A labyrinth might sound like a confined place, but in reality each floor is astonishingly vast. If an ordinary person were suddenly teleported inside, they probably wouldn't realize they were in a labyrinth at all—they'd think they'd been dropped into a dense forest.
It was just that this "forest" was packed with obstacles and all kinds of traps that could kill at any moment.
Tap, tap.
Boots crushed dry leaves underfoot with crisp snapping sounds.
Bang!
Alia casually swung her staff, sending a magic frog that had leapt at her flying through the air.
Ribbit—!!!
The magic frog let out a shrill scream, flew for some distance, then slammed into the trunk of a giant tree. Its body quickly collapsed into a muddy smear.
"Another magic frog."
"Ever since we entered the fourth floor, there've been more and more frog-type monsters."
Alia shook her head.
"Could the floor boss be some giant frog?"
"Maybe," Gauss said, looking off in a certain direction.
Just as Alia had said, the proportion of frog-type monsters on this floor had increased dramatically compared to the first three.
Actually, he had noticed it as early as the camp outside the entrance. At the time, he'd assumed it was just a coincidence—maybe a single magic frog tribe had been ordered by the lord to attack the camp.
But once they left the camp and truly began exploring the fourth floor, the monsters they encountered were still full of different kinds of magic frogs.
Clearly, magic frogs dominated the ecological chain of this floor. Following that logic, the powerful lord behind them was very likely some kind of magic frog overlord.
A magic frog, as the name implied, was basically a frog capable of using magic.
Their abilities varied widely. Some spat water balls, some spewed fire, some unleashed sonic attacks, and others hurled lightning.
No wonder there are so many monsters on this floor, Gauss thought.
Compared to most other creatures, frogs had short growth cycles and could mature quickly. A female frog could lay hundreds of eggs at a time.
Of course, magic frogs laid far fewer than normal frogs. A few dozen at once would already be considered a lot. But there was another factor to consider: on the fourth floor, they lived with almost no natural predators. That meant the survival rate of their offspring was far above normal.
Gauss knew labyrinths seemed to have some kind of built-in "monster replenishment" system, but he still couldn't completely rule out the possibility that labyrinth monsters could increase their numbers through ordinary reproduction too.
Ribbit!!
Before the magic frog in front of him could spit out its lightning orb, Gauss manipulated water threads around its swollen belly. With a slight tightening, the magic frog's mana flow was cut off instantly, and its body was sliced neatly in half.
The moment he killed it, Gauss also made sure to use the water threads to cut out its mana gland and store it away.
Ninety percent of a magic frog's value lay in that gland. That said, only glands from elite-level magic frogs were really valuable. The rest could barely count as low-grade alchemical material.
"We're running into more and more magic frogs."
Shadow returned after killing more than a dozen elite magic frogs ahead and spoke at Gauss's side.
"That's because we're close," Gauss said calmly. "The lord down there is probably about to lose patience."
Yes. Based on the map, after advancing for most of the day along the shortest route, they were now within about a kilometer in a straight line from the lord's location.
That was also why the magic frogs, despite being no match for them, were still hurling themselves at the Red Dragon Company in waves.
Whether it was of their own will or under the lord's command, at this point they were clearly trying to block the company's advance with sheer flesh and blood.
But against an overwhelming gap in power, even suicidal resistance was meaningless. It did nothing but add more numbers to Gauss's monster kill total.
"Magic Frog Slain ×1"
"Total Monster Kills: 41,788"
A few hours ago, his total kills had already crossed forty thousand, leaving him less than ten thousand away from the fifty-thousand milestone reward.
Of course, passing forty thousand had also given him two smaller rewards: the Level 4 spell Polymorph and the spell Invisibility.
Gauss was always happy to receive spells directly from the manual, because it saved him the trouble of learning them himself, required less effort to master later, and most importantly, spells granted by the manual didn't place extra strain on his mind.
That was one of the biggest reasons he knew noticeably more spells than ordinary spellcasters.
Just then, deep inside a concealed cave about a kilometer away—
Ribbit…!
