Chapter 444: Crushed Future |
The clouds of war were gradually approaching.
With the town hall’s war notice issued, all civilians received the formal alert: their enemy this time was the Green Dragon Army led by the Green Dragon Queen.
Although many had already suspected that something major might happen, once the news was confirmed, it still sparked some unrest.
Fortunately, the town hall and the Adventurers Guild had prepared in advance, and the discordant voices were quickly suppressed with decisive measures.
In the tavern, a bard was telling the old, worn tale of how a hero slew the Demon King more than a hundred years ago, and how the human armies had driven the demon host back to the southern borders.
“Will we win?”
“Don’t worry. I heard the higher-ups at the Adventurers Guild have already scouted the monster legions’ every move. Those big shots have plans in place.”
“Besides, it’s only the Green Dragon Queen that started this war, not the Demon King. No matter how strong she is, she still can’t match the combined might of all of Karos.”
Inside the tavern, some civilians worried and fretted about the situation’s development. Others were optimistic, thinking that if the sky fell, tall people would hold it up; it wasn’t their place as ordinary citizens to take on the enemy’s problems.
Strictly speaking, there was still time before the war officially broke out; they were in the mobilization stage.
Waging a large-scale war is not something either the human side or the monster legions can mobilize in a few days.
Gauss had already returned from the Adventurers Guild headquarters this morning, and he had met with Guild Master Matthias Monroe.
But this time was different; he had received permission from the Guild Master to set out.
Gauss could not wait until the war fully erupted before moving. That would be too late.
There was still some distance from Barry to the Emerald Forest, and movement inside the Emerald Forest required even greater caution — all of which took time.
He needed to head south in advance and be ready to act when the opportunity presented itself.
“Silent Birdcage.”
He touched the silver, branch-twined ring on his right middle finger.
This was the item Monroe had said the Adventurers Guild lent him.
Don’t be fooled by its small size and plain appearance; it was a wondrous object Gauss had never encountered before, of golden quality.
Its effect was to create a large invisible barrier, sealing and cutting off all kinds of information transmission.
According to Guild Master Monroe, its duration was about ten minutes.
Everything that happened inside the barrier was extremely difficult to detect from the outside, and beings inside also found it hard to escape during that time, unless they broke through the barrier with force exceeding the cage’s threshold. Otherwise, they would be trapped in the area just like the item’s owner.
This sort of wondrous item was a standardized type, but its specifications were very high and the difficulty of manufacture great.
After one use, it needed to be returned to a terminal for recharging.
The Adventurers Guild often used these items for covert operations, greatly reducing the chance of intelligence leaks.
Now this item had been temporarily lent to Gauss.
Why lend out such a specialized item? On one hand, golden-quality wondrous objects are still valuable even to a city-level Adventurers Guild. On the other hand, lending it reduced the personal exposure risk. These subtle types of wondrous objects weren’t intended for sloppy use; they were the product of the empire’s alchemists’ craftsmanship.
When he officially departed, Monroe had only told him a few cautions.
For example, the closer one got to the Emerald Forest, the lower-key one’s actions had to be — minimize exposure.
While traveling, it’s best to ride a normal mount or walk on foot. Teleportation magic, while convenient, draws attention and should only be used for rapid relocation when you can’t stay hidden.
Monroe also gave him a scout manual.
It summarized many lessons learned from the Guild’s past scouting missions. The Adventurers Guild had never stopped scouting the Emerald Forest; otherwise they wouldn’t have detected the Green Dragon Army’s movements at the first sign of mobilization.
On his return trip, Gauss used his photographic memory to read the manual cover to cover.
It contained a lot of intelligence useful to him, such as the past distribution of medium and large monster tribes within the Emerald Forest. Although the Green Dragon Army had already begun marching and previous intel couldn’t be applied wholesale, knowing where those creatures’ habitats had been helped approximate marching routes.
There were also locations of safe houses and so on.
As scouts sent deep into enemy territory, these people might not have high frontline combat ability or high professional levels, but their survival skills, stealth and reconnaissance techniques, disguise skills, and contingency strategies exceeded most adventurers.
After all, mistakes for them had no margin for correction.
After finishing the manual, Gauss’s understanding of conditions inside the Emerald Forest had increased.
Of course, even with sufficient intel, he would still need to adapt on the fly once he actually entered the forest.
Back at his lodgings.
Aria and the others were already waiting for him.
“When do we leave?”
“Probably this afternoon.”
Gauss did not intend to delay.
His luggage and supplies had been prepared in advance, and his spells were practiced well enough. He had been waiting for Monroe’s notice.
He wanted to set out as soon as possible.
The earlier he departed, the more preparation time he would have, and the sooner he could return.
Even if the raid on those young dragons failed and he escaped with his life, war with the Green Dragon Army would still await him.
“After I leave, affairs of the Red Dragon Guild will be handled by Aria and Luna. Aria, you command Gauss’s squad and Toga’s squad; Luna will command the remaining members. Ivan will handle logistics.”
Aria and Luna exchanged a glance and both nodded.
The others had no major objections.
Aria was closer with Gauss’s squad and the dwarf squad, while Luna, as the former vice-captain of Fang of the Pale Wolf and a rank-9 warlock, could command the other ordinary members.
“Everyone, do your parts. If things go smoothly, I should be able to return within ten days.”
Gauss tried to give himself more time, refusing to be overly strict.
After all, many variables could arise along the route, and even he needed to be cautious.
“All right, Gauss, be careful.”
“Put your personal safety first.”
“Don’t worry.”
Gauss nodded.
If he could not handle it, preserving his life would be his top priority.
Time passed quickly, and before long it was time to depart.
