ebookpocket.com Chapter 313: The Prosperous Herb Village
Chapter 313: The Prosperous Herb Village
"Wait a moment..."Gauss looked at her taking out the giant axe and instinctively felt something wasn't quite right.
While stopping Albenia, he lowered his head to examine the small shield in his hand.
To be clear, it wasn't that he didn't trust the Water Transformation Armament gifted by the Lake God Mete, but...
Objectively speaking, such a small water shield didn't look like it could withstand a slash from this human-height giant axe, right?
He didn't want to test it and end up dead.
As for why he felt comfortable letting Aria take action, wasn't that just judging people differently?
Gauss thought that even if she broke through the water shield's defense, he still had the protection of his Gauss Field and Moonlight Robe afterward.
But Albenia's close combat attack power wasn't something to be taken lightly, was it?
A level 6 warrior, wielding an exceptional quality weapon, plus the innate divine strength provided by her partial giant bloodline,
Who wouldn't be bewildered looking at that?
"Lord Gauss, are you ready?" Albenia blinked her eyes in confusion.
Gauss first "refreshed" his Gauss Field, then confirmed the Moonlight Robe's defense layer was intact, and finally quietly activated his "Sturdy Scale Bloodline" to enhance his body's physical strength before looking at Albenia and nodding.
"Ready, you... be careful."
"Don't worry, Lord Gauss. I'll be careful of your counter-shock attack." Albenia nodded confidently.
No, that's not what I meant for you to be careful about.
The next moment, Albenia's feet fiercely stomped the ground, her tall body bursting with speed that completely mismatched her physique as she leaped high into the air, raising the giant axe with both hands and viciously slashing downward toward the seemingly fragile small water shield.
"BOOM!!"
This impact was far beyond comparable to Aria's staff tapping.
A dull sound rang out as violent air waves spread outward from the collision point, making everyone's clothes flutter wildly.
Aria raised her hand to shield her face, preventing flying debris from getting into her eyes.
As for Gauss, who was directly involved, he only felt a tremendous, overwhelming force surging toward him.
However, the water-form round shield once again demonstrated its magical properties.
The soft shield surface rippled with extremely intense, boiling water-like waves, while the blue light circulating inside flashed at an unprecedented speed, as if fully absorbing and neutralizing this heavy, enormous force.
The thirty to forty centimeter diameter shield surface seemed precarious compared to the human-height giant axe, but upon closer inspection, the sharp axe blade remained adsorbed by that seemingly soft water membrane, unable to penetrate.
Two forces were locked in a desperate stalemate.
Suddenly...!
Both of them were sent flying backward simultaneously.
Gauss's body turned lightly in the air to dissipate the force, finally landing steadily on the ground.
Albenia, who staggered a few steps, relied on her excellent physical conditioning to forcefully stomp several times, barely controlling her body.
The originally relatively flat ground was now densely covered with cracks from their collision, looking as if a small earthquake had occurred.
"Hoo—"
Gauss let out a breath, looking at the small water shield in his hand with pleasant surprise.
Its defensive effect was better than he had anticipated.
Despite being sent flying, because of the water shield's existence, he actually hadn't suffered much specific damage. On the contrary, Albenia's terrifying force capable of splitting mountains and cracking stones had all been neutralized and dissipated by the water shield.
His backward flight was just part of the force dissipation method.
"Lord Gauss is so strong."
Albenia put away her double-bladed axe, looking at Gauss, unable to resist expressing sincere admiration.
Although she had held back some strength throughout to ensure she could retract her force immediately if the shield shattered, avoiding harm to Gauss, that didn't mean the attack was ordinary.
Because of her excellent control over force, that attack had actually reached ninety percent of her full power burst.
Yet even so, it still couldn't shatter that seemingly fragile small water shield.
She felt like she was chopping at a bottomless lake, her strength infinitely diluted by the soft, gentle water flow.
And in the end, it returned a portion of that diluted force back to her.
This Water Transformation Armament was indeed extremely powerful.
And powerful weapon = powerful Lord Gauss.
Gauss simply maintained his smile.
Then the small water shield in his hand began freely changing forms again.
Bow, dagger, spear, and the close combat weapon he most frequently used - the longsword.
