After putting away the gold coins and "Hound's Tooth," Lin Mo stood up and inspected the secret room once more. After confirming there were no overlooked details, he continued his journey, pushing open the door at the other end of the room.

What appeared before his eyes were still three passages.

Lin Mo looked at Sherfilia behind him, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit.

"Rock, paper... scissors!"

Watching Sherfilia's clenched little fist, Lin Mo chuckled happily: "You lost."

Sherfilia didn't speak, just silently withdrew her hand and directly walked toward the right passage.

The moment she turned around, the corner of her mouth seemed to carry a faint trace of a smile.

It wasn't very obvious, but because they had spent some time together, this subtle change was still quite noticeable and was captured by Lin Mo's eyes.

Happy about losing?

What kind of logic is that...

Since the important matter at hand was conquering the maze, Lin Mo didn't dwell on it and quickly followed toward the right path.

The narrow corridor was extremely quiet, with even the number of traps significantly reduced.

Probably because for those who could reach this stage, traps no longer had much effect on them.

Soon reaching the end of the path, as Lin Mo had expected, what appeared before them was a bluish-gray door.

Some time had passed, and the rock shield in his hand had already disappeared. Lin Mo used [Rock Shield] again, still using the rock shield to push open the door.

The secret room before them was completely empty, with nothing inside.

Strange...

Lin Mo didn't let his guard down, cautiously entering and searching around, but still found nothing after a thorough inspection.

There were some trash and bones on the ground. Lin Mo carefully observed them and noticed one area that resembled the corpse of a magical creature.

It seemed someone had been to this secret room before?

But judging from the state of the magical creature's corpse, it must have been a long time ago, not recently.

With neither magical creatures nor treasure chests, Lin Mo shook his head somewhat disappointedly and helplessly pushed open another door at the end of the secret room.

"Oh?"

He then raised an eyebrow, because this time, what appeared before him were a full four passages.

"What do we do this time?"

Sherfilia behind him asked.

Wins, losses, and ties could only decide three paths, but there was no fourth option.

Lin Mo waved his hand: "This time we won't play rock-paper-scissors..."

As his voice fell, under Sherfilia's interested gaze, his shadow suddenly "stood up," turning into another Lin Mo.

A rare expression appeared on Sherfilia's face as she watched the two Lin Mos before her with curiosity.

After several seconds, she finally asked: "New skill?"

Of course, she had already seen this skill before.

Lin Mo had used it multiple times during the previous return journey. While the other adventurers traveling with him didn't know about it, Sherfilia, who had been following in the shadows, had seen it clearly.

"Mm."

Lin Mo nodded, controlling "Lin Mo" to walk into the leftmost passage.

Sherfilia didn't continue questioning, just returned to her machine-like state, quietly waiting.

But in reality, her thoughts had already drifted far away.

Sherfilia was not someone without experience;

she had even seen more than one "Hero"-level expert and had witnessed many, many skills of different levels.

Based on her past experiences, such a profound skill that could turn shadows into physical entities couldn't possibly be below Epic Level!

But the question arose...

How did he learn this Epic Level skill?

You should know that during this period, except when in the city, she had been following Lin Mo most of the time.

And in the city, it was impossible to buy an Epic Level skill scroll of this grade, and he didn't have that much money either.

Moreover, the appearance of this skill was very abrupt...

Clearly during the previous intense battles in the cavern, he hadn't used it, but shortly after leaving the cavern, he suddenly started using it...

It had been like this before too;

Lin Mo would always suddenly use some moves he hadn't used previously, and most of these moves were of quite high levels.

This left Sherfilia somewhat puzzled.

It can't be that he comprehended them all himself, right?!

It wasn't that Sherfilia needed this long to consider this possibility, but rather this explanation was so outrageous that she subconsciously avoided it.

Comprehending and creating skills was originally the privilege of geniuses.

But even for geniuses, the skills they could comprehend were often related to their own realm and experience.

Normally, they could only comprehend skills one level lower than their own.

For example, that Transcendent-level mage Elvish in the current Doria Kingdom created several Excellent-level spells only after reaching the Transcendent level.

Only a very few geniuses among geniuses could comprehend Outstanding-level skills at the Transcendent realm and create Epic-level skills at the "Hero" realm.

Those who could achieve this often had their names worthy of being recorded in history for future generations to know.

But what realm was Lin Mo at?

Forget about Transcendent or Hero levels... he hadn't even reached Veteran level!

Theoretically speaking, even being able to comprehend an Ordinary-level skill would already be heaven-defying comprehension ability.

Epic level...

No, impossible.

