Only after the light pollution cleared enough to see the newcor’s features did Levin and va show surprised yet suddenly enlightened expressions, their earlier vigilance instantly dropping.
Beside them, the female warrior Sasha, who had once t Gauss briefly, stood dazed for a long mont before she rembered she had seen this person sowhere.
Only Elvin, the priest who had joined the team recently, had a puzzled look on his middle-aged face; he glanced left and right, quietly wondering who this obviously extraordinary person could be and why he had intervened to help them.
Recalling that he had just heard Captain Levin and va’s nas, this man might be acquainted with them?
But why had they never ntioned him?
Besides, after spending so ti together, Elvin already understood his teammates’ backgrounds fairly well: they were ordinary adventurers with little chance of knowing big nas.
He widened his eyes as he watched Gauss, with a flick of his hand, annihilate the orcs that had trapped them.
When the dust settled, the explosions faded.
All around them were pits of various sizes like lunar craters, and corpses that would never rise again.
“So... so strong!”
Seeing that scene, Sasha and the priest Elvin swallowed hard at the sa ti.
The enemies who had once driven their Night Owl Squad to the brink were so utterly weak under the mysterious man who had appeared in an instant.
The stark contrast left them montarily stunned, their heads buzzing.
Even Levin and va, who thought they knew Gauss’s strength well since he operated around Grayrock Town and his reputation was hard to miss, were a little shocked.
Hearing about soone’s power is one thing, seeing it firsthand is another; the latter had a far more staggering effect.
After sweeping the surrounding marsh orcs clean, Gauss checked to confirm there were no other imdiate dangers, floated over to the four of them, and descended to the ground.
“I didn’t expect to run into you here.”
Gauss landed lightly. His moon-white robe was spotless, giving no sign that he had just finished a battle.
As he spoke, he released four small prestidigitation spells that landed on Levin and the others.
After a flash of white light, the blood and filth on their leather armor and skin peeled off and condensed into clots that fell to the ground not far from their feet.
“Thanks, Gauss!” Levin and va breathed out and greeted him at once.
“It’s really great to et you here.”
va’s entire tense body relaxed.
The situation a mont ago had been far too urgent; she had ntally prepared to stay behind today. Luckily, fate brought Gauss.
With Gauss present, it ant the danger was over.
“G... Gauss!!!”
Both the priest Elvin and the still-puzzled Sasha cried out in surprise.
Elvin in particular accidentally dropped his wooden staff, which showed how excited he was at the mont.
Looking at Gauss, his face had the expression of a little fan seeing his idol.
“Are you... are you the... the Gauss I know?” he asked respectfully, his words stumbling but earnest.
Gauss, who had been talking with Levin and va, turned when he heard Elvin’s stamring voice and nodded with a smile.
“Maybe, probably.”
“Oh my god! I didn’t expect it to be you.”
“By the way, my na is Elvin. I’m a priest, and I’m one of your admirers.”
The middle-aged man, whose face showed so wear, suddenly flushed with excitent that belied his age like soone drunk.
“Hello,” Gauss nodded in reply.
“Levin, va, do you two already know Lord Gauss?”
Elvin asked his familiar teammates excitedly.
“Didn’t I tell you? We used to be teammates.”
“Huh?” Elvin’s expression changed; he ntally tried to place when that could have been.
Suddenly a mory flashed in his head: when they first ford the team, during a late-night tavern gathering, Levin had gotten drunk and maybe ntioned a forr teammate nad Gauss.
But Elvin had been drunk then too and didn’t think much of it.
He had assud it was another adventurer with the sa na.
After all, who would have expected Levin and va to have once been teammates with Gauss?
“I thought it was soone else with the sa na. You two are only level one, after all.”
Elvin felt justified. On one hand, Levin had not given details back then; on the other, in his mind his own team and the legendary Gauss were from two different worlds.
Levin and va exchanged a glance, both showing a trace of embarrassnt on their faces.
Compared to Gauss, they really did seem far too ordinary.
Gauss said nothing, only smiled as he watched the scene.
He hadn’t expected a priest like Elvin to worship him so earnestly. Shouldn’t priests, who saved lives and practiced advanced healing, be more admired than fighters?