Gauss looked at this solidified water sword gleaming in the sunlight. Unlike the shield form, the sword form of the Water Transformation Armament emitted a sharp, cutting intent from its blade.
Water, the softest yet strongest.
Gauss flicked the sword toward the ground.
The sword energy of the White Falcon sword technique surged forth.
"Shh—"
Instantly, the sword blade sank into the ground without any resistance, cutting out a smooth, clean gap.
Moreover, Gauss faintly sensed that this water weapon's strength wasn't fixed either - it seemed it could still evolve through some method.
What a perfect weapon...
Gauss felt pleasantly surprised in his heart.
After all, he had previously prepared himself mentally that the Lake God's Blessing ceremony might just be a formality. He never expected the generous Lake God Mete's casually gifted weapon would turn out to be such an exceptionally precious treasure.
Now he really needed to put more effort into helping investigate the pollution commission.
Gauss's group continued their journey.
While walking, they happened to encounter some goblins.
Gauss happened to use his newly acquired "divine weapon" to test it on them.
He discovered another benefit of the Water Transformation Armament was that it required no maintenance or cleaning, ready to use anytime, and wouldn't retain stains.
This made his goblin-killing movements more crisp and efficient, saving him a lot of work.
Its only drawback was probably its limited "volume," which prevented it from condensing into full-body protection like armor.
After killing these unlucky goblins encountered along the way, Gauss's total monsters killed reached 9,625,
Getting closer and closer to the ten thousand kill milestone.
In his understanding, reaching ten thousand kills should be a milestone stage that would probably yield good rewards, right?
The first village they encountered came earlier than Gauss had imagined.
It was nestled within dense forest.
The wooden sign at the village entrance had the characters "Herbal Medicine Village" crookedly carved on it.
When Gauss entered, he found this place was less like a village and more like a slightly larger settlement.
Several dozen small houses half-buried in the forest soil were arranged in a circular pattern around the village.
In front of and behind the houses, and on the roofs, various medicinal herbs were drying.
The air was filled with complex medicinal scents - some sweet, some bitter, and various others - but they weren't unpleasant, instead giving people a strange sense of tranquility.
Even travelers just arriving could immediately guess the locals' main livelihood.
This was a village primarily inhabited by herb gatherers.
When Gauss rode into the village on his mount, several herb gatherers were walking along the village path outward, carrying baskets and chatting happily.
One dark-skinned girl who looked like a thin little monkey turned her head and saw Gauss on his bird mount. After a quick glance of surprise, she quickly tugged at her companion's sleeve.
"There's... someone coming."
As she reminded them, she secretly glanced several more times at Gauss and the people behind him.
She had never seen such a handsome human in her life.
The forest beams of light filtering through the tree canopy shone on his white robe, enveloping him in a halo of light, making him look like a hero straight out of a story.
Actually, they should maintain caution when encountering outsiders, but this person before them truly made it difficult for this inexperienced young girl to feel any malice.
"You... hello, this is Herbal Medicine Village. May I ask why you've come here?"
"I'm an adventurer from Fisherman's Song Town. Could you take me to your village chief?"
Gauss dismounted from his steed and asked gently.
The reason he mentioned Fisherman's Song Town was because he thought it was a town they might know about. If he mentioned Grayrock Town, how could they possibly know it?
"Oh! Fisherman's Song Town..."
"He's so good-looking, he doesn't seem like a bad person."
"I don't think so either."
Several young girls whispered among themselves for a while.
Then the dark-skinned girl with mushroom-cut hair spoke, replying cautiously.
"Honorable adventurers, please follow us."
Leading their mounts, they entered the village.
The gaps between houses contained medicinal fields growing many herbs.
Several adult villagers saw them bringing strangers into the village and asked warily from a distance.
"Gray, who are you bringing in?"
"Adventurers looking for the village chief."
The adult villagers looked at Gauss and his companions' appearances, seeming to want to say something but ultimately not daring to speak.
They let them continue entering.
Presumably, such obviously extraordinary "important people" probably meant no harm to their small village.
Or rather, even if they did have malicious intentions, these herb gatherers would find it difficult to organize any decent resistance.
