"Title: Mouse Hunter, Effect: Star Destruction. In battles against giant rats and ratmen, attack damage is increased by an additional 10%."
Having slain the giant rats, Gauss earned a title, further augmenting his special attack effect against them.
Watching the mice continue to perish in the flames.
Gauss also felt a bit relieved inside.
Those mice merely seemed intimidating in numbers.
But weren’t actually that dangerous, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Some burnt to a crisp by the flames, others fled in terror.
At this moment, only those giant rats remained alive and held any combat power.
"Squeak squeak!!!"
A few giant rats initially locked onto Gauss’s direction.
Though separated by some distance, each time he released a flaming arrow, it emitted a firework-like glow, revealing his position despite the poor eyesight of the giant rats.
The giant rats started running, agilely leaping over the flames, sprinting quickly towards the two like large dogs.
"Whoosh!"
Gauss continuously fired flaming arrows.
Cleared away another giant rat.
Gauss frowned.
The flaming arrows had some disadvantage.
Due to his lack of skill, their release wasn’t nimble and efficient.
Faced with fast-moving single targets, he needed to utilize his most adept spell.
"Magic Missile."
Azure light surged at the tip of the staff.
Gauss’s gaze focused on the giant rat charging swiftly ahead.
Three Magic Missiles flew from his hand.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
The missiles pierced the giant rat’s plump body, exploding blood chunks like tofu mixed with blood.
Three giant rats fell instantly.
Beside Gauss, Aaliyah was prepared to use the Entanglement Technique to bind the giant rats, but gasped at the sight.
So strong.
A while ago, she had cooperated with Gauss in the forest and witnessed his spell effects, but he wasn’t this strong back then.
Though they had practiced additionally, rehearsal and real combat sometimes differ.
Aaliyah struck the ground with her oak staff.
A burst of vibrant green light instantly surged from the staff, then like pebbles tossed into a lake, concentric energy ripples full of life spread rapidly from her feet!
"Entanglement Technique! Nature’s Bind!"
Her other hand pressed against the ground, green energy permeating into the soil like flowing water.
In an instant.
Suddenly!
On the giant rats’ path, the seemingly harmless mottled grass, moss, and even barren soil appeared to be infused with special power.
Durable vines burst from the soil like pythons!
After piercing the soil, they twisted and tangled in the air like living creatures, precisely grabbing the giant rats’ legs, pulling back. The originally charging giant rat struggled twice, then bound by other vines.
Beside the dead trees, the sturdy underground roots awoke like a beast, tearing the soil and rising.
In the shrubs, stubby branches rapidly extended.
Branches, roots found their targets.
In an instant, Aaliyah’s Entanglement Technique firmly protected the surroundings of the two.
"Nice job!"
Seeing this, Gauss gave Aaliyah a thumbs up.
Although the Entanglement Technique itself wasn’t strong in combat, its effect often depended on enemy type and team cooperation. As a cost-effective crowd control spell, it often had significant outcomes when paired with suitable companions in skirmish.
Gauss didn’t give the group of giant rats entangled by vines any time to continue tearing at the branches.
The magic energy in his hands rapidly surged.
One Magic Missile after another, hitting precisely the fixed targets bound by vines.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Under the attack of Magic Missiles, giant rats kept dying amidst their wailing.
"A giant rat slain *1"
...
When the last light fell.
"Total monster kills: 382"
Gauss counted the numbers and had slain 14 giant rats in total.
Outside the chapel, besides a few disoriented small mice scattered around, no other active forces could be seen.
Pity, if regular mice were also considered in the target index, his total kills would have long exceeded 500.
He turned to look at Aaliyah.
With her Entanglement Technique assisting in control, Gauss’s efficiency in monster killing had definitely increased.
Targeting specific positions wasn’t very difficult.
And crucially, she wouldn’t steal the kill count, which was comforting.
"Let’s rest for a while."
While Aaliyah’s Entanglement Technique was still in effect.
Gauss quickly removed his mask, taking food and water from the storage pouch.
"Want some?" he offered the food to Aaliyah.
"Thank you, I’ll pass." Aaliyah swallowed her saliva, looked at Gauss with admiration. "Can you still eat?"
With blood flowing all around, the foul air enveloping them.
Being able to eat in such places truly marked a strong person.
Gauss seemed oblivious to her gaze.
After being turned down, he didn’t mind.
"What’s the big deal."
Though he could smell the unpleasant scent, when it came time to replenish, he would have to force himself to eat despite the reluctance.
This was willpower.
Expressionless, he stuffed the food into his mouth, silently swallowing amidst the odor of stench and blood.
"Impressive!" Aaliyah genuinely admired his action.
Anyway, she had no appetite for now.
But before Gauss and Aaliyah could rest, the chapel doors suddenly opened slowly.
In the darkness, noisy footsteps echoed continuously.
Then, ratman riders emerged from the shadows, wielding longspears and wooden swords!
The ratmen rode on giant rats a meter long, angrily screaming upon seeing the scorched land and flames smoldering.
"Squeak squeak!"
