Magic Was the World's Primary Productive Force

"Good brothers, there are only five of you left. When you get back, I'll give each of you ten points."

Norton smiled 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 clad in tattered leather armor. He stuffed a silver coin into each of their hands.

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

He heavily patted the five on their shoulders, then took several steps back into the center of the crowd and watched the five chosen adventurers enter the thick fog.

"Gale Spell."

Someone among the adventurers who had been watching suddenly acted, dispersing the toxic miasma around the entrance to the Fourth Layer. The four scouting adventurers reappeared in view, while the novice adventurer had completely vanished in less than a few seconds.

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

"He's already dead?"

"A normal person who hasn't even mastered the most basic skill—dying is only natural."

"I didn't expect there to be swamp sinkholes so close to the entrance. It seems we'll need something to cross the swamp if we want to explore the Fourth Layer."

One adventurer after another expressionlessly studied the area ahead, quickly analyzing the Fourth Layer's intelligence 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 ahead. As expected of an adventurer bold enough to accept an exploration mission, he relied on his sharp senses to easily find passable routes along the way.

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

"The Fourth Layer doesn't seem like much. The environment is just a little worse."

The assassin lightly pushed off with his toes and shot forward. When he caught sight of the others lagging behind him from the corner of his eye, a smug smile curled his lips. This time, he would let everyone see his strength, then use it to join an elite adventurer squad.

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

Smack!

At that moment, the assassin who had just landed realized that the sensation beneath his feet was wrong. The soft, rotten grass had become hard ground, and stepping on it felt like treading on dried tree bark.

Delight flashed in the assassin's eyes. Just as he thought he had found solid ground in this swamp, the earth beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble. The next second, a house-sized head rose from beneath the swamp, opening an abyssal maw packed with fangs.

Riiip!

With the sound of flesh tearing, a pair of mangled legs fell into the swamp. As the scent of blood spread, Swamp Giant Crocodiles surfaced one after another, their gazes fixed on the remaining three people.

Almost at the same time, a buzzing sound approached from afar. Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes poured out of the roiling mist 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 watched the tide of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes rush toward them, their expressions turning grave. 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 crowd into 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, and a confident smile rested on his honest-looking face as a mage emerged from behind him.

"Mud to Stone, Elemental Reconstruction."

Under the dual casting, the decayed swamp solidified into stone and was reshaped under the mage's control into a gigantic stone boat over ten meters long, perfectly solving the problem of the adventurers lacking a way to cross the swamp.

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

Lucifer, who had been watching everything here, was stunned by the sudden mage's display. Whether it was the Black Iron Squad's necromancer earlier or this mage now, their command of magic had surpassed Lucifer's fixed impression.

They were nothing like rigid, unchanging beings. Every proper mage Lucifer had seen so far could reconstruct magical formulas and principles on the spot according to the environment and their needs.

"As expected, magic was the world's primary productive force."

Under Lucifer's gaze, the remaining adventurers all boarded the stone boat under Norton's command. Relying on their numbers, they actually forced back the swarm of Purple Poison Giant Mosquitoes and broke through the blockade of dozens of Swamp Giant Crocodiles.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Mark's Squad, the first to venture deep into the Fourth Layer, was 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 light priest—

—the Venomous Swamp environment of the Fourth Layer could no longer have much effect on them. The only major factor limiting their exploration was the thick toxic miasma all 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 poisonous mist churning around them. Even with the power of the magical item beneath them, visibility had only increased to five meters. Compared with the unknown vastness 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 one delved deeper into the Dungeon, each layer grew larger and larger. Rumor had it that below the middle layers of a large Dungeon, every layer was comparable in area to a small kingdom.

Once one reached the deep layers, each layer was practically equivalent to an entirely new small plane world.

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

Oliver rejected Mark's suggestion. Danger could arise at any moment inside a Dungeon. Keeping his mana reserves full was a responsibility to himself and the entire squad. He had no desire to die in the Dungeon.

"Sorry, I was being too impatient."

After being refused, Mark also realized that his failure during the last exploration of the Fourth Layer had made him too eager for quick results. Recognizing his own problem, Mark hurriedly apologized to Oliver before considering other ways to deal with the situation.

"Perhaps I can help."

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