The pressure was enormous!

Sweat beads kept falling from Gauss’s forehead.

The bandages wrapped around his limbs looked lightweight, but their weight was surprisingly heavy.

The reason was the black stone chunks embedded in them, engraved with simple runes;

by activating the runes, the weight could be adjusted at will.

After that, Rachel put him through a massive amount of strength training.

One full set nearly left Gauss dazed.

What am I even doing here?

Forget it — just train.

By the time the session ended, Gauss’s back was soaked in sweat.

He flopped down on the smooth floor, not caring about his appearance, and gasped for breath.

Sweat ran into his eyes, blurring his vision.

Suddenly a woman’s face formed on the ceiling within his blurred sight.

“Not bad.”

“Stronger than I expected.”

“I approve of you.”

Rachel finally gave him her confirmation.

“Even for a Warrior, your physical foundation is excellent.”

Of course, comparing him to her was unfair to begin with.

In this city, people who could surpass her in physical prowess were almost nonexistent.

“Heh.” Gauss panted heavily.

Fortunately, besides strength, his stamina and bodily recovery were excellent too.

After a short period of extreme exhaustion, his body, like a precision machine, quickly adjusted.

As his breathing gradually calmed, he slowly rose from the floor.

“Do you feel anything different?”

Not far off, Rachel sat cross-legged on the floor in her casual way, smiling as she asked.

Gauss sensed the change in his body: the extreme fatigue was being replaced by a strange, pleasant sensation, as if every muscle and bone was breathing, craving more.

He moved his arms a little.

“My body feels... lighter?” Gauss sounded uncertain. “Control feels smoother, and my strength seems a bit more solid.”

It was a subtle sensation—not a sudden spike in raw power numbers, but a deeper change in mastery and control.

“That’s right!” Rachel clicked her fingers approvingly.

“Pushing the body beyond its limits, letting muscles and tendons grow through damage and repair, gives you finer control over your body. Also...”

“When you force your mind to concentrate against fatigue, your mental power gets exercised as well.”

Gauss glanced inward when she mentioned that.

Sure enough, his mana felt livelier, as if it had synchronized with his bodily rhythm.

Rachel nodded.

“Spirit resides within the flesh—two sides of one coin. They affect and complete each other.”

Gauss nodded.

“However, this kind of muscle-tearing training should be done sparingly,” Adelle said from the side, watching the scene and offering a timely reminder.

She worried Gauss might get carried away.

“The dragon-moss extract Rachel gave you before training is a precious restorative potion,” Adelle explained. “It greatly accelerates muscle and tendon repair, ensuring this extreme training won’t cause hidden injuries that undermine your physical foundation.”

Gauss’s expression shifted to realization.

No wonder Rachel handed him a cup of green liquid before the session.

“Dragon-moss?” The name piqued his curiosity.

It sounded extraordinary.

“Yes. It’s a rare moss that only grows where dragons have fallen, brimming with potent life energy. That single cup could’ve bought you a fine piece of magical equipment.”

Upon hearing that, Gauss turned to look at Rachel on the floor.

She merely waved her hand as if it were nothing, showing a casual indifference.

But then...

“Doesn’t it feel like the extract’s effects aren’t that obvious?” Adelle seemed to guess the thought crossing Gauss’s mind and added,

“Its effects are long-lasting and very gentle. That’s what makes the extract valuable. Over the next while, your physical training will benefit greatly.”

“Especially since you’re consolidating a secondary profession recently;

it will help accelerate that process.”

“I understand.” Gauss looked at Rachel and sincerely thanked her. “Thank you, President Rachel.”

He hadn’t expected her to be so generous.

They weren’t related—this was their first meeting.

He couldn’t help but wonder: why was she being so kind? There had to be a reason.

“Ha! No need to thank me.” Rachel laughed. “Someone already paid for it on your behalf.”

“Who?” Gauss asked instinctively.

Rachel hesitated.

“I can’t say. You’ll find out when the time comes.”

“Either way, thank you for the guidance, President Rachel,” Gauss bowed.

“No big deal. If you run into trouble later, you can come to me for help.” Rachel responded briskly. “By the way, Sena City’s been a bit chaotic lately—don’t get mixed up in that.”

...

“So? How is it? How is it?”

Aria opened her eyes wide and stared at Gauss, curiosity written all over her face.

