After his meeting with Hailier ended, Gauss did not go out again.
In the blink of an eye, the day of the meeting arrived.
Accompanying Gauss were the other members of his own squad, along with Ivan, Luna, Ethan, and the dwarf Torga.
It might have looked like a lot of people, but there was still more than enough room in the carriages. After all, the local guild had provided four of them.
Once they boarded the guild's carriages, the convoy quickly sped along the broad avenue.
After passing through the inner and outer city walls, the number of pedestrians and vehicles on the streets dropped noticeably.
Most of the people who could afford to live in the inner city belonged to Barry's upper class. Calling it a place where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold would not have been an exaggeration.
The people seen here were mostly nobles, members of large trading houses, senior government officials, church priests, bankers, great scholars, cultural celebrities, and artists. Other than that, the rest were mostly employees and workers serving the area.
Gauss's carriage came to a stop in front of a classically styled, circular building. The open space before the entrance was already filled with all kinds of carriages.
Many high-ranking adventurers with statuses similar to his were just stepping down from their rides, while others had a noticeably different bearing from adventurers—harder, more rigid. They were probably military.
The two groups naturally kept some distance from each other.
Gauss, of course, drifted toward the adventurers' side, but his gaze lifted toward the towering giant tree behind Barry Adventurers' Guild Headquarters.
Now that he was inside the inner city and much closer to the Mother Tree of the Forest Capital, the sense of awe it inspired—almost like looking upon a god—felt even stronger.
The colossal tree stretched into the clouds. Every leaf looked as large as a house, yet according to rumor, those leaves never withered or fell for natural reasons. On top of that, the entire inner city was covered by a massive magical barrier that could be activated at any time, so no one had to worry about those giant leaves crashing down and causing disaster.
Beyond that, he could see sunlight streaming through the gaps between the leaves. Against that backdrop, griffin riders—tiny as gnats by comparison—darted through the branches, busy skewering strange parasitic demon insects to the trunk with long lances.
"So this is Telashil."
A tree like this was a miracle in itself. It was like a gentle mother, shielding the people below from natural disasters, regulating the climate, keeping the city in eternal spring, with mild winds and timely rain.
The very air seemed to flow with abundant life energy.
Among their group, Alia—who had awakened elven blood and had originally been a druid—looked the most devout. Her entire body relaxed, as if every cell inside her were crying out in joy.
"Incredible. This tree feels like the embodiment of nature itself."
Alia took a few deep breaths, and even her already beautiful features seemed to grow a little more elegant.
"There's that old rumor too, isn't there? They say that before humans built a city here, back in the Second Age, this was one of the major gathering places of the elves."
"Who knows—maybe one of your ancestors lived up in that canopy a very, very long time ago."
"Maybe," Alia murmured.
She did not actually feel much identity with being an elf. The awe she felt now came more from an instinctive reverence for nature itself.
"Honored guests of the Red Dragon Company, I'm Bella, your attendant for today. Please follow me. The meeting is about to begin."
"If you're interested, after the meeting our guild can arrange for you to visit the base of the tree up close."
While Gauss and the others—clearly a few outsiders—were quietly talking among themselves, a slightly short red-haired girl had approached without them noticing, interrupting with an apologetic smile.
Only then did Gauss realize that everyone else had already gone inside under the guidance of their own attendants. His group was the only one still standing outside.
"Sorry, sorry. Please lead the way."
Of course, that was hardly their fault. Unlike most of the local teams, they were outsiders. It was only natural to stop and stare a bit longer out of curiosity.
The inside of guild headquarters was still spacious—more accurately, empty.
Aside from the high-level adventurers attending today's meeting and Barry's local military leadership, there were almost no unrelated people here at all.
It was only after asking Bella that Gauss learned why.
Apparently, having so few people around was normal for headquarters.
Or rather, this place served a different function from the guild branches scattered across the city. Even basic services like accepting and submitting quests were not open to low-level adventurers here. Only important gatherings like this brought people together.
When they reached the council chamber on the third floor, the number of people visibly increased.
