I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 417: Kill Count: 50,000

To prevent the Magic Frog Lord from ceasing its summoning of monster minions, Gauss periodically jabbed at its vulnerable spots with his attacks. So even though his summons and companions were slaughtering monsters in large numbers, many more were still on their way.Of course, Gauss did not shift all the pressure onto his teammates.

After confirming several times that the Magic Frog was trapped and immobile in its own Watery Prison, he joined the strike against the monsters.

Most of the incoming monsters were frog-type, supplemented by several common species, all familiar old acquaintances.

On the battlefield, a silhouette flickered with blinding speed.

A female shieldbearer had been knocked down by the attack, and a goblin riding a hound was about to skewer her with its spear.

The next moment, a razor-sharp sword beam cleaved the goblin and its mount in two.

“Whoosh!!”

Blood sprayed through the air like fireworks.

“If you’re wounded, fall back to the rear for treatment. Don’t push yourself,” a gentle voice rang from above the fallen shieldbearer’s head.

She opened her mouth to speak a word of thanks, but the silhouette had already lightly tapped its toes and drifted to an open patch of ground dozens of meters away.

He moved like an executioner tuned to absolute precision, greedily harvesting the lives of every monster he saw until it approached an art form.

Saying it that way made sense, because his movements were so fast and accurate that it was as if a master sculptor were displaying exquisite craftsmanship.

Even the most battle-seasoned veterans would struggle to find fault.

Each of his motions looked as if they had been plotted in his head in advance. His footfalls landed at the exact comfortable distance from a monster to launch an attack, and every sword stroke sliced precisely into that species’ weak point:

the goblin’s neck, the Magic Frog’s spinal core, the heart of most other monsters.

He knew monsters’ anatomies and vulnerabilities so well it bordered on mastery.

Killing over forty thousand monsters had not been in vain. Even if his raw strength and mana were suppressed to the same level as others, his skill and experience would still let him kill at a rate many times faster than same-level adventurers.

Besides his economical, no-waste melee strikes, his ranged attacks consisted mainly of cantrip-level Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, and 1st circle Magic Missile.

All of this was to squeeze his mana usage to the utmost.

Particularly Fire Bolt and Magic Missile—spells he knew intimately—he could cast while keeping their consumption within a reasonable range, avoiding the wastefulness of using big spells to swat mosquitoes.

This was not to say large-area spells like Burning Hands, Fireball, or Ice Storm were useless.

It was simply a matter of cost-effectiveness. Small-area single-target attacks were more efficient, and there were allies on the battlefield who could be harmed by indiscriminate attacks.

Also, Magic Missile and Fire Bolt could be fired in multiple bolts, and with the Feast talent digesting food for recovery, he could generally keep his mana balance steady, even slightly replenishing previous mana expenditures.

Aside from him, the battlefield’s non-medical teams—led by Serlandul in the rear—others were also fighting hard.

Luna’s offensive magic was distinctive.

She summoned floating, translucent bubbles that burst on contact with monsters, releasing a concentrated shock wave that pulverized their internal organs.

In terms of kill efficiency, she ranked just after Gauss, Hephaestus, and the goblin-slaying Clay Golem—seventh overall.

A level-9 Warlock without sufficient brute-tank protection could still be a terrifying threat.

Shadow and Aria acted together, their tacit understanding reaching a very high level as time passed.

Aria’s Moonlight Vines raced across the ground, tightly entangling any monsters they passed, then Shadow and her clones quickly finished off the bound targets. Silver Wolf Ulfen and raven Eck likewise cleared the enemies before them with equal speed.

Albenia fought in sweeping, brutal arcs. Her two-meter greataxe needed only a little swing to become lethal to most monsters.

Not to mention Gauss’s summons, Hephaestus, Toga’s dwarf squad, level-7 Infiltrator Ethan, level-6 Knight Dant...

Although the sheer numbers favored the monsters overwhelmingly, in high-end combat power, the Red Dragon Guild held absolute advantage.

Gauss even began rotating teammates back to the rear medical points for rest.

As for himself, at this intensity he could probably keep going for a full day and night without issue.

As time passed, more and more monsters fell on this land.

From above, you could see the surrounding earth darkened and soaked with blood, taking on a grim, terrifying hue.

Yet the Red Dragon Guild’s battle line held like an unbreakable wall.

“Total monsters killed: 42,115”

“Total monsters killed: 43,533”

“Total monsters killed: 45,778”

“Total monsters killed: 49,116”

...

Gauss’s count on the Monster Encyclopedia climbed rapidly.

Finally, after he once more severed a goblin’s head, the kill count on the Bestiary broke through the milestone.

He opened a Dimension Door and flashed into the sky, then glanced at the Adventurer’s Manual.

“Total monsters killed: 50,000/50,000. Milestone achievement: 50,000 kills reached.”

“Reward obtained: 5th circle Evocation spell Bigby’s Hand.”

“Reward obtained: 5th circle spell Dawnbreak.”

“Reward obtained: Professional feat Three-Phase Source.”

“Reward obtained: Strength +1, Constitution +1, Agility +1.”

Strength: 16 → 17

Agility: 15 → 16

Constitution: 16 → 17

Intelligence: 19

Perception: 16

Charisma: 16

The rewards from reaching fifty thousand kills surprised Gauss.

First, he finally received 5th-circle spell rewards—two at once.

A 5th-circle spell was no small matter. Normally, one had to be an 11th-level spellcaster to learn such spells, and they were extremely difficult to master.

They were also expensive on the market; any single one would typically cost hundreds to thousands of gold coins, so he had not rushed to learn them.

