Chapter 45: Continuous Rain, Professionals
“It’s finally cleared up!”
Gauss opened the window, looking at the bright sunshine outside, and a smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
A few days ago, after they submitted the commission and each member of the small team received their share of the reward, they had agreed to take on another task two days later.
But unfortunately, it had been raining for several consecutive days.
So their original plans had to be postponed.
He had a constant feeling that the rain was rather suspicious, but he had no leads.
“Could it be that the rainy season has started?” Gauss walked on the street after a long while, thinking to himself.
For the past few days cooped up in the inn, aside from practicing with his rapier in the room, all he could do was chat with Sophia in the first-floor lobby to pass the time.
If he stayed any longer, he felt his body would start rusting.
Now that the weather had finally cleared up again, naturally he wanted to go out and stretch his limbs.
He wasn’t the only one with such thoughts.
On the town streets, people and caravans bustled everywhere.
“Hey, you lot! Walk faster! Otherwise, make way for me, the great one!”
A tall, shirtless Half-Orc was shouting angrily at the pedestrians walking side by side in front of him.
Gauss heard the voice behind him and turned to look.
He wasn’t involved, just curious about what was happening.
As the rumors said, most Half-Orcs were irritable and hot-tempered.
This one was no exception, his bulging eyes like brass bells; apparently irritated by the slow-moving people in front of him, he shouted at them.
If it were ordinary civilians, being roared at like that and seeing his hulking figure, they might really choose to avoid conflict.
But this time, the man in front of him didn’t seem like someone easy to mess with either.
Hearing the Half-Orc’s road-rage-like roar, he simply stopped in his tracks.
He turned around to face the Half-Orc, a provocatively mocking smile on his face.
There was a huge difference in physique between the two—this human man was about 1.7 meters tall, while the Half-Orc was nearly 2 meters, standing there like a thick wall.
But the man showed no hint of fear on his face.
“You bastard!”
Already irritable, the Half-Orc was provoked, and his face instantly turned red with anger, no longer able to hold back his temper.
“Boom!”
A huge fist, wrapped in a fierce gale, immediately swung toward the man’s face.
Nearby pedestrians were frightened by the scene and hurriedly scattered, keeping a distance from the two.
“Bang!”
Unexpectedly, that powerful punch from the Half-Orc was easily caught by the man’s seemingly ordinary palms.
The fist couldn’t even move a hair past that hand.
The Half-Orc’s eye twitched, and his previously flushed, ferocious face suddenly squeezed out a friendly smile.
“Sorry, bro…”
Just as he was about to beg for mercy, before the words could leave his mouth, an incredibly swift knee strike smashed into his lower abdomen.
“Ugh!!”
The man retracted his leg, and the Half-Orc immediately fell to his knees, dry heaving repeatedly.
Gauss saw the scene from afar, and his expression grew serious.
“A Professional…”
That kind of terrifying power, ignoring physical disparity, could clearly only belong to a Professional.
He’s really strong.
Gauss recalled that kick just now—it was so fast that he didn’t even catch it.
Even though he hadn’t entered a state of accelerated thinking, it was still terrifying.
His naked eyes couldn’t even detect the opponent’s muscle movements.
No wonder people said Professionals were human-shaped weapons.
There really was a massive, unbridgeable gap between them and ordinary people.
Even a Half-Orc with some inherited bloodline power couldn’t withstand a casual strike.
An ordinary person would only fare worse.
Could I react if I were at close range? The thought suddenly popped into Gauss’s mind.
No.
He quickly arrived at an answer.
Even with accelerated thinking and recognizing the attack trajectory, his body wouldn’t be able to respond in such a short time.
If he maintained a certain distance, he might be able to launch a Magic Missile attack.
But Gauss worried that, given the opponent’s physical capabilities, he might not even be able to lock on during casting.
“I’m still too weak.”
After being around the Night Owl Team, Gauss, who once thought he had made some progress, was once again reminded of his true strength.
Facing a Professional, he probably wasn’t much different from a regular person.
The people around dispersed, no longer wanting to spectate, afraid trouble would come their way.
Gauss also looked away and quickened his pace to leave.
It wasn’t that he was frightened like the other bystanders—he simply had an urgent desire to become stronger.
He needed to schedule a commission as soon as possible.
Knock knock!
After informing the receptionist of Levin’s name, he went upstairs to the tavern’s second-floor rooms.
“Room 3.”
Levin was a long-term resident there.
Before long, a voice came from behind the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Gauss.”
Soon after the sound of dragging a chair, Levin opened the door.
“You’re here to talk about the commission, right? I was just about to come find you.”
Levin stepped aside and motioned for Gauss to come in.
Though the room he rented wasn’t luxurious, it was fully furnished.
When Gauss arrived, it looked like he had been maintaining his equipment.
An Oak Shield was placed at the center of the table, beside it beeswax, resin, a bristle brush, and a small iron spatula.
“I was actually planning to head to where you live today,” Levin said as he resumed brushing the wooden shield, speaking at a leisurely pace. “I wanted to let you know—if it’s still sunny tomorrow, let’s meet at the Adventurer’s Guild.”
“Now that you’re here, I can skip the trip.”
Levin stretched lazily—the continuous rainy days had made even him a little restless.
If a Professional didn’t practice their skills regularly, they would start to regress. Though this regression wouldn’t occur in just a few days, Levin still felt uneasy.
It always felt like lying around for a few days would reduce his chances of becoming a Professional in the future.
“Want me to go inform the others?”
“No need, I’ll go in the afternoon myself—just a good chance to get some fresh air.”
Gauss sat in Levin’s room a while longer, studying his shield maintenance process and techniques.
With his excellent memory, it didn’t take long for him to engrave the not-so-complicated care routine and steps into his mind, and he left satisfied.
The next day.
The weather remained clear.
Gauss put on his gear and left the inn.
He arrived at the packed Adventurer’s Guild.
The number of commissions pinned on the wall was slightly higher than usual.
“What kind of mission are we doing this time?” Doyle rubbed his fists excitedly. “I feel like I’m about to fully master my Cross Slash—the feeling is really strong.”
“You said the same thing around this time last year,” Meiva reminded him with a blank expression.
“This time is really different!”
“Hmm, that’s exactly what you said last year too.”
Many adventurers often had this illusion that their skill was on the verge of reaching mastery, about to step into the Path Guidance phase.
After all, there was no clear way to quantify their progress—everything relied on personal judgment.
But feelings could change with mood and subjective perception, making them highly misleading.
“Better keep your mindset steady. Be careful—I heard some adventurers go delusional thinking they’re about to reach a new path and end up mentally breaking down,” Oliver also patted Doyle’s shoulder.
Gauss watched silently from the side.
Once again, he felt deeply grateful that his own skill proficiency showed clear progress—it was truly overpowered.