In the blink of an eye, several days passed.
Gauss led the villagers on a few more goblin-clearing missions nearby.
His total monster kill count reached 5631.
Unknowingly, it had increased by nearly two hundred.
Because aside from training villagers during the day, he also went out "hunting" at night.
Although he taught the villagers that nighttime isn’t suitable for fighting creatures like goblins that have night vision, his strength had advanced so much that he could ignore this rule.
His night vision ability was much stronger than a goblin’s.
By hunting at night, he hoped to reduce the monster population near Goat Village, making the village safer for a longer period.
In the makeshift training ground, the threshing floor.
Gauss quietly patrolled with Aaliyah and others.
His heart filled with a sense of accomplishment.
These trained villagers progressed from the initial clumsy, distorted movements to now being able to engage in group combat exercises in a somewhat decent manner.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
The air was filled with the dull sound of wooden weapons clashing, interspersed with a couple of short, powerful shouts.
The shield bearer was at the front, eyes vigilantly watching the "enemy’s" movements, while villagers armed with spears, pitchforks, and swords were staggered behind, positioned to support the front and respond to the flanks at any time.
At the same time, the archers were protected within the formation.
Even Rhine was in the formation, holding a light crossbow.
But her crossbow wasn’t loaded with real arrows, only Gauss’s specially made training soft arrows, just for practice.
In private, Gauss and Ying had taught her the use of crossbow arrows.
This light crossbow was also a self-defense weapon gifted to her by Gauss.
Before learning Magic, a crossbow was a very useful weapon.
A quality crossbow arrow wasn’t cheap.
At the front of the team, Eric, the village chief’s grandson, seized the opportunity opened up by his shield-bearing teammate to charge forward, eyes fixed on his opponent.
When the opponent swung a powerful straight slash, his footwork changed flexibly.
Sidestepping the attack, the Wooden Sword in his hand drew a simple arc, precisely striking the opponent’s wrist, which was exposed due to their overly forceful attack.
"Pop!"
A light sound echoed, and the opponent cried out in pain, dropping their Wooden Sword.
"Clap! Clap!"
"Very good," Gauss applauded warmly.
"Eric, you’ve learned to utilize footwork and timing. Remember this feeling—during real battles, brute force isn’t everything. Disrupting your opponent’s balance and seizing opportunities is more important than striking first."
He then glanced at other young people diligently practicing nearby.
Unable to help himself, he nodded in approval, assessing in his mind.
"Discipline and teamwork have significantly improved."
"Basic skills are understood. While they haven’t reached the ’beginner’ requirements for a Bottom Adventurer, nor solidified their skills, their teamwork is sufficient to deal with ordinary goblins and Kobolds."
"Moreover..." Gauss rubbed his chin. "Some among them are likely not far from solidifying skills."
"Perhaps another month or so of training might bring them to entry-level?"
As he was pondering this,
Serdur happened to express his sentiment: "They are learning faster than expected, faster than I imagined."
Even though these more than ten individuals were picked out as the "elite" from over a hundred people and were taught by them, the formal Professionals, the success rate was indeed impressive.
With this in mind, he glanced at Captain Gauss.
It’s probably due to the Captain, right?
Although Gauss initially led the "melee class" training, he took over afterward, never considering it his achievement.
He had taught outsiders before, and it had never been this efficient.
Turning to look at the threshing floor, he couldn’t help but reflect inwardly.
These people are truly fortunate.
Not everyone gets such an opportunity to learn basic skills quickly.
Sometimes, it’s less about the speed of grasping and more about whether you can grasp it at all.
Ordinary people don’t have the luxury of long trial and error, confidence, and patience.
They need to live, to labor.
If months or even a year or two pass without tangible results, amid heavy labor, it’s hard not to grow weary, causing their training results to regress.
If the timeline is significantly shortened and they can feel obvious progress quickly, the trainees are more likely to persist.
"Perhaps some among them have the potential to become Adventurers," Gauss said with a smile.
Of course, this doesn’t mean every one of them will become an Adventurer, but possessing some power can bring a more stable and peaceful environment to the village.
"Should we head to the next village?" Aaliyah asked.
Gauss paused in thought upon hearing this.
They had stayed in this village for quite some time.
With the training nearing completion, there was indeed no reason to remain.
"Soon, once I’ve mastered the Fireball Technique. It’s almost there."
Gauss set his gaze on Rhine among the crowd.
Rhine happened to meet his gaze, flashing a faint smile.
...
On the clearing outside the village.
Ying and Aaliyah held Rhine as they watched from the side, keeping a good distance from Gauss.
"That Gauss is undoubtedly a monster."
"If you told someone else that he reached level 4, mastered the Flying Technique, and was about to master the Fireball Technique, they’d think it exaggerated."
Even Aaliyah, as a teammate, found it unbelievable.