Still some distance from lv6.
Need to practice, practice more.
As everyone was having lunch, a crow landed by Gauss’s feet from the sky.
After Aaliyah communicated with it, she looked at Gauss.
"What’s up?"
"Bruno and Toga are at the Red Dragon Team’s base to find us."
"Oh?"
Gauss nodded.
"Let’s head back after we finish eating."
...
Gauss and the others didn’t delay too long.
Returning to the Red Dragon Team base, several short figures were already seated by the table in the reception hall waiting for them.
"Gauss, long time no see."
Bruno raised his hand in greeting.
Toga was inspecting the room’s decor and the view outside the windows at the base.
"Long time no see." Gauss nodded and found a seat with Aaliyah and others.
"I thought you guys had already left Farlim?"
"What have you been busy with lately?"
Bruno looked at Toga beside him and laughed twice awkwardly.
"Not much."
More accurately, they’ve been indulging themselves these days.
Wandering from tavern to tavern in the city day and night.
Toga eventually couldn’t stand it anymore and interrupted their indulgent lifestyle.
"Gauss, does your Red Dragon Team need more manpower?"
Toga glanced at Bruno, who remained silent, knowing he couldn’t let go of his pride, so she spoke up.
"Yes."
"Are you guys coming to help me?"
Gauss smiled and nodded.
The dwarves in front of him, although a bit weak in strength compared to him, were already considered experts compared to most adventurers.
Especially Toga at level 6, Bruno at level 5, one level 4, two level 3, and each was a skilled ironworker, able to join most adventure groups quickly.
Their willingness to join his Red Dragon Team was partly to settle near Farlim and partly due to Gauss’s previous rescue of Toga.
Gauss agreed quickly, knowing these dwarves had no major character issues.
Normally, adventure groups don’t just have one main team but usually several sub-teams, even numbering up to a dozen.
These sub-teams might act independently until a significant target arises, where they will gather to hunt together.
It’s just a matter of adding another sub-team.
"Then please look after us in the future, Captain."
Toga stood up and shook hands with Gauss.
The other dwarves followed suit and approached to shake hands.
Just like that, with just a few words, the Red Dragon Team’s battle squad doubled in size from 5 members to 10.
Dwarves tend to be quite impatient.
After officially joining the Red Dragon Team, Gauss introduced Steward Ivan to them, and they eagerly headed towards the direction of the blacksmith area.
In reality, aside from Toga and Bruno, the other three dwarves, Teben, Sean, and Rick, leaned more towards the blacksmith role than warriors.
Upon initially joining the Red Dragon Team, they also wanted to showcase their skills in front of Gauss, the captain.
Their travels meant they hadn’t forged or crafted for a while, and seeing the tools now made them itchy to start.
For dwarves, blacksmithing is inherently a hobby and interest.
"Gauss, don’t bother them."
"Let them be."
"They simply want to swing some hammers."
Toga saw Gauss looking a bit awkward and explained.
"Alright, I’ll pay them normal wages."
Gauss didn’t expect the dwarves to be so enthusiastic, formally starting work on the first day of joining.
Strictly speaking, they hadn’t officially joined the Red Dragon Team yet, as they hadn’t registered their organizational affiliation with the Adventurer’s Guild.
But he wouldn’t let the dwarves work for nothing.
"Big guy, fancy a practice?"
"You?"
Albena lowered her head, looked at the small figure, ready for a fight, and suddenly felt a bit itchy herself. But first, she turned to Gauss for approval.
"If you want, go ahead."
Gauss shrugged, watching the rather aggressive warrior duo, distinguishable by the height difference.
From a combat perspective, Toga was at a disadvantage.
On one hand, in size, and on the other, Albena was one profession level higher.
Not everyone could disregard levels like he did.
Typically, a level difference of one is substantial, even without crossing stages like from level 5-6, 10-11, especially in the same profession.
Except that, in this Red Dragon Team, the only viable opponent for Albena other than himself was probably Toga.
Though Ying reached level 6, Aaliyah’s strength advanced after a successful career change, they weren’t front-line fighters with a bold warrior style, so Albena seldom chose them for sparring.
Gauss was often busy.
Either taking care of small tasks around or training his magic alone.
Finally finding a teammate she could "bond" with, Albena felt a bit happy.
Despite the counterpart being small, she didn’t mind.
Filled with fighting spirit, the two headed to the training ground.
The tiles and facilities there were built expensively, capable of withstanding Master Level professionals’ attacks.
"Then I’ll join the fun." Aaliyah showed interest too, even inviting Gauss, "Are you coming?"
"I’m not going."
Gauss shook his head.
He still needed to practice portals; he wanted to see how much casting time he could compress with lv4 proficiency.
"Ying, are you going?"
Ying was about to shake her head when Aaliyah put her hand on Ying’s wrist, forcing a smile and following her.
Serdur had long gone to exchange drug-making insights with Ivan.
Lately, his relationship with the Dragon Descendant Warlock improved significantly.
Gauss speculated it could be due to the similarity in profession between priests with healing abilities and pharmacologists, and both not being pure-blood humans—a Half-Snake Man and someone with faint dragon lineage.
For the Red Dragon Adventurer Group already on the right track, Gauss welcomed this development.
Not every member could revolve around him 24/7.
Otherwise, not only couldn’t members handle it, but he also couldn’t bear it, needing private space.
Under Gauss, a blue light shone, and the next moment, he appeared hundreds of meters away.
Upon mastering portals at lv4, next he’d accept an assignment with Commander Level monsters, accumulating enough commander points to advance [Sturdy Scale Bloodline] from blue quality to purple.
Once this was all done, he should smoothly break through to level 7.
He was quite satisfied with his growth pace.
If he maintained a level increase every few months, he hoped to reach level 10 before the year’s end.
By then, his combat power would probably belong to respectable ranks in the Extraordinary stage.
Of course, this was his current plan; whether it remained smooth later was uncertain.
A level bottleneck existed for him as well.
Though for others, it might seem insurmountable, to him it was like stepping over a threshold.
No matter the difficulty, it ultimately required time.
The higher the level, the harder the advancement, even if for now he felt little change in difficulty, he couldn’t guarantee it would always be this way.
"Go for it."
He snapped out of his thoughts.
Down the alley, he noticed a man’s shopping bag had fallen to the ground.
Yet the man diligently bowed toward him.
"?"
This person... what’s the meaning?
Gauss scratched his head.
Looking around confirmingly, realizing the man was indeed bowing to him, his confusion increased.
"Portal."
With a flash of blue light, he vanished from the alley once again.
Despite notifying the Adventurer’s Guild about practicing Spatial Magic, he still had to minimize its impact, ensuring residents’ normal lives weren’t disturbed.