I Am Not Goblin Slayer
Chapter 82: Entering the Dungeon

Lawrence did not just learn about that micro-dungeon in the past two days.  

In fact, he had known about it more than a week earlier.  

During this time, he had been preparing thoroughly before exploring the dungeon, including but not limited to preparing equipment and supplies in advance—silver-plated weapons for possible undead creatures, ranged weapons like crossbows and bolts, lighting tools, water, antidotes, food, and other supplies. He also prepared tools for special terrain such as lockpicks, climbing ropes, and reconnaissance kits.  

Next was recruiting the team members.  

He contacted some apprentice friends he had known before through letters, most of whom had decent strength. The main purpose of this more-than-a-week-long period was to wait for the team members to assemble.  

After all, not everyone happened to be free at the same time, so some time had to be reserved for others to finish their ongoing commissions.  

As usual, the temporary team preparing to explore the micro-dungeon held their first meeting at the tavern.  

In Absinthe Town, the Oak Barrel Tavern.  

Perhaps due to local characteristics, the tavern in Absinthe Town even faintly carried a herbal fragrance.  

This subtle aroma added a hint of tranquility to what should have been a noisy place. If forced to compare, the style was somewhat similar to Gauss’s previous life’s quiet bar.  

Gauss pushed open the door and entered the main hall, looking around.  

He finally saw Lawrence’s figure in a booth near the corner.  

With him were several unfamiliar men and women, presumably the temporary companions for this exploration.  

“Let me introduce you all—this is the spellcaster Gauss. His strength is quite formidable.”  

Lawrence pulled Gauss over and was the first to introduce him to everyone.  

The others had already heard about this expedition from Lawrence before Gauss arrived, including that a spellcaster apprentice would be joining the team.  

Now that they saw him in person, they immediately sized him up based on his slightly inexperienced appearance.  

Adventurers who had been in the field for years rarely maintained such pale and smooth skin as his.  

For a moment, they exchanged glances secretly, unable to help but mutter doubts in their hearts.  

Could it be that Gauss was a wealthy friend Lawrence had made who, out of curiosity about dungeon exploration, just tagged along for fun?  

Actually, they had misunderstood Gauss.  

Gauss was a farmer’s son. His previous temperament was nowhere near as refined as it was now. Just one or two months ago, he had been a dusty and grimy little Kalami boy.  

It was only during this period that he had eaten well and replenished the nutrition his original body had lacked.  

Coupled with the continuous improvement of his physical qualities, his temperament naturally became more outstanding, giving the faint feeling of a rebirth.  

Gauss noticed the several glances cast his way and vaguely sensed the emotions behind their eyes, but he was not intimidated.  

After all, adventurers relied on strength. He believed that with his current power, it was basically impossible for any low-level adventurer to be stronger than him, so most of the time, he didn’t care much about others’ opinions.  

He met their gazes and greeted them confidently.  

This composed behavior earned him some credit, and those who had been pondering their suspicions temporarily suppressed their doubts.  

One by one, they introduced themselves.  

“I am...”  

After the introductions, Gauss gained some understanding of his dungeon companions. Including himself and Lawrence, there were seven people in total.  

They were: two warrior apprentices—human warrior Liam and half-orc warrior Sork.  

Rogue apprentice Edith. The burly priest apprentice Adrian. Ranger apprentice Bianca.  

And the spellcaster apprentices Lawrence and Gauss.  

Except for Lawrence, who looked worn down by indulgence, the rest were all physically strong experts, their muscle lines revealing their prowess.  

This discovery made Gauss silently nod in approval.  

He hoped his team would be reliable.  

The next day.  

After half a day of continuous team drills, Gauss quickly bonded with the previously unfamiliar members.  

The teammates fully recognized some of the strength Gauss showed during training.  

What did they see? A strong, capable fighter who could run and fight, adept at offense and defense, and even wielded impressive swordsmanship?  

His versatility somewhat exceeded their expectations of an apprentice.  

They were not curious about how Gauss cultivated—that had little to do with them. Knowing he was their teammate for this expedition was enough.  

“Gauss, want to hit the tavern for drinks tonight?” The half-orc warrior Sork casually draped an arm over Gauss’s shoulder, speaking loudly and carefree.  

Most half-orcs were straightforward like this: clear in their likes and dislikes, acting before speaking, valuing strength.  

Their thoughts were often plainly written on their faces.  

