Chapter 42: Assault on the Great Core
Facing an enemy that had lost most of its mobility, Gauss not only held nothing back.
He was ready to exploit the deterrent effect of his newly acquired title, “Slime Hunter.”
Abilities were meant to be used, and this effect—specific to slimes—was too useful to waste now.
Drawing his rapier, he faced the slime before him.
Thoughts racing, the deterrent effect against slimes felt instinctive as soon as he activated it; he knew, in a single breath, how to unleash it properly.
His eyes sharpened, his focus centered.
As he concentrated, an intangible aura began to spread rapidly from his body.
“Buzzzzz—”
The deterrent field extended three meters, and the three slimes caught in its wake stiffened simultaneously, as if someone had pressed pause on them.
“Shlick!”
Almost the moment the deterrent field was released, his rapier thrust forward!
With laser focus, time seemed to slow in Gauss’s vision.
The rapier—pre‑treated with protective oil—caught the morning sunlight on its blade as it pierced the slime’s outer mucous layer.
A flash of cold steel!
Unlike the rough resistance felt when stabbing a goblin, the slime’s body was extremely soft.
“Pfft!”
Other than a few undigested bits that slightly slowed the blade, there was no other obstruction!
The rapier’s tip struck true, piercing the slime core—the target, already stiff from the deterrent field—mercilessly.
“Slosh–slosh–slosh!”
Dead!
In the blink of an eye, the slime collapsed and died neatly!
The corpse melted again, leaving a pool of foul-smelling mucilage.
“Slime Gel Slime slain ×1”
“Total monsters slain: 29”
Gauss glanced at his rapier and noticed a glob of slime gel clinging to the blade.
He swung his arm, flinging the gel away.
Although he had applied protective oil beforehand, for the rapier’s longevity he needed to minimize its contact time with the slime’s acid to prevent corrosion.
He glanced at the pool of foul liquid in front of him.
He couldn’t help but appreciate the deterrent effect.
It worked quite well.
Although it lasted only 0.5 to 1 second, with proper timing it saved considerable effort when killing slimes.
Just now, the moment he activated the deterrent, the slime had no chance to resist.
Furthermore, as he killed more slimes, the title would likely upgrade.
Soon enough, ordinary slimes might be frozen in place for several seconds—or even directly knocked unconscious or killed by his deterrence alone.
He turned and scanned the surroundings, noticing Doyle already engaging other slimes.
His expression grew serious.
“We’ve got to kill fast! If we delay, they’ll be gone.”
On the battlefield, the others were also rapidly slaying slimes.
Doyle and Levin drew attacks up close; Gauss cleared from the flank while the ranged team provided support.
With clear assignments, Night Owl Squad’s slaughter of the slimes took only a few minutes.
Real combat rarely involves perfectly matched opponents.
Unlike a back‑and‑forth clash, when there’s a power gap, battles seldom last more than ten minutes.
After slaughtering most of them head‑on, the slime swarm had already collapsed, losing the will to fight.
Even fleeing didn’t save them from the dual encirclement of longswords up front and hidden arrows from behind.
The slimes retreated, dissolving into lumps of gel.
It took a bit more time only when chasing down the remaining two or three stragglers at the edge.
In the end, they completed the thorough extermination of twenty‑five slimes.
Their current commission required them to eliminate this group of slimes, so if they could be killed, they certainly had to try to kill them all.
Each slime was equivalent to a bouncing silver coin—what low-level adventurer wasn’t doing quests for money?
Naturally, they wouldn’t let silver coins slip away for nothing.
After the battle ended—
It was time for the priestess Daphne to get to work.
Although the three melee fighters had made adequate preparations, wearing layered protection like wooden shields, outerwear, and gloves, they still inevitably got splashed by some corrosive acid during the fight.
Among them, Levin and Doyle were affected more severely.
“Hssssss—ugh—”
Doyle kept sucking in cold air and making strange noises.
“Hang in there, Doyle.” Daphne squatted beside him, holding her wooden wand.
As she focused and cast Life Stabilization, magical energy rippled from the wand, and a faint green glow enveloped the reddened skin.
Life Stabilization could slow the worsening of injuries, and this simple skin burn and itchiness was quickly suppressed under the spell’s effect.
After casting the spell, she quickly took out a pre-prepared ointment and applied it to Doyle’s wounds.
“It should completely fade in about half a day.”
“Thank you, Daphne. It’s really great having you around.”
