Text flashed rapidly before Gauss’s eyes.
A single Light spell—
—and the nearby wraiths took staggering damage.
“Total Monsters Kill: 1526.”
In an instant, twenty-five wraiths were reduced to dust.
If the rest hadn’t fled so quickly, the number would have been even higher.
Gauss wasn’t surprised.
His Light wasn’t ordinary light; channeled through the bone staff, it carried a powerful bane against dark-aligned beings.
Bath...
After a short rest, Gauss and Alia rose and, treading carefully over the slick moss, made their way toward the deep-green “birdcage” pavilion.
Though this space was wrapped in verdant growth, the neat flagstones underfoot and the relatively open layout—few wild shrubs running rampant—betrayed traces of deliberate planning. It felt like an abandoned public square of some ancient age, not a natural cave.
It was clearly another ruin of the lost civilization.
Up clos...
But when he checked his personal panel in the Adventurer’s Manual, there was no visible change in his attribute values.
Forget it.
Even if it was a hallucination, at least as pure food he’d thoroughly enjoyed it.
“How do you feel after eating? Any side effects?”
Gauss looked at Alia as she stood up beside him and asked.
Alia touched her stomach, carefully sensed how her body felt, then shook her head.
“Other than being stuffed, I don’t see...
“Is that the mimic from before?”
Alia had finished her fight early and had actually watched Gauss skewer that lump of meat out of the “chest,” but she asked again to be sure.
The “food” lying in the cast-iron pan—braised red and giving off a rich aroma—was such a far cry from the savage mimic that she almost wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t been beside Gauss the whole time.
Otherwise she’d have thought he pulled a prepped meal from his pouch...
Its shell was hard, and the moment it was attacked it turtled up—so did it have any exposed weak spots?
Staring at the mimic ten-plus meters away and the ground beneath it, Gauss had an idea.
He used Message to tell Alia to back off a bit. Then, while firing a three-bolt burst of Magic Missile to make the mimic retreat into its shell, he pulled a flask of lamp oil from his pouch and splashed it across the floor.
Once that was done he continued to fall back.
The m...
“Be careful.”
Upon reaching the platform, Gauss actually calmed down fast.
He shot a wary glance at the green acid pools beside his boots, bubbling and steaming white. The stinging reek and the sight alone made one queasy.
He looked away.
He and Alia advanced cautiously toward the center of the platform, testing the ground at every step for pressure triggers.
Aside from a few loose, sinking tiles, nothing seemed off.
The sour, corrosive smell in t...
He hadn’t expected their attacker to be a plant.
It was his first time seeing a creature like this, and curiosity flickered in him.
Still, he didn’t feel much threat from it; it probably wasn’t at the level of an elite monster.
Even so, he didn’t get careless—this was a labyrinth creature, and their first encounter with it—so caution was best.
He pulled Alia back a few more steps, far beyond the flower bud’s reach, then drew his bone staff.
Bec...
Following the clues from the adventurers they’d rescued, Gauss and Alia headed out.
“No telling if the entrance has moved…” Alia fretted.
Gauss’s gaze locked onto an unusual cave mouth in a distant rock face that slanted downward.
Beside the rock wall, a crooked-necked tree cast a twisted shadow in the dim light.
“Rock wall. Crooked tree… yeah, that’s it.”
He tapped Alia and pointed.
“Alia, found it.”
They hurried to the c...
Faced with these nasty setups, the two of them wasted nothing—like locusts sweeping through, they salvaged it all.
With Mage Hand they tripped mechanisms at range; with Entangle they had vines trigger the traps; then they collected the metal spikeheads from pit traps and the sharp heads from the quarrels one by one.
Little by little it adds up—this scrap metal can be sold for a tidy sum.
High-tier parties, or teams with money at home, might not care about nickels and ...
The Serpentfolk didn’t wait for Gauss to reply; his figure slipped away and vanished from sight.
Alia walked over, her gaze landing on the metal bracelet on the ground.
Its design was extremely simple—no ornate decorations or carvings—just a few badly worn geometric lines.
“That Serpentfolk was really generous—he just gave this to you?” Alia blinked, a little baffled.
