Chapter 408 - 12: The Essence of the Maze

Of course, Su Zhou had no idea that his enemies considered him such a major threat that they had made him their top priority to hunt down.

However, he had long suspected as much. To Su Zhou, it would have been stranger if they hadn’t.

He was now in the Underground Maze, experiencing the unique subterranean structure of the Tartadis World.

The 1st Layer of the Maze was the safest area, having been explored by generations of adventurers for over a thousand years. After passing through the entrance, which was hundreds of meters wide, and descending nearly a hundred meters more, Su Zhou found himself in a brand-new subterranean world.

It was a colorful subterranean chamber illuminated by a combination of Luminous Stone Lamps, Fluorescent Moss, and various glowing ores. Far from being dim, the Underground Maze was incredibly bright thanks to the adventurers’ light sources and the native bioluminescent plants—brighter, even, than the dimly-lit surface.

Here, Su Zhou could sense that even though they had left the protection of the Elemental Array, the sluggish rate of elemental conversion on the surface had no effect on this place.

This area also had the highest concentration of adventurers, most of whom were tasked with cultivating special Magic Plants.

"Huh? But there’s no soil here. How do you plant anything?"

Hearing this, Su Zhou recalled what the Fishmaid had said at breakfast. ’She mentioned there were areas in the Maze suitable for growing plants. Looking at it now, with this much light, the underground is actually better for farming than the surface. But the first layer of the Maze is made entirely of rock and ore. Where could they possibly find a place to farm?’

"You’ll see,"

Elias gave a mysterious smile and led Su Zhou to a corner of the 1st Layer.

Then, Su Zhou saw them: groups of massive Earth Puppets, walking back and forth across a vast, open space.

RUMBLE RUMBLE... The sound of the behemoths’ steps reverberated like thunder.

The giant Earth Puppets, nearly ten meters tall, were the "Monsters" that abounded on this layer of the Maze. They were the precursors to Earth Elements, their bodies composed of soft soil and gravel, and they possessed little intelligence.

"Whoa!"

Su Zhou’s eyes widened. He saw that the Earth Puppets’ chests and backs were covered in all sorts of seedlings!

Each Earth Puppet was like a mobile farm plot. By constantly walking, they ensured all the plants on their bodies received an even amount of light, while the Magic Power that saturated their earthen bodies served as fertilizer.

Dozens of adventurers were hard at work here. Some cast Water Magic, "attacking" the Earth Puppets to water the crops. Others used Binding Magic on puppets whose crops were ripe, performing "harvest" and "replanting" operations. And of course, there were adventurers responsible for culling the powerful Earth Puppets that grew too large and were on the verge of evolving into "Super Giant Earth Puppets" or "Earth Elements," thereby ensuring the stability of this Maze-farm.

The adventurers all moved with fluid, practiced skill. It was clear they had performed this process hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

"You people have a truly ingenious way of utilizing the Maze."

Even Yara couldn’t help but remark, ’The people of this world are a lot like you Zhengguo People. You can farm anywhere.’ Su Zhou was even more amazed, clicking his tongue. "If Earth Puppets can be used as farmland, does that mean Metal Puppets can be your source of ore?"

Elias flashed a demure, mysterious smile. It wasn’t until Su Zhou left the "Fluorescent Cave" of the 1st Layer and descended to the "Metal Chamber" of the 3rd Layer that he realized he had hit the nail right on the head.

The alloy that formed the bodies of the Metal Puppets here was the very material used to mint "gold," the universal currency of the Tartadis World! After defeating and shattering a puppet, one only had to extract and refine the metal from its core to produce that sturdy alloy.

In this world, even the currency originated from the Maze.

The first four layers of the Maze had been explored for centuries—the most recent for over eight hundred years. Adventurers knew by heart what Monsters appeared there and how they behaved. As long as one didn’t linger, the area was almost completely safe. The most dangerous Monsters were only Formal High Tier, equivalent to High-level Awakening. To Su Zhou, these places held little value beyond their novelty.

It wasn’t just novelty, though; there was also a bit of a shock. In the "Mushroom Plain" on the 2nd Layer, Su Zhou discovered "Mushroom Elves" that looked remarkably similar to the grilled mushrooms he’d eaten for breakfast. These fist-sized Mushroom Elves had bizarre, spider-like white limbs and could secrete a highly acidic fluid to dissolve a creature’s body and anchor themselves to it, growing on the resulting corpse.

In short, while they were fungi that grew on decaying matter like most mushrooms, these were rather proactive, preferring to create the corpses themselves.

’Don’t tell me the mushrooms I ate this morning were these things?!’

Su Zhou’s expression froze for a moment when he saw the Mushroom Elves, but he quickly shrugged it off. ’Well, they look a little gross, but as long as they taste good, who cares? When you think about it, they’re just mushroom-shaped crabs that hunt for their own food. Nothing that disgusting about it.’

He wasn’t picky about food. As long as the source wasn’t too outrageous, deliciousness was all that mattered.

