Even loaded with four riders, Hephaestus’ speed was still blistering.
In short order they were above Shattered Shell Shoals. Gauss looked over the flat shallows and smiled. If he wanted to chase rank, who could compete? Another party might spend hours just getting here.
The straight-line distance wasn’t huge, but overland travel can’t touch flight—rivers crossed the country in a web; every few miles you’d be fording or detouring, bleeding speed. Flying mou...
2025-11-06 09:54:09 +0000 UTC
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With a local leading the way, Gauss and company quickly found an inn near the docks.
The rooms had a fine view—one glance took in the whole sweep of the lake.
Perhaps because of the lake grand prix, the town’s inns were nearly full, bustling with visitors and contestants in all kinds of dress—a sharp contrast to Gold & Silver’s emptiness.
It was just past noon; the sun was perfect. None of them felt like resting further. After a rinse and a c...
2025-11-06 09:52:30 +0000 UTC
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After the fight ended—
the rookie party collapsed like deflated bladders, dropped their weapons, and plopped onto the ground.
“Whew—”
Once their bodies finally relaxed and the adrenaline faded, exhaustion crashed over them all at once. Their muscles wouldn’t stop trembling.
They realized real adventuring wasn’t anything like what they’d imagined—even though, before setting out, they’d told themselves they were ready. But wh...
2025-11-03 09:24:43 +0000 UTC
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Burp—
The red drake was a little overstuffed and flopped down to rest.
Gauss used the time to make a circuit of the area.
“Total Monster Kills: 7,545.”
Roaming the wilds around Gold & Silver, both he and the red drake Hephaestus had racked up gains. Any monster that ran into this man-and-dragon duo ended up wiped clean—its spirit harvested by Gauss, its flesh the drake’s dinner—leaving scarcely a trace they’d ever existed.<...
2025-11-03 09:23:54 +0000 UTC
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2025-11-02 09:25:07 +0000 UTC
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Turns out it isn’t just people—dragons are plenty malleable, too.
With Gauss playing matchmaker, the red drake quickly made peace with the animal companions.
“Look on the bright side—these are your coworkers, got it?” Gauss patted the chocobo and addressed the dragon. “The more it works, the less you have to.”
At bottom, there wasn’t much difference between a chocobo and a drake: both were mounts. The drake was just “Chocobo Pro Max”...
2025-11-01 06:16:10 +0000 UTC
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After Gauss’s level-up to 5, he spent the next day testing what had changed.
First up: his Level 3 spells. A round of drills showed Fly and Fireball both came much easier. He’d learned them early at Level 4, but they had been… clunky. Now they felt natural. Especially Fly—speed, agility, and endurance were all markedly better.
He drifted down from the sky, pleased with the upgraded “air combat” feel.
The others trained in their own ways—exc...
2025-11-01 06:15:42 +0000 UTC
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Gauss had lost track of how many days it had been since they fled the mine-pit nest.
He hadn’t kept count—or rather, had no way to. Down here there was no day or night, and without the mine’s routine of being roused for shifts, he’d simply lost any sense of time.
He stared blankly at the campfire and fed it with kindling—really just some brittle dried vine—while he thought. Beside him, the little Insectfolk who’d escaped the mine with him watched the fl...
2025-11-01 06:15:04 +0000 UTC
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While his teammates whispered outside, Gauss was already deep in meditation inside.
He sat in a simply appointed room. Special pigments ground from mana crystal were painted on the floor in a magic circle—Gauss at one end, a mid-grade earth mana crystal glowing heavy ochre at the other. With the circle’s help, pure mana flowed into him like a tame stream, mingling and resonating with the already brimful “mage’s cup” within.
Vmm—vmm—vmm—
R...
2025-10-30 11:14:59 +0000 UTC
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Under a chorus of curious stares, Gauss and company left Gold & Silver Town.
They found a secluded spot in the wild.
“I’m going to let it out now, okay?” Alia asked, a little uneasy, checking with Gauss. Everyone in the party had felt the drake’s power firsthand.
“Don’t worry.”
He kept it calm. Even aside from the ghostly golden chains binding it, with its strength sealed the drake likely wasn’t their match now.
2025-10-30 11:14:14 +0000 UTC
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“You’re awake?”
Alia pushed the door open, surprised and delighted to see Gauss sitting up in bed with a book in his hands. “You’re awake!”
“Sorry to worry you,” Gauss said, apologetic. “How many days was I out?”
