ebookland Chapter 422: Rolling Fortune
Chapter 422: Rolling Fortune
When the group flew up to Gauss, they found him even younger-looking than he had seemed from afar.Once they noticed the young man’s exceptionally striking appearance, they immediately realized he was the target they’d come for, Gauss, leader of the Red Dragon Guild.
And when they observed that there were no monsters or enemies around Gauss, they couldn’t help but whisper among themselves,
Could that burst of light magic earlier have just been a warning shot for us?
With that possibility in mind, their attitude instantly grew more humble.
Although they had already learned of Gauss’s strength from their scouts’ reports, it wasn’t until this moment that they realized the power shown in the intelligence might only be a part of it.
He was like an iceberg hidden beneath the sea; every time you dug, deeper reserves of strength reappeared.
Gauss glanced at them and could more or less guess their identities and purpose.
After they drew near and exchanged a few words, the situation proved exactly as they had suspected.
They had come to find him.
When he emerged from seclusion and was flying overhead, he must have been spotted by other scouts posted around the Red Dragon Guild’s encampment.
Once those scouts realized this primary organizer had officially revealed himself, no doubt other guild leaders or senior members would soon come over to negotiate.
One reason was the mountain of monster corpses and materials; if left for several more days, many organs and tissues would rot and lose most of their value.
A little thought made it clear: with only about a hundred people in the Red Dragon Guild, they couldn’t possibly finish harvesting everything quickly, and they lacked the manpower to transport and sell it all.
Rather than letting the spoilage rot away, it made sense to sell some of the spoils.
The sooner other guilds came to discuss terms with the Red Dragon Guild, the sooner they could claim a share of the spoils.
Of course, if the “gold mine” had been guarded not by the Red Dragon Guild but by a weak group of adventurers, those other groups wouldn’t be so polite — they would almost certainly openly swarm in and divide the loot.
Ultimately, all profit distribution rested on strength.
Even if the Red Dragon Guild legally owned the spoils, what good was that without the power to protect them?
Gauss led these sky guild representatives who had introduced themselves toward the Red Dragon Guild’s camp.
He had come out to practice two five-ring spells. Although the practice time had been short, he still tested their effects.
Most of the Red Dragon Guild’s members were working overtime to harvest the spoils, focusing mainly on the corpses of elite monsters, while the far more numerous low-tier monsters had to be set aside for the moment.
Gauss flew ahead, with the giant eagle trailing silently behind him.
Soon the battlefield — which still hadn’t fully settled down — spread out before the people on the eagle’s back.
Although they had glimpsed the general scene of the fight from the memory sphere, being here in person made the recent battle’s “ferocity” hit home even harder.
Of course, since the intelligence suggested the Red Dragon Guild suffered no casualties, the brutality was more one-sided, inflicted on the monster side.
The old robed mage’s eyes, which inexplicably shone with vigor given his age, swept across the countless corpses, his pupils contracting constantly.
The densely packed monster corpses lay piled on the ground as far as the eye could see.
With so many monsters, even if our sky guild brought ten times the people, they’d likely be overwhelmed by that beastlike horde.
While they observed, Gauss silently watched the visitors as well.
The strongest mage among them appeared to be level nine or ten; before the fight he couldn’t be precise about it.
But really, for Gauss’s purposes, it didn’t matter much either way.
Back at the camp, the Red Dragon Guild’s cooks had just finished preparing food.
The edible portions of the Magic Frog Lord had already been cut and stored in chilled food boxes, to serve as Gauss’s main rations for the foreseeable future.
It wasn’t that Gauss was stingy; meat long soaked in high concentrations of mana is toxic to most people.
Because Gauss had the purple-quality racial talent “Feast,” he could ignore the damage and maximize the nutritional benefits, but the others weren’t so fortunate.
Of course, the rest of the Red Dragon Guild didn’t suffer for food either.
Before setting out, Gauss had the logistics team purchase hundreds of gold coins’ worth of provisions, enough for the hundred-odd members to live comfortably in the maze for most of a month.
“Let’s eat and talk,” Gauss said.
“Then we won’t refuse your hospitality, Guild Leader Gauss,” the visitors replied.
Gauss, having practiced a bit of magic earlier, was somewhat hungry; catching the aroma of the Magic Frog Lord stew the cooks brought over, his appetite was instantly whetted.
This was not purely about satisfying hunger. As the magician’s rank increased and the various racial talents from monster flesh upgraded within his body, his physiology instinctively craved higher-quality food that provided greater nutrients.
Everyone sat casually on stumps used as temporary seats around the campfire.
Seeing Gauss’s portion, which obviously differed from the others’, the guests who had also been served couldn’t help but glance over.
The giant round bowl was bubbling, and a fierce, concentrated aura of mana continuously seeped out from the broth.
It looked less like food and more like a witch’s cauldron of uncertain ingredients brewed in a forest, a concoction with unknown effects.
Gauss seemed unaffected by their stares. He quietly took up a spoon and began to eat heartily.
Mm.
Although it had been stewed for a long time, the sliced frog meat still retained astonishing elasticity; as he chewed, the translucent flesh pulsed on his tongue.
This was by far the freshest ingredient he had ever eaten, as if it still retained vitality.
Each swallow sent a warm current rising from his stomach and spreading through his limbs.
His whole body felt warm, like soaking in a hot spring.
Nourished by the dish, even his dragon-scale-like heart seemed to beat more forcefully.
He couldn’t resist taking another spoonful, a pleased expression on his face.
Who would have thought the Magic Frog Lord looked ugly but tasted so delicious?
The guests opposite him, staring at their own plates, didn’t touch their food.
Perhaps from the stew’s astonishingly ferocious mana concentration they’d already guessed its nature.
