Chapter 39: Slime
Under the sword, shield, and staff banner waving in the wind.
After many days.
The members of the Night Owl Squad gathered once again!
Compared to their disheveled appearance at the end of the last mission, everyone now looked radiant.
Obviously, after a few days of rest, their exhausted bodies and minds had recovered.
"Morning, Gauss." Doyle, sporting a new haircut, waved and greeted Gauss proactively.
"Morning."
Gauss noticed that although Doyle was quiet and reserved at first, he turned out to be quite enthusiastic once they got to know each other.
Of course, it might also be because Doyle had come to acknowledge Gauss’s abilities.
"What’s that?"
Doyle, with his keen eyes, immediately noticed the white staff hanging at Gauss’s waist.
"Is it a magic wand?"
Others also looked over, curiously staring at the slender white wand at his side.
"It’s just a staff without a staff core, not worth anything," Gauss waved it off.
But clearly, the others weren’t fully convinced by his words, even though he was being completely honest.
Who could blame them, considering the white bone staff was so exquisitely crafted?
Daphne was no exception. She glanced at the wooden staff in her hand, compared it to Gauss’s, and pressed her lips together.
Suddenly, the wooden staff she once liked seemed much duller.
But what material was that staff made of? Gem? Stone? Daphne couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t made of the most common wooden wand materials.
"Alright, let’s start taking on some commissions." After brief pleasantries, Levin led the group into the Adventurer’s Guild hall.
The Adventurer’s Guild hall was as crowded as ever today.
The chatter washed over them the moment they stepped through the portico into the hall.
Don’t expect bottom adventurers to observe the courtesy of speaking softly in public.
Especially those tall, hairy half-beastmen; once they open their mouths, it’s like they’re loudspeakers, afraid strangers won’t hear them.
"Levin, let’s take on some different missions this time?" Gauss approached, having to raise his voice.
"Different, in what sense?"
"Those combat commissions not involving goblins. I want to fight a wider variety of monsters to gain more experience with different body types of enemies."
"Understood, I’ll keep that in mind," Levin nodded solemnly.
Gauss’s abilities had already earned his acknowledgment. Naturally, Levin would consider Gauss’s request.
Besides, it was a simple enough matter.
The monsters encountered in adventurer missions were naturally not limited to goblins, though goblins were the most common among bottom creatures.
So many novice adventurers had the most dealings with them.
Aside from goblins, bottom adventurers might also encounter skeletons in graveyards, kobolds in mines, water ghosts running rampant on riverbeds, slimes hidden in swampy pools...
These creatures, like goblins, could also threaten people’s lives and property, hence people or organizations would issue commissions.
Ultimately, Gauss was not the leader, so after suggesting it, he handed the decision off to Levin.
He busied himself browsing the Monster Atlas in his mind.
The Monster Atlas had six pages, and he could currently only open the first page [Ordinary Monsters].
The first page still had only one image lit up, a ferocious-looking green-skinned little monster, with a small number ’23’ in the bottom right corner of the image.
All the other icons were gray, shrouded in a haze, making it unclear how many types of ordinary monsters there were.
Beneath the haze, at the very bottom of the page,
was a line of text.
[Ordinary] Species Collected: 1
Cumulative Counts: 23/50
The text recorded the types of monsters he had slain and the total number of all monsters slain.
Since he had only slain goblins thus far, the goblin kill count matched the total kill count at the bottom.
While Gauss was pondering, the others had gathered around Levin, discussing which specific mission to take.
Finally, when Gauss returned from his thoughts to reality, a commission had been decided.
Find and clear the slime monsters wandering outside Harvest Fruit Garden in Valencia Village.
Mission Reward: 60 copper coins per monster
Mission Count: At least 20 monsters.
𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
They also picked up a long-term material collection task for Slime Gel. The buyback price was 30 copper coins per piece.
Ordinary slimes had less combat power than goblins, but their timid nature made them challenging to find.
And they weren’t entirely harmless; the acidic substances inside them could be somewhat corrosive.
Overall, the mission seemed relatively easy.
The mission location wasn’t too far.
Judging from the map, Valencia Village was about a half-day’s journey.
After some discussion, they decided to take on this mission.
At noon, having gathered their equipment and packs,
the group gathered at the town’s exit once again, embarking on their mission.
Since the journey was close, the cart pulled by the pack horse carried less luggage.
The team members switching on to rest had more room to move.
When it was Gauss’s turn to rest, he didn’t waste time and took out a notebook from his clothes.
In the swaying cart, using his pack as a pillow, he quietly read.
Lately, he’d been taking the time to read this notebook recorded by Andri in her early days.
Though it contained no specific spell teachings, it detailed her personal thoughts on magic and magic power, as well as various magic knowledge she collected during her early adventures.
Reading this notebook provided Gauss, a novice with no prior exposure to supernatural powers, with a solid understanding of some basic "common sense."
He was most focused on those common 0th Ring tricks and descriptions of low-level spell effects.
He also discovered that the Identification Technique Andri used to identify the Life Magic Stone before was a 1st Ring spell.
The effect was that, by maintaining contact with an item and casting the spell, if the item was magic or contained magic power, in most cases, the caster could discern its nature.
Unexpectedly, such an unassuming spell was of 1st Ring level.
But the spell’s effect was indeed quite good, especially for someone like Gauss who lacked a foundation; having such a spell would be very helpful for daily tasks and missions.
Additionally, Gauss learned something important: casters had limitations on the number of spells they could master over a given period.
There wasn’t a clear standard for this, as it depended on each caster’s soul strength.
Mastering more powerful spells placed a greater burden on the caster’s soul, possibly requiring methods to forget unnecessary spells.
That’s why many casters, even with numerous spellbooks, would still carefully select their best spell combinations.