I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 272: Gold and Silver Town

When the town walls appeared before Gauss's eyes, he felt an inexplicable sense of emotion that he hadn't experienced in a long time.It wasn't that village life was bad in any way, but objectively speaking, villages couldn't compare to towns in terms of convenience.

The town before them wasn't large in scale, even smaller than Grayrock Town.

It was a very simple little town.

Passing through the gate, the noisy sounds of crowds poured into their ears.

"I'm so tired, let's find a place to eat first." Aria stretched lazily.

It had been a month since they last stayed in a town.

Everyone somewhat missed the steaming hot dishes cooked by professional chefs.

After asking the gate guards for directions, they quickly found a bustling tavern.

"Do you have a private room?"

"Yes, please follow me."

When the server saw the four of them enter, she instinctively put on an enthusiastic expression, even unconsciously softening her voice.

Walking ahead, she swayed her hips flirtatiously, as if she could feel the gaze of the person behind her.

But the reality was...

Gauss was turning his head to look at the scenery outside the window.

Instead, Aria's gaze lingered on her for a moment, with several black lines appearing on her forehead.

Entering the private room.

The server squeezed out another gentle smile, speaking softly,

"Here is the menu, would you like me to introduce our specialty dishes?"

The server pressed closer.

"Okay, thank you, no need to trouble you, we'll choose ourselves."

Gauss politely took the menu, using the motion of passing it to his teammates to subtly avoid her approach.

The server sighed with regret in her heart, though she didn't show it.

But seeing Gauss's somewhat aloof attitude, she felt a bit downcast, though she still stepped back a few paces, leaning against the wall to wait for them to order.

She had finally felt her heart flutter once, only to lose so completely.

After Gauss and his teammates finished selecting, he politely handed the menu back to the server.

Soon, the server quickly left the private room.

"She seemed hurt." Aria withdrew her gaze from the door and looked teasingly at Gauss.

"Ahem, you're overthinking it."

"Who?" Shadow emerged from her own world, lifting her head and looking at the two of them.

She didn't understand what riddle they were speaking.

She asked with complete seriousness.

Seeing her so serious, Aria instead waved her hands repeatedly.

"Nothing, it's not important."

"Okay." Shadow nodded.

The dishes were quickly served.

All four of them had substantial appetites.

Soon after a whirlwind sweep, only empty plates remained on the table.

"Burp~"

Everyone wore satisfied expressions.

Farm-style cooking definitely couldn't compare to most tavern chefs in terms of technique.

In this life, good food is already one of the physiological desires that everyone can relatively easily access and satisfy.

"Let's rest for a bit first."

Full and satisfied, Gauss and the others felt a bit drowsy.

Walking through this small town called "Gold-Silver Town," they hadn't carefully observed it when they first entered the city, but now looking around, the town's scene appeared somewhat desolate.

This was mainly reflected in the relatively small number of adventurers.

But considering this town's awkward location - not near any villages or towns - it wasn't unreasonable that there were fewer adventurers.

The siphon effect of big cities was too obvious.

Adventurers with any drive would choose to go to the more prosperous Sena City nearby.

After resting for one night.

Waking up the next day, the four-person team had regained their energy.

Aria took the opportunity to bring Ulfen, Eck, and other animal companions outside for several walks.

"Breakfast for you."

"It's actually almost noon, but thanks anyway." Gauss took the breakfast.

Eating the pancakes one bite at a time.

"Are there any special places in town?"

Gauss swallowed the last bite of pancake, patted the crumbs from his hands, and casually asked Aria.

Aria poured water for herself and Gauss while recalling, "It's quite a quiet little town. I asked the fruit stall owner, and it seems that a long time ago, this was once a very lively town. Back then, people from everywhere flocked here - many illegal miners and people working for mine owners."

"But after the ore veins dried up, most people left."

"Only the original miners settled down."

"There are still some sealed mines around the village, but the rich ore layers were long ago mined out, leaving only some poor-quality ore to extract."

Gauss quietly listened to Aria's introduction, forming more understanding about this town called "Gold-Silver Town."

A town with resources nearing exhaustion, gradually declining.

"Since we're here, as per our routine, let's go to the Adventurers Guild first. We can also see if there are suitable commissions nearby."

Although they were currently carrying out a special commission arranged by the Adventurers Guild, staying in town for a few days to resupply didn't violate any regulations.

