CHAPTER 175: SPACE MAGIC - FLASH!

"Gale Wolf..."

This was another type of intermediate magical creature. In terms of bloodline strength, it was roughly equivalent to the Crimson Flame Tiger. This type of magical creature would reach at least level 5 or higher once it reached adulthood. The one before them was clearly not an ordinary adult, but rather even stronger.

Just as Lin Mo had guessed, it started at level 6.

Before he could make a move, Sherfilia, who had been following behind him, suddenly sprang into action. Her figure shot out like a sharp arrow, reaching the Gale Wolf in the blink of an eye. Then she shifted her position, as if predicting its movements, easily dodging just as the Gale Wolf launched its attack.

The next moment, a throwing knife embedded itself in the side of the Gale Wolf's neck. The previously arrogant and domineering wolf immediately let out a mournful cry and collapsed straight to the ground.

So fast, so simple?

Although Lin Mo had indeed asked Sherfilia for help earlier, he never expected the battle to end so easily.

Even if she was a level 7 assassin, one level above this Gale Wolf, it shouldn't be that easy, right?

Could Sherfilia's strength have truly reached level 8?

Lin Mo snapped out of his thoughts and quickly cast [Lightning Strike] on the dying Gale Wolf. This was a level 6 magical creature - he couldn't afford to miss out on the proficiency points.

[Lightning Strike] proficiency +40 (+20)

Impressive!

A level 6 magical creature provided 40 base proficiency points. Combined with Lin Mo's current level being only 4, fighting an enemy 2 levels higher gave an additional 50% proficiency bonus. This single monster directly increased Lin Mo's [Lightning Strike] by a full 60 proficiency points.

Sherfilia retrieved her throwing knife, her breathing still even, but Lin Mo could sense the surge of Qi and Blood around her.

Although the battle ended quickly, being a one-sided instant kill by Sherfilia, it didn't mean her strength had reached the point where she could casually kill level 6 magical creatures with a single strike.

That seemingly simple knife wasn't just a basic attack - it was a skill, and most likely a Superior-grade skill at that.

When prepared and using high-burst skills, it was similar to Lin Mo's previously favored combination of Vanish + Accumulated Sword Combo. When strength levels were similar, this would at least severely injure the opponent.

With Sherfilia's strength being considerably higher than the Gale Wolf's, the result was an instant kill.

High burst damage, short combat time - these were the characteristics of the assassin profession.

If an assassin can't achieve significant results or advantages within a few moves, it's basically difficult for them to win.

Level 6 and above were considered Lord Level magical creatures. Although this was just an entry-level Primary Lord Level, the value of materials from such creatures would be vastly different from non-Lord Level magical creatures.

Sherfilia collected the teeth, fur, and claws from this Gale Wolf - all valuable materials. The most precious were the Gale Wolf's claws, which could be used to craft Superior-grade equipment, while the other materials could also fetch a good price.

Lin Mo placed these materials in his backpack. Next, the main event arrived.

No searching was needed - that golden treasure chest with purple patterns along its edges was simply placed in the center of the room.

Lin Mo walked up to the treasure chest, took a deep breath, focused his gaze, and directly opened it.

Inside the chest was a glowing scroll.

This skill scroll was clearly different from what Lin Mo had seen before - as if highlighter had been applied, sprinkled with glitter.

Lin Mo glanced at Sherfilia beside him. The maid remained silent, clearly also seeing this situation for the first time.

Lin Mo carefully picked up the scroll and slowly opened it.

The scroll was completely blank.

The next moment, a stream of mental information flooded into his mind.

"This is..."

Lin Mo's eyes widened in surprise. The information appearing in his mind was incredibly complex - it was about space magic.

It detailedly explained the principles of space magic to Lin Mo.

So-called space magic actually works through high-frequency fluctuations of mana that resonate with flowing space to obtain some scattered spatial power.

Thus, mana can be imbued with some "spatial" characteristics, allowing mana to merge into space itself. Through subtle "pushing" of mana, it interferes with the flowing space.

This is the essence of "space magic."

It shares some common ground with regular magic but actually has significant differences, essentially belonging to a completely different system.

Regular elemental magic resonates with corresponding elements to utilize and accumulate elements, releasing spells.

