I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 414: “Cold-Blooded and Ruthless” Gauss 1

Gauss and the others rested for one night, then rose early the next morning, refreshed, and set out from their camp to enter the fourth level."Clang clang!!!"

"Clang!!"

The moment they stepped out of the entrance, before Gauss had time to take in his surroundings, a crisp clash of metal and magic sounded in his ears.

He looked up toward the direction the sound had come from.

Straight ahead in his field of view stood a hedge wall, and the noise was coming from beyond it, a lively commotion.

Floating above the wall were many spellcasters, waving their staffs and constantly casting various spells onto the open ground outside. Clearly a battle was taking place over there.

The sudden scene left Gauss a bit dazed.

But he did not rush into action. He closed his eyes, and a powerful mental force drifted out from his body. An invisible, formless energy instantly shrouded the battlefield.

Soon, he saw what was happening.

Members of several adventuring parties were cooperating to kill an invading horde of monsters. Warriors at the edge of the battlefield handled the frontal assaults, druids grew hedgerow barriers to segment the battlefield while controlling beasts, and rangers, rogues, and mages provided support from the rear and flanks.

It looked fierce, but Gauss knew better.

Atop the hedge wall sat a few people with relaxed expressions. They merely watched the battle, not joining the fighting; only one archer sister occasionally drew an arrow.

Seeing this, Gauss also read their intentions, so he had no plans to intervene. Besides, the number of monsters attacking the camp was only a few hundred—mere trifles to him.

Although he stayed passive, their arrival drew the attention of other adventurers already in the camp.

Gauss glanced at the banners.

A stag banner, a lightning banner, and one with a palm print...

From the designs, he could tell these groups were not from Barry's most famous Golden Company or Thornheart. They were second- or third-tier parties from the Forest Capital, occupying an ecological niche similar to, but not the same as, his Red Dragon Guild.

Seeing the Red Dragon flag, most people showed a momentary confusion, apparently not connecting the Red Dragon banner to any well-known city guild.

Only a few froze briefly, then seemed to recall something, quietly confirming their suspicions with nearby companions.

After the Red Dragon’s members all came out from the passage, the battle beyond the wall gradually wound down.

Before Gauss could move to communicate, several men who looked like team leaders led their people over.

"Welcome to the maze’s fourth level."

"I am George Bell, leader of the Ironhand Brotherhood."

"This lady is Melissa Dawson, deputy leader of the Lightning Ranger Corps."

"This is Liam, deputy leader of the Stag Guard."

As he spoke, the man's gaze immediately focused on Gauss.

It was easy to tell who led the newcomers.

"You are Gauss, Guild Leader of the Red Dragon Guild from Falim."

Gauss reached out and shook hands with each of the eight people in turn.

When Gauss introduced himself, the three leaders didn’t show surprise; after a brief exchange earlier, they had confirmed Gauss and his group's identity.

"Those monsters outside? Do you need help from the Red Dragon Guild?" Gauss glanced past the hedgerow and asked.

Although the commotion outside was tapering off and the fight was nearly over, some things still needed mentioning, and asking also let him gather information.

"Those monsters? No worries. We're used to them. They attack in waves almost every day, especially at night. It's good practice for our troops." George waved nonchalantly.

Gauss nodded.

The high-level professionals stayed put; the real fighters were the relatively weaker adventurers. Just as he thought, this was intentional.

"Then I can relax. Leader George, if it's convenient, please allocate some ground for my people to set up camp."

Gauss noticed the encampments of the three groups and several small teams were distinctly separated. Although his request was for a short stay, he still asked the man in charge, George, to avoid unnecessary conflict.

"Someone! …"

George and the others had clearly planned for this. They quickly had people mark out a space for the Red Dragon Guild to set up.

When Gauss and a few teammates climbed the hedge wall and looked out, the battle had ended.

Support crews were harvesting monster materials, some adventurers were sitting on the ground, gasping for breath, and a priest on the field moved among the wounded, providing medical treatment.

"Clench your teeth and bear it. I’ll pull the arrowhead out first."

"Okay!"

"Ah! It hurts!"

Pulling an arrow from a wound was far more painful than feeling it strike in combat. Once the fight was over, the sudden relaxation and fading of adrenaline made pain much sharper. Barbed arrowheads caused secondary damage when removed.

Thankfully, after a swift extraction, the medical priests quickly cast healing spells to stop bleeding and ease the pain.

That was the value of medical staff. They might look unremarkable, sitting safely behind the lines during combat, but experienced adventurers appreciated them deeply.

Most low-level adventurers would get injured during fights; without timely medical aid, they could suffer poisoning or infections leading to death, or prolonged pain that crippled future adventures.

After basic treatment, the wounded were carried by stretcher into corresponding tents for further care.

What would normally take weeks or even months to heal could now recover in a day or two.

Of course, that privilege belonged to adventuring parties. Lone wolves or teams without medical professions had to plead with others and pay for treatment, and then hope a priest had time to take private work. Priests attached to teams only took outside jobs after finishing their primary duty of treating their own party.

Gauss scanned the battlefield: many were wounded, and two or three had died.

But the three leaders and their deputies who came with him showed calm faces, clearly expecting casualties as part of training.

They could have ended the fight quickly by intervening, yet they watched from the sidelines and let them slaughter each other. Gauss understood the other parties’ ruthlessness now.

