Free Web NovelChapter 152: Chapter 122: Magic Storage Bag
Thirty-six points of Strength, the physical damage bonus from [Invisibility], and the immense power of a fully charged [Sword Charge Strike]. The combined force of several overlapping streams of Sword Qi was enough to lop the Bull Chief’s head clean off.
Even Lin Mo himself hadn’t expected it to be so effective. A brief moment of surprise gave way to delight.
With the most troublesome chief taken out in one blow, the mission was as good as halfway done.
[Invisibility] Skill Level +20
[Sword Storing and Continuous Slash] Skill Level +20
As the notifications floated before his eyes, the distant Minotaurs noticed the brutal death of their leader. But instead of scattering and fleeing, they all rushed over in a single wave.
He had to admit, they were certainly braver—or perhaps more reckless—than Goblins.
Facing the Minotaurs’ charge, Lin Mo felt no fear. On the contrary, he was thrilled.
He had just been worrying that if these creatures scattered, hunting them down would be a pain. Now, they were actively serving themselves up to be killed.
At the head of the charge were two creatures that were a full size larger than the other Minotaurs. The skin on their limbs was darker than on their torsos, somewhat resembling the fallen Bull Chief.
These were the Bull Head Vanguards.
Their power level was mostly between 1.5 and 1.9. They posed a significant challenge to an ordinary Professional, but for a Level 2 or higher Professional, they weren’t much of a threat.
Lin Mo held his ground, simply watching them approach.
Behind him, Ali first led Feney back a safe distance before rejoining Lin Mo.
A flash of Holy Light flared, and Feney cast the [Holy Light Aid] BUFF on Ali.
As for Lin Mo, the one she had cast on him earlier hadn’t worn off yet.
One of the Bull Head Vanguards let out a furious roar and charged. Lin Mo met the attack, thrusting his Black Sword forward.
The sharp blade struck the flat of the axe, and the immense force sent the Bull Head Vanguard staggering. Then, just as its momentum should have died, the Black Sword in Lin Mo’s hand suddenly surged with power again.
[Continuous Thrust]!
The thrust came so suddenly that the Bull Head Vanguard had no time to block or dodge. Its chest was pierced straight through. It struggled for a moment before collapsing in defiance.
[Continuous Thrust] Skill Level +13
"Skill [Continuous Thrust] Level 1 (10/10) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Continuous Thrust] Level 2 (3/20)"
A level-up from a single monster.
Lin Mo glanced at the Skill Level for Continuous Thrust and pressed his advantage, turning to attack the other Bull Head Vanguard.
Meanwhile, Ali found herself tied up fighting three Minotaurs.
With her strength, she could handle one Minotaur with ease and keep two at bay, but three at once was a real struggle. If not for the Attribute boost from [Light Aid], she wouldn’t have been able to hold out for long.
Even so, Ali was in a tight spot. A moment of carelessness, and a Minotaur’s axe grazed her arm.
But in the next second, a soft light enveloped her, and the wound healed at a visible rate.
This was the advantage of having a Priest in the party; as long as the Priest had Magic Power, there was no need to fear injury.
Lin Mo moved faster, closing in on the second Bull Head Vanguard, seemingly preparing for a head-on assault.
The Bull Head Vanguard braced itself. It had witnessed its companion’s brutal death and was now aware of Lin Mo’s treacherous tactics, fully prepared to counter them.
However...
Just as it was Gathering Strength and preparing to meet the charge, the figure before it suddenly vanished.
The sudden turn of events stunned the Bull Head Vanguard. Less than half a second later, a sharp blade pierced its throat from behind.
[Continuous Thrust] Skill Level +13!
The instant his sword struck home, Lin Mo was already rushing toward Ali without a backward glance.
A few Minotaurs tried to close in, but they were too slow to stop him.
Ali parried one Minotaur’s attack and sidestepped another’s axe swing. Seeing the third axe coming right after, she gritted her teeth, preparing to block it head-on.
The next moment, a black blade suddenly pierced through the Minotaur’s chest and was then slowly withdrawn.
A smile touched Ali’s lips as she re-engaged the two remaining Minotaurs.
With the buff from [Light Aid], two Minotaurs no longer posed such a great threat to her.
Lin Mo didn’t intervene further, instead turning to look behind him.
’Even for something this reckless, seeing their three strongest members killed off should be enough to make them think twice.’
Sure enough, the remaining Minotaurs had begun to scatter.
Lin Mo quickly gave chase, felling one with a single, easy strike.
[Stealth] Skill Level +8!
[Continuous Thrust] Skill Level +8!
’That’s enough.’
A moment later, another notification for [Continuous Thrust] leveling up appeared before Lin Mo’s eyes.
"Skill [Continuous Thrust] Level 2 (20/20) has leveled up!"
"Current Skill: [Continuous Thrust] Level 3 (4/40)"
Gained Attribute Points: Strength +2
Leveling up a skill twice in just two minutes... This Minotaur camp was just as Lin Mo had expected: a perfect grinding spot for Skill Levels.
His Strength had now reached 29 points. He was just one step away from advancing to a Level 3 Warrior!
However, that final step wouldn’t be so easy to take. Unless he learned a new skill, it would take a while to reach Full Level in either [Continuous Thrust] or [Sword Storing and Continuous Slash].
