Eden's old lair was quite empty—plain, even.
Only a few glowstones were embedded in hollows in the rock walls, casting a faint, ghostly light.
Beyond that, there was just a pile of stored items and a small herb patch, where several drooping magical seedlings had been planted.
"You can take all of it. It's no use leaving it here anyway."
Eden let out a sigh.
After all, it had lived here for a while, so it did feel a little reluctant to part with it.
But there really was no point in leaving anything behind. Even if Gauss did not take it, once the magic formation weakened over time, sooner or later other adventurers or monsters who came here would break in.
"Don't worry. Alia will take good care of those seedlings you were raising."
"Alia… that elf in your team?"
"Yeah."
While Gauss and Eden spoke quietly in the background, Alia had already stepped forward and carefully lifted the seedlings out of the soil, transplanting them into temporary pots.
In the end, they would all be moved into Alia's dream world, where they could thrive.
At the very least, they had better prospects there than with Eden, a half-baked farmer.
After all, just look at them—planted in this sunless cave, they were already on the verge of withering.
Gauss suspected that if they had arrived a few days later, all they would have found were several dead stalks.
So this only proved once again that specialization exists for a reason. Even if Eden was a Demon King species, the King of Slimes, with an instinctive, almost transparent affinity for magic, that did not mean it could grow flowers and herbs properly.
It still clearly had no talent for it.
Aside from the magical seedlings it had specially collected, there was also a pile of moonstones, gems, low- and mid-grade magic stones, and various pieces of jewelry.
Gauss estimated that altogether, the haul could probably be sold for over a thousand gold coins.
These were all treasures the mushroom folk had offered up after digging them out from the fifth floor of the labyrinth. Quite a lot had already ended up inside Eden's body and been digested, otherwise the total might have been far higher.
After leaving Eden's lair, the Red Dragon Company officially began exploring the surrounding monster nests.
During actual combat, Gauss deliberately told Hephaestus not to use its dragonfire breath or its body to kill enemies, but to fight with magic as much as possible instead.
Sometimes, using a spell once in real combat was more effective than practicing it several times in private.
Even with part of its strength sealed, Hephaestus's natural draconic talent for magic was still terrifying.
Every spell it cast could basically be seen as an enhanced version of what an ordinary caster would produce. The same fire spell, when cast by it, covered several times the area it would in human hands—or even more—and burned at a higher temperature, carrying some of the hard-to-extinguish properties of dragonfire.
You could say that the moment a plant-type mushroom monster was touched by Hephaestus's flames, its death was almost guaranteed.
Sitting on the dragon's back and feeling the fierce fire magic Hephaestus unleashed below, Gauss could not help showing satisfied smiles from time to time.
Hephaestus's progress in live combat was obvious. At first, it still used Burning Hands a little awkwardly, but after Gauss gave it a few pointers, it quickly became smooth and natural, and the spell's power gradually began to rise as well.
He suddenly understood a little better how other people must have felt when they looked at him.
So this was what it felt like to teach a magic genius—so easy.
Of course, compared to Gauss, Hephaestus still fell short by quite a bit.
Its talent was mainly concentrated in fire-element magic. Other types of magic were still stronger in its hands than in those of ordinary casters, but they did not show the same dazzling brilliance. Gauss, on the other hand, was practically a complete all-rounder in the field of magic.
As for the other members of the Red Dragon Company, they too gradually began to show impressive coordination as they fought together.
Now that the team was finally settling into its rhythm, Gauss had a lot less to worry about.
He only needed to step in occasionally, using the high mobility of his Any Door and the lock-on effect granted by the world-rule power [Precision], to prevent unnecessary casualties in his team.
The rest of the team would steadily rack up kills for the Index panel on his behalf.
While he was slacking off, as captain, he paid special attention to Serandur's condition.
From his quiet observation, he could tell that after awakening this so-called "royal bloodline," Serandur's performance in battle really had changed.
In the past, because of his role as a healer, Serandur usually stayed near the back of the formation, calmly providing Blessings, Mass Heal, and other support spells to the front-line fighters. At most, when he had spare time, he would occasionally toss a few curses at distant monsters.
He rarely engaged monsters directly, only acting when enemies broke past the front line and closed in on the medical personnel.
But now, on the battlefield, there was an easy-to-spot serpentfolk figure glowing with dense green light, constantly swinging an energy whip and cutting down mushroom monsters at the front.
What an aggressive position.
If no one told you he was the party's healer, most adventurers would probably assume he was some valiant serpentfolk warrior.
