After informing everyone present that war might soon break out, the big-bearded guild president quickly caused more detailed images to spread across the curtain behind him.
Those images had all been recorded by elite scouting teams dispatched by the Adventurers' Guild, who had risked almost certain death to obtain them.
In the footage, huge numbers of monsters were gathering in orderly formations throughout the forest.
Especially the several large monster tribes already well known within the forest—at this moment they were moving like columns of ants relocating their nest, transporting supplies in a scene that looked remarkably grand.
But considering these would all become humanity's enemies in the future, that spectacle also carried a heavy sense of dread.
As one of the borderland lords, the Green Dragon Queen was, in status, roughly equivalent to a frontier count in a human kingdom. Not only was she monstrously powerful herself, the monster army under her command was equally terrifying.
Under normal circumstances, most of the extermination targets adventurers ever came into contact with were either wild monsters or small monster tribes. And whether it was the quality of their elites, their weapons and equipment, their coordination, or the overall presence they projected, they were worlds apart from the forces shown here.
A monster power like the Green Dragon Queen's had a very clear internal hierarchy. In many of the larger tribes, there were even inheritances of magic and martial skills, and coupled with relatively superior bloodlines, the probability of producing challenge-rated monsters was far greater than in ordinary monster tribes.
So even if two monster armies had the same numbers, the difference in strength between one under the Green Dragon Queen and one temporarily cobbled together from wild monsters would still be at least several times over.
On the stage, Guild President Matthias Monroe was likewise emphasizing the fighting power of the Green Dragon Army.
During the early stages of the continent-wide war between humans and monsters more than a century ago, many adventurers died because they had misjudged the enemy's strength and underestimated them.
The monsters looked similar. Their levels seemed comparable. So why, in actual battle, did they display strength far beyond ordinary monsters encountered in the wild?
Because a misjudgment of information could completely change the outcome of a fight. When blades finally crossed, the enemy's superior speed and strength would catch adventurers off guard, and many died before they could even react.
Sometimes they did not even get the chance to bring out their full strength before having to close their eyes in bitter regret.
At its core, most low-level combat came down to one thing: who landed a weapon or spell on the other's vital point first. The faster one won.
So the result was often decided in a single instant.
Under those conditions, intelligence and mental preparation became even more important.
Most of the adventurers present quietly took that to heart.
In truth, this mattered even more for low-level adventurers. At higher tiers, combatants generally had richer methods and far more battle experience. Unless the gap in strength was truly enormous, it was less likely that mere carelessness would get them killed.
After introducing the Green Dragon Army's basic composition, the bearded guild president moved on to the one truly at the center of it all:
the Green Dragon Queen herself.
But when it came to intelligence on the dragon behind the army, the Adventurers' Guild had actually gathered very little.
The reason was simple. During the century of peace after the war, this adult dragon had almost never shown herself in public, let alone crossed the border into human territory. That kind of close-range intrusion had not happened even once.
And the dragon's lair was located deep in the Jade Forest, protected by numerous large monster nests. For an ordinary scout team to try infiltrating that far in was practically the same as volunteering to die.
So the information the president could present was all data on the adult green dragon from a hundred years ago.
Lord of the Jade Forest, Aesselas
Known Challenge Rating: Level 16
(recorded over a century ago. Warning: This target has remained dormant for one hundred years; current strength may very well have reached Level 17, or even higher.)
Race: Green Dragon
Age Category: Approximately 600 years old
(adult dragon)
Size: Main body length approximately 35 meters, tail length approximately 23 meters, standing shoulder height over 13 meters, wingspan approximately 90 meters.
Epic Domain: [Emerald Kingdom]
Once the Domain is deployed, everything within a three-thousand-meter radius centered on Aesselas transforms into a death forest under her absolute rule.
This Domain possesses three layers of corrosive effect:
First Layer — [Life Drain]:
All living targets within the Domain continuously lose vitality. The lower the level, the faster the drain. Professionals below level 5 who lack special protection will suffer total heart and life-force collapse within ten breaths.
Second Layer — [Plant Animation]:
All plant life within the Domain is granted consciousness and temporarily transformed into servants of Aesselas. Trees become treants, vines become serpent-creepers, and even blades of grass become edges sharp enough to slice flesh.
Third Layer — [Venom Spores]:
A cloud of emerald-colored spores fills the Domain. Anyone who inhales them suffers side effects of varying severity: hallucinations, internal organ corrosion, mana disruption, and more. Even the Domains of transcendent beings are corroded and heavily suppressed.
