This time, I won't be the devil.

Especially for novice adventurers, it is best to stay as close to the main path as possible when exploring the maze so that you can evacuate at any time.

After showing their badges to the guard, the two passed through the entrance and entered the first level of the maze.

In principle, Iron-level adventurers can only explore the first level (1-10 floors). Since the main paths between different levels are not connected, if you want to go to the second level, you need to return to the ground and change the entrance. If you force yourself to explore across levels, you may get lost in the maze because you can't find the right path.

The first level is also known as the dark level. It is characterized by a dim environment and a network of tunnels. The tunnel floor is made of yellow-brown soil, and the walls and ceiling are black rocks.

After leaving the main road, there were soon no other adventurers around.

This is because only tier 8 monsters appear in the first 1 levels of the Dark Tier, and as the price of magic stones continues to fall, the low-level magic stones dropped by tier 1 monsters are no longer valuable.

In order to survive, experienced adventurers all went to the 9th floor to look for level 2 monsters. Those who stayed in the first few floors were all rookies, and those who came to the 1st floor were only newcomers.

After walking for a while, the wall in front of Frey changed strangely. The dark rock seemed to have life and squirmed.

Immediately afterwards, a black mist floated in front of him and three monsters walked out of it.

This is the monster spawning mechanism of the maze. After seeing the specific process, Frey felt that these monsters seemed to be "born" by the maze.

The monster was nearly two meters long, and its rotten flesh seemed to be stuck to its skeleton. Judging from its appearance, it should be a canine, but because its head had completely turned into bones, it was impossible to tell whether it was a wolf or a dog.

[Skeleton Beast: Rank 1]

Frey shifted his gaze to the monster's upturned bony tail. Based on the principle of "a tail that is dragged downwards is a wolf, a tail that is erected upwards is a dog," Frey felt that another name would be more suitable for them than Skeleton Beast:

——Skeleton dog.

When the monster appeared, Noelle quickly stepped forward and protected Frey behind him.

"As we agreed, I'll attract the monsters, and you, Frey, will take the opportunity to chant magic."

When inviting Noel to join a team last night, Frey exchanged their attribute information with him and worked out the division of labor when exploring the maze.

According to the test results of the Adventurer's Association, Noelle's magic value is 0.

This result occurs because the magic test conducted by the association through the crystal ball is not rigorous. Just like Frey can conceal the value by controlling the output of magic, if a person cannot output magic, then even if there is magic in the body, the test result will still be zero.

Although Frey knew that Noelle actually possessed an incredible magic value of 29.8, he did not point it out immediately in order to avoid exposing his [Identification] skill.

Another important reason why Noel served in the front row was that, unlike Frey who was dressed in plain clothes, he was wearing a simple set of armor.

For low-level adventurers, armor can greatly improve survival rate. If it weren't for the lack of money, Frey would have bought a full set of plate armor.

Just as Noel drew his sword and prepared to fight, the leading skeleton beast rushed towards him.

Noelle was so flustered that he had no time to defend himself, and the skeleton beast's claws attacked his steel-like chest.

The huge impact force almost made Noel fall, but the skeleton beast did not penetrate his armor.

As the lowest-level monster, the Skeleton Beast's combat power is about the same as that of a large dog. As long as it is properly equipped, even an ordinary person can fight it alone.

But the problem is, there are three enemies in total.

After the attack failed, the leading skeleton beast retreated to the other two. The three monsters looked at each other with their skull eye sockets, then immediately dispersed and surrounded Noelle.

They opened their mouths covered with sharp bone spurs and slowly approached Noelle, intending to bite her unprotected hands and neck at the same time.

This skeleton dog is still operable.

Facing this three-dog firewood-slaughtering formation, Noel had no way of defending against it with his strength.

"Frey, is your magic ready?"

Noelle looked at Frey expectantly, and then he realized that Frey wasn't chanting at all.

The three monsters had already walked in front of Noelle, and the expectation in his eyes was quickly replaced by confusion and uneasiness.

His expression was just like that of Kamen Rider Kenzaki who asked, "Tachibana-senpai, why are you just watching?"

On the other side, the skeleton beasts seemed to have sensed Noelle's fear, and they bent their limbs, ready to pounce and bite.

At this moment, Frey slammed his hands to the ground and used magic to control the earth and water elements at the same time.

The ground beneath the monsters' feet immediately turned into mud, and when they began to sink, Frey made the soil harden instantly, thus pinning the three skeleton beasts to the ground.

By the time the three monsters reacted and tried to move, the ground beneath their feet had become as hard as cement, making it impossible for them to break free.

Making cement is a necessary skill for every engineer.

After controlling the monster, Frey once again manipulated the soil, compressed it into a hard rock bullet, and fired it out.

With its limbs controlled, the skeleton dogs without substitution techniques naturally had no way to dodge, and the rock bullets directly penetrated the skulls of two of the monsters.

All this happened in a flash. Looking at the frightened Noelle, Frey smiled confidently.

"Didn't I tell you? I know a little bit about magic."

Chapter 7 Catheter, then Rep

The two moves just now were magic developed by Frey based on his own constitution that was compatible with the elements of earth and water.

