The moment Gauss deactivated Ghost Form, he felt his thigh go limp as the once abundant power abruptly drained away.
A distinct sense of weakness spread through his body.
"Hah—"
He exhaled deeply.
After experiencing such overwhelming strength, returning to normal felt somewhat uncomfortable.
He pulled some jerky and a lantern fruit from his Storage Bag and stuffed them into his mouth.
A slight dizziness crept into his mind, caused by the lack of energy.
Fortunately, the battle had ended quickly, so the dizziness wasn’t too severe.
"Captain, are you alright?"
Serlandul was the first to arrive. He eyed the unconscious stranger on the ground warily, then turned to Gauss.Gauss’s complexion was pale, clearly showing signs of exhaustion.
"I’m fine."
"Sit down and rest a moment, I’ll check you over," Serlandul insisted.
As the team’s healer, he needed to ensure Gauss’s physical condition.
Under the glow of Serlandul’s healing light, Gauss’s fatigue seemed to dissipate somewhat, and his bodily functions gradually recovered.
Aria lightly jumped down from Ulfen’s back.
First, she used a rope to securely bind the unconscious "enemy," then approached Gauss.
Only after seeing the color return little by little to his cheeks did she speak,
"Who are these people?"
"The 'dogs' of the Maze," Gauss warned, glancing at the tightly bound enemies on the ground.
Even with his strength partially restrained, his punch in Ghost Form had been heavy.
The front of the enemy’s head caved in, with skin scraped off several meters back on the cheek, upper lip, and elbow from sliding. The tender pink flesh was exposed, blood seeping rapidly—looking pitiful.
"Ser Ulfen, patch him up quickly. Don’t let me die," Gauss said with a grimace toward the enemy.
He wasn’t being merciful by having Ulfen help with healing—he feared the opponent would die on the spot, and he still wanted to learn the details of what happened.
From the moment they realized they were being followed, Gauss had sentenced those hyenas to death in his heart.
That was considered "removing harm for the people." Surely they wouldn’t just let the tiger return to the mountain. Even if they attacked Gauss and his team, other innocent adventurers would be at risk.
After a short rest, Gauss stood up.
Normally, to deal with them, he would have to activate Ghost Form, but he wanted to avoid complications and let none of his team escape, so he held back.
In hindsight, that decision had a slight flaw.
Next to him, Ser Ulfen was still busy treating the wounded rogue.
He lamented how hard Gauss had hit—if the fight had dragged on longer, the rogue might have truly died.
Thanks to his emergency treatment, the rogue barely hung onto life, but a full recovery would take some time.
"Can we make him conscious for a moment?"
"Yes," Serlandul understood immediately, thought for a moment, then nodded decisively.
He drew a line on the rogue’s forehead with a knife, then sprinkled some pale red powder on the wound.
After a while,
the rogue slowly opened his eyes.
He supported his head, touching a wet, sticky hand.
Opening his palm, the deep red blood caught his eyes, and the stabbing pain returned.
What’s going on…?
"Thanks, Serlandul," a man’s voice sounded beside him.
He turned his head and saw a figure in a black robe.
His memories flooded back all at once.
Right, they were working, then got discovered, then...
His heartbeat suddenly quickened.
He remembered everything!
That man before him—the one who became a demon—had wiped out their entire team...
Am I really still alive?
Suddenly, he shivered violently.
Because the black-robed man crouched down, his gaze piercing directly at him.
"Can you tell me when exactly you started following us..."
...
Over ten minutes later, Gauss ended the "interrogation."
The process went smoothly.
Aria had found truth serum and other drugs in their belongings.
In such a fragile mental state, it was hard to resist the drugs’ effects.
Moreover, Gauss didn’t only question that one man.
Elsewhere, the injured rogue, whose arm had been severed by Gauss at first, after emergency care, was also "questioned."
Their two testimonies corroborated each other, basically confirming the intelligence.
It turned out this pack of "dogs" camped near the second floor entrance, even deliberately spreading entrance information to the first floor.
Once adventurers entered the second floor, they would tail them from afar using the rogues’ stealth skills.
They didn’t rush to attack. Sometimes they even lay in wait for days, either setting traps with sedatives at night or waiting for the target team to encounter other crises.
For example, when the target was exhausted from fighting monsters, they pounced like vultures, reaping the benefits.
According to them, the Maze had several such dog squads, all tacitly understanding not to interfere with each other.
"These people are truly evil," Aria sighed.
Exploring the Maze was already fraught with danger from traps, environment, and monsters. Now they had to beware of these hidden vipers as well.
With the intelligence in hand, Serlandul sent the two rogues on their way.
After a quick search, they found a fair amount of loot on the four men.
Their stealth gear and daggers were magical items. Even the lowest grade was worth a lot of gold coins. Adding cash and other items, the total likely exceeded eighty gold coins.
This was leftover money after their wild spending. They always splurged after missions, living extravagantly. Otherwise, their savings would be greater.
From this, it was clear they had victimized quite a few adventurers.