The four of them were gathered in Gauss’s room, and the yellowed leather map that might be a treasure map lay on the oak table.

Yesterday, Gauss had bought a Tongue of Languages spellbook at the Adventurers Guild’s spell shop.

A 1st circle spell was now easy for him.

It took almost no time for him to master the spell.

“What does it say?”

Although Captain Fourn had warned them not to get their hopes up—the circulating treasure maps were mostly fakes—any small chance the map might be real piqued their interest.

After all, it was human nature.

Otherwise, how would those sellers keep scamming people?

“Let me see.”

Gauss cast Tongue of Languages.

He gently placed his palm near the cinnabar-inlaid blurred writings on the leather map and focused.

A faint magical glow flowed from his fingertips and seeped into those written characters.

The spelllight flickered over those symbols.

After about ten seconds, he removed his hand, frowning slightly.

“I decoded some of it, but not all.” Gauss shook his head.

Some of the graphics seemed to be a cryptic script, not ordinary written language, so the spell couldn’t fully translate them.

“When three stars fall into the Fire Dragon’s Eye, the mirror’s flame will kindle the path of truth. In the moon’s shadow whispers, crossing the wall of the dead’s lament, offer... arrive at the Golden Kingdom.”

Gauss shook his head.

It made no sense—the text didn’t point to any concrete location.

That meant the partial abstract map on the leather couldn’t be matched to any place.

“I don’t get it.” Aria shook her head.

Shadow and Serlandul were equally clueless.

To be honest, apart from Gauss, the rest of them had very limited formal academic education.

They were basically illiterate in this other world.

“It feels like nonsense.” Gauss lifted the leather map and examined it again.

At the most critical parts someone had used a cryptic script, making it unreadable.

Cryptic scripts were tricky—maybe a sophisticated cipher, or maybe the creator just scribbled random shapes, rendering Tongue of Languages useless.

“...” Aria slumped on the table and sighed. “I was hoping it would lead to some big treasure.”

She wasn’t short on small coins now, but she lacked a big fortune. If a treasure could net her tens of thousands of gold or high-tier magic equipment, that would be ideal.

A true treasure from a map like that wouldn’t be trivial.

The four of them studied the map some more.

They tried everything—blood drops, heating, water drops—various worthless rituals, but nothing unusual showed up.

“Forget it. Put it away for now.”

Gauss shook his head.

“We’ll work on it later.”

They still didn’t know whether the map was real or fake.

He’d tested it with Identify Spell and got a mediocre result.

“A leather map of questionable craftsmanship that appears to be a supposed ‘treasure map.’ The material shows no special magical attachment, although special information seems encoded in a cryptic script.”

After storing the map, everyone dispersed to their own business.

When a commission settles, each member needs to train and cultivate, process the gains from adventuring, and improve their abilities.

Gauss was no different.

Although the adventuring commission had paused, he grew even busier.

After drinking that cup of dragon-moss extract yesterday, his body was especially suited for physical training. He wanted to strike while the iron was hot—diligently practice the White Falcon Sword Technique to accelerate the consolidation of his sword secondary profession.

He also planned to continue building models for Fly and Fireball spells.

He was busy.

He had told Aria and the others he might not be taking commissions for a while.

They didn’t object;

they had their own skills and abilities to polish.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

On the third floor of the Adventurers Guild, in a spacious training room.

“Boom!!”

Light coiled around the rapier, vibrating minutely at high speed. The result of Gauss’s many days of grueling practice: a sudden thrust toward a burly woman.

The strike was terrifying.

Air around them twisted, pushed aside by the sword.

The White Falcon Sword Technique itself was razor-sharp and penetrating. With Windrunner’s Combo and Wind Pressure effects layered on top, and with Sturdy Scale Bloodline activated at that moment—though his right hand hadn’t transformed into a claw, the scaled energy wrapping it greatly enhanced his arm strength—the combined power was tremendous. Even tempered steel armor would have a hard time resisting it.

However.

“Thud—”

A dull sound rang out.

Gauss poured everything into the thrust, but it didn’t achieve the expected result.

The sensation transmitted through the sword felt as if it had struck the unbelievably tough hide of a dragon:

extreme flexibility and impenetrable toughness!

All the built-up force—the vibration, the wind pressure, the sword qi—were forcibly smoothed and dissipated by an unfathomable, immovable power.

