sonovelo Chapter 304: The Sharing Mechanism
Chapter 304: The Sharing Mechanism
The team began cutting off the monster commission tokens.Meanwhile, Hephaestus started its "ferocious assault" on the processed monsters.
Habit is truly a frightening thing.
Hephaestus had unknowingly grown accustomed to the taste of goblin-like creatures and goblins, eating them expressionlessly, one bite each, as if they were little bread rolls.
Now it could even tell at a glance which ordinary monsters tasted good and which might be slightly inferior, then eat the passable-tasting ones first.
The veteran eater had truly developed experience.
Gauss looked at the shadow humanoids that had returned to Shadow's side, still very curious.
He reached out and poked one's arm.
The feedback from his fingertip was a very peculiar sensation.
The touch wasn't like the warmth of touching solid flesh and blood, nor was it like the emptiness of passing through nothingness, but rather touching a flowing medium.
Somewhere between physical and non-physical.
Truly marvelous.
"Do they have their own basic consciousness?"
Gauss noticed that throughout the entire battle, their movements were very natural, not at all like they were being controlled.
"They do, but not much." Shadow nodded. "They can handle things like combat instincts and simple tasks, and they'll adopt strategies I would probably use."
"But if it involves work requiring substantial thinking, they probably can't manage it."
Hearing this, Gauss gained some understanding of them.
After cleaning up the battlefield.
The points crystal recorded the points.
The number on it reached 2104.
The elite goblin-like creatures contributed 115 points.
Based on the second place's points from this morning, he had already achieved double their score.
That should establish a sufficient advantage, right?
Gauss pondered internally.
Although it was only the seventh day of the competition, which would continue until the tenth day.
Even if he returned to the hotel now to sleep, lying around until the competition ended, he probably wouldn't be surpassed.
His existence might very well cause other competitors to enter giving-up mode early.
After all, aside from first place, the rewards for the top few positions weren't that different, just the order of selection.
First place had meaning when mentioned, but was there any need to compete for second place?
He had already killed the competition.
Gauss came before the open space where the spoils had been piled up.
"Such a pity about these pelts."
Gauss picked up some pelts;they had lost some value after being processed by the goblin-like creatures, but it was better than nothing.
"There are also some spellbooks here."
Gauss glanced at them.
Mostly cantrips, but surprisingly there were two 1st circle spells.
Some were written in the continent's common tongue, while others were spellbooks in scripts Gauss couldn't read, likely the collection of the goblin-like creature spellcaster he had killed earlier.
He just didn't know whether they had looted them themselves or obtained them through other channels.
But with Tongue of Languages, reading them shouldn't be a problem.
Gauss murmured softly, and after casting the "Tongue of Languages" spell, those tadpole-like scribbled characters quickly revealed their true forms before him.
He quickly flipped through the small booklets made of unknown leather.
"1st circle spell, Rock Brittleness"
The effect was to alter the internal texture of originally hard rock, making it easier to destroy and excavate.
"1st circle spell, Solidification"
The effect was to solidify loose sand and gravel into a hardened state, though it required periodic maintenance.
Understandable, very goblin-like creature style.
Gauss shook his head.
Both spells had strong user-specific styles, one for destruction, one for construction.
Combined with the leather material and the written scripts, Gauss guessed these were spellbooks circulating among goblin-like creature communities.
That goblin-like creature spellcaster he killed probably came from some large tribe in the monster kingdom, carrying specialized spellbooks here for expansion and strengthening the clan.
Besides humans, monsters also had their own power inheritance systems.
Although these two spells weren't very useful to Gauss currently, he still wanted to try learning them;he wanted to know how difficult it would be for him to learn spells inherited by goblin-like creatures.
Moreover, adding two 1st circle spells placed minimal burden on him.
Even if he learned them and couldn't use them immediately, keeping them aside purely to broaden his horizons and knowledge was fine.
Not just goblin-like creature spells—if he collected spells from other monsters, he wanted to try learning them too.
This probably stemmed from his previous life's mindset;he believed that in magic, only by gathering expertise from many schools could one be called a master.
As for those cantrips, he wouldn't let them slip by either.
But compared to these two 1st circle spells, the other cantrips were all written in human common tongue, nothing special.
"Mage Hand," "Light Cantrip," "Ray of Frost," "Shocking Grasp," "Acid Splash."
Among the five cantrips, two were already mastered by Gauss.
