I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 263: The Wisdom of the Villagers

When the battle ended.Everyone sat on the ground covered in minced flesh and blood, disregarding their image, panting heavily with wide-open mouths.

More than twenty Goblin-like creatures had fallen.

Gauss had ultimately intervened.

The initial battle went very smoothly, with the villagers overwhelming the Goblin-like creature scouts left outside by outnumbering them.

But when more Goblin-like creatures emerged from the cave afterwards, the battle intensified again.

So, just as a Goblin-like creature pinned down a young villager and was about to stab down with its stone dagger, a sword flash severed the Goblin-like creature's arm and neck.

Under Gauss's protection, everyone managed to clear out this small Goblin-like creature nest without any casualties.

After briefly waiting for everyone to recover their stamina, Gauss began calmly commenting on the shortcomings from the previous battle.

In terms of frontal combat power, Goblin-like creatures were even weaker than Goblins, and this small tribe didn't have a powerful Leader, so theoretically, over ten trained human combatants were definitely stronger than them.

However, having superior strength was one thing;achieving a flawless victory against them still required some coordination.

And coordination in battle required good combat literacy and mindset to deliver results. Even if they had rehearsed many times in advance, when faced with a real battlefield environment, many would still panic.

In their panic, they adopted incorrect enemy engagement strategies and failed to maintain their formation properly.

That's why the dangerous situation arose where Gauss had to step in to rescue them.

He had been silently observing from the side earlier, clearly seeing who performed well and who fell short.

During this review session, he showed no mercy, pointing out each issue one by one.

Faced with Gauss's calm critique, many in the crowd lowered their heads.

In team combat, one person's mistake could not only harm themselves but also endanger their companions.

Some young villagers who had been rather casual, thinking that practicing with Gauss for a couple of days meant they could easily slaughter small monsters, became slightly more restrained after this battle.

If Gauss hadn't intervened, some of them might have died here.

Many things allowed for mistakes, but life-and-death combat did not.

Seeing everyone's thoughtful, bowed expressions, Gauss knew they likely understood the cruelty and responsibility of combat more deeply now, and he nodded.

"Clean up the battlefield and collect the spoils."

The villagers quickly forced down their discomfort and sprang into action.

Rhine stood beside Gauss, her face still somewhat pale, but she didn't turn away, her eyes firmly fixed on the distant scene.

After a while, she took a deep breath and looked up at Gauss.

"Teacher, do adventurers... face scenes like this every day?"

"Frequently, yes." Gauss nodded.

To be honest, he was now so accustomed to killing and handling monster corpses that it didn't stir any emotion in him anymore.

Because dealing with them was an adventurer's fundamental job.

Although there were other types of commissions, most commissions adventurers took were combat missions.

"This world has never been one-sided. To survive on this land and protect our homes, we must accompany these dangers, filth, and death that instinctively make us uncomfortable."

"I understand."

Rhine nodded.

Over the past few days, she had seen many things while following Gauss.

Gauss had also been consciously guiding her.

"Go help your sister Aria inventory the collected materials. This is also part of learning."

Rhine nodded vigorously, then dashed off toward Aria, who was directing the villagers in collecting spoils.

Gauss watched her retreating figure with great anticipation.

It was like planting a seed;he could almost foresee it breaking through the soil and growing strong years later.

After dealing with the Goblin-like creatures, Gauss took the villagers to a nearby empty area to clear out undead creatures.

With the experience of killing Goblin-like creatures, and considering that Common Skeletons were indeed much weaker than Goblin-like creatures, the second operation went very smoothly.

The only noteworthy point was that Gauss found the power of his second profession [Sword Soul] worked even better against Common Skeletons.

Almost before he got close to them, the white soul flames in their deep eye sockets were instantly shattered.

The weak soul power of Common Skeletons appeared particularly fragile against this special mental-targeting method, like a candle flickering in the wind.

Gauss left some Common Skeletons for the villagers to practice on and personally joined in, killing some himself.

"Total monsters killed: 5456"

It had to be said, Common Skeletons were indeed the easiest monsters Gauss had encountered to kill.

He felt like he hadn't expended much effort at all, yet he had killed nearly a hundred.

It was like harvesting wheat—with each swing of his attack, large numbers fell.

Moreover, after becoming a [Sword Soul], his killing efficiency had greatly increased.

