Everyone's become an adventurer, so who's going to put in the effort themselves?

"How are you feeling? Is it just a burning sensation?"

"No, I just feel like there are countless red-hot ants crawling on my hands."

Although Lynn was calm at this moment, she was still somewhat annoyed.

This is clearly not right.

If he fails, he'll probably have to waste a few days and take an early weekend off.

Because she knows the cost isn't high, Lynn is in a good mood right now.

“There’s no reason for this.” Lina looked at Lynn with a puzzled expression, her brows furrowed. “Normal skill stone absorption should only cause the stone to get hot.”

"If we fail, it will be a simple failure."

"It feels like countless red-hot ants are crawling on my hands... Could it be that something unexpected happened?"

"Wait, didn't you say nothing would happen?" Lilia suddenly looked over, her face tense. "You didn't make a defective product, did you?"

Lina tapped her palms rapidly with her fan, seemingly agitated.

"The craftsmanship of the skill stone is absolutely flawless. Normally, the red dragon bloodline shouldn't react like this."

“Unless, your bloodline is not that of a red dragon, but that doesn’t make sense. I just checked your bloodline recently.”

Upon hearing this, Lynn couldn't help but glance at Lilia.

Lilia then realized something and turned to look at Lynn.

The two of them immediately thought of the time when they were still enemies, when Lilia acted as a trap to trick Lynn and gave him that dragon bloodline disguised as a skill stone.

Seeing this, Lynn disregarded everything else and calmly explained her situation:

"Due to some unexpected circumstances, I obtained another portion of the dragon blood of the Lumen Dragon."

Could that be the reason?

Lina was startled by his words and turned sharply to look at Lynn:

"You possess two different dragon bloodlines? When did this happen?"

"Has the bloodline backlash occurred? Are there any unusual changes in your body?"

"Around noon," Lynn said calmly, "the bloodline backlash appeared, but then subsided, and a special state appeared on my body that increased my agility attribute."

When you are sick, honestly explain your symptoms to the doctor, don't talk about irrelevant things, and don't worry about privacy.

This was something Lynn knew even before he time-traveled.

Although the current situation is different from being sick, the underlying logic is the same in Lynn's view.

"It contained the bloodlines of two dragon species, and after being attacked, it managed to balance itself and even gained bloodline characteristics?"

Lina's eyes grew brighter as she listened, and her gaze towards Lynn became even more intense.

"I understand. It seems the dosage of the red dragon bloodline isn't keeping up with your bloodline... A Lumen dragon? A rare dragon bloodline with the light and time attributes, it's a bit hard to find, but it's not a big problem, just time-consuming and expensive."

“So, what’s the situation now…” Lilia pointed to Lynn, who was still sitting on the portable bed.

"It's highly likely that it failed. As for the specific backlash, I need to check it out because of the changes in his bloodline."

As Lina spoke, she glanced at Lynn. She could tell that Lynn was hiding something. After all, no matter how crazy the Knightworth family was, they wouldn't give Lynn another set of materials that could obtain dragon blood.

"It's probably something you're keeping from someone close to you..." Lina glanced at Lilia, said nothing, and calmly stated:

"Next time, remember to explain the situation earlier."

"Honestly, what a waste of my precious potion. Luckily, I have two spare ingredients..."

"By the way, if the skill stone takes more than 20 seconds to absorb, stop absorbing it. If it doesn't get imprinted on the Holy Mark system, it means the skill has failed."

"We'll do it next time."

When Lina complained, Lynn chuckled awkwardly.

He really didn't expect to encounter this situation... It seems that he has really messed things up for Lina this time.

After all, the cost of crafting such special attribute skill stones is definitely not low.

Thinking of this, Lynn moved the skill stone away, which was no longer hot.

He also checked the Stigmata system and found that no new skills had been added.

It's a pity, but Lynn has already chosen to give up.

until...

[Ding! Contact canceled. Cancel skill absorption?]

Lynn was stunned when he heard the notification from the skill level system.

"It seems there's still hope?"

Lynn muttered something and then stuck the skill stone on again.

[Contact continues. Please maintain contact. The skill is being absorbed...]

"What hope is there?" Lina looked over in confusion. When she saw Lynn stick the skill stone back on, she frowned and said, "It's useless. The absorption of skill stones is either absorption or it won't work just because you stick it on for a long time."

"Wait a minute, I'll try," Lynn replied, and continued to wait.

A few seconds later, the skill system notification sounded again.

[Ding! This skill attribute is missing and cannot be adapted. Do you want to consume 3 skill points to adapt it?]

Lynn's eyes lit up immediately upon seeing the message.

"It seems like there's hope?"

"What's hopeful?" Lina looked at her in astonishment. "What's the reason? What's the justification? What exactly is the situation? Give me some accurate data!"

However, Lynn ignored Lina's question and decisively began searching through his skill system.

