This was a semi-transparent, jelly-like, blue spherical creature.
Its surface was smooth, reflecting a rainbow of colors.
A pair of harmless-looking black little eyeballs stared blankly at Gauss.
Seeing the appearance of that Sli, Gauss couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Besides having a completely different appearance from conventional Slis, the feeling it gave Gauss was also very special.
To be precise, in Gauss's perception, it seed to completely blend into the air. If not for observing its existence with the naked eye, it was more like a mass of air that didn't exist.
This discovery made Gauss sowhat vigilant.
He rarely encountered creatures so lacking in a "sense of threat."
Even the lowest-level Goblins, Slis, and the like, though they could no longer pose any harm to Gauss whatsoever, Gauss could still sense a kind of "malice" from them.
This malice was unrelated to the strength of either party; it was rely the instinctive rejection of "the other" at the perceptual level of life.
But the creature before him had nothing, just an emptiness.
This indicated that, at the very least, its abilities in concealnt were extrely outstanding.
Furthermore, Gauss could faintly perceive this Sli's intelligence...
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Besides looking at Gauss, it was also constantly sweeping its gaze over all the adventurers present, its eyes flowing with a human-like curiosity.
However, when its gaze swept over the monster corpses lying on the ground, it didn't show much extra emotion, appearing rather indifferent towards its dead companions.
This point actually ran counter to Gauss's original speculation.
He had originally thought that this monster's arrival was so swift, it must be a protective and warlike leader.
But now it seed he felt the other party was acting more out of a strong sense of curiosity.
Just like in a long life, suddenly discovering a group of abnormal creatures intruding into its territory. It wasn't about friendliness or hatred, just pure novelty.
The way it looked at them, these human adventurers, was like looking at cats and dogs.
Several high-level mushroom creatures near the blue Sli began to communicate, invisible streams of information flowing towards the Sli's direction, like bullied children complaining to their belatedly arriving parents, trying to get them to stand up for them.
After quickly receiving the information, the blue Sli's gaze towards Gauss beca even more filled with interest.
The next mont, under Gauss's ever-vigilant gaze, that small, cute Sli suddenly disappeared without any warning.
The mont it disappeared, Gauss felt the terrifying aspect of its talent for completely blending its aura into the environnt even more.
Gauss pushed his ntal Divine Sense to its strongest; not the slightest clue around him could hope to escape his perception.
Where did it go?
Simultaneously, his eyes, which had quietly taken on a gilded golden hue, were also rapidly locking onto all directions.
The ntal perception network, vision, hearing, sll, the skin's sense of air flow—all his senses were elevated to their peak at the sa ti.
And whether it was the nurous other monsters or the mbers of the Red Dragon Guild, they all unanimously distanced themselves from the area where he stood.
Suddenly, Gauss's peripheral vision glanced at a certain spot beside him.
"Found you!"
He controlled the silver Bigby’s Hand to grab at those faintly unnatural spots in the air.
"Bang!"
Bigby’s Hand's "grasping palm" motion was accompanied by a massive air explosion sound.
"Puchi puchi!"
Dozens of rainbow-colored sharp spikes pierced out from the palm like branching twigs, piercing clean through the palm surface of Bigby’s Hand.
Fortunately, Bigby’s Hand was rely a construct of condensed mana. Though Gauss used it as effortlessly as moving his own arm, it wasn't a real body, so it didn't share pain sensation.
Gauss's gaze sharpened.
This was the first ti since he mastered Bigby’s Hand so many days ago that an attack had broken through Bigby’s Hand's defense.
Although, compared to defense, Bigby’s Hand's offensive nature was more prominent, its foundation as a fifth-circle spell was still there; it wasn't sothing ordinary attack thods could easily break through.
The destructive power of that piercing attack just now was quite terrifying.
More crucially, he realized that the interior of Bigby’s Hand's "grasping palm" hadn't caught any object.
It was like crushing a clump of mana, and then the mana instinctively exploded, launching a thorn-piercing magic attack.
Where did the Sli go?
Opening Bigby’s Hand, the "wounds" pierced by the attack were rapidly healing, but as expected, the special Sli was not seen in the palm.
To be honest, this was the first ti Gauss had encountered an opponent so elusive.
