I like traveling the most

Just as imagined.

The mission to trap Argo is a series of missions. As soon as they came down, the exclamation mark on the scarecrow's head turned into a question mark, which meant that the next step of the mission had been started.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

The Scarecrow spoke first.

It is no different from the scarecrow used to scare crows in the fields, no, the biggest difference is considering that it can talk.

Aqua said in surprise: "You said you were waiting for us?"

"right."

The Scarecrow nodded.

"We set out on a journey to become human beings, but on the way, the girl who was our companion was abducted by the Witch of the West. We wanted to save our companions, but my brain, the gem used by the Tin Woodman to replace his heart, The golden mane, the source of the lion's courage, was taken away by the witch, so he could not fight. In order to summon swordsmen who could fight the witch together, he cast a tornado spell on the girl's puppy, Toto, and sent it. Out."

As if introducing the background of the mission, it explained a lot. Xiao Lin seemed to understand, but also seemed not to understand.

Sudden--

Aqua clapped her hands: "I understand what this mission is!"

"I figured it out too. That's why the house can fly." Argo followed closely.

Eh?

Their minds are turning faster than their own? Argo doesn't care anymore, why is Aqua so fast?

"So, what's going on?"

"What, Xiaolin, didn't you read it when you were a child? The origin of this mission is "The Wizard of Oz"!"

"That's it, that's it!"

Xiao Lin suddenly realized.

"The Wizard of Oz", also known as "The Wizard of Oz", is the greatest children's literature work in the beautiful country, and is known as the "Journey to the West" in the beautiful country. This is a long fairy tale. However, Xiaolin has only read the first story, but it happens to be "The Wizard of Oz", so he has some impressions.

Argo sighed and said: "In this case, the task will be quite long."

"Why?" Aqua didn't know why.

Kobayashi explained: "From a development point of view, the things that the witch took away must be taken back in order. Didn't I just say that - brain, heart, mane and so on. In other words, this is a series of tasks. , it will take a lot of time on the road.”

"Then let's not collect key items."

"Eh?"

"Aqua is right. Just skip this section and go directly to the witch's castle."

"Eh eh eh?"

Xiaolin's eyes widened.

Why don't you play your cards according to the routine?

But if you think about it carefully, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Although not getting the items may make the enemy stronger, for them who have already conquered the 40th floor, the monsters on the 22nd floor can no longer cause harm to them.

Forget it, as long as they are happy.

Aqua took the lead and walked forward, regardless of whether she was heading in the right direction. Kobayashi and Argo followed her.

"Argo, how did you find this mission?"

"I discovered it by chance. I guessed it would be a hidden mission, so I came alone."

"...You are quite stubborn too."

You must know that Argo is afraid of dogs, but even so, she would rather wrong herself than give up. This shows how persistent she is in her mission.

"I remember that three days after clearing the 22nd floor, I cleared the 23rd floor, right?"

"Yes. At that time, the boss showed great power and pushed the floor to five or six floors in one breath, which made the players at the bottom exclaim."

“It’s not just my contribution, everyone on the strategy team also contributed.”

At that time, everyone cooperated better and better, and all the members of the strategy team put aside their grudges and worked together. In the blink of an eye, they moved from the twentieth floor to the twenty-fifth floor. It was precisely because the speed of the strategy was so fast that PoH finally couldn't sit still and secretly designed and killed Kibaou's guild members, causing the strategy team to slow down again.

"By the way, this should be an interesting mission, right?"

"That's probably true."

Kayaba Akihiko has set up many interesting tasks in SAO. Let’s not talk about what can be learned or realized from them. The simple fun has already made players yearn for it... Of course, the premise is that SAO is not a death game.

"But as expected, there is still room for digging in the lower levels."

No matter what type of game it is, as long as it is an online game, there is one absolute thing - and that is numerical value.

Strength, speed, dexterity, resistance.

The level of these values ​​determines the strength of the character. Therefore, when most players - especially members of the strategy team - are pursuing the values, they immerse themselves in the maze area to gain experience and increase their levels. Very few people do these tasks.

That's fine too.

