Chapter Summaries

Gauss and Alya partnered up, sold their spoils for a better-than-expected price, and discussed finding Gauss a house. After Alya checked Gauss for signs of corruption and showed him her cottage, Gauss reflected on his rapid magical progress and the two paths he could follow to grow stronger.

• Gauss introduced Alya to Sophia and Winnie, then told Alya about his nightmare; Alya examined him with Nature's Power but found no clear sign of corruption or other abnormality.
• Gauss and Alya sold their spoils through Alya's skilled negotiations, earning 1 gold and 10 silver and splitting the money evenly.
• Alya showed Gauss her cottage, and Gauss asked her to contact her intermediary about finding him a quiet house with a small yard.
• Alya tended to a wounded kitten and told Gauss that mastering Goodberry would help feed and heal him during wilderness assignments.
• Gauss reviewed his spell proficiency and concluded that assignments, study, and meditation, along with hunting monsters and completing the Monster Codex, were two routes to becoming stronger.

Gauss and Alya spent several days recovering and practicing spells in Grayrock Town, and Gauss added three cantrips to his growing arsenal. As autumn arrived, they walked through the harvest fields while Gauss considered the Monster Codex entries he needed to collect for another racial Talent.

• Gauss and Alya practiced spells with Ulfhen, and both made progress as Gauss recovered from his nightmares.
• Gauss learned Friends, Poison Gas Jet, and Wind Dance, planning to use the latter two together and to study poison.
• Gauss decided to pause learning cantrips so he could save mental capacity for more powerful spells.
• Gauss and Alya walked along a country lane in the autumn chill and recalled the kind caravan manager who had dropped them at a crossroads.
• Gauss reviewed his Monster Codex, which contained twelve common monster entries and one elite entry, and thought about the random Talent he could draw after collecting twenty common species.

Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen fought off a pack of Corrosive Frogs and killed twenty-five of them. As they collected the frogs’ tongues for the mission, Gauss eyed their legs as food and asked Alya if she was hungry.

• Gauss and Alya encountered a fleeing group of young people pursued by Corrosive Frogs and attacked the monsters.
• Gauss killed three Corrosive Frogs with Magic Missiles, unlocking the monster entry and the Corrosive Frog Hunter title.
• Alya restrained the frogs with vines while Ulfhen and Gauss helped kill the trapped monsters with bites and Fire Bolts.
• Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen finished off the pack of twenty-five Corrosive Frogs, leaving nearly fifty at the nest.
• Gauss and Alya collected the frogs’ tongues, and Gauss asked Alya if she was hungry while eyeing the corpses’ legs.

Gauss prepared a meal from the Corrosive Frogs while Alya noticed he had brought exactly the ingredients listed in his cookbook. After the adventurers they had rescued thanked them and hurried away, Gauss waited for the stew and felt his Energy Gland grow unusually active.

• Gauss consulted his monster cookbook, butchered a Corrosive Frog, and harvested its edible thigh meat.
• Gauss gathered the listed ingredients from his Storage Bag, prompting Alya to suspect he had planned to cook the frog all along.
• Alya built a fire while Gauss prepared and began stewing the frog meat with vegetables and seasonings.
• The rescued novice adventurers thanked Gauss and Alya, declined a meal, and hurried away after seeing the frog remains.
• Gauss smelled the stew and felt his Energy Gland grow especially active.

Gauss and Alya cooked and preserved Corrosive Frog meat before hunting a colony of fifty-two frogs. After Gauss reached his 500-kill milestone, his Intelligence increased to 9, and a cool, clear energy surged into his mind.

• Gauss tasted Corrosive Frog stew and found it delicious and highly energizing, while Alya experienced harmless tingling from its mild neuroparalytic effect.
• Gauss and Alya processed the frogs’ thigh meat for later curing, then set out for the frogs’ habitat with Ulfhen.
• Gauss silently killed eleven Corrosive Frogs with Fire Bolts before one target moved and alerted the colony.
• Gauss drew the frogs around the lake while Alya laid vine traps, then he, Alya, and Ulfhen defeated the remaining frogs.
• Gauss’s Corrosive Frog Hunter title upgraded to Corrosive Frog Killer, and his 500-kill reward raised his Intelligence from 8 to 9.

