sonovelo Chapter 320: Yeenoghu's Claws
Chapter 320: Yeenoghu's Claws
The further north they traveled, the drier the air gradually became.A layer of soft, dry hay was piled beneath the carriage compartment, topped with two layers of cloth, creating a quite comfortable mode of transport.
When Gauss and the others grew tired, they would occasionally get on the carriage to rest, take a nap, and so on.
This was the benefit of having a large team;during the long journey, there was no need to be constantly on edge, as there were always teammates who could take turns maintaining vigilance.
"Hah—"
Gauss's gaze swept across the landscape.
Their group had already entered a vast plain.
Pale yellow wild grasses grew in thick, sprawling patches like fields of wheat. When the autumn wind blew, a rustling sound rose, and the desolate grass surged like ocean waves, a magnificent and awe-inspiring sight.
"Let's set up camp here first."
Gauss felt that this great plain likely concealed quite a few monsters.
Most importantly, when he flew up into the sky, the unobstructed view from above would allow him to see the distribution of monsters across a fairly large surrounding area.
"Alright."
The others had no objections.
After two days of travel, the father-daughter pair, Abby and York, had mostly recovered.
Upon regaining his senses and learning what had happened, York was moved to tears, repeatedly expressing his gratitude to Gauss's team.
Like Abby, York, after this incident, harbored no resentment towards the villagers, especially the Village Chief, which of course was impossible.
Fortunately, they had already left that place of sorrow. He planned to start a new life with his daughter Abby in the next town.
"Let me check the map. The nearest city is Longdi Fort."
Gauss's gaze fell on the girl Abby, who was practicing cantrips. She had already mastered the Light Cantrip.
Although it was unclear for now if there were any side effects, the witch's modifications to her had clearly accelerated her ability to learn magic.
Normally, most people's bodies and brains might only be suitable for contacting magic around the ages of 15 or 16.
The earlier one learns magic, the thicker that invisible barrier becomes.
However, even considering the unknown potential side effects, Gauss felt this transformation was beneficial for Abby.
Because one can never know if a crisis will arrive first;the sooner one's talent is realized, the better.
"Teacher Gauss, my body feels much more comfortable."
After finishing her spellcasting, Abby walked over to Gauss and said softly.
The reason she called him teacher was because York had told her to, but Gauss didn't correct the title.
"It's probably because you've started learning magic. The mana in your body now has an outlet for release and isn't just pent up inside."
Gauss explained.
"You should persist with daily spellcasting practice from now on."
"Your body isn't fully developed yet. Excessive mana accumulation inside is just a burden for you."
"I understand, Teacher Gauss."
After giving Abby some more guidance,
Gauss looked at Shadow.
"Shadow, we're running low on food. I'll leave it to you to catch some game nearby. I'm going to scout the area."
Then, after instructing Aria, Albenia, and Serlandul to maintain vigilance at the camp, Gauss cast Fly and, under Abby's admiring gaze, slowly left the ground, eventually disappearing into the unseen heights.
She had never seen other spellcasters. In her eyes, Gauss was the most powerful mage, capable of reaching the heavens and descending to earth, omnipotent.
After leaving the team, Gauss summoned the Red Drake, Hephaestus.
"Roar~"
Hephaestus, who hadn't been out for days, frantically flapped its wings.
In the past, sleeping for several days would have been perfectly normal for it. But after joining Gauss's team and getting used to a different daily rhythm, it even felt a bit restless.
"Don't worry, there will be plenty of chances for you to move around."
Gauss put on the "Eagle Eye Monocle."
Even while on the ground earlier, he had already caught whiffs of a faint, elusive stench on the wind.
As the Eagle Eye Monocle was placed before his eye, the scene below suddenly became clear.
"Oh? Found you!"
Gauss quickly locked onto an anomalous spot in the distance.
Mentally estimating the time Shadow would take to hunt, Aria and the others to set up camp and cook, he figured he could probably clear them out before the meal was ready?
He patted Hephaestus's neck, and the excited drake, unable to hold back any longer, instantly beat its wings and charged forward.
"Swish, swish, swish—"
Weeds swayed. A hand covered in dark gray fur parted the grass stalks, and a rough claw stomped hard on the bent weeds.
Behind this tall gnoll were over a dozen companions.
