I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 394: A Request for Sanctuary

"Is everything alright?"Gauss asked casually, looking at Serlandul who had just finished re-examining the wounded.

The three people before them were the unlucky ones encountered during the clearing of the goblin-like creature nest. They weren't injured in battle, but rather suffered harm from a valley landslide.

"The recovery is going very well. The bone fractures have already started to heal."

Normally, it takes a hundred days for tendons and bones to mend, and a broken bone couldn't possibly recover this quickly. But who could help it when the team had both a doctor and a pharmacist?

"Guild Leader, I feel like I can pick up a weapon and fight right now."

"My body feels perfectly fine."

As if worried that Gauss might think them useless, the three wounded hurriedly declared themselves already healed.

They really didn't want to leave Gauss with an impression of being weak and frail.

Compared to other adventuring guilds, the Red Dragon Guild's treatment and security were exceptionally good.

Hearts are made of flesh and blood; Gauss's attitude towards ordinary members was there for all to see.

In other adventuring guilds, if unimportant members like them got injured, how could it be possible for the guild leader to personally come and show concern?

In other places, the principle was simple: if you can work, work; if you can't, get lost.

This world was never short of ordinary adventurers.

Therefore, after staying with the Red Dragon Guild for a while, they all wanted to remain here for a long time.

"Don't move around recklessly for now. Rest and recover peacefully."

"Report immediately if you feel uncomfortable anywhere."

Gauss could easily see they were forcing themselves.

Serlandul's medical skills were excellent, but not to the point of being miraculous.

To avoid putting pressure on them, Gauss took a few glances and then left the temporary "infirmary."

Having just finished subjugating a goblin-like creature nest, the Red Dragon Guild naturally wouldn't immediately rush into the next campaign.

On one hand, the other members needed time to rest and adjust. On the other hand, after such a subjugation activity concluded, it presented an excellent opportunity for adventurers to identify and fill gaps.

Problems and shortcomings exposed in battle needed reflection and summarization, and the efficiency of practicing skills would also become higher.

For Gauss, he also needed an interval to familiarize himself with yesterday's gains.

The rewards he obtained yesterday weren't just a single World Rule power fragment; the thirty thousand kills also brought many improvements.

First, a 4th circle Illusion school spell—【True Illusion】.

This was probably the first true illusion spell Gauss had mastered.

To be honest, for Gauss who possessed an Intelligence attribute as high as 19 and incredibly powerful mental strength, illusion magic was a very suitable means of attack.

Moreover, its greatest advantage was that it was a lethal method that operated on the mental level.

This meant it could bypass an enemy's physical defenses and strike directly at their mind.

And compared to direct mental force crushing, the methods of illusion were more coordinated and gentle; an enemy immersed within might even find it difficult to detect.

Gauss needed more diverse offensive methods to enrich himself, and this 4th circle 【True Illusion】 arrived at just the right time.

Since it was a direct reward from the Monster Encyclopedia, 【True Illusion】 was now at the entry level.

Its incredibly complex spell model lay quietly in the depths of Gauss's consciousness.

Gauss quickly immersed himself in it.

Instantly, all sorts of profound information flooded his brain.

Fortunately, his mental attributes were strong enough, so after spending some time, he absorbed it all without encountering too many obstacles.

"So that's it, this is the effect of True Illusion?"

He nodded thoughtfully.

The effect of True Illusion was terrifying; Gauss had encountered it once before.

Back then, the enemy summoned a Green Dragon, and to the naked eye, there was nothing out of place. Luckily, Gauss's mental strength was too powerful, so he quickly freed himself from the illusion.

Now, the spellcaster was himself.

He felt the casting steps of True Illusion.

First, he must rely on his own mental power to construct several destructive scenarios.

It could be an unbeatable creature, or a natural disaster. In short, it must be something an ordinary being would quickly realize posed a threat to them.

The more complex and realistic this constructed mental scene was, the harder it would be for the target to break free.

And once the enemy was deeply trapped within, the harder it became to escape. Eventually, slowly, the damage suffered in the mental world would transfer to the enemy's physical body in reality.

Therefore, True Illusion was an illusion, yet more than just an illusion.

However, unleashing its full power wasn't simple either, because the stronger the destructive power and the more complex the details of the preset mental scene, the harder it was to construct.

It placed extremely high demands on the spellcaster's mental power.

The process would also consume a massive amount of mental energy. If the construction failed, the spellcaster themselves would be the first to bear the brunt.