He could still feel a sting through his body. Rationally, he shouldn’t have woken up this fast.
“A full seven days.” Alia set a bowl of porridge beside him. She and the others had taken turns nursing him th...
2025-10-28 12:33:41 +0000 UTC
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A true dragon’s bodily gifts really are unmatched.
Gauss’s iron fists, wrapped in draconic force, pounded the drake’s tough skull like a blacksmith hammering iron. And yet, despite its pitiful condition, the body beneath him could still surge with frightening strength. It went from furious roaring and thrashing to ragged, pained howls—broken whimpers squeezed from its throat.
The pride in its golden slit eyes had been snuffed out; only a numb, near-submissive...
2025-10-28 12:32:48 +0000 UTC
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The drake had no idea what exactly had happened.
All it knew was that a searing agony had exploded across its back, as if a chunk of flesh had been carved out—some alien energy clinging to the wound, burning its powerful body.
ROAR!!!
It spun out like an autumn leaf in a gale, tail lashing wildly at the spot on its spine—trying to swat the rider loose.
Gauss chewed the last mouthful and looked satisfied. Dragonflesh, indeed. The richest ...
2025-10-26 09:05:30 +0000 UTC
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“Careful—something underground is coming up!”
No sooner had Gauss spoken than the shaking underfoot turned violent. Cracks raced across the ground, widening visibly, as if something below were tearing free of the earth.
Albena shielded Gauss and backed him away.
KRA-THOOM!!!
With a roar the soil at the center of the fissure blew upward. A chitin-plated, insectoid head punched through. Several giant, many-legged burrowers hauled themsel...
2025-10-26 09:03:55 +0000 UTC
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The words were barely out of his mouth when, in the distance, the dragonborn kobold—like a steel tower given legs—slammed a foot into the ground. From beneath its heel, cracks spiderwebbed out.
Thud!
Its knees dipped. An instant later, the earth exploded and its body blasted forward like a fired shell.
So fast!
Gauss’s heart lurched. He’d killed two commander-tier monsters so far. The first had been a goblin chieftain roasted to deat...
2025-10-24 09:17:07 +0000 UTC
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The point of light appeared so abruptly that every kobold who saw it froze in confusion. A prickle of dread told them they ought to do something—but they hesitated.
In that heartbeat, the fingertip-sized spark began gulping mana from the air.
Vmm!
Wind rolled as the air was drawn in; mana siphoned into the core like kindling crammed into a furnace. The spark brightened, brighter still. Heat climbed fast, almost unnoticed—until a few kobolds, sensing ...
2025-10-24 09:16:17 +0000 UTC
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After making that call, Gauss unconsciously let out a breath.
A “true dragon” and a “drake” differ by a single word, both born of dragon mothers—yet they’re practically two different beings. True dragons are a sapient race; drakes are more like powerful beasts wearing a dragon’s shape.
The former possess keen intellect—capable of philosophy, language, intricate magic. Anything humans can do, they can do—usually better—if they care to spend the ti...
2025-10-22 09:08:30 +0000 UTC
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To be honest, Gauss had seen many monster lairs by now.
But setting numbers aside, this kobold town was the most “properly” laid out he’d seen—rough and chaotic, yet maintaining a peculiar order, a kind of savage vitality.
A simple road ran before him. Many kobolds walked along it. Their ranks were easy to tell at a glance: common kobolds were thin, with dull scales; elite warriors were much bulkier—several sizes larger—wearing iron armor.
S...
2025-10-22 09:07:56 +0000 UTC
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Day one of the contract started calmer than Gauss expected.
It was basically Shadow’s show. They called it “keeping watch,” but the surface stayed eerily quiet. Not a single monster popped up for air all day. In such desolation, it was hard to imagine so many creatures hid below.
“Something feels off,” Gauss said, rubbing his chin. With a nest that big, you wouldn’t expect this level of discipline—no leaks? Military lockdown underground? He shook his he...
2025-10-20 10:48:22 +0000 UTC
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Pass?
What kind of question is that?
When Gauss heard Albena ask, he couldn’t help feeling a little awkward. Maybe she could have a bit more confidence?
In the end, he didn’t say what he was thinking. He simply nodded with studied calm.
“Of course—if you don’t mind joining our party, we’ll be counting on you for the next contract.”
He extended his hand politely.
“Great!” Albena grabbed his hand wit...
