Hephaestus's magic lessons did not go as smoothly as Gauss had expected.
Its magical talent was undeniably strong.
It picked up Level 1 spells very quickly. With Gauss teaching it, it only needed a dozen or so practice attempts before it successfully mastered Burning Hands.
Anything related to fire seemed almost instinctive to it.
But once they moved on to the Level 2 Scorching Orb, things stopped going so smoothly.
Even though Gauss himself had learned Scorching Orb from a spellbook, and he did not use it that often in daily combat, so its proficiency was not especially high among his many spells—only Iv3 (39/50)—that should still have been more than enough to teach someone else.
In his judgment, Iv3 already counted as proficient, enough to cast it reliably in most combat situations.
Seeing Hephaestus looking a little frustrated, Gauss spoke up to comfort it.
He had already guessed the reason. It probably had nothing to do with Hephaestus's magical talent. More likely, it had simply been exposed to magic for too short a time, and its fundamentals were still too weak.
So for now, it simply did not have enough foundational knowledge to cross the threshold into Level 2 magic. The complexity of Level 2 spells really was several times greater than that of Level 1 spells.
You could tell as much just by looking at the kinds of people who first learned them.
A level 1 caster could already begin learning Level 1 spells. Even though casters with class levels were seen by ordinary people as noble mages, mysterious figures who wielded arcane power, in Gauss's eyes now, they were basically just rookies who had only just crawled out of ignorance. Calling them amateurs would not be an exaggeration.
You could not expect most level 1 casters to possess any particularly solid magical foundation.
But Level 2 spells were different. At the very least, you needed to be a Level 3 caster to learn them, and even Level 4 or Level 5 casters often still relied heavily on Level 2 magic.
Casters at that level were usually veterans who had spent ten, twenty, or even more years immersed in the world of professional magic.
So the gap between Level 1 and Level 2 spells was not something as simple as "just one number higher."
Back in its drake days, Hephaestus had indeed been very powerful. With a dragon's body, it had been naturally gifted, and even among commander-level monsters, it counted as a formidable fighter. It could easily slaughter enemies that outnumbered it by hundreds or even thousands of times.
And many low-level monsters would be cowed by the dragon aura radiating from it, leaving them unable to bring even half their real strength to bear.
With one side weakened and the other strengthened, unless it ran into an "anomaly" like Gauss, Hephaestus would have almost no chance of meeting an enemy between Levels 6 and 10 that could actually kill it.
By all rights, that was already impressive.
But after seeing the overwhelming might of Eden, the King of Slimes, his Red Dragon Hephaestus suddenly seemed a little less extraordinary.
Still, if it only kept relying on the physical advantages of its dragon body, it would eventually hit a limit—and that limit would come quickly.
Even a red dragon, the physically strongest of the chromatic dragons, usually only barely possessed power beyond the mortal realm once it reached adulthood.
The reason was simple. A dragon's body was indeed powerful, but physical growth alone also had its ceiling. That was simply a rule of the real world.
If one could not master a higher-order power, then at best one would only become a living target for others.
And even those powerhouses who looked as if they had "ascended through the flesh" did not truly rely on raw muscle alone. Their brute strength might appear to come from the body, but if you traced it back far enough, it usually involved deeper internal energies—sword aura, battle qi, or something similar. No matter what form it took, it always had to merge with a deeper layer of power.
Even the indestructible body of a true adult dragon was influenced by the magic accumulating and strengthening inside it over long years.
Now that Hephaestus had fully awakened its intelligence, the magic within its body had also swelled considerably. And it was easy to predict that for some time to come, its magical power would continue rising on a large scale.
You could say that it was now a genuine red dragon in every sense.
The difference between it and other red dragons was perhaps that it lacked a true name and the inheritance carried in its bloodline. But once it taught itself more spells, that difference would become harder and harder to notice from the outside.
So although Hephaestus had not yet mastered Level 2 magic, Gauss was not too anxious about it.
In his view, as long as he helped Hephaestus solidify its fundamentals and patiently waited for its magic to continue developing, it would naturally grow into higher level spells in due course—especially fire-element magic.
"All right, let's call it here for today."
"Hephaestus, you're almost out of magic too. Take a break for now."
Even though Hephaestus's magic reserves were astonishing compared to ordinary Level 1 or 2 casters, it had only awakened its intelligence not long ago, and its magic was still in the middle of fully stirring awake. After all that practice just now, it was already close to running dry.
Noticing the state of its body, Gauss promptly stopped Hephaestus from trying to practice further.
It was probably the first time it had fully realized just how wonderful magic could be. It had completely shed its usual lazy attitude and become surprisingly diligent in training.
"Fine…"
Hephaestus lowered its huge head unwillingly. Its magic really was almost gone.
A fierce wave of hunger was already rising from its stomach.