"Dying so easily was too cheap for them," Aria said angrily, kicking the corpses twice. "They actually tried to ambush us."
But thankfully, Gauss was there.
Her gaze quietly settled on Gauss, and the image of that tall, white figure from earlier flashed in her mind.
Although it looked a bit odd and scary at first glance, upon reflection, she felt that posture was somewhat masterful.
Finally, the corpses were stripped and thrown into a corner.
The plants on the Maze’s second floor grew rapidly; soon their bodies would be covered in vegetation and insects, becoming nutrients for the ever-growing Maze.
They would meet the same fate as the innocent victims of these tormentors.
The night passed quietly.
Because of the raiders’ night attack, the night watch was especially vigilant.
Even Gauss only maintained light sleep, constantly alert for possible surprises.
"Hah—"
Gauss yawned.
After washing up and during breakfast, he noticed Aria frequently sneaking glances at him, looking hesitant to speak.
"Is something on your mind?" he asked bluntly.
Upon hearing this, Aria hesitated briefly, then shyly said,
"Gauss, that little clay figure, can you make one for me too?"
That morning she had seen Serlandul painting a clay figure and learned it was made by Gauss after she fell asleep last night.
"Why? Mine doesn’t look good. Do you really want one?" Gauss scratched his head, puzzled.
"Yes, I want one too," Aria nodded vigorously.
"Alright." Gauss had hesitated to make one himself because he thought it was embarrassing.
But if she insisted, he’d make one.
Soon, he pinched some clay and activated Shaping Magic.
The clay twisted and morphed, and before long, a palm-sized clay figure appeared in Gauss’s hand.
The clay figure held a crooked wooden staff, wore a robe, and had a wreath made from green vines on its head.
"Thank you."
Aria didn’t ask for anything else. Happily, she took the clay figure to warm it nearby.
Once infused with mana or natural energy, the completed clay figure would glow faintly, adding a special effect to the otherwise plain appearance.
"Next, let’s try to head west as much as possible."
Before setting out, Gauss confirmed the travel direction for the day.
From last night’s interrogation of the dog squad, they obtained another important piece of information: the entrance to the third floor was likely on the west side.
They concluded this because the Maze’s entrances, although random, followed a natural rule: new entrances wouldn’t be too close to old ones.
The dog squad was also searching for the third floor. According to their intel, the latest entrance refresh was on the east side, so now the entrance was likely near the west area of the map.
After packing, the team set off again.
Along the way, Gauss continued clearing small monsters and normal creatures nearby, needing more spiritual energy.
On the Maze’s second floor, most wild creatures were insects: beetles, aphids, spiders, and so on.
His spiritual energy steadily increased.
During the collection, he discovered a pattern.
The strength of the clay creatures depended on the strength of the spirit they were made from and the amount of spirit invested, which correlated with the mana consumed.
For example, among insect clay creatures, a spider required more mana than the mosquito from last night.
Naturally, it was also stronger.
He had consumed several giant spider spirits, supplemented with nearly a hundred ordinary spider spirits, to create the clay spider, which already had respectable combat power.
Watching the white spider crawling rapidly nearby, Gauss’s lips curled slightly.
The spider was about the size of a face and consumed most of his current mana for clay shaping.
Though small, its jumping and movement speed were excellent.
Each leap could cover several meters.
Its eight legs could harden into sharp, blade-like weapons.
Ordinary low-level monsters were no match.
It could use powerful bursts to leap at enemies’ faces, stabbing fragile parts like eyes with its blade-like limbs.
Even if caught and a limb broke, it was no problem.
After breaking free, it could automatically absorb scattered clay to restore its body, only consuming more mana.
More importantly, as a direct product of his mana, the clay spider’s kills of low-level monsters counted as his kills in the compendium.
This delighted Gauss greatly.
Now on the road, he didn’t need to lift a finger; the clay spider would automatically find monsters by the roadside or ahead to trouble, collecting spirits while increasing his kill count and thus improving spell proficiency.
So when encountering scattered monsters in the morning, Gauss was too lazy to intervene and let the clay spider handle them all.
He only needed to occasionally replenish food and sometimes restore mana to the clay spider.
It was somewhat like the carefree "idle" playstyle from his previous life’s online games.
Efficiency might not increase much, especially with only one decent clay creature, but it was convenient and effortless.
Gauss was very satisfied with this.
Moreover, this clay creature had room for improvement. Later, as his spell skill improved, he could "mix materials" to enhance it or collect more clay or soil suitable for conducting mana to create larger and more powerful clay creatures.
"Serlandul, can your blessing spell be used on my clay spider?" he suddenly asked Serlandul beside him.
"Maybe, I’ll have to try," the half-snake person said uncertainly but nodded.
After a whole morning, the three had traveled quite a distance west before stopping for lunch.
"Gauss, does your spider pet need to eat?" Aria was curious.
"No, but it consumes my mana," Gauss answered.
"No wonder."
Aria understood why Gauss had been eating more frequently in the morning.
Ulfen and the raven Eck circled around the new "animal companion," especially Ulfen, who hopped and occasionally bit the spider’s body.
