Chapter 1070: Crisis at Warren Castle

Gauss shook his head. “I don’t have any further information at the moment. I’ll go into Warren Castle later to ask around.”

Seeing Gauss’s calm expression, Jack took a deep breath, trying his best to calm himself down as well. Only then did he realize that even if something major had truly happened, they at least had this powerful Extraordinary Strong Person by their side.

“Then, Lord Gauss, I’ll go back to commanding the patrol.”

After a quick breakfast, Gauss hurried toward the castle. Even though it was early in the morning, the castle was exceptionally bustling. The number of soldiers patrolling the walls had doubled compared to usual, and many people in the city were helping to clear the few collapsed buildings and structures.

“Gauss, go to the Adventurer’s Guild on your own. We’ll go see if there’s anything we can do to help,” Serdur said.

“Alright, go ahead, but be careful.” Serdur and his group parted ways with Gauss in front of the city gates.

Gauss had only been to the Adventurer’s Guild in Warren Castle once. Although it was also a town-level guild, its scale was pitifully small compared to those in other towns, and the number of freelance Adventurers active throughout Warren Castle was much smaller as well. This was also why the local Lord, Baron Valentine, had to spend a hefty sum commissioning an adventure group from the Guild to help garrison the area.

However, any guild, no matter how small, had all the essentials. It still possessed basic functions, such as the ability to contact higher-ups for intelligence.

When Gauss walked into the Guild’s stone building, the few Adventurers in Warren Castle had all gathered there. A Guild staff member quickly came over to greet him the moment he stepped through the door. Although Gauss had only been there once, the staff had long since firmly etched his appearance into their minds.

“Lord Gauss, welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild of Warren Castle.”

“Is your chairman here?” Gauss asked.

“Of course, I’ll lead the way.” The staff member didn’t even bother reporting to his superior, simply taking Gauss in and striding straight through without any hindrance.

The other Adventurers in the hall spoke in hushed voices. As they watched Gauss’s figure disappear at the end of the corridor, their eyes revealed looks of admiration.

The local chairman’s office was on the second floor. Just like the scale of this branch, the man was a middle-aged person with a completely unremarkable appearance. He had the most common of faces, the kind one would forget the moment they turned their head. As for his strength, if Gauss remembered correctly, he claimed to be a Level 7 Wanderer. Of course, for a Professional who had been away from the front lines for so long, their actual combat power was usually only a fraction of what they had in their prime.

“Mr. Gauss.” Seeing Gauss’s figure, Chairman Finch immediately stood up.

“Chairman Finch, have you received any intelligence regarding the earthquake?”

“Yes, yes. In fact, even if you hadn’t come, I was just about to have someone deliver the intelligence to your manor.” Finch handed Gauss an envelope with ink that hadn’t even fully dried.

It contained intelligence about this abnormal earthquake. Just as Gauss’s Perception had indicated, this widespread tremor originated from the Giant Tooth Highlands. Once again, it was an attack launched by the King of the Mountain Giants, the Lord of the Borderland in the Giant Tooth Highlands. However, this tremor was clearly much stronger than before. The seismic waves had spread all the way from the Giant Tooth Highlands to the Ancestral Province, the Cold Jade Province, and the Jade Forest, with tremors felt in multiple regions.

However, even the Guild’s intelligence agency was temporarily unsure of how the enemy had managed to do this. The King of the Mountain Giants was an Epic Level Demon whose raw strength surpassed even the Green Dragon Queen’s, but this level of destructive power—affecting several regions—was obviously far beyond the strength it should possess.

Currently, the Guild was still sending out intelligence personnel for further reconnaissance. The Guild also reminded Adventurers in various regions to be on high alert for the threat of a Demon tide. Often, after such anomalies, a disaster in the form of a large-scale monster invasion would arrive as expected. This was especially true for the areas adjacent to the Giant Tooth Highlands. According to monitoring, massive numbers of monsters were already gathering rapidly, and every human settlement along the way had an extremely high probability of being attacked.

This was also the reason for the miserable look on Finch’s face; if there truly was a large-scale beast tide, he, as the chairman, would inevitably have to take to the battlefield.