Adventurers of all kinds of races could be seen everywhere. Anyone who could attend a gathering like this clearly had real status.
Most of them were Black Iron rank adventurers—in other words, master-level professionals. And among the crowd, Gauss could faintly pick out the figures of a few Silver-rank adventurers as well, true transcendents who in ordinary people's eyes stood impossibly high above the rest.
Those people had an overwhelming presence.
Not because every one of them was some stunning beauty or irresistibly charismatic figure, but because of the peculiar sense of separation they radiated—the feeling of a crane standing among chickens.
Even if some of them looked plain, short, or even hunched, it was still easy to distinguish them from everyone else at a glance. They almost felt like different species.
That was the most direct expression of the gap in life level.
"Is that the change brought by Domains?" Gauss wondered silently.
Although his current strength already surpassed that of a Level 11 professional, and even many Level 12s might not have been stronger than him in actual combat, he was still technically only Level 8 and had not yet mastered that special power unique to transcendents.
Even so, he could more or less understand what a Domain was.
And while he was observing others, he noticed those few unusual figures also casting subtle glances his way.
He did not know whether they had already heard of him beforehand, or if they had simply sensed something unusual about him here and now.
The people gathered here were clearly divided into several distinct camps.
The largest group was the high-ranking adventurers. They looked the most relaxed, and many of them clearly knew each other.
Another group consisted of military representatives, all dressed in uniform.
If one looked carefully, there were also representatives from the government, priests in white robes, merchant delegates, and more. Clearly, this was not just a meeting for adventurers. It was a gathering of elites from all across society.
After entering in order, Gauss was assigned a relatively forward seat in the council hall.
On the stage stood a middle-aged man who was not very tall, but solidly built.
What drew Gauss's attention most was that dense thicket of gray beard.
He could not help suspecting the man might have some dwarven blood in him.
From the whispers of the high-ranking adventurers around him, he quickly learned the man's identity.
He was the president of Barry's Adventurers' Guild.
A Level 15 Paladin, standing at the very peak of the transcendent tier, only a single step away from the legendary epic class.
It was fair to say his strength was terrifying.
And yet, the sense of presence he gave off was strangely subdued—far less overwhelming than the few transcendent powerhouses Gauss had sensed outside earlier.
Gauss certainly did not think those others were stronger than the guild president. The only reasonable explanation was that this man was simply too strong, strong enough that Gauss could no longer perceive the aura he had hidden away.
Another possibility was that those others had not yet reached the same level of mastery over their Domain aura. They could not control it as naturally or conceal it so completely.
This guild president—and perhaps the other transcendents Gauss still could not properly perceive—had likely already moved beyond that stage.
One had to remember that once someone entered the transcendent tier, the gap between every level beyond it only became greater.
Especially in direct confrontation, every level caused a qualitative transformation in a professional's Domain. Its area of influence widened dramatically, and its quality rose just as sharply, allowing it to crush the Domain of the previous level outright.
Gauss had personally experienced the Snowstorm Domain of that Dragon Priestess who had only barely stepped into transcendence, and the impression it left on him had been profound.
That dragon priestess and the guild president before him essentially stood at opposite ends of the transcendent ladder. If even Cecilia's Domain had been that powerful, then if the guild president were to fully unfold his own, just how terrifying would it be?
Even if Gauss went all out, he probably would not be able to escape it.
He could not help sighing inwardly that appearances truly were deceptive.
A completely ordinary-looking middle-aged man like this might walk through the street without attracting a second glance, yet in truth he was a human-shaped catastrophe.
And the reason he was stationed in Barry likely had everything to do with the city's strategic importance. This was the bridgehead facing the Jade Forest. Without a truly powerful figure to anchor it, long-term stability would have been impossible.
At that thought, Gauss reminded himself once again not to judge by appearances. The faint arrogance that had inevitably begun to grow in him after sweeping through the labyrinth almost unopposed was instantly stamped out.
The human mind, like any object, needed to be cleaned and polished again and again.
Once everyone had arrived, the meeting officially began.
