In the bushes—
"From here on out, every move we make has to be even more careful."
As the former Blackwater Town came into view, Gauss gave the warning again.
The town was now shrouded in a layer of fog. From time to time, eerie roars drifted out from within—clearly it had become a paradise for monsters, crawling with creatures of every kind.
Even Gauss had no desire to stir up a nest that dense.
"Don't worry."
"I'll listen to you. I won't act on my own."
Gron noticed Gauss looking at him.
He understood Gauss was mainly talking to him—Gauss's two teammates had far better coordination with Gauss than he did. So Gron made his position clear right away.
Hearing that, Gauss relaxed a little. Some things were better said up front—for both sides.
He studied the lair in the distance.
The monsters had turned it into a sealed fortress.
On the walls, gnoll patrols paced their rounds. Outside the town, wooden watchtowers had been built every few hundred meters.
Along the nearby river, monsters fished in the water—and doubled as sentries.
Overhead, a wyvern would occasionally sweep past.
This was already the core of Blackwater. Gauss had no doubt there were transcendent monsters inside.
Fortunately, he was here to save people, not to attack a monster-city.
If his goal were an assault, then with this lineup, they might as well turn around and go home.
"I'll scout first and map out the safest route I can."
"Alright. Be careful."
As always, Shadow—this team's scout—was the first to slip into the lair.
Gron watched as she dissolved into shadow and sank into the ground, vanishing into the distance.
Even though it wasn't his first time seeing it, Gron still felt stunned.
For an adventurer team, that ability was the stuff of dreams.
Every team wanted a role like that.
Where had Gauss even found partners like these?
An elf. A shadow-gifted assassin. A serpentfolk. A giant-blood warrior.
From Gron's perspective, they were all exceptional.
And among them, Gauss was clearly the most outstanding of all.
The only explanation he could accept was that geniuses naturally drew other geniuses.
While they waited, Gauss took out a book and read.
Thanks to his guest professor status, he now had more books than he could ever finish.
Before setting out, he'd borrowed a stack of titles on magical principles.
Reading spell theory helped build professional experience too—maybe not much, and not every book counted—but it was easy, could be done in spare moments, and added up over time. A solid "training" method.
Gron blinked at the sight of Gauss calmly turning pages.
Honestly, he envied that mindset.
The monster lair was right there—and Gauss could still sit down and read.
After a long while, Gauss closed the book. In the same instant, Shadow reappeared beside him.
"Well?"
Gauss turned to her.
As usual, she didn't disappoint.
"I found a way in, but we'll need to be careful. When I got close, I had a really bad feeling."
Gauss nodded. He understood why.
On monster land, adventurers were subtly suppressed—sometimes to the point of real mishaps.
A spell might fail. A warrior's stamina might bleed away faster. Someone might stumble, slip, or lose footing.
Monsters entering human lands faced similar resistance.
The deeper you pushed into a region's core, the more often that kind of thing happened.
Unless it was a "reset" situation like Grayrock during the war, where the battlefield rules shifted under the pressure of mass conflict.
That also explained why so many adventurers—especially weaker ones—refused to take jobs in monster territory.
Soon, under Shadow's ability, they all became shadows and melted into the earth, racing toward Blackwater.
At the base of the wall, Shadow surfaced in a damaged pit and paused to recover.
Gron's heartbeat quickened.
At his peak he'd only been Level 8. After years of retirement, he doubted he could even push past Level 7 anymore.
Standing at the foot of this monster fortress weighed on him heavily—his body reacted worse than he'd expected.
But—
Seeing Gauss's expression unchanged, he finally breathed easier.
If he hadn't brought Gauss, he probably wouldn't even survive leaving this place, let alone rescue two children.
Gauss, for his part, was holding up well.
Between his many talents and constant exposure to monsters, his nerves had been forged into steel.
"Gron—after this, you'll have to lead us."
Only Gron had ever been to his old friend's home. The safe room was under that house.
"Leave it to me."
Once Shadow had recovered, they moved again.
Crossing the wall was like entering a different world.
"Waaah! Waaah!"
On the cratered streets, goblins and gnolls were brawling openly. Different monster races held different districts.
Seeing that, Gauss knew there had to be a powerful "ruler" above them all.
Otherwise, you wouldn't get this kind of multi-tribe "peace."
"Keep going. Then turn left," Gron said.
He hadn't been here in a long time, but he still remembered the route.
Gauss monitored the city as they moved.
What was frustrating was that every shop and building had already been stripped clean.
If there were still supplies left, he could've padded the company's income while he was here.
"It's ahead—three stories, blue roof tiles."
Gron spoke suddenly.
Shadow brought them out in an alley corner.
At the same moment, her shadow clone silently and cleanly eliminated four kobolds that had been lounging there.
"Fewer monsters nearby," Gauss said.
That wasn't good.
Most powerful monsters liked servants—but they didn't like living shoulder-to-shoulder with too many low-level creatures.
Low-level monsters were walking sewage machines. Their dens always reeked of filth.
Any intelligent high-tier monster had standards for its living environment.
This area was close to a high-tier monster's "territory."
And that monster didn't even bother hiding.
Gauss sent out a tiny clay spider and shared its vision—then found the target almost immediately.
It stood on four legs in the middle of a wide, empty plaza, eyes closed in rest.
A huge centaur—though not a normal one.
Its horse body was covered in dark green scales, and it radiated a presence Gauss found both familiar and alien.
In its hands was a spear seven or eight meters long, the tip gleaming in sunlight with a killing sharpness—like it could pierce any defense with a single thrust.
A transcendent centaur with dragon blood?
Gauss didn't dare push the spider any closer.
Powerful monsters had keen senses—or rather, an almost animal, instinctive awareness.
"This is bad…"
He recalled the spider and quickly explained what he'd seen.
