Chapter 1071: Bait

As the war drew near, streams of intelligence flowed into Warren Castle through various channels. Major towns in the Ancestral Province had been attacked and pillaged by monster troops from the Giant Tooth Highlands. Caravans traveling across the region were forced to suspend their operations, and local militias were hastily organized to defend their homes. Meanwhile, swarms of monsters continued to pour into the borders of the Cold Jade Province.

Gauss had also broken down his Red Dragon Team into numerous squads and companies to coordinate with Warren Castle’s pre-war preparations. They escorted the relocation and transport operations of manors and villages, and assisted in repairing and reinforcing the town’s fortifications. Naturally, none of this was volunteer work. They received additional compensation for their efforts; business was business, after all. The Baron’s original commission for them was strictly to exterminate monsters—any extra tasks were not included in the contract.

Gauss didn’t take a cut from this extra income, choosing instead to distribute the Baron’s funds entirely among his team members. Therefore, despite the exhausting workload, the members’ enthusiasm remained incredibly high.

Outside the town at this moment, Gauss was leading a team of Casters to refill the moat surrounding the castle with fresh water. The moat encircling Warren Castle relied on groundwater as its source. While this greatly enhanced its defensive Attributes, it also inevitably resulted in seasonal fluctuations in water levels. The Red Dragon Team’s solution involved Gauss Casting a Water Manipulation Spell to draw water from the nearest river over a dozen kilometers away. Other Casters coordinated with him to construct earthen dikes along the way, preventing the flow from diverging or overflowing while methodically guiding it into the low-lying moat.

A sizable crowd of curious onlookers had gathered on the town walls, marveling at the massive water diversion project. No matter where or when, there was never a shortage of such people.

Of course, their presence on the walls was only possible because Warren Castle’s Lord, Baron Valentine, had silently permitted it. Otherwise, commoners could never have bypassed the iron halberds of the soldiers guarding the access routes. The Baron allowed them to watch the war preparations simply to instill some confidence in the town’s panicked residents.

Within a short period, an influx of refugees had crammed into the already cramped town, drastically increasing the pressure on housing, daily resources, and public sentiment. The rural folk who had relocated from the manors and villages brought warnings of war to the townspeople. Panic inevitably spread, leading to a spike in drunken brawls and public disturbances. This placed an even heavier burden on the town guards, whose resources were already stretched thin by the looming threat of war. Even when Gauss entered and exited the Inner Castle, he had heard Baron Valentine furiously cursing, “Insolent peasants! Insolent peasants!” on several occasions.

Yet right now, these restless commoners were all gasping in awe at the miracle of Magic.

“So this is Magic!”

“It’s incredible!”

“Do you think I might have a Talent for Magic, too?”

“Never mind that—could you even afford a Magic Book?”

Watching the moat’s waterline rapidly rise before their very eyes, the commoners leaning over the battlements chattered away in sheer excitement. For a brief moment, the survival pressure brought on by the impending war and the panic over scrambling for supplies seemed to dissolve in the face of the most powerful force humanity could wield.

To Adventurers, especially high-ranking ones, Magic was an everyday occurrence. But to the vast majority of commoners, such a grand spectacle—severing a river with a wave of a hand and forcing its waters to change course—was a once-in-a-lifetime sight. The closest they usually got to Magic was watching parlor Tricks or cheap sleight-of-hand illusions performed in taverns or circuses.

This was actually a good thing. For townspeople who lived ordinary lives year-round, witnessing high-level Magic firsthand would mean they were caught in the crossfire of a deadly crisis. It would either mean that maddened Adventurers were clashing in the streets, inflicting collateral damage on the innocent, or that the town had been heavily breached, with Professionals and monsters slaughtering each other within its walls. Either scenario would be an absolute tragedy for ordinary people.

Hovering in the sky, Gauss looked down at the now steadily flowing river beneath him. He didn’t find the task particularly difficult. At his current level, Casting a Tier 4 Water Manipulation Spell was practically effortless.

Of course, the base effects of a Tier 4 Spell alone wouldn’t have been enough to achieve this scale. He had to upcast it to barely pull it off, relying on the coordination of other Casters stationed along the route. It just went to show that creation was inherently harder than destruction. Once the moat’s waterline reached the standard level, he would still need to sever the waterway he had created and fill in the scoured trenches to clean up the aftermath. Gauss and his team worked tirelessly for an entire day before finally wrapping up the job.

Two days later.

Bright sunlight shone on the cobblestone streets of Warren Castle. The usually crowded roads were now sparsely populated. The only people moving about the town were a handful of Adventurers and the Baron’s soldiers. Mounted soldiers continuously patrolled the area, urging any ordinary citizens still outdoors to hurry home or head to temporary shelters.

Gauss and Baron Valentine rode their horses side by side down the streets. People in the houses on either side occasionally cracked open their windows to peek at them.

“I’ve scouted the area. Starting as early as this afternoon, the first wave of monsters will begin amassing and making their way toward the open fields of Warren Castle from the southwest.

“This initial wave will primarily consist of species from the Jade Forest.

“Please inform your subordinates to be ready, Baron.”

Of course, Gauss was just saying this out of courtesy; in reality, he had already dispatched his people to circulate the intelligence down the chain of command.