So it really was the bloodline affecting him after all?
Gauss observed Serandur's condition and found that aside from his battle urge becoming unusually intense, his gaze remained rational overall. In live combat, he still did not forget to occasionally send healing to injured or exhausted companions nearby.
And Serandur's physical toughness also seemed to have risen dramatically because of his bloodline. The cuts on his body often closed up in a very short time and healed on their own.
So in the end, Gauss chose not to disturb him.
He planned to wait until after the fighting was over before checking in and asking a few concerned questions.
Serandur was not the only priest in the Red Dragon Company. Even if he was not focused entirely on healing, the team's current medical support was still more than enough to keep everything running smoothly.
That was the mark of a healthy team. Aside from Gauss himself as captain, there was no one whose absence would make the whole group fall apart.
And really, Gauss's existence mostly served to raise the upper limit of the Red Dragon Company's power. Even if you set him aside, the Company was still no weak force among the many adventurer groups.
The Level 9 warlock Luna was solidly capable. That was not meant as faint praise—on the contrary, it was Gauss's acknowledgment of her strength. Her grasp of spells was steady and reliable, especially when it came to wind magic, where she performed particularly well.
Her overall combat style was cautious and disciplined. She never pushed too far forward, instead casting steadily from within the team's protection and striking places where enemies gathered in large numbers.
Albena, the Level 8 warrior, thanks to her giant bloodline, could also temporarily take on several foes of the same level at once. She could face most level 9 classes without falling behind.
Shadow, at Level 7, was not as strong as Albena in direct frontal combat, but when it came to killing speed, she was even more terrifying. She was faster, and besides her main body, she could also split into three clones. With that four-in-one battle style, she could mow down low-level targets like cutting grass.
After reaching Level 6, Alia's elf bloodline had been purified even further, causing the spells granted by her Moon Goddess blessing to surge in power again. She too was the kind of fighter who could easily perform above her level.
Her pet, Ulfen, had stopped growing and now remained just over two meters tall when standing, but its strength had continued increasing along with Alia's growth. And Gauss was not sure if it was only his imagination, but Ulfen's fur seemed to have become more lustrous as well, as if its own bloodline had been elevated alongside hers.
In terms of combat power, Ulfen was roughly equivalent to a Level 5 monster.
The raven Echo was a bit weaker. With a wingspan of two meters, extremely fast flight speed, and a pair of dark giant claws that could easily crush metal, it was about as strong as a Level 4 monster. Its true advantage, however, lay in aerial mobility and lordship.
It could command large numbers of crows for battle and scouting.
Now that Serandur had broken through to Level 6 and awakened his royal bloodline, he had also shed the identity of being a pure full-time healer. His combat power had been further liberated, giving the Red Dragon Company another boost in top-tier strength.
Besides those already mentioned, the Red Dragon Company's master-level combatants also included Luna's two trusted subordinates, Ethan the rogue and Dante the knight; the dwarf Torga; the red dragon Hephaestus; and the goblin clay giant summoned by Gauss.
Counting them all, they now had ten master-level combatants, and several of them were strong even by master-level standards.
The only real weakness was probably their relatively small numbers, since the Company had been established only recently. But even that could hardly be called a flaw. Their elite-focused strategy also gave the Red Dragon Company greater operational efficiency than other adventurer groups, since they did not need to spend half a day preparing every time they moved out.
Gauss surveyed the battlefield and found that as long as they were not taking on especially tough enemies, there was barely anything for him to do anymore.
So he devoted more of his attention to teaching Hephaestus.
At the moment, Hephaestus had only learned the cantrips Firebolt and Lightning Claw, plus the Level 1 spell Burning Hands. Clearly, its magical potential still had a great deal of room to be developed.
Even if it could not yet master Level 2 magic, there were still plenty of Level 1 spells it could learn. Conveniently, its teacher and adoptive parent was Gauss, a walking magic library. He might not have everything, but when it came to the sheer number of spells he had learned, almost no caster could compare to him.
It could not be helped. His mental strength was immense, and the spells rewarded by the Adventurer's Handbook did not add to his personal burden. That advantage was simply too obvious. It let him buy and learn far more kinds of spells without restraint, whether he ended up using them often or not.
In his spare time, he would always make room to study new magic.
So Gauss began demonstrating the Level 1 spell Grease to Hephaestus.
Grease could temporarily create a slick patch of oil over a designated area using magic, making anyone walking through it extremely likely to slip and lose control. But in real combat, there was another use for it that was often even more important.