The first move is to combine the three magics of [Mud], [Soil Compaction], and [Water Evaporation] to create a magic that can instantly fix monsters in the soil.

Frey gave this magic a simple and easy-to-understand name - [Umihashi].

The second move is an upgraded version of the traditional earth magic [Rock Bullet], which enhances the overall hardness of the rock and the sharpness of the tip, and can inject more kinetic energy by charging.

Frey named it "Rock Cannonball", inspired by an isekai novel he loved.

After the two skeleton beasts died, their bodies quickly turned into a black mist and dissipated, leaving behind only two black crystals the size of green beans. These were the core drops of the maze monsters - magic stones.

This lowest-grade magic stone not only has a low magic power content, but also contains many impurities. It can no longer be sold at a high price, but it is still something that most adventurers rely on for their livelihood.

Frey lowered his head to retrieve the two magic stones. At this moment, Noelle asked curiously:

"Frey, you clearly didn't chant, so how did you cast the magic just now?"

The reason why Noelle was confused was that ordinary magicians needed to chant to activate their magic power in order to complete the construction of magic. Therefore, magicians could only serve as the team's back-row output, and would lose their combat effectiveness once they were approached.

But as a former demon king who knows a little about magic, Frey has a higher-dimensional understanding of spellcasting.

Chanting is essentially just an auxiliary, equivalent to formulating the difficult-to-understand magic construction. But in fact, as long as the magic power can be manipulated to complete the construction, chanting is not necessary. It’s just that most magicians have become accustomed to chanting and have formed a fixed mindset.

Chantless magic was not invented by Frey. Thousands of years ago, a legendary great magician recorded the method of learning chantless magic.

To master chantless magic, it is best to try to understand the correspondence between magic chanting and magic construction in the initial stage. However, this is extremely difficult, equivalent to solving difficult high-level math problems from scratch without using formulas. Only those rare geniuses can learn it.

People who don't have a deep understanding of magic often don't know the existence of this technique.

It was precisely because he had mastered the chantless spellcasting that the two seemingly bulky spells, Earth Burial and Rock Cannonball, were able to produce such outstanding results in Frey's hands.

After a brief explanation of the principle, Noelle showed an expression of admiration.

"Although I don't quite understand, but Frey, you're really amazing!"

In response to the praise, Frey stretched out his hand and made a gap between his index finger and thumb.

"You're too kind. I'm only a little bit stronger than an ordinary magician."

This is not an exaggeration. No matter how advanced Frey's magic skills are, he is only a first-level human now, and his total magic power is very limited.

Formal magicians are equipped with wands and use the magic stones on the wands to share the magic power needed to use magic. Casting spells with bare hands like Frey naturally consumes a huge amount of magic power.

If he fought alone, his magic power would be exhausted in no time, which was one of the reasons why he sought Noelle as his teammate.

"Nowen, the last one is left to you."

“I understand. Please… watch carefully my sword skills!” After saying that, Noelle raised the sword above his head and swung it with powerful force.

And then, Noelle’s powerful attack missed.

Hmm?

Facing Frey's puzzled expression, Noelle quickly launched several more powerful-looking attacks.

However, with its feet pinned, the skeleton beast managed to dodge simply by moving its body.

Frey, who was observing from the side, already understood where the problem lay.

"Can you open your eyes when you attack?"

Frey noticed that every time Noelle swung her sword, she would subconsciously close her eyes and make a (>.<) expression.

A maze is not the place to be cute (>.<).

"Please... look closely at the monster."

After Frey's reminder, Noel finally realized his problem. He widened his eyes, and Frey also increased the depth of the quagmire, leaving the monster with no room to move.

Facing this motionless target, Noel's attack finally hit, but the skeleton beast that was hit was unharmed.

The reason for this situation is the weapon in Noelle's hand.

The rusty copper sword in his hand had no edge at all, and its attack power was even worse than a fire stick. Since he had never hit a monster with the sword so far, Noelle did not realize this.

Arnold seems a little bit unintelligent.

After realizing his attack was ineffective, Noelle looked around blankly, sword still drawn. He felt extremely ashamed of his repeated gaffes.

At this moment, he finally realized his own fighting ability.

"I'm sorry, Frey, I'm really useless and can't help you at all..."

Noelle actually didn't need to feel guilty at all, because the current result was exactly what Frey wanted to see.

What he needed was never Noelle's melee ability, but her astonishing magic power.

The reason why Frey bought the crystal ball before leaving the Adventurer's Guild was to find a deserted place in the maze to test Noelle's magic.

But Frey did not bring this up on his own initiative. He wanted to wait until Noelle fell into self-doubt before introducing him to a new way of fighting.

Looking at Noelle's expression that looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment, he realized that the time was ripe.

Frey walked over to Noelle, patted his head, and said comfortingly:

"Nowen, you don't realize your true power."

"Like you said just now, I do have some magical talent, so I can feel the fluctuations of magic from you."

"But when I tested my magic power, the value was clearly 0."

"It can't be detected because you haven't mastered the method of controlling magic power yet."

After looking around and confirming that there was no one around, Frey took out the crystal ball.

"Next, I will develop you well."