Space magic, however, is more like a deeper communication and interference between mana and "matter."

It uses human power as a lever to pry open rules, changing the established laws of this world within an extremely small range!

So although it's called space "magic," this ability to influence and change space is almost completely a new system independent of magic.

Therefore, the composition of space magic isn't traditional mana circuits where mana flows along predetermined paths, but rather more improvisational micro-manipulation of mana. Depending on the scenario, each release of space magic might have significant differences.

Thus, this is also a relatively unstable form of magic.

With conventional elemental magic, as long as you have sufficient mana, adequate understanding and mastery of the spell, and enough proficiency, failure is basically unlikely.

But space magic is different - momentary mistakes or abnormal fluctuations in space flow itself can lead to casting failure.

Of course, this is the theory - actual situations might differ.

If we only followed theory, it would be impossible for someone to simultaneously receive blessings from multiple professions and benefit from multi-profession attribute boosts.

Besides the theory related to space magic, this scroll naturally contained practical "substance" too.

That was a widely known, very useful space magic - Flash!

All information related to this skill had been imprinted into Lin Mo's mind.

However, compared to regular magic, space magic was indeed much more difficult to learn. And because it essentially belonged to a different system from elemental magic, no matter how strong Lin Mo's comprehension was, he would probably need some time to study and slowly attempt according to the information in his mind.

This would take quite some time, so it was better to set it aside for now and wait until after leaving this Secret Realm.

After all the information entered Lin Mo's mind, the scroll before him lost its original brilliance, becoming completely useless paper.

Lin Mo examined the blank scroll, turning it over and over. This was his first time seeing this form of skill scroll. Compared to the ordinary skill scrolls he'd seen before, this one had the advantage of directly inputting information into the mind. However, conversely, this scroll seemed to be single-use, unlike other scrolls that could be reused multiple times.

Each had its advantages. In terms of production difficulty, this direct information transmission scroll was probably harder to make.

Lin Mo temporarily stored the scroll in his chest pocket. Although it was likely useless now, it was better to keep it with him - it might be needed later. At worst, it could serve as a memento, and it didn't take up much space anyway.

He stood up and checked the secret room again. After confirming there were no omissions, Lin Mo walked toward another large door at the end of the secret room.

"Creak—"

The scene that appeared as the door opened made Lin Mo raise his eyebrows.

This time, what appeared before them wasn't multiple branching paths, but a silver "light ring."

The "light ring" was oval-shaped, abruptly appearing in the space before them. The center was blurry, making it impossible to see what was inside.

It looked somewhat similar to a Secret Realm entrance, but clearly different.

"Trial?"

Sherfilia beside him seemed to know something.

"What is this thing?"

Lin Mo turned and inquired.

"Most likely a trial gate..."

Sherfilia explained: "Many artificially created underground Secret Realms like this were specifically built by powerful experts nearing death to leave behind their legacy. But they don't want to easily pass their knowledge to mediocre people, so they often design obstacles or tests to ensure the inheritor's talent and strength."

"Those who pass the trials can obtain the inheritance and receive the gifts those predecessors left for them."

"What about if they fail?"

Sherfilia didn't speak.

This world has always been cruel to failures. No one cares about what happens to those who fail - people's eyes can only ever see the glory of the victors.

There were no other paths to take. There were clearly some spatial restrictions in this Secret Realm - after entering a secret room, you couldn't go back.

Moreover, along their journey, they hadn't seen any Secret Realm exit.

They could only attempt it.

But honestly, Lin Mo didn't dislike this.

After being in the Secret Realm for so long, they were finally seeing something different.

One could say that people's thoughts change according to their circumstances. The reason he could have such an easygoing mindset naturally came from confidence in his strength.

Not just confidence in himself, but more in Sherfilia...

Clearly, at least at this stage, this Secret Realm didn't pose much of a challenge for Sherfilia.

That said, what exactly the trial content was, what they would encounter after entering this portal-like place - these were all unknown. So even if they were going to participate in the trial, they needed to adjust their condition first, at least wait for their mana and Qi and Blood to recover.

Moreover, they had been in the Secret Realm for some time now. The continuous travel and battles had caused some fatigue in both Lin Mo's body and mind - it was time for proper rest.