It was good news, sure… but the piece screamed “expensive,” and handing it over ...
He glanced down; the crushed leaves on the ground and the footprints were quite fresh.
Alia nodded in understanding.
They’d run into other adventurers a few times yesterday and everyone had minded their own business, but when you bump into people unexpectedly, it’s best to keep your guard up until you know what’s what.
After all, you can’t be too careful around others.
Both of them slowed their pace a little.
Sure enough, not far ahead, voices drifte...
“Why aren’t you moving?”
Gauss looked back, noticing Alia had halted, her face cycling between pale and green, and asked in puzzlement.
“For the record, I am absolutely not going to eat dirt.”
“I’m not either,” Gauss chuckled, shaking his head. “What do you think about all day?”
They walked up to the mound.
Up close, the little hill of earth gave off hardly any stench—just the faintly tart scent of fresh soil. The dirt was dark brown to...
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”
Three blasts erupted almost at once.
When the Magic Missiles struck the mud golem’s body, they released a force of energy.
Its mass was blown open in three pits almost immediately.
“Mmm!!!”
The golem bellowed.
Gauss couldn’t tell whether it actually felt pain or was simply enraged at being hit.
He narrowed his eyes.
He sensed that the effect of Magic Missile seemed blunted by some kind of energ...
BOOM!!
Dust billowed.
Gauss and Alia dodged fast.
The attack didn’t hit them.
In that split second, Gauss had already seen their attacker’s true form.
A mud golem—an elite monster.
A distant cousin to slimes and gray oozes, but tougher than common slimes or oozes. Books list their challenge level as fluctuating between 1 and 3.
They’re formed of filth, soil, stones, humus, even animal remains. So long as the core isn’t destroyed, they...
The next day.
They bought tickets for the coaches to the labyrinth.
The convoy rolled along the South District’s avenue toward the western gate barbican. Passing beneath the bastion-like arch, the view opened into endless scrub and woodland.
Near noon, the coaches stopped before an enormous encampment.
In no time at all, the ground around the labyrinth entrance had grown into the noisy seed of a temporary town—and it was clearly still expanding.
Muddy tr...
Barry, the mountain city built around a giant tree, was astonishingly vast.
Once Gauss and Alia left the barbican and stepped into the outer city, dense blocks of buildings swallowed the view. From within, aside from a faint glimpse of the towering inner walls and the central Mother Tree, Telashil, all they could see were rows of houses and bustling streets.
“Which way now?” Gauss glanced around, a little lost.
“Let me see…” Alia took out a creased map and caref...
The year’s festival passed, and New Calendar 1015 arrived.
Within a couple of days of the new year, the ice and snow began to melt. Yet the thaw often feels colder than snowfall; even Gauss, tough against the cold, added a few layers for warmth.
Knock, knock, knock!
Gauss was packing up to go out and train magic, brute force, and swordplay when a knock sounded at the door.
He opened it to find Alia outside.
“Happy New Year.”
“Happy New Year....
When Gauss went out, he overheard townsfolk chatting about several knights on griffins having landed in Grayrock. At first he took it for rustic rumor and didn’t believe it—street gossip shouldn’t be swallowed whole; he often heard people boast they’d seen a dragon.
Only when he walked past the stable by the Adventurers’ Guild and saw, with his own eyes, those griffins fitted with gleaming barding and tack did it hit him: the talk he’d heard was true.
As wild monster...
Alia had already picked out the cantrip she wanted.
Druids don’t have that many common cantrips to choose from.
Mending was something Gauss already knew. Produce Flame—same idea; Gauss had cantrips and spells that could cover that function. Thorn Whip is a weaker version of Entangle, of which she already knew.
For the team’s sake, she bought Guidance.
Guidance is a non-combat support cantrip that places a blessing on yourself or another target. Because it’s...
Before the Adventurers’ Guild closed for the day, Gauss headed to the branch to ask about rank promotions.
To go from Bronze 1-star to 2-star, you not only have to reach Class Level 2 but also accumulate enough completed quests.
After checking with the front desk and confirming that the winter hunt had met his quota, he booked a rank evaluation for the next day.
Once the evaluation was done, another little six-pointed star would be added to the badge on his chest—he...