A huge counterforce traveled down the hilt, numbing the web of Gauss’s right hand.

His body involuntarily flew backward.

He staggered two steps before barely regaining his balance.

Yet Rachel, who had actually taken the blow, still stood calmly.

If one looked closely, they could see that not even her stance had shifted half a step.

She had casually raised a solid arm and used the outer side of her forearm—its muscle lines flowing seamlessly—to bluntly receive the strike.

Apart from a small tear in the training sleeve showing a flash of white skin, there were no marks on her body—not even a red welt or a pale streak.

“Your force was a bit scattered. Not enough cohesion.” Rachel lowered her arm.

The rip in her training sleeve zipped itself up as if it had a life of its own, instantly restoring to normal.

She didn’t fuss over the minor detail but continued to evaluate and instruct Gauss.

“The essence of the technique is to focus the power and will of your whole body at the sword tip, strike forward without hesitation, and erupt instantly. Your momentum looked good just now, but you applied force wrong at the first moment.”

As she spoke, she stepped forward.

That huge figure’s movement was astonishingly swift, stealing everyone’s breath.

“Feel the difference?”

“Your shoulders are too tense.”

“That will make subsequent power release choppy—you’re just forcing with brute strength, unable to integrate all your power perfectly.”

“Here! Here! Here! And here! All wrong.”

She pointed into the air at Gauss’s waist, abdomen, shoulder blades, elbow, and wrist.

Each point had no physical contact, yet the corresponding parts of Gauss’s body tingled slightly, clearly sensing the exact spots she indicated.

“Did Adelle teach you this sword technique?”

“Yes.”

“Then she taught it poorly.” Rachel shook her head.

“Watch closely. I’ll demonstrate once.”

“Okay.” Gauss nodded, holding his breath and eyeing Rachel intently.

She casually grabbed a training rapier from a nearby rack.

Gauss could clearly feel her aura instantly contract—the surging life energy and power fluctuations were forcibly suppressed, bringing her physical level virtually equal to Gauss’s.

It sounded unbelievable, but she did it with absolute precision—an extraordinary control over her body.

There was no dramatic fanfare, no dazzling light.

She simply rushed forward two steps, flicked her wrist.

The training sword tore through the air with an extremely brief, piercing ripping sound.

The localized air seemed to shatter like a sonic boom.

The air directly ahead of the tip was compressed to an extreme, then detonated.

All force, will, kinetic and potential energies were perfectly constrained to a single point.

“Hiss—”

The difference was instantly clear!

Gauss saw the gap between them.

“Understand?” Rachel sheathed the sword and asked Gauss.

He didn’t answer immediately, closing his eyes.

He replayed every detail of Rachel’s thrust in his mind.

It was a state—rather than emphasizing raw power, he needed to twist every ounce of strength into one rope, then improve the explosive force of each part.

He compared his own motions to Rachel’s over and over in his mind.

As he thought, clarity rose like an enlightenment.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes.

“I... think I understand a little.”

Gauss tried to thrust a sword.

The blade stabbed into the air.

This strike was not anywhere near Rachel’s level in damage or momentum—not even as powerful as his earlier thrusts.

But Rachel’s face showed approval.

“Yes, that’s it. You really are a perceptive genius—you get it at once.”

Gauss’s motions didn’t stop because of Rachel’s praise;

he continued practicing, seeking the feeling.

Rachel’s strength was immense. Even though she hadn’t mastered the White Falcon Sword Technique herself, she could observe Gauss’s technique and body condition and provide meticulous coaching.

One!

Two!

Three!

Gauss’s training rapier jabbed through the air again and again.

Time slipped by, indistinct.

Finally, he thrust a sword.

“Whoosh!!!”

A sonic boom roared as the sword tip condensed white light.

“It worked!”

And it wasn’t just any sonic boom.

A streak of white light flew out along the sword tip.

“White Falcon Sword Technique lv4 (1/100)”

His skill proficiency surged dramatically, jumping up to level four.

At the same time,

an unprecedented sensation surged through Gauss’s body!

That elusive, hidden thing was finally awakened completely by this perfect falcon strike.

A powerful qi erupted from deep within him!

This aura was neither mana nor mere physical force.

It was a sharp energy, like a will that could cut through anything.

It poured along the meridians of his arm like rivers converging toward the sea, racing crazily toward his sword-bearing right hand and into Windrunner’s blade!