ebookpocket.com Chapter 383: This Damn World
Chapter 383: This Damn World
Gauss had always been a man who understood the numbers.Though he considered himself hardworking — even when not out on commissions he would steal private time to practice magic, a steady, unceasing effort — he would not credit effort alone for everything he had achieved.
Without the powerful talent bonuses granted by the Adventurer’s Manual, even if he practiced magic nonstop around the clock, he could never have reached his current level.
Besides, effort itself was also a talent that people often overlooked.
His body’s recovery rate, total mana pool, and mana regeneration naturally determined that, in the same amount of time, he could endure greater training volume and intensity than others.
In short, his bodily gifts meant he could outwork everyone else.
....
After finishing a class,
Gauss headed for the academy library.
It was a three-story building.
Aria kept glancing around as they walked.
Like Gauss, she had never really “attended school,” so she still had a certain curiosity about the magic academy.
“Thank you, Professor Eveline. You can go handle your own things. We’ll look around by ourselves.”
After parting with Eveline the magician, who had followed them the whole way, Gauss and Aria entered the library.
The first and second floors were open to students, while the third floor was reserved for teachers and professors.
Because she was an outsider, Aria couldn’t borrow books, but the staff seemed to recognize Gauss’s identity and did not block her at the door.
“You look around here for a bit. I’ll go upstairs and find the books you need.”
“Okay.”
The library had a very pleasant atmosphere.
A spacious, quiet reading area, potted plants everywhere, sunlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows and spilling onto the greenery, the whole scene was soothing.
Most of the students reading here were upperclassmen — they needed to complete graduation work before finishing their studies, so they came here to borrow books.
Before Gauss went up the stairs, he lingered a few moments to take it in.
He still liked this quiet ambiance; it reminded him of the way school had felt in his past life.
After passing the checks to enter the third floor, Gauss began his real business.
One book, two books, three books…
The pile of books in his hands steadily grew taller.
However, the books had been tagged with magical devices, and once added into a magical apparatus they would trigger an alarm.
They had to be registered before leaving.
He borrowed around thirty books covering smelting, mineralogy, magical botany, and extraction studies before he felt satisfied and started back downstairs.
Meanwhile, Aria, browsing casually on the first floor, had picked several books as well — together their total approached forty volumes.
“I’ll help you carry some.”
Aria rose onto her toes and took half from Gauss’s hands.
But the weight was actually light for both of them.
They reached the front desk at the first-floor entrance.
“Hello, I’d like to register these books for borrowing.”
Gauss presented his professor identification.
“All right.”
The front desk attendant nodded, then glanced at the mound of books and showed a slightly strange expression.
To be honest, he had been the library administrator at the academy for two years, but he rarely saw a professor borrow so many books at once like a “big purchase.”
Besides, regulations allowed a maximum of thirty books per loan to avoid someone hoarding too many at once and affecting other borrowers.
This count was already very high; normally it would never be exceeded.
Out of habit he quickly scanned the pile and could tell Gauss’s number likely far exceeded the limit.
When he noticed that, a troubled look crossed his face.
He knew who Gauss was.
At a recent full faculty meeting, although Gauss had not been present, the vice dean had introduced this superstar talent who had joined the academy.
“In the future, the number of books Professor Gauss borrows is not limited.”
While he hesitated, a familiar yet somewhat distant, resonant voice sounded in his ear.
The vice dean’s voice?
After hesitating a moment, the attendant’s expression returned to a smile.
Since the vice dean had spoken, he naturally wouldn’t cause trouble.
He quickly processed the loan procedures for all the books and politely handed everything to Gauss.
“Is there a time limit?” Gauss put the registered books into his Storage Bag.
“No, you can keep them as long as you want.”
Actually there was a limit, but things were a little special for the man in front of him.
Having successfully obtained the books he wanted,
Gauss and Aria returned to the Red Dragon Guild’s base.
....
“Guild Leader, these are the cantrips and 1st circle spells collected over the past days.”
“Thanks for your hard work. Put them here.”
Gauss looked at the spellbook on the table and nodded.
