Secret Realm

Lin Mo gently parted the grass, and sure enough, he saw the injured Tattooed Cat Demon in the distance, hiding beneath a tree to rest.

It did not look to be in good shape. Its whole body was sprawled on the ground, while beside it, another Tattooed Cat Demon was licking its wounds for it.

If they had looked a little cuter, the scene might even have seemed rather heartwarming.

Unfortunately, although a cat demon only had one extra word compared to a cat, its looks were a hundred and eight thousand miles worse.

Its fur was too short, its skin rough, its gaunt face covered in wrinkles, and with those sharp claws and fangs added on, it was not even as pleasing to the eye as a Goblin.

After only a hurried glance, Lin Mo quickly looked away.

A cat demon's senses were very sharp. If he kept staring at them, they might very well notice.

Their speed could not compare to these two Tattooed Cat Demons. If they startled them in advance, they would never catch up by chasing them head-on.

Everyone exchanged glances. Right now, they were still two to three hundred meters away from the two Tattooed Cat Demons. This was just about the limit; if they got any closer, it would be hard not to be discovered.

And so everyone's eyes, including Cody the assassin's, all focused on Lin Mo.

Although Cody was an assassin, the effect of his skill "Backstab" was to increase his damage. As for concealing himself and approaching enemies, that all relied on his own experience and control.

Against humans, and even against monsters like Goblins, that was already enough, but cat demons' senses were simply too sharp. Forget the Tattooed Cat Demons before them—even when he had ambushed ordinary cat demons earlier, he had failed.

But Lin Mo was different... Although they had never asked about the relevant information, they all knew that Lin Mo had a skill that could lower his presence. Added to his speed, which was almost not much weaker than a Tattooed Cat Demon's, if they wanted to keep these two Tattooed Cat Demons here, they could only rely on him.

Lin Mo immediately understood. He nodded, his figure sinking into the grass as he entered the "Stealth" state, approaching the Tattooed Cat Demons from the side.

One hundred meters, fifty meters...

Lin Mo's Stealth skill had already reached level 3. Its effect was much stronger than when it had first been level 1, and even the Tattooed Cat Demons failed to notice anything wrong.

Twenty meters.

At this distance, it was already enough to launch a surprise attack. But Lin Mo was not in a hurry to make a move. Instead, he carefully made a gesture in the direction they had come from.

The next moment, Cody began to move, approaching from the other side.

Unlike Lin Mo, who possessed the "Stealth" skill, even though Cody's foundations as an assassin were not bad and his sneaking movements were very standard, he would at most get to around a hundred meters from the Tattooed Cat Demons before being discovered.

Lin Mo estimated Cody's position and counted down silently in his heart.

5, 4, 3, 2...

1!

Just as the two Tattooed Cat Demons sensed something unusual and looked toward the direction where Cody was hiding, Lin Mo struck at once. He shot out from the grass at his fastest speed and used "Slash," cutting off the injured Tattooed Cat Demon's head with perfect precision.

"Ha—!"

The other Tattooed Cat Demon reacted quickly, snapping its head around and swiping a claw at Lin Mo.

But Lin Mo had already been prepared. The short blade in his right hand struck almost at the same time, rising from below and steadily catching the counterattack.

At the same time, Cody also rushed over from the other side, unleashing "Backstab" straight at the back of the cat demon's neck.

The Tattooed Cat Demon sensed the danger behind it, gave up on continuing its pursuit, and the thought of retreat rose in its heart. It bolted toward the right.

But Lin Mo would not give it the chance to escape so easily. He let go of his sword hilt with his left hand and, at the absolute limit, grabbed its wrist.

In the next second, Cody's short sword pierced straight through its body.

Even though it did its utmost to dodge at the last moment and avoided the vital point at its neck, the sword still pierced through its shoulder blade.

That was enough!

The instant Cody made his move, Bern and Evan also charged up. Miriam drew her bow and nocked an arrow, shooting the Tattooed Cat Demon in the thigh. Bern followed immediately with a Shield Bash, coordinating with Lin Mo's "Slash" to send this Tattooed Cat Demon off for good.

Slash proficiency +5!

Looking at the prompt that appeared before his eyes, a smile immediately appeared on Lin Mo's face.

Good. He got the kill!

Aside from this one, the one he had ambushed and killed just now had also increased Slash proficiency by 5 points. Two elite-level monsters had directly brought his Slash skill proficiency to Lv4 (80/100). He was only short of the final 20 points of proficiency before he could thoroughly master this skill!

"Well done!"

Bern patted Lin Mo on the shoulder. "Your strength is getting more and more surprising. Maybe in a few more days, you'll become a professional."

If not for Lin Mo, the few of them alone would not have been able to close in to a sufficient distance at all. They would not have been able to kill even one Tattooed Cat Demon, let alone two.

Cody glanced sideways slightly but said nothing.

He had long since been fully convinced by Lin Mo's strength, but becoming a professional in just a few more days—wasn't that a little too exaggerated?

Evan and Miriam took off the Tattooed Cat Demons' claws and teeth together. Unlike Common Cat Demons, Tattooed Cat Demons had more valuable parts on their bodies. Aside from their claws and fangs, their hearts were also a basic alchemical material.

Evan removed the hearts of the two Tattooed Cat Demons, washed them clean, and stored them in a specially made sealed bag.

The mission only required claws. The remaining materials could all be sold for quite a bit of money.

"In that case, all we have left are the claws from 16 Common Cat Demons, and the mission will be complete."

Even someone as composed as Bern could not help revealing a delighted smile, because this progress had far exceeded his expectations.

If everything went smoothly, they could set out on the return journey today!

Lin Mo nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of a strange crack on a tree a little farther off to the right.

"What is that?"

Lin Mo asked curiously.

Bern looked in the direction he was pointing and saw the perfectly natural-looking crack, as if it had grown in the tree. For a moment, he froze.

Only after a while did he dig up a story from the edges of his memory, one he had heard back in Rania City from a bard begging for drinks in a tavern.

He carefully walked forward and examined the crack, which was about as tall as a person, before saying with some uncertainty, "This is... the entrance to a secret realm?"

"A secret realm? What is that?"

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. This was the first time he had heard the term.

"An entrance to a secret realm can randomly appear in any place where magic gathers. According to the current research of the empire's Chief Mage Corps, secret realms are very likely other worlds existing on the same plane as the continent, a temporary or long-term phenomenon of boundary entanglement caused by magical resonance between the two worlds..."

To be honest, Bern did not really understand these profound words either. He had only memorized them mechanically.

"For example, the famous Adventurer's Holy Land—the Nassadok Dungeon—is said to be an extremely stable, super-large secret realm."

Lin Mo roughly understood what he meant. In simple terms, this world and other worlds had formed a partial overlap under the influence of magic.

Interesting...

"Then what is inside these secret realms?"