At the dinner table, Gauss asked Shirley in detail about what it took to establish an adventuring company.
Shirley clearly understood the ins and outs far better than most people—and had no reason to play coy.
In short, founding an adventuring company wasn't something anyone could do on a whim. You had to meet several requirements.
First, you had to go to a guild headquarters that had the authority to register companies and submit an application.
Then the staff would review the applicants.
Usually that meant a background check on the founding core team and a multi-angle assessment of capability.
The evaluation covered the core team's overall strength, adventurer rank, finances, records of completing high-difficulty commissions, and more. The better your track record across those categories, the higher your chances.
Of course, there wasn't a single hard "red line" that guaranteed approval or rejection. Sometimes there was simply an element of luck.
After they ate and drank their fill, Gauss thanked Shirley again, and they split up outside the restaurant.
"Should be fine, right?" Gauss muttered to himself.
He felt his résumé was strong enough.
The only real disadvantage was how short his adventuring career had been—his total commission count likely lagged behind veteran adventurers.
So over the next few days, Gauss took on several more commissions around Grayrock.
During that time, Serandur and Albena also returned to the team one after another.
Their promotions went smoothly.
Leveling up as a professional did involve risk, but most of the time those risks came from inadequate accumulation—people forcing a breakthrough because they were impatient. If it was truly "ripe," and no outside accident intervened, it was generally safe.
"Welcome back."
Gauss greeted Albena, who was the last to return.
"You look even bigger."
He looked her up and down.
She still didn't compare to Gauss's body-doubling state, but Albena's build was imposing no matter what.
"Do I…?" Albena sighed quietly, looking troubled by the idea that she'd gotten even larger.
If she could choose, she'd rather be slender and compact—like Alia and Shadow.
Part of it was practical: being tall was inconvenient in daily life.
For example, when the team reached an unfamiliar town to rest, they often had to check multiple inns before finding a room and bed that actually fit her.
The other part was… personal.
Being too tall made it hard to find a husband she actually liked.
Back home, it was easy to find men as tall as her—or taller—but those rough brutes weren't her type.
That was one reason she'd left her homeland in the first place.
Gauss had no idea what was going through Albena's head.
He gathered the team.
Since both Serandur and Albena were back, Gauss laid out his plan to establish an adventuring company.
He'd mentioned it before in meetings, but without a concrete timeline.
Now he felt their wings were sturdy enough—it was time to take the next step.
That didn't mean the core team would change. He just wanted to expand with "non-core" personnel to handle errands and logistics.
In fact, many powerful master-rank professionals eventually founded their own adventuring companies.
At first, the scale was usually small. To truly grow into a major power, you often had to wait until the leader reached the transcendent ranks, with enough wealth and influence to rally people.
Serandur and Albena had no objections.
After some discussion, the team decided their next destination would be Falrim, the provincial capital.
Besides planning for a company, Gauss needed to settle his family—and within Coldcui Province, was there any place safer than Falrim?
More importantly, Gauss felt that if he was active in Coldcui Province, not visiting the capital at least once felt… incomplete.
Like, if you've come this far, you might as well see the Great Wall.
Before departing, he still needed to prepare a few things.
…
"Goodbye, Sofia."
"Be careful out there."
After bidding farewell to Sofia, the innkeeper, Gauss left Grayrock.
He had asked her whether she wanted to move to Falrim with his family, but she refused.
She'd grown up in Grayrock, and her father was buried in the town cemetery. Even knowing Grayrock wasn't as safe as Falrim, this was still home to her.
Gauss didn't push. He only told her that if anything serious happened, she should go straight to the Adventurers' Guild for help.
He'd already spoken to Eberhard about it. Gauss didn't have many close acquaintances in town—so if he could help, he would.
Outside the walls, Gauss climbed onto Hephaestus's back.
His teammates rode with him; his family followed a separate caravan north along the safe roads.
The journey wasn't short, and for most people, riding a dragon that far was exhausting.
"Let's go!"
Just thinking about reaching the most prosperous city in all Coldemerald Province made Gauss feel a strange, excited flutter in his chest.
Hephaestus beat its wings, and the landscape shrank beneath them.
Turning north, it flew.
