You are all my wings!

At this moment, Leon casually finished the last cut, took out the medicine and a silk cloth to wipe the blood streaks and foam stuck together on the cowhide.

“Iris, 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 church who possess secret knowledge.”

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

There were confirmations of speculations, a renewed sense of admiration for Lyon, and the feeling that doubts had been confirmed.

Could it be that what seemed off and suspicious about him before was this very thing he was hiding? But wasn't it understandable to hide it? Or was it that 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 are unspeakable. You are not someone those who monopolize knowledge and stand high above cannot insult. Rest assured, 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 in for the three professions was indeed admirable. Moreover, his meticulousness and steadiness in the battle just now proved that he had put in a lot of training to be so reliable.

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

Despite their considerable talent, they 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 repeated a few words to herself to suppress 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 Iris.

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

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

Has this broken the 60% favorability threshold?

Isn't it harder to increase favorability as time goes on?

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 things, 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 task.

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

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

With long-term consumption, physical fitness and the upper limit of magical power 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 drained.

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

Lyon 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 surprise as Leon swiftly sliced ​​through meat like a skilled butcher, and asked:

"Lyon, you can even butcher meat?"

Normally, if you find a decent monster in a dungeon, you would usually bring it back to the Adventurers' Guild and have it handled by 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 dissection goes wrong, puncturing some poison sacs, blood sacs, or damaging too many magical meridians, the entire decent-looking monster meat will be ruined.

Therefore, the dismantling fee usually requires the Adventurers' Guild to pay 5%-20%, 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 only afford to eat meat a few times a year, so they don't have the time or inclination for that.

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 a local dismantling master in order to make full use of the monsters he hunted.

Although I failed to master this 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 possesses physiological knowledge from his previous life, and by combining the two, he can handle 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 determine how to make the cut.

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

Then, using the ribs and tibias of the Minotaur, most of the meat was skewered and arranged in a circle on the ground, forming a spectacular little jungle of meat skewers.

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

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

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

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

Iris nodded, having no doubt about Lyon's background: "I see. Is this common in the countryside? It seems my understanding of the world is still too shallow. I must visit your hometown, Lyon, sometime."

"I'll definitely do it next time."

Leon 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 nothing to start a fire, so let’s keep it simple and just air-dry the meat skewers. That will be perfect for our magic supplies for the next few days. Iris, could you please use the Light of Light spell on these skewers, focusing the area around them? That will improve the drying efficiency.”

"Shrunk and condensed magic range? That seems interesting."

Iris seemed to be deep in thought.

This is just a basic elemental spell. Given Iris's pure-blooded elf status and the unique nature of her elementalist profession, she can easily cast it without chanting.

The key difficulty lies in controlling the magic's range to within just a few meters.

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

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

"Iris, continue compressing. The key is to activate your magical imagery."

"clear."

Iris didn't quite get it at first.

But after a few tries, the light quickly compressed to a range of a few meters, just enough to cover the meat skewers. She successfully completed the compression operation that Leon had been training for a long time to achieve. Her Purification and Focus talent was indeed top-notch. This made Leon envious of Iris's talent. With a favorability rating of over 90%, he also had a chance to obtain this ability!

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

Having accomplished this, Iris's eyes gleamed with obvious excitement. She frequently glanced at Leon, her face practically begging for 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 to him, so she turned her face away so that Leon wouldn't see her.

Leon smiled and didn't mind. He believed she would gradually trust him. 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 Lyon'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 magic beginners or those with insufficient magical power to practice.

The magic consumption is very low; even when all three are combined, it only consumes 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 both of them is less than 2 points, which is very cost-effective.

It's simply impossible to wait several days for the damp underground to dry out.

The meat is much smaller in size and weight after it is air-dried.

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

The rest were eaten on the spot, and then they rested while waiting for their magic and stamina to fully recover.

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

The meat is dry and firm at first bite, but the strong muscle fibers and the rich, slightly fatty meat make for a pretty good overall taste.

It just takes a lot of effort to chew it, especially on the cheekbones.

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 works quite well. Even if it's not as good as a mana recovery potion, it's still a decent replenishment.

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

Because the ground was damp and covered with fluorescent moss, the two sat close together on the Minotaur's massive spine.

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

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

This is likely a unique physical characteristic resulting from the Light Elementalist's and her pure-blooded physique.

"This experience is very fresh and has a genuine sense of adventure. It's 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.

“Iris, 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 you suddenly ask me to talk about something, I don't know what I can talk about."

Iris 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's disappearance? You know that if you know more details, it will be easier to interpret the divination."

"I see!"

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

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

However, the information he had seen in the previous expansion packs was only superficial, so more information would be helpful.

Iris took a deep breath and began to speak.

In her words, Hamra is a strong, beautiful, kind, and righteous heroine who, during her many years of travel across the continent, accomplished countless great deeds, including 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 expansion pack.

Before he fell into depravity, Hamra was undoubtedly an extremely positive person who was also extremely skillful and methodical in his actions.

Iris 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, please rest assured, I do have a lot of prejudice 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 Kingdom. I'm even happier that you treat me like a country bumpkin."

"I will no longer use various 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 remain vigilant!