After killing fifty-two Corrosive Frogs, Gauss reached 9 Intelligence and experienced a sweeping improvement in his mental abilities and magic. He and Alya returned toward Grayrock Town after discussing buying mounts, and Gauss ended the night studying the Meditation Method to break through its final bottleneck.

• Gauss’s cumulative Monster Kill Count reached 1,000, raising his Intelligence to 9 and greatly improving his comprehension, magic control, and progress toward Level 2.
• Alya quietly gave Gauss space during his transformation, then finished processing the Corrosive Frogs’ tongues, meat, and skins with him.
• Gauss packed the frog meat into his Storage Bag and shared some raw meat with Ulfhen, then he and Alya spent the night in a nearby village before planning to return to Grayrock Town.
• Gauss and Alya agreed that buying mounts would improve their travel and carrying capacity, and Alya suggested visiting the trading market near Barry.
• Gauss thought of his former squad and their undelivered first-mission commission, then opened his Meditation Method book that night to try to overcome its final bottleneck.

Gauss learned the Meditation Method and spent the night cycling mana, increasing his reserves before setting out with Alya and Ulfhen for Grayrock Town. On the road, he offered to help Alya with Goodberry and considered her the first member of his future Monster Slayer Team.

• Gauss used his improved concentration to construct a meditative circuit and successfully guided mana into his Class Rank Cup.
• He continued meditating until dawn, increasing his mana but exhausting his mental energy enough to fall asleep.
• Alya woke Gauss, and he realized he had meditated through the night and needed to practice more carefully.
• Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen set off for Grayrock Town carrying packs of Corrosive Frog meat.
• Gauss asked about Alya's Goodberry practice and offered to help her find a new perspective.
• Gauss reassured Alya about her talent and considered what other roles his future Monster Slayer Team would need.

Gauss and Alya sold their Corrosive Frog hides in Grayrock Town, then discussed the approaching Winter Hunt. Gauss decided to join the large-scale monster hunt, hoping to expand his Monster Codex and earn money.

• Gauss decided to buy warmer clothes as the weather turned cold, and Alya joined him for a busy day of errands.
• Alya negotiated the sale of the Corrosive Frog hides for 1 gold, 50 silver, and 60 copper, bringing the assignment's total earnings to 2 gold, 50 silver, and 70 copper.
• While they waited for a property broker, Alya explained that the annual Winter Hunt cleared monsters from the forest before winter and offered bounties and stipends to eligible adventurers.
• Gauss agreed to take part in the Winter Hunt after Alya explained that higher-ranked adventurers would handle the strongest threats.
• Gauss looked forward to hunting new monster types and raising his Common Monster Codex from its current 13 types.

Gauss settled into the two-story house he had bought, cleaned and repaired it with cantrips, and enjoyed his first night feeling at home. Later, Sophia gave him a mysterious package containing adventuring tools and a letter.

• Gauss finished his errands with Alya, bought a house, and signed the contract.
• Alya toured the house with Gauss, offered ideas for furnishing it, and then returned to her own home.
• Gauss used Prestidigitation, Wind Dance, and Mending to clean and repair the house, improving his proficiency in the spells.
• Gauss bathed in his newly cleaned home and felt calm about having a place of his own.
• Sophia handed Gauss a package delivered by a quiet girl in a black cloak, and he found adventuring mechanisms, dismantling tools, and a letter inside.

Gauss received a congratulatory letter and gift from his former Night Owl Squad, then attended a crowded guild meeting with Alya to learn about the Winter Hunt. Guildmaster Eberhard opened the meeting with a powerful aura that silenced the hall, leaving Gauss wary of his strength.

• Gauss read Meva's letter congratulating him on reaching Bronze Rank and carefully stored the letter and gift.
• Gauss reviewed his skills over breakfast with Alya and considered which ones to practice next.
• Gauss and Alya found the Adventurer's Guild's second floor packed with Bronze Adventurers gathering for a Winter Hunt information session.
• Alya explained that adventurers from inland regions came to the frontier each autumn to prepare for winter or test themselves.
• Eberhard introduced himself as the Grayrock Town Adventurer's Guild head and spread a powerful aura that silenced the meeting hall.
• Gauss sensed Eberhard's aura and wondered whether its influence on the attendees amounted to illegal magic.

