This was the main objective.

Only when spirituality hit 20 points could Carlos upgrade the Shield Guards into way more powerful Dark Knights.

"South, there's a decent bunch of monsters."

The three retainers stayed top-tier forces even in Dark Mist First Layer.

Carlos wasn't sweating safety.

"Right now isn't the time for long-distance flying!"

Carlos looked up at the sky where waves of cold winds came together, forming massive ice storms tearing through the heavens.

This was Dark Mist First Layer's signature cold wind weather—seriously powerful ice storms that shredded anything in the sky.

"Since that's how it is..."

Drawing on his memory's familiarity with this place, Carlos figured out which way to go.

He called up twelve of the fastest Redrose Shield Guards, four of them hauling an Iron Palanquin.

This palanquin was totally made of fire stone, naturally pumping out heat. Thick animal furs were spread on top.

Carlos kicked back on the palanquin. The crazy warm animal furs kept the outside cold at bay, super comfortable.

"Let's roll!"

The three retainers stuck close to his side as the group quickly moved south...

...

"Master, monsters are tailing us."

Ginya asked if she needed to handle them.

Carlos shook his head.

"Not enough."

Dark Mist First Layer monsters had way higher smarts than monsters in the low-spirituality dark mist regions.

They didn't have minds stuffed only with bloodlust like before.

Right now, behind the group, an ice spike-shaped monster quietly hung back.

Carlos got a clear look at it—just some ice spike monster worth about 1 point of experience wasn't worth burning time on.

"Dark Mist First Layer monsters, even with weak spirituality, are lightning fast."

While thinking, several more ice spike monsters started following from way back.

This made Carlos's lips quirk up a bit.

Surprisingly, more and more monsters were clustering up—a good thing,

meaning Carlos would soon score his first haul of spiritual essence from Dark Mist First Layer.

As Carlos's group pushed deeper, more monsters spotted them, already hitting over twenty.

However, they didn't jump right into attacking, their eyes packed with cunning and wariness.

This was the scary part about monsters packing some brains -

knowing how to stalk, work together, and use numbers.

In Dark Mist First Layer, tons of monsters even formed basic tribes for outside warfare and slaughter.

However, the number of human psionics who could step foot here was tiny, like drops in the ocean.

In real situations,

they weren't one of the major players in Dark Mist First Layer's chaotic warfare, rarely catching attention from big monster tribes.

Even most tribes never bumped into human psionics until they got wiped out.

...

Monster numbers shot up fast, from over twenty to over fifty.

Besides your typical ordinary ice spike monsters, four ice spike monster elites showed up.

Twice the size of ordinary ice spike monsters, with cone-like arms sporting spiral patterns that bounced cold light off the ice.

The boosted numbers obviously pumped up these monsters' confidence, especially the four ice spike monster elites showing eager attack vibes.

"Still not enough."

Carlos signaled the Shield Guards to hold back, waiting for more monsters to cluster up...

Before long,

the monster crew behind Carlos's team picked up a batch of small ice-type monsters.

Chunky builds with fat guts taking up two-thirds of their body size.

These were Fat Ice Beasts. Even though they had some smarts, they were way dumber than ice spike monsters.

Only when the monster crew following Carlos hit nearly a hundred

did Carlos drop new orders.

"That'll do it."

Orders were law.

Eleven Redrose Shield Guards immediately stopped dead, spinning around, cold soul fires dancing as they eyeballed the distant monster crew...

...

In the monster crew,

the ice spike monsters with the highest smarts formed somewhat organized formations compared to other chaotic monsters, pretty methodical.

Banking on relatively solid organization,

ice spike monster teams built around four elite ice spike monsters often showed combat power way beyond same-level monsters.

The elite ice spike monsters looked at surrounding monsters with total disdain.

As 'high' intelligence monster crews,

the elite ice spike monsters knew damn well

that these brain-dead monsters, lacking organization and discipline, were only good for cannon fodder.

Battle outcomes often hung on the ice spike monsters' timing.

Among the elite ice spike monsters,

one really stood out.

Unlike others with naked cone arms carved with spiral patterns,

it packed a pair of black iron cone arms reflecting metallic shine, razor-sharp cone tips gleaming coldly.

This crew of ice spike monsters clearly revolved around this one based on positioning.

"Dark Mist First Layer monster tribes have started learning to forge gear and arm themselves."

Carlos made a mental note of that special elite ice spike monster.

"This is also the natural result after monsters get some brains."

Dark Mist First Layer's brutal environment made smart monsters naturally bunch up for protection or conquest.

This was the lead-up to monster tribes—mixed monster crews.

Only after monster crews went through battle after battle would more organized tribes slowly emerge.

...

That special elite ice spike monster, seeing distant prey stop, flashed cruel eyes.

Then it made a short sound.

The ice spike monster crew, led by three elite ice spike monsters, quickly herded the chaotic monster crew to block the front...

That special elite ice spike monster, surrounded by ice spike monsters, called the shots from behind.

Its sneaky eyes stared hard at nearby prey.

Unlike previous prey, this crew had weird looks and no ice energy smell, seemingly not creatures from this neck of the woods.

'Old monsters?'

The special elite ice spike monster's pupils narrowed.

Thousands of years ago,

new monster tribes threw down with old monster tribes for control.

Countless tribes took massive hits, even got totally wiped out.

Ice corpses piled like mountains, forming special glacial terrain.

Fighting to the bitter end, both new and old tribal alliance forces took devastating losses, forced to call a ceasefire using the river spanning the entire dimension as a boundary, licking their wounds and regrouping.

The ice spike clan, though not a major tribe back in the day, wasn't weak either. Several ice veins around were ice spike clan turf.

But that battle saw the ice spike clan's heavy hitters get demolished, falling over millennia to the level of these bottom-feeder monsters.