…
The snow outside the city had completely melted, revealing dark soil. Green sprouts were pushing up through cracks in the stones.
Tap.
A green foot stepped on the sprouts and ground the tender life into the mud.
"Waaah!"
Hunched goblins with deep green skin ran in panic, gripping crude spears.
Their companions screeched behind them—as if something terrifying was chasing them.
Boom.
The next instant, several flame arrows punched cleanly through their hearts.
A flash of unwillingness flickered in their cloudy eyes before they collapsed on the raw earth.
Above, a pair of crimson wings swept past, racing into the distance without ever landing.
Gauss glanced at the wiped-out goblin tribe below and didn't slow down.
He'd already used Locate Creature—there were no survivors nearby.
And their "loot" was just scrap: rusty metal, sticks, crude spears.
Gauss's team didn't even bother anymore.
Too little value, too much time.
"Goblins are even more common than I thought," Gauss muttered.
Since mastering Locate Creature, he'd realized the wilderness held far more goblins than he'd ever assumed.
Especially in the empty stretches—no villages, no inns. Dig almost anywhere and you might turn up a goblin skeleton.
Forests, caves, abandoned manors…
Under Gauss's "radar-like" spell sweep, goblins lit up like glaring, blinking red points.
"Probably has to do with the recent war, too," Gauss thought.
Early in the war, organized monster armies drove "wild, unorganized" monsters out of the forest and into human territory.
Afterward, routed remnants could scatter and wander deeper inland.
The idea that monsters only lived in the southern monster kingdoms—and couldn't survive in human lands, especially inland—was a serious misconception.
In reality, monsters were everywhere.
Human villages, towns, and cities only truly controlled the ring of land around them.
Between settlements lay huge "blank zones," beyond the reach of power and order—perfect breeding grounds for monsters.
They tended to be scattered and small-scale, usually unable to produce truly powerful individuals or form massive armies…
…but they were there.
Nearly a week passed as Gauss's group cleared monsters and continued toward Falrim.
Gauss compared his mental map to the parchment one in his hands, wondering how far they still had to go.
Then, on the horizon, a vast white outline appeared—like a colossal beast sprawled across the earth.
"What's that?" Alia asked, spotting it too.
"Falrim," Gauss said. "We're close."
"Prepare to descend."
In truth, they were still some distance away, but Gauss could already feel a powerful anti-flight pressure.
He'd felt a similar aura briefly above the monster army's command camp outside Grayrock—yet Falrim's was thousands upon thousands of times stronger.
Still, Gauss narrowed his eyes.
Near the city's edge, he could see a few tiny black specks in the sky—so the citywide anti-flight formation clearly had a whitelist. Approved targets could still fly above and around the city.
Gauss, being a first-time visitor, obviously wasn't approved.
So he ordered Hephaestus down, ignoring the dragon's displeasure, and switched to land mounts.
"Let's go."
Mounted on chocobos, Gauss took the lead toward Falrim.
That invisible "dome" of anti-flight power felt heavier the closer they got—like a weighty canopy of order and authority.
The road grew crowded.
Alongside the usual carts and travelers were many more heavy freight wagons.
On the river, ships were steadily making their way toward Falrim.
At last, up close, Gauss saw the walls.
They weren't ordinary walls—they were built from massive blocks cut unnaturally smooth and precise, with golden magic runes flowing gently through the seams.
The endless white ramparts radiated sacred, imposing majesty.
Anyone seeing the city for the first time would feel awe.
"This is Falrim…?" Even Gauss—who'd already visited Barry, Sena, and Longflute Fort—couldn't help but marvel.
This was the first city that truly felt like a metropolis of civilization.
And only now, closer in, did he realize what those tiny specks in the sky were:
Griffin knights, flying patrols in coordinated formations, riders in silver-white light armor.
People waiting in line to enter the city stared upward, murmuring in amazement.
"Please, this way."
Just as Gauss prepared to join the long queue, several guards approached and guided them through a side entrance into a small room.
Inside sat a few officials in neat gray uniforms.
"You're adventurers, yes? Please show your identity badges," one of them said.
Once you were strong enough, you got noticed before you reached Falrim.
"Of course."
Gauss produced his badge—he'd updated it recently in Grayrock.
