Chapter 1060 - 506: Earth Elemental Plane

"How is it inside?" Aaliyah quickly asked with curiosity when she saw him come out.

"You’d better go in and see for yourselves. It’s hard to describe in a few words," Gauss reminded them. "However, the air composition is a bit different from out here. You’ll need to adapt for a moment once you follow me inside."

Although he could feel that the difference wouldn’t have much of an impact on the bodies of Master Level Professionals, it was better to be cautious. Everyone’s physical condition was unique and couldn’t be generalized.

"We’ll be careful." Aaliyah and the others were equally cautious.

Following behind Gauss, they carefully passed through the rock wall, only to quickly be left speechless by the shocking scene before them.

COUGH, COUGH.

Everything in sight was earth, sand, and stone, with only a very few withered yellow plants.

It wasn’t that Gauss’s team hadn’t traveled through deserts before, but an extreme environment like the one before them was impossible to form in nature. It could only appear in a special small world like this.

"Shall we explore the surroundings?" Gauss proposed, seeing that they were only coughing lightly and hadn’t shown any intense adverse reactions.

"Should we leave someone at the entrance, or leave some marks?" Ying asked. She was worried that they would get lost in this world of yellow earth.

"Don’t worry, we won’t get lost. When have I ever lost my way?" Gauss reassured them.

His Adventurer’s Handbook had a map, and the areas he had set foot in would light up, making it extremely difficult for him to get lost. Furthermore, the spatial fluctuations of this entrance and exit were relatively stable within his Perception, so no anomalies should occur in the short term.

Ying and the others thought about it and realized it was true. Gauss’s sense of direction was absurdly strong; they couldn’t remember a single time he had lost his way.

The team soon began walking along the earthen hills underfoot.

Gauss successively killed several new types of monsters, both ordinary and elite ones. Sand Foxes, Stone Shield Lizards, Gem Insects... Even the ocean islands from Gauss’s previous life had hosted many novel species, let alone this small world with completely different rules. It was like a treasure trove of species.

"Be careful," Gauss warned, looking at a quicksand vortex suddenly forming from a depression not far away.

Riding the wind wasn’t very effective here, so he tried casting a layer of Flying Skill on his teammates. However, perhaps due to the excessively abundant earth-element Natural Magic, his teammates couldn’t fly as easily as they could outside, so the group advanced on foot.

Gauss led the others to the terrestrial sand river he had seen earlier. The fine sand surged before their eyes, flowing into the distance.

"It really is made entirely of sand."

"I wonder where its destination is. Could it be a sea of sand?"

Gauss’s gaze suddenly snapped to a specific spot. Within his Perception, there was a familiar living creature hidden beneath the surging sand, faintly resembling a human shape.

"There seems to be someone in the sand.

"Wait here for me for a moment."

Gauss condensed a pair of dragon wings on his back. Perhaps due to the dense earth-element Magic Power, the originally Platinum dragon wings took on a faint brown hue. Upon closer inspection, they were covered in a thin layer of earth Magic Power.

While his defensive power increased, the wings also became much heavier, but fortunately, taking off was not an issue.

Gauss flapped his wings, his feet leaving the ground, and flew rapidly just above the surface of the river. When he arrived above the perceived area, he dove beneath the sand like an eagle. By the time he flew up again, he was already holding an unconscious person in his arms.

He returned to Aaliyah and the others. Seeing the little girl in his arms, they all gathered around curiously.

"Serdur, please examine her," Gauss said, gently placing her on the ground.

"Alright." Serdur took out the medical tools.

The others did not interrupt, only silently observing the "human" before them.

In appearance, she was eighty to ninety percent similar to a human, with a high-bridged nose and well-defined facial features. However, her skin was much harder, as if covered in a natural layer of armor. Hard minerals had even grown in specific localized areas, such as her glabella, knuckles, and joints. Besides that, numerous bizarre, earthy-yellow patterns flowed across the surface of her body.

Could she be an aboriginal of this earth-element plane? Gauss pondered inwardly.

He wasn’t actually surprised that other flesh-and-blood lifeforms existed in this land overflowing with earth elements. Although earth elements occupied the majority of the Natural Magic, it was also mixed with the Magic Power of other Attributes. Consequently, special environments akin to desert oases would be born, nurturing other forms of life.

