Besides finalizing the sale of the spoils, the meeting settled several other matters as well.
First, Gauss would not be rushing to open the sixth floor of Timber. The main reason was simple: exploration of the fifth floor was far from finished, and opening the sixth floor early would not actually give him much of an advantage. After all, his map only covered the first five floors. From the sixth floor onward, he would be starting from the same line as every other adventuring company.
On top of that, the loot his own company had gathered also needed to be sent out for sale, and they needed to restock basic supplies so their reserves would remain healthy and stable.
So he decided to let everyone "rest and reset" on the fifth floor first.
And since the item needed to open the next floor was in his hands after killing Eden, he naturally felt obligated to inform the others.
Most of the people present had no objections to that decision.
After all, forget the fifth floor—even the fourth floor still hadn't been fully explored yet. The only reason everyone had advanced so quickly was because Gauss's push through the labyrinth had been absurdly efficient.
Opening the sixth floor too soon would only create a vicious competition for everyone involved.
Large-scale exploration with this many people had to be done step by step. If they moved too fast, the risk of running into uncontrollable unknowns would rise sharply.
A few people showed traces of hesitation, but after seeing that no one else objected, and considering that this was Gauss's call, they tactfully kept quiet.
After all, Gauss was the one who had killed the floor lord. He had every right to decide when the next floor would be opened. The fact that he was publicly informing them at all was already more than fair.
The next topic was the distribution of exploration directions, mainly to avoid everyone flooding toward the same area all at once.
Of course, nothing about that was mandatory. Adventurers were free by nature, and in an actual exploration, getting lost or taking a wrong turn happened all the time.
Still, no one opposed the idea.
For everyone involved, it was simply a good thing.
And besides, nobody knew anything yet about the sixth floor. Any direction they chose would basically be random, so there was no meaningful advantage or disadvantage in the assignment.
Once the meeting ended, the crowd exchanged a few more polite words before finally dispersing.
"It's been a long time since I've seen this many people," Eden's voice sounded beside Gauss's ear.
Though it liked to chat, it usually stayed quiet whenever Gauss was dealing with important matters, so it never really became a nuisance.
To be honest, Gauss found Eden a little admirable. It had retained a human mind but had been trapped inside the labyrinth, unable to leave, surrounded only by beings that were poor conversational partners. Over enough time, most people would have gone half mad. And yet it seemed to be holding up quite well.
Its memory had clearly developed some problems, but its ability to communicate was still intact.
Gauss couldn't help suspecting that if Eden had truly been human once, then it definitely had not been an ordinary one.
Ordinary people simply did not possess that kind of stable, powerful mind.
Even with his current mental strength, Gauss wasn't sure he could preserve his original self over that kind of endless stretch of time, all while resisting the invasive instincts of a monster's body.
"I'll be relying on you for the exploration of the fifth floor."
"No problem."
Even though Eden spent most of its time loafing around or sleeping, it still knew the fifth floor's environment extremely well.
Gauss decided to let the Red Dragon Company rest in place for a day so the members could recover their stamina and the wounded could receive proper treatment.
Meanwhile, he intended to use that time to continue training his dragon.
Ever since he had gained the racial talent Rider and the professional trait Proof of Leadership, Hephaestus's intelligence had been steadily increasing in a subtle, gradual way.
In truth, Gauss had already noticed the good news the moment he released Hephaestus onto the fifth floor. It seemed that the influence Gauss had on it had finally crossed some threshold. Today, Hephaestus had fully awakened.
The most obvious sign was that the amount of draconic speech it could understand and use had increased dramatically.
And not just in a simple vocabulary sense. It could now also use draconic language to draw on much deeper reserves of power, awakening far stronger control over mana.
In the past, Hephaestus had only been able to barely summon flames, and on a good day manage a cantrip or two, and even then the results had been unstable.
That had simply been the result of low intelligence.
Now that it had truly awakened, things should be different.
"Cast the cantrip Firebolt."
Gauss spoke in standard draconic, sounding almost like a mother teaching a young child.
"Okay."
Hephaestus nodded.
Then it closed its eyes, clearly focusing, and in the next moment a Firebolt formed in front of it and shot straight at Gauss.
Whoosh!
The arrow was far larger than one cast by an ordinary human spellcaster, and it flew with frightening speed.
Even the surrounding air rose rapidly in temperature as it approached.