Normally, for ordinary people to kill them, separating their skulls from their torsos wasn't enough;they had to shatter the skull bones, exposing the spirit within directly to sunlight and air without protection.

If they were professionals, there were several additional methods, such as using mana, natural energy, or other exotic energies to shatter them directly, as higher-intensity energy had greater destructive power and stability.

Or using sacred purification energy, directly targeting the negative energy source's characteristics for dispersion or purification.

Now Gauss had one more method.

"What a pity!.."

Rhine noticed his muttering and was somewhat curious, but she didn't press for details.

It's a pity they encountered them so rarely. Gauss sighed inwardly.

For some reason, he actually hadn't encountered them many times, and most of the time, the numbers were quite limited.

The few sporadic encounters before had all been in old cemeteries.

The largest number he'd encountered at once was barely over ten.

And this wasn't just his personal experience;he had consulted others before, and they rarely encountered large-scale Skeleton appearances either.

Encountering over a hundred gathered at once like this time was already quite a rare "spectacle."

He couldn't help but recall the content of the commission intelligence.

It was said that the area near Goat Village was once a battlefield long ago, so did something happen during the war that caused the buried corpses here to have a higher "success rate"?

What exactly happened remained unknown.

At the very least, it definitely wasn't solely related to quantity;if it were only about numbers, the number of Skeletons he encountered wouldn't be so few.

"Stupid! Stupid!"

The villagers around him weren't pondering as much as he was.

They were gathering in small groups, carefully using farming tools and implements to smash the skulls of the fallen Skeletons, then using vines and ropes to bundle up the scattered bones on the ground, apparently preparing to carry them back.

"What are you doing with these?"

Gauss was curious.

The young man he asked was named Eric, the same one Gauss had asked to step forward and demonstrate with a firewood knife on the first day.

He was also the Village Chief's grandson.

He didn't hide anything and quickly answered.

"Lord Gauss, these bones are really useful. We take them back, smash them, grind them into powder, and sprinkle it on the fields. The crops grow stronger that way. We just have to be careful to remove any poisonous crops."

"As for these harder arm bones and ribs, we can process them into tools, shuttles, bone needles, or even weapons. They're more durable than ordinary wood."

"It seems you're quite familiar with these." Gauss said thoughtfully.

This village was located on special grounds, so the villagers had found ways to utilize the monsters of this land in their daily lives.

Of course, the premise was that Common Skeletons were relatively weak and they could handle them.

"Yes, we used to organize teams to clear out these weakest monsters too, but to avoid injuries, we'd only lure out a few at a time, not with your high efficiency." Eric seized the opportunity to offer a compliment.

"Since you need these bones, I'll help you carry them back."

Gauss patted his Medium Storage Bag.

This storage tool of his could hold 10 cubic meters in volume and over 3 tons in weight, more than enough to transport these Skeletons.

With Gauss's help, the ground was quickly cleared of Skeleton fragments.

"Let's scout the surrounding area a bit more. If we don't find anything, we'll head back."

...

As dusk fell, the residents of Goat Village greeted them at the village entrance.

Seeing everyone safe and sound, they breathed sighs of relief.

Some villagers also noticed that after a full day of "adventurous training," the team members' mental outlook had changed significantly,

and they eagerly asked them about the day's events.

Gauss brought Rhine back safely to her parents.

Watching her smiling face, full of childlike innocence as she rushed into her parents' arms, chattering about the day's experiences in a slightly childish voice,

Gauss couldn't help but reflect whether the training he had exposed her to during the day was too cruel for a child.

Sigh..

But on the other hand, he felt that experiencing such cruel scenes early might be a good thing for someone aspiring to become a professional.

At least when he first faced Goblins, he had also needed a long time to mentally prepare.

"Did Rhine cause you any trouble today?"

"Lord Gauss... Lord Gauss?"

Rhine's father, seeing him silent for a long time, called out a few times anxiously.

Gauss snapped out of it and offered a reassuring smile to the honest father before him.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about something else. How could she cause me trouble? Rhine was very brave and clever today;she learned a lot."

...

Late at night.

Inside the Fold House.

All four were studying their respective skills.

Gauss was still pondering [Fireball].

Actually, after mastering the 3rd-circle spell Fly, he felt the difficulty of Fireball seemed to have decreased somewhat.