Gauss learned the Winter Hunt’s rules and planned to target Elite Monsters to earn enough money for his debts and future needs. After rejecting a party’s invitation, he remained resolved to keep hunting goblins regardless of the rumors surrounding him.

• Shirley and the clerk explained the Winter Hunt’s schedule, stipends, monster bounties, and group tactics, and Gauss calculated how much he might earn by hunting Elite Monsters.
• Gauss and Alya discussed preparing for the hunt, including training their skills and having Alya seek a pact with a falcon for scouting.
• Gauss overheard adventurers calling him the “Goblin Slayer” and incorrectly claiming that most of his kills were goblins.
• Pat invited Gauss and Alya to join his party as its new Mage, but Gauss declined because he preferred hunting with Alya and Ulfhen.
• Gauss dismissed the rumors and resolved to keep hunting goblins as he grew stronger.

Gauss and Alya completed nearby quests while Gauss’s growing reputation as a “Goblin Slayer” spread around Grayrock Town. Near town, he reunited with Marlin, whose adventuring career had left him poorly equipped and on the verge of another party breakup.

• Gauss and Alya discussed their efficient quest routine and the nickname other adventurers had given their party.
• Gauss checked that his monster kill count had reached 619 and noted that Enhanced Leap had advanced to level 3.
• As Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen approached Grayrock Town, Gauss recognized Marlin among a battered adventuring party whose leader was berating him.
• Gauss greeted Marlin, who admitted he had become an adventurer and felt embarrassed about his failures and damaged gear.
• Gauss encouraged Marlin to keep trying and left with Alya, after which Marlin’s tense teammates asked how he knew Gauss.

After learning Gauss had become a Bronze Adventurer, Marlin struggled with envy and his captain asked him to seek Gauss’s help. Gauss and Alya turned in their quests and collected supplies for the Winter Hunt, but the first snow fell early, leaving Gauss uneasy about the coming cold.

• Marlin’s party learned Gauss was a Bronze Adventurer, and the captain asked Marlin to have Gauss take them under his wing.
• Alya judged Marlin unsuited to adventuring, while Gauss said Marlin had to choose his own path.
• Gauss and Alya turned in their quests for thirty silver coins and noticed that few low-ranking adventurers remained in Grayrock Town.
• Gauss collected three varieties of frog jerky from the food workshop and stored the supplies for the Winter Hunt.
• The next morning, Gauss saw the first snow falling early and hurried to the inn, where Alya was already waiting.

After an early snowfall hinted that the Winter Hunt would begin ahead of schedule, Gauss and Alya trained and strengthened their abilities. Gauss improved Magic Missile and discovered that Alya’s Goodberry restored his mana efficiently, while Alya completed a pact with a raven that Gauss considered recruiting into a larger scouting network.

• Gauss and Alya noticed the early snow and stopped taking outdoor jobs after the Adventurer's Guild warned them to prepare for the Winter Hunt.
• Gauss raised Magic Missile to lv4, making it easier for him to lock onto both stationary and moving targets.
• Alya mastered Goodberry and completed a pact with a raven as her second new companion.
• Gauss ate one of Alya’s magic berries and found that his Energy Gland converted its energy into mana quickly.
• Gauss considered having the raven recruit wild ravens and crows to expand the group’s reconnaissance network.

Gauss and Alya joined the Adventurer's Guild's grand departure from Grayrock Town for a final purge of the forest monsters before winter. As the party set out to reassure the anxious townsfolk, Gauss waved to his friends from the Night Owl Squad and learned the spectacle might be intended to bolster the town's morale amid rumors of war.

• Gauss and the other adventurers gathered in Grayrock Town, where he noticed Guild head Eberhard and his impressive griffin mount.
• More than a hundred Bronze Adventurers, elite lower-ranked Adventurers, and supply wagons formed a procession as Gauss and Alya boarded a carriage with Ulfhen following.
• The townsfolk cheered the party as it rolled through the streets, and Gauss waved back to Leven, Doyle, Oliver, Daphne, and Meva outside a tavern.
• Alya told Gauss that previous departures had taken place outside town and suggested the Guild staged this one to give frightened residents confidence amid rumors of an approaching monster war.

