"Plop!"
A blob of sticky dark green creature jumped onto the path in front of Gauss, blocking his way.
Gauss stopped and looked down, recognizing an old acquaintance.
The Slime, a creature not too common near human habitats, appeared to be quite numerous in the Jade Forest.
As he walked, one popped up.
"Splat!"
Upon discovering Gauss, the uninvited guest, the jelly-like body of the Slime suddenly pressed against the ground, then leapt high using the rebound force, seemingly aiming to land on Gauss’s head.
"Swish!"
Gauss drew his rapier, slicing it in a half-moon arc in front of him, then nimbly jumped back two steps.
"Splurt!"
The Slime that pounced through the air was precisely sliced through its core by the sharp blade.
The entire body instantly turned into a puddle of foul-smelling slime, splattering onto the ground before Gauss.
"Slime killed *1"
"Total kills: 180"
Gauss picked up the lump of Slime Gel on the ground and placed it in a small pouch on the side of his backpack.
That’s worth several copper coins, a meal’s worth, can’t waste it.
It’s clear that the monsters in the Jade Forest are indeed enthusiastic.
Despite being a mere Slime, it dared to boldly attack him all by itself.
Gauss raised an eyebrow.
It suddenly seemed that the forest’s creatures were more aggressive than those outside.
But that’s not a bad thing, these lone low-level creatures are just free practice no matter how many times they come.
He’s open to them all.
After tidying up a frantic little Slime, he continued along the forest path, checking his map as he went.
The deeper he walked, the denser the forest became.
Trees grew thicker and taller, with ancient trunks so large that it would take two people to wrap their arms around them.
This made Gauss instinctively more cautious.
"Rustle!"
He thrust his sword into the soft soil, pinning a snake as thick as a child’s wrist to the ground.
Perhaps because the forest is desolate, other than monsters, wildlife resources are also quite abundant.
Along the way, Gauss spotted several rabbits, a wild boar, and a small doe.
However, they showed no inclination to attack him, so he felt no urge to act, as his goal was the goblins, not hunting in the thickets.
Approaching noon,
he finally found a clearing with some sunlight filtering through and decided to rest.
He opened his backpack, spread out a tarp to keep the bugs away, and began to rummage through his stored rations.
The usual fare remained—jerky, bread, and meat paste, all cold food.
Out here to handle business, lighting a fire to cook was a bit too extravagant, and the cooking smell could easily attract other unknown forest creatures.
Chewing large bites of food, he felt the food turn into a warm flow as it entered his stomach and soon merged into his body.
He took a sip of water.
After lying on the tarp for a while, massaging his ankles and shoulders that had been encumbered for half the day, Gauss felt fully recovered after resting a while.
The Rapid Digestion ability plays a crucial role during adventures.
Because of it, Gauss felt less fatigued than other adventurers.
The fatigue caused by physical exertion is severe; not only does it reduce the combat power of professions like Warriors that rely on their bodies, but even Mages find it hard to cast effectively when feeling weak.
"In about 1-2 more hours, I should reach the task objective," he thought.
As Gauss laid out his map, comparing distances,
suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes ahead, followed by a sharp sound tearing through the air.
"Whoosh!"
Gauss grabbed the map and flipped over.
Nimbly dodging the spear that was thrown from afar.
"Thunk!"
The spear pierced through the tarp, wedging into the soil.
Watching his recently purchased new tarp being pierced with a hole, Gauss frowned.
Then he turned his head towards the direction the spear had come from.
From the bushes emerged several inherently evil green-skinned imps.
At this moment, they were eyeing Gauss greedily, drool slipping from their mouths.
Seeing his enemies, Gauss’s tightly furrowed brow eased a little, but not much.
Encountering these goblins made him happy, but the damage to his belongings did not.
"Five of them,"
he counted.
Gauss couldn’t be bothered to waste time.
He’s no longer the man he used to be; now killing five goblins is no big deal.
The only difference is finding a way to save some time and effort.
He noticed two goblins holding spears leaning back to build strength.
Gauss casually picked up the Unbreakable Staff leaning next to his pack. With a thought, magic power from the Profession Tier surged toward the wand.
"Magic Missile!"
The lowered-level double shot of Magic Missiles blasted out after a slight charge.
The missiles tore through the air.
Finally, they hit the goblins’ bodies with a thud.
"Boom!!!"
After a crisp explosion, the two targeted goblins were almost instantly blown several meters away by the powerful impact.
Their chests bore ostrich egg-sized holes, constantly oozing flesh and blood.
"Goblins killed *2"
"Total monsters killed: 182"
Magic Missiles have become more powerful since he ascended to become a Magic Envoy.
Feeling the magic power within him that was barely depleted, Gauss finally smiled.
These downgraded Magic Missiles actually had a few times more power than the ones during the apprenticeship, and he estimates he can fire over twenty of these missiles!
Finally, he was no longer an apprentice who would deplete his magic power after a few uses.
Considering if he resupplied during combat, maneuvering and resupplying simultaneously, the usage might reach over thirty times.
It felt satisfying.
No longer did he have to calculatively manage magic power consumption when casting spells.
Now, he’s starting to look like a true Caster.
The remaining three goblins had been scared senseless by Gauss’s two missiles, turning around and fleeing awkwardly into the distance, scrambling away on all fours.
Gauss locked his eyes on them.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Another double shot of Magic Missiles precisely eliminated two goblins.
Then, after a breath or two, magic waves gathered again at the tip of the wand.
"Thud!"
The last Magic Missile firmly blasted the fleeing goblin into the dirt.
"Goblins killed *3"
"Total monsters killed: 185"
Gauss looked at the goblins lying dead on the spot.
In just a few breaths, he used spells to kill five goblins.
The efficiency was even faster than using a sword.
During the process, he managed to keep his body clean, avoiding being splattered with the goblins’ murky, foul-smelling blood, which could complicate cleaning when in the wild.
It looked like he could appropriately increase the frequency of spell usage in the future.
Feeling the still abundant magic power within him, he thought silently.
He wondered if other newly ascended Mages and Warlocks could use magic as frequently as he did; if there were differences, what level could they achieve?
Gauss currently lacked interaction with other professionals at the same stage, so he’s not very clear about the prowess of those Level 1 Mages and Warlocks.
He had consumed some magic power.
Having just rested, Gauss had no choice but to take out some food again to continue eating.
Until his magic power was fully restored.
Then he organized his backpack and continued on toward the direction shown on the map.
In the dense forest, the sun was often invisible, making it difficult to accurately judge time.
Gauss felt he had been walking for about an hour before finally reaching the vicinity of the mission location.
As usual, upon arriving at a new location, he first left a marker on the mental map in his mind, naming it "First Primary Mission: Goblin Tribe."
After resting briefly, he placed his backpack in a relatively concealed corner.
Then, traveling light, he began to search the surrounding area for the tribe of over fifty adult goblins.
Before long, he found many footprints in the dirt.
The activity traces of a medium-sized goblin tribe might extend several kilometers around, and since goblins themselves had no concept of concealment, finding them wasn’t difficult.
So as Gauss followed the tracks upstream.
The goblin tribe’s camp soon appeared before him.
Unlike the previous small gatherings of ten or twenty Gauss had encountered before.
This tribe camp already looked like it had begun to take shape to him.
In a clearing with obvious signs of expansion, there stood a goblin "village."
It was surrounded by a low wall of loosely piled stones, smeared with something resembling feces or mud; beyond the low wall, one could faintly see the activities of densely packed green-skinned creatures.