"She has symptoms of drowning... well, drowning in sand. Furthermore, she’s too weak, so she passed out from hunger," Serdur quickly diagnosed.

Hearing this, Gauss retrieved food from his Storage Space. Before setting out, he had stocked up on plenty of food and water.

Though he didn’t know what the aboriginals primarily ate on a daily basis, he figured that basic fruits should be universally edible. He crushed a few magical fruits, then used his Magic Power to guide the juice into the aboriginal girl’s mouth and down her throat.

After she received this energy replenishment, Serdur cast a Healing Divine Skill for a simple treatment.

A while later, the aboriginal girl coughed up quicksand, her eyelids fluttering incessantly before she finally opened her eyes.

Her pupils were pitch-black like obsidian. Upon seeing Gauss and the others in front of her, she was momentarily stunned. Her brain seemed to be in a stalled state, completely unable to comprehend what had happened. But as consciousness gradually regained control over her mind, her gaze fell on their faces. Her pupils rapidly contracted, and she wore an expression as if she had just seen a ghost.

Her arm subconsciously reached out to her side, fumbling for a weapon that wasn’t there.

"AYASA!"

Failing to grasp a weapon, the unease on her face grew. She shuffled on her bottom, quickly crawling backward for several meters.

"Hello." Gauss’s Spiritual Power transmitted his thoughts, projecting the intent directly into her mind.

"Who is speaking?!" the aboriginal girl continued to yell in her own language, her voice full of panic.

"Me. Hello, my name is Gauss." Gauss transmitted the thought while raising an arm and waving it to signal her. "I just fished you out of there."

"It was you?" She blinked.

Although the "person" in front of her didn’t look quite like her kind and this was their first meeting, she found him inexplicably pleasing to the eye for some reason. She followed Gauss’s pointing finger and looked toward the rushing sand river.

Images slowly surfaced in her mind. Her last memory was indeed of herself plummeting into the sand river. Therefore, it was highly likely that he wasn’t lying to her.

"Thank you."

GRUMBLE!!!

Suddenly, a loud noise rumbled from her stomach. She was starving.

She licked the residual fruit juice on her lips, then stared at the bag of food beside Gauss. She swallowed hard, her eyes shining brightly.

"Eat," Gauss said. He didn’t lack a few bites of food, generously controlling the food to float right in front of her.

"Thank you! I will definitely repay you." The aboriginal girl didn’t stand on ceremony. Sitting on the ground, she grabbed the food from the bag and started stuffing it into her mouth.

"Delicious! So flavorful!" she praised in amazement, clicking her tongue even as she ate.

Her table manners weren’t pretty. In no time at all, the food was devoured like a whirlwind sweeping away the clouds.

"Are you full? I have more if that’s not enough."

"It’s enough, it’s enough!" The aboriginal girl let out a burp. She had eaten so much she was slightly stuffed. "Benefactor, my name is You."

Having eaten her fill, she finally introduced herself. It seemed that, compared to saving her from the sand river, the kindness of feeding her did a better job of earning her trust. Her originally vigilant eyes had become much gentler and clearer.

After all, how bad could someone be if they treated you to a meal?

"By the way, You, do you have a tribe?" Gauss was quite curious about the aboriginals of this world. Besides, if he could build a good relationship with them, he might be able to gain a deeper understanding of this world.

"Of course." After a brief hesitation, the aboriginal girl named You nodded. "I was just hunting a big guy with my tribesmen earlier. A really big guy. However, it was too strong, and we couldn’t beat it. I was knocked into the sand river, and then I ended up here."

After she finished her concise explanation, she looked at Gauss with a hesitant expression, as if she wanted to say more but stopped herself.

Although they shared similar faces and limbs, Gauss and his companions were clearly quite different in appearance from her and her tribesmen. She had interacted with people from other tribes, but she had never met "people" as clean as Gauss. If Gauss hadn’t taken the initiative to communicate, she would have treated him like some other type of monster.

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen people like you." Considering that he had treated her to a meal, You still decided to voice her confusion directly.

"We are humans from the outside world."

"Outside world?" Hearing this explanation, You grew even more confused. She scratched her head and stared at Gauss.

Meeting her blank gaze, Gauss sensed an innocence unsullied by knowledge.

Well, it was true that he shouldn’t hold out too much expectation for the cognitive understanding of a young aboriginal girl.