Chapter 39: Slime
Under the flag of sword, shield, and staff fluttering in the wind.
After many days.
The members of the Night Owl Team gathered once again!
Compared to their dusty and tired appearances after finishing their previous mission, everyone now looked refreshed and radiant.
Clearly, after resting for a few days, their weary minds and bodies had recovered.
"Morning, Gauss." Doyle, who had just gotten a new haircut, took the initiative to wave and greet Gauss.
"Morning."
Gauss noticed that although Doyle hadn’t spoken much when they first met and seemed reserved, he was actually a quiet type who warmed up once familiar.
Of course, it could also be because Gauss had earned his recognition through strength.
"What’s that?"
The sharp-eyed Doyle immediately noticed the white wand tucked at Gauss’s waist.
"Is that a magic wand?"
The others also turned to look upon hearing this, curiously staring at the slender white wand at Gauss’s side.
"It’s just a wand without a core, not worth much." Gauss waved his hand dismissively.
But clearly, the others did not fully believe his explanation, even though he was telling the plain truth.
Who told this white bone wand to look so finely crafted?
Daphne was no exception.
She looked down at the wooden wand in her own hand, then compared it to Gauss’s wand, pressing her lips together.
She suddenly felt that the wooden wand she used to like now seemed much duller.
But what material was that wand made from? Gemstone? Stone? Daphne felt it didn’t look like the commonly used wooden wand materials.
"Alright, let’s start picking up requests." After the brief greetings, Levin led the group into the Adventurer’s Guild Hall.
The Adventurer’s Guild Hall was, as always, packed with people.
The chatter and hubbub flooded into their ears the moment they crossed the threshold into the hall.
Don’t expect low-level adventurers to observe proper etiquette and speak quietly in public.
Especially those large, hair-covered half-orcs. When they opened their mouths, it was like a loudspeaker, as if afraid strangers wouldn’t hear them.
"Levin, let’s take on some different tasks this time?" Gauss came to his side and had to raise his voice.
"Different as in?"
"Non-Goblin combat requests. I want to fight a more diverse range of monsters to gain more experience with different enemy body types."
"I understand. I’ll try to pick accordingly." Levin nodded solemnly.
He had already acknowledged Gauss’s strength and naturally would take his request seriously.
Besides, this was a small matter to begin with.
The monsters encountered in adventurer tasks were certainly not limited to Goblins; it was just that Goblins were the most common among low-tier monsters.
So many beginner adventurers had the most chances to deal with them.
Besides Goblins, low-level adventurers could also encounter skeletons in graveyards, kobolds in mines, river ghouls running wild along riverbeds, and slimes lurking in swamp puddles...
These creatures, like Goblins, could also pose a threat to human life and property, and so people or organizations would post requests.
Since Gauss wasn’t the team leader, after making his suggestion, he didn’t press the issue further and left the decision to Levin.
He instead browsed through the Monster Encyclopedia in his mind.
The Monster Encyclopedia had six pages in total. Currently, he could only access Page 1: [Common Monsters].
On the first page, only one image was lit — a ferocious-looking green-skinned small monster.
At the bottom-right of the green monster’s icon was a tiny number: 23.
As for the other icons, they were all gray, shrouded in a layer of mist, making it impossible to tell how many common monsters there were in total.
And beneath the gray mist, at the very bottom of the page.
There was a line of text.
[Common] Types Collected: 1
Total Count: 23/50
The text recorded the types of monsters he had killed so far, and the total number of all kills.
Since only Goblins had been killed so far, the Goblin kill count and the total kill count at the bottom were the same.
While Gauss was lost in thought, the others were already gathered around Levin, discussing which specific request to take.
Finally, when Gauss returned to reality from his thoughts, a request form had already been decided.
Find and eliminate the Slimes wandering outside the Harvest Orchard of Valencia Village.
Task reward: 60 copper coins per slime.
Task quantity: More than 20 slimes.
They also took on a long-term material collection task for Slime Gel, with a recovery price of 30 copper coins per chunk.
Ordinary Slimes were not as combat-capable as Goblins, but Slimes were more timid, making them difficult to locate.
Moreover, they were not entirely harmless, as the acidic substances inside them had a certain degree of corrosiveness.
Overall, it was considered a relatively easy task.
The task location was also not too far.
Valencia Village, judging by the distance on the map, could be reached in about half a day’s travel.
After a round of discussion, the team confirmed the task.
At noon, after gathering all their equipment and luggage.
Everyone assembled again at the town’s exit and set off on the mission.
Because the destination was fairly close, there was less luggage on the flatbed cart pulled by the packhorse this time.
The teammates taking turns to rest had more space to move around.
When it was Gauss’s turn to rest, he didn’t waste time and took out a notebook from his clothes.
On the slightly bumpy flatbed cart, resting on his pack, he quietly started reading.
Recently, he had been making time to read this notebook that Andini had recorded in her early days.
Although it didn’t include any specific spell instruction, it contained a lot of her personal thoughts on magic and magical energy, as well as the magical knowledge she had collected during her early adventures.
Reading this notebook provided Gauss, a newbie who in his previous life had never and could never come into contact with supernatural forces, with a good foundation of basic “common sense.”
What he valued most were the introductions to common Tier 0 cantrips and low-level spell effects.
He also discovered that the spell Andini had used to identify the Life Magic Stone for him earlier was a Tier 1 spell.
Its effect was: while maintaining contact with the object, casting this spell would, in most cases, allow the caster to discern the nature of a magical or mana-imbued item.
He hadn’t expected such a plain-looking spell to be Tier 1 level.
However, the spell effect was indeed excellent—at least for someone like Gauss who lacked a solid foundation in magic, possessing this spell would greatly help in both daily life and missions.
In addition, Gauss also learned an important piece of information: the number of spells a caster could master at a given time was limited.
There was no clear standard for this number; it depended on each caster’s soul strength.
The stronger the spell, the heavier the burden it placed on the caster’s soul, and it might even require certain methods to forget unneeded spells.
Therefore, many casters, even if they had access to many spellbooks, would still carefully select their optimal spell combinations.