I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 338: The Squad Comes Together

The Gauss squad arrived at the riverside.There was no longer any human activity outside the small town.

Besides the information about magical beast attacks that the Crow squad had inquired about, the increasingly cold weather was also forcing commoners to stay within their settlements.

A thin layer of white frost covered the ground, likely left behind after the temperature dropped last night.

"Come out! Hephaestus!"

Seeing this, Gauss decisively summoned the Red Drake.

Sure enough, after it appeared, the surrounding temperature quietly rose by several degrees.

Successfully unlocking Hephaestus's new function, a natural "little sun" unit.

Gauss patted its increasingly robust physique with satisfaction.

As for its face full of resentment, he silently ignored it.

As a Red Dragon, how could it fear severe cold?

The more something is a weakness, the more one should find ways to overcome it.

"Much more comfortable."

Aria and the others also quietly took a few steps closer to Hephaestus.

"Splash, splash, splash—"

Although the weather was cold, the river's relentless flow prevented the surface from freezing solid.

Sharp-eyed Gauss immediately spotted several bluish-purple heads floating and peeking out from the river water.

"It's Water Ghosts."

Gauss took no action to avoid alerting them.

The ominous aura he sensed didn't come from these common aquatic monsters,

but from the river itself.

He took out the Water Sword formed from the Godwater.

He extended the Water Sword toward the water's surface, and the blade quickly lit up with a faint glow.

This reaction indicated the presence of a foreign energy in the water that was naturally repelled by holy power.

He moved to several different spots, and the Water Sword remained lit,

though the glow was faint, indicating the intensity was relatively weak.

Could the surge in magical beast numbers be related to water pollution?

Gauss withdrew the Water Sword.

"Time to get to work."

"Total monsters killed: 10,677"

During the last battle with the Dragon Worshipers, they had killed several hundred more monsters.

Because the river water temperature was low, many amphibious monsters had left the water to build nests and survive on the riverbank.

This was also the reason why the town residents had been frequently attacked recently.

Having rested for many days, now returning to his main business, he actually felt a bit of excitement.

They continued walking along the riverbank.

Not long after, he saw a clear string of footprints.

Following the footprints on the ground, Gauss found a nest of Water Ghosts.

Their skin was bluish-purple, their limbs were thin, but their bellies were slightly swollen, making them look like people suffering from a strange illness.

Within the monster camp, several frozen corpses were hanging.

Their limbs and torsos had been dismembered, hung on wooden frames like stored food.

Gauss knew those were probably the townspeople who had been killed.

Two fists are no match for four hands; ordinary hunters encountering this nest of Water Ghosts naturally wouldn't fare well.

He could just use this nest of Water Ghosts to practice and test the effects of his professional feat [Artillery Mage].

He waved his hand, signaling everyone not to intervene.

Then, suppressing his aura, he walked alone toward the Water Ghost camp.

The Water Ghosts were initially very alert, but when they saw only one person, they barely managed to hold their formation.

Plus, having recently hunted several humans and tasted meat, driven by greed for tasty food, even though Gauss emitted an ominous aura, they didn't flee immediately.

Gauss walked into the camp.

The Water Ghosts bared their teeth at him, raising their weapons and surrounding him.

He remained unfazed.

With his current defensive power, even if he stood still and let these Water Ghosts attack freely, it would probably take them half a day to break through his protection.

"Truly pitiful..."

They couldn't even intuitively recognize the gap.

"Roar!"

The Water Ghost Leader growled lowly. The Water Ghosts surrounding Gauss tightened their grip on their wooden spears, moved their splayed legs, and thrust their spears at Gauss with force.

"..."

The sharpened wooden spears stabbed against the seemingly soft, smooth mage robe.

But they couldn't advance another inch.

"Wah wah wah!!!"

The Water Ghosts gritted their teeth, their large feet constantly pushing back against the ground, trying to thrust their wooden spears into the human body that had appeared in their camp.

But no matter how much strength they exerted, the spear tips still couldn't penetrate the clothing surface by even a fraction.

The protection of purple equipment was extremely difficult for ordinary monsters to break through.

Gauss couldn't even feel how much the protective layer on the surface of his Moonlight Robe had been depleted.

It seems I overestimated you.

Gauss took out his White Wand and raised it overhead.

By now, the Water Ghost Leader more or less realized the situation was bad and roared toward the sky.

This sound represented the command to retreat upon encountering a powerful enemy.

