The group cleared the 82nd floor and they found the entrance to the 83rd floor on one of the volcanoes.
The time that they consumed just to clear this single floor was four days. It was an exhausting battle for the rest of the team as the enemies that they fought were B-rank and A-rank. Fortunately, the movements of the golems were predictable so they could fight two or more A-rank golem at the same time. Still, it was tiring as the golems that were guarding the entrance to the 83rd floor were S-rank.
On the 83rd floor, the setting was still the same. There were active volcanoes around the whole floor but the temperature was definitely higher than the 82nd floor. Also, the golems here were much more powerful and their movements were complicated.
A single B-rank golem from the 83rd floor could easily destroy five B-rank golems from 82nd floor.
Nonetheless, Souta's group still cleared it. The improvements in their skill and power level were huge in this short amount of time. Alice, Franklin, and Doranjan were close to mastering their parasites.
Souta didn't care about how long they could clear this labyrinth. He knew that their group was the only one trying to clear it so he wasn't worried about others taking the god's legacy before him. If this living labyrinth was discovered in Imperium, then those Hero-rank would move to clear this labyrinth in just one week.
One week? That's just how powerful those Hero-rank which was close to godhood. Souta's group already took more than one month and they haven't even cleared this labyrinth.
The group moved to the next floor at their own pace.
Fifteen days had passed in the blink of an eye and the group arrived on the 85th floor. On this floor, they finally faced a wall. A wall that forced them to used their aces.
85th floor was a huge dessert. The temperature was nothing compared to the 82nd and 83rd floor but the monsters were entirely different.
The monster on this floor could use skills that rose the difficulty to another level. There was a healer, a tanker, a marksman, and a dps. Also, the coordination and timing of the monsters were simply astonishing. It feels like they were fighting skilled adventurers.
The group wouldn't even survive this level of this floor if not for their parasites. Yuko and Doranjan were forced to use their [Monster Orb] release which let them fight dozens of A-rank at the same time.
Yuko's release state was different from Souta. Her body grew into a five-meter tall and her fur turned into dancing red flames. Skins turned into molten rocks that could scorch any creatures. The monster orb in the center of her forehead was releasing a jet black tattoo that spread on her body like a blood vessel.
The temperature of her flaming fur almost reached five hundred degrees celsius. Even if she didn't do anything, normal people would melt just by simply approaching her.
This was the release state of the Scorching Red Bear.
Doranjan's release state was different. His dragon bloodline was one of the most common dragons in Imperium, the green dragon. In his release state, he became a twenty-meter tall giant dragon. His scales turned into hard-looking armor and sharp spikes grew on his back. The gap of his scales was emitting a green light which turned into a mist around him.
He was just a small dragon with a size of three meters but when was in his release state his size grew to twenty meters.
The two of them used their release state to decimated as many monsters as they could on the 85th floor.
The potions that Isabella made were being consumed at high speed. Without her potions, the group wouldn't even last in the onslaught of powerful and well-coordinated monsters.
It took them one and a half weeks before they cleared this high-level floor.
"Shit, I lost count of how many times they cut my legs and hands... If I didn't have a parasite then I would forever lose my limbs." Torkez cursed as he lay down on the ground which was full of sand.
"Ehe~ they are better than what I expected..." Franklin laughed as he wiped the blood on the corner of his mouth. "We could hardly clear this floor and I expected that the next floor would be harder than this one so what should we do, my lord?" He glanced at Souta.
"Well, stop here for now," Souta said as he sat down. He then turned his eyes to Isabella, Yuko, and Doranjan.
Isabella was the weakest among them so her stamina wasn't as high as theirs. She was exhausted even though the monster that she fought was only B-rank.
Yuko and Doranjan have the most contributions in clearing this floor. It was all thanks to their [Monster Orb Release] that the difficulty of this floor has decreased.
His decision to leave Yenxia on the upper floors was right. Even Isabella who was a B-rank was having a hard time on this floor. Yenxia's power level was equal to D-rank and a single hit from a monster on this floor would kill her as she didn't have a parasite in her body.
"Souta is right. I don't think that we could kill the next floor and the rest of the remaining floors if we are having a hard time on the 85th floor. Unless our skill has improved or we grew stronger and if not, then we can't clear the remaining floors with our current strength." Alice said in a low voice. She took a bottle of water from Isabella and drunk it in one go.
"Our improvement is great. Compared to the time when we just enter this labyrinth, our strength right now is higher than before but we need to stop now. We finally hit a wall. If we keep moving forward then we will only die." Souta said as he looked at the ceiling.
Yuko went to his side and placed her head on his lap. He smiled and patted her head.
"...then... Are we going back to the surface?" Torkez asked.
"Nope, we'll stay here and train until we have enough strength to clear the next floor. We'll improve everything starting from battle style to coordination." Souta said to them with a serious expression. He planned to let them used Saya's inner consciousness.
He didn't need to worry about his secret leaking to others. He trusts them and also if they somehow betray him. He had the parasite queen which could control all the parasites and all of them had parasites in their bodies.
Souta already knew his limits. If he revealed his aces, they could probably clear another two or three floors and that's it. It wouldn't change anything at all. They still needed to increase their strength to clear the remaining floors.
Isabella, Torkez, and Franklin needed to learn some powerful skills, not some low-grade skills that they learned in their homeworld. In truth, he didn't need to worry about Isabella. She had a god's legacy and he was sure that she had her own set of skills in her mind that she hadn't learned yet.
Also, her growth speed was extremely fast. She was just a normal person a few months ago and now, she could already rival B-rank expert which was equal to Master-class Knight in Planet Eidin. Well, as expected of the Great Potion Master in the game.
In his group, she was the only one that Souta trusted that could attain godhood. As for the rest, he wasn't sure about their potential.
Souta sighed and looked at his system. In the past few weeks, his exp have increasing nonstop because of his shadows killing the monsters on the upper floors. Also, the number of B-ranks that he killed on the 80th floor to 85th floor was more than one hundred. Even dozens of A-ranks provided a large amount of exp to fill his exp bar.
He was getting close to leveling up once again. He missed this type of grinding exp. Unfortunately, he didn't get any points in the past few weeks aside from the points that he got from the legion.
Yeah, in the past he couldn't grind like this because he was busy gathering points by completing those quests. The quest in the Deep Woods, Gripin City, Fresch Dukedom, Ibish Village, Blue Lawless City, and the Great Astley Empire. The exp he got from all these quests was too little. The A-rank experts that he killed from these quests could be counted in one hand.
Quest really was suitable for grinding exp. It was only suitable for grinding skill points and free attribute points. Hunting was still the best way to acquire a huge amount of exp.
Well, his current level was 43.
He calculated that by the end of this labyrinth. He would probably level up close to 45 and he had 3 level-up cards in his arsenal.
Hmm...? I wonder if I could get inside the Mars Archipelago. Most of the lost mana and spirit fruits could be found in that continent.
This was one of the best ways to further increase his level and attributes.