They could also collect the commission payments from the past four weeks.

The team organized themselves briefly and soon arrived at the town's only Adventurers Guild.

The area around the guild headquarters was slightly more lively.

Different from all the Adventurers Guilds Gauss had visited before, this one was located above a tavern - more accurately, the tavern itself was part of the Adventurers Guild building.

"Cheers!"

"Server, another round!"

Pushing open the heavy wooden door.

The smell of ale assaulted their noses. Even though it was just noon, the first-floor hall was already filled with many people.

Some of them were adventurers, while others seemed to be just ordinary residents.

The servers bringing drinks appeared to be employees hired by the local guild.

"Such a down-to-earth Adventurers Guild."

This was the first time Gauss had seen such a scene.

Was this to generate revenue for the local guild?

Passing through the noisy crowd, they walked up the stairs to the second floor.

Only when they reached the actual office area of the Adventurers Guild did the environment finally become much quieter.

Some adventurers sat in corners, wiping their weapons while talking in low voices. Their peripheral glances caught sight of Gauss and the others coming up, looked once, then quickly withdrew their gaze.

A well-equipped, extraordinary-looking adventurer team like Gauss's was quite conspicuous in such a dilapidated small town.

Some yellowed commission notices hung on the walls.

Gauss quickly scanned them with his peripheral vision but didn't see any suitable commissions.

So he walked over to a desk.

"Hello."

Startled by his voice, the clerk who had been dozing at the counter lifted his head and rubbed his eyes.

"Welcome, are you here to accept commissions, submit completed tasks, or do you need help with something else?"

The clerk yawned, looking very lazy.

"We want to collect some commission payments."

"Huh?" The clerk blinked. Why only some payments?

Seeing his confusion, Gauss took out the document for their current special commission from his Storage Bag.

When the clerk saw the document, he was first confused because the format was different from common task documents, but the next moment, he seemed to realize something.

He quickly straightened his posture.

He instantly woke up, all drowsiness disappearing from his face.

So it was an internal guild commission.

Those who could accept such commissions usually weren't ordinary adventurers and could often easily get in touch with higher-level figures.

"Please wait a moment."

The clerk performed some operations under the counter, apparently retrieving some information about this commission.

"15 gold coins per person per week, right? Currently, you and your team have been at it for 4 weeks."

"In other words, that's 60 gold coins per person."

The clerk gasped sharply.

This reward was truly quite generous.

It was hard to imagine what background this team before him had.

"Do you want to withdraw all four weeks of payment?"

"Yes."

Gauss nodded decisively.

Money only felt secure when it was in the coin purse.

"Please wait."

Since the amount wasn't small, according to procedure he needed to go confirm with his superior again.

Gauss and the others waited patiently for a while.

Collecting the payment didn't encounter any problems.

Soon they were led to a VIP Room and received the total payment of 60 gold coins per person, totaling 240 gold coins, distributed by the local guild master.

The guild master was a middle-aged man named Jon.

Although he held the same rank as Eberhard from Grayrock Town as a town guild master, he was quite polite when facing Gauss and the others, giving a subtle impression of treating them as peers.

"Brother Gauss, how many days do you plan to stay in our Gold-Silver Town?"

"Let me see, probably just two or three days before we hit the road again."

"Here, have some tea first. This is my treasured black tea, grown at the famous Bepangmie Mountain foothills, a rare tea variety."

Gauss politely thanked him and accepted the tea.

He couldn't help but feel some emotion in his heart.

From being a bottom-tier adventurer that could be found everywhere in the past, to now being personally received by the highest-level unfamiliar guild master of a local Adventurers Guild...

The gap between these situations made him somewhat dazed.

Moreover, more crucially, he didn't feel any sense of pressure from the other party.

This indicated that the other's strength was probably similar to his, or even inferior.

Clearly, Eberhard from Grayrock Town possessed level 9 or even stronger strength, while Guild Master Jon before him likely only had level 6 strength.

Even officials of the same rank could have significant differences in strength.

Was this related to town scale?

Theoretically, after reaching level 6 and passing the Adventurers Guild's recruitment assessment, one could have the opportunity to become an important cadre candidate.

Then it was just waiting for superiors to assign corresponding positions.

But according to Gauss's understanding, there were relatively few branch guild masters at both level 6 and levels 9-10.