But wanting to retreat now was already too late.

The raised wand began to release deadly blue light.

"Magic Missile!"

Gauss's heart stirred slightly.

The moment he released the spell, he felt an unprecedented sense of "control."

This 1st circle spell, his most frequently used and most proficient one, seemed to have undergone a qualitative improvement after breaking through to level 6 and mastering the "Artillery Mage" professional feat.

An elegant blue missile shot out from the tip of the wand.

Then, almost simultaneously, a second one emerged.

Third, fourth...

Missiles poured out like a storm, each one easily taking the life of one or two Water Ghosts.

In an instant, over twenty missiles were released almost in a single moment.

Gauss looked at the almost completely slaughtered Water Ghost camp and nodded with satisfaction.

The current Magic Missile had completely transformed; the scene just now was like rain, but unlike ordinary raindrops, these "raindrops" were deadly.

He nodded with satisfaction.

Releasing over twenty missiles simultaneously was his current limit, but if he gritted his teeth, releasing more simultaneously wasn't impossible.

But he felt it unnecessary because, in his perception, that would bring more additional mana consumption.

Compared to Fireball, the advantage of super rapid-fire Magic Missiles was still quite obvious.

They could accurately target enemies, wouldn't cause additional damage to allies, were faster, and enemies had a hard time reacting.

Next, the Gauss squad continued along the riverbank, heading north while also helping the surrounding residents clear monsters along the shore.

"Moonlight Radiance!"

This 2nd circle attack spell displayed the power of a 3rd circle spell in Aria's hands.

Where the moonlight reached, monsters caught within its light painfully scratched their skin. Monsters that couldn't run away in time gradually disintegrated, drifting into the sky like burnt paper ash, purified clean.

Gauss's mouth opened slightly in surprise.

Seeing his astonished expression, Aria, having finished casting, shyly tucked the hair beside her ear behind it.

After she changed professions to become a Moon Phase Walker, this spell's power had greatly increased. Moreover, she suspected that her ability to attract the Moon Goddess's attention might also be an important factor.

However, she didn't think the power warranted Gauss's level of surprise.

After all, many monsters' mobility allowed them to leave the moonlight's irradiation range before being completely killed.

She thought Gauss was deliberately making an exaggerated expression to make her happy.

Little did she know, Gauss was genuinely startled by one thing.

"Killed Goblin *1"

"..."

The number of monsters Aria killed could also be shared with him now.

After changing professions and awakening her bloodline, although Aria's combat power was still difficult to match his, compared to ordinary professionals, she was already terrifyingly strong.

And, no matter what, having one more "helper" to kill monsters was always good.

Usually, he would try to let his teammates provide support, but he actually didn't deliberately control them not to kill monsters.

Now, besides the Red Drake Hephaestus, Shadow, Aria had become the third person to share kills.

Adding that Serlandul, who served as team medic and support, rarely participated in direct killing work, actually only Albenia remained in the team.

But Albenia was a heavy-armored warrior; compared to mass-killing enemies, breaking through strong individual enemies was her area of expertise.

So, currently, the Gauss squad had reached a very good model.

Members who mastered fast mass-killing abilities could almost all share their kill counts with him.

Theoretically, he could even be a hands-off manager now, letting his teammates "work" for him.

But in practical terms, Gauss naturally wouldn't go that far.

He also needed combat to accumulate experience, practice skills, and more importantly, his efficiency at killing monsters was higher than his teammates'.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

The Gauss squad cleared out all the monsters gathered along the river area.

Although enemies underwater were inconvenient to kill, with Hephaestus's presence, flying above the river and spraying breath into the water, if aimed accurately, could also kill quite a few monsters with one breath.

"Total monsters killed: 11,698"

Gauss glanced at the data on his panel.

Over these two days, they had continuously killed nearly a thousand monsters, also wiping out the Water Ghosts that had gathered in the river for unknown reasons.

Moreover, besides the accumulated harvest from the total kill count,

Gauss had other gains.

Those were gifts from his racial talent [Encountering Evil Hour].

One of the effects of [Encountering Evil Hour]: When the host kills evil creatures, there is a tiny probability of plundering power from their bodies, converting it into corresponding [Skills] and proficiency for oneself.

Mass killing Water Ghosts.

"Dropped" two skills.

[Bite] and [Swim].

When these two skills first "dropped," Gauss was somewhat confused.

After all, in his understanding, biting and swimming weren't really considered skills, or they were different from the skills he previously possessed.

