"Anything serious?"
Gauss asked casually as he watched Serandur finish the follow-up check on the wounded.
The three in front of them were the unlucky ones from the kobold nest purge. They hadn't been hurt in the fighting—just caught by the valley's landslide aftermath.
"They're recovering well. The cracks in the bones have already started to knit."
Normally, "hurt a tendon, break a bone—rest a hundred days." A fracture shouldn't heal anywhere near this fast. But their team had both a healer and an alchemist, so "normal" didn't apply.
"Captain, I feel like I could pick up a weapon and fight right now."
"Seriously—my body feels amazing."
The three wounded hurried to insist they were basically fine, afraid Gauss might think they were useless. They didn't want to leave a "too fragile" impression.
Compared to other companies, Red Dragon Company's pay and insurance were unusually good. People weren't made of stone—Gauss's attitude toward ordinary members was obvious to everyone.
In other companies, if nobodies like them got hurt, there was no way the captain would personally come check on them. Elsewhere it was simple: If you can work, work. If you can't, get lost. The world never lacked for average adventurers.
So after spending some time in Red Dragon Company, they all wanted to stay here long-term.
"Don't move around recklessly yet. Rest properly," Gauss said.
"If anything feels off, report it immediately."
Of course he could tell they were posturing. Serandur's medical skill was excellent, but not divine.
To avoid pressuring them, Gauss only looked a little longer, then left the makeshift "infirmary."
After wiping out a kobold nest, Red Dragon Company wasn't going to immediately launch the next hunt.
One reason was that the others needed time to recover and reset. Another was that post-battle downtime was the best time for adventurers to do a "gap check"—review what went wrong, what weaknesses showed, and practice more efficiently.
For Gauss, he also needed a break to digest yesterday's haul.
Yesterday's rewards weren't just a fragment of world-rule power. The 30,000 kill milestone had brought a whole pile of upgrades.
First was a Level 4 illusion spell—True Phantasm.
This was likely the first real illusion spell Gauss had mastered.
And honestly, for someone with 19 INT and an absurdly strong mind, illusion was a perfect attack path.
Its biggest advantage was that it attacked the mental layer.
That meant it could bypass physical defenses and strike directly at the enemy's mind.
And compared to brute-force mental pressure, illusion was subtler—smooth enough that the target might not even realize they were trapped.
Gauss needed more variety in his offense, and this Level 4 True Phantasm was perfectly timed.
Because it was a direct Manual reward, True Phantasm was already "learned." Its impossibly complex spell model lay quietly in the depths of his consciousness.
Gauss dove in.
Instantly, dense streams of arcane insight flooded his brain.
Thankfully his mental stats were high enough—after some time, he digested it without too much resistance.
"So that's how True Phantasm works…"
He nodded, thoughtful.
True Phantasm was terrifying. Gauss had already faced it once.
Back then, the enemy had summoned a green dragon—so real there was no visual flaw. Luckily, Gauss's mind was too strong; he broke free quickly.
Now, the caster was him.
He reviewed the steps.
First: he had to build a destructive scenario using pure mental power.
It could be an unbeatable creature, or a natural disaster—anything that would make a normal being immediately sense lethal danger.
The more complex and realistic the mental construct, the harder it was for the target to escape.
And once the enemy was trapped deeply enough, the damage done in the mental world would begin transferring to the target's body in reality.
So True Phantasm was an illusion spell… but not just an illusion spell.
Of course, fully unleashing it wasn't easy. The more destructive and detailed the scenario, the harder it was to build.
It demanded enormous mental strength—and consumed a lot of it. If construction failed, the first victim would be the caster's own mind.
The "mental strength requirement" wasn't a problem for Gauss.
"Let's try it."
He reviewed the model several times, then began.
"It has to be real enough—meaning I need to understand what I'm building."
He chose monsters.
And among monsters, nothing was more familiar to him than Hephaestus, plus goblins and kobolds.
Hephaestus represented singular overwhelming destruction; goblins and kobolds represented the terror of a swarm.
One thing had to be said: even though Gauss butchered goblins and kobolds like cutting grass, for most beings—human or monster—the "ant swarm kills the elephant" tactic never stopped being valid.
They might kill one goblin, ten, a hundred… but any living thing gets tired—physically or mentally. Once your state dips, a sea of monsters can drown you.
Gauss was the exception.
But even he wasn't an infinite perpetual-kill machine. His ceiling was just raised to an absurd level by titles, talents, and specialties.
With that in mind, he decided to start small.
As his mental power flowed into the True Phantasm model, over a hundred goblin phantoms rapidly formed in front of him.
They were snarling, vicious, and lifelike. Despite the speed, the illusion showed no flaws at all.
That was the advantage of a "natural."
He knew goblins too well. Sculpting them was effortless.
After all, the blood of ten-thousand-plus goblins he'd killed wasn't spilled for nothing.
"Perfect."
It cost him a chunk of mental energy, but he was satisfied.
[True Phantasm Proficiency +1]
[Level 4 True Phantasm Lv1 (1/10)]
"Next: more. A hundred goblins, no matter how real, won't scare anyone who matters."
