After Gauss's Red Dragon Guild officially began exploring the fifth level, other adventurers gradually received the news that the fifth level had been opened.
Adventurers from the fourth level began gathering in large numbers.
"Everyone, final check of your personal equipnt."
Everyone knew the dangers of entering a new floor.
The deeper you go, the greater the probability of encountering those high-level monsters.
Most of the high-level monsters on the fourth level were primarily level 5 and below, and the probability of encountering a level 6 Commander-level monster was relatively low.
But the deeper you go into the maze, the probability of encountering even higher-level monsters increases rapidly.
Although all adventuring guilds possess Master-level professionals capable of contending with Commander-level monsters, it doesn't an they can be completely unafraid of the threats posed by Commander-level monsters.
Real combat isn't like the ga world, where you can line up and compare stats and levels, leader against leader, soldier against soldier.
The complexity of combat in reality is much higher. A single overlooked variable could cause a team to be wiped out like an avalanche.
This is especially true for lower-level professionals who lack certain self-preservation abilities.
Their stamina and mana are limited. Once trapped in a monster horde, they will quickly face a fatal crisis. The only things they can rely on are the weapons in their hands, their teammates by their side, and the items and potions in their pockets.
The passageway leading to the fifth level was packed with people.
Although most were primarily adventuring guilds, the guilds themselves were also divided into individual squads.
However, unlike wild squads, these squads had more coordinated teamwork and more reasonable personnel composition.
A Warrior responsible for the front line, spellcasters and archers providing supporting firepower, and a priest carrying a satchel, ready to cast healing and buffing spells at any mont.
Occasionally, you could see so large shield bearers and knights, bards and druids.
And almost everyone had four or five low-level health potions or mana potions tucked sowhere within easy reach.
The reason they didn't carry more was that the restorative effect potions could provide within a short ti was also limited. In a single battle, only a few potions you actually drink might take effect.
Even if you chugged the rest like they were free, it would be hard for them to work. Potions need ti to take effect, and absorbing multiple at once doesn't enhance the effect.
Drinking too many in a short ti also makes the effect prone to diminishing returns.
In other words, even if you wanted to go the potion-spamming route, becoming a potion junkie required a unique physical talent, like Gauss's talent [Feast].
"I heard that Red Dragon Guild that cleared the fourth level has already entered the fifth level ahead of ti."
"That was only a few hours ago. Why do our leaders look so rushed?"
So ordinary adventurer mbers at the bottom couldn't understand this.
They only knew that the Red Dragon Guild seed to have an incredibly powerful leader who found and killed the Lord monster of the fourth level ahead of the other guilds.
Later, many adventuring guilds approached the Red Dragon Guild to negotiate cooperation and bought a portion of the monster corpse materials.
But now, they weren't that much slower than the Red Dragon Guild. Was it necessary to rush here in such a hurry?
Only the mbers in the teams who knew a bit more about the inside story glanced at them helplessly.
"How long do you think it took Bigby to reach the fifth level and kill that Lord? I heard it was only about a day."
"If we're too slow, forget eating the at, we might not even get any soup."
After completing personnel assembly, teams quickly queued up and poured into the passageway.
Of course, this was still the result of discussions among the many adventuring guilds. The stronger teams went first, while those independent squads followed behind all the guilds.
After passing through the long staircase passage and arriving at the fifth level, they were greeted by an extrely quiet cave.
"Guild Leader Gauss isn't here."
"The Red Dragon Guild seems to have left."
After not finding any Red Dragon Guild mbers, the guild mbers looked at each other.
Soon, many scout squads received orders and scattered like birds leaving their nest.
What made them feel even more eerie was that when they left the cave and began exploring in all directions, the environnt was eerily quiet. Forget decent monster nests, they couldn't even see many monsters to encounter on the road.
This abnormality instead made the scout squads feel uneasy.
"Captain, I didn't see any monster traces over there."
"I didn't find any in the area I searched either."
"I found a scorched cave."
They felt like they weren't deep in a perilous maze full of danger, but more like they were out on a picnic.