Could it be that every priest secretly had a fighting heart?
“I happened to take the commission to clear out this marsh orc nest. I sensed activity from your side early, so I detached from my team and flew over to check.”
Gauss briefly explained why he had appeared here.
Before he finished, the Red Dragon Guild’s caravan slowly arrived.
Levin and the others grew noticeably reserved when they saw the imposing group of dozens.
“Gauss, you didn’t wait for us.” Aria was about to scold him for leaving the team on his own, but then noticed Levin and va by his side.
Although she hadn’t interacted much with them, she knew they were Gauss’s forr teammates, so she stopped the teasing and offered a friendly smile.
“Hello.”
“Hello,” Levin and the others politely greeted her.
Gauss was used to Aria’s presence, but through others’ eyes she looked extraordinary: her elven traits were very pronounced—pointed ears, pale skin, and beautiful features.
Her once light-blue hair and pupils had faded since her bloodline reawakened; now the hair and pupils had a pale silver-gray hue with a faint blue shimr.
She wasn’t very tall, but she had a long, slender, and well-proportioned figure who moved with nimble grace.
Aria now resembled a pureblood elf more than a typical half-elf; the elven features many half-elves retained were not as obvious as hers.
Because Gauss spent almost every day with her, he had difficulty noticing the gradual changes.
“You all okay? Any injuries?”
“Need to heal anyone?”
Aria had recently mastered another healing spell.
“No injuries. Gauss ca in ti.”
Levin shook his head.
Perhaps because they weren’t close with Aria, even though they felt comfortable with Gauss, the atmosphere beca awkward with a stranger present—like hands and feet that weren’t quite their own.
Gauss noticed their discomfort keenly.
“We’ll set up camp here for now.”
“You can rest here with us for a while as well.”
Their commission was to clear the marsh orc clan in the swamp. Although a battle had already occurred, Gauss had confird he had destroyed the pursuing orc squad that had targeted Levin and the others.
So the orc clan should not yet know the Red Dragon Guild had arrived. He thought it would be a good chance to camp and rest, talk with Levin and the others, and learn more about the marsh orc nest and why it had provoked so many orcs.
After all, they were forr teammates, and from his knowledge of Levin and va, they were not reckless—they should not have put themselves in such great danger without reason.
“Alright.”
Levin did not refuse Gauss’s offer.
They did need to recuperate, and he had not forgotten the odd circumstances that had occurred.
eting Gauss now was a perfect opportunity to ask him about it.
“Ma Hui mi.” [Note: This phrase is likely garbled in the original; context indicates return of mounts.]
With the help of the ravens, the mounts Levin and the others had lost were quickly recovered.
As a forr druid, Aria naturally stepped forward to communicate.
“It was a few people wearing gray cloaks.”
“Then it must be them, that rogue squad,” va nodded when she heard Aria’s information.
“They might be nearby right now.”
Gauss listened to Aria’s report and analyzed the situation.
His guess was correct.
At this mont, a few kiloters from the Red Dragon Guild camp, in so place among the trees, several rogues wearing lead-gray filthy cloaks sat on a fallen, dead tree and spoke in low voices.
“Damn, those bastards were so lucky to run into an adventuring party.”
They had been observing Levin and the others from a distance.
Everything had gone according to their plan—until an unexpected guy fell from the sky and solved the orc problem in an instant.
Then a powerful team showed up afterward.
From one glance, they knew it was a group they shouldn’t have provoked.
“Boss, maybe we should just let it go.”
They had only intended to silently kill Levin and the others in the swamp; now there were many more unknown variables.
“No, they must die here,” the leader stubbornly shook his head.
“Besides, that adventuring group only happened to help them once; they won’t protect them forever. After those people leave, we’ll find another chance.”
“Alright, boss.” His companions thought about it and agreed.
Silence fell quickly over the group.
The man called boss displayed a complicated expression and reached into a hidden pocket in his leather jacket.
He took out two pieces of old leather.
He ca from an ancient clan, back when this land had another na. Unfortunately, his family fell, and after his parents were killed by thieves, he was the only survivor. By chance, when he visited the ruins of his clan’s holand to honor his ancestors, he discovered a fragnt of a map.