Combat Style:
As a green dragon—renowned among the chromatic dragons for cunning and strategy—Aesselas almost never charges head-on. In several clashes a century ago, she displayed tactical skill far beyond that of other chromatic dragons of similar age. In legion warfare, she often uses [Emerald Kingdom] to animate plant life and split the battlefield, then unleashes spreading poisonous spores to kill her enemies. Against opponents of similar strength, she prefers to restrain them with massive long-range spells, and she likes to harass and pick off low-level adventurers from a distance, forcing pursuers to divide their attention and defend others.
…
A long list of detailed information was displayed across the curtain.
Though it was clearly outdated rather than fully current, the contents were still far more detailed than Gauss had expected.
And at the end of the report was the name of the human who had compiled it.
Erich Zevier.
Low murmurs quickly spread through the crowd.
"Zevier… that Zevier?"
"What kind of question is that? Is there a second Zevier family in Coldemerald Province?"
Most of the adventurers present had been born many years after the war and belonged to the new generation. Their impressions of the war from more than a century ago—and the figures who had fought in it—were actually quite limited.
Especially someone as young as Gauss. He was not even old enough to count as a fraction of that era.
"Erich Zevier, the great mage from a hundred years ago, known as the Spellweaver. I've heard that name before. They say he was the greatest genius of his generation in the Zevier family. He advanced into a profession at thirteen, entered master rank at twenty-two, stepped into transcendence at forty, and broke through to epic at seventy…"
The person quietly sharing the information spoke with a trace of longing in his voice.
No matter how one looked at it, Erich was a supreme genius by any standard. And what was even more enviable was not merely how dazzling he had been early on, but how he had maintained that momentum all the way through.
He had advanced one step at a time, as though never truly blocked by bottlenecks. Especially entering transcendence at forty and epic at seventy—those were both astonishingly young ages for such breakthroughs.
Some geniuses surged forward early, only to suddenly stall for decades once they reached a certain stage, sometimes dying without ever breaking past transcendence.
"What happened afterward? What happened after that? Did he break into legend?"
"Is he still alive?"
The speaker's companion could not help asking.
"No. That great mage is already dead. They say he was also affected by the Green Dragon Queen's poison and suffered irreparable damage to his foundations. After the war ended, he rarely appeared in public. The other great families only learned he had died when the Zevier family held his funeral."
The people nearby sighed in regret.
Gauss did too.
At least judging from the speed of the Spellweaver's breakthroughs, he seemed like someone who might have had the potential to go even further. If he had lived until now, then while the odds were not high, humanity might conceivably have gained another legendary powerhouse.
Every legendary being was, for humankind, like a pillar that held the sea in place—someone capable of single-handedly overturning the outcome of a large-scale war.
And from that alone, one could tell how difficult it truly was to ascend to legend. Even with heaven-defying talent, one still had to endure countless trials from the outside world over the course of a long life. A single mistake could rob someone forever of the chance to climb any higher.
"But I've also heard that Lord Spellweaver inflicted extremely serious injuries on the Green Dragon Queen. That's why, during the late stages of the war and after it ended, she went into prolonged hibernation to recover."
Gauss silently absorbed every scrap of information being whispered around him.
That, too, sounded reasonable. If the two had been able to oppose each other on the battlefield, then their actual combat strength must at least have been within the same general tier. There was no way one side could suffer lasting foundational damage while the other walked away untouched. Most likely they had fought with everything they had.
But if the Green Dragon Queen was now plotting war again, then her injuries had very likely fully healed.
That was where the dragon race's blessed physique came into play. Even if their combat strength had once been similar, the gap between humans and dragons in terms of raw bodily gifts was still enormous.
The only uncertainty was whether the Green Dragon Queen had merely returned to her old strength—or surpassed it during her long period of dormancy.
Another concern hung over everyone's head.
Leaving aside the distant Demon King, whose situation remained unknown, who exactly was supposed to deal with the Green Dragon Queen of the Jade Forest?
Could Barry Adventurers' Guild President Matthias Monroe—this Level 15 Paladin—be enough?
Compared to everyone else present, his strength was already overwhelming. But against the Green Dragon Queen, he clearly did not seem sufficient.
Spellweaver Erich Zevier was dead, and it was said that the strongest current member of the Zevier family was only a top-tier transcendent.
But the gap between transcendent and epic was also immense.
To imagine that several top-tier transcendents could somehow hold off the epic-tier Green Dragon Queen was little more than fantasy.
And besides, the Green Dragon Queen's forces also included transcendent monsters.
"Please rest assured," Matthias Monroe said, raising his voice and suppressing the unease beginning to spread through the chamber.