Regarding the requirement for mental power, Gauss naturally passed with ease.

"Shall I give it a try first?"

Gauss reviewed the model several times, then slowly began his attempt.

"It must be realistic enough, which means I need to have a sufficient understanding of what I'm constructing."

Gauss chose to construct illusory monsters.

Among monsters, when it came to the ones he was most familiar with, none surpassed the Red Drake Hephaestus, goblins, and goblin-like creatures.

The former represented singular, powerful destructive force, while the latter relied on the intimidation of "swarm tactics."

It was important to know that although Gauss slaughtered goblins and goblin-like creatures with overwhelming force, making it seem like these monsters, even in large numbers, were nothing special, for the vast majority of individual beings—whether human or monster—the tactic of "many ants can kill an elephant" never went out of style.

They might easily kill one goblin, ten, a hundred, or even more. But as long as one was a living being, they would feel fatigue, whether physically or mentally. Once their condition declined, these ocean-like monsters could eventually overwhelm them.

As for Gauss, he was an exception.

And he, too, wasn't a permanently operational killing machine.

It was just that his tolerance limit had been raised to a very high level due to the effects of various titles, talents, and specializations.

Thinking of this, he decided to test the waters.

As his mental energy continuously poured into the 【True Illusion】 spell model, the faint shadows of over a hundred goblins quickly coalesced before him.

They brandished their claws and bared their fangs, fierce and menacing. Although Gauss hadn't spent much time, these illusions looked no different from real goblins.

This was probably the mark of a "talented" practitioner.

He was far too familiar with creatures like goblins, so fabricating their illusory scenes came to him effortlessly.

After all, the blood of the over ten thousand goblins that died by his hand wasn't shed in vain.

"Perfect."

Although a portion of his mental energy was consumed, looking at the result before him, Gauss was very satisfied.

"True Illusion proficiency +1"

"4th circle spell True Illusion lv1 (1/10)"

"Next is to construct more. No matter how realistic, a mere hundred goblins alone wouldn't intimidate anyone."

As Gauss invested more mental energy, more goblin illusions were "created."

Looking at the thousands of illusory goblins before him, he finally nodded in satisfaction.

A full force of thousands of fearless goblins—what a terrifying power that was.

"Unfortunately, these are all illusions I constructed..."

If they truly existed, they would undoubtedly be a tasty snack for Gauss.

After completing the construction of the "Goblin Hell" illusory scene, Gauss promptly followed up by constructing illusions based on his familiarity with Hephaestus and goblin-like creatures.

"Mission accomplished."

Next was continuous practice to raise the proficiency level as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, these illusions would remain just illusions—realistic, but lacking the power to bewitch the mind and make escape impossible.

Afterwards, the busy Gauss continued practicing the 3rd circle spell 【Summon Lightning】, and studying the spellbook obtained from deep within the goblin-like creature leader's nest: the 3rd circle spell 【Memory Seal】, the 2nd circle spell 【Hypnosis Charm】, and the 2nd circle spell 【Echo Location】.

Among these, he would most likely never use the last spell, Echo Location, since he had more useful detection skills. The purpose of learning it was merely to gain related magical experience.

Time flowed by little by little in this manner.

Out in the wilderness.

Several figures were moving rapidly, as if evading some threat.

"Deputy Guild Leader Luna, you must stop and rest for a while."

The ranger beside her, seeing her pale face, reminded her in a low voice.

But Luna just stubbornly shook her head.

"My injuries are not serious."

That was a lie.

The strange, dark energy within her body was gnawing away at her stamina.

However, now was truly not the time to stop and rest.

She could feel that there seemed to be some kind of mark within her body. It was precisely the existence of that mark that had forced their group to change their course several times, yet Fisher's group could always follow behind them.

Fisher...

The moment she thought of the scene that night, her expression turned extremely grim.

Both she and Guild Leader Wolf had underestimated the strength of this intelligence captain. Even now, she couldn't understand how the other party had so quickly severely injured the guild leader.

One must know that Guild Leader Wolf's strength wasn't that of an ordinary level 10 Warrior. To severely injure Guild Leader Wolf in such a short time without causing a huge commotion—even a Transcendent-level expert would find it difficult to achieve, right?

Because of this, the moment she discovered Wolf's death, she decisively led the retreat with her people.

However, although her reaction was swift, the other party still left a strange energy within her body.