A low, powerful frog call boomed from the darkness, shaking loose small stones from the cave walls.
Unlike most magic frogs, this one was enormous—several meters long.
It crouched on a stone platform in the deepest part of the cave. Its powerful hind legs were folded beneath it, its forelimbs braced in front, and its body occupied most of the cavern like a mound of flesh.
What made it particularly unsettling was the many bulging sacs covering its dark purple skin. They swelled and contracted with its breathing, as though something alive was writhing inside them.
A closer look revealed that these magic-filled sacs came in four colors.
Red, blue, yellow, and green—corresponding to fire, water, lightning, and poison.
Its whole body was covered in mana sacs, allowing it to cast magic almost instinctively. With a single thought, the elemental power in those sacs could surge out and become corresponding magical attacks.
And inside it was another special thing: a fragment of labyrinth authority. That was how it could command almost all the monsters on this floor.
At the moment, it had its eyes closed, as if sensing something.
A moment later, it opened them abruptly, and its blood-red frog eyes flashed with distinctly human-like thought.
Ribbit…
Even though it had already sent the magic frogs into a frenzy to attack the intruders, those humans were still steadily advancing toward its position.
It was beginning to suspect it had been exposed.
As a monster, it wasn't stupid at all. In fact, it was smarter than most humans.
Ever since the labyrinth had reopened, it had never shown itself once—not even against humans far weaker than it. Let alone against humans who might actually be strong enough to kill it.
It only ever sent its monster servants to attack. Even if it cost dozens or hundreds of servants to kill a single human adventurer, it considered the trade worthwhile.
That was because, besides ordering attacks on humans, it had issued another command: all monster servants were to breed as much as possible.
The number of human adventurers entering the labyrinth was limited. Monsters, on the other hand, could always outnumber them. As long as it, the lord, remained alive, trading dozens or hundreds of monsters for one human adventurer was still acceptable.
But this time, something felt different.
It had hidden itself perfectly, yet that human group was still advancing straight toward it as if they already knew where it was.
Why?
Its gaze seemed to pierce through the thick stone, fixing on Gauss and the others as they rapidly approached.
Once the distance between them dropped to around five hundred meters, it was finally forced to accept the truth.
Its position had indeed been exposed.
Ribbit—!!
With a deep croak, the entire fourth floor of the labyrinth seemed to tremble.
All across the floor, monsters raised their heads at almost the same moment and looked in the same direction.
Then they began to move.
…
"Watch out!"
The young swordsman slashed out with his sword, sending a blade of sword energy that cut a giant lightning orb in half just before it struck his mage companion.
The orb split and exploded, and countless snake-like streams of electricity lashed out in every direction.
In an instant, they blasted a two-meter-wide blackened crater into the ground.
Seeing that, the mage—who had been focused on the elite magic frogs attacking from the front—felt his pupils constrict. He turned to the swordsman and thanked him sincerely.
If his companion hadn't acted, and that lightning orb had detonated at his side, he honestly didn't know if his Mage Armor and robe would have been enough to protect him.
"We're teammates. That's just—"
The swordsman waved him off without looking back, his eyes still locked on the surrounding forest.
But the words caught in his throat.
"Why are all these monsters suddenly retreating?"
The others stared in disbelief as the magic frogs rapidly turned tail and leapt deeper into the forest.
The scene made no sense to them.
Ever since they'd reached the fourth floor, this was the first time they had seen anything like it.
By their experience, the monsters on the fourth floor were all lunatics. Unless you killed them all, they would keep attacking human intruders without stopping.
It was exactly that kind of suicidal, "bleed every last drop" fighting style that had made exploring the fourth floor so much harder, with much greater risk of injury and death.
That was why small teams like theirs always returned to camp every day, even if it slowed down exploration.
"Captain, should we chase?"
"No. We go back to camp first."
After a short pause, the team leader still made the call.
Something strange was happening.
He knew the fourth floor had changed somehow.
And whether that was good or bad, the safest thing to do was return to camp. There, at least, there were more people, stronger defenses, and if necessary, they could retreat to the third floor through the tunnel immediately.
