novelhk Chapter 391: Just a Little Bit More
Chapter 391: Just a Little Bit More
For Gauss, the nature of this battle had quietly changed the moment he sensed the aura of divine material emanating from within the golden candle.Gauss knew he needed to get that golden candle into his hands as soon as possible.
After Dimension Door was activated, his figure suddenly vanished from the dragon's back.
In the next moment, he flashed into existence at a point in the air two hundred meters away.
There was a specific reason for teleporting two hundred meters.
Although the current limit was three hundred meters, he had researched and tested it; the mana consumption for three hundred meters was more than double that of two hundred meters.
In other words, unless encountering a life-or-death escape situation like last time in Blackwater Town, teleporting three hundred meters was an action with poor "cost-effectiveness."
On the other hand, teleporting several dozen to one hundred meters at a time could objectively save a significant amount of mana, but the cost would be that the frequency of casting [Dimension Door] would become very high.
However, Gauss currently had a half-second preparation time before casting Dimension Door.
Looking at a single instance, 0.5 seconds might not seem like much, but if the number of consecutive casts increased, this cumulative time could add up to 5 seconds, 10 seconds, or even longer.
Such a long duration would introduce many variables.
Therefore, Gauss ultimately chose a teleportation distance of two hundred meters.
However, when this silent Dimension Door was cast, he quickly noticed something different.
The surrounding bird-like flames almost instantly detected his positional change.
Subsequently, the nearest "firebirds" nearby began swarming toward him, this dazzling "light source," like moths to a flame.
It was important to know that, unlike when he was on Hephaestus's back earlier, the closer to the ground, the denser the clusters of flames became, almost omnipresent.
He felt the temperature on his body surface rapidly rising.
Gauss's expression remained unchanged as he continued to channel the mana within his body, activating a second Dimension Door teleportation.
He still had some distance to cover to reach the elderly goblin-like creature leader's position.
Originally thinking it was a sure thing, he had overlooked these strange flames filling the valley.
Truly an attack fueled by the consumption of divine material.
Gauss thought to himself.
Just as numerous blazing white flames were about to pounce on his body, the mana within him triggered a magical effect once more. A flash of blue light later, his body abruptly vanished from the spot.
"!"
The many rapidly converging "firebirds" collided with each other, erupting into a burning cloud of several thousand degrees.
Even the surrounding space warped strangely, as if torn apart by this extreme heat.
Gauss, who had flashed onto an open area two hundred meters away, caught the commotion behind him with his peripheral vision.
"Quite potent power."
Observing the explosion, I silently evaluated.
The force of that explosion was significantly different from my initial assessment of the mana intensity within the elderly goblin-like creature leader.
If, during the first encounter, the mana strength exposed to his Golden Dragon Eyes was roughly that of an 8th-level spellcaster, then the explosion just now had reached around the 10th-level mark.
This was clearly very unreasonable.
Its race was goblin-like creatures, not true dragons, demons, or other powerful races. If it were the latter, possessing such strength beyond its level would be understandable.
The answer was obvious: it came from the golden candle in its hand.
Its power allowed an ordinary goblin-like creature to unleash attacks far exceeding its level.
Gauss's current strength was indeed sufficient for him to unleash the lowest tier of Transcendent power, but that didn't mean he could ignore any attack below the Transcendent level.
Moreover, he could still sense a slightly oppressive fluctuation from it.
His sixth sense told him that if caught in it, the damage suffered would be more severe than it appeared.
"It seems I need to bring out some real skill."
Realizing the change in his opponent's strength, Gauss instantly shifted his combat strategy.
The black and white ghostly energy reattached to his body surface.
He felt his brain accelerating its operation, and the blood and mana stimulated by this allowed him to burst forth with greater Agility and speed.
Furthermore, the recently acquired advanced version of [Spell Mastery] seemed to instantly integrate and become fully understood.
The manifestation of this was that the preparation time for the 4th-circle spell [Dimension Door] was also greatly reduced.
The original 0.5 seconds was compressed to 0.2-0.3 seconds.
In the distance, the goblin-like creature leader, having now truly activated the mysterious energy within the candle, had entered an incredibly profound state.