She and her companions had tried to expel it, but unfortunately, they failed.

And as time passed, its effects were growing stronger.

"Damn it!"

Luna wanted to flee back to a town, but the other party pursued relentlessly. She was forced to venture deep into several dangerous areas, barely escaping several times just before being surrounded.

"Screech!!!"

A sharp, clear bird cry suddenly rang out from the sky.

Luna looked up and saw the giant brown eagle soaring among the clouds again.

That was transformed from a captain in their team who was a Druid professional.

Thinking of this, her heart tightened.

Its arrival also meant Fisher and the others weren't far away.

She took out a map, wanting to employ the previous escape strategies and continue searching for dangerous monster nests to evade Fisher's pursuit.

As long as they entered a large monster nest, Fisher and the others wouldn't dare pursue further.

Because then, those monsters would easily shift their target to the main force of Fang of the Pale Wolf, rather than focusing on Luna's smaller group.

"None, there's none here either."

Glancing at the map, apart from a few small villages, there were no large monster nest locations marked nearby.

Her heart slowly sank to the bottom.

She knew that with her current physical condition, if surrounded by Fang of the Pale Wolf's main force, it would be almost impossible to successfully break through with these few people.

At that time, the only thing awaiting her would be death.

"Keep moving!"

Looking at her teammates who were watching her, she gritted her teeth, suppressing the unease in her heart.

If they were truly surrounded, she had already prepared to sacrifice herself to buy time for these few loyal veteran team members to escape.

Just as her mind was a tangled mess, her eyes suddenly caught sight of a red flag.

"That is..."

She narrowed her eyes.

It was an adventuring guild.

Encountering an adventuring guild this time wasn't entirely accidental either, as she had been forced to hide and dodge in the Blackwater Town area, traversing a large expanse of land.

Actually, during these days of fleeing in the Blackwater Town area, she had encountered other adventuring guilds and adventurers, but she hadn't considered seeking help from any of them.

Because she knew that any organization prioritized its own interests.

If she sought help from other adventuring guilds, the most likely result would be her group being captured and used as bargaining chips to exchange for benefits from Fang of the Pale Wolf, now controlled by Fisher.

Capturing and handing them over could earn the friendship of a powerful adventuring guild's leader, along with substantial material rewards. Choosing to protect them would require waging a war between adventuring guilds, and even if victorious, the losses would be heavy.

Anyone would know which option to choose.

Without vested interests, there weren't that many champions of justice.

However, the flag appearing before her eyes now stirred some memories.

If she remembered correctly, that should be the Red Dragon Guild, right?

Thinking about how Fisher seemed to have designs on Gauss, the leader of the Red Dragon Guild, she fell into contemplation.

After some consideration, she ultimately didn't choose to circle far away as she had done before. Instead, she led her few teammates and quickly approached.

She could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

Although she had only met Gauss once, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

If she could persuade him, perhaps they could still survive.

After all, that Gauss was the strong individual Wolf had spoken of.

She knew Wolf's standards were actually very high. Even back in Falim, he hadn't given overly high praise to the leaders of adventuring guilds of similar scale.

Although she didn't know much about Gauss, only that he was a level 7 spellcaster who wielded extremely powerful magic, a rising star currently in vogue in Falim, and nothing more beyond that, she chose to trust Wolf's judgment.

"Halt! This is the temporary encampment of the Red Dragon Guild. Who are you?"

Just as they were about to approach the village, a shadow suddenly coalesced from the ground. As the shadows dispersed, a tall, beautiful woman appeared before them.

The woman maintained a safe distance that was neither too close nor too far.

"We are—"

Just as she anxiously tried to introduce their identities, a figure slowly descended from the sky above.

"You are members of Fang of the Pale Wolf, right?"

The newcomer was Gauss. His memory was excellent; he recognized the identity of the leading woman of the wolf pack at a glance. Some time ago in Grayrock Town, she had stood beside Fang of the Pale Wolf's Guild Leader Wolf. She must be an extremely important member.

He examined the injuries on her body, a hint of suspicion arising in his heart.

Had they encountered some misfortune?

Fang of the Pale Wolf was considered an established adventuring guild in Falim as well, with numerous Master-level professionals within the guild and dozens of Elite professionals.

"Yes, Guild Leader Gauss."

"We beg for your protection!"

For some reason, the moment she saw the man before her, her restless heart suddenly became much calmer.

He seemed to possess a special charm—composed, serene, and unruffled.