"Caw caw!!!"

A shrill bird cry with astonishing piercing power came from the sky.

Gauss looked up at the tiny black dot in the sky.

It was the crow Aik and its little crow underlings sending them a warning, indicating that monsters had appeared nearby.

"Teacher Gauss?"

Noticing that Gauss’s explanation had stopped, Abby, who had been listening with rapt attention, looked at him curiously.

"It’s nothing."

Out of the corner of his eye, Gauss saw a few Slimes bounce out from the wild grass, swaggering into the middle of the road.

But before they could make any further move—

Several black spikes pierced through their murky liquid bodies.

"Splat!!"

As their cores shattered, a kill notification flashed before Gauss’s eyes.

"Slime killed *4"

"Let’s continue."

Gauss withdrew his gaze and went on explaining the Trick Frozen Ray to Abby, combining it with the principles of Magic.

Abby was currently learning her second Trick after Mage’s Hand: Frozen Ray.

There was something rather ironic about it. Although Abby, because of Gauss, yearned for the Fireball Technique and, by extension, fell in love with the similarly fire-type Trick Flaming Arrow, compared to Flaming Arrow, Abby was actually more adept at the cold-type Spell Frozen Ray.

The Skill Book Gauss had specifically picked up in Yuge Town was thus put to use.

According to his analysis, on the one hand, everyone’s body has a different innate affinity for different elements; on the other hand, it might also be related to the bodily modifications done by the witch Megan.

Perhaps, compared to blazing Flame Magic, Abby was better suited for ice-cold Magic.

This discovery left Abby a bit dejected, but Gauss comforted her.

Non-fire Magic also has plenty of powerful Spells.

Besides, she was only more suited to cold Spells; it didn’t mean she was completely unable to learn Flame Magic.

Once her understanding of Magic deepened and her grasp of Spells became more refined, she would still be able to approach many other types of Magic again.

...

The party continued their advance across the wilderness.

"Caw!!!"

"More enemies again?"

"No, we’ve reached Old Crow Pass."

Stretching across the flat wasteland before them was a mountain range like a natural city wall, and in the area before Gauss’s eyes, the earth seemed to have been cleaved open by a colossal axe, leaving a narrow passage cutting through the highland.

This was Old Crow Pass.

In the past, this had once been an important route of travel, but after the kingdom opened another safe road leading to Flute Castle, this dangerous natural path had been abandoned for many years.

"There’s even a wall?"

Albena stared in surprise at the entrance of the gorge, where an ancient wall stood, and beside it, a towering giant statue.

Perhaps too many years had passed; the statue was already dilapidated and pitted with holes. Its outstretched right arm had broken off at the elbow, but judging from the bent left arm, this slender, graceful statue should have been making a bow-drawing, arrow-loosing pose.

After the party scouted around and confirmed there were no monsters lying in ambush, they came to the foot of the statue.

"It’s so tall!"

Aaliyah sighed.

The statue had to be at least forty meters high; it was hard to imagine how magnificent and awe-inspiring it must have been when intact.

"It looks like an Elf."

"Maybe it’s a statue passed down from the Elf Era."

Gauss ventured a guess.

In this land, you could often find relics from Elf Era civilization out in the wilderness.

They were remnants from when the Elves were still the overlords of this land.

Although every race insists that their own kind were the ones who kindled the flame of civilization, based on the evidence we can actually verify, the first to shape the form of the current civilization should have been the Elves; the common tongue and Profession system were perfected during that time.

Humans later only developed further while standing on the foundation of Elven civilization.

Even many humans think so in their hearts, even if they won’t admit it aloud.

Thus some people call that period the Second Age, the Elf Age.

As for the earlier First Age, that was the Age of the Gods. For that period, it can only be imagined through all kinds of stories and myths passed down by word of mouth; very little direct historical material has survived.

The First Age was also an era when the incarnate gods, Demon Lords, Giant Dragons, Devils, and many other powerful races waged war upon one another, using the material world of the prime plane as their chessboard.

When mighty beings fell, they crashed into the earth and seas, becoming nourishment for the world.

The gods walked the land in the bodies of saints, warring endlessly for faith and authority; their wrath tore mountains asunder, and their grace created oases in an instant.

The reek of the blood war between demons and devils and the corruption of their evil minions tainted the land; souls became the currency they fought over.

Giant Dragons, Titans, Broodmothers, Elemental Colossi, and many other ancient, mighty lifeforms clashed across the earth.

The human race may not even have stepped onto the stage yet—or perhaps it had already been born, but was only the most inconsequential of bit players.

That mythic age, where epic glory and catastrophe coexisted, did not end until a cataclysm that swept across the entire prime plane.

The gods were forced to leave the earth and return to their respective heavenly Divine Countries; the powerful Demon Lords and Devils were driven out and sealed away; the ancient races that survived all withdrew, and the rules of the world gradually settled into stability.

Otherwise, let alone humans, even Elves—whose innate conditions were far superior to humans—would never have been able to rise amid the crushing forces of that era.

The members of Gauss’s party all seemed deeply shaken by this enormous statue; they stared at it in a daze for a long time before finally drawing back their gazes.

"Ying, you and I will go in first and scout around?"