Meanwhile, after the Red Dragon Company began its formal exploration of the fifth floor, the other adventurers gradually received word that the fifth floor had been opened.
Large numbers of adventurers began gathering on the fourth floor.
"Final gear check, everyone!"
Everyone knew how dangerous it was to enter a new floor.
The deeper you went, the higher the chance of running into high-level monsters.
On the fourth floor, most of the stronger monsters had still been level five or below. Even encountering a level-six lord-class monster had been relatively rare.
But the deeper into the labyrinth you went, the faster the odds of running into even stronger monsters increased.
Although every adventuring company had master-tier professionals capable of standing up to lord-class monsters, that didn't mean they could ignore the danger those monsters posed.
Real combat wasn't like a game, where you could just line things up and compare levels and stats—general versus general, soldier versus soldier.
Real combat was vastly more complicated. A single overlooked variable could be enough to trigger a total collapse and wipe out an entire team.
That was especially true for low-level professionals who lacked enough self-preservation ability.
Their stamina and mana were limited. Once they got trapped in a monster tide, they would very quickly face mortal danger. The only things they could rely on were the weapons in their hands, the teammates at their side, and the tools and potions in their pockets.
The passage to the fifth floor was packed wall to wall.
Although the majority were adventuring companies, companies were still broken down into squads.
The difference was that, unlike loose, unaffiliated teams, these squads had much better coordination and far more sensible composition.
Frontline warriors, spellcasters and archers providing support fire, and priests with satchels over their shoulders, always ready to cast healing and buff spells.
Every now and then there were shield-bearers and knights, bards and druids.
And almost everyone had four or five low-grade health potions or mana potions tucked somewhere within easy reach.
The reason they didn't carry more was simple: potions had limited recovery value in a short amount of time. In a real fight, you could probably only chug a few before they stopped making much difference.
Even if you poured the rest down your throat like they were free, they wouldn't help much. Potions needed time to take effect, and taking several at once didn't strengthen the result.
If you drank too many too quickly, the effects also started to diminish.
In other words, even if you wanted to build yourself into a walking potion vat, you still needed a special kind of physical talent.
Like Gauss's talent, Feast.
"I heard the Red Dragon Company that conquered the fourth floor already went down to the fifth."
"So what? That was only a few hours ago. Why do our leaders look so anxious?"
Some of the ordinary adventurers beneath the command structure couldn't understand it.
They only knew that the Red Dragon Company seemed to have an exceptionally powerful commander, and that he had found and slain the fourth-floor lord ahead of everyone else.
After that, numerous adventuring companies had gone to negotiate with the Red Dragon Company and bought off some of the monster corpses and materials.
But now, hadn't they themselves arrived only a little later? Did they really need to rush this badly?
Only the better-informed members in the teams shot them helpless looks.
"You think the Red Dragon Company took their time? From what I heard, they reached the fourth floor and killed that lord in only a day."
"If we move slowly, forget eating meat—we won't even get any soup."
Once the companies had finished assembling, one team after another filed into the passage.
Naturally, this too had been discussed ahead of time. The stronger companies went in first, while the smaller independent teams stayed behind all the companies.
After passing through the long stairway tunnel, they emerged onto the fifth floor into a strangely quiet cavern.
"The Red Dragon Company isn't here."
"They've already left."
After confirming that no one from the Red Dragon Company remained at the entrance camp, the adventuring company members exchanged uneasy looks.
Then, without waiting around, many scout squads received orders and scattered like birds leaving a nest.
What unsettled them even more was what they found after leaving the cave and beginning to scout outward.
The place was unnaturally quiet.
Forget proper monster nests—there were barely even any monsters wandering the roads.
That only made the scouts more uneasy.
"Captain, I didn't see any monster traces on my side."
"Nothing on mine either."
"I found a burned-out cave."
"…"
The whole place didn't feel like the depths of a deadly labyrinth at all. It felt more like they'd come out for a leisurely trip.
"Let's return and report first."
The scene before them was so abnormal that even the scout squads instinctively didn't dare go too far.
Once they got back to the entrance camp and exchanged intelligence, the various adventuring companies became even more certain something was wrong.
Every team had returned with the same result: no useful information in any direction around the camp.
Only scorched ruins and abandoned-looking nests, as if everything had already been emptied out.
"There's no way Commander Gauss and his people are that efficient, right?"
Some of the company leaders were at a loss.
"You think… maybe they've already found the fifth-floor lord too?"
Someone suddenly remembered what had happened on the fourth floor.
Back then too, countless monsters had converged on one location as if guided by some invisible will.
"No way…"
Even though they had already rated Gauss's strength very highly, they still found it hard to believe.
What could anyone really accomplish in three or four hours?
If it had been them, that wouldn't even have been enough time to send out scouts and fully survey the area around the camp.
"George, are you staying here?"
"I'm taking my people and starting exploration in one direction."
"Same here."
"…"
Almost all the adventuring companies had been affected by the Red Dragon Company's rapid advance, and a creeping anxiety began to spread through them.
Up until now, everyone had proceeded in an orderly fashion: scouting teams first, then the main force advancing once more was known.
No one had thought there was anything wrong with that.
But now the Red Dragon Company had become the catfish in the pond, stirring up the entire situation.
Everyone was afraid that if they moved too slowly, they wouldn't get any share of the labyrinth's benefits.
Far away from them, Gauss knew nothing of how the other companies were already changing their strategy because of him.
At that moment, he was only watching the monsters continuously gathering in the distance, a look of excitement spreading across his face.
Experience, lining up and delivering itself to his doorstep.