"Gauss, I'm hungry."
Though it had awakened its intelligence, its emotional maturity was still close to that of a child in many ways. The way it treated Gauss felt less like a companion and more like the dependence of a child on a parent.
Or perhaps, deep in its subconscious, the human Gauss had taken the place of the red dragon mother who had abandoned it in the dragon's nest when it was young.
That tendency had only become more obvious after it awakened.
"Then I'll have someone bring food over."
Long before he started teaching Hephaestus magic, Gauss had already told the team's cooks to prepare some roasted whole lamb and roasted mushroom-folk—special meals made just for Hephaestus.
The main dish was, of course, the latter, since the ingredients could be gathered on the spot anywhere in the labyrinth.
As soon as they received Gauss's notice, cart after cart of dragon-sized meals was hauled over.
The mushroom-folk's bodies had been roasted until tender and juicy. The butter brushed over the surface had seeped deep into the fluffy mushroom fibers under the high heat of baking, releasing a faint sweet aroma.
After the other members of the Red Dragon Company left, Hephaestus opened its maw and began to eat. Gauss also reached out, tore off some strands of mushroom fiber, and put them into his mouth.
Perhaps the [Feast] racial talent had modified his body too successfully—he felt no discomfort at all. On the contrary, he found it even more delicious than most ordinary food.
It was clearly vegetarian, yet the energy and fullness it provided were no less than those of other monster flesh.
That was probably because the mushroom fibers had long been steeped in magic and had their structure altered, and because Gauss's own digestive system had such powerful decomposition ability. Together, those factors created this effect.
Even though he was not that hungry yet, Gauss still ate quite a lot.
Watching the man and dragon devour the meal with gusto, Eden, floating in the void, suddenly felt a little envious.
It had not eaten a proper meal in a very long time. Since becoming a slime, it had barely needed to eat at all.
Its elementalized body allowed it to sustain itself simply by exchanging air and absorbing natural magic from the environment.
"Is it good?" Eden stared eagerly and could not help asking.
It had no body now, after all—it had not revived yet. So even though watching Gauss and Hephaestus eat had stirred up cravings it had not felt in who knew how many years, it could do nothing about it. It could only watch Gauss chew and imagine the taste from the satisfied look on his face.
"It's not bad. Definitely better than eating it raw."
"Then once I revive, I'm trying it myself," Eden said, still sounding a little unwilling to let it go.
Gauss could only laugh.
But suddenly he grew curious—did slimes even have something like a sense of taste?
Still, he did not ask. He could always find out after Eden came back to life.
The magic practice just now had clearly taken a lot out of Hephaestus. This time its appetite was absurdly huge. It finished every cartload of food that had been brought over and still looked unsatisfied, turning its gaze toward Gauss.
As the responsible parent, Gauss could only tell the cooks of the Red Dragon Company to put in some extra work. Fortunately, they were not lacking in mushroom-folk as the main ingredient.
The seasonings and other cooking supplies needed to feed Hephaestus would indeed be used up in large amounts, but considering that the Red Dragon Company's own supply convoy would be heading outside the labyrinth for restocking in the next few days, there was no need to be overly frugal. They could afford to use a little more freely.
The meal lasted quite a long time. During it, curious members like Alia and Shadow also came over to watch for a while.
In truth, they had already noticed the commotion here while Gauss was teaching Hephaestus, but since he had been busy with serious business, they had refrained from disturbing him.
Hephaestus was fairly familiar with the rest of Gauss's core team, and while eating, it even nodded to them in greeting.
As for the other members, though, expecting any reaction from it would be wishful thinking.
Dragons were naturally arrogant creatures, and red dragons especially so. The reason Hephaestus was willing to accept people like Alia was only because they were Gauss's close teammates, so it extended them favor by association.
In its eyes, the other members of the Red Dragon Company were probably no different from the kobold tribe servants it had once ruled underground.
It would protect them in battle partly because of Gauss's orders, and partly because of the instinctive mindset of a lord. After all, servants were also a kind of property.
They rested in place for a full day.
The next day, Gauss's Red Dragon Company officially set out to explore the fifth floor.
With Eden acting as their "guide," Gauss's progress through the fifth floor was fairly smooth.
Their first destination was Eden's former lair.
Even though it had been rather laid-back in the past, the mushroom chieftains under its command would still regularly offer treasures to it, their lord.
Some of those had been magic fruits, which it had eaten as soon as it received them.
It might not have had well-cooked meals in a long time, but when it came to heavenly treasures like magic fruits and magic minerals, it had never been picky.
Its liquefied, energy-based body could digest the vast majority of foreign matter, like a pro-max version of an ordinary slime's digestive ability.
Other than the resources it had already eaten, it remembered there should still be some treasures left.