Sherfilia shook her head. No matter what, it was impossible to comprehend an Epic-level skill with a level 4 professional grade;

this completely shattered her worldview.

Probably he had some unknown fortunate encounter instead.

While Sherfilia was having her mental storm, Lin Mo had already controlled his doppelganger through the long passage, reaching the end.

What appeared before him was a shining, bright silver door!

Just as Lin Mo had guessed, the level of the secret rooms at the end of these paths was related to the number of paths that appeared before them.

Two paths meant Black Iron level, three paths meant Bronze level, and four paths meant Silver level.

Speaking of which, was this door also very valuable?

"Lin Mo's" gaze was attracted by the shiny door before him. He tried touching it;

it felt slightly cool to the touch, indeed having the feel of a precious metal. However, when Lin Mo tried attacking it, it seemed just like the surrounding walls, belonging to the indestructible parts.

Well then, it was time to see what kind of magical creature was behind this door.

Lin Mo slowly pushed open the door. Since it was a doppelganger, he didn't need to worry too much and directly stepped inside.

The room was brightly lit, with very sufficient lighting.

What appeared before Lin Mo was a very large... monkey?

To be precise, it was actually an ape, its body covered in hard ice armor. Behind it followed many apes that looked slightly shorter and thinner than it, apparently its underlings.

The magical creatures in the previous Bronze-level secret rooms were mostly level 1, and since the previous door was silver, that meant this was a Silver-level secret room, one level higher than the Bronze-level rooms.

Therefore, the strength of this ice-armored ape before them should also be higher than level 1.

Anyway, let's try it out first. Since it was only Lin Mo's doppelganger here, it didn't matter even if something went wrong.

Lin Mo immediately stepped forward, his target not pointing at the ice-armored spirit monkey, but charging toward an ordinary monkey behind it. He raised his black sword and slashed downward.

With a whoosh, that monkey was instantly sliced in two without any suspense.

[Shadow Split] proficiency +1

Surprisingly, the ordinary monkey actually gave 1 point of proficiency. You should know this was Shadow Split, an Epic-level skill where proficiency growth had significant diminishing returns. Being able to gain one point of proficiency indicated that these ordinary apes' strength had already reached the level of Mutated Goblins, which somewhat surprised Lin Mo. Although even so, they would still be easily one-shot by him.

After all, Lin Mo's warrior and assassin levels had now reached level 4, his knight level was also level 3, and he had numerous attribute bonuses from multiple professions.

Even if the doppelganger only had 60% of his panel stats, it was already exaggerated enough. Not to say reaching level 3, but at least far exceeding the level of ordinary level 2 professionals, and moreover a triangular warrior strong in strength, agility, and constitution. Although lacking some sharp offensive methods due to fewer skills, overall, it was still much stronger than ordinary level 2 warriors or level 2 assassins.

"Roar—"

When the ice-armored ape saw its underling being killed, it immediately roared in anger and charged toward Lin Mo. Lin Mo raised his black sword, blocking its attack, his figure unmoved, clearly having a significant advantage in direct confrontation.

Through this exchange, Lin Mo roughly judged that the ice-armored ape's strength was about level 2, just as he had guessed.

This meant that this dungeon's difficulty coefficient wasn't actually very high. This was already a Silver-level secret room, and the strongest monster inside was only level 2. It seemed the creator of this dungeon didn't want to make things too difficult for those who entered later.

But obviously, because it was located in Roland Forest where newcomers were predominant, there were very few adventurers capable of challenging this dungeon. Plus, capable adventurers wouldn't choose to enter rashly even if they encountered it, while most people who entered due to greed or by mistake had turned into the scattered bones in the secret rooms.

Lin Mo exerted a little more force to push away the ice-armored ape before him, then struck again with his sword, thrusting toward its chest.

The ice-armored ape's reaction speed wasn't slow, raising its arm to block. Its hand had thick ice armor that actually blocked the sharp sword edge, but under Lin Mo's powerful strength, the ice armor still shattered apart.

The ice-armored ape whimpered and retreated repeatedly, clear fear appearing in its eyes.

Lin Mo continued forward, pursuing relentlessly, thrusting toward its chest again.

This time the ice-armored ape had nothing left to block with, and the sharp sword edge pierced through its heart without any suspense.

[Shadow Split] proficiency +12

For level 2 magical creatures, the proficiency growth of Shadow Split didn't have much diminishing returns. Lin Mo didn't stop his movements, quickly finishing off the remaining apes, then while the Shadow Split skill duration hadn't ended yet, hurriedly searched around the secret room.

