"Beast tide, Horror Claw Wolves, swarms, and strange wild men appearing."
Speaking of which, Gauss and his team didn’t know much about the Jade Forest.
They had never been to such a special place where natural magic gathered.
"Trouble is definitely unavoidable, otherwise the adventurers from several small towns wouldn’t be mobilized, and there wouldn’t be cavalry corps members like Captain Bard coming down as backup," Gauss sipped the slightly sweet and sour fruit wine, not surprised at all.
If everything is truly calm, that itself is something to be wary of.
That would mean a greater danger is lurking behind.
Crises in plain sight are always easier to deal with than those unseen problems.
Serdur nodded slightly, his gaze still sweeping across the room.
Suddenly, he noticed a group of people at another table wearing uniform insignia leather armor, his pupils contracting sharply.
"What’s wrong, Serdur?" Gauss, having been keeping an eye on his companion’s condition, noticed Serdur’s sudden change of expression and naturally grew curious.
This Half-Snake Man companion wasn’t the type to get startled easily; he was usually hard to read.
"Those people are wearing the ’Cyan Scale Adventurer Group’ emblem," Serdur used the communication technique to inform Gauss and Aaliyah separately.
He knew just mentioning an adventurer group name was like talking in riddles, so he continued.
"The Cyan Scale Adventurer Group is a large adventurer group active on the West Coast, with a long history, strong abilities, and numerous branches."
He paused slightly, as if weighing his words, and finally chose the most straightforward way to say it.
"In the early days, they relied on large-scale hunting, capturing, and selling the organs of my Half-Snake Man kind in the Scale Armor Islands and surrounding areas. Although in the past two to three hundred years, they have, under pressure, ostensibly ceased this business, they have always been in an open and covert struggle with my kind."
Serdur’s vertical pupils bore a complex expression, staring at their conspicuous emblem marked with green scales and a severed tail.
"In the wild or outside the city, running into each other could often lead to conflict... If they cause me trouble when we’re out later, Captain, you don’t need to intervene; I’ll handle it myself."
Gauss and Aaliyah immediately understood Serdur’s strong reaction.
It turned out to be a blood feud.
However, Gauss didn’t catch much hatred on Serdur’s face; instead, he saw more of a particular complexity and entanglement.
"We’re teammates; if they trouble you, I won’t stand by." Gauss shook his head.
"Me too." Aaliyah nodded hurriedly, expressing her agreement.
Serdur remained silent for a moment.
"But, actually, most of the time, peace is maintained." Serdur added.
Earlier, his shock was not only due to recognizing their identity but also out of confusion as to why they were here.
At that moment, among the "Cyan Scale Adventurer Group" at the table, a tall, thin man with an eye patch over his left eye glanced casually in their direction, then quickly scanned Gauss and Aaliyah, pausing only briefly on Serdur, his eyebrows seemingly wrinkling very slightly before turning back indifferently to continue drinking with his companions.
"He spotted me." Serdur took a sip of wine.
There was nothing he could do; he hadn’t deliberately disguised his features, so being recognized at a glance was normal, especially since they were members of the Cyan Scale Adventurer Group.
"Seemingly not looking for trouble for now. They must have some official business in Forest Crown Town, huh?" Gauss speculated.
They didn’t cause trouble, nor did they fear trouble.
Since the other side was keeping a nonchalant attitude, they no longer paid attention to them.
Both parties in the tavern continued quietly gathering intelligence, maintaining a kind of tacit understanding, deliberately avoiding each other’s gaze.
Chewing on a steak, Gauss suddenly froze mid-motion, a hint of interest appearing on his face.
"...Energy disruption..."
"...The great has been disturbed.... "
"...Don’t let these humans find it..."
"Expel the outsiders! Drive out all humans!"
Hmm?
What kind of commotion is this?
At first, he thought it was just an adventurer speaking from some corner.
But the voice was intermittent, with an eerie tone, like a toddler just learning to speak, awkwardly imitating adults, making him realize something was off.
He looked towards the direction of the sound.
Found no one there.
But the voice soon vanished.
Gauss looked at the empty space, lost in thought.
"A nascent hive mind?"
Could it be that those words were spoken by insects?
Previously, the small insects he heard could only produce the simplest instinctual murmurs, so he usually ignored such useless information. Yet, the fragmented voice he just heard conveyed such a clear meaning.
Could ordinary insects really produce that?
If not those little creatures, then what else could it be?
At least, there was nothing unusual visible to the naked eye.
Moreover, as soon as he sensed those voices, they disappeared completely, as if what he heard was just a hallucination.
Energy disruption, disturbing the great, don’t let the humans find it? Expel the outsiders?
Find what?
If it wasn’t a hallucination, this information might hold some value.