In truth, Elias himself had only been to the Maze a few times. Most of his knowledge came from studying records, so as they walked, he was far more engrossed in their surroundings than Su Zhou was.

However, when Su Zhou decided to head for the "Miasma Forest" on the 5th Layer—an undeveloped area where Elite Initial Stage Magical Beasts were known to roam—Elias’s expression turned serious. "Mr. Su," he cautioned, "you are incredibly powerful, but it seems you don’t have much experience exploring the Maze. I must remind you, no matter how strong you are, never underestimate the Monsters in here! Most of them have special abilities. You have to be on your guard, or you’ll get creamed!"

Su Zhou: "Creamed? What kind of cream?"

In reality, Su Zhou took Elias’s warning to heart. He never underestimated any opponent. Although this was mainly because he enjoyed crushing weaker foes, that in itself was a form of caution.

The most powerful creature on the 5th Layer of the Maze was a giant chameleon that could control the poisonous miasma and turn invisible within it. At seventeen meters long and with the strength of an Elite Initial Stage, it was a truly formidable foe that could easily hunt down ordinary adventuring parties.

But for Su Zhou, who was immune to all poisons and several times more powerful, the creature’s fate could only be a brutal slaughter.

He didn’t even use his Gale Armor, Thunder Technique, or Blade of Annihilation. Relying solely on the Water Control Power from his Mingxun Dragon Transformation Technique and some Water Magic he had just learned the previous night, he simply created a prison of water and drowned the Extraordinary Tier Giant Beast.

However, Su Zhou didn’t look down on the Giant Beast. ’This creature’s ability to control poison gas is, in essence, the use of a special Extraordinary Organ to manipulate dust with a macromolecular structure! And the strange scales covering its body allow it to rapidly change color and temperature. If I couldn’t use my Thunder Technique to scan for electromagnetic fluctuations, my Thermal Vision alone would have been completely fooled!’

With that thought, Su Zhou carefully excised a part of the chameleon’s body and stored it as a research sample. He hadn’t forgotten his goal of cultivating his True Body. Fighting these unique Monsters, each with their own specializations, not only expanded his knowledge of various Extraordinary Organs but also gave him inspiration.

’My True Body needs to be able to face enemies that my normal form can’t handle. Those enemies generally fall into two categories. First, those that are massive, like that hundred-meter-long Giant Whale I met in the deep sea, so large that my attacks aren’t fully effective. Second, those whose defenses are so tough I can’t break through to deal any damage.’

’He didn’t dwell on scenarios like ’the enemy’s attack is too strong to defend against’ or ’the enemy is faster than me.’ For the former, if he ran into an enemy that powerful, the first order of business would be to escape, not fight them head-on. As for the latter, his human form was small and light, and with his Gale Armor, he could move at supersonic speeds. His True Body might not even be that fast.’

’So, the basic design for his True Body was obvious—it needed to be huge and have high Attack Power. As for its Defense Power, it had to be at least strong enough to ignore attacks from common grunts, lest its large size make it an easy target to be focused down and killed by a mob.’

Gradually refining the concept of his True Body in his mind, Su Zhou continued to venture deeper into the Maze with Elias.

Along the way, Su Zhou didn’t just hunt Extraordinary Tier Magical Beasts. He also made a point of hunting some of the weaker, more common ones—for example, swarms of calf-sized Fire-Venom Ants that roamed the latter half of the 5th Layer, and Hovering Hedgehogs, which had a peculiar internal chamber structure that allowed them to float simply by breathing. These unique Magical Beasts, along with various plants and animals, had likely gone extinct in the Tartadis World long before the apocalypse, but the Maze had revived them, allowing them to reappear in the world.

The locals might have long since grown used to it, even taking the Maze’s existence for granted, but as a visitor from an Otherworld, Su Zhou had a different perspective. "No matter how you look at it, these ’Mazes’ are like a series of separate, self-contained ecosystems, preserving Extraordinary Creatures from different eras that could only survive in specific environments!"

"And there’s a clear pattern to it all—the deeper you go in the Maze, the more complex the lifeforms become, similar to the recorded ecology of the Tartadis World before the apocalypse. But the higher up you go, the simpler, more primitive, and more bizarre the creatures are."

"The complexity and dangerousness of life naturally increase over time, and this is especially true for Extraordinary Creatures. So when they’re arranged layer by layer like this, it gives the impression that ’the Maze is gradually increasing in difficulty’!"

Su Zhou didn’t hide any of this, telling Elias everything. He wasn’t the type to bottle things up, and besides, he needed a local to help him analyze the validity of his theory.

After hearing Su Zhou’s analysis from a completely different perspective, the young Duke of the Naisel Family’s expression turned grim.

"I need to go back and cross-reference this with my family’s archives."

That was what he said, but it was clear that Elias also found Su Zhou’s theory plausible. If it was true, it seemed to have a faint connection to the "changing of the Eras."

But if that were the case, the true nature of the Maze became far more profound. And the "Water God Divine Hall," located deep on the 8th Layer, along with the legendary "truth of the apocalypse" hidden in the Maze’s depths, would take on a much greater significance.