"An existence like the Green Dragon Queen will naturally not be something our local adventurers are expected to confront head-on."
"And even if war does break out, she will not appear on the battlefield where we will be stationed."
"I can tell you clearly that a warrior with epic-level combat power has already arrived in Coldemerald Province. However, the arrangements currently remain classified. I cannot publicly disclose the exact identity of that person or the details of the deployment here."
After hearing the guild president's further explanation and reassurance, the crowd visibly relaxed. A sense of relief spread through the chamber.
That was not cowardice.
It was simply that the adult green dragon's combat profile on paper looked utterly terrifying.
If they had been the ones tasked with facing her, she would not even have needed to do much. Simply unfolding her Domain as though it were a passive effect would likely have been enough to turn their surroundings into a living hell.
That was an enemy they simply could not fight.
Most of the people present were adventurers. Their livelihoods, families, and homes were all in Coldemerald Province, so many of them were certainly willing to contribute.
But if they were asked to go die pointlessly, most of them would probably vanish before long. Even if that meant being blacklisted by the Adventurers' Guild and losing large amounts of fixed local assets.
And clearly, both the guild and the royal capital understood that perfectly well. So in a situation where Coldemerald Province lacked sufficient top-tier combat power, they would naturally send the right level of support to prevent the province's mid- and lower-level adventurers and armies from being annihilated by enemy elites.
So unless the capital had decided to abandon Coldemerald Province altogether, support from epic-level combatants was practically guaranteed.
What Gauss was wondering, though, was whether even stronger reinforcements would be sent—top-tier epics, or perhaps even legends.
Gauss suspected that the Kingdom of Carlos probably did possess legendary powerhouses.
Although the Adventurers' Guild's historical records stated that only five Platinum-rank adventurers—Legend-tier combatants—had ever been born in the kingdom, which sounded pitifully few, and by that number alone it was not impossible that none still existed openly in this era.
But one had to remember that not every professional chose to register as an adventurer, especially not the direct descendants of great noble houses.
Gauss could think of an example right beside him: Vice Principal Kieran Zevier from Falrim Magic Academy, who came from the Zevier family, had never once registered with the Adventurers' Guild.
Gauss had chatted with Vice Principal Kieran outside of classes.
And his case was far from unique.
For direct descendants of great nobles with inheritance rights, even if they needed field experience, they often would not become adventurers. Or they would register under false identities, then use their family influence to erase those identities once they reached a certain level.
There were several reasons for that.
In Kieran's case, there was simply no need. Everything he required—resources, spells, protections—could be obtained from the Zevier family. Even when traveling for experience, elders secretly watched over him. Taking commissions through the Adventurers' Guild, assembling teams, and earning rewards would have been nothing but a waste of time to him.
Another reason was status. Though they would never say it aloud, many direct descendants of great noble houses did in fact consider it beneath them to mingle among common adventurers.
And the most important reason was personal safety. Registering openly as an adventurer and moving around outside exposed them to greater risks.
Those risks did not only come from monsters—far more often, they came from fellow adventurers.
Whether it was stealing the treasures such nobles might carry, or kidnapping them and extorting enormous ransom from their families, the temptation was too great for certain unscrupulous adventurers to ignore.
So even when noble descendants genuinely longed for the life of an adventurer, they usually chose to use false identities to protect themselves from desperate opportunists.
If a top-tier epic, or even a legend, were urgently transferred to Coldemerald Province, could that be enough to kill the adult green dragon outright?
Gauss rubbed his chin.
He simply had too little information. Any analysis he made of the situation still felt like trying to make out shapes through fog.
But one thing was certain: whether they chose to send stronger reinforcements or not, there had to be reasons beyond the knowledge of ordinary adventurers like them.
Because the monster side also possessed legendary combatants. There might well be some special balance or deterrence mechanism at work.
Otherwise, if legendary beings were free to attack lower- and mid-tier opponents without restraint, there would be no need at all for battles between epic and transcendent fighters.
Legend-level combatants were exceedingly rare on this continent, but they were not extinct.
As for the legendary Sword Saint Roland—he had been a special case even among legends.
Gauss had once heard that while Roland was publicly known as the Legendary Sword Saint, his true combat power had in fact gone far beyond the normal limits of legend, perhaps even reaching—or surpassing—the level of a demigod.
It was only because of certain worldly religious considerations that he could not openly be given that title.
Among the common people, however, stories had long circulated calling him "Invincible in the Mortal World" and "The God of This World."
According to some bards' tales, during the height of Roland's strength, even a divine avatar descending into the material plane would have struggled to stand against him.
~~~
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