Many bones could still be seen on the ground, but they didn't seem to be human, rather resembling magical creatures like goblins. It appeared these apes' main food source was other magical creatures also in this dungeon.

But this wasn't the main point;

the main point was still that treasure chest with silver radiance.

Because the walls of the secret room were covered with torches, the lighting was good, and Lin Mo easily found this treasure chest.

He needed to hurry;

the doppelganger's duration was less than 10 seconds left. Lin Mo quickly opened the treasure chest and found a one-handed sword and some gold coins inside.

The quality of this one-handed sword was clearly much better than the short knife obtained earlier, probably similar to the black sword in his hand.

But unfortunately, it seemed Lin Mo couldn't bring these things back, because the doppelganger's duration had already ended. Even if he used the skill again to return to this secret room, this dungeon secret realm had a barrier - once you entered the secret realm, you could only move forward, not backward.

This applied to doppelgangers as well. Lin Mo's doppelganger had already confirmed that after entering this secret room, the area behind was covered by invisible mist.

But Lin Mo's exploration using the doppelganger was still useful. On one hand, it could increase the proficiency of the [Shadow Split] skill, and on the other hand, he could preview what the treasures in these secret rooms specifically were.

Since he could only choose one room, through this cheating-like method, Lin Mo could at least select the most valuable item.

Therefore... continue!

Lin Mo activated the Shadow Split skill again, summoning another doppelganger.

"What's wrong?"

Sherfilia behind him immediately asked.

She thought Lin Mo's doppelganger had encountered some accident.

"Nothing, I plan to test what exactly is in these secret rooms."

Lin Mo said while controlling the doppelganger to walk toward the second path.

Sherfilia watched Lin Mo's doppelganger figure thoughtfully, seemingly understanding his idea.

"Do you need me to do anything?"

"No need."

Lin Mo looked at her somewhat strangely. In the past, Sherfilia wouldn't have asked him like this;

she basically just followed behind him and wouldn't take action unless there was no danger.

Although it was because they had become more familiar after spending time together, Lin Mo always felt that since he moved into Sherfilia's home, this cold-faced maid's attitude toward him had undergone quite a significant change.

The doppelganger created by Shadow Split continued walking deeper along the path. As expected, what appeared before him this time was still a bright silver door.

With previous experience, Lin Mo directly pushed the door open and looked at this time's opponent.

It was actually a very robust Minotaur Chieftain, leading several other minotaurs - old opponents again.

The Minotaur Chieftain had strong power. Although Lin Mo's doppelganger wasn't necessarily weaker than him, there was no need for direct confrontation. After all, leveraging strengths and avoiding weaknesses made battles easier.

Moreover, Lin Mo discovered another thing that he wasn't sure whether to call a bug or not.

That was, although the doppelganger created by Shadow Split couldn't use skills, it could inherit some states from his main body.

For example, Fortitude, and also, for instance, the Ranger profession skill Lightness that he had previously learned.

This was something he thought of on a whim while traveling earlier, and it turned out to be true. He just didn't know if the doppelganger's battles could increase the proficiency of these two skills?

Trying would tell.

The Minotaur Chieftain swung the giant axe in its hand toward Lin Mo. Lin Mo sidestepped to avoid it, not in a hurry to deal with this big monster, but first targeting the ordinary minotaurs nearby.

His movements were extremely swift, completely overwhelming for these minotaurs.

The minotaur he targeted couldn't even see his movements clearly before its head was already chopped off.

[Shadow Split] proficiency +1

Only this prompt was directly reflected on the panel, since Fortitude wasn't triggered at all, and Lightness was a state-type skill that wouldn't gain proficiency from killing magical creatures.

Lin Mo continued his movements without stopping, charging toward the next minotaur. In an instant, he arrived before it and thrust with his sword, easily piercing through its chest.

With two subordinates killed in succession, the Minotaur Chieftain immediately became anxious, roaring angrily and chasing after Lin Mo while swinging its heavy axe.

Lin Mo didn't even look at it, as if he had eyes on his back, very easily dodging its attack, then seamlessly exerting force with his feet.

[Shadow Split] proficiency +1

Such prompts continuously appeared before Lin Mo's eyes, and the minotaurs before him fell one by one. In less than half a minute, only that one Minotaur Chieftain remained on the field.

Only then did Lin Mo turn his head to look at the already furious Minotaur Chieftain, hooking his finger at it.

The Minotaur Chieftain's eyes were already bloodshot, completely losing its rationality as it charged toward Lin Mo.

Lin Mo seized the timing, sidestepping, dodging the opponent's axe slash by a hair's breadth, then counterattacked with a sword, leaving a deep wound on its body.