He still said nothing.

He continued chatting with them.

"Gauss is from Falim. Falim’s a lively place; their adventurers’ guilds are more impressive than ours in the Forest Capital."

"But Falim’s not close. Gauss, you’re among the first from Falim we’ve seen reach the maze."

"Maybe because we're smaller and more mobile."

From these casual talks, Gauss learned more about adventurers on the fourth level.

Currently the front-line parties were all on the fourth level; no guilds had reached the fifth level yet.

Partly because it takes time to go from the first to the fourth level; some parties had just arrived yesterday. The three parties here had been on level four for several days.

They had explored the surroundings earlier but had recently withdrawn most forces to rest.

A few groups were still exploring level four.

According to them, level four’s environment was vastly different from the first three levels. Monster strength increased, and the creatures no longer acted as scattered militias but organized assaults on adventurer camps.

That caused many casualties when teams first entered level four. Only after securing entrance camps, building defenses, and arranging night watches did things improve.

But problems persisted—mass attacks of a few hundred monsters, as this morning’s assault, occurred frequently.

They timed attacks for when most camp members rested. One wave died, another replaced it—relentless.

Temporary exploration camps outside also suffered large-scale raids. These monsters seemed to have opened a third eye, launching suicidal assaults against adventurers.

Everyone knew a layer’s lord creature commanded these attacks from behind the scenes.

Hearing this, Gauss kept his face unreadable but felt pleased inside.

He wasn't afraid of subordinates blindly following a lord’s orders; he feared the opposite—monsters that broke command and fled at the first loss. He favored enemies with backbone.

The only regret was the monsters were too few.

Only a few hundred attacked this morning, and other parties needed such fights for training and loot, so he couldn't sweep them all up in one go.

For adventuring parties, these medium-small raids were ideal: manageable casualties and material to sustain the team.

Beyond the camp, attack forces became smaller.

So in the end, someone had to hunt down the lord creature.

He wasn’t entirely without clues. On his map crystal orb, besides entrances and terrain separation, a red beast icon marked a spot starting on level four.

He guessed that must be the fourth-level lord’s location.

But level four’s map was so vast that, without precise coordinates like his, finding a lone hidden monster amid treacherous jungle cliffs would be far from easy.

No doubt the teams exploring outside were searching for that lord.

From the guild’s experience with other lab levels that had lord monsters, a floor’s exit only officially opens after the lord is killed.

So these lord monsters, though often the strongest on the floor, would hide and use other means to command minions to slaughter adventurers.

Of course, the information George and his party shared was public level-four intel. They didn’t discuss deeper monster distributions or map secrets, and Gauss wouldn’t rudely pry—those belonged to team confidentiality. Besides, Gauss’s crystal orb already gave him more than enough than hand-drawn maps.

...

"Leader Gauss, aren’t you going to rest in camp for a bit, and have someone scout the map info outside?"

Seeing Gauss quickly arrange his team’s dispatch, George Bell of the Ironhand Brotherhood and Melissa Dawson of the Lightning Rangers kindly warned him.

Even newcomers usually set up at the entrance, then send scouts to map the area before moving, so if trouble arises they can retreat promptly to the third level.

"Thanks for the reminder." Gauss shook his head.

George opened his mouth to speak but swallowed it back.

Watching Gauss rejoin his group, he and Melissa exchanged a look and subtly shook their heads. Although they had learned some information about Gauss, knowing the young leader from Falim was powerful, they still felt he was too rash.

A leader’s personal strength didn’t guarantee the right choices for team movement.

A column of a hundred people trudging through unknown terrain invites ambushes from hidden enemies.

Even ignoring monsters, the maze itself was complex—dead ends, mechanisms, blockades, and the risk of getting lost.

Once a team set out, those dangers were unavoidable. High-level adventurers might not care, but for low-level fighters, one misstep could be fatal.

"This Leader Gauss really treats his subordinates like expendable tools," Melissa sighed after Gauss had gone a short distance.

To her, Gauss seemed indifferent to his people’s lives, willing to risk them to speed exploration.

George nodded at her sentiment.

But they weren’t without understanding; not all leaders cherished their men or returned to camp to rest like they did. The thought made them feel a little morally superior.

"Ca-ca!"

Watching the crows spread out, Gauss turned to Aria and instructed,

"Keep the crows watching the team. Don’t let anyone get lost or fall behind."

"Relax, I told them," Aria made a reassuring gesture.

Ahead of the team, above and to the sides, small palm-sized clay spiders crawled quickly.

These tiny clay constructs saved Gauss’s team a huge amount of time mapping and disarming traps.

Before the Red Dragon arrived, they had already triggered the mechanisms.

When the party passed, they only needed to retrieve the clay and move the devices off the road or bypass the traps.

"Watch that pit ahead. Don’t fall in."

"Careful! Careful!" the crows kept warning.

"Got it, Team Leader."

The red-haired swordsman heard the leader’s warning and peered into the trap as they passed. The bottomless-looking pit made him silently grateful.

Luckily I’m part of the Red Dragon Guild.

Otherwise, I might already be dead by now.

After leaving the camp, he’d seen many wounded and even some dead.

He realized not every leader would avoid unnecessary losses like the Red Dragon Guild did.

I’m really lucky...