A few days later.
The world was a vast expanse of white.
Thick snow covered the forest and the wilderness.
Two figures and a large gray wolf trudged through the desolate snow forest.
Behind them, a long trail of footprints stretched back into the depths of the dark forest.
"Phew—"
Aaliyah tightened the fur hat on her head, her breath instantly turning into steaming white mist, her cheeks flushed red from the cold.
She instinctively leaned a little closer to Gauss, who was walking ahead.
Gauss walked in front, but wasn’t as heavily dressed as she was.
Yet, getting close to him, she could feel a slight warmth.
Gauss’ gaze roamed around.
He was also a bit cold, but not to an unbearable degree.
The reward from the ’Thousand Kills Milestone’ a few days ago, which added 1 point to Strength and 1 point to Constitution, was critical.
With 8 points in Strength and 8 points in Constitution, three points higher than the usual healthy human’s 5 points, he was granted a greater tolerance to harsh weather like severe cold and heat.
Of course, the most crucial thing was that to move freely in combat, one couldn’t wear too much, otherwise it would affect flexibility.
Chewing on jerky, his mind looked towards the Monster Atlas in the Adventurer’s Handbook.
"Total monsters killed: 1311."
The recent days’ efficiency in killing monsters couldn’t compare to the previous two days.
After all, they were relatively scattered small monster settlements, and the weather had gotten colder this year, leading to adventurers being less efficient than in the past years.
Aaliyah speculated that most people’s earnings would shrink significantly this year.
However, this didn’t affect the two of them much; their profits from the first two days were already bountiful.
Coming out in the severe cold these days was more with a "we’re here anyway, a little gain is still a gain" mindset.
After all, even though the efficiency decreased in the latter days, it was still much faster than taking those beginner one-star commissions in Gray Rock Town.
Unfortunately, barring any surprises, today would be the last day of the winter hunt.
The weather was too cold.
Many adventurers and accompanying personnel expressed their wish to return to town.
Gauss continued to look towards the bottom of the atlas.
"Current ordinary monster species in the atlas: 19."
Yes, in recent days, after lighting up the 17th ordinary monster, the Frost Snake, only two more were added subsequently: the Dire Wolf and Assassin Vine.
The former was a very common accomplice of monster strongholds and a familiar face in winter.
The latter was a kind of attacking plant that disguises as ordinary vines, then throttles and binds passing creatures.
Then there were many encounters with already documented ordinary monsters.
The reason for this was partly that the monsters Gauss killed, such as goblins and kobolds, were common in the wild, so encountering them repeatedly was highly probable.
Additionally, the biodiversity of a region was inherently limited; with the advent of harsh winter, many monsters either migrated or hibernated, making it quite challenging to collect for the atlas.
But...today they shouldn’t return empty-handed.
Gauss squeezed the palm-sized, ink-black raven feather in his hand.
This was the information he had specifically scouted out in the camp yesterday, and the target was ahead.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
Familiar cawing from Raven Aik came from above, interrupting Gauss’ thoughts.
But instead of being annoyed, he smiled slightly.
The return of the raven meant it had found the target.
Fortunately, ravens were highly adaptable creatures; even in the harsh winter, they remained very active and adaptive.
In recent days, they really saved the two a lot of effort.
After Aaliyah rewarded it with pieces of meat, they had a brief exchange and obtained the information about a nearby monster stronghold.
"If everything goes smoothly, we should return to camp after lunch."
Looking at Aaliyah, who was evidently not well-suited to the cold weather, her cheeks red but still moving around with him in such cold, Gauss felt a twinge of guilt.
In fact, this morning, many squads in the camp had already decided against going out, planning to stay by the campfire and comfortably wait for the end of the last day of the winter hunt.
Gauss had originally wanted Aaliyah to stay at camp too, and he could go out by himself to find the last 20th monster for the atlas, but for some reason, he didn’t speak those words in the end.
Maybe he sensed that even if he said it, Aaliyah would most likely follow.
After all, they were a squad that advanced and retreated together.
"Hmm." Aaliyah nodded.
Guided by the raven.
The two of them continued moving through the snow.
"Caw!"
When they were almost at the location, Aik cawed softly twice as a reminder.
"Thanks." Gauss didn’t mind whether it understood human speech or not and casually thanked it.
Then he climbed up a slightly higher snow slope.
Eagerly, he checked the situation of the monster stronghold not far away.
Regarding the 20th monster atlas and the second racial talent, even though he considered himself calm, at this moment, he couldn’t quite suppress the anticipation in his heart.
It was like facing a blind box.
The anticipation is always the strongest before opening it.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, his gaze pierced through the sparse cedar forest and fell on a patch of deliberately cleared ground below.
A pile of bonfire blazed, the leaping flames dispelling the cold, and a circle of silhouettes surrounded it vaguely, seemingly both craving the warmth of the fire and fearful of getting too close.
"As expected..." Gauss’ eyes gleamed with a sharp light; among those figures, he clearly identified the main target of this trip—the Crowmen!
These creatures might have a distant kinship with Aik from ancient times.
Crowmen, bottom-class monsters.
Crowmen, standard bottom-class monsters. Their upper bodies were in the form of crows, covered in pitch-black feathers, armed with claws and wings; their lower bodies were upright humanoid torsos. They could glide short distances using their wings, but ordinary Crowmen could not flap and fly like true birds.
Yesterday, an Adventurer Squad discovered traces of crow feathers here, but as it was already late, they prudently didn’t pursue deeply.
Moreover, that Adventurer Squad didn’t plan to enter Jade Forest today, so they shared the location information with Gauss.
"1, 2, 3... 15." Gauss silently counted.
The number wasn’t large; although individual Crowmen were stronger than ordinary goblins, these 15 didn’t pose a threat to Gauss now, and Aaliyah, without calling on Ulfen, could handle them with some effort.
However, the count didn’t really matter anymore.
Gauss slid down the snow slope.
"15 Crowmen, after we clear them, let’s have lunch and head back."
Gauss used the Communication Technique to relay the plan to Aaliyah.
"Okay, I’ll use the Entanglement Technique to assist you."
"Hmm, just follow the routine we’ve been practicing these past two days."
"I understand."
Aaliyah responded softly, gesturing.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
In the dark sky, a somewhat raspy caw suddenly pierced through the snow forest’s silence, catching the attention of the Crowmen by the bonfire.
"Caw! Caw!"
They looked up warily, but upon seeing the black raven circling in the sky, their tense nerves relaxed again.
Ravens were very common birds in winter, and due to supposedly having some similar bloodline, they weren’t very wary of these flying distant relatives.
They didn’t notice a few shriveled green seeds, mixed with clumps of grayish-white bird droppings, gently plopping onto the snow, not far from the bonfire.