A torrent of mana—stronger, purer, deeper than before—surged from the chalice like a burst dam and merged at once into the current coursing through his whole body.
Boom.
Gauss felt his very cortex tremble. Streams of information washed through his mind, and faintly he sensed a mysterious force gathering from all around into his body.
“Class level Increased to: 2.”
Strange energy rippled off him, kicking up an invisible wind from flat ground. His clothes sna...
Although Burning Hands, like Magic Missile, is a Level 1 spell, it consumes far more mana.
It’s easily the most energy-hungry spell he knows so far.
That also made practicing it much harder.
Fortunately, he had a Secondary Core Spell Slot.
It takes a little over two days to swap, but before starting on Burning Hands he’d already removed Magic Missile from that slot.
Losing the slot’s boost made Magic Missile noticeably less smooth to cast—and it dropped ...
He slept straight from the afternoon into the next morning.
Gauss woke to a sharp, gnawing hunger.
He hurried to his stash and chewed some dried frog meat to take the edge off; once the pangs subsided, he left his room.
After more than a dozen hours of sleep he finally felt fully restored; the lingering “funk” was gone, and his spirits were bright again.
“Caw!”
A familiar cry came from the second–floor balcony. The raven Echo was perched on the rai...
As the tiny black speck in the distant sky grew larger, everyone finally saw Eberhard descending from above on a griffon.
Only then did their taut nerves ease, as if their backbone had returned.
The camp couldn’t withstand a second ordeal; if the venom wyvern circled back for another breath attack, everyone but a few Black-Iron–rank adventurers would likely perish.
After landing, Eberhard briefly declared the camp crisis over and ordered everyone to pack up at once an...
They lit a campfire.
Gauss handled the ingredients while Alia set water to boil.
Lunch today would be a stew.
In this bitter cold, nothing soothes the spirit like a pot of steaming soup.
Gauss had wanted to add some frost-snake meat, but for Alia’s sake he didn’t; he simmered a simple carrot-and-lean-pork broth instead.
“Mmm—”
Cradling the hot bowl, Alia felt the last trace of chill chased from her body.
“At last we can go back and ...
“So hot…”
When he first gained the talent [Quick Digestion], it hadn’t felt anything like this.
This time, as the talent loaded, Gauss stood in the knife-edged winter wind yet felt as if he were shut inside a furnace, heat blazing through every inch of him.
He could clearly sense a surging power racing through his body, remaking it.
His skin changed first—a wave of irresistible itching swept over him; when it passed, his skin seemed tougher, denser, as if...
Seeing this, Alia and Gauss both nodded.
Gauss waited a moment.
Casting Entangle at range takes Alia a bit of prep time.
Fortunately, the seeds Echo had dropped were already infused with her druidic power.
Even at a distance, she could still sense the nature energy within them.
Only after confirming Alia was ready did the two exchange a look, and Gauss drew a long breath.
Not from nerves—anticipation.
Alia tapped her oak staff lightly to the ...
A few days later.
The world was a blank sheet of white.
Heavy snow blanketed the forests and the plains.
Two figures and a large gray wolf trudged through the lonely, snowy woods.
Behind them, a long line of footprints stretched back into the deep thicket they’d come from.
“Hoo—” Alia pulled her fur-lined hood tighter. Her breath puffed into steaming clouds, and her cheeks were bright red from the cold.
Instinctively, she edged closer to Gauss...
When the battle ended, a plume of green signal smoke rose—the mark that the sweep was complete.
Only then were the two captured adventurers helped out from their makeshift shelter.
They were both injured to varying degrees: fresh wounds from the fight and bruises and cuts from the beatings they’d taken after being captured.
The war between humans and monsters has raged for millennia; there has never been a “prisoner-of-war convention” between the two sides. Fallin...
“Total Monster Kills: 1022.”
After clearing the last few stragglers nearby, the tally froze on that number.
Seeing the two Level 1 adventurers on the other side dealing with the dozen-odd monsters left to them, Gauss didn’t cut in. Hitting the next stage—2,000 total kills—was still a ways off. His current target was “20 common species,” and none of the enemies they were fighting were new entries. Better leave them some sense of participation.
He looked farth...