CHAPTER 170: INSIDE THE SECRET REALM, SPATIAL TELEPORTATION?

The benefits of entering a secret realm were self-evident.

Lin Mo remembered that in the treasure chest he obtained from the last secret realm, besides the most basic money, there were many other rewards.

There was equipment, flame reagents, and magic stones...

But unexpected dangers could also be encountered inside secret realms. No one knew how many magical creatures were inside, how strong they were, and most importantly, there were no fixed exits in secret realms. If one was unlucky and couldn't find the exit, they might be trapped inside.

Lin Mo frowned tightly, finding it difficult to make a decision for a moment.

Actually, most of the time before this, he had followed a relatively safe route and wouldn't actively take risks in most situations.

But the current situation was different...

Silverstream City faced so many problems, and it was already difficult for him to remain uninvolved.

Whether it was Flora or Finnie, including City Lord Bessie, they had all provided him with much help. Finnie was also his current and future teammate. With Silverstream City in trouble, both emotionally and logically, he couldn't just leave.

But to be useful in the current complex situation, his current strength was somewhat awkward.

It wasn't completely useless, but there wasn't much he could actually do to change the overall situation.

Entering the secret realm would most likely allow his strength to advance by leaps and bounds.

Lin Mo looked at the rift before him and finally made a decision.

He had to enter this secret realm - he couldn't miss this opportunity!

But since he came out alone, he couldn't communicate with Silverstream City. If he stayed inside for too long, it would probably make Ellie and Finnie worry.

However, secret realms were unpredictable - they might disappear or change location at any time. If he went back first, he might miss this chance.

...

"Are you going in?"

Just as Lin Mo was extremely conflicted, a voice suddenly sounded behind him, startling him.

Turning his head, he saw it was Sherfilia.

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment and asked, "Why are you following me?"

He really didn't know about this.

Logically, Sherfilia was Finnie's maid, someone arranged by Finnie's mother to protect her. The reason she had been following them on their previous adventures was because Finnie was there.

But now Finnie was clearly in the city focusing on her promotion, and he had come out alone. Why was this maid still following him?

Sherfilia responded indifferently, "You are also a target of the mission."

At this point, there was nothing left to hide.

Mission target... meaning someone to protect?

Lin Mo gradually understood the reasoning. Probably because his displayed talent was too astonishing, Lady Bessie was worried something might happen to him. Ɽ𝓪NỔᛒĚS

That strengthened his determination to enter the Black Iron realm to improve his strength and help Silverstream City overcome its difficulties.

"So, are you planning to enter?"

Sherfilia asked again.

Lin Mo nodded: "Actually, I was once forced to enter a secret realm due to an accident and gained some benefits from it... I haven't encountered one again for a long time since then. Now that the opportunity is right before me, of course I can't miss it."

"Okay."

Sherfilia nodded, walking to a position half a step behind Lin Mo and stopping: "I'll accompany you."

Few words, just three characters, but they made Lin Mo look at her sideways, carefully examining the expressionless beautiful face before him.

"What about Silverstream City..."

"Madam will receive the message and inform everyone."

As Sherfilia spoke, she stretched out her hand, and soon a white pigeon flew over, landing on her arm.

Sherfilia took a slip of paper from the pigeon's leg, wrote a few strokes quickly, then put the paper back.

The white pigeon immediately flew away at an astonishing speed.

With that, there were no more concerns.

Lin Mo took a deep breath, calming his breathing, and slowly stepped into the rift.

Sherfilia followed closely behind, grabbing the corner of his clothes to prevent any accidents.

Similar to the last time he entered a secret realm, Lin Mo felt his vision go black, all his senses instantly sealed off.

Extreme emptiness passed in an instant, followed by a weightless dizziness, feeling the gravity around him disappear and reappear, constantly flipping...

Even with one experience already, it still made Lin Mo quite uncomfortable. He shook his head and took a while to recover.

Looking at Sherfilia beside him, she was clearly affected too, but even before her vision recovered, she immediately pulled out throwing knives from her waist, her body tense, ready for combat preparation at the first moment.

As the saying goes, such rigorous training really didn't seem like that of a maid...

More like a retainer or death soldier specifically trained from childhood.

Lin Mo discovered that the effects he experienced when entering the secret realm seemed smaller than Sherfilia's, and much smaller than during his last entry.

Was it because of experience, or due to the improvement in his mental attributes?

As his senses returned, Sherfilia observed their surroundings and only relaxed slightly after confirming there was no danger.