Although lower-level players cannot occupy high-level maze areas, they can still rely on these interesting tasks to gain experience and rewards. Many players have obtained high-quality weapons and props through these tasks.

Soon, a group of people came to a castle. It is a castle located deep in a deep forest. It covers a large area and can almost be regarded as a royal city.

"Since it's a mission that even I don't know about, there should be a lot of treasure chests that haven't been opened, right?"

"Yes, the rewards must be huge!"

The two women were gearing up at the gate.

Xiaolin still felt a little uneasy. It wasn't that he was afraid, but because of Aqua's past peeing habits, the methods he proposed were unreliable, and over time he became a little scared.

"Is it really okay to skip the process of finding things for these three people? We haven't entered the castle yet..."

"It's fine."

Aqua couldn't wait to push open the castle door.

"It's really open..."

"Right?"

For ordinary tasks, if you don't get the stage props, you can't advance to the next stage of the task. But Aqua pushed open the castle door, which meant that this mission could indeed skip the prerequisite tasks and go directly to fight the BOSS.

This is undoubtedly an evil pass.

When I walked into the castle, I found that there was no gloomy and dark atmosphere here. On the contrary, it was bright and comfortable. The group of people moved forward in the corridors of the castle. Aqua's familiar was protecting them, while Argo ran ahead to explore the path. She had the search skill to find treasure chests and hidden roads, so she was most suitable to be a scout.

Argo found many treasure chests along the way, and you could tell from the smile on her face that she made a lot of money. I really wanted to tell her not to forget that there were two people here, but in the end I restrained myself from ruining her smile.

Then they also encountered many monsters, but the monsters on the 22nd floor couldn't even break through their defenses and killed them easily.

Finding treasure chests, finding hidden roads, and killing incoming monsters were repeated several times. Finally, an hour later, they arrived at the BOSS room.

"Is it over so soon?"

"Because Argo found a shortcut."

Even Aqua can easily deal with monsters at the bottom, so in just one hour, the idiot goddess fell in love with the feeling of unparalleled mowing grass.

Xiao Lin also understood.

It's not that she doesn't like to upgrade monsters, it's that she doesn't like to encounter danger.

This unparalleled experience of mowing the grass seems to have turned on the switch of the stupid goddess. I hope that in the days to come, the bottom monsters will not be massacred.

"You have to be careful."

The Scarecrow came up and said worriedly. Not only it, but the Tin Woodman and the Lion Man also had the same expression. The three of them have just been behind OB.

Xiao Lin doesn't blame them.

The general mission process is to look for the things they are missing, and if they find one, one of them will cheer up and become a companion to defeat the monsters together. It's just that Aqua chose the evil path speed flow, so Scarecrow and the others could only follow behind and do nothing.

However, the task process still needs to be followed.

The scarecrow reminds: "The Witch of the West will use all kinds of terrifying spells. If my head is not hollowed out, I can recall the types of spells..."

"It doesn't matter."

Aqua held down its shoulders (wooden pole) and said, "As long as the three of you work together, we will be able to rescue... that girl who is your friend."

The little girl who was swept away by the witch was named Dorothy, and of course her name was also translated as Dorothy.

Since the scarecrows and the others never mentioned the name of the companion who was swept away during the mission (maybe they explained it during the process of collecting the props), Aqua still respected their setting and used friends to represent the little girl.

Pushing open the room door, unlike the floor BOSS, the room is not full of oppressive floor owners, and the venue is not as big as a football field.

Having said that, this room in the castle is relatively spacious.

As soon as he came in, he saw an old and lustful witch and a little girl in the room. One of them was boiling medicine in front of the steaming stove, and the other was imprisoned in a cage and was unconscious.

This witch is quite classy.

The scarecrow suddenly stepped forward: "Oh! Miss Dorothy! If this continues, Miss Dorothy will be stewed!"

"Dorothy is in danger! Save her quickly!"

"Wait for Dorothy, now we will... we will..."

The three people without brains, hearts and manes were still sluggish at this moment. Sure enough, they still had to rely on Xiao Lin and the others.