In this state, it became exceptionally powerful, as if divinely assisted.
"So wonderful."
The feeling of being seemingly omnipotent at this moment intoxicated it greatly.
At this very moment, in this valley, it firmly believed it was invincible; any enemy who dared invade would be slain by it.
The sky-filling flames were like invisible extensions of its body. Gauss, intruding into them, was like a foreign object entering its form. Even though he used the most concealed type of space magic, it could still pinpoint his location the instant he appeared.
An inexplicable anxiety sprouted in its heart.
Damn it! Damn human! How dare he covet its treasure!
This treasure belonged to it alone.
After experiencing the formidable power of the candle, it had grown even more protective of it, usually hiding it deep underground, out of sight.
When meeting more powerful monster Lords, it would also conceal it in advance.
Simply because it knew that if those powerful monsters learned it possessed such a treasure, they would spare no effort to seize it from its grasp.
Must kill this greedy human who desires its treasure!
Blue light flashed continuously.
After entering the hyper-speed state, his Dimension Door became even cleaner and more decisive.
Originally, those firebirds might have intercepted him, but with the preparation time shortened to 0.2-0.3 seconds, that probability became very low.
Flames that lost their target constantly collided in mid-air.
"!!"
Clusters of ultra-high-temperature fire explosions detonated almost simultaneously across the valley. Anything nearby, whether goblin-like creatures, rocks, or soil, was instantly devoured by the blazing white fire explosions.
The visual effect was quite spectacular.
Further away, the goblin-like creature captains, who had laid out the wax oil in advance according to their leader's instructions, witnessed this scene and looked at their leader with eyes full of worship.
The leader was truly too strong.
Because, in their view, the current situation was their goblin-like creature leader controlling everything, while that human only managed to "narrowly and dangerously" escape at the very last moment each time, just like a turtle in a jar.
But in places they didn't notice, beads of sweat the size of beans were streaming down the goblin-like creature leader's forehead.
Why?
Why was it always just a little bit away from hitting him, yet he could always luckily avoid it?
That anxiety spread relentlessly within its heart.
Each time Gauss evaded an attack, the anxious feeling intensified a few degrees.
It was like an invisible monster spreading its tentacles, slowly seizing its body, then continuously tightening, tightening further!
It felt the "divine power" granted by the golden candle was fading, and it was no longer as confident as at the beginning.
It began to realize that human, the master of the Red Dragon, truly had the potential to seize its most cherished treasure!
Watching that aggressive figure draw closer and closer, its pupils widened instantly as it looked at the candle.
"No, no, no! You cannot leave!"
For a moment, even more mana continuously surged into the candle.
"Die!"
"Die for me!"
It stared at Gauss, eyes nearly bursting with rage, dense bloodshot lines spreading from deep within its pupils, wishing it could glare Gauss to death.
And clusters of explosions began to descend at an even faster pace.
The entire valley trembled.
"Huff—"
Unlike the nearly demonically enraged goblin-like creature, Gauss at this moment became increasingly calm.
He looked at the goblin-like creature leader who had completely fallen into madness, then shifted his attention to the golden candle.
The biggest weakness lay in the goblin-like creature leader itself.
A weapon placed in the hands of a young child versus a well-trained soldier would yield drastically different results.
And in Gauss's view, this goblin-like creature leader was that weak child.
He admitted that if the chain of explosive impacts could hit him, they could indeed cause him some harm. And once trapped, the endless firebirds could trigger even more powerful explosive force.
But... all this was predicated on being able to hit him.
The goblin-like creature leader's reaction time was simply far too slow compared to the 0.2-second delay Gauss displayed.
The power generated by burning divine material was indeed strong, but the goblin-like creature could not match its intensity, even though it had been enhanced.
The time it took for the opponent to sense Gauss's presence, generate awareness, make a decision with its brain, transmit that consciousness, communicate with the golden candle in its hand via mana, and finally control the firebirds permeating the entire valley through it—each of these steps required time.
Gauss's Dimension Door teleportation was point-to-point displacement. Plus, Gauss consciously avoided taking the shortest path, meaning the goblin-like creature leader actually couldn't accurately predict his movements. Every attack had to be reinitiated after pinpointing his location.