Lin Mo looked at the surrounding scene - it looked very familiar. Sure enough, it was exactly the maze secret realm he had entered last time!

"Underground dungeon."

Sherfilia's theoretical knowledge was clearly quite extensive, quickly confirming the type of secret realm before them,

and it was most likely a tomb-type underground dungeon.

"If that's the case, the danger coefficient isn't too high."

This kind of artificially created secret realm was always better than those purely composed of countless monsters' sacred grounds.

After speaking, she turned her gaze to Lin Mo, clearly indicating that the next actions would be led by him, following his ideas.

Lin Mo nodded, drew Black Sword, and walked forward along the narrow passageway.

Same as last time, there were many traps set on both sides of the walls, but those traps that couldn't accomplish much back then were naturally even less significant to the current Lin Mo.

He didn't even need Sherfilia's reminders - his keen insight and some knowledge learned from assassins along the way were enough for Lin Mo to discover most of the traps in this secret realm.

The flying arrows, suddenly appearing rolling logs - none posed any threat to him.

So soon, they saw a dark gray door.

Lin Mo clearly remembered various information about this secret realm. The dark gray door should represent the very classic "Black Iron," the lowest-level room in the secret realm.

Of course, even so, necessary caution couldn't be omitted.

He directly used [Rock Shield] to summon a shield, then walked to the door and tentatively knocked.

A crisp sound echoed in the narrow passageway. Lin Mo then forcefully pushed the door open and retreated two steps.

"Swish—!"

With that sound, some projectiles hit the heavy shield in Lin Mo's hands but couldn't leave even the slightest mark.

After all, this was only a Black Iron-level secret room.

Lin Mo snapped his fingers, flames flickering in his hand, then transforming into a huge fireball flying forward.

"Boom—!"

With the sound of [Explosive Fireball] detonating, the scene inside the secret room appeared before them.

About twenty green shorties - the all-too-familiar goblins.

But with this one [Explosive Fireball] launched, only a few guys who could be called lucky or unlucky remained, missing arms and legs, screaming and struggling on the ground.

The goblins' screams were really ear-piercing. Lin Mo quickly stepped forward and sent them off one by one.

He didn't use skills because this was a secret realm after all, and they didn't know how long it would take to leave, so both qi and blood and magic power needed to be used sparingly. Those few proficiency points weren't worth being greedy for.

[Explosive Fireball] proficiency +13

This skill was quite useful in the secret realm. As an excellent-grade skill, its consumption wasn't too high, the damage wasn't low, and it even had some lighting effect.

Taking a torch down from the outer wall, Lin Mo searched in this secret room for a while but didn't find any trace of a treasure chest.

Perhaps someone had already been here, so the treasure chest was taken?

Last time he entered the secret realm, there also seemed to be rooms without treasure chests.

Shaking his head, this secret room filled with the sour rot of garbage and the stench of goblins wasn't suitable for staying long. Since there was no treasure chest, Lin Mo continued forward and pushed open the door on the other side.

Appearing before them was a fork road splitting in two directions.

"Maze?"

Sherfilia thought of this first, "But in a secret realm, whether it's a maze or not doesn't make much difference."

After all, the entrances and exits of secret realms were almost patternless.

The only problem was the direction to proceed.

Lin Mo remembered that last time when he entered with Bern and the others, they used coin tossing to decide. This time...

Forget it, just choose randomly for now.

Although Lin Mo had some other ideas, there was no need to waste them on paths at the very beginning.

Better save some qi and blood for later use.

So he looked at Sherfilia beside him: "Let's play rock-paper-scissors."

Sherfilia tilted her head in confusion, her expression looking a bit dumbfounded.

"Rock-paper-scissors?"

"A small game from my hometown. Simply put, there are three gestures - 'rock', 'scissors', and 'paper' that counter each other. Use this method to determine victory. If you win, we go left;

if I win, we go right."

Since the rules were very simple, Sherfilia quickly understood.

"Using such a method to make decisions is quite childish..."

Although she said this, she still cooperatively extended her hand.

Sherfilia showed "paper," while Lin Mo showed "rock," so she won.

Lin Mo directly walked toward the left passage.

It was still a relatively narrow passageway, but slightly shorter than the initial one. Because their strength was greater now, their traveling speed was fast, and soon they arrived before another dark gray door.

Still using the not-yet-disappeared [Rock Shield] to push open the door. As the door opened, Lin Mo had already heard the sounds inside, so he directly threw an [Explosive Fireball].

