The final area before entering the guardian monster's room was just a cave maze type, not much different from a small-size Dungeon.
But because there wasn't much difference, the frequency of monsters appearing here was also unusually high. The area adjacent to the swamp was relatively safe, but if they were to carelessly go deeper into the maze, the monsters would absolutely not let them go.
So, Kain proposed two options.
First, move forward as usual, defeat any monsters blocking their path, and continue until they reach the final room of the guardian monsters.
Second, let Kain conduct the reconnaissance first, he will mainly focus on scouting and building a map, and when that is completed, Kain will lead the entire party directly through the labyrinth without encountering any monsters, directly approaching the guardian monster's room.
"I think the second proposal is better for us."
Kain gives his opinion to all the team.
It wasn't a matter of him doing all the hard work, finding the way and drawing the map for Kain was easy or difficult, it all depended on his will.
What Kain wants to emphasize here is conformity, because they are indeed having problems.
Food.
It sounds incomprehensible, but didn't they bring enough food for a month? Meanwhile, they were only in the Dungeon for half of the scheduled time, so shouldn't they have half the food left?
This is not wrong, but that is only in theory, but in reality things are very different.
In theory, a month's worth of food is a month's worth of food, there's basically nothing to worry about. But in reality, on days when they don't fight, they can eat a little less to save food. But on days when they have to fight, depending on the intensity of each battle, they might have to eat more or less food to recover their energy and strength. But battles are events that are either unexpected or unavoidable, and even Kain cannot calculate accurately in this aspect.
That is why in a long expedition, an expedition team always brings along an amount of food that is more than the lowest estimate just in case.
And what about Kain's team?
They did bring extra provisions, but not much. Because their luggage when they first set out was their own, after all, they had been separated when they were thrown into the upside down forest.
If you leave all the food preparation to one person, but that person can't find the others, then it's no different than killing them.
And the rations of food and water for thirty days was not a small amount, and on top of that, they had to prepare other items for daily living in the wilderness. It could be said that the amount of food beyond the quota for Kain's team was very little.
But just keep going, whatever monster you encounter and how you deal with it is a huge variable. It's unclear how many monsters will appear, how strong they will be. On top of that, you also have to consider resting in between fighting... Honestly, Kain doesn't think the remaining half of time is enough to handle all the possible variables.
So Kain wanted to spend a few days exploring every path, while Myra and Mera could rest completely until they recovered to their best condition. And once the preparations were complete, Kain could lead the two of them straight to the final room.
"This maze is where the monsters trap and block us, but it is also a means to escape them."
"Faced with such an advantage, wouldn't it be a waste not to take advantage?"
It was this statement that convinced Myra. Because she couldn't imagine that Kain would see the "maze" as an advantage instead of a disadvantage.
As for Mera, convincing her wasn't too difficult.
After successfully convincing both of his companions, Kain rested for about a day to regain his strength before stepping into the monster labyrinth alone.
…
Recovered, Kain entered the labyrinth alone.
The method he used to explore the paths in the maze was also very simple, try and repeat. Of course, it's also thanks to his incredible imagination, visualization and memory.
Kain would pick a path and go, and when he encountered a monster blocking his way, he would back off and pick another path. Roughly speaking, Kain would sketch out many maps of different paths in the labyrinth, and then stitch them together to form a complete map.
The way Kain put it together was also very "simple".
It's all thanks to the monsters.
The paths in the maze are too similar, and people walking in it cannot tell when which path will connect or cross which path, it is almost impossible to determine, that is why this place is called a "maze". For that reason, most Dungeon exploration teams choose the "straight push" method, which means that no matter how deep you go, you will eventually reach your destination because all the paths will be connected to each other. A simple method, but it will also encounter many obstacles, you can get lost many times, anh of course consuming more time and resources.
As for Kain, he uses the monsters as "landmarks" for him to piece together the map.
The method is as follows, after Kain has explored everything on "road A" and is blocked by "group of monsters A". Kain will then retreat to the starting line, start exploring every corner of "road B", and at some point, he will meet "group of monsters A" again on "road B". When this happens, the two maps of "road A" and "road B" will finally have a common point, and Kain just needs to continue to pair and try.
This was entirely possible, because having had previous experience in Dungeons, Kain knew that the monsters in the maze would not easily leave their positions unless stimulated by external factors.
This is just a simplification of Kain's strategy for navigating and building maps. In reality, the number of "landmarks" he had to memorize was already dozens, and he had to memorize every single feature from monster classification, monster numbers to the surrounding environment of the monsters to avoid remembering wrongly. This is not to mention the number of forks in the road that were even more terrifying.