They cleared the 40th floor and decided to stay here to rest. It took them four hours to clear this entire giant floor and the monster that they killed were more than a thousand. Also, there were two B-rank here guarding the path towards the floor below.
The bodies of the monsters that they killed turned into dust as it was absorbed by the labyrinth. Most of them left some sort of stone that was filled with mana.
The monsters in this place weren't real monsters. They were just creatures that were created by the labyrinth using its essence. Also, the people that died in this place will also turn into dust and get absorbed by the labyrinth. That way, the labyrinth could keep producing strong and powerful monsters.
It was a never ending cycle. People would plunder the concentrated mana that came out of the monster here and the labyrinth would absorb the people that died here.
"Let's rest for now," Souta said to them while patting his clothes.
He just realized that the living labyrinth was like a dungeon in the game. It has a game like structures. Means that he could farm here just like how he farmed in the game. Killing all the monsters and wait for them to respawn before he killed them once again.
But he wasn't sure if the monster here could respawn infinitely. So he asked Saya for more information about the living labyrinth. The information he had from the game was simple and he didn't delve into details. He just know that people could get a god's legacy in the living labyrinth.
The answer that he gets from Saya was within his expectations. The monster here couldn't respawn infinitely and it only respawns based on the amount of energy that each floor has. If he repeatedly cleared all the monsters on this floor, eventually the labyrinth would lose the energy intended for this floor and no monster would appear.
It will slowly gather energy by receiving energy from the other floors. It didn't mean that the other floors would get weakened. The other floors wouldn't give energy if they lack it, they will only give energy if they had spares. So it had to wait until a bunch of people died on the other floors and filled up this floor to get it back to work.
That's just how it works.
Souta thanked Saya and quickly formed a plan in his head. He then gathered Alice, Torkez, Franklin, Isabella, Yenxa, Doranjan, and Yuko in front of him.
"Okay, from now on. We'll repeatedly clear this floor until it runs out of energy to respawn monsters." Souta said and he explained what he just learned from Saya.
"But by doing that, I think that we're just wasting our time?" Torkez asked with a confused expression.
The others nodded at his question. There's no point in clearing each floor repeatedly until it runs out of energy. They could simply go down after clearing it once.
"Well, it's some sort of combat experience for Isabella and Yenxa. The rest can just stay here and wait until we've finished everything." Souta wouldn't say that it was about farming exp for him to increase his exp bar by a little bit.
"Well, if you say so then I don't have a problem with it. Also, I wanted to test the strength of parasites in those monsters." Alice said as she sat down and closed her eyes.
The others didn't have a problem with it so they agree with him. They knew that Isabella was quite strong but she wasn't that expert in fighting. She would lose to some people who had a vast experience that has the same power level as her. Although she learned a lot of things in Saya's inner consciousness, it still wasn't enough in fighting people who experienced dozens of life and death situations. Also, the focus of her training at that time was simply to increase her power level to reach B-rank so that she could somehow survive in extreme environments.
"If that's the case, we are going to stay here longer."
Torkez said and Souta nodded at him but he still has something to say.
"We can't stay here for too long. The food that we brought isn't gonna last for too long. The monster that we killed is turning into dust and the only thing that we could eat in this entire labyrinth are the plants and herbs. But I doubt that would last longer."
Torkez said as he looked around the dense giant trees around him. He didn't even know if there were edible plants or fruits in this place.
"Don't worry about it, if it comes down to it then I will simply send one of my shadows to gather food for us," Souta replied to Torkez.
So, the group stayed here on the 40th floor. Souta sent out shadows to clear all the monsters that spawned along with Isabella and Yenxa.
Souta didn't have anything to do so he just observed everyone around him. From time to time, pain will assault his head and he would feel exhausted easily. The urge to kill was only getting stronger.
Just like what Saya said, he should just rest until he's not mentally tired. Right now, if he didn't rest his instinct would only consume him and will become a mindless monster.
"This is pretty useful..." Franklin muttered as he looked at his hand that turned into a sharp blade.
He then glanced at the rest and saw them doing the same thing. They were trying their parasites to see what they can do with it. Since he doesn't have anything to do as his urges were bursting out, he should try to busy himself by looking at his system.
He gathered enough skill points and it was enough for him. He looked at his skills in the system and focused his attention on the skills that he was going to upgrade.
[Night Overlord's Aura] Level 8
[Doppelganger] Level 7
He used his two skill level-up cards and leveled up the [Night Overlord's Aura] to level 10. Then, he used 27 skill points to level up the [Doppelganger] to level 10.
*Ding!*
[You've reached the requirements to promote your class to the next rank!]
[Do you want to promote your class to Rank 3 Battle Mage? Yes/No?]
*Ding!*
[Congratulations!]
[You've successfully promoted yourself to Rank 3 Battle Mage!]
[Intelligence Attribute has increased by 100!]
[Strength, Agility, Dexterity, and Vitality Attributes have increased by 50!]
[Energy(Best Feram) has increased by 100!]
[Health has increased by 100!]
[Stamina has increased by 50!]
[Energy resistance has increased by 100%!]
[Physical resistance has increased by 100%!]
[Energy Recovery has increased by 20!]
[Health Recovery has increased by 10!]
[Stamina Recovery has increased by 10!]
[Spell Power has increased by 100%!]
[Attack power has increased by 50%!]
*Ding!*
[Weapon Caster's level has increased by 1!]
[Your spell power will increase by 15% if you're holding a sharp weapon while casting!]
[Combat Mage's level has increased by 1!]
[Increased attack power by 15% when fighting an opponent within twenty meters!]
After a long time, Souta finally promoted his class to Rank 3 Battle Mage. It's all thanks to the chain quest that he triggered from Lydia and the quest that the legion members completed. The legion started functioning so he will receive points every time they completed some worthy quest.
His battle strength was boosted to another level. Actually, ever since he evolve into the third stage he never met someone who could push him to the limits. But increasing his strength was not bad as this living labyrinth was full of strong monsters.
He was a Rank 3 Battle Mage and next to this was the advancement of his class, the upper level of the Battle Mage class. He didn't need to think about it as he will simply choose the Great Battle Mage.
Then, he will achieve what he was in the game. The fighting power of the Great Battle Mage was simply terrifying. It was versatile in any kind of battle be it melee or long-range battle. Actually, the third class like this was only opened in the later version of the game so it was good that he didn't have a limit.
Mage>Battle Mage>Great Battle Mage
He didn't know if there was a fourth class after the Great Battle Mage. He wanted to find it out and test if he really didn't have a limit.
Souta turned his head and saw Yenxa and Isabella came back. It seems that they've finished clearing this floor and gain some experience in fighting monsters. But this wasn't enough as he will let them fight those powerful monsters on the deeper floors.
Aside from the living labyrinth, his goal was to increase everyone's battle power in this expedition. He wouldn't go back to Imperium without any improvement in their strength. Also, now that the version 2 has begun the Imperium was much more dangerous than before as various wars will erupt every moment.
"Yenxa and Isabella. You two can take a rest.. After that, we'll resume cleaning this floor."