I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 399: The Generals' Hearts Turn Back

"Fireball!"Watching the fireballs rising on the horizon like miniature suns erupting, and not just one but several of them, the newcomers who had just joined the Red Dragon Guild couldn't help but wipe the sweat from their brows.

Whether it was the rising temperature caused by the Fireball spells or their instinctive physiological reaction from sheer shock was unclear.

"Is Fireball really supposed to be used like that?"

Some low-level spellcasters swallowed nervously.

Even they, these low-level mages who hadn't yet been able to learn this third-circle spell, had heard rumors about Fireball's enormous mana consumption.

It was said that only level 5 spellcasters with relatively abundant mana could cast Fireball, and even then only once, with that single casting consuming the vast majority of their mana reserves.

Even after advancing to Master-level spellcasters, they could only cast it a few more times. But considering they might need to cast other spells afterward, they had to use it sparingly even if their mana was sufficient.

Yet this new Guild Leader Gauss, whom they'd just met not long ago, was throwing Fireballs around the entire battlefield as if they required no personal mana expenditure at all.

"So extravagant..."

"Could Guild Leader Gauss actually be a dragon who transformed into a human?"

"How many goblins must those Fireballs have killed?"

"Stop chatting!"

"More goblins are escaping from the nest! Prepare to engage!!"

...

After releasing a wave of Fireball spells, coordinating with Hephaestus's dragon flame breath as usual, Gauss first threw the entire battlefield situation into chaos.

The powerful magic, the continuously burning and difficult-to-extinguish dragon flames, and the devil-like terrifying aura emanating from Gauss's body all caused numerous goblins to be scared out of their wits. Even if the mid-to-upper level Goblin Overseers wanted to maintain order, it was extremely difficult to accomplish.

Moreover, in the chaotic battlefield, shadows danced, and fellow goblins slaughtered each other, making the scene before them even more tangled and messy.

"Don't run!"

"Pick up your weapons!!"

The strange cries of the Goblin Overseers mixed with the crackling sounds of burning flames.

"Whoosh!"

Behind one of them, a goblin of ordinary size suddenly swung its short sword, piercing the overseer's heart.

"Gush!"

"You... traitor!"

The Goblin Overseer turned around with difficulty, seeing clearly that the one who had ambushed it was a tribesman who looked similar to itself. Its face was filled with shock and resentment.

It probably didn't understand—even if the low-level tribesmen were scared out of their wits by the enemy's devil-like figure, they shouldn't resort to backstabbing on the spot, right?

What harm had this devil done to them?

Unfortunately, the Clay Goblin had no such thoughts and wouldn't generate any desire to communicate with it.

After ambushing this Goblin Overseer who was trying to command the surrounding tribesmen, the Clay Goblin quickly blended in with other goblins, continuing to select the next target to attack.

On the hillside at the other end, Luna waved her magic wand.

"Gust of Wind!"

She released a powerful air current, sweeping up the panicked fleeing green-skinned imps at her feet along with the crimson dragon flames.

In the firestorm, all the green-skinned imps were being rapidly killed.

She lowered her staff, but a flash of confusion crossed her face.

Were these goblins perhaps too cowardly?

What exactly was going on?

Normally, the larger the nest's scale, the more difficult it was to cause the low-level goblins to collapse.

But these goblins before them had absolutely no fighting spirit, as if they'd encountered a natural predator, their entire beings focused solely on escaping.

Faced with her spell manipulation, these goblins were like soulless puppets.

"Is Guild Leader Gauss just too strong?"

Luna couldn't figure it out and could only temporarily attribute it to Gauss's credit for now.

"And, why does my condition today seem unusually good?"

Feeling the exceptionally active mana within her body, being highly sensitive to mana states, she naturally detected the abnormality immediately. This sensation was something she had never experienced while serving as Deputy Guild Leader of the Fang of the Pale Wolf adventuring guild.

Actually, on the current battlefield, she wasn't the only new Red Dragon Guild member having similar feelings.

Many people, after cleanly killing goblins and finding themselves in relatively safe states, would stare blankly at their own hands, generating the same confusion as Luna.

Am I this strong?!

Of course, Gauss in the sky understood this situation well.

His screening of new members over the past two days hadn't been a waste of time. Those who passed the review and joined the Red Dragon Guild were all members with relatively strong willingness to integrate.

They naturally integrated quickly, becoming part of the adventuring guild, and thus enjoyed the bonuses from his [Proof of Leadership] professional feat.