Together, they dragged a wild bull far larger than themselves across the wilderness.
Not far in their line of sight, the outline of a camp gradually became clear.
To call it a camp was generous;there were no structures. It was merely a relatively flat clearing opened up beside a few naturally occurring, smooth black boulders on the plain.
Spreading dried weeds made for the best bedding.
The racial traits of gnolls determined that they rarely built structures;they were natural predators.
Appearing in the wilderness, they would strip an area of all prey resources before migrating elsewhere, like a swarm of locusts darkening the sky, leaving nothing in their wake.
Other monster camps and human villages were also their hunting targets.
Fellow wilderness regulars like goblins and goblin-like creatures often found themselves at a disadvantage against these more brutal neighbors when group sizes were equal.
As the gnoll "hunting party" returned, tribesmen near the black stones quickly surged out to greet them.
Just as the gnolls were celebrating their bountiful harvest, a massive shadow slowly enveloped them.
"Boom!!!"
Grass blades flew, and a cloud of dust swept out in all directions.
The gnolls lifted their heads. Unnoticed, a figure exuding an aura that made their souls tremble had appeared in the sky above.
A dragon!!
Hephaestus lowered its head.
A torrent of fiery breath erupted from its maw.
Since mastering simple Draconic Language and being able to summon natural fire, its innate breath weapon had also been significantly strengthened.
Both its temperature and duration had increased considerably.
Soon, many gnolls perished under the licking flames.
Of course, among the gnolls, a few "warriors" quickly organized a counterattack.
No matter how deep the fear and worship of dragons ran in their blood, when faced with a life-or-death situation, the will to survive could still take precedence. This was the most fundamental instinctual desire of any living being.
Sitting on the dragon's back, Gauss glanced at the Gnoll Chieftain.
Its robust body surface was pierced and stitched with thread, adorned with many bizarre trophies: scale armor, metal fragments, and so on.
On its back, covered in yellowish-brown coarse hair, an evil totemic mark was painted in blood.
That fang-shaped mark suddenly blazed with a piercing scarlet color in Gauss's eyes.
Then, the already tall Gnoll Chieftain's body suddenly thickened by another measure.
It grabbed a long spear from the ground. As it gathered strength, a layer of ominous black-red energy coiled around the spear tip, which it then angrily hurled towards Hephaestus.
Unfortunately, this attack was dodged by Hephaestus, who had been alerted to it in advance by Gauss.
"Is that demonic power?"
Gauss recalled the origins of gnolls.
Legend had it that their origin could be traced back to when the Demon Lord Yeenoghu sought to conquer the Prime Material Plane. Following Yeenoghu were often packs of hunting beasts responsible for cleanup and slaughter. These creatures were quickly transformed by nature into the first gnolls.
After Yeenoghu was banished back to the Abyss, these leftover gnolls scattered across the world, engaging in frenzied slaughter.
It wasn't until the Five Chromatic Evil Dragons took a liking to these "slaughter weapons," using their immense power to force their submission and transform them into servants obeying their commands, that these evil beings gained a second, new master.
Clearly, this gnoll tribe had inherited a portion of power from demons.
His gaze swept over a flat stone altar in the center of the tribe.
Then, he had the drake Hephaestus gain a bit more altitude.
Although the remaining gnolls were insignificant, anything involving the power of a Demon Lord still required caution.
It was like in "Journey to the West";many demons and monsters themselves weren't terrifying, but what one needed to be wary of was the powerful backing behind them.
"Fireball!"
Gauss and the gnolls below locked eyes.
Not long after, the Fireball spell he had been preparing in his mouth was complete.
As Hephaestus slowly descended,
Gauss seized the opportunity and swiftly expelled the fireball.
This was the first time Gauss used breath-casting combined with Draconic Language to release a Fireball.
A small, blazing white fireball shot rapidly from his mouth.
During its flight, the fireball expanded at an extreme rate, growing from the size of a finger into a terrifying, massive sphere of flame.
Its exterior was orange-red, while its interior displayed a near-liquid, blinding incandescent white state.
"Roar!"
The Gnoll Chieftain below sensed the lethal threat. It roared wildly, the blood-red totemic mark on its body erupting with an even more piercing light, attempting to gather stronger demonic power to resist.
But, it was too late!