"Do you also want to drink the soup stewed with this child? One sip will rejuvenate you, and two sips will fill you with strength. This is an extremely delicious soup, hehehe——"

The witch stirred the black potion in the stove and let out a weird laugh.

"No way!"

Aqua took a step forward: "We are here to save this girl!"

"Is that so? That's really a pity. Then..."

The witch stopped stirring and looked at Xiaolin and the others sideways, then jumped up with an agility that didn't suit her age.

"I'll just throw you into the stew!"

"——?!"

Before she could react, the witch kept waving the spoon in her hand, and then the soup as black as ink fell on everyone. Then Xiao Lin felt that her legs were weak and she fell to the ground.

Is it a state of paralysis?

Xiao Lin looked at his window. Behind his name and health, there was a small lightning symbol, which was a sign of paralysis.

I didn’t expect that even though I was over level 50, I would still be knocked down by the paralysis of the boss on the 22nd floor. I mean, this should be a mechanism, right?

Hee hee hee——

"Who will start the stew next?"

Aqua's Flying Feather Dragon activated its skill in mid-air. The witch saw it and ignored it. Instead, she said triumphantly: "It's useless. It's useless. The only thing that can break this spell is the roar of a lion. It doesn't matter what it is." Neither can be done.”

A lion's roar?

Xiao Lin turned his head with difficulty and looked behind the fallen person.

So that's it, only the lion's head is not marked with a negative status. As long as it roars, it should be able to relieve its paralysis. But the problem is that he is still in the state where the "Courage" was taken away by the witch, lying on the ground shivering.

Sure enough, skipping branch tasks is a bad choice!

"Woof woof! woof woof woof! woof woof!"

Just then, Toto roared. I don’t know what happened, but the lion figure seemed to have regained its courage. It climbed up from the ground and exuded an inexplicable momentum.

"I'm here to rescue Dorothy...hohoho-"

The brave roar emitted light waves, and the paralysis effect on Xiao Lin and others was immediately removed. When the witch saw this, she did not choose to sit still and wait for death. She rushed over again with a wooden spoon.

"boss!"

"I see!"

Xiaolin cooperated with Argo and used chains to stop the witch, but she still used incredible agility to get out of the attack range.

"Argo, exchange!"

"receive!"

Argo dodged behind him and hit the witch on the back with the sharp claws in his hand, causing her movements to deform.

"Ms. Aqua, exchange!"

"Emperor Zeer, come on!"

Aqua commanded her familiar to smash the witch in mid-air to the ground with her headbutt attack skill. Knowing that she was outmatched, the witch got up from the ground and ran quickly towards the stove.

"No, she plans to use the decoction again!"

"Woof woof woof——"

"Eh!"

Toto shouted and rushed forward, biting the witch's shoe. The witch's body was unstable and she fell into the soup she had brewed.

——Quest Clear

Mission accomplished!

Such a dramatic scene stunned Xiao Lin and others.

Sure enough, this is a fairy tale.

After rescuing the little girl Dorothy, the group left the castle. After receiving the mission reward and saying goodbye to them, the three of them returned to the cabin.

"——The Scarecrow's mind, the Tin Man's heart, the Lion's courage... In the original work of "The Wizard of Oz", they did not find what they were looking for in the end, but they were trying to save Dorothy who was kidnapped by the witch. In the process, the Scarecrow racked his brains, the Tin Woodman showed his emotions, and the Lion also showed his courage. So you actually already have what you want to find... At the end of the story, the great wizard Oz said this. ”

"That's it."

Xiaolin sighed: "So you already knew that you don't have to complete side tasks to get the lions and the others to stand up?"

"That's right!"

Aqua raised her head proudly.

In the end, it’s the fault of being uneducated. But Xiao Lin didn't know much about foreign fairy tales, not to mention that he had watched "The Wizard of Oz" when he was a child, and his memory was already blurry.

"Let's not mention this yet."

Xiaolin held down Argo who was about to sneak away.

"Let's talk about reward, Argo."

"boss……"

"There's no point in pretending to be pitiful. I sacrificed a lot to save you. Hand over the labor fees and lost time wages!"

“Why is this————”

In the end, Xiaolin received two-thirds of the reward from the crying Argo.