"That's what we should do now?"
"The S-class adventure group named 'Wild Warrior', cooperating with them... that should be impossible, right?"
"That's not necessarily true. If we can confirm the other party's character, there is a possibility of cooperation."
That's what he said, but Yang Yu still quite hoped that both parties would just start fighting without saying a word.
That way, he could also see if the S-class adventure team's tag came with an experience boost. Googlᴇ search Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Unfortunately, if they really joined in, Yang Yu didn't know what would happen.
What if they unintentionally stole his experience?
"To be on the safe side, we should clear this floor ourselves.
I want to see how strong you are now, to facilitate planning for the future."
Yang Yu extended his index finger, pointing at the door standing upright on the black earth,
"Bai Jin, use your most powerful explosive magic to destroy the entrance."
Following Yang Yu's command, Bai Jin raised her magic wand.
Countless magic powers slowly gathered towards the top of the wand along the twisted roots, merging into the fiery red Array that Bai Jin had woven, forming a blazing Flame Spear.
Bai Jin flicked her magic wand forward, and the scorching Flame Spear struck the Ninth Floor entrance, triggering a violent Explosion.
Yellow electricity flickered at the entrance, and the outline of a black square stone slab became clearer in the eyes of Yang Yu and his team.
The stairway at the entrance became a pattern on the stone slab, skewed and twisted, like an old television set about to break down, yet stubbornly struggling on.
Alas, with a "beep", this "television" still crashed.
All that was left on earth was a black stone slab.
This stone slab, under the continued Attack of Bai Jin, shattered into pieces, scattered all over the place.
This floor had lost its only bridge connecting with the one above.
"This way, we don't have to worry about the 'Wild Warrior' coming to disturb us."
"But we also can't get out." Lotcar looked up slightly toward Yang Yu, "Since you've destroyed the only exit, it means, Grand General, that you are confident in overcoming this Underground Maze, aren't you?"
"At least in terms of enemy Strength, I am confident."
Yang Yu looked up, the sky pitch-black as if the Abyss had overturned above his head, bottomless.
This Underground Maze was far more magical than he had imagined.
At least the destroyed stone slab was the smoothest transport device Yang Yu had seen so far.
It seemed that Bai Jin also didn't sense any Magic Fluctuation.
"It's just my personal speculation.
To conquer the Ninth Floor, one must either take their time to overcome the Mud Giants one-on-one,
or have absolute confidence in their own Strength, firmly believing they can clear the level.
The existence of the door to the upper levels only affects the mood during battle.
Well, whether it improves or worsens one's mood varies from person to person.
I actually also think leaving a way out would be better, but to conquer this maze, the door is bound to be destroyed.
Destroying the door also represents my resolution."
Lot looked around, glancing at the giants fighting not far from him,
"The Underground Maze will Refresh, even if we fail to conquer it, just wait a month and a half, the door leading upwards will still open for us."
"Have some confidence in our abilities.
Besides, we can't work like machines continuously for a month and a half..."
Yang Yu climbed onto Lot's back,
"If we could. In a month and a half, the situation would definitely have changed.
— 'The faster it's resolved, the better.'
Although I'd like to say that, the most important thing is to protect oneself."
Yang Yu framed the scene with his hands, looking around once more to confirm the location of each group of Mud Giants.
Then, Yang Yu started his experiment with the Mud Giants.
For example, he had Bai Jin continuously bombard the giants with Magic to see if they had any design to guard against Sustained long-range attacks.
As expected, continuous long-range attacks layered the Mud Giants with a protection Status called 'Guard', which progressively reduced the damage of subsequent ranged attacks.
After some time, it could even reduce the damage taken by the Mud Giants by 99%.
If the Mud Giants weren't attacked, the layers of 'Guard' would gradually decrease, but the speed of this decline was pitiful.
There was a way to rapidly reduce the layers of protection 'Guard' offered.
That was for the individual in the 'Guard' state to inflict a certain amount of damage on the enemy in front of them.
It seems, the Ninth Floor is trying by all means to make those who choose to defeat the enemies one by one spend more time in the maze, eroding their will.
Apart from this, the System also provided other ways to break 'Guard'.
For example, if one's Strength is twice that of the enemy in the 'Guard' state or five times the enemy's Defense, one can ignore the opponent's status and act freely.
That is to say, it only takes a mere three thousand Strength.
Plowing through with sheer power is something to be dreamed of.
In dreams, think what one will.
After completing various experiments, Yang Yu again rode on Lot to confirm the distribution of the giants.
In this space, there were a total of sixty pairs of Mud Giants, one hundred and twenty individuals.
If they interfered, making the Mud Giants knock each other on the head and thus bring them down, it would take half a day.
Sixty pairs of giants would take at least ten days to half a month to be defeated.
It was also unknown whether these Mud Giants would still have the 'Guard' state once they started moving.
Having confirmed the general characteristics of the Mud Giants, Yang Yu finalized the basic combat strategy.
There was still a war outside, and it was impossible for Yang Yu and his team to wait for the Mud Giants to fight each other to the finish.
Yang Yu decided to wake up all the giants, gather them together, and, while maintaining distance from the high-mobility Mud Giants, perform pulling maneuvers, then use area-of-effect magic to whittle down the Mud Giants' Blood Volume before knocking them down one by one.
The key to this operation was Bai Jin and Lotcar, with Lotcar providing high mobility and Bai Jin providing substantial AoE damage.
The rest were Tool Men, providing as much protection for Bai Jin and Lotcar as possible.
Next, it was time to study the Pulling Monster route.
Normal monsters, once they target an enemy, will inevitably approach using the shortest distance.
Yang Yu pulled out blueprints, sketched out the approximate location of each group of giants, imagined their potential movement paths, and drew up adjustable conservative routes.
After all the planning, one day had already passed.
During this period, using the rules of the Maze, Yang Yu took down a pair of Mud Giants, reducing the number of enemies they would later face.
Having enjoyed a good meal, Yang Yu and his team camped in place and had a good night's sleep.
Once this battle began, there was no knowing how long it would take to stop.
Only well-rested could they net all these Mud Giants.