2025-10-20 10:47:45 +0000 UTC
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The smith pressed her lips together; the cheeks already ruddy from years at the forge flushed even redder. The anger on her face vanished in an instant.
In that brief moment, it felt to her like ages had passed—she even forgot to breathe.
slurp.
Close one… she almost made a fool of herself.
She snapped back to herself and schooled her features.
Gauss met her eyes—was it his imagination, or were wisps of “smoke” curling...
2025-10-18 13:27:03 +0000 UTC
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Worried about alerting the enemy, she didn’t dare go deeper.
She had the unmistakable sense that if she got any closer she’d be discovered; something strange hung in the air, like a magical barrier drifting over everything.
Shadow gathered what intel she could and retraced her route, memorizing the way in.
By the time she surfaced and returned to Gauss and the others, nearly two hours had passed since she’d gone underground.
“You wer...
2025-10-18 13:24:31 +0000 UTC
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When the city walls came into view, Gauss felt a flicker of emotion he hadn’t felt in a while.
It wasn’t that life in the villages was bad—just that, objectively, a village couldn’t match a town’s convenience.
This town wasn’t large—smaller even than Grayrock. A plain little place.
They passed through the gate; the clamor washed over them.
“I’m beat—let’s find food first,” Alia stretched.
It had been a mo...
2025-10-16 11:55:41 +0000 UTC
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The guard captain drifted for a long moment.
When he came back to himself, he realized Gauss was looking right at him.
“Thank you for saving us! My name’s Jimmy—how should I address our benefactor?”
The thought that, without this man, he and his comrades might already be on the ground bled out sent a flash of relief through his eyes.
“Just call me Gauss.”
Sensing the surge of professional aura rising off the man, Gau...
2025-10-16 11:54:29 +0000 UTC
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Gauss ran into goblins more than anything else that day.
He didn’t mind. Beyond all the familiar “advantages” they offered, goblins were relatively easy for him to kill.
As his goblin tally climbed over these days, the second perk on the title [Goblin Butcher]—“Bloodthirst: when you kill goblins or their advanced variants, you have a chance to restore 2% stamina.”—had quietly risen from 2% to 3%.
It still looked small on paper, but goblins...
2025-10-14 13:19:31 +0000 UTC
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As soon as the molten pit cooled a little, Gauss and the others moved in.
The charred ground still smoked; the once white-hot, flowing metal had congealed into hard, dark lumps.
They started gathering the scattered nuggets. Alia pulled out a small trowel and dug with care, unwilling to leave a single dent in the ground untouched—every lump was glittering coin to her.
Materials from extraordinary monsters fetch high prices, and a basilisk bull’s iro...
2025-10-14 13:18:24 +0000 UTC
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“Petrification?”
To be honest, when they heard that, a dozen suspects popped into everyone’s minds. Plenty of monsters can turn things to stone.
But when Gauss noticed the peculiar, deeply pressed hoofprints not far away, his eyes narrowed. He thought he knew what lived around here. Of course, he still needed to confirm it; in real adventuring you don’t assume—nothing’s settled until it’s verified, and you always prep multiple contingencies.
<...
2025-10-12 13:10:02 +0000 UTC
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Dawn.
Through the thin mist, the village woke beneath the climbing warm sun.
Gauss was up early.
Since returning last night, the clay constructs hadn’t stopped—felling trees and hauling the smoothed logs to an open space in the village. They were tireless and immensely strong—though they constantly drained mana.
Fortunately, Gauss had plenty of mana, and his recovery was faster than a normal caster’s, so he could keep them running.
2025-10-12 13:09:16 +0000 UTC
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The scar-faced man hauled on the reins, his greedy gaze sweeping over the trembling villagers.
“Today’s the day you pay protection. My boys should’ve told you last time. The grain’s ready, right?
“Ugly truth up front: if there isn’t enough grain, we make up the difference with people.
“And you lot…”
His eyes finally settled on Gauss’s party, so out of place amid the scene—lingering a moment on Alia and Shadow.
2025-10-10 14:46:00 +0000 UTC
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Rhein’s home was no different from any other in the village: thatched roof, log walls, a long, barn-like rectangle.
Outside, a small yard was enclosed by a low wall—easy for Gauss to step over as he approached.
Night was dark, but to him it might as well have been day. He quickly saw what Rhein was doing: she stood in the yard, right hand raised, left hand bracing her wrist, wearing a look of fierce concentration.
Still practicing Firebolt?
2025-10-10 14:44:14 +0000 UTC
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