I Am Not Goblin Slayer
Chapter 42: Attack the Core

Facing an enemy that had lost most of its mobility, Gauss showed no mercy.  

He was even ready to use the intimidation effect from the newly obtained title, Slime Hunter.  

When you have a power, you have to use it. Besides, this effect was specifically for slimes—if not now, then when?  

Drawing his rapier, he faced the slime in front of him.  

His mind shifted; the intimidation effect against slimes that he had just gained felt like an instinctive skill. In just a breath, he understood how to unleash intimidation on slimes.  

His eyes narrowed, focusing his awareness.  

As he concentrated, an invisible aura rapidly spread from his body outward.  

“Buzzzzz—”  

The intimidation aura expanded three meters, and three slimes caught in its path suddenly twitched simultaneously, their bodies freezing as if a pause button had been pressed.  

Almost at the exact moment the intimidation field was released, Gauss thrust his rapier forward!  

Concentrating fully, the world in Gauss’s eyes slowed down bit by bit.  

The rapier, pre-coated with protective oil, reflected the rising sunlight as its blade pierced through the outermost layer of slime mucus.  

A flash of cold light!  

Unlike the rough resistance felt when stabbing into goblin flesh, the slime’s body was very soft.  

“Pfft!”  

Apart from some undigested debris slightly hindering the blade along the way, there was no other obstruction!  

The rapier’s tip unerringly pierced the target. The slime core, immobilized by the intimidation aura, was ruthlessly stabbed through.  

“Shhhh!”  

Dead!  

In the blink of an eye, the slime dropped dead without a fuss!  

The dead slime dissolved again, leaving behind a puddle of foul-smelling mucus.  

“Slime Slime*1 kill”  

“Total monster kills: 29”  

Gauss glanced at his rapier and noticed the condensed slime gel hanging on the blade. He quickly swung his arm, forcefully flicking the gel off.  

Although he had pre-applied protective oil, for the sake of the rapier’s lifespan, he still had to minimize the time it stayed inside the slime to avoid acid corrosion on the blade.  

Glancing at the stinky puddle ahead, he instinctively appreciated the intimidation effect.  

It worked pretty well.  

Though the immobilization lasted only about half to one second, if used correctly, it saved a lot of effort in killing slimes.  

Just now, at the moment he used intimidation, the slimes had already completely lost any chance of resistance.  

Moreover, as he killed more slimes, the title would level up. Later on, the immobilization effect on normal slimes might not be just one second but several seconds during which they couldn’t move at all, or even be knocked unconscious or killed outright under his intimidation.  

He turned his head and looked around, noticing Doyle had once again stepped forward to engage other slimes. His expression immediately grew serious.  

“We need to kill fast! If we delay, we’ll get wiped out.”  

On the battlefield, the others were also quickly killing slimes.  

Doyle and Levin drew the slimes’ attacks head-on, Gauss swept the outskirts, and the ranged team provided support.  

The Night Owl Squad’s clearly divided roles made the slaughter of slimes finish in just a few minutes.  

Real battles rarely have evenly matched exchanges.  

Unlike back-and-forth clashes, when there’s a difference in strength, fights rarely last more than ten minutes.  

In fact, after killing most of the slimes in direct combat, the slime group had already scattered and lost the will to fight.  

But even if they tried to flee, they couldn’t avoid the dual encirclement of frontal longsword strikes and covert backstabs.  

The slimes retreated step by step, only to continuously dissolve into piles of gel fragments.  

It took some time to chase down the last two or three “deserters” on the outer edges.  

Eventually, they completed the thorough eradication of 25 slimes.  

Their current commissioned task was to annihilate this group of slimes. If they could kill them, they would do so as much as possible.  

Every slime was basically a silver coin that jumped; low-level adventurers didn’t do missions for free.  

Naturally, they wouldn’t let those silver coins slip away.  

After the battle, it was priest Daphne’s turn to work.  

Although the three responsible for melee had already taken protective measures—wearing wooden shields, armor, and gloves for layered defense—they still couldn’t avoid some corrosive acid exposure during the fight.  

Among them, Levin and Doyle’s conditions were relatively serious.  

“Hissss—”  

Doyle kept gasping sharply, letting out strange cries.  

“Hang in there, Doyle.” Daphne knelt beside him, holding her wooden staff.  

As she focused, she activated Life Sustain. Magical energy flowed from her staff, forming a pale green sphere that enveloped his reddened skin.  

Life Sustain could slow the worsening of injuries. The simple skin burning and itching sensations were immediately suppressed under the spell’s effect.  

After releasing the spell, she quickly took out some prepared ointment and applied it to Doyle’s wounds.  

“It should completely fade in about half a day.”  