’So, I should put the next batch of Skill Level points into other Skills.’
Lin Mo had already equipped his left arm with the Arm Shield he had specially purchased beforehand.
He quickly caught up to the remaining Minotaurs. With a single slash for each, he severed their legs. Now unable to run, the Minotaurs collapsed to the ground, bellowing in agony.
Lin Mo walked up to one of the Minotaurs, swung his shielded arm, and slammed the Arm Shield into its forehead.
[Shield Strike]!
Under the immense force, the head of the Minotaur—which was only at the level of a Level 1 Professional—was crushed without a doubt.
[Shield Strike] Skill Level +8
Lin Mo repeated the process five times in a row, and his [Shield Strike] skill rose to Level 4.
Getting from Level 4 to Level 5 required 100 Skill Level points, an amount he couldn’t gather right now.
With only one Minotaur left, Lin Mo decided it was a good time for a little experiment.
He first pierced the Minotaur’s chest with a [Continuous Thrust], then quickly followed up with a [Fireball Technique].
The Minotaur quickly breathed its last, and a notification floated before Lin Mo’s eyes.
[Continuous Thrust] Skill Level +8
’Well, I guess that doesn’t work.’
He had wanted to see if he could exploit a bug to gain Skill Level for his Fireball Technique, but it looked like a failure.
As for just blasting it directly... Magic was powerful, but it needed Magic Power to back it up. He only had 4 points of Magic Power. While that might now be enough to handle more than just Ordinary Goblins and could be effective against some other Low Level Demons, trying to kill a Minotaur of Professional Level strength—with a solid Threat Level of 1—was still too difficult.
It would be like an Ordinary person with 4 points of Strength trying to hack a Minotaur to death; at most, they’d break the skin without even touching bone.
He would need at least 7 or 8 points of Magic Power, or perhaps over 6 points combined with an Excellent Level skill, to be able to do it.
’When I get back, I need to make a trip to the Church and see if I can learn the Healing Technique. Even if it’s not useful with Feney around, at the very least, it’ll increase my Magic Power by 1 point.’
Turning his head, he saw that Ali, with Feney’s support, had successfully finished off one of the Minotaurs. Lin Mo hurried over to claim the kill on the last one, allocating the Skill Level points to [Shield Strike].
Once he maxed out this skill, he could advance to a Level 2 Knight.
"Mr. Lin Mo, are you hurt?"
Feney trotted over, ready to cast the Healing Technique on Lin Mo at a moment’s notice.
"No."
Lin Mo waved his hand and looked at the Minotaur corpses strewn across the ground, a headache suddenly coming on.
"So many Minotaur horns... It’s going to be a pain to carry them all back..."
And their axes... though crude, they were made of a lot of material and should be worth some money.
Unfortunately, with only three of them, carrying everything back was impossible.
"Um, Mr. Lin Mo."
Feney raised her hand. "Actually, after our last two missions, I thought it was pretty tough for everyone to carry so much stuff back, so..."
She opened her backpack and took out a cloth pouch that didn’t look very large.
But this pouch was clearly no ordinary item; its surface was covered in incredibly complex lines of Magic Power.
It was clearly a Magic Item.
"Don’t tell me..."
Lin Mo recalled a type of Magic Item that Alton had once mentioned—a "Magic Storage Bag."
This kind of item was created by using an Enchantment of rare Space Magic on a bag woven from Magic Communication Materials. It could achieve an effect similar to "space folding," allowing a seemingly small bag to hold a great many things.
An item like this was no less valuable than a Magic Staff!
"I was so nervous before that I forgot about this... My mother said this Storage Bag has about five cubic meters of space. I think that should be enough..."
"It’s enough! More than enough!"
Overjoyed, Lin Mo got to work, hacking off the Minotaurs’ horns and piling them up along with their weapons.
Ali came over to help. As for Feney... she wasn’t strong enough to move any of it.
It took a good while to get everything ready. Lin Mo rubbed his sore neck and looked at Feney expectantly.
Feney said nervously, "I’ve never used this before, so..."
As she spoke, she infused Magic Power into the Storage Bag. The next moment, the bag’s small opening instantly expanded. Lin Mo tried putting a pair of horns inside, and they vanished as if tossed into a black hole.
After he put in a few more pairs of horns, Feney’s expression suddenly grew troubled.
"Um... Mr. Lin Mo..."
She struggled to hold the bag with both hands. "It’s a little heavy."
Lin Mo paused for a second before taking the bag. ’Right,’ he thought. ’Although the space inside expands, it’s just space-folding, not a true Alternate Space. The weight of the items inside doesn’t disappear.’
It seemed the plan to take all the axes was a no-go; otherwise, even he wouldn’t be able to carry the bag.
After loading all the horns and stuffing the Bull Chief’s weapon inside as well, Lin Mo was already starting to struggle with the bag’s heavy weight.
Still, it was much more convenient this way.
With the mission seemingly about to conclude smoothly, Lin Mo couldn’t help but relax a little.
Just then, however, Ali’s expression suddenly froze. She took a careful sniff of the air, then looked toward the depths of the forest, her hair suddenly standing on end...