His recent learning progress had noticeably accelerated.

The spell model construction for [Fireball] was mostly complete, with only some final key nodes remaining.

Once he figured those out, he should be able to master this famous 3rd-circle offensive spell.

Gauss wasn't impatient about this process.

Because the process of learning and mastering itself was also a process of improving overall ability.

Just like how after mastering Fly, his understanding of magic reached a new level, making learning Fireball easier.

When he further mastered a second 3rd-circle spell, learning other 3rd-circle spells afterwards probably wouldn't be too difficult either.

As he sat on the bed, closing his eyes and concentrating, an incredibly complex and precise model slowly constructed itself deep within his consciousness.

After trying a few more times.

Gauss let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

As long as he could solve some problems every day, even the most difficult spells could be conquered.

Walking out of the room into the living room.

Aria was sitting on a chair, pondering over the skill book in her hands.

Gauss poured a glass of water and placed it in front of her.

Seeing she had already looked up, he asked,

"How's the learning going?"

Back then, the skills Aria exchanged were the 2nd-circle Enhance Attributes and the 3rd-circle Plant Growth.

The one she was currently learning was naturally Enhance Attributes.

This skill seemed more difficult than anticipated,

and plus they had been out on a commission midway, she apparently hadn't fully mastered it yet.

"Almost there." She put away the skill book. "Want to see the effects now?"

Gauss was somewhat surprised and quickly nodded,

"Then let's give it a try."

He was actually a bit curious too.

He began recalling information about this Druid spell in his mind.

This spell was a buffing spell for professions like Druids and bards, mainly used to enhance teammates' combat power.

By granting enhancements, it allowed teammates to gain improvements in certain abilities.

Specifically, there were six enhancement branches.

Bear, granting Constitution enhancement.

Cat, granting Agility enhancement.

Bull, granting Strength enhancement.

Eagle, granting Charisma enhancement.

Fox, granting Intelligence enhancement.

Owl, granting Wisdom enhancement.

The diversity of enhancement directions was also why learning this Enhance Attributes was relatively difficult.

Aria rubbed her hands together, a bit nervous.

This spell couldn't be used on herself, nor on her animal companion, otherwise she would have tested it on Ulfen.

Excluding herself and her animal companion, the only suitable "guinea pig" around her seemed to be Gauss.

He was strong and sturdy, less likely to have issues.

But even so, she had wanted to master this skill better before trying it on Gauss.

"Then I'll begin." Aria took a deep breath.

She stood up and walked to a slightly more open area in the living room.

"Mhm."

After receiving Gauss's agreement, an invisible aura began to spread out from her.

"Enhance Attributes!"

She softly recited the simple activation incantation.

Instantly, a stream of pale golden light emerged from the staff in her hand, like slender vines, rapidly winding around Gauss's limbs and bones.

The flowing light energy circulated over Gauss's body surface along some mysterious trajectory, finally converging into a point of light in front of his heart and merging into it.

Throughout the process, Gauss offered no resistance.

The magic resistance talent he possessed meant that even beneficial spells could be resisted immediately if he wished.

In fact, it was easier to "interrupt" a teammate's buff than an enemy's curse skill.

Because buffing skills were inherently very gentle, aiming to avoid harming the target as much as possible, whereas curses were the opposite.

"Well? Any changes?" Gauss sensed for a moment.

His physical sensations regarding Strength, Constitution, and Agility didn't seem enhanced, so what was enhanced was...

"I used the Eagle enhancement, which boosts Charisma... I'm most proficient with this branch, so I used that one." Aria explained.

She glanced at Gauss;under the light of the magical lamp above, Gauss's appearance did seem to have become somewhat more handsome.

The skill had succeeded.

"Okay, okay, let's try the next one." After glancing a few times, Aria quickly dispelled the skill.

"I haven't even looked in a mirror to see the effect yet." Gauss shook his head.

Enhancements brought by skills like this couldn't be reflected on the status panel.

He had discovered long ago that the status displayed on the attribute panel seemed to be his normalized attributes.

At the very least, it required equipment bonuses that could be maintained for a long time.

So the effects of buffing spells could only be experienced and judged through personal sensation.

"Nothing much to see, let's test the next one." Aria had already raised her staff again.

"Alright then." Gauss agreed.