The clay spider’s body was already covered in teeth marks and wet saliva.
But the clay spider had marked Ulfen as a friendly unit, and with low intelligence, it was currently focused on work and ignored the wolf-like creature.
It quietly crushed ants beneath its sharp legs nearby, loyally carrying out the tasks Gauss assigned.
Spider spirits could absorb the spirits of dead conspecifics and other creatures, but conversion efficiency was much lower for different species.
Gauss found the giant spider spirit quite useful, so he let it keep killing surrounding ordinary insects to strengthen itself.
"Tap tap tap."
"Tap!"
As the clay spider worked diligently, one by one large ants were crushed into sticky puddles, and some ordinary existence seemed to merge into the spider’s body.
What a hardworking laborer...
Gauss withdrew his gaze.
He squatted and patted the overly energetic Ulfen on the head.
"Ulfen, don’t disturb its work."
Ulfen seemed to understand Gauss’s meaning. After being held, it showed a simple expression and stuck out its long tongue repeatedly, as if saying "I’m obedient now."
Honestly, Ulfen wasn’t very afraid of his master but dared not be unruly in front of Gauss.
The strict hierarchy and obedience to the strongest in the "family" were almost imprinted in canine bloodlines.
Gauss was the team’s strongest fighter and leader; Ulfen was always very well-behaved around him, especially when he was serious.
Still, Ulfen’s gaze toward the clay spider was somewhat resentful.
He was already friendly to this new "little brother" joining the team, but it remained cold, giving no response.
Thinking of this, Ulfen felt a bit discouraged.
However, the gloom lasted only seconds. When Aria brought over the sliced meat, Ulfen immediately perked up, wagging his tail rapidly.
The attraction of meat instantly made him forget the clay spider.
2nd Circle Spell Shaping Magic: Clay Iv2 (8/20)
After activating the clay spider for a while, Gauss consumed little mana daily, and his spell proficiency quickly rose by 8 experience points.
Although growth would slow later, he was very pleased with this progress.
Upon reaching level 3, he should be able to try integrating other items to give clay creatures more features.
This was the potential of clay magic.
Although it seemed weak at first, continuous practice revealed its comprehensive and flexible tactical value.
"But I need more clay."
Gauss looked at the precious white clay left in his hand. The amount was barely enough to shape a decent-sized clay minion.
"Serlandul, have you encountered mud statues or other monsters that might produce clay on the Maze’s second floor?"
He walked over to Serlandul, who was studying how to bless the clay spider.
"Huh?" The sudden question made Serlandul pause. "Let me think..."
"I haven’t met mud statues directly, but there might be some clues related to clay?"
He sounded uncertain.
"I once passed by an abandoned herb garden, but it was overgrown with weeds and had no valuable medicinal herbs."
He hadn’t mentioned this earlier because he thought the information was useless.
"Is it far from here?" Gauss became interested upon hearing this.
"Roughly in the direction we’re heading." Serlandul circled an area on the hand-drawn Maze map.
"Then let’s search there this afternoon."
Gauss now needed special soils, whether clay, black soil, or yellow soil—as long as they could conduct mana, he needed them.
He had tried ordinary soil; although he could create clay creatures, the structure was loose and fragile. Worse, they consumed huge mana but couldn’t maintain their form long.
Even the ordinary soil on mud statues didn’t work; only the white magical clay was suitable.
And he needed more!
In the afternoon, Serlandul hadn’t deliberately memorized the exact location of the abandoned herb garden, only the approximate direction.
Fortunately, it was on the way, so they didn’t waste extra time.
Using the mental map, Gauss finally reached Serlandul’s remembered location.
The lighting was dim, and what appeared was less a garden and more a ruined relic overrun with brambles and weeds.
The roughly piled stone walls had mostly collapsed, with broken walls barely outlining the area.
Lichen-like creeping plants covered most of the walls, giving off a sickly gray-green tone.
The three crossed a suspected entrance made of gray-black stone pillar remnants and entered the garden. The ground was a shattered stone slab path.
"The growth looks good."
Gauss scanned the enclosed garden area.
Wild brambles and dark weeds grew wildly, so dense it was hard to find footing. However, common Maze flora like glowing moss, ferns, vines, and bushes were absent.
The air was thick with a dull mix of rotting plants and damp earth.
"Aria, any findings?"
Aria had already squatted, her palm flat against the ground.
As the saying goes, each expert has their specialty.
Between the three, Gauss and Serlandul’s natural perception couldn’t compare to Aria’s druidic senses.
"It seems the soil here is different from other places." Aria’s natural energy seeped into the soil.
She scooped up a handful of nearly compacted brown-black soil and pinched it between her fingers, confirming the soil was indeed unusual.
As her natural energy penetrated deeper, her brow suddenly furrowed.
"Gauss, something seems to be moving beneath!"
"Hmm, I feel it too." Gauss’s expression turned serious.
Beneath their feet, the ground suddenly trembled, as if an earth dragon was turning.
"Grab onto me."