“Mr. Gauss, what should we do? Do we need to request more reinforcements from the higher-up Guild?”

Looking at Chairman Finch, who was casting him an inquiring gaze, Gauss felt rather speechless. Why was the man discussing the Guild’s internal affairs with him? He was just an Adventurer.

“Don’t panic for now. Rest assured, this might actually be a good thing,” Gauss said, gesturing for him to calm down.

“Huh?” Finch looked at him in astonishment.

“I was just getting annoyed at how inefficient it is to clear out monsters in the wild. If they take the initiative to gather into a beast tide, it’ll save me the legwork.”

Hearing this, Finch looked at him as if he were looking at a monster himself. The beast tide that he feared as a catastrophe was merely a convenience in Gauss’s eyes?

“I’ll go discuss this with the Baron first. As for whether you need to request reinforcements, you can decide that for yourself, Chairman.” Gauss left the Guild. In truth, he didn’t hold much expectation that Finch would actually be able to summon reinforcements. During wartime, every region needed to allocate its garrison forces.

After arriving at the castle, he informed Baron Valentine of the intelligence he had gathered.

“Mr. Gauss, Warren Castle can only rely on you now.” The Baron took a deep breath. Although he wanted to remain calm, the news of the beast tide still left him deeply unsettled. Gauss and his Red Dragon Team had become the only saviors he could find.

At this moment, he felt incredibly fortunate that he had spent a fortune in advance to commission an adventure group from the Adventurer’s Guild for garrison duty, and that he was incredibly lucky the one who came was Gauss. Whether it was in Gray Rock Town or on the main battlefield at the front lines of Barry Canyon, Gauss’s performance had been outstanding.

“If—and I only mean if—you decide to evacuate, please take me and my family with you beforehand. We will provide you with a more than satisfactory reward,” Valentine added. Abandoning his family’s foundation, Warren Castle, was certainly not what he wanted, but if the situation truly reached the point where the city was breached, he obviously wouldn’t stubbornly choose to fight to the death. On the surface, he was also a Master Level Professional—a title sufficient to intimidate commoners on a normal day—but he knew perfectly well what he was actually capable of.

Seeing how they were all so rattled by the news, Gauss also realized the dread ordinary people had for such disasters. Even with his renowned reputation, he still couldn’t soothe everyone’s fear of the crisis. He simply offered a few words of comfort, then began inquiring about the number of combat personnel the city could muster, just so he knew what to expect. Despite his young age, the number of large-scale events and wars he had experienced was greater than that of those twice or even several times his age.

Soon, under Gauss’s advice, the Baron began issuing orders. The first was naturally to withdraw the properties, residents, and garrison forces from the several outlying manors and villages back into Warren Castle. Even though Gauss had full confidence in his own strength, he was only one person, after all. It was impossible for him to split into other Gausses to protect those places.

This suggestion was almost immediately adopted by Baron Valentine. Although it was impossible to transfer all their wealth in such a short time and some losses were inevitable, he was very well aware that Gauss’s suggestion was extremely reasonable. If they didn’t evacuate, when the massive beast tide swept in like a plague of locusts, all those manors and villages along the way would be utterly destroyed. If he couldn’t make a prompt decision, they would be left with nothing.

Aside from the order to retreat to the castle, several other commands were issued: quickly repairing houses, inspecting the city walls and underground water channels, dispatching Scout troops, and constantly monitoring the situation in the wilderness. Under the pressure of the crisis, the entirety of Warren Castle quickly began operating with high efficiency.

Gauss himself went out to scout several times. The distance he could scout was far greater than that of an ordinary Scout. Soon, he discovered that the monsters on the wasteland did indeed show a trend of spontaneously gathering, and a continuous stream of monsters kept surging from the direction of the Giant Tooth Highlands.

On the hills, the Stone Giants and One-Eyed Giants seemed to answer a call, marching toward the foot of the mountain step by heavy step. Beside them, thousands of Stone Monsters tumbled rapidly down the slopes. Countless wild beasts fled frantically across the wasteland.