“Uh… no need to be so polite. Oh, Captain, let me help treat your wounds too.”
After some busy healing—
The skin wounds of Levin and Doyle were quickly treated, and only then did Daphne turn toward Gauss, who looked utterly calm.
“Gauss, are you hurt? I saw you killed quite a few slimes too.”
Although Gauss didn’t show any signs of pain, he had engaged slimes in close combat, so Daphne still rushed over to ask with concern.
“I’m fine, no need to waste magic on me,” Gauss waved her off. “As for slimes, counting the spell kills, I think I got nine.”
At the moment, he was only a little mentally fatigued from using deterrence multiple times, but had no physical injuries.
“Nine!” Doyle and Levin looked over at the same time.
Especially Doyle, whose face clearly showed disappointment—he had only managed to kill five slimes.
Could it be that Gauss had now become the team’s offensive core?
Was this the difference between a warrior and a mage?
In the distance, while the others were chatting and healing, Oliver and Meiva diligently collected the loot, scooping the slime gel fragments into bags.
They ended up with a small full pouch, filled with slime gel fragments of various sizes.
This was the condensed product left behind when the slime core was pierced.
A complete slime gel was about the size of an egg and quite bouncy.
But most of the collected gels were fragments, with only a few intact.
Fortunately, fresh slime gel fragments could be pieced together—gather enough and it could still be submitted as material.
“Twenty-five slimes total. Sixty copper coins per kill reward, thirty copper coins per recovery reward—that’s twenty-two silver and fifty copper coins in total.”
Meiva calculated the mission’s profit.
Since slimes couldn’t wield weapons and the items they had swallowed were severely corroded, there was rarely anything worth salvaging.
Each person could split fewer than four silver coins.
Fortunately, the mission location was fairly close to town.
Other than the mild burns on Levin and Doyle, the overall danger was low, and completing it smoothly was a pretty decent commission.
Under the shade, as they rested together and calculated their earnings, satisfied smiles appeared on their faces.
Take a commission, engage in combat, hone skills, receive rewards, rest up, re-arm—then on to the next job.
Low-level adventurers had to work hard in such a cycle, gradually growing stronger, hoping that one day they could step onto the path of a Professional.
Of course, no one knew when that day would come.
Maybe tomorrow—or maybe never.
Gauss also sat under the tree, maintaining his rapier while reviewing his Adventurer’s Handbook.
“Total Monsters Slain: 32”
“Magic Missile Lv2 (8/20)”
This was the progress gained after the battle.
He had slain a total of nine slimes—five using Magic Missile, the remaining four with his rapier, paired with deterrence and a low-grade Bullet Time.
At this rate, just two more tasks and he’d reach fifty kills, triggering the next rank advancement.
Magic Missile was also nearing the halfway mark to Level 2.
It had to be said—his efficiency was impressive.
And this way of killing monsters was virtually risk-free.
The frontliners, Levin and Doyle, took the brunt of the enemy's assault, while he swept the flanks and cleaned up.
Of course, he also did his job well—as the team’s offensive core, without taking “easy kills,” he had eliminated nearly 40% of the enemies this time.
No strict evaluator could fault his contribution to the team.
But what Gauss cared about was something else—something he realized mid-battle.
He lacked area-of-effect abilities.
Even though two Magic Missiles had taken down five slimes, making it seem like he had AoE power—
That was just a clever trick.
Magic Missile was still a single-target spell.
He might need to learn a true AoE spell, or make Magic Missile more flexible.
If Magic Missile didn’t travel in a straight line, but could curve mid-flight—given its penetration, could it potentially kill multiple enemies in one go?
Even when facing shielded enemies that couldn’t be pierced directly, curving missiles might bypass defenses and strike weak points.
Gauss pondered. He had already managed to influence the missile’s trajectory slightly, but real wide-range control was still far off.
Of course, this was just his own idea. Whether it was feasible or realizable, he wasn’t confident.
And it raised an efficiency question—by the time he learned higher-tier spells, he might not even bother refining Magic Missile to that degree.
Besides honing skills and killing 50 monsters, he also needed to gather five types of basic monsters quickly.
Although he didn’t know what ability that would grant, it would surely strengthen his combat capabilities.
His mind buzzed with thoughts.
Gauss suddenly felt like he had a lot on his plate—goals and pending plans kept piling up.
But then he smiled.
After all, these were the kind of troubles to be thankful for.
If other low-level adventurers had the “problem” of being this busy, they’d probably laugh themselves awake in their dreams.