Taking out a simple tent from his backpack, he set it up right there. Lin Mo then turned back to the previous secret room and cut the best piece of meat from the Gale Wolf's body.

Time for a meal first.

Finding proper firewood in the Secret Realm was difficult. After simply processing the meat, Lin Mo directly sustained fire element output to roast the meat.

Although his remaining mana wasn't much, this simple method that couldn't even be called magic wouldn't consume much mana either.

This was Lin Mo's first time eating Lord Level magical beast meat. As the fire elements roasted it, the meat surface began sizzling, releasing a rich aroma that made Lin Mo's mouth water rapidly.

After quite some time, the meat was finally roasted. Lin Mo used his short knife to cut off a small piece and put it in his mouth.

"Hiss—"

A bit hot.

But immediately, the rich meat flavor blossomed on his tongue. The roasted meat was incredibly tender - with a gentle bite, meat juices burst forth.

One word - delicious!

This meat was more delicious in both flavor and texture than any meat Lin Mo had eaten before. One could only say it lived up to being Lord Level magical creature meat.

Cutting the roasted meat in half, he gave one portion to Sherfilia beside him. The maid didn't refuse, accepting the meat and taking out her personally carried knife and fork to eat small bites.

After finishing half the roasted meat, powerful energy spread through Lin Mo's body as it digested. His previously depleted Qi and Blood gradually filled up.

So this is Lord Level roasted meat? Truly extraordinary.

Lin Mo took out his personally carried water bottle, drank some water, and exhaled comfortably.

Lin Mo took out his sleeping bag and crawled into the tent. Just as he was about to habitually lie down, he suddenly looked at Sherfilia beside him.

"Don't you want to rest for a while?"

Sherfilia shook her head: "This place isn't necessarily safe."

True, although there didn't seem to be anywhere monsters could emerge from currently, in this Secret Realm full of unknowns, one could never let their guard down at any time.

"Then I'll sleep first, and you can take turns later."

Sherfilia wanted to say she didn't need rest, but the words reached her lips and she swallowed them back.

After all, no one knew what they would face in the upcoming trial. She also needed to adjust her condition to its best.

"Okay."

Lin Mo closed his eyes and soon fell deep into sleep.

Inside the Secret Realm, it was impossible to know the current time or how long he had slept exactly. But when he opened his eyes, Lin Mo felt his body had mostly recovered, full of energy.

Meanwhile, due to the effects of the Gale Wolf meat, his Qi and Blood had also recovered about seventy to eighty percent.

Only his mana hadn't fully recovered, only about half restored.

But that wasn't a big problem - he still had several bottles of basic mana potions. After having money, Lin Mo had specifically prepared more mana potions for unexpected needs.

After all, the potency of basic life potions was fixed, and as his level increased, the effect of basic life potions on Lin Mo would correspondingly decrease.

Now when Lin Mo drank basic life potions, it was hard to achieve the fast and powerful effects he had before.

But the effect of Healing Art would improve as the caster's mana increased. Lin Mo's current mana attribute wasn't low, and the Healing Art he released was already beyond what basic life potions could match.

Lin Mo looked at Sherfilia, who had been guarding him all this time. She still appeared expressionless, but clearly, not resting for so long had made her somewhat tired too.

After all, Sherfilia was an assassin profession, and unlike a stats monster like Lin Mo, her Constitution attribute wasn't high, so her stamina naturally wasn't that abundant.

"You should rest properly too."

As Lin Mo spoke, he got up and stretched his body.

Sherfilia nodded, then entered the tent and very naturally crawled into the sleeping bag Lin Mo had just used.

"Uh..."

Lin Mo was momentarily stunned.

"Can't I use it?"

Sherfilia tilted her head.

"Of course not, feel free."

Although one shouldn't be so particular during outdoor adventures, that was the sleeping bag he had just used - it felt somewhat strange.

But Sherfilia herself clearly hadn't given it any other thought.

However, the reality was different...

The sleeping bag still retained Lin Mo's residual body heat. Sherfilia felt the warmth surrounding her, her heartbeat accelerating uncontrollably.

Although she had undergone various rigorous trainings since childhood, although she had always been Finnie's personal maid and bodyguard, following behind the young lady like a shadow...

