"Damn it!"

Feeling the increasingly heavy pressure on his hands, Lin Mo couldn't help but curse angrily as he was forced to retreat first.

There was no time to execute a slash attack. Without the Wolf Bone Sword's +1 strength bonus, and with his opponent having the advantage of weapon weight, it was difficult for him to withstand the sustained struggle head-on.

"BOOM—!"

The massive axe slammed into the ground, crushing a large area of blue brick flooring into powder.

Lin Mo felt like his hands no longer belonged to him, almost completely numb.

If not for the warrior class providing two points of constitution enhancement, his hands would have definitely been crushed just now.

"Be careful..."

No reminder was needed. Seeing the shattered bricks on the ground, everyone understood clearly that if they took a solid hit from that thing, even a hundred health potions wouldn't be enough to save them.

The Minotaur swung its giant axe, charging toward Lin Mo once again.

Lin Mo's temper flared up, growing genuinely annoyed.

"Cross Slash!"

Facing the heavy giant axe, two sword lights crisscrossed as they struck out simultaneously. The first sword deflected some of the opponent's force, while the second followed up, actually forcing the Minotaur back several steps.

Seizing the opportunity, Lin Mo stamped his foot forcefully on the ground, his body shooting forward like an arrow as he executed another "Slash" technique.

His speed was extremely fast—the Minotaur had no time to defend itself. Its giant axe had just begun to lift when the blade already penetrated its waist, brutally slicing through the right side of its torso!

Although the monster before him was strong, Lin Mo—now officially promoted to a professional class—was no pushover either, with no reason to fear it.

The Minotaur roared in pain, throwing a punch toward Lin Mo.

Lin Mo remained incredibly calm, using the momentum of his slash to quickly dash into the chamber. The Minotaur's thick arm crashed against the blue-gray door frame, producing a buzzing sound like a struck bronze bell.

The next moment, two daggers flew out simultaneously, aimed directly at its eyes.

Lin Mo, who had thrown the daggers, followed closely behind, gripping his longsword tightly as he launched an aggressive attack.

The Minotaur twisted its head to dodge, trying to raise its giant axe to counter. Bern and Evan seized the opportunity to strike from behind, simultaneously hacking at its axe-wielding arm.

The Minotaur's movement stiffened momentarily, its powerful force immediately flinging both men away to crash heavily against the wall.

But that was enough!

A 0.5-second pause was sufficient to decide the outcome of this battle.

"Cross Slash!"

With two fierce slashes, cross-shaped blood marks appeared on the Minotaur's body, blood instantly gushing forth.

Lin Mo's sword techniques were no small fry like Evan and Bern's attacks. This strike didn't just cut through flesh—it even split the spine, causing the massive body to crash to the ground.

[Cross Slash] Proficiency +8

Compared to immature elite monsters, adult elite monsters provided 3 more proficiency points.

Lin Mo panted heavily, breathing hoarsely. That battle just now was truly not easy.

The main reason was the constrained terrain, making it difficult for him to utilize his speed advantage to kite the opponent.

Without Bern and the others' help, in a pure one-on-one fight, it would have become increasingly difficult as stamina depleted. Although he would have won eventually, he might have gotten injured.

"Are you okay?"

He walked over to Bern who was struggling to get up and offered a helping hand.

As for Evan... that kid had someone else to take care of him.

Bern shook his head. After all, he was a knight class and considered a quasi-professional. Aside from some back pain, he wasn't injured.

Evan was more unfortunate. Unlike the physically robust Bern, he clearly seemed to have suffered some internal injuries, coughing up quite a bit of blood.

Fortunately, they still had about half a health potion left. After drinking a small amount, he felt much better.

Bern walked over to the Minotaur's corpse, looking at the terrifying wound on its chest and repeatedly clicking his tongue in amazement.

Truly worthy of a professional—incredibly fierce!

Even ordinary professionals didn't possess such powerful strength, especially that move he used earlier. It seemed like he had demonstrated it when dealing with the cat demons before, but since the opponents weren't strong then, the impact was far less shocking than now.

Bern could basically confirm that was definitely not an ordinary-level skill.

Using his sword, he cut off the Minotaur's horns—the most valuable part of this monster.

Without any hesitation, Bern directly handed the pair of horns to Lin Mo.

Lin Mo unceremoniously put them in his bag, though the things were so large that forcing them in punctured his bag.

There was also that giant axe. Although crudely made, the material seemed decent. Bringing it back to Edgar, he would probably be very willing to purchase it.

But the thing was too big and heavy to carry conveniently. Lin Mo planned to carry it for now, but if it became too inconvenient later, he would have to abandon it.

After experiencing several battles in succession, especially that incredibly dangerous one just now, they naturally couldn't continue forward and needed proper rest.

Everyone entered the chamber and sat down to rest around the central fire pit.

Cody, who hadn't contributed much earlier, soon proactively stood up to search the room.

Quickly, he found a bronze-colored treasure chest and brought it before everyone.

Just like before, there was a red beast-shaped seal at the chest's opening.

"Hmm?"

Looking at the treasure chest before him, Lin Mo suddenly frowned.

Unlike the treasure chest from the previous chamber, the seal on this chest didn't seem to show any signs of disappearing.

He stood up and looked around—there were no other monsters in the room.

What was going on?

Could his previous guess be inaccurate? Was the condition for opening the treasure chest not killing the chamber's monster, but something else entirely?

Trying to open the chest, it indeed didn't budge at all, completely impossible to force open.

Lin Mo had a rather bad premonition.

Having recovered some stamina, and Evan's condition mostly stabilized, they still planned to rest a while longer until their strength was mostly restored before moving on.

Lin Mo kept staring at the treasure chest before him.

The red seal on it showed no change whatsoever from beginning to end.

However, nothing happened in the following time, as if he had been completely overthinking it. After resting in the chamber for about half an hour, everyone had mostly recovered their strength and stood up, preparing to continue forward.

That treasure chest still couldn't be opened, so Miriam temporarily took responsibility for carrying it.

Lin Mo shouldered that giant axe, thinking that even if he didn't take it out to sell, it might prove useful in future battles.

Bern slowly approached the other end of the chamber and, as before, opened that blue-gray door.

Outside was still the familiar corridor, though it seemed somewhat wider than before. What appeared before them were exactly four branching paths—a full four branching paths.

Without needing discussion, they again used rock-paper-scissors to decide. This time Miriam joined in too, and ultimately she won, choosing the rightmost path.

They thought this would be like before, smoothly reaching the next chamber without incident. But halfway through, they suddenly encountered a group of cat demons head-on...