“Thank you, Daphne. It’s great to have you.”  

“Uh... no need to be so polite. Oh right, Captain, I’ll help you heal too.”  

After some busy work, the skin injuries of Levin and Doyle were quickly treated. Daphne then turned to look at Gauss, who wore a calm expression.  

“Gauss, are you hurt? I see you killed quite a few slimes too.”  

Although Gauss didn’t show signs of pain, he had been fighting slimes up close, so Daphne ran over with concern.  

“I’m fine. Don’t waste magic on me.” Gauss waved his hand. “Counting the spells, I think I killed nine slimes.”  

Besides slight mental fatigue from repeatedly using intimidation, he had no physical injuries.  

“Nine!” Doyle and Levin looked over at once.  

Especially Doyle, whose face showed obvious disappointment. He had only killed five slimes.  

Could it be that Gauss had completely become the team’s offensive core?  

Is this the difference between a warrior and a mage?  

Nearby, while everyone was healing and chatting, Oliver and Meva diligently collected loot, picking up the gel fragments scattered on the ground into their bags.  

In the end, they filled a small pouch completely with slime gel fragments of various sizes.  

This was the condensed product formed after the slime core was pierced. Complete slime gel was about the size of an egg and quite elastic.  

But most of the collected gel was fragmented, with only a few pieces relatively intact.  

Fortunately, these fresh gel fragments could be combined to make whole units. Once they gathered roughly one full unit, it could be submitted as a material.  

“Twenty-five slimes total, 60 copper coins per kill reward, 30 copper coins per recovery reward, totaling 22 silver coins and 50 copper coins.”  

Meva calculated the mission’s earnings.  

Slimes couldn’t equip weapons, and the debris they swallowed inside was seriously corroded, so it was hard to find decent loot.  

Each person could evenly split less than four silver coins.  

Luckily, the mission was close to the town, and except for Levin and Doyle’s minor burns, the overall danger level was not high. Completing it smoothly was a pretty good commission.  

Under the shade of the trees, the group leaned together resting, calculated the pay, and showed satisfied expressions.  

Taking commissions, fighting battles, honing skills, gaining rewards, resting, gearing up, and then the next commission.  

Low-level adventurers could only bury their heads in this cycle, slowly growing stronger, hoping one day to step onto the professional path’s guidance.  

Of course, no one knew when that day would come.  

Maybe tomorrow, maybe never.  

Gauss also sat under the tree, maintaining his rapier while looking at the Adventurer’s Manual, starting to think.  

“Total monster kills: 32”  

“Magic Missile lv2 (8/20)”  

This was the progress gained after the battle.  

He had killed nine slimes in total. Besides five with Magic Missile, the remaining four were killed with the rapier, using intimidation and low-level bullet time for quick kills.  

At this rate, after roughly two more missions, the total kill count would reach 50, triggering the next stage of advancement.  

Magic Missile was already almost halfway to level 2 on its progress bar.  

The efficiency was impressive.  

Moreover, killing like this was almost risk-free. The enemy’s first wave of frontal attacks was usually tanked by the team’s frontline, Levin and Doyle, while he only needed to sweep and clean up on the outskirts.  

Of course, he also did his job well. As the team’s offensive core, even without picking up “easy kills,” he killed nearly 40% of the enemies in the entire battle.  

No strict person could criticize his contribution to the team.  

But what Gauss cared about wasn’t this. It was the realization of his own shortcomings during the fight.  

He lacked a crowd-control method. Although two Magic Missiles had killed five slimes, which looked like area attack capability, it was actually just clever single-target attacks.  

He might need to add a group attack spell skill later or make Magic Missile more flexible.  

If Magic Missile didn’t travel in a straight line but could turn mid-flight, given its piercing nature, could it kill multiple enemies in one attack?  

Even against enemies with impenetrable shields, a turning missile could bypass defenses and hit weaker vital points.  

Gauss pondered this. In fact, he could already slightly influence the missile’s trajectory, but true large-scale control was still far away.  

Of course, this was just his own idea. Whether it was feasible or realizable, he wasn’t sure.  

Besides, there was an efficiency issue. Maybe by the time he learned more advanced spells, he might not even be able to make the missile work like that.  

Aside from practicing skills and killing 50 monsters, he also needed to quickly gather five types of low-level monsters.  

Though he didn’t know what abilities he’d draw from that, it would probably boost his combat power.  

Muttering to himself, Gauss suddenly felt very busy; his current goals and pending plans seemed to be increasing rapidly.  

But then he smiled again.  

After all, this was a happy kind of trouble. If other low-level adventurers had such “busy” opportunities, they’d probably laugh themselves awake in their dreams.