"Let's go back and report first."
The scene before them was so bizarre that the scout squads instinctively didn't dare to venture too far.
After returning to the exit camp, several adventuring guilds exchanged their gathered intelligence and beca even more aware that sothing was wrong.
All squads had failed to collect any useful information in various directions outside the camp.
Only sites suspected to be nests remained, either scorched or "empty with the occupants gone."
"Even if Guild Leader Gauss and his team are fast, they couldn't possibly be this efficient, right?"
So guild leaders were puzzled.
"What if they've already found the Lord monster of the fifth level?"
Soone suddenly rembered what happened on the fourth level.
Many monsters gathered in one place as if guided by so invisible force.
"That can't be, right?"
Faced with this speculation, even though they already thought Gauss's strength was very high, they still weren't entirely sure.
What can you do in three or four hours?
For them before, that wouldn't even be enough ti to send out scout squads and thoroughly scout the intelligence around the camp.
"Guild Leader George, are you still going to stay here?"
"I plan to take my people and start exploring in one direction."
" too."
"..."
Almost all the adventuring guilds were affected by the Red Dragon Guild's emphasis on speed in warfare and couldn't help but feel anxious.
In the past, everyone followed the established routine of investigation, squad exploration, and main force advance. They didn't feel anything was wrong with each other.
But now, the Red Dragon Guild had created a catfish effect in the maze, stirring up the entire situation.
Everyone was worried that acting too slowly would an they couldn't share in the maze's benefits.
Far away in the distance, Gauss was unaware that many adventuring guilds had changed their exploration strategy because of his team's actions.
He was just looking at the monsters continuously gathering in the distance, his face filled with excitent.
Experience was lining up to be delivered.
The only thing to watch out for was the Spore Minions created by the Mushroom Creature King.
Those biological weapons were like death warriors, fearless of death. So would even launch kamikaze-like attacks just before dying. That scattered spore dust would quickly cause redness and swelling upon contact with skin, and after a while, it would begin to fester.
Several mbers who hadn't been careful were already injured and lying in the rear receiving treatnt.
"Control the wind!"
Luna, skilled in wind magic, continuously created strong winds to blow away those spores dispersing in the air.
What made Gauss slightly concerned was that he noticed those Slis he had initially judged to be livestock raised by the mushroom creatures as food reserves seed to have joined the ranks fighting against them.
Many mushroom creatures held Slis in their hands as if they were weapons. Then, those Slis that had mastered elental magic, when stimulated, would spew magic forward.
Several of his clay constructs serving as the frontline were shattered under the bombardnt of spells.
Could monsters actually cooperate in this form?
He found that after coming to the fifth level of the maze, so of his perceptions were rapidly changing.
Initially, he thought the two major races, the mushroom creatures and the Slis, jointly occupying the fifth level of the maze, possibly in a competitive or hostile relationship.
Later, he gathered so information and thought the Slis might just be unilaterally fard by the mushroom creature race.
But now, seeing the two races joining hands to resist him, this "external enemy," he felt his previous conjecture might have been sowhat off.
It could only be said that the relationships between monsters were indeed very peculiar.
However, right now, he didn't have the ti to ponder too much.
"Total monsters killed: 63115"
More and more monsters surged over.
Even Gauss had to admit that the intensity of the fifth level was indeed significantly higher than the fourth.
Because they shared a psychic connection, the cooperation between the mushroom creatures was clearly better than that of the Magic Frog tribe. Plus, there were those Spore Minions that didn't fear death, which also brought considerable pressure on the Red Dragon Guild.
Gauss also deeply felt how annoying his clay magic must be from the enemy's perspective.
The soft fears the hard, the hard fears the ruthless, the ruthless fears those who don't fear death.
"Leave a few elite squads. Luna, take the others and retreat towards the camp."
Gauss knew that despite his extra attention to the entire battlefield, a person's energy is ultimately limited. He could only temporarily withdraw the relatively weaker mbers to the rear.
Otherwise, a large-scale collapse would inevitably begin.