It could be combined with fire magic—oil feeding the flames—to create combo effects that made fire burn more fiercely and last longer.
Very quickly, with Gauss's upcast Grease supporting it, Hephaestus's already massive Burning Hands became even more ferocious, almost to the point where one dragon alone felt like an entire unit.
After Gauss demonstrated it, Hephaestus immediately grasped the brilliance of the spell. Its golden dragon eyes slowly lit up.
"Did you get it?"
Afraid it might not have seen clearly enough, Gauss had even flown down from its back and come up beside it while casting.
"Gauss, I need to watch it a few more times. This one's a little hard."
Gauss nodded.
Then he demonstrated it several more times in front of Hephaestus.
Unfortunately, Grease was not fire magic. Even if Hephaestus understood the theory, actually casting it still required time, practice, and experimentation.
Gauss was in no rush. He simply kept explaining it patiently.
Finally, just before the battle ended, Hephaestus managed to cast a clumsy, half-formed version of Grease.
That speed of mastery only made Gauss more certain that its magical talent was truly exceptional.
If fire magic was the gift of its red dragon bloodline, then its aptitude in other types of magic reflected its own broader magical potential.
Once it had learned Grease, Hephaestus could start learning even more kinds of spells.
Comprehend Languages was practically mandatory for a Level 1 spell. It would help the newly awakened Hephaestus learn more languages—human Common, for example—so that it could communicate with others instead of only being able to speak with Gauss, who also knew Draconic.
Feather Fall, Shield, and Mage Armor were all worth learning too.
Feather Fall could prevent injuries if something went wrong with its flight and it crashed. Defensive magic would also make Hephaestus even safer. A dragon's body was already the definition of thick-skinned and tough, but when it came to defense, there was no such thing as too much.
Putting shields on the front line would only make it stronger.
As for the mental burden that might arise later from learning too many higher-level spells, they could deal with that when the time came by choosing some spells to forget.
And in Hephaestus's case, that burden probably would not come very soon.
After all, true dragons could learn a huge number of spells as well—especially those who loved magic. In the sheer number of spells mastered, they could often surpass ordinary human casters several times over.
It was just that many true dragons, because of their innate talents, inherited spells, and powerful bodies, disdained learning too many spells.
In the eyes of many arrogant chromatic dragons, most magic was merely icing on the cake. Spending the effort to learn it often seemed less worthwhile than using that time to sleep. To them, learning the few key spells carried in their bloodline was enough.
When it came to magical accomplishment, metallic dragons like gold dragons and silver dragons were generally far stronger than chromatic dragons, and their magical systems were far more diverse as well.
And in human records of battles against dragons, metallic dragons were often considered superior in combat overall compared to chromatic dragons, who relied more heavily on bloodline abilities. It was hard to say magic had nothing to do with that.
Gauss wanted to cultivate the red dragon Hephaestus into a chromatic dragon fully proficient in every kind of magic, and it just so happened that Hephaestus had the talent for it.
It would evolve from a dragon-beast into a true dragon—and surpass its fellow chromatic dragons.
Over the next two days, the Red Dragon Company continued sweeping through the surrounding monster nests.
Under Gauss's guidance, Hephaestus also learned Comprehend Languages, Feather Fall, Shield, Mage Armor, and Fog Cloud.
Mastering a wider range of magic made it much more versatile.
Using the effects of Comprehend Languages, Hephaestus also began rapidly learning human Common. But its personality did not seem especially sociable. Even after learning some Common, it rarely spoke to the rest of the Red Dragon Company. In fact, aside from Alia and a few others, it hardly even had much desire to talk to anyone.
Compared to human language, it still preferred speaking privately with Gauss in Draconic.
Gauss guessed that part of the reason might be that Hephaestus liked the idea of using Draconic so other people could not understand. After all, Draconic was a very high-order language, and almost no magic could fully decipher it.
Dragons were proud creatures. Maybe it simply did not want other people overhearing its conversations with Gauss—especially since so much of it involved Gauss's teaching and guidance as its mentor, and every now and then it even got a little clingy, which was honestly embarrassing for a dragon.
So thinking of that, and wanting to preserve its dignity, Gauss kept using Draconic when speaking with it.
Of course, Hephaestus probably had no idea that some of its more "soft" moments had already been silently witnessed by a certain slime, invisible to ordinary eyes, who had long since whispered about them in Gauss's ear more than once.
~~~
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