Chapter 866 - 431: Demon King Species, The King Born (2)
It existed in an uncertain state between being and not being.
Before he deliberately used Perception, even Gauss hadn’t detected its presence.
But now, it had become impossibly obvious.
It was a pure, powerful will, carrying a completely undisguised "malice", especially toward Demons, like giant snarling tentacles rampaging around his body.
The Magic Power peeling off from him was likewise saturated with this tempered-to-the-extreme killing intent, forged in the mountain of corpses and sea of blood of tens of thousands of monsters.
Now Gauss could understand what Eden had just said.
This killing intent was indeed too strong, too blatant.
Creatures strong on the spiritual level were still relatively few, but if they were strong enough, they could obviously see through his moves ahead of time through the flow of killing intent.
He exerted a bit of control, and the killing intent winding around his skin and the stripped-off Magic Power on the outside quickly drew back.
Though because the time was short, some still inevitably leaked, compared to before, it had been reduced by over ninety percent.
This was the manifestation of personal Talent.
Most of the time, as long as Gauss realized a certain shortcoming, he could always effectively improve it in a short span.
"You’re the most gifted person I’ve ever seen."
"Thanks."
Gauss spoke this thanks with genuine sincerity.
Enemy or not, Slime Eden had indeed given him some pointers.
Perhaps because it displayed a human-like higher Intelligence and a disposition willing to communicate, Gauss, the butcher of monsters, even rarely felt a faint hesitation about killing it.
But then, thinking again, as Slime Eden was the Lord of the 5th floor of Timbel Maze, the fate of death seemed inescapable.
Even at this very moment, among the many Adventurers present, aside from him, there might be no one else capable of killing it.
But that didn’t mean there would be no such person in the future; as the Maze continued to grow and evolve, the Levels of Adventurers able to enter would only rise.
Once the restrictions were lifted, Extraordinary Strong Persons would gradually be able to enter the Maze to explore, and Eden would sooner or later be slain.
So even if he didn’t strike, looking at it on a longer timeline, Eden still couldn’t escape a final outcome of death.
And more crucially, Gauss faintly felt that it seemed to harbor no fear of death, even a kind of expectation.
In its battle with Gauss, what it showed was more of a form of communication; otherwise it wouldn’t reveal its abilities one by one, as if deliberately sparring with Gauss.
And since it could read Gauss’s attacks in advance through his killing intent, those few times it got hit previously were likely intentional.
It seemed to greatly enjoy this feeling of communication within battle.
"You’ve met other humans?"
Maintaining his combat stance, Gauss casually threw out the line.
He sensed the inconsistency in Eden’s words.
Timbel Maze had only recently opened, and he, as part of the vanguard, had slain the Demon Frog Lord of the 4th floor; as one of the first pioneers to set foot on the land of the Maze’s 5th floor, logically, he and the others should be the first humans Slime Eden had ever seen.
For some reason, once it heard Gauss’s question, Slime Eden, which had been showing a strong desire to communicate, suddenly lost interest, its spirit visibly drooping quite a bit.
"Kill me, and maybe I’ll tell you."
Hearing its somewhat dispirited reply, Gauss felt black lines crawling up his forehead.
If he killed it, how was he supposed to get an answer?
But Eden seemed a bit depressed, immersing itself wholeheartedly into the battle; very soon, man and Slime rapidly engaged in dozens of exchanges of Magic.
Having devoured Magic Power and gained temporary reinforcement, Eden had already broken through the shackles of Tier and now fully possessed the combat strength of Extraordinary Creatures.
Somewhat like Gauss, its arsenal of Magic methods was also extremely rich.
Shifting its form, reinforcing its body, all sorts of Elemental Magic, defensive barriers, speed buffs—various Magic Effects surged forth one after another across its body.
He was willing to call it a monster-version "little Gauss".
The reason for the "little" prefix wasn’t arrogance on his part, just objective reality.
Slime Eden’s displayed Talent was formidable, but still inferior to his.
The two of them both possessed the ability to cross Tiers as easily as drinking water.
Yet his Magic Envoy Level was Level 8, while Eden’s basic Level should be Level 10, so with comparable combat power, Gauss was the one crossing more.
The surroundings, under their sustained battle, quickly turned to utter devastation, as if a terrifying natural disaster were unfolding.
"Boom!"
The two reinforced bodies crashed into one another in mid-air.
Vampire’s Touch collided with the Slime’s resilient tentacles; amid the surging impact of Magic Power, Gauss saw the Slime’s pair of round little eyes.
It looked at Gauss, and in the depths of its pupils his figure seemed to be reflected as well; this fight seemed to delight it greatly, its eyes brimming with unconcealed excitement, as if confirming some conjecture.
To be honest, Gauss was feeling exhilarated too, every muscle fiber in his body stirred awake.
Enemies that could stand against him as equals in battle—especially ones who hadn’t even reached the Extraordinary Tier—were vanishingly few.
The two separated after the brief collision, blasting away in opposite directions.
But then Magic Power belonging to Any Door flickered across Gauss’s body; in the next instant, that backward flight suddenly vanished, and he flashed to appear at the Slime’s other side.