The only thing he needed to pay special attention to was the myconid king's spore thralls.
Those living weapons were as fearless as suicide soldiers. Some even acted like self-destruct bombs when they died. The powdery spores they released into the air caused instant swelling and redness the moment they touched skin, and after a short time, the skin would begin to rot.
Quite a few of his people had already been careless once and were now lying in the rear under treatment.
"Wind Control!"
Luna, who specialized in wind magic, constantly generated strong gusts to blow away the spores drifting through the air.
What Gauss found especially noteworthy was that even the farmed slimes he had initially identified as the myconids' food reserves seemed to have joined the assault on them.
Quite a few mushroomfolk wielded slimes in their hands like weapons. Once stimulated, the slimes would fire elemental magic straight ahead.
Quite a few of his clay constructs had already collapsed under the barrage.
So monsters really can cooperate like this?
After reaching the fifth floor, Gauss felt some of his previous assumptions being overturned one after another.
At first, he had thought the two great species of the fifth floor—the myconids and the slimes—were probably competitors or enemies.
Later, after gathering some information, he had begun to think the slimes were simply being farmed by the myconids.
But now, seeing the two races work together against him as a common enemy, he felt that earlier guess might have been off too.
All he could say was that the relationships between monster races really were strange.
Still, he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it.
"Total Monster Kills: 63,115."
More and more monsters kept pouring in.
Even Gauss had to admit that the fifth floor was significantly stronger than the fourth.
Because of their shared psychic link, the myconids coordinated far better than the magic frog race had. On top of that, they had those fearless spore thralls. Together, they were putting real pressure on the Red Dragon Company.
At that moment, Gauss also deeply understood just how disgusting his clay magic must look from the enemy's perspective.
The weak feared the strong. The strong feared the reckless. And the reckless feared those who didn't care about dying.
"Leave a few elite squads here. Luna, take the others and fall back toward the camp."
Gauss knew that, no matter how carefully he watched the battlefield, a person's attention had limits. The weaker members had to be pulled back before the front collapsed in earnest.
"All right."
Hearing Gauss give the order so decisively, Luna quietly let out a breath of relief.
The pressure on everyone was enormous. Even she, a level-nine sorcerer, felt constrained in a battle like this, with monsters constantly flooding in.
Pulling the low-level members out first was the smart move.
Luna quickly called out the names of a few group leaders. Those leaders, in turn, pulled together a portion of the team.
"Hephaestus!"
Gauss exchanged a glance with Hephaestus, who was flying low overhead.
Man and beast immediately understood one another.
Hephaestus spread his wings, lowered his neck, and swept low over the battlefield. At the same time, he drew on the portion of his dragonfire that had recovered and unleashed it across the ground.
In a moment, he tore open a relatively safe route of retreat for the main force.
Under his cover, the low-level adventurers and the level-one and level-two professionals began withdrawing.
Only the elite members of level three and above remained.
Level three was a major dividing line. For a spellcaster, for example, reaching level three meant gaining access to second-circle spells and a much wider range of magic. In real combat terms, they were worlds apart from level-two professionals.
Once the weaker members withdrew, the overall pressure on the team eased enormously.
With no more need to hold back, Gauss controlled his newly learned Bigby's Hand like a giant hammer smashing moles, flattening spore thralls, myconids, and slimes one after another.
The advantages of Bigby's Hand were becoming more obvious by the minute.
It was powerful, and though it consumed a great deal of mana when first cast, the cost of maintaining and driving it afterward was far lower than expected—honestly, it was much more efficient than Fireball.
Its only real drawback was that it lacked the broad area coverage of Fireball, and it needed room to swing. In wide-open terrain, it could move with immense force, but in cramped environments, there was no way to cast it properly.
In real combat, the proficiency of Gauss's Bigby's Hand was rising at astonishing speed.
"Level 5 spell, Bigby's Hand Lv.3 (1/50)."
Soon, with a subtle internal sensation, Gauss realized his control over the giant hand had become far smoother.
He checked his panel. Sure enough, Bigby's Hand had reached level three proficiency without him even noticing.
Now it moved almost like a real extension of his own arm, and its responsiveness had improved noticeably.
The increase might not have looked big on paper, but in actual combat it was the difference of multiples.
The faster the hand moved, the less likely its targets were to slip away.
Just as Gauss was reveling in the joy of smashing "moles," he suddenly turned his attention toward a particular direction.
A powerful aura was rising there.
"Hm?"
Gauss immediately took out the map crystal and glanced at it. He quickly spotted the symbol representing the floor lord moving rapidly toward them.
So the ruler of the fifth floor was finally coming?
Gauss narrowed his eyes and looked toward the direction that aura was surging from.
The monsters around them, as if welcoming the arrival of their king, all bowed their heads.
Then—
Boom!
A blur of blue streaked through the air and slammed down in front of him.
What surprised Gauss was that the creature before him was not the myconid lord he had expected.
It was a small blue slime.
After landing, it bounced twice in place, then fixed its round eyes on Gauss.
"A slime?"
Gauss raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised.
Not to mention why it was a slime lord at all—its body was absurdly small.
Based on everything he knew about slimes, they usually followed the same rule as most monsters: the bigger they were, the stronger they were.
He could accept the occasional specialized individual being smaller than normal.
But the one now standing in front of him was smaller even than most ordinary, challenge-less low-tier slimes.
The only remarkable things about it were how springy it looked, and how oddly "pure" its composition seemed.
Unlike normal slimes, which resembled ugly lumps of mud, this one looked more like flowing liquid crystal.
The longer he looked at it, the more it carried a strange sort of beauty.
~~~
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