Not many people knew Gauss was leaving. He had rarely appeared before his guildmates these days, and before departing he certainly would not expose his movements.
So only a few core members came to see him off.
“That’s enough. You all can go back now.”
“It’s a tumultuous time. If other members can’t find you, they’ll worry.”
Gauss dismissed the farewell group.
He had almost no luggage; his rations and other items were packed in a small Storage Bag.
His clothes were low-key as well, a not-too-clean set of linen.
Once he passed through the secret gate and out of the city, he would cast a disguise spell to change his appearance into that of an ordinary middle-aged hunter.
Without looking back, Gauss waved to those behind him, then opened the secret gate. Under the bowed salute of the covert guards on duty, he walked through the black tunnel and left the Forest Capital.
After leaving the Forest Capital, the air seemed to chill a few degrees.
Great rolling masses of dark clouds churned across the sky.
Gauss’s body shifted quickly; his once tall frame shrank to about one meter sixty in height.
His appearance turned into a middle-aged hunter with rough skin and slightly graying hair, and over his linen clothes he had put on patchwork leather armor.
The effect of the rank-5 disguise spell was so powerful that its magic did more than change appearance and body shape; even the ephemeral aura was completely overturned. It carried a subtle psychological suggestion. Creatures who saw him would instinctively imagine him as the form he had taken.
Even if his appearance and behavior had small inconsistencies, observers would unconsciously fill in plausible details.
So at this moment, even old teammates who saw him every day would never recognize him.
“Depart!”
Gauss raised his eyes to the deep green streak at the edge of the sky, then set off calmly.
..
“Clop clop—”
The carriage rattled on the dirt road, making a monotonous, rhythmic sound.
A silent middle-aged hunter and several laborers sat on a flat cart.
Their faces were serious; none felt like speaking.
But where others could not see, the middle-aged hunter kept watching the convoy and everything on the road with peripheral vision.
This was Gauss under disguise. On the way he had encountered a kind foreman willing to give the hunter heading south to fetch family members a ride.
As for why these wagons were heading south now, it was to transport groups of people.
Even before the war rumor spread through Barry City, villages and gathering points around Barry had already begun relocating.
Gauss looked at the fields beside the road; the summer wheat was a vivid green, rippling like waves in the wind.
In past years, such vigorous growth would be the farmers’ greatest joy, but now there was not a single working figure in the fields.
Only crows perched on the ridges, then suddenly took off in alarm.
They rounded a bend.
A village appeared ahead.
First there were a few pedestrians, then groups of people.
Some pushed wheelbarrows piled with quilts, pots, and sacks of grain; children sat on carts while men and women strained ahead pulling. Some walked barefoot carrying baskets on their backs; those better off had donkey carts or ox carts.
Most faces were filled with confusion. For villagers who had lived in the same place for generations and scraped a living from the soil, leaving home was something they deeply resisted.
But no matter how unwilling, faced with life-and-death danger, they had to abandon their homes.
A small number chose to stay, or to sneak into the woods with their supplies.
For these people, the town hall’s envoys would not forcibly stop them. You can’t reason with someone who prefers to die; their duty was just to inform these wild villagers of the situation. What they chose afterward was their own business.
Once war broke out, the broad plains would become the main battlefield for humans and monsters. Even hiding in dense woods or cellars would hardly guarantee survival.
Most people chose to relocate quietly.
Unlike city dwellers, the villagers of the wilderness knew the monsters’ ferocity firsthand; some of the young and able had clashed with monsters and paid the price in blood.
If scattered beasts in the wild were so dangerous, what about armies of monsters?
But even after making the “right decision,” the war machine had already crushed deep marks into the lives of common people before it had even begun.
How much could they carry? They left behind ripening fields, houses and furniture lived in for generations. Like uprooted ants, they flowed toward an unknown place that might not be safe.
In short, the already bleak futures of these villagers had been utterly strangled by the war.
Some might die of exhaustion on the road, or barely reach a strange gathering point and sink into refugee life, where shelter, food, and work could crush them. Not to mention the war cloud hanging over their heads.
Gauss sighed, feeling conflicted and more deeply aware of the terror of this war.
Everyone was like grass on a single rope.
In this war between camps, everyone bore different pressures: some were about to lose what they had now, and many more were having their futures strangled.
He drew his gaze away from the pedestrians.
He had more important matters to attend to.
Upon reaching the village, Gauss thanked the kind foreman, then continued south alone with a cloth-wrapped bundle on his back.
The farther south he went, the more families he saw on the road.
But Gauss was only a spectator, silently observing everything.
After passing a certain area, the scattered villages and gathering points abruptly disappeared.
A distant deep-green forest came into view.
The once-familiar forest now exuded a strange aura, as if a terrible predator hovered over it, churning wildly in the storm clouds.
Gauss did not linger.
Before entering the forest, he used disguise magic to change into a goblin, wrapping a rag around his waist.
He knew goblins too well, so the new image had no flaws at all.
Using the reflection in a puddle, he saw the ugly, coarse face and forced a grin.
Not far off, several dark-green goblins stepped out from behind trees with wooden spears. Seeing the lone goblin, the leader hissed and made chittering sounds.
Gauss used the Tongue of Languages spell to understand them.
They were trying to recruit him.
Although the goblin he had become was much shorter than his human form, among the goblin lower ranks he still appeared robust.
Gauss withdrew his gaze and ignored the wild goblins. He stepped over the puddle and strode toward the forest interior.
Only after he had walked well away did those goblins shout after his retreating back with feigned anger, as if venting the humiliation of being ignored.
Regaining their “upper hand,” they subconsciously overlooked one thing:
Why, despite their overwhelming numerical advantage and their usual penchant for bullying the weak, did none of them actually feel like making a move?