I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 423: The Newly Revitalized Red Dragon Guild

Almost every adventuring guild that came through had spent money to buy a batch of monster materials.With the help of numerous guilds, the more than ten thousand monster corpses exposed in the wilderness were quickly transported away from the site.

As a result, the Red Dragon Guild profited nearly four thousand gold coins.

This was the largest windfall they had ever received, and it made Gauss even more aware that the Maze represented an enormous fortune for powerful adventurers.

That sum of money was enough for an ordinary person to squander for a lifetime.

Especially in a small town like Grayrock Town, where prices weren’t high, it could buy a huge number of houses, shops, and businesses, turning the owner into a wealthy local landlord.

For an ordinary townsman to amass that kind of wealth, even with a daily wage of 20 copper, and even if he ate and drank nothing, it would still take thousands of years to accumulate.

Yet even counting the time spent killing monsters earlier and the later commercial negotiations, it only took a few brief periods of time.

The disparity was dizzying.

Of course, the world of adventurers and the world of ordinary people existed side by side but were really two completely different realities.

Four thousand gold coins was a lot, but after the initial satisfaction, Gauss quickly calmed down.

He had long since passed the phase of valuing money above all. He was no longer the original body’s young townsman who dreamed of buying a house after decades of labor.

Like this experience had shown him, strength would always be more important than money itself.

Strong adventurers would never truly lack money; they could always earn vast, unimaginable rewards through commissions and monster hunts.

That was why so many young people kept trying to become adventurers.

For youth without background, this path, though dangerous, was the fairest opportunity they could reach.

After meeting with the other guilds, he threw himself back into practicing magic.

The proficiency with the two newly learned fifth-circle spells, Bigby’s Hand and Dawnbreak, rose quickly under his intense training.

While he immersed himself in practice, the other teammates who had secluded themselves for breakthroughs also gradually returned.

Perhaps the gains from this run had been substantial, because their breakthroughs went fairly smoothly.

Albenia successfully became a level 8 Warrior.

As her Professional Level rose, her body grew noticeably stronger.

Her giant bloodline, though it had earned her some odd looks when she left her tribe to live alone, gave her an innate head start for the Warrior profession.

Compared to many special races, pure-blood humans did seem to have relatively average natural talents.

That is not to say humans were worthless. Their outstanding reproductive ability and intelligence were the strongest advantages for a species. If the population size was large enough, even with mostly mediocre individuals, sooner or later someone would draw an SSR or even UR-level card.

Back to Albenia: at level 8 it seemed her giant strength had been further liberated, and she had also acquired a talent akin to the Half-Orc’s “Rage.”

She named it Giant Form.

It was somewhat like Gauss’s Enlarge Person skill, but from Gauss’s tests, Albenia’s talent was more comprehensive.

After all, Gauss’s Enlarge Person was just a skill that multiplied the body, but it didn’t raise strength and explosive power as much.

Of course, a short-term dramatic boost in strength came with a cost: after it ended she couldn’t use it again for several days, needing to wait for the giant bloodline to recover before reactivating it.

So compared to Enlarge Person, Albenia’s Giant Form resembled effects like Dragon Breed or Second-Stage Ghostification, though in strength it might not match Gauss’s two trump talents. Gauss estimated Albenia’s Giant Form to be roughly a blue-quality talent.

Its side effects were obvious, and whether it could further improve when her power advanced and her giant blood returned to fuller strength was unclear.

Even if it stayed at its current level, Albenia’s talent would still set her noticeably apart from most peers of the same rank.

During a Giant Form burst, Gauss was sure she could single-handedly kill several level-8 Warriors, and if a level-9 professional wasn’t prepared, they could quickly be outmatched.

If the opponent couldn’t hold out until her blood cooled, they even risked being slain.

That was the tyranny of racial talents.

They were like a treasure chest passed down through bloodline ancestors: not everyone inheriting the line could open it, only a few had the key.

The second change was Aria’s, which was equally obvious. She returned as a level 6 professional.

Her hair had turned a moonlit silver, her naturally fair skin now shone even brighter, and her features had become more refined.

Clearly, she had begun to regress to her pure Elf bloodline and had been further “purified.”

Simply by appearance, anyone seeing her for the first time would take her for an exceptional pure-blood Elf rather than a half-elf.

Shadow reached level 7. Her shadow-splitting ability increased from two to five clones.

This gave her a massive combat boost; Gauss felt that even Albenia’s gain from Giant Form couldn’t compare to Shadow’s improvement.

Albenia’s Giant Form was undeniably ferocious, but it was time-limited and would revert after its duration ended. Shadow’s additional clones, however, were permanent.

Five shadow clones that appeared and vanished like ghosts would trouble most enemies.

According to Shadow, a five-in-one single clone’s strength was already nearly on par with her own.

Serlandul returned last among Gauss’s five-person squad, and indeed he was the one who finished seclusion the latest among everyone in the Red Dragon Guild.

Ivan and the other members had already reassembled; he had not yet come back.

If Gauss hadn’t gone to the cave where Serlandul chose to seclude himself to check on him, he might have feared the worst.

But he was certainly different.

Through Gauss’s powerful draconic gaze, Serlandul’s body temperature had dropped to the floor, almost blending with the cave’s ambient temperature.

