Half a month had passed quickly and Souta's group arrived on the eightieth floor of the living labyrinth.
What they did in the past was purely training their skills and power levels so that they could fight high-level monsters. It was a nonstop training just to get to the higher floor of the dungeon and all of their strength had reached a new level.
Isabella reached the realm of B-rank at this time. Her training speed was unbelievable that she caught up to the top powerhouses in Planet Astley. In her homeworld's term, she was a Master-class Knight. A being equal to B-rank experts in Great World Imperium.
Also, Torkez finally reached the realm of liquefication with the help of Franklin. He was a legitimate A-rank expert along with Alice and Franklin in the group.
Yuko and Doranjan have some improvements in their strength but they were still far from achieving the fourth evolution level.
Yenxa didn't manage to reach her second evolution. She was still at her first evolution stage and the weakest one in the group.
The strongest was Souta followed by Yuko and Doranjan who were both third evolution stage monsters. Alice, Franklin, and Torkez would even train their powers by sparring with Yuko or Doranjan as each one of them could take the three alone.
Among the A-rank experts in the group, Alice was the strongest even though Torkez and Franklin had vast experience. Franklin and Torkez could keep up with Alice's fighting style, the only thing that they lacked was powerful combat arts befitting their power level.
That's why Souta had to teach them his combat arts so that they could increase their combat prowess. Curdova, the one he fought in Moon Tower, was still stronger than them. He alone would be able to handle Torkez and Franklin easily.
Unfortunately, Souta was still sleeping inside his inner consciousness and Saya was the one who's controlling his body.
"We've finally arrived here on the eightieth floor. Is Souta really waiting for us here, Isabella?" Torkez asked as he glanced at Isabella.
"Y-Yes... He said that he'll wait for us here." Isabella nodded with a nervous expression.
Up until now, they still didn't know that Saya was the one who's controlling Souta body but they were suspicious and wanted to meet him as soon as possible.
"I didn't think that there are so many powerful monsters here in this place," Franklin said while looking around the eightieth floor.
The level of monsters that they've fought on the lower floor already reached the realm of B-rank and some of the monsters had the power level of A-rank experts. It was fearsome yet brought them a great experience in fighting someone at their level.
"Do we still have resources?" Alice asked Isabella.
"Yes, Souta used his shadows to go on the surface and bring resources. We still have a meal that could last for two weeks. Also, I have made a lot of potions in the past few days." Isabella smiled as she raised the huge bag on her back.
With the brute strength of a B-rank expert like her, this huge bag was close to nothing. She could even easily lift fifty tons with her current strength, and brute strength wasn't her main force. This was just a natural strength of a B-rank expert.
*Yawn*
'I want to see, master. It's been so long since I've seen his master and master didn't even use his skill to check on me.' Yuko yawned as she walked forward without care to everyone around her and Yenxa simply followed her.
Both of them were connected to Souta through their contracts so they could sense his location. They don't need to ask Isabella about his location as they will simply go where they sensed him.
Yuko already missed Souta. She wanted him to pat her head as soon as possible and have him clean her fur.
While she was walking she was wondering what kind of things that she would ask Souta to do for her.
Doranjan moved his head and looked at Alice, Isabella, Franklin, and Torkez. He slowly opened his mouth and said, "We're going to Souta. You should follow us."
Using the unique characteristics of the monster language, his thoughts were passed down to them and they understood his words.
"Okay, let's go but let me check this floor first." Torkez nodded and a pair of wings formed on his back.
Swoosh!
With a flap of his wings, he flew directly into the sky. He didn't stop until he reached the ceiling of the eightieth floor.
"The space between the ground and the ceiling was two hundred meters. It's slightly higher than tall buildings in Planet Astley."
He muttered and he looked around the floor. He narrowed his eyes and realized that this floor was several times larger than the city above this labyrinth.
"The diameter is about seventy kilometers. It's so large and I couldn't even imagine how many monsters are on this floor."
Torkez said as he quickly went on the ground. If some monster saw him them a battle would occur and it will naturally gather the attention of the monsters in the vicinity.
When he got down, Alice asked him.
"How is it?"
Torkez shook his head and replied, "This floor is so large. I think that one day isn't enough to explore it and find the path to the next floor."
"Is that it?" Alice asked once again as she looked up at the ceiling which was emitting a strange light.
"Yes, these trees around us are blocking my vision. It's a one hundred fifty tall tree and it's my first time seeing something like this in my entire life." Torkez said with a laugh.
"Me too," Franklin said. After a few seconds, he added, "This place is really mysterious. You called this living labyrinth because all of the creatures that died in this place were absorbed and became nutrients."
"I've lived for a long time and this is my first time entering this type of place. Just how did this place form beneath the ground of a whole world. It feels like we're going towards the underworld." Doranjan said.
"I'm wondering the same thing. How this place formed or maybe if this was built by someone. If this is the case, then it's simply amazing." Torkez said. "It's like a new world inside a whole world."
Alice smiled and she turned around, "Let's go Yuko and Yenxa are quite far. We need to catch up to them."
The living labyrinth was made by a god-level powerhouse to test their inheritor before they died. Sometimes a god would choose to die and create a living labyrinth because of various reasons. But one thing was clear. They weren't called god for nothing.
...
Souta was sitting on a huge root with his eyes close. After a while, he opened his eyes and muttered, "How long has it been?"
'About four weeks...' Saya's voice sounded in his mind.
"That long?!" He was surprised when he heard it. He didn't think that he would sleep for that amount of time.
'It's not easy to remove the killing intent around you so naturally, it would take a lot of time.' Saya replied to him.
"I didn't approve of you taking over my body without my consent but I thank you for that. I know that you did it for my well-being." Souta said to Saya.
'Ufufu, will not let you be consumed by your desire. I haven't seen you stood at the top so I will not let you fall easily.' Saya chuckled at his words. 'I've chosen you as my wielder so naturally, I will protect you.'
"Thanks for that. I've calmed down now. I also didn't felt any urges to kill. It seems like you really did a good job." Souta stood up and patted his clothes. "If I somehow going to lose myself once again. You should remind me or force myself to recover my senses."
'Ufufu, it's natural. I still wanted to see your future.' Saya laughed lightly.
Hmm?
Souta looked at his system and saw that his level was 43. It increased even though he wasn't the one controlling his body. But then he realized that Saya was his weapon so if his weapon killed someone then the exp would become his. Also, Saya was controlling his body and it wasn't the body of other people.
But leveling while he was sleeping was simply good for him. He thought that this was impossible so he didn't heed Saya's words. If he knew this from the start then he would have let Saya control his body so that his mind could rest and remove the killing intent.
"What floor is this?" He asked Saya.
'Eightieth floor.' She replied with simple words.
Souta understood why he level up in just four weeks. The monster here in this place should've reached B-rank and A-rank. The exp that he will get from killing this level of monster was high. And killing nonstop for four weeks was simply what he called a textbook grinding.
The only problem was that he didn't get any points from this type of grinding. Luckily, he had a legion to complete quest for him so he got a few points even without accepting a quest for himself.
This type of grinding was impossible in the past.