"Alright."
Hearing Gauss's decisive order, Luna also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone was under imnse pressure, especially under this endless siege of monsters. Even she, a level 9 Warlock, felt sowhat constrained.
In such an extrely high-pressure situation, withdrawing a portion of the lower-level combatants early was a very wise decision.
Soon, Luna called out the nas of several team leaders, and the team leaders ford squads with a portion of the people.
"Hephaestus!"
Gauss and the low-flying Hephaestus made eye contact.
Soon, the man and beast, who had already reached a level of being in sync, understood each other's aning.
Hephaestus spread its wings, lowered its neck, and skimd low across the ground. Simultaneously, it unleashed a partially restored breath attack, pouring it onto the ground.
It quickly tore open a relatively safe evacuation route for the main force.
Under its cover, that portion of the lower-level adventurers and level 1 and 2 professionals began to retreat.
Only the elite mbers of level 3 and above remained.
Level 3 professional is a watershed. Taking spellcasters as an example, level 3 professionals begin to master 2nd circle spells, can learn more spells, and possess combat power far beyond what level 2 professionals can match.
After withdrawing the lower-level mbers, the overall pressure on the team in the high-pressure environnt lessened considerably.
With his hands free, Gauss continuously controlled the recently mastered "Bigby's Hand" to crush nurous Spore Minions, mushroom creatures, and Slis like swatting mosquitoes.
The superiority of Bigby's Hand was indeed quite outstanding.
Its destructive power was strong, and as a 5th-circle magic, aside from the initial mont of casting, the subsequent consumption for driving it wasn't as severe as imagined. It even felt more "energy-efficient" than Fireball.
Its only shortcomings were probably that its area of effect wasn't as large as Fireball's, and releasing it required sufficient space. It could only fight freely in open areas. In so narrow environnts, it couldn't be released smoothly.
In actual combat, Gauss's proficiency level with Bigby's Hand was also rapidly increasing.
"5th-circle spell·Bigby's Hand lv3 (1/50)"
Soon, with a strange sense of connection, he felt his control over the giant sky hand beco more fluid.
Checking his personal status panel, sure enough, Bigby's Hand's proficiency had unknowingly reached lv3.
He controlled Bigby's Hand with even greater ease, almost no different from controlling his own arm in reality. The control speed also saw a slight increase compared to before.
Don't underestimate the small magnitude; when reflected in combat power, it was a multiplicative improvent.
The faster the control speed, the smaller the probability that enemies who might have escaped could dodge.
Just as Gauss was imrsed in the joy of "whack-a-mole," suddenly, he felt sothing and looked in a certain direction.
There, a powerful aura was rising.
"Hmm?"
Gauss quickly took out the map crystal orb and glanced at it. He soon saw the Lord monster icon rapidly approaching.
Had the Lord of the mushroom creature race arrived?
Gauss narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze following the direction from which the aura surged.
He saw nurous monsters slightly bowing their heads as if welcoming their king.
"Boom!"
A figure so fast it left a blue afterimage in the air suddenly descended.
To Gauss's surprise, the creature that appeared before him wasn't the mushroom creature Lord he had been expecting.
It was a small, compact blob of blue sli.
After it abruptly stopped, it bounced twice on the spot. Then, its two round, bead-like eyes looked towards Gauss's direction.
"A Sli?"
Gauss raised an eyebrow, clearly sowhat surprised by this result.
Forget why it was a Sli Lord.
Its size was just too small, wasn't it?
Based on his long-standing understanding of Sli Slis, Sli monsters, like most monsters, generally followed the universal rule that larger size ant greater strength.
He could understand that so specialized individuals might exhibit a relatively smaller size.
But the Sli that appeared in the distance was even smaller than the vast majority of normal, bottom-tier Slis that didn't possess a challenge level.
The only special thing was probably that it was sufficiently bouncy and looked very "clean" in composition.
Its appearance wasn't ugly like ordinary Slis that resemble mud, but more like so kind of flowing liquid crystal. Looking closely, it even had a unique sense of beauty.
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