And once they experienced the power of this strength and deepened their understanding with others in the guild, unless they were ill-intentioned individuals, this sense of belonging would continue to strengthen.

The goblins suffered multiple layers of suppression from him, while his members enjoyed team bonuses. With one side weakened and the other strengthened, it naturally presented a combat experience vastly different from usual.

"Exhilarating! Hahaha!"

"Die for me!"

"I want to fight ten of them!"

"Don't charge too far ahead, come back!"

For a moment, driven by the Red Dragon Guild's new members, one battle maniac after another soon charged forward, bathing in blood.

The Team Leaders who had been promoted watched these members who seemed pumped up and couldn't be held back, finding them quite unfamiliar.

However... feeling the fire within their own bodies, they glanced at each other and also squeezed out excited smiles.

Fine then, let's fight a satisfying battle.

They felt that battle desire within them, numbed by years of adventuring life, was being reignited.

Gauss at the very center of the battlefield, however, wore a much calmer expression.

He simply floated in the sky, utilizing his [Tower Mage] feat to release spell after spell.

When the mana within his body was nearly depleted, he would unlock one charge of [Feast Power].

Simultaneously, he used his purple-quality racial talent [Feast] to quickly consume the blue potions Ivan had refined for him.

Discovering that the Goblin Chieftain who had been lurking furtively in the shadows finally revealed itself, he didn't engage with it too much either.

This goblin's strength wasn't as formidable as that special dog-headed creature leader's—it was just an ordinary level 7 monster.

Plus, he had bloodline suppression over the goblin race.

He aimed at it and cast the 4th-circle spell [Phantasmal Killer]. The affected Goblin Chieftain immediately froze in place.

The next second, its entire body began convulsing, its face showing uncontrollable terror, as if seeing the most terrifying creature in its heart.

Its deep green skin began cracking inch by inch.

The pupils in its muddy yellowish eyeballs rapidly dilated, while spiderweb-like blood vessels quickly occupied the whites of its eyes.

"Pop!"

The eyeballs seemed unable to withstand the immense invisible pressure, suddenly shattering,

leaving only two bloody empty sockets.

The expression of pain on the Goblin Chieftain's face abruptly deepened.

But even while enduring the excruciating pain of its eyeballs shattering, it still seemed unable to awaken from the nightmare illusion, instead sinking deeper into it.

Finally, at a certain moment, its entire tense body suddenly relaxed.

Then, its brain, heart, and all other organs seemed to go into shock, abruptly ceasing activity.

With a "thud," this master of two thousand goblins died silently and without a sound.

Without even experiencing a proper battle.

After casting [Phantasmal Killer], Gauss confirmed it was deeply trapped and unable to extricate itself, then temporarily shifted his attention elsewhere.

Only when the prompt popped up in his mind did he take another look.

"The effect of Phantasmal Killer on goblins is indeed exceptionally good."

Even Gauss was quite satisfied with this.

Earlier, the content of the phantasmal killer he created was himself—and an aura-enhanced version at that, with various effect bonuses from his [Goblin Expert] title. A mere level 7 Goblin Chieftain simply couldn't break free from his illusion.

And the more fearful it was, the less aware it was of being in an illusion, the more difficult it became to escape [Phantasmal Killer].

In the end, that Goblin Chieftain was killed by the illusory version of him, and this result was reflected in its spirit and body in reality.

However, Gauss marveled at its powerful effect not just because it was quick.

Actually, he had many methods to instantly kill that goblin.

But Phantasmal Killer was undoubtedly the easiest.

And the Goblin Chieftain's corpse could also be maximally preserved, increasing its subsequent value.

"Continue."

Of course, since Phantasmal Killer was a 4th-circle spell, it consumed considerable mana and could only be used on relatively powerful single targets.

The Red Dragon Guild's expansion had saved him considerable energy.

But on the frontlines, he personally involved wouldn't slack off either.

Rather, at this point, killing monsters itself had become a habit.

Having him hide in the back, calmly watching his subordinates take action, would instead feel wrong to him.

It was like many elderly people receiving pensions, not particularly short on money themselves, still choosing to work.

Or like normal people not questioning why someone ate yesterday and is eating again today.

For some people, doing certain things doesn't require specific reasons.

"Guild Leader Gauss, do you need to rest? Leave watching this area to me."

Luna, also a Master-level spellcaster, cast Fly and came to Gauss's side.