And, he already knew how to bite and swim.

But after practicing, he found that [Bite] and [Swim], after being solidified into skills, were still somewhat different from ordinary actions.

The former could consume stamina to strengthen the biting force of his jaws.

The latter could optimize his swimming posture in water and significantly reduce water resistance while swimming.

Although not hugely useful, skills picked up for free weren't something to complain about.

Gauss believed that as the adventure continued, he would "drop" more skills from monsters.

The only slight imperfection was that the drop rate from killing monsters was a bit low.

Bite lv1 (8/10)

Swim lv1 (2/10)

The Bite skill was easy to practice because his usual chewing during meals counted as skill training. Even without deliberate practice, the skill experience grew quickly.

"Next, let's continue toward the snowy mountains."

They were getting closer and closer to the snowy mountains.

"Whoosh—"

Wind mixed with bean-sized snow pellets hit their faces.

"Finally here!"

"The source of the Tarna River, the snowy mountain Isthm."

What appeared before Gauss was an endless stretch of snow peaks.

They were like pale giant swords stabbing toward the sky, the blizzard hiding the mountain peaks.

"Roar!"

Hephaestus growled lowly.

Gauss understood its meaning; it wanted to land.

The snow made it instinctively uneasy.

Each biting wind carrying bone-chilling cold scraped by like steel blades.

"Land."

Even Gauss couldn't stand it anymore and could only let Hephaestus land on the ground.

It was strangely freezing in the sky; the cold natural mana in the air constantly eroded every visitor's body like a toxin.

Only after stepping into snow up to his calves did Gauss feel that deadly cold receding.

But the temperature was still incredibly cold.

No wonder this place could become an uninhabited zone.

For a place to become a human settlement, it first must be suitable for living.

Looking around, besides white snow, there wasn't a trace of life in sight.

Ordinary humans obviously couldn't survive in such extreme environments. The ever-present icy mana in the air would constantly erode their bodies, eventually freezing them into ice sculptures; wearing more clothes would be useless.

"Isthm..."

Albenia softly repeated the name.

"In Giant language, it has the meaning of 'home of the frost-breathing star.'"

"Legend says a meteor fell here, then turned this place into an eternal winter graveyard."

Gauss looked up at the snowy mountains.

Obviously, such a snowy mountain range appearing here was extremely abnormal. But considering this world's legends and mystical aspects, the probability of even stranger terrain appearing wasn't zero.

"It's really cold—"

Aria shivered.

Then Gauss took out Cold Resistance Potions from his Storage Bag, giving one bottle to each companion.

This was one of the gifts Praelius had given them earlier in Longdi Fort.

Knowing Gauss and the others' destination was the Isthm snowy mountains, he specifically sent someone to purchase enough Cold Resistance Potions.

After drinking the pale red potion, Gauss and the others' bodies began to warm up slightly, the effect lasting 8 hours.

The potions Praelius purchased were enough for them to move around here for about a week.

"Let's head into the mountains."

Gauss cast Fly on his teammates, then led everyone flying close to the ground into the snowy mountains.

.

"Boom!!!"

"Be careful!"

"Avalanche coming!!"

"Immediately increase flight altitude!"

After Gauss's warning, the group quickly flew upward. Below, endless snow surged down the mountainside like a river.

Among the surrounding steep mountains, avalanches would appear from time to time.

Though a natural phenomenon, avalanches actually covered an extremely large area. In Gauss's view, their impact was much greater than ordinary 4th or 5th circle magic.

Fortunately, he had mastered the Fly spell. As long as he observed the surrounding mountain conditions in advance, he could gain enough altitude to avoid the avalanche before it arrived like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses.

"Rumble!!!"

The avalanche continued for over ten minutes before finally stopping.

Gauss and the others landed on top of a bare rock.

This was originally a small hill, but after being buried by snow, only a small section of the mountain body remained exposed.

"That was really close..."

Gauss let out a long sigh of relief.

This snowy area was more dangerous than they had imagined.

They had mentally prepared to encounter strong enemies before entering the mountains but didn't expect the more troublesome difficulties to come from the natural environment itself.

Even though the squad members were already significant figures in ordinary people's eyes, they were still very insignificant before the might of nature.

Just as everyone was feeling lingering fear, a loud roar suddenly sounded in the sky.

Gauss and the others looked up. In the gray, haze-filled sky swirling with snow, they vaguely saw a white figure.