The crimson fireball descended like a falling meteor, unleashing a terrifying explosive force at the center of the gnoll camp!
A visible, searing shockwave spread outwards in a perfect sphere, expanding madly in all directions!
*Crack!*
The few black boulders at the camp's center, regarded as shelters, were instantly covered in spiderweb-like cracks upon contact with the shockwave.
They were then engulfed by the ensuing flames, burning red-hot.
As for the flesh-and-blood gnolls, they were even more defenseless.
Some survivors had avoided Hephaestus's breath attack but, before they could even regroup, were instantly melted and vaporized by the terrifying high temperature and impact force comparable to a battering ram.
avoiding the shockwave from the Fireball's explosion.
Once Hephaestus stabilized, Gauss looked down. The once lively gnoll camp had turned into a scorched sea of fire.
Not a single upright figure could be seen.
The count in the Monster Encyclopedia also skyrocketed.
"Total monsters killed: 9815."
Among them, that Gnoll Chieftain was also an Elite Gnoll.
However, under the 3rd-circle spell Fireball, combined with numerous bonuses, there wasn't much difference between it and a regular gnoll.
The trace of demonic power left by its master, the Demon Lord Yeenoghu, the Slaughter-Mad Beast, couldn't allow it to survive such a vast gap in power.
Even the altar itself had vanished without a trace under the explosive artistry of the Fireball.
After briefly confirming no other gnolls had survived, Gauss simply uttered a few words in Draconic to summon water to extinguish the remaining flames before riding the dragon away from the gnoll camp.
...
"Gauss, you're back!" Aria waved at Gauss as he slowly descended. "You came back just in time;we can eat."
"Because I timed my return." Gauss smiled.
"We might need to stay in this area for a while today."
"Did the Captain make a new discovery on this trip?" Serlandul asked.
"Mhm, I found several gnoll camps nearby. It feels unusual, so I plan to investigate."
Of course, that was only one reason.
More importantly, his monster kill count had reached 9,815. He was only about a hundred kills away from reaching the milestone achievement of ten thousand kills.
Since he had also gathered intel on many monsters living nearby, he naturally wouldn't pass up the chance to gather the remaining numbers in one go.
"Alright."
The others agreed.
Unlike ordinary adventurer teams, because of Gauss's presence, the act of killing monsters itself was already the greatest reward for their team.
Therefore, even if they encountered wild monsters on the road without a commission, everyone was willing to clear them out.
After obtaining the "Magic Pot," the happiness of mealtime for Gauss's team increased greatly.
Shadow had even hunted a not-so-common turkey.
The turkeys in this world were different from Gauss's previous life;they were actual monsters that could spit fire.
Cooking magical creatures with the Magic Pot fully activated the mana within their flesh, making the texture and flavor even more delicious.
"Ah~"
"Feels like after eating, I have even more strength."
"It's the effect of the Magic Pot, right? Didn't Gauss say the magical cuisine cooked by it has special effects?"
After everyone ate their fill and rested a bit more at the campsite, they began the afternoon's hunt.
Gauss had already scouted the area at noon and had a general understanding of the monster distribution inhabiting this seemingly endless wilderness.
The monsters living here were primarily gnolls, with occasional small numbers of other monsters spotted, but none forming significant groups.
Furthermore, the scale of these gnoll tribes was quite substantial. Each had at least several dozen members, and almost all tribe members were adults;young were rarely seen.
This was also what Gauss found abnormal.
The density of gnolls was too high, almost as if this was some kind of "spawn point" or "birthplace" for the gnoll race.
Combined with the altar structure in the gnoll tribe he had just eradicated,
he reasonably suspected it might involve demonic power.
However, he wouldn't dwell on that for now.
The most pressing matter before him was gathering the final hundred or so kills.
Gauss's gaze locked onto a clearing in the distance.
There, about fifty gnolls and over a dozen Dire Wolves were wandering and moving about.
And there were quite a few gnoll tribes of this scale within a range of ten to twenty kilometers nearby.
Clearing out three more would be enough to reach the number.
"Attention, let's herd them from the outside in. Don't get too close to the direction of that altar."
"Gnolls with special marks are for me to handle."
"If the enemies are sufficiently clustered, I'll release a Fireball for concentrated extermination."
Gauss instructed.