Suddenly, just as Gauss was silently observing the small village,
A disheveled man rushed out from a nearby house.
Several young girls instinctively tried to stop him.
But the man had already thrown himself in front of Gauss.
"Sir! Sir! Have you seen my daughter?"
"She's about this tall... has golden curly hair, beautiful big golden eyes, her favorite candy is kumquat candy, she's afraid of the dark..."
The man's dirty black hands grabbed Gauss's pristine white robe.
His incoherent manner made him seem mentally unstable.
Gray and the other girls showed expressions mixing sympathy and helplessness upon seeing this, as if they were quite familiar with this scene.
Or rather, whenever strangers arrived, he would come forward to ask about his missing daughter.
They quickly pulled the man away from Gauss to prevent him from disturbing the honored guest.
"Honorable adventurer, we apologize. This is Uncle York from our village..." Gray approached and explained quietly. "Ever since his little daughter Abby went missing, Uncle York has been like this."
Gauss nodded silently.
"Serlandul, please examine Uncle's condition."
He looked at Serlandul, wanting him to check whether the mental trauma the other had suffered still had potential for treatment.
"This is our team's medic. Let him help examine you."
Gauss explained.
The villagers who had gathered around nodded upon hearing this.
Although they didn't hold much hope, this group of adventurers seemed to have an extraordinary aura - perhaps their examination would be more reliable than their village's physician.
While Serlandul was conducting the examination, an elderly man approached.
His hair was gray, but his spirit was quite vigorous as he leaned on a well-polished wooden staff.
"Honored guest, we apologize for startling you. I am Hodel, the village chief of Herbal Medicine Village."
"Hello, Village Chief."
Gauss handed the commission document he had received from Sena City to the village chief.
This thing worked well in most villages.
After reading the contents and learning that Gauss's group were adventurers who had been helping villages along their journey, Village Chief Hodel breathed a sigh of relief.
"But our village doesn't really need any help." Hodel returned the commission document to Gauss.
"The village's defensive structures seem a bit weak?" Gauss looked around - there were almost no proper fences.
"We've scattered many powders around the village to drive away beasts and monsters, and we replenish them regularly, so monsters rarely invade the village." Hodel explained.
"Moreover, our village has some capable young men who frequently go out to clear away monsters lingering nearby."
Every village had its own survival strategies.
For a village like this that relied on gathering medicinal herbs from natural resources, herbs were both their economic livelihood and their means of village defense.
And although their village scale wasn't particularly large, because merchant caravans frequently came to purchase medicinal materials, their economic conditions were actually quite good.
Naturally, they also had spare resources to acquire equipment and skill books to train talented younger generations in the village.
"I see..." Gauss scratched his head.
This was the first time he encountered a village that straightforwardly said they didn't need help, and he actually felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.
But since they were already here, he still planned to stay nearby with his companions for a while.
"Village Chief, could you provide an empty space for me and my teammates to stay for a few days? We'd like to rest and recuperate in the village."
For monsters in the wild, villages naturally attracted them.
Even though the village surroundings were sprinkled with medicinal powders, their effect was only to drive them away, not to kill them.
So the monster density nearby was still considerably higher than other wilderness areas.
He was now less than four hundred kills away from reaching ten thousand total, so he naturally wouldn't miss any place that might harbor monsters.
"Of course, Lord Gauss, feel free."
Although Hodel had no particular needs from Gauss's group, he didn't refuse Gauss's request either.
While Gauss was speaking with the village chief, Serlandul had already conducted a preliminary examination of Uncle York.
"It's indeed mental trauma." Serlandul shook his head.
The brain was the most intricate organ in the human body. If it were damage to other body parts, he could probably heal it, but when the brain was affected, the situation became much more complex.
"His brain is too tense - he hasn't had proper sleep for a long time. I've given him some treatment."
"Let him sleep well for now. When he wakes up, I'll examine him again."
Serlandul handed the now sleeping York over to the other villagers.
Gauss narrowed his eyes slightly, examining York, thoughtfully watching as he was helped into a house by the villagers.
"What's wrong?" Aria noticed his gaze.
"Nothing..."
Gauss withdrew his gaze from him and the villagers, not saying anything more for now.