From researching old records, he learned it was a special magical artifact, a unique map that recorded the clan’s buried treasure. If the clan suffered an accident, descendants could use the treasure map to recover the wealth needed to restore the clan.
The map was divided into many parts, each held by chiefs of different family branches. To prevent others from decoding it, its contents were recorded in a cipher unique to their family.
When the map pieces were reassembled, they would point the way to the great treasure capable of revitalizing the clan.
What he had was the map’s master page.
As the master page, it possessed a special power: it could spontaneously attract all the child pages. At the mont he saw the fragnt in the shield bearer’s hand, he realized it was a map piece.
Knowing the stakes, he panicked when he saw how interested that shield bearer was. From the beginning, he never intended to let them live.
He wouldn’t spare any teammates either.
That was why he had gone to such great lengths to use orcs to kill those adventurers—given certain prophecy-related spells involving causality, if they died at the hands of monsters rather than directly at theirs, the chance of being discovered would be greatly reduced.
If he could collect and complete the map, he would obtain unimaginable treasure and wealth, and his life would be completely transford. He had to be extrely careful.
As he indulged in daydreams about that bright future, he failed to notice that a strange magical force within the master page had begun to stir.
“No, first we have to find those people.”
Although Levin said there was no need to disrupt the Red Dragon Guild’s original plans, Gauss decided to deal with the rogues hiding in the dark first.
Partly to stand up for his forr teammate Levin—if Gauss hadn’t happened to arrive, they might have already been eaten by marsh orcs—and partly because before striking externally at monsters, you should settle internal threats first. He wanted to handle those who used monsters to kill their own kind.
Small cracks can destroy a thousand-mile dam; sotis seemingly insignificant scoundrels can cause imnse harm with their sches.
They wanted to kill Levin and his comrades over a minor conflict; such vicious malice could not be reasoned with. Now that they had saved Levin, perhaps the rogues still resented the Red Dragon Guild, and they might try again after the party left.
Gauss always protected his own.
Also, for so reason Gauss just felt like taking care of those rogues first.
At his level, intuition and gut feelings often mattered; unless the idea was wildly unreliable, he usually followed those impulsive thoughts.
Finding a few rogues in the wild would be hard for ordinary adventurers, but not so for him.
He cast Fly, rose quickly into the air, and after reaching sufficient altitude, he donned the oddity Eagle Eye Monocle. Instantly, the world sharpened.
His attributes were already beyond normal, and with the monocle’s effect stacked, the surrounding scene imdiately revealed itself.
Unless soone flew the whole ti like him, even rogues who ca and went without a trace would leave tracks.
“That’s a beast’s hoofprint. Those are the marks from when our Red Dragon Guild passed here. Hmm?”
“There you are!”
Gauss’s eyes lit up. In the next mont, his figure flashed.
Gauss appeared beside several clear footprints on the ground. Judging by the size and depth, they were clearly the prints of four relatively thin adult males.
He locked onto the direction of the prints and flew swiftly into the trees.
At that mont, inside the woods:
Rogue leader Felix looked around excitedly.
His three underlings showed puzzled expressions, not understanding why he suddenly beca so animated.
Only Felix knew that the master page had ward again, indicating there was another map child page nearby.
He couldn’t help lifting his head to howl at the sky.
Fate had been kind to him.
Who would have imagined that in such a wilderness there would still be a wild fragnt of the map waiting for him to find?
“Ha ha!”
At the thought that he was one step closer to completing the treasure map and restoring his clan, he laughed out loud.
He truly was the clan’s resurrector, a man of destiny!
“What’s he laughing at?”
The familiar voice from above suddenly made the previously elated Felix break into a cold sweat.
“Who?”
He looked up to see an extrely handso man floating quietly above them, arms crossed, curiosity plain on his face.
“You! You!”
His pupils dilated and the muscles at the corner of his eye twitched; he quickly recognized the man who had saved Levin and his group.
And because he was closer this ti, he recognized the man’s identity.
“You’re Gauss!”
Felix swallowed nervously, his heart in chaos.
“Hello.”
Gauss looked at the terrified expressions of the people below without any change in his own expression.
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