Magic Is the Primary Productive Force of This World

"Good brothers, you five are the ones. Once we get back, I'll give each of you ten points."

Norton grinned as he picked the five who had shouted the loudest. Three were assassins, one was a catfolk archer, and the last was a novice adventurer wearing tattered leather armor. He shoved a silver coin into each of their hands.

"Go on. Your boss and the brothers will support you from behind."

Norton heavily patted the five men on the shoulders, then stepped back into the center of the crowd and watched the chosen adventurers walk into the dense fog.

Gale Spell.

Among the crowd, someone from the adventurers who had been watching suddenly acted, dispersing the poisonous miasma around the entrance to the Fourth Layer. The four adventurers scouting the way reappeared in sight, while the novice adventurer had completely vanished in less than a few seconds.

The only trace left was the rusty iron sword he had been holding.

"He's already dead?"

"A normal person who hasn't even mastered the most basic skills dying is perfectly normal."

"I didn't expect there to be swamp pits so close to the entrance. It seems that to explore the Fourth Layer, we'll need tools to cross the swamp."

The adventurers expressionlessly surveyed the area ahead, quickly analyzing the Fourth Layer's information based on the traces left behind by the dead adventurer. From that perspective, the novice adventurer had not died entirely in vain.

Meanwhile, the adventurer who called himself a professional assassin had already run several hundred meters away. As expected of someone who had dared accept the exploration mission, he easily found passable routes along the way with his keen senses.

Even when he occasionally encountered deep swamp pits, he could leap over them with his nimble body.

"So the Fourth Layer isn't much after all. The environment is just a little worse."

The assassin lightly tapped off the ground and shot forward. Catching sight of the people lagging behind him from the corner of his eye, he curled his lips in smug satisfaction. This time, he would let everyone know how capable he was, then use this chance to join an elite adventurer squad.

One day, he would become a formal assassin, join the Assassin Alliance, and become a powerful assassin whose name struck fear into everyone who heard it.

Slap!

At that moment, the assassin who had just landed noticed that the sensation beneath his feet was wrong. What had been soft, rotten grass had turned into hard ground, and it felt like he was stepping on dry tree bark.

Delight flashed through the assassin's eyes. Just as he thought he had found a foothold in this swamp, the ground beneath him suddenly began to tremble. The next second, a house-sized head rose from beneath the swamp and opened an abyssal maw filled with fangs.

Riiip!

Accompanied by the sound of flesh tearing, a pair of mangled legs fell into the swamp. As the scent of blood spread, Swamp Giant Crocodiles emerged from the swamp one after another, their gazes turning toward the remaining three people.

Almost at the same time, a buzzing sound drew nearer. Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes surged out of the churning fog like a tide, blotting out the sky. In the blink of an eye, the remaining three were drained dry, and their fallen corpses sank into the depths of the swamp.

"Are these the monsters of the Fourth Layer?"

At the entrance, the many adventurers watching the tide of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes approach all turned solemn. Some adventurer squads that had prepared tools in advance immediately used their own methods to leave and head deeper into the Fourth Layer.

Among them was a beastmaster who used magic to forcibly enslave a Swamp Giant Crocodile as transportation, carrying his teammates away.

In less than a minute, half the adventurers gathered at the entrance had already left. Most of those remaining were adventurers who had excitedly followed the larger group to the Fourth Layer without preparing anything. Yet they were unwilling to leave now.

"Brothers who stayed behind, don't panic!"

At that moment, Norton stepped forward. His tall figure instantly drew the attention of the remaining adventurers present, and a confident smile rested on his honest-looking face. A mage stepped out from behind him.

Mud to Stone, Elemental Reconstruction.

Under the dual casting, the rotten swamp condensed back into stone. Under the mage's control, it was reshaped into a massive stone boat more than ten meters long, perfectly solving the problem of the adventurers having no tools to cross the swamp.

"Are the mages of this world a little too overpowered?"

Luo Ao, who had been watching the commotion, was stunned by the sudden mage's display. Whether it was the undead mage from the Black Iron Squad earlier or this mage just now, their mastery of magic had exceeded Luo Ao's established impression.

They were nothing like rigid, unchanging entities. Every formal mage Luo Ao had met so far had been able to reconstruct magical formulas and principles on the spot according to the environment and their needs.

"Sure enough, magic was the world's primary productive force."

Under Luo Ao's watch, the remaining adventurers boarded the stone boat under Norton's command. Relying on their sheer numbers, they actually held back the swarm of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes and broke through the blockade of dozens of Swamp Giant Crocodiles.

At the same time, elsewhere.

Mark's team, the first to venture deep into the Fourth Layer, was currently speeding toward the depths of the Fourth Layer aboard the magical item, the Clearwind Boat. With this specially crafted magical item and the support of Ireland, the priest of light—

—the Venomous Swamp environment of the Fourth Layer could no longer pose much of a threat to them. The only main factor limiting their exploration was the thick poisonous miasma around them, which made it impossible to see their surroundings clearly.

"Oliver, is there any way to disperse this poisonous fog?"

At the bow, Mark looked at the surging toxic mist around them. Even with the power of the magical item beneath them raising their visibility to five meters, compared to the unknown and vast expanse of the Fourth Layer, who knew how long it would take to find the entrance to the next layer?

One had to know that as a dungeon went deeper, every layer continuously expanded. Rumor had it that in large dungeons, once one reached the middle layers and below, each layer was as vast as a small kingdom.

After reaching the deep layers, each layer was practically equivalent to an entirely new small plane world.

"Captain Mark, I must preserve my mana to deal with monsters and unexpected situations. I can't expend a large amount of mana just to disperse poisonous fog."

Oliver rejected Mark's suggestion. Danger could arise at any time in a dungeon. Keeping sufficient mana was a responsibility to himself and the entire team. He did not want to die in a dungeon.

"Sorry. I was being too impatient."

After being refused, Mark realized that his previous failure to explore the Fourth Layer had made him too eager for success. Once he recognized his own problem, Mark hurriedly apologized to Oliver and began considering other options.

"Perhaps I can help."

A cool voice carrying a hint of allure rang out. The final member of Mark's team, an assassin completely shrouded in a black robe, suddenly spoke.