Chapter 25: The Underground Ecology
"Little Gauss, would you like some breakfast today?"
"Next time, Sofia. I’m heading out!"
Gauss walked out of the inn’s entrance.
His Magic Missile practice had shown some results, and he was going to visit the Adventurer’s Guild.
After reaching Level 2, the speed of gaining proficiency through regular practice had significantly slowed.
Practical combat was more effective than hard training.
Furthermore, the numbers in the Monster Atlas had been stagnant for some time.
Total monsters killed: 12
"Next stage: accumulate a total monster kill count of 50."
Practicing Magic Missile was like sharpening a knife without delay, and now that his blade was sharp, it was time to try it out.
Moreover, the most crucial point was that during the days he practiced spells around the town, his small treasury depleted quickly, and he needed to take on some commissions to replenish it.
Current cash: 26 silver coins and 15 copper coins
In just a few days, over 2 silver coins had quietly disappeared.
The majority of the money was spent on food and dining.
And this was even after consciously controlling himself, avoiding extravagant spending in taverns.
"What’s going on? I just ate a little more meat, didn’t I?"
Gauss shook his head.
Despite choosing relatively "cheap" street vendors or small shops for meals, his spending wasn’t supposed to escalate this much.
Even if he had meat almost every meal, was the expenditure really exaggerated?
Gauss felt that he couldn’t blame himself for this issue.
If anything, blame the high price of meat in this world. This world should examine itself—after so many years, has technology and productivity not advanced to turn meat from a luxury into a common commodity?
He shook his head.
His desire to eat meat probably wouldn’t diminish anytime soon.
With his magic power constantly increasing, it was like going through puberty, consuming large amounts of energy daily. Eating only vegetables wouldn’t sustain his body and could quickly lead to health issues.
Additionally, he didn’t want to restrict his cravings.
Cultivation was already tough enough; what’s wrong with enjoying some comforts? Living like an ascetic had never been his aspiration.
He entered the Adventurer’s Guild hall.
The place was still bustling with people today.
This was a common scene at the Adventurer’s Guild, especially in the morning and evening, where adventurers swarmed in like housewives flocking to a supermarket for special deals in his past life, wandering around the hall, perhaps looking for suitable tasks.
Gauss had been to the Adventurer’s Guild a few times and was now completely disenchanted with this place.
Through his careful observations, he noticed some adventurers dressed impressively but only lingered near the bulletin boards, nodding at the commission information without making any further moves for a long time.
Some figures, he vaguely felt, appeared every time he visited.
He reasonably suspected that the vast crowd of adventurers included some extras, possibly hired by the Adventurer’s Guild to make the hall livelier and boost the "grabbing orders" enthusiasm of adventurers.
Gauss shrugged off these notions and headed to the bulletin board with commission tasks, browsing the task information.
First, he didn’t consider collection tasks. Gathering material tasks often required a large amount of time to search aimlessly in the forest and wasted time, and he lacked the skills, tools, and experience for collecting and preserving herbs.
Some escort missions were also quickly ruled out.
Fixed monster clearing tasks were also just a glance.
These commissions were issued by the Gray Rock Town City Hall and were long-term, which meant those areas, after years of adventurer scouring, were already scarce in monster tracks.
Gauss mainly looked at civilian commissions for monster killing tasks.
This world had many low-level monsters like goblins that held little intrinsic value; they couldn’t produce any material useful to people.
So villagers and human settlements often pooled their money to issue tasks at the Adventurer’s Guild for these monsters.
Some might wonder, even if dozens of such small monsters gathered together, they shouldn’t be a match for a village of dozens of people, so why not clear them out themselves?
Gauss was just as puzzled before.
But after chatting with some villagers in Birch Village, he roughly understood the reason.
First, the combat power of these small monsters in groups was different. It wasn’t just a matter of comparing numbers between them and humans. Many small monsters, despite being relatively weak individually, had rich team combat experience from long-term battles with wild beasts and other monsters in the wild.
Secondly, the terrain was unsuitable, such as forests, nests, or other outdoor environments not meant for human combat.
The most crucial point was the inherent risk of injury and death in battles. Villagers, who mostly engaged in farming, often didn’t possess a strong combat will, and even if there were one or two exceptions, they couldn’t motivate others.
While Gauss found it easy to kill goblins, it was entirely due to his previous life as a Hunter, with a physical quality above average, as well as intelligence granting him a near-bullet-time ability in fights. Coupled with magic, weapons, and teammates, he seemed like a "War God."
But ordinary villagers didn’t have such conditions, so fights rarely ended without injuries and often involved injuries or even deaths among them.
Compared to fighting themselves, timid villagers preferred to scrape up some money and hire the Adventurer’s Guild to handle it.
Over time, a custom formed on this continent, where it was best to assign any monster-related problems to adventurers.
Gauss felt that the Adventurer’s Guild likely had a hand in promoting this custom behind the scenes. If no one commissioned tasks, how could the guild operate?
After scanning the bulletin board’s corkboard for a while, he still hadn’t found a satisfactory commission.
He hoped to find one involving fewer than five monsters with weak combat abilities.
But such tasks, while not nonexistent, were relatively rare because if the monster threat wasn’t significant, villagers wouldn’t lavishly pool money to issue a task at the Adventurer’s Guild.
Moreover, many low-level monsters, despite their low intelligence and combat strength, had a survival instinct prompting them to form groups, expanding their tribe continuously.
In monster ecosystems, there was also a situation similar to "predators roam alone, while cattle and sheep need to form herds."
"Besides, I can’t even snag one. Tasks deemed safe are likely snapped up by low-level adventurer teams as soon as they’re posted."
No matter the field, the pressure of competition at the bottom was always the greatest.
"What if I checked over there?"
His gaze drifted to the most crowded corner of the hall.
If he guessed correctly, it was likely where adventurers spontaneously formed teams. After all, not every adventurer had fixed teammates, and many tasks were too formidable to tackle alone, leading them to recruit temporary teammates in the Adventurer’s Guild hall.
Much like when he volunteered to join Haylir’s team last time.