No matter what, she was still a young woman after all, and a woman in her twenties with vigorous hormones.

Sherfilia closed her eyes, constantly reminding herself in her heart. But for some reason, her heart just couldn't calm down at this moment.

"This feeling is so strange..."

After a long time, Sherfilia finally fell asleep.

Lin Mo checked the surroundings. Nothing had happened during the time he was asleep.

So he sat down beside the tent and looked at his status panel again.

Honestly, there wasn't much to see - it was just ordinary, nothing special.

Since he needed to stay alert to the surroundings, he couldn't meditate either, which was rather boring.

And the surrounding environment was very monotonous, even more dull than keeping watch during adventures.

Might as well study that Flash skill from earlier.

Lin Mo mobilized the mana within his body. According to the information in his mind, he released this mana in the form of high-frequency fluctuations, attempting to use this mana to sense and find the so-called flowing space.

This was clearly not easy. Ninety-nine percent of mages in this world couldn't do it, which was why space magic was so difficult to learn and master.

Lin Mo couldn't find any tricks for the moment, completely lacking the feeling, somewhat at a loss where to start.

Lin Mo cleared his mind, adopting a go-with-the-flow mindset, and tried little by little...

Achieving this stable special mana fluctuation was already an insurmountable chasm for the vast majority of mages.

Lin Mo didn't do well at first either. Although his control over mana was quite good and he performed well in some micro-manipulation aspects, after all, he had never tried doing this before, so mistakes were inevitable.

After attempting over a hundred times, Lin Mo finally succeeded once.

And after that, everything seemed to fall into place...

Once he grasped that feeling, things immediately seemed to become simpler.

Lin Mo continuously circulated his mana, becoming more and more proficient.

Next was the second difficulty - using this special mana fluctuation to try to find the "flow" of space.

If talent was insufficient, or luck wasn't good, or opportunity wasn't right, then one could never make a breakthrough.

This was somewhat similar to mage initiation - if one couldn't sense mana and elements, then they couldn't learn magic.

After a moment, Lin Mo sighed helplessly - still not working, as expected.

Actually, during the continuous mana fluctuations, he had vaguely gained some faint, elusive feeling.

But it seemed blocked by something - he was still missing that final breakthrough to completely capture that "flash of inspiration."

Space magic was indeed difficult. Better to wait until this Secret Realm journey ended and return to the city to slowly study it.

Time passed bit by bit. Sherfilia didn't sleep for long - after about two or three hours, she opened her eyes.

"Not resting more?"

Lin Mo asked as he saw her get up.

"Already enough..."

Sherfilia shook her head, suddenly seeming to hesitate about something.

"I have something to do. Wait here for a moment."

After saying this, she turned and walked toward the previous secret room, even closing the door behind her.

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment before suddenly realizing - she was probably going to "pick flowers."

Nature calls, after all. They had been in the Secret Realm for quite some time now - it was normal. Lin Mo had also found a corner earlier to relieve himself.

Lin Mo walked up to that "trial gate."

"Then, let's enter it."

Sherfilia nodded, walked behind him, and grabbed the corner of his clothes.

Lin Mo took a deep breath and stepped into the oval "light ring" before him.

The feeling was different from entering the Secret Realm. Before him was a blank space, his consciousness remained clear, and his senses were very sharp.

What's going on?

Lin Mo looked behind him - the entrance they came from had disappeared. The entire world was a vast expanse of white, with nothing at all.

Lin Mo attempted walking in this white space.

It was like being exiled into a void of nothingness, completely isolated from the world.

Lin Mo attempted sitting down, planning to calm down and think seriously for a while, but discovered that what was beneath him wasn't ground. He was clearly standing on it and had walked quite some distance, but when he bent down and reached his hand down, he couldn't touch anything...

Lin Mo frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly checked the items on his person - Black Sword, Mage Robes, leather armor, Flame Ring, and Calming Bracelet, including the personally carried backpack containing the loot.

But—

Lin Mo suddenly thought of something. He reached into his chest pocket, feeling around the inner lining of his Mage Robes for several potions.

Other than that, it was completely empty.

Where was that scroll?

The blank scroll containing the basic information of space magic and additionally including the "Flash" skill.