After a battle that didn't last too long, the Red Dragon Guild completed the cleanup of the nest before them with no surprises, much more easily than she had anticipated.

Since she had been in the central battlefield earlier, with Gauss and Hephaestus going all out, she worried about being caught in his attacks and hadn't gotten too close. Now that the battle ended, she flew over immediately.

In her view, Gauss's current condition probably wasn't too good.

The spells he just cast would have drained several mages like her dry.

The reason she thought he looked tired rather than worrying about his health was thanks to the strength he indirectly displayed when easily killing Fisher a few days ago.

"Me?" Gauss was intently watching the battlefield below, preventing any undiscovered escapees. Hearing the voice beside him, he looked at Luna in confusion.

He felt he still had more than half his mana left. Those dragon eyes that could see mana trails looked at the mana within Luna's body.

Was it possible his current condition was better than yours, who came up to show concern? He raised an eyebrow.

"You go down and rest first." But to spare the new member's face, after thinking about it, he decided not to state the truth too directly.

"Your team members seem to have some injuries. You should go check on their situation first."

The former members of Fang of the Pale Wolf were split up. Some joined the Dwarf's team, some joined Ivan's action team, but most of the combat-effective members followed Luna, forming the Red Dragon Guild's Fourth Action Team—the White Wolf Team.

This included Luna's own trusted aides, the two Master-level professionals who had now gone to Falim, and most of the level 3-5 professionals from the original Fang of the Pale Wolf team.

This allocation was considered because Luna and others understood their situation better, so it was simply left to her to manage.

The guild meeting positions also reserved 3 seats for the Fourth Action Team, allowing them to participate in discussions on important matters.

Hearing her subordinates were injured, Luna didn't continue dwelling on it and quickly flew back to the team formation.

Gauss, meanwhile, continued flying while casting Locate Creature, searching for those hiding green-skinned imps.

"Goblin killed *1"

"Total monsters killed: 33101"

...

"Hisss! N-no! I'm not in pain!"

"To be honest, for an injury like this, I could just drink a potion and let it heal naturally. No need for treatment at all. Doctor, you should go treat others!"

"I don't need treatment either. I can still fight!"

"All of you, lie down!"

Just having flown back to the medical area, Luna heard her subordinates, one after another, being stubborn, as if admitting they were injured was something shameful, and she immediately became furious.

She had clearly emphasized repeatedly that in the first battle, they shouldn't put themselves in danger just to show off. She never expected so many would still get injured in the end, which made her feel somewhat embarrassed.

In contrast, the Red Dragon Guild's Second and Third Action Teams had far lower injury ratios than her Fourth Action Team.

Of course, if the situation was urgent and left no choice, getting injured was beyond reproach and even a symbol of bravery. But at least from her observation, this extermination operation had proceeded very smoothly. A large part of why her team members got injured was because they got carried away and chased too deep.

That was somewhat inexcusable.

If Guild Leader Gauss learned about this situation, he might doubt her abilities, thinking she hadn't conveyed the circumstances properly.

Thinking of this gave her a headache.

Hearing her serious voice, those previously clowning around team members instantly shrank their necks and obediently lay down.

After expressing thanks to Serlandul, Ivan, and the other three priests in the team who formed the temporary medical team, Luna gave the injured a few more instructions, then left the tent without further disturbing the doctors' work.

"I'm going to report to Guild Leader Gauss first. Don't cause trouble for the doctors."

Only after she left did the injured finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Feels like Big Sister Luna has become even more terrifying."

In their impression, Deputy Guild Leader Luna was a relatively silent figure. But perhaps after experiencing recent events and joining a new team, she seemed to have changed somewhat, becoming more decisive and efficient in handling people and matters.

"But, Boss Gauss is really strong."

"Did you guys see earlier? I estimate most monsters here died by the boss's hand."

"Doesn't that make us seem useless?" someone hearing this said dejectedly.

"P-probably not, right? We intercepted plenty of monsters too. And, it's not that we're useless—it's just that the boss is too strong, right?"

"I feel the old Boss Wolf wasn't as strong as Boss Gauss."

"And Boss Gauss is so young..."

For adventurers, the fastest way to win their respect is undoubtedly to display formidable strength.

And in this regard, Gauss today undoubtedly performed excellently. Even if not his original intention, he indeed gave the new members tremendous shock, also settling the fluctuating morale caused by the guild's expansion.