Now the Adventurer’s Manual handed him two 5th-circle spells outright, effectively serving as a stepping stone to open the mysteries of the 5th circle. From their experience, he could then try to learn more 5th-circle spells independently.

And these two spells were exceptional.

Bigby’s Hand created a gigantic hand he could command to unleash terrifying destructive force—a sort of supercharged version of Mage Hand in Gauss’s understanding.

Dawnbreak, on the other hand, was a light-based spell that manifested as a pillar of sunlight descending from the sky to strike, dealing massive radiant damage to any enemies within it.

These two offensive spells dramatically raised Gauss’s damage ceiling, letting him face powerful monsters with greater ease.

Although he spent most of his time slaughtering small monsters, powerful offensive magic was not something he could afford to be without.

Beyond that, his Strength, Constitution, and Agility each rose by one point, nudging him further down the path of a tanky, versatile build. The Manual’s extra attribute points prevented any glaring weaknesses and were key to his ability to hold off many enemies while sustaining himself.

But what delighted Gauss most was not the 5th-circle spells or the attribute points, it was the unassuming Professional Feat: Three-Phase Source.

He felt a tide-like surge of powerful energy roll through his body and instantly understood the feat’s effect.

Three-Phase Source granted Gauss the ability to freely convert among three distinct sources of power: physical stamina, mana, and life force.

A grin of irrepressible joy crossed his face.

Because he knew this filled his last obvious weak spot.

Three-Phase Source’s value far exceeded what those 5th-circle spells or simple stat increases could provide. Its arrival would massively elevate his combat capability.

He already had many recovery methods—Feast to digest food and restore stamina and mana, spells and title effects to siphon life from monsters—but previously those three resources had been isolated.

Now, this vast tree of abilities converged. Three-Phase Source completed the final unification.

This meant that when needed, he could become a tireless physical powerhouse, or in the next moment morph into a mana-surge spell platform with greatly increased recovery, or turn into a tenacious life-force “meat shield.”

Honestly, with the three-pronged light of power flickering inside him, he felt any enemy facing him would despair.

He sensed three distinct energies within his body.

Mana was the largest portion in his perception, followed by physical stamina, and then life force.

Stamina was somewhat less than mana, roughly three-quarters of it, and life force was about half of the mana portion. The ratio from most to least was approximately 4:3:2.

After receiving all the rewards, Gauss’s body emitted a crack like thunder. Since his Dimension Door had moved him high into the air, the sound was only audible to him.

But his aura became even more terrifying.

If before he had the power to slay the Transcendent Dragon Priestess Cecilia, now he could kill her with ease.

Maybe I’ve already touched the threshold of level-12 combat power?

Having never fought a level-12 creature, he didn’t know exactly where his strength now stood, so he used the deceased Transcendent Dragon Priestess as his benchmark.

“Vzz! Vzz!”

The chalice symbolizing his mana source continued to glitter within him, indicating his Magician experience had reached the current level’s limit—full to the brim and about to overflow.

But glancing down, he realized this was not the time to breakthrough.

Below, as Gauss turned his attention back to the battlefield, the atmosphere instantly grew oppressive.

Especially the monsters he focused on stiffened in their motions, and the Red Dragon Guild members fighting them seized the opportunity to cut them down.

Taking advantage of the pause, some looked up at the source of that substantial aura.

They saw their guild leader standing on high, his presence even more fearsome than before.

“Has the guild leader gotten stronger again?”

Several people murmured in astonishment.

Normally, the higher a professional’s level, the harder it was to break through—getting stuck at a combat tier for months or years was common.

But that iron rule seemed to fail for their leader.

Not only was he vastly stronger than they were, but his rate of breakthroughs was also faster.

Even Luna was stunned. She felt an unusually lethal force from Gauss, as if a single thought could kill her. Previously his pressure had been strong, but not this extreme.

Had he had an epiphany, a last-minute breakthrough? Or had their leader been hiding part of his strength?

She wondered as she gaped. Any hypothesis pointed to how unfathomable their leader was.

Only the Red Dragon Guild veterans who had followed Gauss the longest weren’t surprised.

This had happened before. They knew about their leader’s terrifying, unpredictable talent: in a blink, he might have another epiphany and grow stronger.

“Heightened spellcasting, Vampiric Touch!”

Gauss flashed and plunged into the monster horde.

Dark-red, blood-soaked tendrils slammed down like the tentacles of a giant octopus.

“!”

Dozens of monsters were smashed into pulp by the giant tendrils and the impact. A gush of crimson life energy flowed along the blood-tainted appendages into Gauss, then streamed continuously into his body.

Gauss’s eyes flashed with brilliance.

Because he was at full health at the moment, the extra life energy Vampiric Touch drew in naturally converted into mana.

On top of that, his Feast talent kept digesting the magic stones he’d eaten, continually releasing abundant mana.

This mana seemed inexhaustible—truly endless...

Perhaps later he could seek out a spell; if he remembered correctly, there was a 5th-circle spell called Energy Drain, whose crude effect also siphoned life from targets. As a 5th-circle spell, its damage and drain would be even stronger.

But for now, he would use a heightened Vampiric Touch.

With the help of Three-Phase Source and Feast, he could use this life-draining spell without drawback. In dense monster clusters, the spell might even produce more mana the more he used it.

With no worries at the back, Gauss unleashed himself at full might!

“Boom!!!”

“Crash!!!”

He charged through the monster mass like a tentacled behemoth, trampling everything into bloodied pulp in the crudest, most direct way.

This slaughter made even these loyal monstrous minions instinctively recoil in terror.

From the monsters’ perspective, a “monster among monsters” had arrived!