That level 42 Piggy Pig was refined into an experience pill, appearing in Ning Xi's palm.
Only then did Lin Mo realize, "So you've already been raising a pet?"
Ning Xi said happily, "Whether there's a need or not, it's best to casually raise one pet first and let it gain experience alongside you during daily battles."
"When there's a need, refine it into a pill and feed it to the pet you actually want, so it can level up quickly."
Have to say, in this regard, Ning Xi had thought things through more thoroughly than Lin Mo.
And according to Divine Oracle's settings: after a pet is refined into an experience pill, it only retains 50% of its experience.
As Ning Xi fed the experience from the level 42 Piggy Pig into A'Li—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens of beams of golden light poured down over A'Li's head in succession.
A'Li's level instantly shot up from level 0 to level 30.
With the level issue solved.
Lin Mo immediately found Dragon Soul Aoshi and got a level 20 tier-2 Poison Set for the assassin class.
Then he posted a purchase request in Blazing Ember City's chat channel, quickly buying a large batch of strengthening materials such as snake gallbladders, poison gas bottles, and corrosive agents.
The advantage of having money was that he could buy ready-made materials anytime, anywhere, instead of personally grinding dungeons and wasting time and effort.
But these materials weren't cheap.
Lin Mo spent nearly eight million in total to use these purchased materials to fully upgrade the entire level 20 tier-2 purple-quality Poison Set into a level 30 tier-3 gold-quality set.
As for the five first-clear reward packs from the Scorpion Empire dungeon earlier, all of them had been opened with Ning Xi's tenfold reward boost, so there was no shortage of crystal cores, no need to buy any.
Lin Mo then used the extra crystal cores he had to upgrade the Poison Set skill Immunity to All Poisons into Immunity to Myriad Poisons.
As the saying goes, clothes make the man, gold makes the Buddha.
When this Poison Set, built with over ten million RMB, was equipped onto A'Li, her strength instantly underwent a complete transformation.
As for just how much of a transformation, they'd only know after seeing her in action.
"When we go to the Scorpion Empire dungeon later, try her out and see how strong she is in real combat."
Ning Xi was also full of anticipation, "Okay "
At this moment, Lin Mo couldn't help but let out a long breath.
Ever since coming out of the Shadow Holy Hall dungeon and unexpectedly obtaining an A-grade hidden quest through the Shadow Secret Scroll, these past few days, Lin Mo had been racking his brain to ensure he could complete this quest smoothly.
Now, the thorn that was the Dark Ruler in his heart had finally been pulled out.
This A-grade hidden quest with a difficulty index exceeding 2800 points was finally completed.
So, filled with anticipation, Lin Mo said to Ning Xi, "Use your talent to boost the rewards and submit the quest."
But Ning Xi opened her status panel and glanced at it, saying a little awkwardly, "I used 130,000 reputation to boost the boss just now. I only have 170,000 reputation left, not enough to boost the quest…"
"But there are still 13 hours left for the quest. As long as I gather 280,000 reputation before that, it'll be fine to submit it then."
Lin Mo nodded, "That's no problem."
"Let's first carry Dragon Soul through the dungeon, then we'll go farm reputation."
Ning Xi's talent had a hundredfold reputation bonus effect.
The missing 110,000 reputation needed to boost the hidden quest was an astronomical number for Lin Mo, but for Ning Xi, it was nothing.
And conveniently, Lin Mo also needed to keep leveling up.
Because only by reaching level 50 could he leave the level-three main city and head to the next stop: the level-two main city.
And right now, Lin Mo had just reached level 48.
So, Lin Mo and Ning Xi left Shadow City and headed toward the Scorpion Empire dungeon.
On the way, Lin Mo excitedly checked the rewards from the tier-5 boss, the Dark Ruler.
As the first tier-5 boss in Blazing Ember City, or more precisely, the first in the entire Divine Oracle server, and especially since it had triggered a berserk state, the drops from Dark Ruler Riga were simply astonishing.
A-grade Magic Knight skill: Soul Trample (summons a soul storm to continuously trample all enemies within a 50-yard radius, dealing five instances of 50% physical damage, with each instance additionally applying true damage equal to 2% of the caster's maximum HP).
Coincidentally, Ling Xiao's class was Magic Knight, and to match his A-grade talent [Mutual Destruction], his entire build focused on stacking HP.
This skill, which added damage based on maximum HP, was practically tailor-made for Ling Xiao.
So Lin Mo immediately sent a copy of [Soul Trample] to Ling Xiao via mail.
A skill book worth at least seven figures on the market was sent over, instantly leaving Ling Xiao stunned. Thinking it was sent by mistake, he quickly returned it through mail.
Lin Mo sent it again and said, ["It's for you. Don't send it back. Learn it."]
Ling Xiao said in shock, ["Boss… this is too valuable!"]
["You can't rely on your talent every time you fight, right? Your talent trades heavy damage for heavy cost, so only use it when necessary. Besides, it's just an A-grade skill book. I can afford it."]
Hearing Lin Mo say this, Ling Xiao no longer refused.
After all, he truly liked the effect of this skill.
So Ling Xiao accepted the mail, ["Thank you, Boss."]
After giving away one Soul Trample, Lin Mo looked at the remaining nine copies of Soul Trample in his bag and fell into thought.
The key issue was that he only had a few people under him right now, like Qin Feng and Ling Xiao.
Too much meat, too few wolves.
"With so many left, who should I give them to?"
"Forget it, I'll keep them for now. Once the guild is established later, they'll definitely come in handy."
Next, there was the A-grade warrior-type pet skill book: Shadow Assault.
"If I remember correctly, Monkey and Fatty's pets are both warrior-type skeleton soldiers?"
So without hesitation, Lin Mo immediately sent one Shadow Assault each to Skinny Monkey and Fat Dahai.
Meanwhile, Skinny Monkey and Fat Dahai were in a team farming the level 36 dungeon Poison Swamp when they received Lin Mo's mail, and they were instantly startled.
"Holy crap! Senior Lin Mo sent me an A-grade pet skill book!"
"Holy crap! He sent me one too!"
"Two identical A-grade skills?"
"Wait, these are A-grade skill books! They're worth over a million each on the market. Just giving them away like that? Senior Lin Mo is way too rich."
"Why call him senior? Call him Guild Leader!"
"Why call him Guild Leader? Call him Godfather!"
Skinny Monkey (Fat Dahai), ["Thanks, Godfather!"]
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