Past enemies, even if strong, could at least barely have their movents tracked, but this Sli was slippery and elusive like a ghost.
Did it master so kind of spatial magic?
Gauss couldn't help but guess this in his heart, yet he didn't sense any traces of spatial fluctuations.
Clearly, as a floor Lord, the Sli Lord of the fifth level Maze seed to be much stronger than the Magic Frog Lord of the fourth level. Just this ability to co and go without a trace completely outclassed that Magic Frog, whose size resembled a small hill, by who knows how many tis.
"Whoosh!"
Gauss suddenly felt another gust of wind.
The next mont, a figure instantly ford above his head.
Gauss's peripheral vision caught a flash of blue light.
"Vampiric Touch!"
He imdiately activated the close-range magic, swinging the black-red tentacles wrapped around his arm like an octopus, lashing towards the abnormal spot above his head.
Perhaps this ti the distance was closer, so his timing was more appropriate.
He clearly felt he had lashed onto so soft, springy object.
"Pfft!"
The other party's instinct to condense its form also produced a force-dispelling effect.
Gauss felt like he had lashed onto a tough mass of jelly; the other party was sent flying back along the powerful kinetic energy of his lashing.
"Whoosh!"
A blue ball of light stretched into a blue afterimage in the air.
"Thud!"
The blue afterimage slamd straight into the rock wall in the distance.
The blue Sli finally revealed its form. Having shifted from extre motion to sudden stillness, it landed steadily on the rock wall, still in that soft spherical shape, with no change in its physical form. This gave an extrely discordant, unreasonable feeling, as if violating inherent human physical understanding.
Behind its rear, the rock wall cracked with a spiderweb of fissures spanning over ten ters.
Clearly, during that brief impact, the Sli Lord had perfectly transferred the impact kinetic energy it received onto the environnt behind it.
A flash of interest also couldn't help but appear in Gauss's eyes.
To be honest, he hadn't encountered such a "powerful" opponent in a long ti.
Here, "powerful" wasn't simply about being far ahead in level and destructive power, but rather a superiority in chanism.
He even sensed an extrely familiar feeling from that unremarkable-looking Sli, as if seeing himself.
In other words, that Sli might also be a chanism monster like him.
However, their chanisms and talents were just different.
Thinking of this, a trace of fervent emotion couldn't help but ignite in his heart.
Though it was intentional on his part, he really hadn't encountered a decent opponent in a long ti.
That aberrant centaur from Blackwater Town obviously didn't count; its strength at the ti far exceeded his own then, so it couldn't be called an opponent. If a frontal battle had erupted then, it would most likely have been a one-sided outco.
And now, this Sli Lord was overall at a "moderately difficult" level.
Thoughts flashed through Gauss's mind like lightning.
The golden dragon pupils reflected the form of the blue Sli. He faintly seed to have guessed the principle behind its bizarre, elusive displacent thod.
Though in its manifestation it resembled his [Dinsion Door] or similar spatial magic, and an adventurer unfamiliar with spatial magic would likely misjudge it, Gauss could perceive that the underlying principles were vastly different.
One thing to know is that any spatial magic or effect would trigger ripples of spatial fluctuation.
For example, his Dinsion Door, or the passages traveling between different levels in the Maze—when entering or exiting, one could feel an abnormal sensation. He also had that feeling when using that iron piece to teleport to the special level with the Insect-Person statue.
For Gauss, who was extrely sensitive to such thods, if the other party truly used spatial magic, it was impossible for him not to sense any spatial fluctuation at all.
Combined with the eerie feeling the blue Sli gave off upon its appearance, as if it didn't exist and completely blended into the environnt,
Gauss, through these two or three exchanges of contact, finally understood part of the Sli's abilities.
To be precise, the Sli Lord didn't blend into the environnt, but into the ever-present natural mana in the air.
One could tentatively consider that its body was too pure, almost entirely composed of condensed mana, so it could, under the cover of natural mana, form an ability of mana-ization, or elentalization.
In this state, Gauss couldn't perceive it; he could only observe its external form with the naked eye.
As for movent, it was the Sli Lord activating elentalization, rging itself into the natural mana, and then when it needed to launch an attack, it would condense a solid form, switching between these two states at will, even more underhanded than Shadow's innate ability.