The moment the light went out, Lin Mo's face darkened.

The monsters in this secret room turned out to be slimes.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and hurriedly blocked with [Rock Shield] in front of him.

The next moment, the slimes shattered by the exploding fireball splattered everywhere, the entire rock shield becoming sticky and messy.

So disgusting.

If he hadn't reacted quickly, these things would have landed on him.

Fortunately, the slime secret room was much cleaner compared to the goblin one, without that foul stench.

And after searching in the spacious secret room for a while, Lin Mo successfully found a treasure chest.

Not far from the treasure chest, they could see scattered bones, probably adventurers who entered the secret realm due to greed or accidents.

Sherfilia also watched the treasure chest in Lin Mo's hands with interest.

On the dark gray box, a red beast mark slowly faded.

"It's actually a treasure chest with a magical seal?"

Lin Mo tried - even with his current strength, he still couldn't force open the treasure chest.

After the mark completely faded, he tried again and opened it very smoothly.

Inside lay some silver coins and a single-handed sword that didn't look very impressive.

After all, it was only a Black Iron-level secret room, Black Iron-level treasure chest...

Lin Mo picked up the sword and glanced at it. For beginners, it would be a good item, but for him now, it was completely useless, not even worth carrying.

Including those silver coins - not high in value but numerous in quantity, carrying them would be too burdensome, taking up too much space.

If only he had a magic storage bag...

But the cheapest ones cost two to three thousand gold coins, with only 1-2 cubic meters of space - really expensive.

Helplessly, these low-level things weren't valuable enough, so he could only abandon them.

Continuing forward, pushing open the door at the other end of the secret room, what appeared before them was naturally another fork road.

Still two paths - left and right.

This was somewhat different from last time he entered... Lin Mo remembered that after making one choice last time, there were three fork roads during the second choice.

Still using rock-paper-scissors to decide.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Lin Mo looked at the fair, small palm before him and was momentarily speechless.

Alright, he lost again.

Then continue left.

After a stretch of road, what appeared before them was still a dark gray door, meaning this was still a Black Iron-level room.

Lin Mo pushed the door open and entered. This secret room had torchlight, and what appeared before them could be considered old acquaintances.

Cat demons.

About ten in total, with the leading two being rune-marked cat demons.

Seeing intruders, those cat demons immediately bristled, screeching as they charged at Lin Mo.

Lin Mo snorted coldly, kicking one cat demon away.

The next moment, [Wind-Binding Blade] was launched, cutting two cat demons along the way into two segments. Immediately after, the vortex effect of [Wind-Binding Blade] pulled the remaining few cat demons toward the center.

Lin Mo launched an [Explosive Fireball], instantly killing them along with the two rune-marked cat demons.

This could actually be used as a monster-gathering skill.

Actually, the pulling effect of [Wind-Binding Blade] wasn't very strong, but that depended on the opponent. If they were level 3 or 4 magical creatures, it might not pull much, but facing these small fries not even level 1, it was like a strong magnet - once caught, don't think about leaving.

[Wind-Binding Blade] proficiency +2

[Explosive Fireball] proficiency +16

Unfortunately, just a pulling effect didn't seem to allow proficiency to stack and gain.

Easily resolving the magical creatures, Lin Mo searched in the secret room for a while and unexpectedly found no treasure chest, but there was one that had already been opened... which didn't seem to belong to this room.

Meaning, adventurers had already been here before?

But before this, the secret room they came from hadn't been cleared by adventurers.

This indicated that the secret rooms in this underground dungeon secret realm didn't only have one-way passages - taking other routes could also reach this room.

This was quite interesting.

Because judging only from the outside, these secret rooms only had two doors - entrance and exit - without a third passage, which clearly conflicted with the above conclusion.

Lin Mo communicated this information with Sherfilia.

Sherfilia pondered slightly and said, "If that's the case, then there's only one possibility..."

"Spatial teleportation!"

"The builder of this underground dungeon had high achievements in magic and mastered spatial magic to some extent!"

In the magic system, fire, water, wind, ice, and earth were the most common elements, while light, dark, thunder, and natural magic were relatively rare. Above these elements, even more mysterious and difficult to master were space and time.

The most common spatial magic was the magic storage bag.

This magical storage device was created by enchanting spatial folding magic onto bags woven from magic-conductive materials. This process wasn't actually very complicated, but the reason such items were expensive, besides the high value of the materials themselves, was another reason - too few people could master spatial magic.