Labyrinth treasures were valuable, but not valuable enough to die for.
The adventurers who could reach the fourth floor were not weak, and they all had enough experience to make the same judgment.
In fact, many adventurers throughout the fourth floor were doing exactly the same thing—turning back toward camp the moment they noticed the abnormality.
At the center of it all, however, Gauss's team was already extremely close to the target.
"Be careful."
"That lord has definitely noticed us."
Gauss could already feel the surrounding monster servants becoming even more frenzied, and immediately understood that the lord itself had issued the command.
"Commander, go ahead. Leave these monsters to us," Luna said, telling him not to worry.
Even though there were a lot of monsters, most of them were ordinary creatures without formal challenge ratings. As for elite monsters, there were fewer than expected. They'd likely already been sent out to attack the adventurers on the fourth floor.
"Good."
Gauss nodded.
Then he lightly flicked his white wand. A tremendous tide of mana surged through his body and burst from the tip of the wand into a huge lump of clay spread across the ground.
"Clay Magic."
The original Level 2 clay spell was forcefully elevated to Level 4 power under Gauss's full concentration.
The massive mound of magical clay that the Red Dragon Company had worked tirelessly to collect began writhing like a living creature. Ripples spread across its surface as countless tiny clay particles were pulled together by an invisible force, taking on a new shape.
At the same time, strands of goblin essence poured madly into the clay.
Mana, clay, and the spiritual remnants of tens of thousands of goblins fused together in a strange reaction.
The clay swelled.
"Rise."
The violent trembling ceased at once.
First, two huge lower limbs thicker than tree trunks extended from the base and planted themselves firmly on the ground, making dead leaves jump from the impact.
Then a rock-like torso bulged into shape, followed by arms so thick they'd take a grown man's embrace to circle.
Finally, a gigantic, brutal-looking head slowly rose from the top.
A clay goblin giant, seven or eight meters tall, stood before them.
This was the first truly powerful single-unit clay construct Gauss had ever made.
By his estimate, its combat strength was around level eight to nine in challenge rating—possibly even more dangerous than that.
And as far as Clay Magic went, raw fighting strength was actually the least impressive thing about it.
Its real terror was that it feared no death and had no meaningful weak points.
What's more, creating it had cost much less mana than Gauss had expected. The countless goblin essences woven into the clay seemed to help sustain its form and reduce the cost of maintaining it.
"Protect them."
The clay goblin giant nodded.
Then it reached out, grabbed a nearby tree, and with no apparent effort ripped the entire trunk from the ground.
It hefted the tree, apparently finding it acceptable as a weapon, then turned and charged at the flood of magic frogs surging in from every direction.
Boom, boom, boom!
With its unmatched strength, the monsters before it were swept aside like trash. Every swing reduced them to red mist, scattering remains dozens of meters away.
Gauss's kill count began climbing rapidly.
41,799…
41,820…
41,887…
The Red Dragon Company members fighting nearby all looked up and swallowed hard.
What a brutally violent fighting style.
Thank goodness this thing was on their side. If it were their enemy, just imagining it was enough to make them despair.
Having cast the spell, Gauss glanced at the fast-rising numbers in his bestiary and smiled in satisfaction.
He could practically feel himself growing stronger as the count increased. In some ways, that kind of visible progress really was motivating. It was deeply fulfilling.
Still, he had his own business to handle. Pulling his focus back, he held the crystal sphere in one hand and closed his eyes, stretching his senses outward.
Even though they had arrived at the location marked on the map, he still couldn't see the enemy itself.
Why? Underground?
Just as Gauss was about to send his spiritual perception beneath the ground, the air in front of him suddenly rippled like water, and a massive figure slowly materialized.
Ribbit—! Ribbit!
The newly emerged lord of the fourth floor threw back its head and roared, as though declaring its arrival.
In the very next instant, a scorching fireball dropped straight from the sky toward its head.
The Magic Frog Lord's eyes shrank in terror.
It clearly hadn't expected the enemy's attack to come that suddenly.