Just like the enthusiasm and friendliness overflowing on Sork’s face at this moment.  

Yet last night when they first met at the tavern, he had been the coldest one, leaning back in his chair.  

“I won’t go. We set off tomorrow, so I’ll drink less tonight.” Gauss felt somewhat awkward being grabbed by the shoulder and sniffed the strong scent emanating from Sork’s body.  

“Ha ha, fair enough, fair enough!” Sork wasn’t angry at the refusal and instead nodded in agreement with Gauss’s point of view.  

This scene made Lawrence rub his forehead beside them.  

Actually, he wasn’t that familiar with Sork either. His impression of Sork was that of an impulsive, straightforward man who often offended others with his blunt speech. Unexpectedly, this rough man also had such a reasonable side.  

His gaze involuntarily shifted back to Gauss.  

Among everyone, he was probably the most surprised. Having known Gauss for so many days, he thought he was already very familiar with him. But this morning’s drills showed many previously unseen skills from Gauss.  

At this moment, he couldn’t help but feel relieved. Inviting Gauss this trip was probably the best decision.  

Due to the micro-dungeon’s location, a bit far from Absinthe Town,  

the dungeon exploration team had an early assembly time.  

After boarding the carriage from Lawrence’s family herbal shop, the group headed toward the dungeon.  

No one inside the carriage wanted to keep chatting frequently; instead, they each leaned back in their seats with eyes closed, resting.  

The scenery outside the carriage became increasingly desolate as they left the human settlement behind.  

After traveling some distance, they got off by the roadside and began walking the final stretch with their backpacks and supplies.  

At a few stone pillars jutting abruptly from the wasteland like bamboo shoots, Lawrence, leading the group, stopped.  

“This is it.”  

Gauss turned his head to observe the surroundings. The scene here was indeed somewhat bizarre and eerie.  

Some structures looked as if they had been squeezed out from underground.  

But this assumption was clearly unreasonable.  

The group didn’t rush to explore but set down their packs nearby to rest and recover their strength.  

Before embarking on a real adventure, the first thing to do was to restore their condition to the best.  

Gauss also began to eat the food he had brought in big bites. The physical energy consumed while walking here, as well as the magic power spent earlier casting Mage Armor, were continuously replenishing like a rising tide as he ate.  

Once everyone had rested sufficiently,  

Rogue Edith began her work by scanning the surface area near the dungeon.  

She confirmed whether there were any other monsters or wild beasts around the dungeon’s ground area.  

After this check confirmed no danger, the group’s attention shifted to the dungeon entrance itself.  

Dungeon entrances like this were often controlled by some kind of mechanism.  

Lawrence pointed to a spot where, among the tightly fitted stone tiles, one was relatively loose. Carefully pulling it out,  

“Whirr whirr whirr—”  

With the sound of a mechanism activating, the originally flat stone floor slowly cracked open, eventually forming a two-meter square underground entrance.  

The entrance slanted downward into the earth. Due to the lack of lighting, the depth and condition inside were unclear.  

“Cough cough!”  

From the thick, profound darkness came a stuffy breath of air first.  

“Let my little pet go in first to check things out.” Rogue apprentice Edith pinched the scruff of a weasel’s neck, her slender fingers gently scratching its belly, both soothing it and checking its condition.  

After feeding it a little snack, Edith placed the pet weasel on the ground in front of the entrance passage.  

She pointed inside the passage, making some sharp sounds.  

The weasel received its master’s command and cautiously peeked inside the passage for a while before finally entering.  

“Sniff sniff!”  

Before long, several short, sharp cries came faintly from inside the passage.  

Edith crouched by the entrance as if understanding something.  

“I’ll go in first to investigate. If there’s no danger, I’ll come back to inform you.”  

Then her figure quietly merged into the darkness.  

Gauss patiently watched his team’s disappearing figure.  

Lawrence, worried that Gauss might be nervous about entering the dungeon for the first time, had explained a few days ago the possible crises and situations that might be encountered inside.  

The dungeon was a product of the Forgotten Realm civilization. Almost all dungeons contained traps and mechanisms.  

Rushing in hastily relying only on some combat power without preparation could lead to death without even knowing what happened.  

Compared to visible monsters and guards, some silent traps were sometimes more deadly.  