“Guild Leader Gauss, excuse my bluntness, but what exactly are you eating?” Hawkins, the sky guild’s leader mage, couldn’t help but ask.
The moment the words left his mouth he regretted it somewhat, as the matter might touch on some of Gauss’s secrets.
But Gauss remained expressionless.
“These are the thigh meats of the Magic Frog Lord on this level. Would you like some?”
There was still a half pot of fresh meat stew not far away.
Hearing that answer, which matched their suspicions, the guests exchanged glances and then shook their heads in unison.
High-tier monster flesh is not something simple cooking can render safe to eat; otherwise, why would so much effort be spent on alchemy research?
For hundreds and thousands of years humans have studied how to use various techniques and materials to neutralize harmful properties, using magical treatments to convert ferocious nutrients and energies into forms tolerable for the human body.
Even so, some powerful concoctions require extremely robust physiques from the consumer.
Eating high-tier monster meat raw — how is that different from drinking poison?
Seeing Gauss’s completely comfortable, even delighted expression, Hawkins blinked.
Could this young guild leader be some powerful monster in human skin?
The more Hawkins interacted with Gauss, the more mysterious Gauss appeared.
After being refused, Gauss only smiled.
It really wasn’t stinginess.
Soon the pot of delicacy that others couldn’t stomach was emptied by Gauss.
His mana, stamina, and life vitality all recovered to peak levels.
His mana capacity even increased slightly from the meal.
Although trivial compared to his massive mana pool, that increase was close to the total mana a common level-one spellcaster might have.
Cold monster flesh transformed into warm mana inside him.
After the meal, Gauss gathered the Red Dragon Guild senior members who weren’t currently breaking through and began formal negotiations to outsource the lower-tier corpse harvest.
It was better to contract out the more than ten thousand low-tier monster corpses as early as possible, or else they’d rot on the ground.
Throughout the previous half-day, wild beasts or careless monsters had periodically snuck in trying to steal corpses.
With time, the smell would only intensify, attracting yet more scavengers, while Red Dragon Guild members were already busy collecting materials and couldn’t guard against small thieves.
“Which area do you want?”
“You can come check the on-site details later.”
Gauss got straight to the point, spreading out a rough hand-drawn map.
He had roughly divided the surroundings into several sections, each marked with the dominant monster types and approximate quantities.
For him, drawing this map had been no great difficulty.
While not absolutely precise, it was close enough.
“Guild Leader Gauss, may we take a look and discuss it first?”
“Please.”
For the sky guild, they did need to deliberate.
They had more people entering the maze than the Red Dragon Guild did: over three hundred including fighters and logisticians, though part of them operated on the first three levels.
Even if reinforcements arrived, their processing and transport capacity out of the maze would still be limited; taking on too much would become a loss.
Avoiding foreseeable losses in advance was wise.
Beyond the mass of low-tier monsters, Gauss decided to offload some elite monsters shown on the map as well.
Monster materials, weapons, and other carried items could easily yield a dozen silver coins per corpse.
There were differences even among low-tier monsters.
Unlike those that appear in ordinary towns or desolate wilds, maze monsters were relatively wealthy.
Magic Frogs dropped high-value mana glands, and their hides were also valuable.
Even the common goblins in the maze often carried decent iron weapons and good armor — all money.
Elite monsters were even more valuable.
Gauss didn’t interrupt their discussion.
For him it was simply easier.
He didn’t have the people or the time to process all of it himself; as long as the price wasn’t absurd, he’d sell.
After a short, staged discussion the visitors quickly settled on one area.
Most of it contained Magic Frog species, totaling about three thousand, along with a small number of elite Magic Frogs.
They were mainly interested in those elite Magic Frogs.
“Six hundred gold coins. Guild Leader Gauss, is that acceptable?” Hawkins offered.
Gauss exchanged a glance with him, instinctively feeling there was room for negotiation.
Gauss’s Perception attribute helped in such moments. Coupled with the shock they’d experienced from the scene and the natural pressure Gauss exerted, it made reading the situation easier.
“Let’s make it eight hundred gold coins. There are nearly a hundred elite Magic Frog corpses there, and close to ten of them are level five.”
Naturally, Gauss did not push things too far.
This was still a profitable price.
Those hundred elite Magic Frog corpses were the real value. If the Red Dragon Guild hadn’t been limited by storage space for live materials, he might not have been willing to sell.
Seeing Gauss raise the price, Hawkins fell silent for a moment, feeling slightly off.
This price was actually approaching the upper limit he had in mind.
But throughout the earlier discussion Gauss had not revealed any price intentions, so was it intuition?
Facing a man young enough to be his grandson, Hawkins felt uncannily seen-through.
The feeling made him awkward, but he dared not show it.
After hesitating a moment and meeting Gauss’s eyes again, he chose not to haggle.
Several hundred gold coins was a lot, but not critical to him; in the end they’d still profit, and it wasn’t worth arguing over a hundred or two more.
It also saved face for the young yet powerful Red Dragon Guild leader.
After all, they would inevitably interact with the Red Dragon Guild later in their maze exploration.
Moreover, the young guild leader had not exploited them; he’d offered a fair price.
People tend to be more lenient toward the strong. Even though Gauss was bargaining, Hawkins didn’t resent the act — he thought Gauss a fair and decent person.
“Eight hundred gold coins, then.”
“Thank you, Guild Leader Gauss, for giving us this cooperation opportunity.”
Once settled, Hawkins was generous and immediately produced several pouches of money.
Each pouch contained one hundred gold coins.
After a brief count, Gauss pocketed the eight hundred gold coins.
“Pleasure doing business.”
Gauss smiled sincerely and shook Hawkins’s hand.
Over the next day or two, senior members from other adventuring guilds arrived one after another and finalized contracts with the Red Dragon Guild.