The former had weaker strength, while the latter, aiming to break through to higher stages, would often submit applications in advance to leave their positions.

Gauss casually chatted with Jon for a while.

After learning that Gauss was interested in accepting some commissions nearby and wanted to kill more ordinary monsters to practice spells,

Jon recommended they check out a certain abandoned large mine.

"After those mines and pits were sealed off, they became extensively connected and have naturally become breeding grounds for many monsters. If you lack practice targets for your spells, Brother Gauss, you might want to check it out there. You could also help our Gold-Silver Town clear out some threats in advance."

According to Jon, every year they organized personnel at fixed times to clear out the mine pits, and they regularly issued commissions to attract adventurers to go down and kill monsters.

But overall, limited by the relatively small number of adventurers in Gold-Silver Town - many of whom were even retired adventurers here to retire - the response to these calls had always been mediocre.

Fortunately, the monsters in those mine pits didn't have strong desires to venture out, and the monsters often waged wars among themselves. Plus, Gold-Silver Town had long closed its mining operations, so the impact wasn't too serious.

But if someone could help clear out some monsters, Jon would naturally be happy to see it.

After learning more detailed information about the mine situation.

In the afternoon.

The reorganized Gauss team left the desolate small town.

Perhaps because the past mining industry had left indelible damage to the surrounding environment, as they left town heading toward the large mine direction, the vegetation along the road was very sparse.

The surrounding soil was severely eroded and sandy.

Some particles continuously blew against their faces with the wind, even making Gauss feel as if he were in a desert.

Battling the hot wind, they traveled for another hour or so across the wasteland.

Gauss and the others finally arrived at the Brennan Large Mine that Jon had mentioned.

This place was once contracted by a noble knight named Brennan, hence the name.

Stopping at the mine edge, looking down at the empty area before them.

The scene devoid of people made the surroundings appear exceptionally quiet.

Only the wind howled through the abandoned mine frames and collapsed sheds, whipping up waves of sand and dust.

So desolate...

"Gauss, do you think we might dig up some gold?" Aria looked at that dry, hard land, her eyes unable to help but sparkle.

When Jon made the suggestion at noon, she had already been thinking about this matter.

"Maybe we can dig up a large gold nugget."

"Perhaps." Gauss shook his head.

Amused in his heart - they had just received a substantial payment,

And were already thinking about wild gold mines again so quickly.

But he didn't hold much expectation for this.

After so many years, if there really were any gold nuggets, they would certainly have been dug up by past miners long ago - no reason to leave them for newcomers.

They had come here primarily to kill monsters - he needed to accumulate more kills and varieties of low-tier monsters.

"There should be quite a few goblin-like creatures here." Serlandul observed the surrounding environment and spoke up.

He said this not based on the common impression that mines often had goblin-like creatures, but because he had directly discovered many signs of goblin-like creature activity in the surroundings.

"Goblin-like creatures are good..." Gauss nodded.

Goblin-like creatures were also minor monsters that weren't difficult to kill.

And if there were enough goblin-like creatures, they should produce quite a few elite individuals.

Currently, he hadn't killed even one elite goblin-like creature, which was somewhat regrettable.

"Shadow, we'll rely on you first then."

"Mm."

Shadow's figure merged with the ground, quickly moving toward the surrounding mine pits.

As soon as she entered the mine shaft, the light quickly disappeared.

Shadow silently drifted forward slowly.

She had grown accustomed to darkness.

Rather, being immersed in shadows made her feel particularly comfortable and at ease.

The situation inside the mine was more complex than it appeared from outside.

The passages inside the mine twisted and turned in winding paths, with extremely many branches, like a giant ant nest.

Some passages were clearly recently opened.

She drifted across the ground, passing by several small monster camps, but only silently noted them without rashly taking action, then proceeded to explore deeper and further down.

As she continued to go deeper, the surrounding passages became even more complex.

Suddenly, at a certain moment, just after she left a branch mine shaft, the ground beneath her gave way, and she quickly fell downward.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly. The moment she lost contact with the ground, her body rapidly adjusted in mid-air, merging back into the rock wall beside her.

Stabilizing on the rock wall, her gaze looked down at everything below.

She saw that there were many "entrances" like hers around, with countless branches converging into this small dungeon space.

Shadow instinctively held her breath.

This was... a monster's underground nest.

"This is no simple monster breeding ground..."