The rogue Edith was responsible for reconnaissance. She needed to use stealth skills early on to gather information inside the dungeon, mark traps and mechanisms, record enemy distribution, and draw maps and routes to provide more intelligence for the teammates.  

It could be said that in a dungeon exploration, anyone could be missing except an experienced rogue.  

This was also why Gauss, after restoring his lone wolf status, only took simple tasks.  

Before his combat power reached a qualitative leap, relying on only one person’s strength was always insufficient. Such insufficiency would become more apparent in complex environments and missions.  

After waiting for a while,  

Edith returned with a roughly hand-drawn parchment map and began explaining the environment and layout of the dungeon’s first half.  

Gauss looked at the map and gradually formed a clear understanding of the underground space below.  

Inside this dungeon were independent rooms connected by narrow passages, arranged in a tree-like structure.  

Each enlarged node represented a dungeon room.  

Edith had only explored the dungeon environment near the entrance passage.  

Further exploration still required the team to venture deeper inside.  

“This is the micro-dungeon?” A hint of surprise appeared on Gauss’s face.  

At first, when Lawrence mentioned “micro,” he had thought it might be something like a small basement of several dozen to a hundred square meters.  

But now, with the detailed map, he realized it was far more complex than he had imagined.  

The dungeon was not a single complete space. In the complicated network of small rooms, enemies or mechanisms might lurk, and exploration would take some time.  

After double-checking their equipment and weapons, one by one, they entered the dungeon passage.  

Gauss walked in the middle of the team.  

After communicating with his teammates, he cast a Light Cantrip on the shield of the half-orc warrior Sork.  

The Light Cantrip did not consume even the slightest bit of his magic power.  

This was because the Bone Staff had a certain mysterious affinity with the Light Cantrip, allowing him to store the effect of five Light Cantrips in advance.  

As for other spells, he had tried them all, but unfortunately, none worked.  

“Thanks.”  

After releasing the Light Cantrip, the passage instantly brightened.  

The pure white light emitted from the Light Cantrip on Sork’s shield seemed to have a calming magical power, even suppressing the dark and eerie atmosphere farther away.  

Lawrence glanced at Gauss.  

For some reason, walking inside the light cast by Gauss’s Light Cantrip made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.  

He had encountered Light Cantrips before, which were fairly common cantrips, but he had never experienced anything like this.  

He always felt Gauss’s Light Cantrip was somehow different from other spellcaster apprentices’ versions.  

But since they were in the middle of an adventure, he didn’t inquire further and suppressed his confusion.  

“Be careful, don’t step on this tile. There’s a pressure plate inside that triggers the mechanism next to it.”  

While walking downward, Edith would occasionally remind the team to watch out for traps.  

Everyone cautiously avoided them.  

They silently continued walking downward.  

Gauss estimated they had traveled over a hundred meters, and the vertical depth from the surface should be about thirty to forty meters when the stairs finally reached an end.  

What greeted their eyes was a space resembling an entrance hall.  

Of course, it was not large—around twenty square meters—with a ceiling barely over two meters high, giving a slightly cramped and oppressive feeling.  

“Dull dull dull!”  

Perhaps because of the obvious effect of the Light Cantrip, several skulls scattered on the ground slowly stood up, emitting hoarse roars.  

“I got this.”  

Gauss stopped his teammates who were about to act and charged forward with his rapier.  

In no time, he easily dispatched five skeletons.  

These were enemies even an ordinary farmer could handle, so naturally, they posed no real trouble.  

“Kill ordinary*5”  

“Total monster kills: 110”  

Feeling relieved, Gauss looked at the skeletons that had completely lost their spirit and sheathed his rapier.  

The monster encyclopedia count, which had stagnated during the Mage Armor training these days, began to accumulate again.  

He gazed at the several pitch-black, deep tunnels extending continuously ahead and couldn’t help but feel excited inside.  

He hoped this micro-dungeon would contain more such ordinary weak enemies.  

After all, the monster encyclopedia in the Adventurer’s Manual did not discriminate by monster strength; even weak ordinary skeletons contributed to kill counts like other monsters.  

Perhaps this dungeon would allow him to accumulate enough total kills.  

Meanwhile,  

Lawrence watched Gauss charge forward, moving fluidly and slaying enemies in just a few strokes. Although he knew these skeletons were weak, he couldn’t help but be shocked.  

Is this really how spellcasters fight?  

Something inside his heart quietly shattered into pieces.