"Thanks, Vance, you really saved us out there."
Noah nodded, sitting on the ground.
The effort of vanquis.h.i.+ng the fog in the entirety of the fourth floor had tired him greatly, he needed to rest.
"As for the things that you saw when we were inside the illusion..."
Noah raised one hand and interrupted him.
"Don"t worry, everyone has its traumatic experiences."
The other three nodded and lowered their heads, they were quite ashamed that they had been seen when they faced their most painful memories.
Another pile of goods, bigger than the previous one, appeared in the middle of the layer.
Errol laid his back on the terrain and spoke in a calm voice.
"I wonder why we are given this much time for each floor."
Nigel answered.
"It"s probably in order to let the partic.i.p.ants safely approach every test. If it wasn"t for Vance, clearing this floor might have taken a while."
"So, what do we do now?"
June asked.
She was a bit annoyed that Noah had saved her and she kept her head lowered the whole time.
"We wait for Vance to recover and then we inspect the rewards. We should also take those purple crystals in the terrain, they seem valuable."
They all rested for an entire day.
Noah had to refill his mental energy and dantian and sleep to get rid of his fatigue while the other three weren"t in the mood to do anything after reviving their painful memories.
In the end, they divided the rewards and spent another day gathering the crystals on the terrain.
A rocky pa.s.sage had appeared in one of the hills in the environment which led to the lower layer.
"We should be more careful from now on, the tests are beginning to change. There was only battle prowess tested in the first three layers but here there was the requirement for a strong mental sphere. I don"t really know what to expect next."
Nigel warned the others in his group.
"He is right. There is also the problem of the environment that always favors the magical beasts, increasing the difficulty of the floor. I wonder when the first rank 4 will appear."
The beasts that they met till then were, at best, in the middle tier of the third rank, only their numbers were incredibly high.
"More than three hundred River crocodiles and around a hundred Fog goblins. If we consider the goblins as an exception, we should meet five hundred or so rank 3 beasts in the next floor."
The students went through the pa.s.sage and exited in a sultry mountain location.
Black smoke came out from the top of each mountain, they seemed volcanoes ready to explode.
There were six spots where the smoke came out while every exposed area seemed deserted.
Nigel spoke in a soft voice to the others.
"We should check the cavities from which the smoke is released."
They nodded and followed him to the nearest fuming hole.
As they peeked downward, a red lake became visible.
It was a subterranean lake made of magma and two meters long carps calmly swam in it.
"Lava carps."
Noah whispered.
They were rather weak magical beasts.
They had a decent defense and they could spew out bullets made of lava but, except for that, they weren"t a threat.
The problem was the location which increased the difficulty of their hunt by several folds.
Noah turned toward Nigel and expressed his doubt.
"How do we kill them?"
Nigel shook his head.
"Let"s first inspect the other cavities, once we have a complete idea of this layer, we will think of a plan."
They went to each mountain and noticed no differences: there were six lakes made of magma with Lava carps swimming inside them.
The students sat in a circle and reviewed ideas on how to clear the floor.
"We might launch spells until all of the beasts are dead."
Errol spoke.
"What if they hide at the bottom of the lakes? At that point, our only option would be to go down there and face the magma."
June answered.
"Can you send your puppet there?"
Nigel asked Noah.
He shook his head.
"The distance with the surface is too much. My mental energy will be drained after a few kills."
They stayed in silence, deep in thought, thinking of a way to handle the situation.
At some point, Noah had an idea.
"What if we destroy the mountain?"
June replied.
"We would be submerged by the lava."
Noah continued.
"No, I mean, if we break only their top and cover the lakes with their rocky ceiling, wouldn"t almost every carp die? Then, we can always walk inside and kill those alive."
"It would take a lot though."
Said Nigel.
"We have five weeks of time since we are in the fifth layer. It should be enough."
They thought a bit more but there was no other feasible approach.
They went at the top of the first mountain and placed themselves in four opposite spots.
"Let"s start!"
Nigel gave the order and the students released their attacks on the terrain.
The rocks were hard, tempered with the high temperature of the lake below, but they still cracked in many spots due to the might of the students.
Little by little, the top of the mountain was being cracked in many spots.
They were only focusing an area of one hundred square meters but the rocks became harder as they neared the empty s.p.a.ce above the lake.
It took them five days to successfully crack the ceiling and make it fall on the area beneath it.
Ma.s.sive boulders rained down on the red lake, covering it almost completely.
There were too many rocks and the lava was not enough to dissolve them all.
In the end, the lake solidified, creating an uneven dark plain inside the mountain.
Nigel hurriedly yelled.
"It"s doable! I will inspect for remaining living beasts, you can start with the second mountain."
A rope materialized in his hands and he bound it on the terrain to descend in the cavity.
The others went to the nearest mountain and began to launch attacks on the ground around the second fuming hole.