Gauss was already preparing to test out the stun effect from his newly earned title, [Sli Hunter].
A special ability like this, tailored specifically against slis, was practically made for this mont. If he wasn’t going to use it now, when would he?
Drawing his rapier, he stared down the sli in front of him.
As soon as he willed it, the title’s stun effect ca to him like instinct. Within monts, he knew exactly how to activate it.
He narrowed his eyes, focusing his mind.
A pulse of invisible energy radiated outward from his body.
“Bzzzzt—”
The stun field surged out in a 3-ter radius, instantly hitting three slis.
They jolted violently on impact—then froze like soone had just hit pause on reality.
“Sching!”
At the sa ti, Gauss lunged forward with his rapier.
Ti slowed down again as he focused—his vision narrowing, the world slowing to a crawl.
Sunlight glead off the rapier’s blade, coated in anti-corrosion oil, as it sliced clean through the sli’s outer mbrane.
Flash!
No resistance. Not like stabbing a goblin. The sli’s gelatinous body offered almost no pushback.
“Shlrrp!”
Aside from a few undigested scraps of debris inside the sli, the blade passed straight through—piercing its core dead-on.
“Sploosh!”
Another one down.
The sli collapsed into a pool of foul-slling goo.
[Sli Slain ÷1]
[Total Monster Kills: 29]
Gauss flicked his blade, flinging off a glob of sli gel that clung to it. Despite the protective coating, it was best not to let acidic residue sit on the tal for long.
He glanced at the puddle at his feet and nodded inwardly—
That stun ability? Pretty damn effective.
Sure, one second of freeze ti didn’t sound like much. But in the hands of a skilled fighter? It was more than enough to end a fight quickly.
More importantly, the more slis he killed, the more the title would evolve. Who knew—maybe eventually that stun would stretch to several seconds. Or outright knock enemies unconscious. Maybe even kill them outright.
He looked around—Doyle was already charging into another sli. If he didn’t act fast, there wouldn’t be any left for him.
The battle was ending fast.
Laevin and Doyle held the frontline, taking all the aggro. Gauss stayed just behind them, cleaning up the sides. The ranged unit picked off stragglers from the flanks.
It took only minutes.
In real fights, there’s rarely back-and-forth. When one side has a clear advantage, battles end fast—and decisively.
By the ti half the slis were down, the rest began fleeing in all directions.
Didn’t matter.
They couldn’t outrun swords and arrows.
Even the ones who tried were hunted down in short order. Within minutes, all 25 slis had been wiped out.
It had been a full elimination mission, after all—and in this line of work, a dead sli was a paid sli.
They weren’t going to let a single one escape if they could help it.
Once the last one fell, Daphne got to work.
Even though the frontline had been protected with shields and layers of gloves and armor, so acidic spray had gotten through.
Laevin and Doyle had taken the worst of it.
“Tssss—ahhghgh!”
Doyle winced in pain as Daphne applied her healing magic.
“Hang in there, Doyle,” she said, waving her staff gently.
A soft green glow pulsed from the tip and settled over the burn.
It wasn’t enough to fully heal it, but her Stabilize spell stopped the pain and halted further tissue damage.
Then ca the ointnt, sared quickly over the irritated skin.
“Should be gone in half a day,” she said.
“Thanks, Daphne. You're the best.”
“Um—no need to get all sentintal. Laevin, your turn.”
After patching them up, she turned to Gauss.
“Gauss, you good? You were in the thick of it too.”
“I’m fine. No damage taken.” He waved it off. “Between the shield, spellwork, and a bit of luck—I managed. I think I killed nine in total, including the ones I spell-sniped.”
“...Nine?”
Doyle and Laevin both looked over, visibly surprised.
Especially Doyle—he looked downright deflated. He’d only managed five.
Was Gauss becoming the squad’s main DPS?
Was this just the difference between warriors and spellcasters?
While the others rested and chatted, Oliver and iva were hard at work, gathering up the scattered sli gel cores. Most of the slis had burst into globs of goo, but here and there were usable fragnts.
In the end, they collected a decent pile.
Sli gel was a valuable alchemical component—about the size of an egg when intact, bouncy, and rich in acidic enzys.
Even the broken bits could be bundled up and sold as a full unit if they reached the right weight.
“We got 25 slis total,” iva reported, “At 60 copper each, plus the gel fragnts at 30 copper a pop—that’s 22 silver, 50 copper.”
Not a bad haul.
Sure, it wasn’t life-changing money, and they didn’t find any valuable gear—slis don’t carry loot, after all—but for a low-risk, nearby mission? Solid work.
Everyone leaned back under the trees, catching their breath, counting coin, and smiling.
Accept quest. Fight monsters. Sharpen skills. Get paid. Rest. Re-arm. Repeat.
That was the loop.
That was the grind.
For adventurers at the bottom, there was no shortcut—only effort, luck, and patience. One day, they might step onto the path of true professionals.
Or maybe not.
No one could say for sure.
Gauss leaned against a tree, cleaning his sword, flipping open his Adventurer's Manual.
[Total Monster Kills: 32]
[Magic Missile Lv2 (8/20)]
Progress.
He’d taken down nine slis this fight. Five with Magic Missile, four with his rapier—using a combination of his bullet-ti focus and that new stun effect from the [Sli Hunter] title.
If he kept up this pace, two more missions like this and he’d hit 50 kills—enough to trigger the next manual milestone.
And Magic Missile was already nearing its halfway mark to level 3.
More importantly, his thod was working.
By letting Laevin and Doyle take the frontline, he could focus on clean, efficient takedowns from the outside. Minimal risk, maximum results.
This ti he hadn’t even relied on easy kills.
Four out of ten enemies—cleanly taken out—was proof enough of his contribution.
But Gauss wasn’t satisfied.
What today’s fight had shown him was a gap in his kit.
He had no AoE.
His Magic Missile looked flashy—but it was a single-target spell. Sure, he’d nailed three at once earlier, but that had been a trick shot. He couldn’t rely on lining them up like that every ti.
Maybe he needed to learn a true area spell. Or upgrade his Missile to be more versatile.
What if the spell could curve mid-flight?
Could that let him snipe multiple enemies with a single cast?
Could he even use that to bypass shields—strike from behind?
He had started to experint a little already, influencing the path of the spell slightly. But full curve control was still a long way off.
Maybe it wasn’t even possible.
Still... it was worth exploring.
Aside from that, he still needed to log five different monster types in the Adventurer's Manual.
Once that was done, he’d get to roll for a random low-level passive ability—anything that could boost his strength was worth chasing.
He sighed, smirking to himself.
His to-do list was growing by the day.
But honestly? That felt good.
It ant he was moving forward.
Plenty of adventurers dread of having problems like his.
Reviews
All reviews (0)