Many of those treasures had been scavenged by the mushroom tribes from various parts of the fifth floor of the labyrinth.
As for why the labyrinth kept producing treasures endlessly, that also seemed to be tied to the labyrinth's underlying mechanism.
Eden shared its thoughts with Gauss.
It had been sucked into the labyrinth and trapped in a long period of suspended time. Only recently, after the labyrinth opened, had it finally been able to move again.
That experience had led it to think a little about the true nature of the labyrinth.
It guessed that the labyrinth was something like a sieve-space hidden in the layers between the material planes of the world.
This space had existed for a very long time, and from time to time, it would spontaneously draw in monsters or valuable objects, as if it were some tool carrying out a command that had been set long ago.
When talking about its imprisonment in the labyrinth, Eden did not sound especially bitter. On the contrary, Gauss could even hear a trace of relief in its tone.
Thinking about it carefully, being sucked into the labyrinth and having its time suspended might not have been a bad thing for Eden at all.
If time had continued normally all the way until now, it would most likely have lost that remaining fragment of human consciousness and spirit, and been completely influenced—or even dominated—by the instincts of a monster.
It was rather like terminally ill patients from Gauss's previous life choosing cryogenic sleep.
Gauss kept talking with Eden as they continued onward.
The fifth floor really was enormous.
Even with Eden personally guiding them, it still took quite a while to reach its old lair.
Of course, if Gauss had been traveling alone, he probably could have gotten there much faster.
But considering there were several mushroom nests nearby, which just so happened to be useful for training the troops, drilling the Red Dragon Company members, and letting Hephaestus practice the magic it had just learned—while also allowing Gauss himself to slack off a little—he had not made any effort to hurry.
When they arrived at Eden's lair, there were no guards anywhere nearby.
The place looked completely deserted.
"So those mushroom guards you mentioned all ran off, huh? Don't tell me they already took your treasure and fled with it," Gauss said jokingly.
In truth, even if they had stolen the treasure, he was not worried in the slightest. At worst, he would just deal with the thieves and the treasure in one go.
"Relax. I set up a restrictive formation at the entrance to my lair. Those mushroom-folk can't get in on their own." Eden sounded extremely confident. "Want to try it?"
Its control over magic was highly refined.
The cave entrance was sealed by an extremely sturdy deep-blue magic formation, and even the rock wall behind it was coated in the same dense energy. In other words, even if someone bypassed the entrance and tried tunneling through the mountain from elsewhere, they still would not be able to invade its lair.
What was more, the mountain around the cave had also seemingly been specially reinforced with magic.
Gauss activated his "Dragonseed" bloodline, and soon a dragon claw of energy marked with scale-like patterns wrapped around his right arm as he clenched his fist.
Bang!
He unleashed monstrous strength and slammed a brutal punch into the sapphire-like magical seal.
The powerful impact burst from the tips of his dragon claw.
A visible wave of white shock air erupted outward in every direction from the point of impact.
Boom!
Cracks spread several meters through the ground beneath his feet.
The blow was powerful enough to smash through a city wall, yet it only left a single crack in the magical seal. It looked like only minor damage. Meanwhile, magic from the surrounding areas continuously flowed in to repair the loss from the strike, and before long, it was completely restored.
Gauss was not surprised that his attack had achieved so little.
It was not because Eden's strength or magical skill far surpassed his own. Rather, this magic formation was a full magical system that had been polished over weeks or even months. Building it would have required immense time, effort, and magical power.
Unless his strength overwhelmingly surpassed Eden's, there was no way he was going to dismantle the formation in just a few blows.
Seeing that even Gauss—someone it approved of—could not easily destroy the seal, Eden quietly let out a sigh of relief. But when it saw that Gauss still looked eager to keep trying, it quickly cut in.
"Just walk up to it. I left an access code for entering and leaving."
If Gauss actually managed to break the formation, it would be way too embarrassing for Eden.
The "code" Eden referred to was a specific magic-wave pattern. After communicating with it, Gauss easily replicated it with his own magic.
The next moment, the magical seal that could withstand a huge amount of punishment quietly melted away before Gauss, leaving behind an opening just large enough for one person to pass through.
Gauss stepped inside.
"Your place is pretty ordinary, though cleaner than I expected," Gauss continued in the mental channel.
"What exactly do you take me for? And besides, a King Slime body like mine doesn't excrete waste like low-grade slimes do," Eden said, suddenly flustered as it hurried to defend itself.
"And actually, low-grade slimes don't really either. They just can't digest certain things, so they squeeze the undissolved parts back out of their bodies. Since those are coated in foul-smelling digestive fluid, it only looks like they're excreting."
Eden generously offered the explanation.
Even after becoming a monster, it was cleaner than the vast majority of humans.
It did not want Gauss getting any strange misunderstandings.