Gauss and Alya joined the Winter Hunt and received a patrol assignment deep in the Emerald Forest. As the hunt began, they searched for a monster group led by a Half-Ogre, using Alya’s raven Ike to locate it.

• Gauss and Alya reached the Emerald Forest camp with the Winter Hunt convoy and learned that Ike could fly in the snow.
• Eberhard distributed patrol maps to the squads, spoke briefly with Gauss, and assigned Squad 23 a deep patrol area.
• Gauss and Alya reviewed their route and prepared to hunt monsters on the outskirts while Eberhard and the Black Iron Adventurers targeted the Ogre Shaman.
• The next day, Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen entered the forest to find a small monster group led by a Half-Ogre.
• Ike returned from scouting, and Alya used Animal Talk to communicate with him.

Gauss and Alya followed Aike’s intelligence to a monster camp and launched a surprise attack on its half-ogre leader, Goruk. Gauss killed Goruk with two volleys of Magic Missiles, unlocking the path of the elite.

• Aike reported a half-ogre camp near a water source and the traces of another tribe.
• Gauss, Alya, Aike, and Ulfhen reached the camp and spotted Goruk sleeping among the monsters.
• Gauss struck Goruk with three Magic Missiles, breaking its armor and opening a severe wound.
• Gauss rushed toward Goruk and fired three more Magic Missiles into its exposed wound.
• Goruk died after the attack destroyed its heart, and Gauss activated the second type of elite monster.

After unlocking the first stage of the Path of the Elite and killing a Half-Ogre leader, Gauss exploited the disorganized monster army to hunt Mosquito Bats and advance his Monster Codex. He was left picking off the fleeing fliers as the leaderless monsters scattered.

• Gauss received Monster Strength Transformation, learned the Stage 2 requirement, and acquired the Giant Hunter title after the Half-Ogre leader died.
• Gauss spotted Kobolds, Goblins, Dretches, and Mosquito Bats among the leaderless monsters and identified the two unfamiliar species.
• Gauss killed a Mosquito Bat with a down-ranked Magic Missile, raising his Common Monster Codex count to 14 and gaining the Precision title effect.
• Gauss used Precision and rapid Magic Missiles to shoot down more Mosquito Bats while dodging Goblins that rushed him.
• The scattered groups of low-level monsters began fleeing after losing their leader, while Gauss continued targeting the remaining Mosquito Bats.

Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen cleared most of a large monster group, raising Gauss’s Monster Kill Count and adding a new Codex entry and title. After marking the battlefield for Guild collection, they rested and Gauss estimated the rewards at more than seven gold coins.

• Gauss killed a Dretch, recorded the fifteenth Common Monster Codex entry, and acquired the [Imp Hunter] title.
• Gauss used spells and his rapier to kill fleeing Dretches, Kobolds, and Goblins while Alya and Ulfhen hunted the stragglers.
• The group killed most of the monsters, but about twenty or thirty escaped into the forest, and Gauss’s Monster Kill Count reached 672.
• Gauss lit a green signal flare to mark the clearing complete, then rested and estimated the bounty and spoils would bring in more than seven gold coins.

Gauss and his team cleared a second monster stronghold, killing its Half-Ogre leader and raising his kill count to 739. With no large groups left in their assigned area, they prepared to expand into neighboring regions as Gauss neared the thousand-kill milestone.

• Gauss and Alya discussed the Ogre Shaman threat and learned that President Eberhard was a level-9 Magic Swordsman known as the Crimson Blade.
• Gauss, Alya, and Ulfhen followed Raven Ike to a second monster stronghold, where they found a vigilant Half-Ogre leader.
• Gauss attacked the Half-Ogre with Magic Missiles while Ulfhen distracted it, and Weak Point Strike helped him break its ribs and severely wound it.
• Gauss chased down and killed the Half-Ogre, then helped rout the remaining monsters, bringing his total kill count to 739.
• Alya reported that Raven Ike had found no more large monster groups in their assigned area, so Gauss planned to rest before moving into neighboring regions.