"Are you alright?"
Gauss looked at Serdur, who had finished examining the wounded, and asked casually.
The three people in front of him were the unlucky ones who had been injured during the goblin lair cleanup; they weren’t hurt in battle but by a landslide in the valley.
"The recovery is going well; the bone fractures have already started to heal."
Normally, it takes a hundred days for bones and tendons to heal, and it’s impossible for fractures to recover so quickly, but the team had both a doctor and a pharmacist.
"Leader, I feel like I can pick up a weapon and fight right now."
"I feel great physically."
Perhaps worried Gauss would think they were useless, the three injured quickly assured him they were already healed.
They certainly didn’t want Gauss to see them as fragile and weak.
Compared to other adventure groups, the Red Dragon Team offered exceptional treatment and welfare.
Gauss’s attitude towards ordinary members was evident to all.
In other adventure groups, insignificant members like them would never receive personal care from the leader.
Elsewhere, it was a matter of capability: if you can do it, do it; if not, leave.
The world has no shortage of ordinary adventurers.
So after staying with the Red Dragon Team for a while, they wanted to stay long-term.
"Don’t move around too much and focus on healing."
"Report any discomfort immediately."
Gauss could easily see they were trying to show off.
Serdur’s medical skills were good, but not to a miraculous extent.
To avoid putting pressure on them, Gauss took a few glances and then left the temporary "infirmary."
Having just dealt with a goblin lair, the Red Dragon Team was in no hurry to start the next raid.
Other members needed time to rest and adjust; also, the end of such raids was the perfect chance for adventurers to identify and rectify their shortcomings.
Issues and weaknesses exposed in battle needed reflection and summation, and their skills would improve faster through practice.
For Gauss, he also needed a break to familiarize himself with yesterday’s gains.
His rewards yesterday included more than just a fragment of the Power of World Rules. The 30,000 kills brought many improvements.
First was a Fourth Ring illusion spell—[True Mirage].
This was the first truly significant illusion technique Gauss had mastered.
To be honest, for Gauss, who had an Intelligence Attribute of 19 and incredibly strong Spiritual Power, illusion was a very suitable attack method.
Its greatest advantage was being a means of attack at the mental level.
This meant it could bypass an enemy’s physical defenses and strike directly at their spirit.
Compared to direct spiritual oppression, illusion techniques were more harmonious and subtle, to the point where enemies might find it hard to notice they were within one.
Gauss needed more diverse offensive skills, and this Fourth Ring[True Mirage]came at just the right time.
Since it was a direct reward from the Monster Atlas, [True Mirage] was now at the entry-level.
Its incredibly complex spell model lay quietly in Gauss’s consciousness.
Gauss quickly immersed himself in it.
Instantly, a variety of mysterious information flooded his brain.
Fortunately, his Spirit Attribute was strong enough so that with a bit of time, he absorbed it all without much hindrance.
"I see, so this is the effect of True Mirage?"
He nodded thoughtfully.
The effects of the True Mirage were incredibly terrifying, and Gauss had encountered it once before.
Back then, the enemy summoned a Green Dragon, visually flawless, but thanks to Gauss’s powerful spiritual strength, he quickly escaped the illusion.
Now, he was the one casting the spell.
He felt the casting steps of the True Mirage.
First, he had to rely on his own Spiritual Power to construct several destructive scenes.
It could be an unbeatable creature or a natural disaster; it had to be something that a normal being would quickly perceive as threatening.
The more complex and realistic the constructed mental scene, the harder it was for the target to escape.
Once the enemy is trapped within, it becomes harder to break free. Eventually, the damage in the Spiritual World will transfer to the enemy’s physical body in reality.
Therefore, True Mirage is an illusion technique but more than just that.
However, to unleash its full power is not simple, because the more destructive and detailed the preset mental scene is, the harder it is to construct.
It requires a high demand for the caster’s Spiritual Power.
The process also consumes a lot of Spiritual Power, and failure results in backfire on the caster.
Gauss was naturally confident about meeting the Spiritual Power requirements.
"Shall I give it a try?"
Gauss reviewed the model several times, then slowly began to attempt it.
"It must be realistic enough, meaning I need to understand the content I construct thoroughly."
Gauss chose to create illusionary monsters.
Among monsters, the ones he was most familiar with were the Red Dragon Dragon Beast Hephaestus, goblins, and kobolds.
The former represented singular powerful destruction, while the latter represented "swarm tactics" intimidation.
It’s important to note that while Gauss could massacre goblins and kobolds effortlessly, as if those creatures, regardless of their numbers, were trivial, for most individual beings, whether human or monster, swarm tactics were never obsolete.