Shadow's ability, in essence, still left the shadow itself as a dium when shadowed; it was traceable, and using energy attacks on the shadow would also force her to take damage and have to dispel the stealth state.
But the other party could completely dissolve into the natural mana, truly achieving a state where the body was nothing.
In that state, could it still be attacked?
If not, wouldn't it be naturally invincible?
Of course, this thought only existed in Gauss's mind for a very short ti.
At least in his current understanding, such an invincible ability probably shouldn't appear, or he shouldn't encounter it at this stage.
It should also have its own shortcomings.
Ti? Number of uses? Consumption burden? Transformation delay?
In short, while powerful, there must be so hidden flaw in one aspect.
For example, just now, when it was too close to him and got lashed away by Vampiric Touch, it might have been because it didn't react in ti, or it exceeded the minimum ti limit required for transformation.
However, this Sli's own combat instincts were quite outstanding.
In just an instant, it completed posture adjustnt and, utilizing its extrely soft body characteristics, transferred and released the entire attack, suffering almost negligible damage to itself.
In the distance, the Red Dragon Guild mbers who had already withdrawn so distance observed this scene, all sowhat astonished.
They hadn't expected that unremarkable-looking little Sli to seemingly possess combat power far exceeding its appearance.
During this period, they had gained more understanding of their Guild Leader's strength. That the blue Sli could exchange a few moves with the Guild Leader and, from their perspective, not fall into an obvious disadvantage, itself spoke volus about its terrifying strength.
Thinking of this, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, it wasn't them facing such a terrifying monster; otherwise, they would most likely be crushed to death like aningless cannon fodder.
"Prepare to engage the enemy!"
Albenia's thick, loud voice sounded tily.
Around them, other monsters were also quietly surrounding them.
Not just Gauss, they also had to fight.
On Gauss's side, what seed like lengthy thinking had actually only passed in an instant.
As he figured out so information about the Sli, a bit more confidence appeared in his eyes.
Sotis, an enemy with unknown information is more dangerous than an enemy who is powerful on the surface, because most people know to run from the latter if they can't win. As for the forr, setting aside whether one can realize this layer, whether choosing to run or fight, the other party's mystery always hangs like a veil before them, making it hard to decide.
Fight, how to fight? Run, how to run?
Only with sufficient information can adventurers make relatively wise and reasonable decisions.
That is the importance of information in battle.
"Magic Missile!"
Gauss swung the rear end of the White Wand behind him, a small flood of blue missiles pouring out regardless of cost.
Nurous missiles poured down like a torrential rain towards the cracked rock wall where the Sli Lord was.
The next mont, in Gauss's tightly focused pupils, that light blue, small body abruptly disappeared again.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"
Nurous missiles engulfed the rock wall.
Instantly, the already cracked rock wall couldn't bear the load, collapsing in a chain reaction.
Hundreds of rock blocks continuously fell, smashing onto the ground, stirring up dust that obscured vision.
However, neither Gauss nor the Sli were targets that would be blocked by ordinary dust.
Gauss, whose attack had MISSED, didn't show much discouragent. Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a slight arc.
"As expected."
He felt it. When the nurous Magic Missiles triggered chain explosions, the intense magical effect covering a wide area caused vibrations in the surrounding natural mana.
And the Sli, rged into it, naturally also found it hard to remain unaffected amidst the large-scale environntal vibrations.
Therefore, it, which had been hiding extrely well, was keenly detected by Gauss.
However, realizing it was exposed, it also distanced itself in an extrely short ti, leaving that area of relatively chaotic mana.
Following the transformation ti, Gauss had once again detected another one of its shortcomings.
This is how battle is. No matter how mysterious an enemy seems, once both sides start fighting, there's always a way to collect enough useful information from its actions, peeling it open layer by layer like an onion.
"Human."
"You are interesting."
A childish, clear voice, or rather a stream of ntal information, reached Gauss's ear.
He naturally knew where the information ca from.
In return, he also used his omnipresent ntal power to send out a ssage.
"Hello there, Sli."
"My na is Eden Graham Lydia Bolo Sutton Aqua Jay..."
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