Upon seeing the 0 skill points, his lips twitched slightly, and he then turned his attention to the skills that could be downgraded.

The Dragon of Knowledge Lv10 is the main force that cannot be moved. The same applies to the Dragon of Luminaries, Crimson Body, and Dragon Slayer Magic. Fireball Lv10 is the foundation of Dragon Slayer Magic. The rest are nothing more than Appraisal Lv3 and Food Reserve Lv5. Both skills can be downgraded.

But even combined, those two only amount to 6 points, still 3 points short...

Realizing this, Lynn first reduced both skills to level one, collected two skill points, and then turned to Lina and said:

"Is there anything to eat here? Edible dungeon materials, or regular food, even fire would be fine!"

Because the Appraisal skill level was high enough beforehand, it was difficult to gain experience from ordinary materials just by looking at them. Lynn, who had skill stones attached to his hands, was unable to conduct detailed research by touching them.

So Lynn immediately chose to gain experience for both skills by eating.

"You mean you lack physical energy?"

Lina listened to Lynn's request with some skepticism and went to prepare.

Although she couldn't understand what Lynn was thinking or what the point of all this was, even if she failed, at most she would just be tormented by Lynn; if she succeeded...

"If eating could make the experiment successful, I would eat all the food in the entire research institute."

Lina muttered something to herself and turned to look at Lilia:

"What are you standing there for? Come and help!!"

"Oh!" Lilia exclaimed and immediately chased after him.

Not long after, Lilia returned with a strange expression, carrying a pile of round, cookie-shaped 'iron' objects.

"What about food?" Lynn paused, his expression strange. "I can eat fire, but I can't eat iron!!"

At this moment, Lilia said with a subtle expression:

"This is high-quality human food prepared by Miss Lina."

"Yes, it was made on-site. It seems she specifically practiced a skill for it."

High-quality food? Lynn looked at the iron blocks and remained silent for a moment.

"Feed me."

Lilia hesitated for a moment before feeding the 'iron block' to Lynn.

quack quack!

Lynn chewed on the slightly bitter and terribly dry iron disc, swallowed it with difficulty, and then turned to Lina, who had returned, and said:

"Is this the kind of thing you usually eat?"

“Yes!” Lina nodded matter-of-factly. “One piece can sustain a person’s life for a day, and even meet their developmental needs. The entire eating process takes less than a minute. Isn’t that the perfect food?”

Lynn glanced at the discus that Lilia had handed him, then turned to look at Lina one last time:

Is there any point in living like this?

Lina was stumped by the question that struck her soul.

Just then, Lynn, who had just eaten the sixth piece, chewed expressionlessly and then reduced his reserve food, which had just been upgraded to Lv2, back down.

After repeating this process twice and eating eighteen terribly unpalatable iron discs, Lynn narrowed his eyes and invested the three newly acquired skill points into his skills.

[Skill 'Dragon's Mark' successfully learned, current level Lv1.]

In that instant,

Lina keenly noticed that above Lynn's brow, a three-claw mark resembling the claw mark of a scaly creature was slowly and laboriously forming.

"It actually worked for you?"

Lina was stunned.

"Could it be that eating large amounts of food really helps with the absorption of this sacred mark?"

Without a second thought, Lynn said, "Don't even think about it, it's just my own special method."

"Is your special status...?" Lina lowered her head and glanced at Lynn.

Finally, she said calmly:

"Hey little girl over there, help me hold him down, I need to get a blood sample."

"Huh? Me?" Lilia pointed at herself, stunned. "But..."

"There are no buts, it's just blood collection. If he resists, I'll... wait, dragons with heightened emotions will show signs of their blood boiling... No, we can't use drastic methods."

At this moment, Lina turned her head and glanced at the stunned Lilia:

"Here's what you do, you help him process it and get some usable bloodline samples."

Lilia exclaimed "Huh?" again, then froze, staring blankly at what was behind Lina.

Lynn suddenly fell silent at this moment.

"Why are you still spacing out?"

Lina was getting a little anxious. The real-time data for the Holy Mark inscription had just been completed, so why wasn't this stupid woman moving?

"Forget it, you're useless."

"I'll do it myself! I'll just treat it like eating a cucumber."

As soon as he finished speaking,

"Cough cough!"

Hearing the sound, Lina turned around abruptly and stared wide-eyed at the voluptuous woman with pink hair standing not far behind her.

When did you arrive?

Sia blinked, then said with a mischievous grin:

"Probably... when you said 'I can do it myself,' Lina-senpai?"

Upon hearing this, Lina, who had been very excited, instantly felt as if she had been doused with ice water, and her mind calmed down.

"I....."

Just then, Lina felt a tap on the shoulder.

She turned her head and saw that Lynn had already unbuckled her belt.

At this moment, Lynn said with a serious expression:

"Senior, please don't pity me!"