Gauss’s gaze turned to the rodent cavalry.
"Oh ho, not even giving me a moment to breathe. Defeated the small ones, now here come the older ones."
He clapped his hands and put the mask back on.
Gauss steeled his heart.
This group of giant rats was even bigger than before, and with the ratmen riding them, they now posed a basic threat.
Moreover, due to the giant rats, the ratmen had greater mobility and could wield slightly heavier weapons.
Both quickly prepared themselves.
The ratmen had also assembled in front of the church during this time.
A total of 15 ratman cavalry.
The ratmen maneuvered the giant rats, swiftly spreading out at the church entrance.
Then they locked onto the direction where both of them were and quickly spread out.
It was estimated that a ratman scout had secretly observed Gauss’s massacre of the rats and giant rats earlier.
The spreading ratmen, like the open mouth of a large sack, quickly approached Gauss from all sides.
The church’s spire had other ratmen using ignited arrows to set fire to the vines made by Aaliyah’s entanglement spell.
"Pretty smart of them."
Gauss took it all in.
He acknowledged the ratmen’s intelligence for not taking hasty actions and systematically clearing the vines first.
The ratmen’s intelligence was indeed on a higher tier among the lower-tier monsters.
The flames slowly consumed the vines.
Aaliyah instinctively looked at Gauss, using her eyes to ask what he planned to do next.
Gauss’s performance earlier had already made her willing to cooperate and play support subconsciously.
"What should we do next?"
"No rush."
The ratmen cavalry didn’t attack, instead, they subtly surrounded the two at a distance.
Their spellcasting earlier.
Seemed like they were waiting for the flames to burn the vine branches completely.
Gauss wasn’t in a hurry either.
So he dragged it out.
The more time that passed, the more his magic power and stamina would recover inside.
The battle earlier had exhausted him a bit.
Although not too much, gaining back a little more was certainly better.
The ratmen thought they had caught a turtle in a jar, but little did they know that a war of attrition played right into Gauss’s hands.
For a moment, the battlefield maintained an eerie calm.
Aside from the small rats running around aimlessly like headless flies on the open ground, only the sound of the wind could be heard.
"How many more large-scale entangle spells like the one earlier can you cast?" Gauss asked softly, seeing the vines almost burned through.
"Just one more like that," Aaliyah answered honestly. As a druid, she could cast some spells too, but was certainly not as proficient as Gauss. "But I can cast smaller ones several more times."
"Then be conservative with it," Gauss replied.
The first entanglement spell earlier was somewhat wasteful.
But it didn’t matter; at least it shaped the terrain and bought him plenty of rest time.
From here, conserving and using them precisely, the effect wouldn’t be as great, but at least it would last.
"Understood." Aaliyah nodded. "I also have some close combat skills, and my partners have already arrived."
"Alright, just act according to the situation," Gauss decided to let her act freely.
They were all professionals, not novice adventurers, and each had a clear understanding of their abilities.
Besides, Aaliyah became a bronze-level adventurer even before him.
Sure enough, when the vine branches were fully burned.
The surrounding ratmen cavalry moved in unison.
Gauss pointed his white bone staff at one ratman, his gaze locking onto it and the surrounding ratmen.
But he didn’t cast a spell right away.
The Magic Missile also had its range; the farther the target, the harder it was to lock on, and even if locked, if too far, it could be dodged.
Waiting for the agile ratman cavalry, jumping up and down, to get within range, Gauss estimated the timing.
Then he shot three missiles.
"Whiz!!"
The missiles tore through the air.
Two ratmen were directly hit, blown apart on one side, and fell off their rodent mounts.
One missile was dodged by a ratman cavalryman.
The giant rats didn’t rush fast, but their agility in complex terrain was quite exceptional.
"Ratmen killed *2"
"Total monster kills: 384"
The compendium was updated with a new species.
Gauss ignored the notification, continuing to focus on the remaining ratman cavalry.
These cavalry were probably the elite of this ratman clan.
Even though they maintained a considerable distance, dodging one was an outstanding feat for lower-tier monsters.
"Boom!"
He struck down two more ratmen navigating quickly through the terrain.
The other ratman cavalry finally reached Gauss and Aaliyah.
Aaliyah’s large wolf lunged forward, taking off a ratman’s head with a snap.
At the same time, Aaliyah didn’t remain idle, her wooden staff making a loud sound as it swung.
A ratman approaching her was knocked off its mount by her blow.
She then forcefully struck the giant rat’s head.
"Thud!"
The giant rat fell to the ground, twitching.
However, Gauss was the most efficient.
At this moment, he had stored away his white bone staff and took out a longsword from the storage pouch.
Switching formally to close combat mode.
With a light leap, he evaded the ratman cavalry’s thrusts, then accurately beheaded them with his longsword.
He maneuvered swiftly among the ratman cavalry.
The blue ripples of the defensive shield continually shimmered, absorbing the constant damage from all sides.
And his sword mercilessly reaped the lives of those ratmen and giant rats.
As a magic envoy, he didn’t want to admit it, but sometimes his efficiency in close combat was indeed better.