In truth, the number of spells he’d learned since he began studying was already more than enough — from 0-circle cantrips up to 4th circle spells, far exceeding what a normal Master-level spellcaster would possess.
If other Master-level casters were as “indiscriminate” as him, their minds would probably be on the verge of exploding.
Yet he still felt comfortable handling it.
He didn’t sense he had reached the mental carrying limit, which meant he could learn even more spells.
“Color cantrip, dancing pen, calm livestock, taste the air…”
Looking at the cantrips before him, Gauss nodded with satisfaction.
He knew that, like some spells he’d already learned, these cantrips and 1st circle spells would likely be of little practical use — aside from practice, the number of times they would be truly useful might be scarce.
But magic itself carried meaning.
Learning more spells helped him solidify his foundation and accumulate experience as a magician.
Others were limited by mental carrying capacity; even if they wanted to pursue this path, they would be constrained. He was different — he could win by sheer quantity.
At the same time, his proficiency in key spells was very high.
That combination made his experience accumulate rapidly and was a key reason he had broken through to level 7 in just two years.
“Learn them.”
For Gauss now, the difficulty of learning cantrips and 1st circle spells was very low — especially the former. Once the spellbook was in hand, entry only took a few minutes; one or two passes through and he’d almost mastered it.
The steward brought out black tea and snacks.
Between sips and nibbles, he studied magic.
After only a few cups of tea, he had already picked up two cantrips.
He glanced at his highest-proficiency spell, Gauss Field: 1v5 (155/200).
He was still several dozen proficiency points short of reaching lv6.
“The gains are getting slower and slower.”
He could feel that after Gauss Field reached the latter half of lv5, gaining proficiency became increasingly difficult.
If he wanted to grind it out through daily practice, it would truly take time.
Fortunately, he still had Encountering Evil Hour.
This purple-quality talent allowed him to occasionally drop rewards when killing monsters.
Besides the very low-probability skills, he sometimes received small amounts of proficiency for corresponding spells.
Because of this, Gauss Field was able to maintain a respectable growth rate even after reaching lv5.
Besides the fixed proficiency points added on the spot, he also had 8 points of free skill proficiency that had dropped from Encountering Evil Hour.
He could feel it whenever he focused on the skill panel.
These free proficiency points were relatively rare; since obtaining Encountering Evil Hour, he had only gained 8 in total.
He hadn’t spent a single point yet.
On one hand, even if he invested all 8 points into Gauss Field, it still wouldn’t push it from lv5 to lv6.
On the other hand, he was reluctant to spend them.
He thought these precious proficiency points would be better used at a critical juncture — for example, when Gauss Field needed only one or two points to reach the next threshold, he would use them to break through.
Or wait until the proficiency stopped rising by normal means before using them.
Good steel must be used at the blade.
It’s important to note these free points couldn’t be used to learn a skill from scratch.
Before a skill is learned, it effectively doesn’t exist for Gauss and won’t appear on the skill panel, so there’s no way to apply the free points.
Otherwise those eight points would be like eight admission tickets to extremely difficult-to-learn spells.
Time passed again.
Gauss practiced his spells, especially the new magics collected by the guild’s staff, and also trained with Dimension Door and Hunt.
Both Dimension Door and Hunt were spells he could practice near the base.
As for Hunt’s marked targets, whether Ur or raven Eck, both were good practice partners.
Occasionally they’d take nearby commissions as practical combat training.
After killing nearly twelve hundred monsters in total, his entries in the Monster Encyclopedia rose by the same amount.
“Total monsters killed: 27,888.”
And it wasn’t only him.
The Red Dragon Guild’s reputation was rapidly growing.
Since moving into Falim, in a relatively short time they had cleared several thousand-head-level monster nests, and their extensive clearing of surrounding small commissions was talked about widely.
Some low-tier adventurers in the Southern District felt it deeply.
At some point, some of them noticed with surprise that in the outskirts they frequented, the number of available commissions seemed to have dwindled significantly; in some local areas a rare “mission vacuum” had even appeared.