The Minotaur Chieftain cried out in pain, its heavy axe swinging horizontally toward Lin Mo.

Lin Mo wasn't flustered at all, suddenly jumping up on the spot, his toes stepping on the axe surface, using it as a leverage point to thrust his sword toward the Minotaur Chieftain's face. The Minotaur Chieftain couldn't avoid it in time and was immediately stabbed in the eye.

[Shadow Split] proficiency +13

One point more than the previous ice-armored ape, but overall quite similar.

Done.

With the battle over, Lin Mo quickly searched around the secret room before the doppelganger disappeared. Sure enough, he soon found the silver treasure chest in this secret room. Opening the treasure chest, inside was a very streamlined crossbow with exquisite craftsmanship and texture.

Aside from that, there were some gold coins.

Lin Mo shook his head. Although this crossbow was quite good, unfortunately he couldn't use it.

The Ranger profession was actually very important as a ranged damage dealer and was an indispensable role in adventurer teams. But compared to mages, its positioning was somewhat awkward.

Its attack power wasn't stronger than mages, its range wasn't larger than mages, and even its defensive capabilities weren't stronger than mages with protective magic. Except for being relatively faster, it had almost no advantages whatsoever.

That's why Lin Mo had never developed the Ranger profession - because it really wasn't very useful.

Of course, if he really had to say, there were still some benefits. For example, obtaining the Ranger profession could provide some attribute bonuses. And it was almost there too, because the Lightness skill had already reached level four, with proficiency already past halfway. Most importantly, after the entire previous battle, Lin Mo could finally confirm that for these state-type skills, proficiency could also be gained through the doppelganger's actions and battles.

However, the proficiency gained seemed to be discounted compared to the main body, and the discount rate apparently was related to the attributes inherited by Shadow Split.

This meant that as the Shadow Split skill leveled up, the proficiency gained from the doppelganger using these skills would also increase.

Moreover, if the main body and doppelganger fought together, could they gain double the proficiency?

Lin Mo checked the gains from this battle.

Shadow Split's proficiency was already past halfway, but since the level three Shadow Split had already obtained attribute points and evolution path selection opportunities, Lin Mo estimated there wouldn't be any this time when leveling to 4. At least it would require reaching level 5 or even 6 to get improvements again.

But leaving that aside, the additional attributes inherited with each level up of Shadow Split were already very important.

A level one Shadow Split was considerably worse compared to level three. If Lin Mo's Shadow Split level was only level one now, then the previous battle definitely wouldn't have been so easy, and it might even have been impossible to finish the battle within the duration, which would have been quite awkward.

Anyway, the second Silver-level secret room had also been passed over by Lin Mo, leaving only two more...

Lin Mo used the Shadow Split skill again, summoning a doppelganger to walk toward the third path.

Continue, continue!

To be honest, this feeling of using doppelgangers to explore the map was really good, especially in this kind of map where choices couldn't be reversed, giving a sense of god-like perspective pleasure.

Although this manual way of achieving god-like perspective was somewhat troublesome.

It was still a battle similar to the previous ones. This time the opponent turned out to be old friends - goblins. Lin Mo's doppelganger quickly ended the battle and began searching for the silver treasure chest in this secret room. After searching for quite a while, he actually couldn't find it.

It seemed someone had been to this secret room before.

Fortunately, Lin Mo could use the doppelganger exploration method to conduct preliminary investigations. Otherwise, if he had chosen this secret room and fought hard only to find no treasure chest, that would have been really frustrating.

That left only the last secret room. If this secret room also didn't have anything good...

Lin Mo looked toward the leftmost path from the first attempt. Then he could only choose to take an Excellent-level sword as a consolation prize.

The doppelganger walked into the final path, moving forward all the way. This time, a small accident occurred. Lin Mo discovered several goblins catching mice halfway through. It seemed the food resources in this dungeon weren't very abundant, so he very kindly helped these goblins solve their hunger problem once and for all.

Reaching the end of the path, he pushed the door open and entered.

What appeared before Lin Mo's doppelganger was a strong and robust Crimson Flame Tiger.

"Good heavens..."

Lin Mo had seen Crimson Flame Tigers before. This type of magical creature was extremely powerful;

even at the same level, very few magical creatures could contend with it.

And based on Lin Mo's limited experience fighting Crimson Flame Tigers, the strength of this Crimson Flame Tiger before him was probably not just level 2;

even if it hadn't reached level 3, it was very close. However, correspondingly, there was only this one magical creature in this secret room.

It seemed he had finally hit the jackpot...