Chapter Eighteen: Professional Trait—Listener of All Things

Ding—

True Name Mage Lv. 3 (725/5400)

A notification sound rang softly in Lin Bo’s ear. The most immediate sign of leveling up was the slight increase in the spell power swirling around the True Name Rune in his mind; its radiant glow grew brighter and more intense.

This meant he could sustain incantations of the True Word Technique for longer durations. Naturally, each training session for the True Word Technique would also take a bit more time.

Reaching Level 3 as a True Name Mage granted Lin Bo a brand-new class trait.

Listener of All Things: By attuning to the voices of all living creatures and things in the world, you can understand the messages they convey. If you master their respective languages, you can communicate with them.

—All things have voices, yet many remain silent.

The mage stood rooted in place, stunned. Never in his past or present life had he experienced such a moment where everything around him felt so vivid and alive.

The lighthouse’s bricks were silent and still, the restless waves murmured softly, the howling wind at the window cheered in constant gusts, and circling seagulls grumbled hungrily.

What had once been mere natural white noise now carried actual meaning in Lin Bo’s ears.

From the low murmurs of the waves, he discerned that hundreds of nautical miles away, a violent storm raged over the ocean. From the whispers of the wind, he learned that a field of flowers several kilometers away was blooming profusely, their pollen making the air heavy and fragrant. As for the seagulls, they remained just as hungry today.

Other silent beings, like the bricks and plants, also had voices; sounds imperceptible to human ears—such as the calls of bats—were equally meaningful.

Limited by the human organ’s capabilities, the frequencies he could capture represented only a small fraction of all sounds.

Hence, all things do have voices, yet many remain silent.

“Phew—” After immersing himself in listening for a moment, Lin Bo regained his senses. This connection with all things was truly profound. The universe laid bare its heart to the True Name Mage; what they expressed were the sincerest thoughts—no lies, no deception, no fabricated facts.

Lin Bo worried that these external sounds might distract him, but he quickly realized that if he didn’t want to listen, he could simply divert his attention.

If the mind became filled with the noise of distracting thoughts, the voices of the world would fade away. To hear the myriad sounds, one must maintain focus.

One essential lesson every True Name Mage must learn is to remain silent. In stillness, many things that were once voiceless begin to speak. This made the practice of meditation all the more crucial on Lin Bo’s path.

Having grasped this new class trait preliminarily, Lin Bo began to rest. He still had challenges left to attempt today.

The four members of the team spent several hours each tidying their weapons and gear, eating, healing, and meditating to restore their physical and mental states. Then, without pause, they resumed navigating the purgatory dungeon.

After acquiring the Listener of All Things trait, Lin Bo finally understood the murmured synthetic sounds of the mechanical sentinels within the dungeon.

Though he did not understand their language, he comprehended their meaning.

The mechanical guards’ utterances were just the programs they were executing: “Detecting,” “Enemy spotted,” “Eliminate,” “Behavior Mode A,” “Behavior Mode B,” and so forth.

Similarly, he could understand the occasional muttering of his teammates.

The speech of sentient beings differed greatly from the natural world’s language, and its truthfulness and usefulness could not be guaranteed. They might lie, or often speak useless nonsense.

Just like his teammates, everything important was said over the chat channel; the self-talk was mostly meaningless rambling.

On the second attempt at the purgatory difficulty, Lin Bo grew more adept.

Donning the exoskeleton that burst forth from his legs, his teammates marveled at his luck for obtaining blue-grade equipment. Among the four, the Wanderer’s envy was the most sincere, as his luck was abysmal.

Lin Bo overheard him muttering nearby, “Sooner or later, I’ll have a massive lucky break. There are so many lucky people in the world, why can’t I be one?”

Hearing this, the mage didn’t mention that he had also obtained a Knowledge Fragment Scroll. He decided to keep this joy to himself.

[Network Notification: You performed a critical strike, judgment successful! Enemy (Bionic Mechanical Guard Type VII - Sword) has fallen.]

The sword sentinel collapsed to the ground, pierced by a spear from behind.

This time, when Lin Bo kicked the iron shell, his legs no longer ached—thanks to the exoskeleton bearing all the force. However, previous injuries flared up; the bruises on his legs began to swell painfully, making walking uncomfortable.

Medical skills truly needed to be honed; otherwise, treating injuries after dungeon runs would be problematic.

Lin Bo was open about his wounds and asked his teammates in the channel if anyone had any medicinal plasters for bruises.