At first those low-tier adventurers were confused, and after consulting the Adventurers Guild staff they discovered the culprit was the rising Red Dragon Guild.
After all, an ordinary commission including travel time might take a normal adventurer three to five days, but Gauss could accept many at once.
With Hephaestus’s help, he could reach commission sites quickly, finish them in the shortest time, and rush to the next location, completing double-digit commissions in a single day.
At full speed, one man and a dragon could replace the labor of dozens or even hundreds of teams.
More importantly, Gauss had a constitution that made it impossible for him to sit still.
Whenever he had free time he liked to have his team take a string of nearby commissions and finish them in one go.
He earned money, practiced magic, and even relieved stress simultaneously.
He knew ordinary monsters posed absolutely no threat to him, so although they were battles the mental pressure was light.
On top of that, Encountering Evil Hour would occasionally grant skill proficiency when killing monsters.
“Magic Missile proficiency +1.”
“Enlarge Person proficiency +1.”
“Fire Bolt proficiency +1.”
“...”
Watching it pop up was relaxing.
With such rewards driving him, he naturally had strong motivation.
“Guild Leader, today’s newspapers.”
“Thanks.”
Gauss looked at the total monsters-killed count of 27,888 and began planning the next large-scale purge.
Clearing small commissions was low risk, but compared to clearing large nests the efficiency was far lower.
“Better read the papers first.”
He glanced through the newspapers the staff had brought. Falim had many periodicals; several had been delivered this time.
Some focused on city internal livelihood issues, others reported on surrounding regions and even far-off cities and nations.
“Midnight murderer, eight people have already been killed in alleys using the same method.”
“All victims were without exception dissected and had their brains exposed.”
“...”
Gauss narrowed his eyes a little; it seemed he should be more careful when practicing Dimension Door at night.
“Multiple tremors have recently been reported at the sealed underground Maze entrance in Barry, suggesting signs of reopening.”
Gauss saw another news item related to him.
Reopening?
He suddenly remembered the Square Power Key in his hand and the locked green pavilion entrance he’d encountered on the Maze’s second level.
If the Maze reopened, he could try the key’s effect.
Last time he entered the Maze he was only level 2 and at one point faced a life-or-death crisis, but now he was level 7 and far stronger — entering the Maze now would be much easier.
“But not yet.”
Gauss knew clearly that once the Maze reopened, Falim would receive the news immediately.
At that point many adventurers from Falim would set out.
He only needed to wait for notification, then mount Hephaestus and ride to Barry.
“Grim Town in the Xianmin Province was afflicted by a monster Medusa curse; eighty percent of the town’s residents turned to stone.”
Gauss’s brows couldn’t help but knit.
Xianmin Province lay east of his Coldjade Province and, like it, bordered the monster nation.
Compared with the relatively developed Coldjade Province, Xianmin Province had always been a desolate backwater; even today it remained perpetually unstable.
He had often seen news from Xianmin in the papers before, mostly negative.
This time the situation was clearly more severe.
Eighty percent of a town turned to stone.
Among the many bizarre magics monsters wielded, petrification was one of the most dangerous. If dealt with quickly, other magic could sometimes reverse the effect, but if time dragged on the outcome could be irreversible. Ordinary people’s organs, ravaged by petrifying magic, would very likely suffer irreversible damage.
Usually a town had only a limited number of spellcasters; when attacked and eighty percent of the population petrified, even after the monsters left, would there be sufficient, timely rescue forces?
“This damn world!”
Gauss suddenly felt irritated.
He let out a long breath as if that could blow away the pressure knot in his chest.
Shadow happened to return and saw the scene; her form slowly coalesced before Gauss in a particle-like manner.
“What’s wrong?” Shadow asked with concern.
“Nothing, just read some news.”
“By the way, Shadow, come with me to the guild.”
“Let’s see if there are any suitable large commissions.”
“We’ve been idle for some time.”
He was only a little over two thousand kills away from thirty thousand; with luck it might only take a single commission to reach it.
Gauss decided to relieve his pent-up mood by killing some monsters.