Gauss did not bother dodging.
He simply let the arrow hit him.
The next instant, it exploded into roaring fire and swallowed him completely.
The flames lasted more than ten seconds before finally dying down.
"Not bad. Your aim's pretty good."
When the fire faded, Gauss naturally emerged completely unharmed.
Off to the side, Hephaestus lowered its head a little guiltily.
Of course, as its master, Gauss wasn't about to care about that tiny act of revenge.
Having personally tested the strength of the magic Hephaestus had gained after awakening, he understood even more deeply just how absurd dragon talent really was.
Hephaestus's cantrip had completely surpassed the power of most human spellcasters' Level 1 spells.
And that was despite the fact that it was still basically a complete novice at magic, with no mastery of advanced techniques like upcasting. Yet one casual release had already reached that level. It was hard not to be amazed.
"Try Lightning Claw next."
Gauss had actually tried teaching that elemental cantrip to Hephaestus before.
But maybe because Hephaestus had red dragon blood, it had only ever barely managed a crude version of Firebolt on a good day. It had never once succeeded with Lightning Claw.
Worried that Hephaestus might not remember it clearly, Gauss demonstrated it several times himself, even deliberately slowing it down.
Bolts of electricity leapt from his palm and tore through the air, and after the spell ended, little snake-like arcs still danced in the air.
Hephaestus's golden slit-pupiled eyes leaned in and studied them closely.
Just like Gauss's own gold dragon-eyes after activating Dragonseed, Hephaestus too could perceive the flow of mana.
But after several tries, only a few weak sparks managed to crawl out.
Hephaestus's face immediately fell.
"Sorry, Gauss. This one's hard."
Looking at its frustration, though, Gauss actually seemed pleased. He could already tell that its talent really had changed fundamentally. It looked like failure, but with every attempt it had come closer and closer to actually producing the spell.
"Gauss, is this the big guy you're raising? Is it a dragon? Why does it seem kind of silly?" Eden commented.
Casting spells as Eden did was as natural as eating and drinking. In its view, this dragon, though still juvenile, had rather poor magical talent.
Perhaps because it instinctively sensed something, Hephaestus, which had been looking discouraged, suddenly lifted its head and looked around in confusion.
"Can you hear someone talking?" Gauss asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
Maybe Hephaestus really could perceive Eden's voice after all.
He had already asked Eden before, and according to it, its communication with him was a high-level application of mental force—targeted transmission, not some kind of broadcast that any sufficiently strong mind could overhear.
By all logic, Hephaestus should not be able to hear it.
"No. Just... something feels weird," Hephaestus said in a low voice.
So it was more like intuition.
Gauss nodded, then replied to Eden at the same time.
"Hephaestus was originally just a drake. Oh, right—do you know what drakes are?"
"Oh, I know, I know." Eden sounded surprised. "Then that big guy is actually pretty smart."
"I think I ran into drakes before when I was wandering outside. One of them tried to eat me. Very rude creature."
"You seem to remember things about monsters pretty clearly," Gauss commented.
"Maybe it's because of this body." Eden didn't sound very certain. "So, you're teaching it magic now?"
"Yes."
"Then I won't bother you. I'll just watch. Do your best."
Gauss finished another round of private communication with Eden.
Meanwhile, Hephaestus had watched Gauss go silent after asking that strange question, and apparently interpreted it as disappointment in its performance.
It crouched there uneasily.
"Gauss, maybe we should switch back to fire magic. I'm better at that."
Seeing Gauss look back at it again, Hephaestus hurriedly offered the suggestion.
It instinctively felt that its affinity for fire-related magic was far stronger.
"No. Try again. I'll demonstrate a few more times."
Gauss shook his head.
Dragons were incredibly powerful magical creatures.
Hephaestus had finally awakened because of his influence.
If it were limited to just fire magic, that would be a terrible waste.
Encouraging it to develop broadly didn't conflict at all with emphasizing fire magic.
It was like telling a child to eat vegetables too and not be picky, while still letting rice and bread remain the staple of their meals.
Level 1 Burning Hands, Level 2 Scorching Orb, even Level 3 Fireball—he could teach all of them to Hephaestus. It seemed to have the ability to learn magic even without pre-made spell models.
The only question was how far it could go at its current stage.
For Gauss, this was his first time properly acting as a dragon's magic teacher.
~~~
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