[Starry Eyes]: Mage, you’re hurt? Let me take a look.

The Soul Summoner Witch was the youngest but had the most experience with medical arts among the four.

Lin Bo explained that his injuries were just some bruises.

[Starry Eyes] took from her small satchel a handful of herbal pills and a bottle of ointment, wrapped them carefully in a silk handkerchief, and handed them to Lin Bo, carefully explaining the proper usage.

Lin Bo immediately unwrapped the handkerchief and popped a herbal pill into his mouth, beginning to chew.

[Lighthouse Guest]: Thank you; my teammates are truly well-rounded.

The witch waved her small hands shyly, smiling.

Lin Bo savored the pill carefully, allowing the mixture of medicinal ingredients and saliva to permeate his mouth. The complex flavors surged across his taste buds. He did not rush to swallow but closed his eyes, fully engaging his tongue’s perception to analyze the pill’s medicinal properties.

The Pharmacist Tongue Perception skill was highly inclusive. Its standard for evaluating herbs was that there were no standards—anything ingestible was considered an herb. The bread, beans, and fish he usually ate could all be treated as herbal materials.

Through subtle taste sensations—the sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty; the textures—soft, hard, astringent, slippery, raw—and the bodily reactions triggered once active ingredients entered the bloodstream, the skill assessed the specific efficacy of the medicine.

The Grand Pharmacopoeia recorded different flavors and the corresponding medicinal properties reflected by each bodily reaction, applicable to most mortal biological races.

Once a thorough and detailed evaluation of an herb’s nature was completed, the skill was considered successfully cast.

Lin Bo was a novice; in a brief previous attempt, he had successfully judged the medicinal properties of bread—sweet in taste and neutral in nature, it replenished qi and nourished the body, strengthened the spleen and stomach, and swept away hunger.

However, his analysis of salted fish’s medicinal properties was less accurate; he had to grit his teeth and chew it multiple times.

The witch crushed the herbal pills into a powder and dissolved it into a liquid medicine, the aromas of various plants wafting through his mouth and nose.

Lin Bo concentrated fully on savoring it, his mind sinking into serene silence, hovering between semi-consciousness and meditation.

Suddenly, he heard faint subtle sounds from his tongue tip.

The Listener of All Things trait had manifested unexpectedly at this moment.

The liquid medicine, communicating with his tongue’s perception, revealed its hidden voice to the True Name Mage. It carefully described its nature and explained the general effects it would have on the mage’s body.

Previously, he had thought only hearing could capture the voices of all things. Unexpectedly, even taste could serve as a bridge for communication. The applicability of this class trait far exceeded expectations.

Lin Bo listened intently to the medicine’s words and immediately parsed them fluently, rapidly correlating them with the records in the Grand Pharmacopoeia, completing an efficient and swift medicinal property assessment.

[Skill Judgment Successful, [Pharmacist Tongue Perception] Basic Proficiency +1]

[Health Status Coefficient ×1.4 (Excellent)]

[Final Calculation Result: [Pharmacist Tongue Perception] Proficiency +1.4]

Unlike meditation and the True Word Technique, which required significant time investment each training, Pharmacist Tongue Perception consumed no resources and had no cooldown—it merely demanded patience and experience.

Now, with the ability to listen to all things, the most troublesome process of judging medicinal properties was greatly simplified.

Lin Bo suddenly had a premonition that meditation would not be the first skill he would break through to Level 2; that honor would be snatched by the magnificent “Pharmacist Tongue Perception.”

He swallowed the chewed herbal pill and sighed contentedly.

The witch beside him remained silent, her gaze fixed on the mage.

Lin Bo thought she was awaiting feedback from the patient, so he gave her a thumbs-up and lauded her in the team channel.

[Starry Eyes]: Mage, you’ve dropped your mask.

[Lighthouse Guest]: Oh, you’re right. Thanks for the reminder.

He casually put the mask back on, while a soft sigh of regret came from nearby.

Elsewhere, the Barbarian and Wanderer finally dealt with the shield guard. It was a smooth, uneventful process, and the entire operation grew more skilled.

[Dungeon Completion Criteria Met. Calculating Rewards.]

[You have received: Network Disaster Coins ×36, General Experience ×180, Mechanic’s Work Trousers (Gray), Guard’s Right Arm Armor (White)]

Lin Bo looked at the disaster coins and experience that had plummeted by eighty percent and shook his head helplessly. The level penalty hit fast—those good times were truly over.