Gron's friend's home was only about forty meters from the plaza.
That was dangerously close.
If they were exposed, the centaur's speed meant it could arrive in the blink of an eye.
Normal centaurs were already fast—this massive, tank-like variant would be worse.
"We have to be ready to fight the moment we're exposed," Gauss warned.
Shadow's stealth was strong, but at this distance, they were basically under the monster's nose.
And monsters were more sensitive to threats than anything else.
"If we're exposed, you three rescue the kids and leave. Don't worry about me."
"I'll buy you time."
"But—" Alia still looked worried.
"I have Any Door and Flight. Escaping alone is easier."
Gauss gave her a look that said trust me.
His mobility really was excellent.
If he didn't get greedy, he could probably escape even if he couldn't win.
"Then it's settled."
Gauss locked the plan in place.
He split off another tiny clay spider and set it on a rooftop like a camera, watching the plaza centaur from afar.
Then he and the others moved toward the target house.
Two hundred meters. One-fifty. One hundred. Seventy…
When they were about fifty meters from the house—about ninety from the plaza—Gauss's "camera" saw movement.
The centaur opened its eyes, then slowly turned its head toward them.
Good thing he hadn't hoped for luck.
Gauss felt a brief surge of relief—no hesitation had been the right call.
"Stick to the plan," he ordered at once.
He and Shadow's team moved immediately.
Gauss stepped out of the ground-shadow and rose into the air, while Shadow and the others sprinted for the house.
…
In the plaza, the centaur's eyes fixed on the sky.
A crushing pressure spread with its gaze, almost tangible.
Monsters around the plaza edge collapsed and trembled under the sudden aura.
It ignored the servants' panic—its attention was on the floating human in the sky.
"Human… Gauss…"
Gauss's scalp prickled.
The centaur had spoken in flawless Common—and called him by name.
So his guess had been right: among monsters, he was already known.
Low-level monsters didn't have access to that information, or couldn't comprehend it.
But this dragon-scented centaur clearly had status within the Green Dragon Queen's forces.
"You know me?"
Gauss called back, voice steady.
He didn't mind talking. Every second of attention he held was another second Alia and Shadow had to work.
The centaur didn't answer. It simply stared.
And like Gauss, it sensed something familiar in him.
A human shouldn't feel "nobler" than a monster personally blessed by the Queen—yet Gauss did.
Just like the reports said…
Its body trembled—not with fear, but excitement.
If it captured him, it would earn a greater reward.
It reached behind itself and drew a massive bow, then took an arrow from a quiver strapped to its flank.
Gauss felt danger slam into his spine.
The moment the centaur took aim, the air itself grew heavy, as if the shot would lock on.
This wasn't an arrow anymore.
It was a siege weapon.
"Second-Stage Ghoulification.."
Gauss didn't hesitate. He activated the form that maximized mobility.
Small horns rose from his forehead. Black-and-white aura wrapped his body.
Under that power, even his Flight spell felt faster, sharper.
Still not enough.
He focused, and the aura condensed into wing-like structures behind him.
He didn't activate Dragonseed as well—Dragonseed amplified power and durability more than raw speed, and he needed reserves this deep in enemy territory.
His eyes locked on the centaur.
"Whiiip—!"
A multi-meter arrow tore the air apart, leaving a burning white scar behind it.
It was like a cannonball shot into the sky.
The sonic crack froze the world for an instant.
Gauss's perception slowed.
"Flight. Haste."
Both surged at once.
With the ghoul wings beating, Gauss ripped himself out of the arrow's path—thirty, forty meters sideways in a fraction of a second.
"BOOM!"
The arrow punched into the clouds and blew a hole through them.
Gauss's ears bled. The shockwave ruptured his eardrums instantly.
He exhaled.
The bleeding stopped.
One more breath, and the ringing faded. His hearing returned—his regeneration had already repaired the damage.
The centaur frowned in confusion.
It couldn't understand how Gauss had escaped that shot.
Gauss glanced toward Alia's team—by now they should've secured the kids.
"Magic Missile!"
A storm of missiles poured down.
Some struck the centaur harmlessly; others ripped through clustered monsters below, sowing chaos.
As the centaur raised its bow for another shot, Gauss turned and fled—no hesitation.
This thing was absolutely transcendent. He could feel a blood-red "domain" beginning to gather around it.
If Gauss tried to fight close, he'd be torn apart.
That spear was the true weapon.
Fortunately, it didn't seem able to fly.
That gave Gauss space.
But it could still chase fast enough to keep pressure on him, and more flying monsters were already converging.
He'd drawn the centaur out of the town and away from the house—he'd done his job.
Now he had to leave.
"Any Door!"
Blue light flashed.
Gauss vanished.
A wyvern lunged where he'd been and smashed into another wyvern in midair.
"Gone?"
The centaur scanned the sky furiously.
It roared an order, and flying monsters scattered to search.
Gauss, meanwhile, didn't stop at one teleport.
He chained Any Door again and again—short hops, each about his current safe maximum—until he was fully out of their line of sight.
The cost was brutal.
He drained his remaining mana and even burned one stored Feast charge.
But it worked: he broke their lock.
Then he didn't teleport further.
Instead, he dove into a river.
He could breathe underwater thanks to Moterra's blessing, and with his Swim skill he moved like a fish, letting the current carry him farther away from Blackwater.
"I'll remember you," he thought, the image of that centaur burning into his mind.
When he was stronger, he'd come back.
A prearranged rendezvous point—
Shadows gathered.
"Safe," Shadow panted.
Two pale children clung to Gron, shaking.
"I hope Gauss got away," Alia said, worry plain on her face.
Then blue light flickered.
"I'm back."
Relief hit like a wave.
They were all alive.
~~~
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