"Then, what exactly is inside these mystic realms?"

Compared to how mystic realms formed, this was the most crucial question.

"Everything is possible."

Bern continued recalling the secrets he'd heard in taverns before: "As the bards say, the other side of a mystic realm could be dazzling, brilliant jewels, or it could be eternal damnation. No one can know for sure before actually entering one."

"Many of the kingdom's honored nobles initially rose to power through expensive treasures or powerful scrolls they obtained from mystic realms."

Cody added from the side: "I've heard similar stories. They say even that famous sword genius, Miss Eve, rapidly rose from commoner origins to become the current chief of the Royal Sword Academy because she once accidentally entered a mystic realm and obtained an epic-level swordsmanship scroll!"

"Though that's ultimately just rumor. Some say Eve is simply a very hardworking genius, and that rumor is just malicious slander against her talent and efforts. Both versions have plenty of believers. The actual truth... probably only she herself knows..."

Bern glanced at Evan's tempted expression and promptly slammed the brakes on this topic: "But compared to those widely circulated stories of people reaching heaven in one step after entering mystic realms, those who enter or accidentally stumble into mystic realms then completely vanish are the majority."

Survivorship bias.

Lin Mo nodded understandingly. Compared to those who never emerged from mystic realms, people always preferred focusing on the lucky ones, hoping they too could have such fortune, only to become cold statistics in the denominators.

"Dangers within mystic realms will equally punish everyone who underestimates them. Even someone as powerful as the legendary adventurer Lorenth Valania never reappeared after entering a mystic realm twenty years ago."

Put nicely, it was called disappearance, but after twenty years, even her bones had probably weathered and decayed.

"So, rein in your greed, Evan. We can't gamble our lives on such a slim possibility."

The reason Bern said these later words, mentioning that legendary adventurer's "disappearance," was to warn the restless Evan and make him abandon those unrealistic fantasies.

"I know, Uncle Bern."

Evan nodded somewhat unwillingly. He'd been an adventurer for nearly two years now, growing from a complete rookie to his current bottom-level status.

Without skills, he could never advance further, forever limited to wrestling with goblins, remaining a bottom-tier adventurer.

Youthful arrogance couldn't accept simple mediocrity. He wanted to be like Uncle Bern, even surpass him, become a professional, earn more money, buy a beautiful big house for himself and Miriam...

Young people's excessive self-awareness and shallow experience always gave them unwarranted confidence.

Probably won't be that unlucky, right? Maybe I'm the chosen one? This time will be different...

Yet it was often when holding such thoughts that reality would deliver a blow memorable enough to be engraved in their bones.

Fortunately, he wasn't an unreasonable brat and could listen to Bern's advice, so he put away those fantasies and forced a somewhat strained smile.

Miriam subtly touched the back of his hand with her finger, sending warm comfort through her eyes.

Lin Mo similarly had no intention of entering this mystic realm.

Such unknown areas had too many uncertain factors. Like Bern said, they couldn't gamble on that tiny possibility.

Besides, with his proficiency system, he didn't need to take such risks. Just following procedures, completing tasks, killing monsters—his strength would naturally keep improving.

"Let's go, time to head out and find those cat demons."

As he spoke, Bern took out the map, using memories from their journey to determine their approximate current location.

"Speaking of which, are there monsters inside mystic realms too?"

Lin Mo suddenly remembered something and asked Bern.

"Of course. According to those grand mages, what we call mystic realms are actually parts of other worlds. So in most mystic realms, monsters exist. Some monsters on the continent today originally came from mystic realms."

"So... mystic realms are actually two-way?"

Lin Mo suddenly frowned, having a bad premonition.

"That's correct..."

He looked up, noticing Lin Mo's grave expression, and asked puzzled: "What's wrong?"

Lin Mo glanced at the cursed pattern cat demon corpse on the ground: "When that cat demon tried to escape earlier, it seemed to be heading toward the mystic realm entrance."

Bern immediately understood his meaning.

Which meant those two cursed pattern cat demons might have emerged from the mystic realm.

Originally this seemed unimportant, but...

"Remember? Throughout our chase, we barely encountered any monsters."

"Then whose territory is this place actually?"

As his words fell, everyone felt a chilling sensation.

The sun had risen two hours ago, temperatures gradually rising, yet the forest was completely silent, without even bird songs.

A murderous atmosphere quietly spread.

"Rustle rustle—"

When everything turned quiet, faint rustling sounds finally reached their ears—not from just one direction, but...

From all sides!

Concealed by tall grass, those green creatures almost completely blended with the environment.

Goblins.

As an adventurer team with two experienced adventurers plus Lin Mo, a quite capable newcomer, they shouldn't fear such weak monsters. They should even rejoice at earning several more silver coins from this trip.

Provided the numbers of these waist-high ugly monsters hadn't reached such absurd levels.

At just one glance, they could spot at least over ten goblins approaching from various directions. Seeming to notice their alertness, these goblins stopped concealing themselves, openly emerging—totaling over a hundred.

If that were all, they might still break through or even win.

Goblins were indeed very weak monsters... but mutated goblins were not.

Tall figures appeared within sight, looking particularly conspicuous compared to their shorter kin.

Three entire mutated goblins! Closing in from different directions.

Lin Mo's gaze focused on the mutated goblin currently directly ahead of them.

He clearly remembered the appearance of that mutated goblin he'd killed before—about twice as tall as ordinary goblins, roughly 1.9 to 2 meters.

But this one before him...

Despite the considerable distance, comparing it to its kin nearby, they could clearly see it stood a full two heads taller than the one he'd encountered before!