Chapter 1001 - 483: [Death Outline]

Since he didn’t have much of his quota left, it wasn’t enough to exchange for particularly powerful wondrous items. Between spells and wondrous items, he placed more emphasis on the former. His choice was easy to understand; spells strengthened himself, while wondrous items were merely external aids.

Gauss browsed through the list of wondrous items. Ultimately, he selected an item named the [Magic Storage Ring].

He didn’t choose this wondrous item for himself, but for his teammates to use in emergencies. The [Magic Storage Ring] could store a single spell of the 5th tier or lower. Anyone who wore the ring and synchronized with it could cast the stored spell, and its power would be determined by the various attributes of the original Caster.

This meant Gauss could store his own spell inside and let his teammates use it. If an unexpected situation arose when he wasn’t around, this ring would serve as a final insurance policy. Furthermore, even if his teammates didn’t need it, the item’s intrinsic value remained incredibly high. It could easily be traded with other nobles or organizations for desired rare items. Countless families needed such an item to protect their adventuring scions. Therefore, its market value would only be higher than what was on paper.

"Thank you for your outstanding work, Mr. Michelle."

"I should be the one thanking you for your patient cooperation, Mr. Gauss," Michelle said, standing up to shake Gauss’s hand. "The resources confirmed for this exchange will be delivered in the near future. At that time, the body of this male Green Dragon will be collected simultaneously. Please keep it in its current condition."

"Understood."

"I wish you smooth sailing in your future adventuring career, Mr. Gauss."

"Likewise, Mr. Michelle."

Their business concluded with this handshake.

Although it was almost mealtime, neither Gauss nor Michelle offered to dine together. This was dictated by Michelle’s sensitive position. He couldn’t develop too much of a personal relationship with his clients; otherwise, he might get into big trouble and face further internal investigations. Although Gauss held a special status within the Guild and such a situation was highly unlikely to occur, Michelle was still accustomed to acting this way. A lifetime of cautious behavior was not only the reason he had survived in this industry for so long, but also what continually elevated his resume.

After Gauss walked out of the room, he bumped into President Monroe.

"Finished?"

"Yes."

"Then let me be the first to congratulate you, my friend." From Gauss’s beaming expression, Monroe could tell he was quite satisfied with this exchange.

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy in his heart. He was so envious! Although he was the distinguished head of the Adventurer’s Guild in the Barry region—an unreachable bigwig in the eyes of ordinary people—he still felt some envy when faced with Gauss’s wealth. Having several true dragons in hand was more than enough to clear all resource-related obstacles on Gauss’s path to the epic realm.

Gauss walked out of the Adventurer’s Guild’s temporary encampment and grabbed a meal at a tavern within the camp.

After eating, he went to an open clearing in the wilderness and looked at the new Talent he had acquired yesterday, [Corpse Perception]. He had been distracted by the flare yesterday and had temporarily set it aside. Now that he had a brief moment of leisure, he had ample time to consider it.

Despite its currently mediocre functions and its mere white-grade quality, the fact that it was upgradeable was the main reason Gauss wouldn’t extinguish his expectations for it. He was willing to give it a chance to fully display its potential. Since he had killed far too many elite monsters, his current Elite Points were already overflowing, meaning he could use them to upgrade Talents at any time.

"Current status: [Corpse Perception] can be upgraded in quality. Do you wish to spend Elite Points to perform the upgrade?"

Yes.

Gauss thought silently, not batting an eye. After a brief wait, the Talent completed its quality upgrade.

"White-grade Talent [Corpse Perception] has successfully upgraded to Blue-grade Talent [Death Outline]."

The upgrade process was completed faster than Gauss had expected. He sensed this brand-new, upgraded power within his body, wanting to figure out how it differed from before.

The previous [Corpse Perception] only allowed Gauss to sense the locations of corpses more easily after activating the Talent Ability, even achieving a kind of beyond-visual-range Perception that didn’t rely on the five senses. While magical, it didn’t hold much value for Gauss. What he needed was the living; only living, breathing monsters could provide him with the Monster Atlas kills he required.

After the upgrade, however, the Talent expanded further. Aside from retaining the original corpse Perception ability, it had also broadened its conceptual scope. It was no longer limited to corpses but had derived the concept of death aura.

"[Death Outline]: Through a corpse, you can manifest an image of death aura in the surroundings that only you can see. It will reveal frozen fragments of the scene just before the corpse’s death."

"Due to the Talent’s existence, your special Perception of death aura has slightly increased."

Even though the upgraded Talent didn’t offer much practical help in combat, Gauss was somewhat intrigued by it. To be honest, with his current strength, most combat Talents only served as icing on the cake. No matter how strong they were, they couldn’t surpass [Dragon King’s Scion] and [Supreme Mana Body].