He planned to learn the remaining three while he was at it.
He didn't know where this group of goblin-like creatures had looted these cantrips from, but it conveniently saved him some money on buying cantrips.
Ray of Frost could usually be used for temporary preservation too.
"Shall we head back?"
After organizing the spoils, everyone left the cave.
Then they jumped onto the dragon's back and flew toward Lakeside Town.
During the flight, Gauss didn't continue tutoring Hephaestus.
Instead, he grabbed the cantrip books to study, finally giving the dragon below a sigh of relief.
Probably grateful it didn't have to listen to his lecturing anymore.
During the flight, Gauss took the opportunity to master Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp.
And this was without him studying with particular urgency;otherwise, the efficiency would have been even higher, and mastering all three cantrips wouldn't have been a problem.
From this perspective, the gap between people truly was vast.
Consider that a single cantrip might take an ordinary person months or longer to learn, and that was assuming they had magical talent.
Meanwhile, he, casually, mastered them in the time it took an ordinary person to drink a cup of coffee.
"0-circle cantrip Ray of Frost LV1 (8/10)"
"0-circle cantrip Shocking Grasp LV1 (9/10)"
At Gauss's fingertips, electric arcs flickered, jumping between his fingers.
It was really too easy.
Gauss shook his head.
To him now, cantrips were like elementary school math test papers—no difficulties existed, just requiring a little time to complete.
He wondered, if his level became higher and his magical talent further improved, wouldn't learning a cantrip then be hardly more difficult than breathing? Maybe just a few glances would be enough to master it?
Hephaestus landed, they switched to the ostrich, and by the time the team stepped onto Lakeside Town's streets, Gauss had already learned the third cantrip, Acid Splash.
"Any plans for today?"
On the way to the Adventurers Hall, Aria inquired.
"Probably not."
Gauss also intended to slow the pace slightly.
On one hand, quality commissions mostly appeared in the morning;by afternoon, it was just picking through what others had left.
On the other hand, there was no need to overexert.
Adventurers going out on commissions was long-term work.
Adventuring was like a marathon;maintaining a sustainable pace was far more important than temporary bursts.
Arriving at the Adventurers Hall, they submitted the commission and updated the rankings.
Then they left the hall.
"Oh, Aria, do you want to come over to my place this afternoon?"
"Sure, but what do you need me for?" Aria agreed instinctively but was still a bit curious about why Gauss wanted her.
"Nothing major, just to practice spells together." Gauss waved his hand dismissively.
He happened to be preparing to tutor Hephaestus this afternoon while practicing magic himself.
He had noticed Aria also bought skills at the hall.
Thinking that herding one sheep was herding, and herding two sheep was also herding, he might as well bring her along.
He wanted to test the effect similar to "Enlightenment Technique" formed by the Draconic Language-enhanced Tongue of Languages.
Beside them, the other three who were pretending to look elsewhere but actually eavesdropping almost simultaneously raised their eyebrows.
Was this private tutoring?
"Gauss, actually I have time too." Shadow cleared her throat lightly.
"Lord Gauss, me too." Albenia nodded vigorously.
Though Serlandul didn't speak, their expression said everything.
"Alright, then let's all go together." Druids were traditional spellcasters, even if their source was natural power, which was why Gauss thought of calling Aria to test the effect first. But seeing how proactive the rest of the team was about improvement, he certainly wouldn't dampen their initiative.
...
Time moved to the afternoon.
Gauss's team appeared in the wasteland outside town.
They specifically chose a shaded valley where a stream slowly flowed through the lowland. Plus, since autumn was gradually arriving, it wasn't too hot.
Gauss summoned Hephaestus.
Simultaneously, Ulfen, Raven, and Scale Powder Butterfly also appeared.
Serlandul unfolded the Fold House.
Before officially starting skill practice, they brought out several large melons they had just bought.
The variety was called sweet melon, but unlike the sweet melons or muskmelons from his previous life, it was more like watermelon and quite large.
The taste was excellent;the entire melon was blue, with dark blue skin and flesh like frosty light blue, high in water content and sweetness, but low yield.
Of course, the price wasn't cheap either—several silver coins each, not a fruit ordinary people could enjoy.
But for Gauss's team, it was nothing.
After all, earning money was for enjoyment.
After soaking the sweet melons in the stream, Gauss lightly released Ray of Frost from his fingertips to cool down the already cold stream water. Soon, a layer of frost formed on the melon skins.
