Underlying Ecology

"Gauss, want some breakfast today?"

"Maybe next time, Sophia. I'm heading out first!"

Gauss walked out of the inn.

He'd made some progress practicing Magic Missile, so he planned to stop by the Adventurer's Guild.

After reaching Level 2, the proficiency he gained from ordinary practice had slowed dramatically.

Practicing skills in real combat was more effective than simply drilling them.

Besides, the number in his Monster Codex had stayed the same for a while now.

Monster Kill Count: 12

"Next stage: Reach a total of 50 monster kills."

Practicing Magic Missile was like sharpening a blade before chopping wood. Now that he'd sharpened it, it was time to put it to the test.

More importantly, these past few days of practicing spells around town had rapidly drained his little nest egg. He needed to pick up a commission to replenish it.

Current cash: 26 silver coins and 15 copper coins

In just a few days, more than two silver coins had vanished without a trace.

Most of it had gone toward food.

And that was despite him deliberately keeping a lid on his spending and avoiding splashing out at the tavern.

"What's going on? It's not like I ate that much meat."

Gauss shook his head.

He'd chosen relatively "cheap" street vendors and small shops for his meals these past few days, and none of them had been particularly expensive.

Even if he'd eaten meat with nearly every meal, could that really have driven his expenses so high?

Gauss didn't think he was to blame.

The fault lay with this world's exorbitant meat prices. This world ought to take a good look at itself. After all these years, had its technology and productivity made any progress? Why couldn't meat go from being a luxury to an everyday staple?

He shook his head.

His craving for meat probably wouldn't fade anytime soon.

His growing reserves of mana made him feel like a boy going through puberty, burning through energy every day. If he ate only vegetables, his body wouldn't be able to keep up and would soon start having problems.

Besides, he didn't want to restrict his appetite.

Cultivation was already hard enough. What was wrong with indulging a little? Living like an ascetic had never been his goal in life.

He entered the Adventurer's Guild hall.

It was crowded as ever.

That was normal for the Adventurer's Guild, especially in the mornings and at dusk. Adventurers swarmed in like housewives rushing to buy discounted goods at a supermarket in his old world, milling around the hall as they looked for suitable quests.

Gauss had been to the Adventurer's Guild several times by now, and the place had completely lost its mystique.

After observing carefully, he'd noticed that some adventurers were dressed to the nines, yet did nothing but wander from one notice board to another, browsing the commissions and nodding repeatedly. Even after a long while, they never seemed to take the next step.

There were a few faces he thought he could spot every time he came.

He had good reason to suspect that the vast crowd of adventurers included some hired extras—perhaps even people paid by the Adventurer's Guild to make the hall look busier and encourage adventurers to "snatch up" commissions.

Brushing aside his wild speculations, Gauss went to the commission board and began browsing the notices.

First, he ruled out gathering commissions. Collecting materials usually meant spending hours wandering aimlessly through the forest, which was a waste of time. Besides, he lacked the techniques, tools, and experience needed to gather herbs and preserve them.

He quickly ruled out some escort commissions, too.

Fixed monster-clearing commissions were only worth a glance as well.

Those quests had been posted by Grayrock Town's municipal hall and remained open indefinitely. But that also meant adventurers had been sweeping those areas for years, so monsters were already few and far between.

Gauss was mainly looking for monster-slaying commissions posted by ordinary people.

There were plenty of low-tier monsters in this world, like goblins, that weren't worth much in themselves. They didn't produce any useful materials.

As a result, it was often ordinary villagers from villages and other human settlements who pooled their money and posted commissions at the Adventurer's Guild.

Some might wonder: even if small monsters like goblins gathered in groups of a dozen or more, surely they still wouldn't be a match for a village of dozens of people. Why didn't the villagers clear them out themselves instead of hiring adventurers?

Gauss had been puzzled by that himself.

But after talking with some villagers in Birch Village, he'd more or less figured out why.

First, a horde of small monsters was more dangerous than the numbers alone suggested. You couldn't simply compare their strength with that of humans. Many monsters might be relatively weak individually, but they fought beasts and other monsters in the wild all the time, giving them plenty of experience fighting as a group.

Second, the terrain put humans at a disadvantage. Forests, lairs, and other wilderness environments weren't suited to human combat.

Most importantly, battles inevitably brought the risk of injury and death. Villagers who spent their lives farming rarely had much of a fighting spirit. Even if one or two did, they couldn't inspire the rest.

Gauss might not have much trouble killing goblins, but that was because his former self had been a hunter, giving him better physical fitness than most ordinary people. His above-average intelligence also gave him something like a bare-bones version of Bullet Time in combat. Add magic, weapons, and teammates to the mix, and he came across as a "war god."

Ordinary villagers had none of those advantages. If a battle broke out, they could hardly expect everyone to come through unhurt. Someone would usually get injured, and sometimes villagers even died.

Rather than fight for themselves, timid villagers would rather grit their teeth, each chip in some money, and hire the Adventurer's Guild to take care of it.

Over time, a common practice had taken hold across the continent: it was best to leave monster-related disasters to adventurers.

Gauss suspected the Adventurer's Guild had quietly helped promote that idea. How could the guild keep running if no one came to post commissions?

He spent a long time browsing the corkboard but still couldn't find a commission that suited him.

He hoped to find one involving no more than five monsters that weren't too strong.

Those commissions did exist, but they were relatively rare. If the monsters didn't pose much of a threat, villagers wouldn't go to the trouble of pooling their money to post a commission at the Adventurer's Guild.

And while many low-tier monsters were unintelligent and weak, their survival instincts drove them to band together and grow their numbers.

So the ecosystem of monsters had its own version of the saying, "Fierce beasts walk alone; cattle and sheep flock together."

"Besides, I'd never get there in time. The moment a fairly safe commission goes up, some low-tier adventurer team will probably take it." Gauss shook his head.

Whatever the field, competition was always fiercest at the bottom.

"Maybe I should take a look over there?"

His gaze fell on the corner of the hall, where the crowd was thickest.

If he wasn't mistaken, that was where adventurers formed teams. Not every adventurer had a regular group, and many commissions couldn't be completed alone. In those cases, they could only recruit temporary teammates in the Adventurer's Guild hall.

Just as he'd volunteered to join Hailiel's party last time.