Seeing the badges, the official who'd been casual a moment ago straightened subtly.
Level 6–7 professionals weren't common in Falrim either—at least not for a city official.
He himself had only been a Level 1 ranger before earning this post. High-level professionals still commanded real respect.
"Your name?"
"Gauss."
…
After a few routine questions, the official stood and personally led them through the side gate into the city.
"Enjoy your stay."
"Thank you, Officer."
Gauss noticed the official didn't seem to recognize him.
He couldn't help thinking: So my reputation hasn't reached here yet.
Compared to Falrim, the other cities felt almost rural.
When he'd mentioned coming from Grayrock, Gauss had caught a flicker of faint superiority on the official's face.
Central regions always carried that strange "psychological high ground" over the borderlands.
Gauss wasn't offended—just amused. It made the gap between regions feel more real.
In Grayrock, he was a hero—Grayrock's defender, the famed "Crimson Dragon Knight."
In Falrim, he was just another "out-of-town master-rank adventurer" passing inspection.
He looked out across the city.
His first impression: order.
Wide roads paved in gray-and-white stone, fitted tightly together.
Street trees weren't planted at random—they were evenly spaced silver-leaf plane trees, pruned with care.
Buildings shared a unified style: mostly four- to six-story stone or brick structures, walls painted in soft off-white and other pale tones.
The whole city felt designed, curated.
Transportation was more varied too.
Alongside carts and mounts, there were rail cars parked by the road—some kind of track-bound carriage with no draft beasts up front.
Gauss guessed it was powered by a major magical mechanism.
Not many people rode it, and those waiting at the platform were mostly well-dressed, comfortable folk.
"Let's go to the Adventurers' Guild first," Gauss said.
The official had given him a city map marked with major locations: city hall, guild branches, libraries, and more.
Out of curiosity, Gauss decided to buy a ticket at the nearby station and try the rail car.
It reminded him of the electric trams of his previous life—oddly nostalgic.
While buying tickets, he used his high Charisma to chat with the ticket clerk and ask about the system.
"Oh, that?" the girl said brightly.
"It's called a mana-driven rail car. It came from the royal capital—new invention."
"A magic core drives it along the tracks—no beasts needed. Fast and smooth."
"Right now it only runs on a few lines, mostly connecting major districts and important facilities."
Gauss thanked her and waited at the platform.
After a while, a long dark-metal carriage glided in along two steel rails.
Doors opened. Passengers boarded in order. A conductor checked tickets, and the car began to move.
Outside the window, scenery slid backward steadily. On its dedicated line, the rail car quickly left horse carts and freight wagons behind.
Gauss stayed calm—he'd ridden trains and subways in his old world.
But his teammates clearly hadn't.
They stared around in fascination—especially Alia, who pressed against the window with wide eyes. Her pale blue hair fluttered in the airflow, brushing Gauss's face.
Albena looked tense, sitting stiffly in a reinforced wide seat, gripping the handles like she didn't trust this "metal box that moves."
Gauss took it all in and nearly laughed—then quickly wiped the smile when Alia looked back.
He started examining the carriage itself.
He suspected whoever designed it was a true magical master.
He could sense mana flowing underfoot, but couldn't grasp the mechanism.
Stable, efficient power use like this was more intricate than any combat spell he knew.
And yet… it still felt like an experimental, limited service.
Each ticket had cost them 3 silver—expensive—and he doubted it even recouped operating costs.
About half an hour later, after multiple stops, they arrived.
Southern District Adventurers' Guild, Gate of Order.
The plaza outside was packed—loud, crowded, alive.
Compared to other districts, it was much more "unruly."
Vendors hawked goods.
"Sir, want a dragonfang dagger?"
"Real dragon tooth, polished to perfection—only 10 gold! Cuts iron like butter!"
"Want a demonstration?"
…
No matter how enthusiastically the man pitched it, Gauss didn't even slow down. He strode straight for the guild doors.
The vendor, bored of being ignored, quickly looked for another customer.
Gauss shook his head.
A shameless con artist—trying to scam him, of all people.
Did he really think Gauss wouldn't know whether something was dragonfang?
Gauss suspected that if he snapped off one of his own teeth, it'd be "truer" than that dagger.