The bearded guild president strode to the center of the stage. With a lift of his hand, the soft magical curtain behind him rippled like water, then lit up.
"Thank you all for coming."
His voice was not loud, yet every word reached the ears of everyone present as clearly as if he were speaking right beside them.
The scattered murmurs that had filled the hall before he spoke vanished in an instant.
"I am Matthias Monroe, President of Barry Adventurers' Guild. Everyone's time is valuable, so I'll skip the formalities and go straight to the matter at hand."
He waved his right hand, and colorful images began to appear across the glowing magical curtain behind him. A wash of green spread outward from the center like a sea of foliage, enlarging until most people in the room recognized it as a map of the Jade Forest.
Across that map, countless red dots were slowly converging, until a dense crimson mass formed in one region.
"About half a month ago, around the same time the Timber Labyrinth reappeared and began showing signs of activity, our scouting teams began collecting reports of abnormally increased monster movement deep within the Jade Forest."
"At first, our intelligence officers judged it to be a precursor to the usual seasonal beast tide that comes with the onset of summer. But as our elite teams continued infiltrating deeper, we obtained far more detailed information. The scale of this monster activity is much more severe than we initially expected."
"Across the entire Jade Forest, every tribe under the Green Dragon's authority is being mobilized and pushed toward the border of Coldemerald Province."
"The scale of this monster concentration is unprecedented since the peace treaty was signed."
"We also used the only available channel to attempt communication with that Green Dragon, but unfortunately, we have received no response."
He paused, sweeping his gaze across the audience below.
"So, I regret to inform you all of some very unfortunate news."
"War may be about to begin."
Even though most people present had already guessed that this meeting probably had something to do with the Green Dragon Queen of the Forest Capital, hearing the word war spoken aloud by Matthias Monroe still made many faces change.
No matter how strong or influential they were, very few people could stay calm at the mention of war.
Only a small number, likely those who had already heard something through other channels, remained composed in their seats without changing expression.
If it was truly confirmed that the Green Dragon Queen was gathering all her forces and preparing for war, then this was no trivial matter.
This would not be some small-scale conflict like the battle Gauss had once gone through at Grayrock Town.
It would become a war sweeping across the entire province.
Perhaps the Green Dragon Queen's action was only the first shot of something even greater.
As one of the Seven Lords of the Borderlands, the Green Dragon Queen possessed considerable independence, but formally she still pledged loyalty to the King of Monsters, acknowledging his highest authority and status as leader.
The previous Demon King had been slain by Roland the Sword Saint. Now, after more than a hundred years of silence, the Green Dragon Queen was once again stirring the clouds of war. Did that mean that deep within the Monster Kingdom, something unknown to humankind had already changed?
That was clearly a very reasonable suspicion.
Skirmishes between humans and monsters broke out around the borderlands from time to time, but because of the peace treaty, neither side had been willing to openly tear it apart and ignite a full-scale war.
Would the Green Dragon Queen really dare shatter the treaty and provoke the entire world into war without fearing a combined human response?
Though she was an adult dragon of immense strength, the power of one green dragon domain alone still could not contend against the full strength of an entire nation.
Dragons were arrogant, but they were not stupid. And green dragons, among the chromatic breeds, were known for being especially cunning and treacherous. That made such reckless folly even less likely.
The only real possibility was that her actions were merely the prelude to a continental war.
The other borderland lords—and the other demon races under the Monster Kingdom—would all join in and launch a collective war against humanity.
And once that line of thought reached that point, an even more terrifying possibility inevitably surfaced.
Had a new Demon King already been born?
The forces of monsterkind were not truly united. Without an absolute power capable of suppressing and commanding the many lords of the demon races, how could they possibly act as one?
And to many people, the birth of a Demon King was even more frightening than war itself.
Every generation's Demon King represented the peak of individual power in its era.
The last Demon King had been slain by Roland the Sword Saint. But Roland was dead now, and the Sword of the Hero was still missing.
If the threat of a Demon King truly rose again, then this time…
Who would stand up to stop it?