Therefore, theoretically, as long as its total reaction time exceeded 0.2 seconds, it could never hit Gauss.
In other words, that seemingly "narrow," "just a little bit more" gap was, in reality, an unbridgeable chasm under the current circumstances!
This was also the real reason why the goblin-like creature leader before him had suddenly gone berserk, randomly creating explosions everywhere.
It was less an attack and more a venting—venting that panic and unease.
Because it had vaguely come to understand an objective fact.
Namely, given its strength, even with the advantage of controlling the golden candle, it could never hit Gauss.
The goblin-like creature captains watched the scene in the valley, which was almost like a natural disaster descending, and nearly wanted to prostrate themselves in worship, their faces showing expressions of adoration and shock.
As for the low-level goblin-like creatures who had luckily survived the explosions, they were accelerating their escape from the valley.
After the Red Dragon's breath attack, even their leader had begun to ruthlessly slaughter them!
Outside the valley, the senior officers of the Red Dragon Guild were directing members to take emergency shelter to prevent the continuously collapsing passages from burying their comrades.
"Boom!"
Amidst a series of high-heat shockwaves, Gauss flashed rapidly, finally closing in on the elderly goblin-like creature leader.
Seeing the change in its appearance, Gauss was somewhat surprised.
Because in such a short time, its appearance had undergone a noticeable transformation.
Its originally dull red scales had now lost what little luster remained. Its vitality was so weak it was almost imperceptible; this goblin-like creature was visibly showing signs of being on the verge of death.
The goblin-like creature leader was not young, but it wasn't old enough to be like a candle in the wind either.
"So, is this the price for its excessive use of divine material?"
"Is the price burning its life force?"
Gauss quickly thought.
If judged purely by destructive power, the goblin-like creature leader might have broken through the threshold of the Transcendent level, which severely mismatched its true strength.
Power that surpasses the norm inevitably comes at a cost that defies reason.
Divine material was, in fact, a fatal poison to goblin-like creatures.
"Counterspell!"
Gauss flung a magical effect from his hand, attaching it to the goblin-like creature leader not far away.
As its entire body trembled violently, the spell backlash became the final straw that broke it.
The remaining mana formed chaotic counter-currents that rampaged wildly within its body.
The goblin-like creature leader's body swelled and contracted rapidly in various parts like a balloon—neck, chest, abdomen, limbs—as mana crashed recklessly inside it.
Simultaneously, the flames permeating the entire valley quickly ceased their flight and then gradually vanished.
"Come to me."
Gauss teleported beside the goblin-like creature and, with quick hands and sharp eyes, snatched the golden candle from the goblin-like creature leader's grasp.
Although the goblin-like creature leader wished to fight for it, its current physical state did not allow for resistance.
Gauss looked at the goblin-like creature and swiftly slapped his other hand onto its body.
Don't die here on me.
"Dimension Door!"
"Fireball!"
The magical effect of Dimension Door quickly manifested on the goblin-like creature leader, who was unable to muster the strength to resist.
Thus, Dimension Door's effect decisively took hold.
After a flash of blue light, the goblin-like creature leader's figure vanished, then reappeared three hundred meters high in the air.
The mana of Fireball rapidly erupted.
"!!!"
After a thunderous roar, the goblin-like creature leader of the mining valley ultimately perished within a dazzling ball of light.
"Goblin-like creature commander killed *1"
"Commander Points obtained *20"
Gauss perceived the kill notification.
His gaze withdrew from the sky and fell upon the golden candle in his hand.
Ever since taking it into his hand, his body had transmitted a feeling of desire.
After killing the goblin-like creature commander, he no longer restrained this desire.
Under his watchful eye, the golden candle in his hand began to disintegrate into particles, rapidly merging into Gauss's palm.
His right hand became entirely brilliant gold.
This radiance persisted for over ten seconds before gradually receding and finally returning to normal.
Once everything settled, a prompt popped up before Gauss's eyes.
"Divine Factor obtained 1.52%, current Divine Factor: 2.65%"
"And you have drawn a mysterious power from the special divine material."