In other words, any creature whose vision relied on thermal imaging wouldn’t be able to find such a living person in that cave.

Although curious, Gauss felt more at ease once he sensed Serlandul’s heart, beating extremely slowly but still alive.

He didn’t get too close to examine him more closely.

Breakthroughs could not be treated casually; like a chrysalis becoming a butterfly, the majority of the time this was the most vulnerable stage for a professional. If anything abnormal occurred at this time, the best course was silent waiting.

Any help given out of anxious care might actually harm the one breaking through.

This was a painful lesson humanity had learned from countless real experiences.

Serlandul was curled in a spiral, like a hibernating snake.

Gauss watched from a distance for a while, then left.

When other guilds contacted him, they probed for information about when the next Maze level would open while coordinating with him.

He explained that the Red Dragon Guild needed to rest.

They didn’t press him too hard; whether out of politeness or because the fourth level hadn’t been fully explored and they weren’t eager to enter the fifth, they didn’t demand an immediate schedule.

Gauss figured it was a mix of both.

Although his battle with the Magic Frog Lord had killed over ten thousand monsters and greatly reduced the Maze’s fourth-level population, many other creatures still held ground on level four.

Some level-5 monsters or Commander-level individuals could resist calls from lords, and these powerful individuals often guarded special chests and objectives.

So there was still much to explore on the fourth level.

Additionally, the monster corpse materials purchased from Gauss required collection, preservation, and transport out for sale, which tied up many guilds’ manpower. For now, most of the fourth-level forces remained there because of the Red Dragon Guild’s decision.

After checking on Serlandul, Gauss continued training with his teammates.

He also set aside time each day to answer training questions from other Red Dragon Guild members.

It became a casual kind of class; any Red Dragon member could step forward and ask him about a personal doubt.

When he announced this, almost everyone showed great enthusiasm.

Not only spellcasters, even Warriors, Rangers, and Rogues who seemed unrelated to Gauss’s field came forward to ask.

At first, the latter probably didn’t hope for much; they simply seized an opportunity to interact with the guild leader out of admiration.

But once Gauss fixed his golden eyes on them, many felt their bodies were seen through and through.

Gauss then offered precise, personalized advice.

Under his guidance, the Red Dragon members found new directions for training.

He might not have known every job’s specific mechanics, but he understood the human body.

Take a warrior’s combat technique: under his powerful gaze nothing hid. He could see muscle tension and blood flow during strikes.

That allowed him to pinpoint each person’s issues instantly—faulty posture, improper force application, or chronic fatigue.

His breadth of knowledge quickly earned him more admiration.

If before they felt subservient simply because he was powerful, after experiencing his teaching ability, every member who benefited was sincerely respectful of this young guild leader.

People were driven by self-interest.

Even admiration needed tangible benefits to solidify.

The Proof of Leadership merely accelerated the process; it wasn’t mind control. If Gauss’s character had been inherently disgusting to others, the Proof of Leadership couldn’t force their loyalty.

A slight, nervous girl approached, her heart pounding. When her eyes landed on Gauss, her heartbeat quickened further.

“Guild Leader, I asked you about the Prismatic Orb the day before yesterday.”

“I remember you. You’re Holly, right? What’s your question?”

Gauss looked at the timid girl and immediately recalled her name and the guidance he’d given her two days earlier. He hadn’t tried to memorize names, but with 20 Intelligence his memory had reached near photographic levels.

Unless he deliberately scrubbed certain information from his mind, forgetting was difficult.

“Y-yes.” Holly’s tiny face lit up with delight when Gauss recognized her. Her pupils glittered like stars.

She didn’t waste time; there were many people waiting behind her.

She knew that for a simple level-1 sorcerer like her, the chance to be guided by someone as strong as the guild leader was rare.

Other guilds seldom offered this kind of opportunity.

After all, a guild was ultimately an employer-employee relationship. Senior leaders’ only obligation was to pay their subordinates.

Training matters were theoretically unrelated to guild leadership, especially in large guilds where the distinction was clearer.

When you had hundreds or thousands of people, if every member sought guidance, leaders would spend all day answering questions.

More importantly, many leaders simply didn’t want to bother.

But Guild Leader Gauss was different.

She quickly explained the difficulties she had encountered with the Prismatic Orb, then looked at Gauss with bright, expectant eyes.

The Prismatic Orb was a first-circle spell. Although Gauss hadn’t learned it, his magic literacy let him quickly identify Holly’s issue.

With his direction, Holly tried releasing the orb several more times.

Problems that seemed like impossible thresholds to low-ranked professionals were trivial to Gauss, especially after Holly had already invested time in study and practice.

Difficult things aren’t hard once you understand them.

Once revealed, everything suddenly made sense.

Watching the energy ball form at the tip of her wand, Holly’s face flooded with joyful expression.

Soon, one by one, Red Dragon members left satisfied and enlightened after receiving advice, heading into the nearby woods to practice.

Just as Gauss rose to leave and return to his own spell practice, he suddenly looked toward a place.

A rumbling sound rolled out.

The noise came from the direction of Serlandul’s seclusion spot, the cave Gauss had visited not long ago.