"By the way..."

While gathering their respective spoils, Bern continued: "To be honest with you, the mission our team received this time is most likely related to our next course of action."

"That emergency search and rescue mission for the merchant caravan?"

From his previous questions, Lin Mo had already roughly guessed.

"Indeed, you saw that mission too."

Bern wasn't surprised: "Earlier I suspected they encountered either a large number of goblins or some powerful magical creature. Now it seems more likely they were robbed by the Bloodsea Gang."

He took out the mission map and pointed at the caravan's originally planned route. "Look, the Yori Merchant Guild's intended route happens to be exactly southeast."

Lin Mo understood his meaning. "If they were really robbed by that group, the guild master's daughter is probably still alive."

In that case, the mission reward wouldn't be just 10 gold coins, but a full 100 gold coins!

"Split fifty-fifty after success?"

"I'll take forty percent. After all, you have more people and will contribute more effort."

The other party offering fifty percent was giving him face, but Lin Mo couldn't actually be thick-skinned enough to accept.

In terms of numbers, they had more people. In terms of strength, this uncle before him was clearly superior. Moreover, they had just lost one member. Honestly speaking, even forty percent would be him taking advantage.

The other party proactively bringing this up was showing sincerity, and Lin Mo naturally needed to respond with courtesy.

Sometimes appropriately taking the initiative to concede isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Good."

Bern nodded with satisfaction, looking at this young man before him with momentary emotion.

If only his nephew could be like this, he wouldn't have to worry so much.

"It's getting late today. Let's find another place to rest and set out tomorrow..."

Bern checked the sky, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately abandoned the idea of a night raid.

A nighttime assault might indeed be unexpected, but it carried too many uncertain risks. Leaving aside that the forest itself was more dangerous at night, they were heading to the enemy's camp after all. If there were traps around, they could avoid them during daytime, but at night when they couldn't see anything, they'd step right into them.

Besides, having just experienced an intense battle, their condition wasn't great. The enemy's numbers and strength were clearly superior to theirs.

Better to play it safe, find a place to rest properly for the night first.

The group quickly left the scene, found a suitable spot nearby to settle down and set up camp.

As dusk fell, Lin Mo took out flint and started a campfire, while Bern set up traps and scattered beast-repelling powder nearby.

Lin Mo watched his every move, committing each step to memory.

With the campfire lit and camp set up, it was time for dinner.

"Brother Lin Mo, that move you pulled today was seriously cool!"

Having chatted about various topics along the way, they had become much more familiar. Evan spoke excitedly while chewing on his bread.

"Whoosh, and you cut that ranger's head right off..."

Can't blame Evan for being so excited. Since he started adventuring with his uncle at sixteen and began his adventurer life, almost two years had passed.

Two full years gone by, and he still hadn't mastered a single skill of his own.

"Uncle Bern is a knight class. His shield bash is powerful, but not suitable for me to learn... I wish I could get a class skill too."

As Evan said this, he didn't actually hold much hope in his heart.

For bottom-tier adventurers like them with average talent and little money, the likelihood of ever learning a class skill was slim.

Even his uncle Bern had gotten incredibly lucky—during an adventure in his youth, he happened upon a knight who died accidentally and found a "Shield Bash" skill scroll on the body.

"Who told you to choose warrior instead of being a knight?"

Miriam, who rarely spoke along the way, suddenly spoke up to tease him.

"Warriors are cooler... Besides, we already have Uncle Bern as a knight in our team."

Evan scratched his head sheepishly.

"Without even a chance to become a proper class holder, where's the coolness in that?"

Miriam rolled her eyes, her face full of disdain.

"Don't say that, Miriam. Maybe I'll have a sudden enlightenment soon and comprehend a skill myself."

"If you want to dream, better wait until you're asleep."

After throwing out this line, Miriam got up and left.

"Where are you going? Wait for me..."

Evan immediately chased after her.

"Toilet."

"Then I'll protect you."

"Get lost!"

Watching this scene unfold before him, a word suddenly flashed through Lin Mo's mind.

Youth.

Being young is really wonderful...

Although his age seemed similar to Evan and the others, whether in his previous life or now, his life never seemed to have this feeling of "youth."

He took a fierce bite of the freshly roasted jerky—a bit tough, but the flavor wasn't bad, especially with the grease soaking into the bread, making the bread delicious too.

Though it was genuinely somewhat hard to swallow.

Taking a drink of water to wash down the food in his mouth, Lin Mo felt some nostalgia for that meal he'd had at the "Flower Cluster" street inn.

"Here, try this."

Uncle Bern walked over and handed him a small square wrapped in paper.

"What's this?"

"Dried cheese."

Lin Mo's eyes immediately lit up. Oh, they have cheese?

So he opened the packaging, sandwiched that piece of cheese between bread, and slowly roasted it until melted, letting it soak into the jerky.

A budget version of bacon cheese sandwich.

"You can eat it like this?"

Bern, who had always eaten cheese plain, gained new knowledge and tried the same method. The melted cheese brought a richer, sweeter aroma, making him unconsciously give a thumbs up: "You really are a genius."

"About tomorrow's operation..."

Lin Mo could tell the uncle had something to say, and coincidentally, so did he.

"Extremely dangerous, much more dangerous than today!"

Bern's expression immediately turned grim: "Today there were only five people, and we barely won, plus their captain wasn't there."

But they had no choice—if they didn't gamble, they could only wait for death.

"Could their captain be a class holder?"

Lin Mo voiced his biggest concern.

Bern paused, then shook his head with a smile: "That shouldn't be the case. Class holders aren't cabbages in a field—even the Bloodsea Gang doesn't have many. I estimate their strength is at most similar to mine."

"Level 0.8?"

Lin Mo had heard this description from Evan's mouth more than once along the way.

Bern looked somewhat embarrassed, since this description was essentially his own bragging.

"Is becoming a class holder difficult?"

Lin Mo asked curiously. So far, he still lacked understanding about so-called class holders—like how to truly become one, why there's said to be an almost insurmountable gap between formal class holders and non-class holders.

Hearing Lin Mo's question, Bern's face filled with emotion: "Extremely difficult! Compared to most people, I consider myself quite lucky. Even so, I struggled for a full twenty years before finally seeing a glimmer of hope for formal class advancement..."

"Could you elaborate? About class holder matters."