He poured in more mental power.
More goblins appeared—until the illusion became thousands.
Only then did he nod in satisfaction.
Thousands of fearless goblins—what a terrifying force.
"Too bad they're only illusions…"
If they were real, they'd be a delicious snack for him.
After building the "goblin hell" scenario, he followed up by constructing illusions based on his familiarity with Hephaestus and kobolds.
"Done."
Now it was just repetition—practice until proficiency rose.
Otherwise, they'd remain "just" illusions: realistic, but lacking that mind-hooking, inescapable pull.
Then Gauss continued training the 3rd-circle spell Call Lightning, and began learning the spellbooks pulled from the kobold chieftain's hoard:
Level 3 Memory Seal
Level 2 Hypnotic Charm
Level 2 Echo Location
Of those, Echo Location was probably useless to him—he already had better detection tools. He was learning it purely to broaden his magical foundation.
Time slipped by in that steady cycle.
…
Out in the wilderness, several figures moved fast, like they were fleeing something.
"Deputy Captain Luna, you have to stop and rest."
A ranger at her side saw how pale she looked and shouted a warning.
But Luna stubbornly shook her head.
"My injuries are fine."
A lie.
That strange, dark energy inside her was gnawing away at her stamina.
But this really wasn't the time to stop.
She could feel an imprint somewhere in her body. That mark was why—even after changing routes repeatedly—Fisher's people still kept closing in.
Fisher…
The memory of that night made her expression turn ugly.
Both she and Captain Wolf had underestimated Fisher's strength. Even now, she couldn't understand how he'd managed to cripple Wolf so quickly.
Wolf wasn't an ordinary Level 10 warrior. To heavily injure him without causing a huge commotion—even a transcendent would struggle.
That was why, the instant she realized Wolf was dead, she fled with her people.
Even so, Fisher had left a foreign energy in her.
They'd tried to purge it. They failed.
And with time, it only grew worse.
"Damn it…"
She'd wanted to run back to a city, but pursuit forced her deeper into dangerous zones. Several times she barely escaped encirclement.
Then—
A sharp, piercing bird cry rang out from above.
Luna looked up and saw the brown giant eagle circling in the clouds.
That was their druid captain, transformed.
Her heart sank.
It meant Fisher's forces were close.
She pulled out a map, planning to repeat the earlier strategy: hide in dangerous monster nests. Fisher wouldn't dare chase too deep.
Because if the monsters switched targets to Fang of the Gray Wolf's larger force instead of Luna's smaller party, it would be disastrous.
But—
"No… not here either."
The map showed only small villages nearby. No marked large monster nests.
Her heart slowly sank.
In her current condition, if Fang of the Gray Wolf's main force boxed her in, she couldn't break through with her handful of people.
That meant death.
"Keep moving!"
She forced her team onward, crushing the fear inside her.
If they were cornered, she was ready to die to buy time for these loyal old companions.
Then—amid her tangled thoughts—she spotted a red banner.
"That is…"
Her eyes narrowed.
An adventuring company.
This wasn't pure coincidence. She'd been forced to roam huge swaths of Blackwater territory.
She had encountered other adventurers and companies before—but she never asked for help.
Because she knew how organizations worked: self-interest first.
If she begged, the most likely outcome was being captured and sold as bargaining chips to the now-Fisher-controlled Fang of the Gray Wolf.
Turn her in, gain friendship with a powerful leader and a fat reward. Protect her, risk a full-blown war with another company, and even if you win you bleed hard.
Any rational group would choose the former.
There weren't many "justice heroes" without a stake.
But the banner she saw… sparked a memory.
If she wasn't mistaken, it was the Red Dragon Company banner.
And since Fisher seemed to be targeting Red Dragon's leader—Gauss—she hesitated.
After weighing it, she didn't detour away like before.
She led her team toward it.
Desperate times—treat the dead horse as alive.
She'd only met Gauss once, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
If she could persuade him, maybe they could live.
Wolf had called Gauss strong. Wolf's standards were high—he never praised other captains easily.
Even though Luna knew little about Gauss—only that he was a Level 7 spellcaster with terrifying magic and a rising star in Falrim—she trusted Wolf's judgment.
"Stop! This is Red Dragon Company's temporary camp. Who are you?"
A black shadow rose from the ground and condensed into a tall, beautiful woman.
She kept a safe distance.
"We are—"
Before Luna could finish, a figure drifted down from above.
"You're from Fang of the Gray Wolf, aren't you?"
It was Gauss.
His memory was sharp. One glance was enough—Luna had stood beside Wolf in Grayrock Town.
Gauss took in her injuries, suspicion stirring.
Had something happened?
Fang of the Gray Wolf wasn't weak. Even if Wolf wasn't on Gauss's level, the company overall was powerful. After Grayrock, Gauss had looked into them: old brand, many master-ranks, dozens of elite-ranks.
"Yes, Captain Gauss."
"Please—protect us!"
For some reason, the moment she saw him, her anxiety eased.
He carried a strange calm—steady as deep water.
~~~
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