After chilling, they were placed on the grassy tabletop, and with a light tap of a finger.
Accompanied by a crisp cracking sound, the melon split open, revealing the light blue, ice crystal-like flesh inside.
Wispy white cold air rose, and a clear, sweet, crisp fragrance instantly filled the air.
Everyone shared these sweet melons, including Hephaestus, Ulfen, and other members who also got some to eat.
"Summer is over."
Aria wiped the juice from her face, her gaze crossing the stream to the slightly autumnal wilderness in the valley, hands on her hips, satisfied yet slightly sentimental. "When autumn comes, crops mature, and it's time for monsters to go out plundering and storing food again."
"It's time for adventurers to shine again."
"Mhm."
Gauss nodded.
"But if you really think about it."
"In spring, snow melts, hibernating monsters end their sleep and come out to forage;summer has hot, dry weather, active mana, and monsters' wild instincts are hard to restrain;winter is when monsters make final food reserves, desperate struggles for winter calories, and specific winter species become active."
"Basically, no matter the season, monsters are frequently active, right?"
"Adventurers have no off-season."
Gauss smiled wryly.
"You..." Aria was momentarily speechless, complaining, "So annoying, I was just casually expressing some feelings, trying to create some atmosphere."
After the interlude.
Everyone began skill training.
Aria held her newly purchased 2nd circle skill [Moonlight Radiance].
She recently felt she had spare capacity to learn new skills again.
She originally didn't want to buy attack spells, since there was no chance to use them anyway.
But Gauss advised her and suggested this one.
Moonlight Radiance's effect was to create bands of light resembling moonlight that could deal continuous damage to enemies entering them—a group attack skill.
Gauss's thinking was simple: he believed all teammates should master some offensive skills so they had sufficient self-protection capability.
There was an essential difference between "having but not using" and "not having."
Moreover, with precedents like Hephaestus and Shadow, he felt his other teammates' kills would eventually be counted toward his total too.
That way, if all teammates mastered adequate area attack abilities, clearing monsters could proceed even faster.
After all, as the kill count in the Monster Encyclopedia kept increasing, his requirements for kill numbers were clearly growing larger.
Like initially, 10 monsters were enough for rewards, but now it required at least 2000.
With teammates' help, this progress could clearly accelerate.
As for finding stronger companions, that wasn't a good suggestion.
First, higher-level professionals often had their own fixed teams and might not be willing to join Gauss's team.
Second, it would require time to adapt and build trust.
Moreover, the higher the level of professionals, the more their experiences and temperaments were solidified through repeated commissions.
They might not necessarily fit well.
In other words, the stronger the talent and higher the level, the more opinionated they were.
Adventurers like Shadow and Albenia were actually rare.
Throughout his journey, Gauss superficially only had these four teammates, but usually at the Adventurers Hall, there were constantly self-recommending solo adventurers wanting to join the team. However, Gauss's first impression of these people was generally not good.
And he valued first impressions highly, so he often rejected them from the start.
Additionally, were stronger teammates really a good thing?
Not necessarily;Gauss himself needed kill count accumulation.
Ideally, it would be teammates like Hephaestus and Shadow, whose kills could be shared with him for kill counts.
Next best were trustworthy teammates who followed arrangements and could provide support.
Since the sharing mechanism's principles were still unclear, he could only assume it was related to some unknown intimacy level. Aria, Serlandul, and Albenia, who had spent time together, were the best potential teammates.
Among the three, he personally believed Aria had been with him the longest and had the closest relationship.
After all, the two had come from Grayrock Town, from when he was still a low-level adventurer, all the way here.
He felt she had the potential to become the next kill-sharing teammate.
As for Shadow's situation, he hadn't quite figured it out yet.
From their first meeting, he felt a sense of familiarity from her, and after her breakthrough to level 6 and return, that feeling had grown stronger.
He had privately probed and asked Shadow earlier.
But she didn't say anything, just smiled and shook her head.
Though she didn't speak, Gauss sensed her breakthrough definitely involved some important change that qualitatively leaped her closeness toward him.
This was also an important reason why he believed sharing was related to intimacy level.
Aria was currently holding the Moonlight Radiance skill book, looking at him with a confused expression, waiting for him to speak.
Gauss had said he had a way to help her master skills faster, but now he remained silent, making her feel antsy.
"I have high hopes for you, Aria." Gauss said softly.
"???"
Aria grew even more perplexed.