Faced with these insidious setups, Gauss and his companion wasted nothing, recycling everything.
The Mage’s Hand remotely activated the mechanisms, the vines of the Entanglement Technique triggered traps, and they collected the metal spearheads from ground spikes and the sharp arrowheads from crossbow arrows one by one.
Little by little, these metal scraps could be exchanged for quite a bit of money.
Perhaps high-level adventurer squads or those with wealthy backgrounds wouldn’t care about these trifles, but for the two who had risen from the bottom, they were indeed reluctant to part with these easily sellable iron items.
Moreover, the Divine Guidance Technique mastered by Aaliyah could also be put to use at this time, increasing the success rate of dangerous tasks like rappelling down walls with ropes to dismantle ground spikes.
Consider it as spell practice.
"Phew... I feel a bit tired." Aaliyah sat down on the ground, wiping the fine sweat from her brow.
"Thanks."
She took the water pouch Gauss handed over, tipped her fair neck back, and drank it down in large gulps.
"How do you feel?"
"Seems like a bit..." Gauss could also perceive that as time passed in the maze, the consumption of his physical strength and magic power was somewhat greater here than outside.
Specifically applied to the body, it meant feeling fatigued more easily.
However, possessing the energy storage gland talent, he could replenish his consumption anytime by eating, so it was actually fine.
And in less than two days since they entered, strictly speaking, just a little over a day since yesterday noon until this afternoon, they had already killed 149 small monsters, which was much faster than a normal commission in terms of efficiency.
If it were a general commission, factoring in the travel time and preparation before and after, it might take two or three days to kill about a hundred small monsters.
"Let’s call it a day," Gauss suggested. "Tomorrow, let’s try to find the entrance to the second underground level. If we find it, we’ll go down and explore; if not, we’ll return to the surface to rest."
In their initial plan, they weren’t intending for their first maze exploration to be too long.
Aaliyah set down the water pouch.
"Alright. Although it’s a bit tiring in the maze, the money comes much faster, and I feel like I’ve grown stronger."
Thinking about the past two days, constantly finding money, and how her spells had become much more proficient with extensive use, Aaliyah couldn’t help but smile.
This was only the first underground level; if it was the second level, which had relatively fewer people, could she find even more money?
Picking up money really could become addictive.
Now whenever she saw ruins, she wanted to dive in, unable to resist poking around every nook and cranny, tapping on floor tiles in the cracks of walls.
Apart from collecting ancient copper shards and bronze coins from the lost kingdom, the two of them even stumbled upon some uniquely styled ancient gold coins.
Even without considering their cultural and artistic value, their size, a notch larger than modern coins, gave them higher worth.
The next morning, the two, having rested well, set out on their exploration journey again.
The advantage of Gauss’s mental map became evident.
If it were an ordinary adventurer squad, wandering aimlessly, they surely couldn’t avoid going in circles and returning to places they had reached before, but Gauss was different; he could accurately head to areas he hadn’t been to.
"Whoosh!!"
A crude wooden arrow grazed past Gauss’s side.
Gauss looked up into the distance.
Ahead was a small mixed group of monsters: goblins, Kobolds, and Mud Monsters.
This wasn’t unusual in the maze setting; races that usually survived alone would occasionally band together to attack adventurers in the underground maze.
But Gauss’s gaze merely swept over the monster group, then turned to the other side.
The group of monsters was besieging a bottom adventurer squad.
The squad of four, two men and two women—a swordsman, a shield soldier, an archer, and a spearman—all clad in leather armor, stood back-to-back, resisting the surrounding monsters.
Under normal circumstances, if they couldn’t handle it, they could still escape; these three types of monsters, aside from the goblins, weren’t particularly fast, but at the moment, one of their teammates seemed to have a foot injury, a sharp wooden spike having pierced a huge hole in his right foot, blood soaking through his leather boot.
He was gritting his teeth, propping up a shield in front, large droplets of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"Need help?" Gauss called out.
In the past, encountering such bottom adventurers, if they were coping, he might have been too lazy to intervene.
But in the current situation, they were clearly outmatched, so he might as well help out a bit; after all, they came from bottom adventurers themselves.
Besides, he could also rack up his kill count.
The four in the distance, seeing the figure of the mage in a black robe atop the mound, and the faintly glowing staff in front of him, felt a rush of joy amid their despair.
"We do! Sir! We have an injured member! Please, help us!"
Upon receiving the response, Gauss’s mouth curled up slightly, and he nodded.
He surged forward, his figure disappearing from atop the mound in an instant.
The next moment, he strolled leisurely to the edge of the battlefield. With a light wave of his magic wand, clusters of blue energy homed in swiftly, striking sharply those monsters baring their ferocious fangs.
"Boom!"
The sound of precise blasts accompanied by the pitiful wails of monsters rang out incessantly.
Soon, over twenty mixed monsters quickly fell at the hands of Gauss.
"S-so fast."
The adventurer squad members stared wide-eyed, their mouths agape at the scene; the monster group that had just been exerting great pressure on them had been effortlessly wiped out like grass by this black-robed mage.
Seeing Gauss’s handsome face and the bronze two-star adventurer badge on his chest, their eyes reflected a mix of envy and understanding.
So he’s a level 2 mage.
But he’s really strong; even knowing he’s a formal professional, seeing this straightforward and formidable combat power left them in shock.
If only they had such strength themselves... A strong desire rose simultaneously within them.
"Shall we tend to your companion’s wound first?" Gauss’s voice snapped the few out of their daze.
He looked over at Aaliyah, who understood and nodded, taking out two softly glowing berries.
"These are two magic berries with minor healing effects. Give them to him, and they will alleviate the injury."
It wasn’t stinginess on Aaliyah’s part that they didn’t give more; rather, the immediate healing effect from more berries would also be limited in a short time.
"Thank you, both of you, sir."
The squad hurriedly set about treating the wound.
After everything was settled, Gauss and Aaliyah were just about to turn around and leave.
A squad member suddenly remembered something and called out to stop the two.
"Sir, we have no way to repay your help, but we have intelligence that might be useful to you."
"Go ahead," Gauss nodded.
"Last night, we discovered the entrance to the second underground level. But we didn’t dare go down due to our limited strength. The specific location is..."
The young man gestured to describe the route to the entrance for Gauss.
Gauss took note of the information in his mind.
He felt a surge of happiness, indeed, good deeds bring rewards.
Wasn’t this it? The information about the entrance to the second level of the maze had just been delivered to him.
After guiding the four back to the direction of the maze hall, Gauss and Aaliyah watched them depart.
"Are we setting off now?"
"Yes, let’s go. Target: the second underground level." Gauss nodded.
The entrance to the lower levels changes every so often, so they needed to seize the opportunity.
It’s said every maze level has a different environment. Who knows what strange demons could be lurking in the second level of the maze?