Unlike common elements like ice and fire, the "space" element was a very vague element, like covered by a thick veil. Even those with outstanding talent could perceive it but found it difficult to resonate with, let alone master.

And now, most mages, to improve their strength faster and make their magic more powerful, often only specialized in one element, making them even more lacking in research and exploration of this rare element.

And the builder of this underground secret realm had actually mastered spatial magic!

Then if they could clear this secret realm, among the rewards they could obtain, might there be spatial magic skill scrolls?

Thinking of this, Lin Mo's eyes immediately lit up.

That was spatial magic!

But he didn't know how deep this secret realm was, or how high the difficulty would be later.

Anyway, try step by step first!

Lin Mo pushed open the door at the end of the secret room. This time, what appeared before them was three fork roads.

"Winning and losing are the same as before. If it's a tie, then take the middle path."

Sherfilia nodded, then directly extended her hand during Lin Mo's countdown.

"..."

Lin Mo's mouth twitched, finally unable to resist complaining: "Not sister... do you only show paper?"

"Don't you only show rock?"

Sherfilia looked up at him, her eyes seeming to conceal some amusement.

"Fine."

Lin Mo had nothing more to say and directly walked toward the left path.

The traps in the passageway still needed no elaboration. Soon they arrived before the secret room door. This time, what appeared before them was a bluish-gray door.

A Bronze secret room?

Black Iron recalled a bit, remembering that when they entered last time, they had also entered two Bronze secret rooms.

The first secret room had two adult cat demons and over ten ordinary cat demons, while the other had two minotaurs... one of them wasn't there at first but later chased after them, almost causing trouble.

But opponents that were extremely dangerous to him back then now seemed no different from the trash in Black Iron-level secret rooms.

If there was any difference, it was that they gave more proficiency.

Still using the rock shield to push open the door, Lin Mo said nothing and directly greeted them with a [Flame Arrow].

Fierce flames burned, transforming into an arrow that shot out, unquestionably piercing through the chest of the unlucky fellow behind the door, leaving a charred hollow.

The massive body fell powerlessly. The other minotaur nearby waved its giant axe toward Lin Mo, but he caught it with two fingers.

The next moment, his figure turned into an afterimage, flashing past at extreme speed.

[Shadow Strike]!

He wasn't using a dagger or short knife, but Black Sword.

With this strike, the minotaur's thick body was directly cut in half.

Indeed, assassin class skills weren't limited to short-handled weapons - they could be used with single-handed swords too, and the effect was pretty good.

Although for most assassins, the flexibility of short-handled weapons suited them better.

Sherfilia following behind was secretly shocked.

She certainly recognized this move - it was the skill she had personally taught Lin Mo.

But...

Previously keeping distance made it unclear, but now observing closely, she realized he had already used it so well.

Back then, it took her a full half year to reach Lin Mo's current level with this move!

Although she had been practicing other skills during that process, Lin Mo was the same.

He was even practicing skills from multiple classes!

Sherfilia now roughly understood why Miss Flora always liked to complain to Madam during that period.

This talent was simply inhuman!

[Flame Arrow] proficiency +8

[Shadow Strike] proficiency +8

Not enough, this little proficiency was even less than the previous rooms.

These two skills were both biased toward single-target, so their progress had been slow due to neglect before.

As for area attacks, with [Blizzard] available, he wasn't really lacking for now.

Oh right, there was also [Lightning Strike], which he hadn't used or improved for a long time.

Skipping past the minotaur corpses, Lin Mo searched in the secret room for a while and finally saw what he wanted.

A bluish-gray treasure chest.

The mark on the treasure chest was gradually fading. Lin Mo quietly waited for the mark to completely disappear before opening the treasure chest.

Inside were forty to fifty gold coins, plus a short knife.

The value of gold coins was much higher than silver coins, worth carrying.

As for that short knife...

Lin Mo looked closely.

[Hound's Tooth]

Weapon Type: Short Blade

Grade: Excellent (Green)

Attributes: Durability +80%, Sturdiness +40%, Sharpness +30%

Hidden Attribute: Hunting II: Damage increased by 10% against beast-type magical creatures

Equipment Bonus: Canine Tooth II: 10% chance to cause additional "bleeding" effect, accelerating wound bleeding

An excellent-grade short knife, with attributes and bonuses that were average, a fairly good short-handled weapon.

Lin Mo happened to be lacking a good short-handled weapon. The dagger he was using now was clearly inferior to this one, so he could just replace it.

Hopefully, there would be better things below.