I Am Not Goblin Slayer -
Chapter 84: Clear, Rewards
“Bang!”
The mushroom creatures’ bodies scattered across the ground.
After the team killed all the adult mushroom creatures, the fence behind them retracted with a series of “crackling” sounds.
At the same time, the mushroom colonies growing like carpets on the six walls suddenly began to wither and decay in vast patches.
As if they had lost their vitality along with the death of the adult mushroom creatures, they quickly shrank and dried up, eventually turning into small gray, shriveled fungal mats.
“It’s over!”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
When the fence dropped just now, they had been a bit panicked, feeling like trapped prisoners.
Fortunately, after successfully eliminating the mushroom creatures, everything returned to normal.
“Why does this place feel like a training ground?” Gauss shook his head. This dungeon did not deliberately trap them; after the battle ended, the blockade was lifted on its own, seemingly designed to let them fight the mushroom creatures.“Yes,” Lawrence agreed with Gauss’s opinion. “Many people say these dungeons are training camps used by the Forgotten Realm to cultivate their own warriors.”
“Kill monsters, clear stages, obtain loot, rest, then continue forward.”
“But I’m not exactly sure how it all works; I’ve only heard others say that.”
Gauss nodded.
As low-level adventurers, they didn’t need to care about useless information. Knowing that they could get loot here and hone their skills was enough.
“Rumble!”
Before all the mushrooms withered completely, a stone pillar suddenly rose from the smooth floor in the center of the room amidst a roaring sound.
Outside the central groove of the stone pillar, several large objects were placed.
Gauss and the others leaned down to take a closer look.
Under the stone platform were eight amber-colored gel spheres. Inside the spheres floated purple fungal thread patterns, while on the outer layer there were densely packed compressed spores resembling fish roe.
“Spore bombs!”
The moment they saw the spheres, a voice echoed simultaneously in everyone’s minds, revealing they all knew what these were.
They quickly exchanged glances.
They immediately understood the function of the eight spore bombs as loot.
Before throwing them, the released low-pressure spores did not generate a huge impact and could not cause significant damage to enemies or terrain.
Of course, it was worth noting that users also needed to maintain distance since the bombs were not intelligent enough to avoid harming “allies.”
In short, these were powerful one-time-use items.
“Let’s store them first.” Edith gestured for rogue apprentice Lawrence to take action. “Be careful, your big body can handle their explosions.”
“Don’t worry.”
Edith nodded, took out a small cloth bag with a cushioning pad, and carefully packed three of the spore bombs inside.
“Maybe we’ll need them for future dungeon explorations.”
“If we don’t use them, we’ll figure out how to split the profits at the end.”
The others had no objections.
At this moment, Gauss was still immersed in a special feeling.
Right after picking up the spore bombs, he sensed a peculiar change in his surroundings and body—a strange sensation hard to describe.
Some invisible energy in the air slowly seeped into the spell models imprinted deep within his will.
He opened the Adventurer’s Manual.
Sure enough, new changes had appeared.
“Entered special map: Forgotten Realm, micro-dungeon.”
“Skill Mage Armor proficiency +1.”
“Mage Armor lv3 (27/50)”
“Skill Magic Missile proficiency +1.”
“Magic Missile lv2 (19/20)”
“1!”
Two skills had gained one point of proficiency.
Was it because they had just cleared this “mushroom monster room”?
Gauss’s light flickered quietly across the faces of the others.
He noticed they showed no unusual reactions.
So, was this proficiency reward only appearing on him? Was it because he had an attribute panel that could solidify data? Or was there another reason?
He judged that the others probably didn’t experience what he did. Although they didn’t have panels capable of quantifying skills, he was the first to notice something was off because he sensed the spells imprinted in his will becoming more proficient, then checked the panel to confirm.
If the others’ skills had such abrupt improvements, they should have sensed some abnormality.
Gauss swallowed his saliva.
He looked at the dungeon rooms extending ahead.
One point of proficiency didn’t seem like much, but there were so many rooms here.
This dungeon truly was the right place to be.
He hadn’t expected extra gains from exploring here.
Could it really be some ancient civilization’s training ground? But why was only he able to improve? Was it really just because of the panel?
If others could also improve skill proficiency by clearing rooms in the dungeon, people would be fighting tooth and nail to get in.
Gauss’s heart was restless.
“Let’s rest a bit.”
Hearing his companions call for a break, he composed his excited yet puzzled mood.
Having cleared the mushroom room, the team didn’t rush to explore further.
The air had refreshed.
The few removed their masks, seizing time to recover their strength.
Who knew what awaited them in the next room? Although Edith had previously explored some of the dungeon’s first half rooms, that was without fully activating the dungeon.
Now the dungeon’s situation differed from when she explored, so they needed to quickly adjust their state to face possible dangers.
Gauss gulped down water from his pouch, growing more eager for this dungeon journey.
Several days later.
“Roar!!”
“Lure them together! My Light Cantrip seems to suppress them.” Gauss shouted to his teammates circling with a large group of zombies.
Seeing teammates running over, Gauss’s Bone Staff immediately released a wave of magical energy.
“Light Cantrip!”
Brilliant white light burst forth along the Bone Staff!
Gauss had now discovered that his Light Cantrip was no ordinary spell.
Especially the Light Cantrip enhanced by the Bone Staff seemed to carry strong holy attributes.
Some dark creatures would be restrained by this intense light.
Right now, under the illumination of the dazzling Light Cantrip, the dozen or so zombies pulled over by teammates suddenly halted simultaneously, their hollow, sunken eye sockets shrinking the light inside.
Their cracked lips tore backward, revealing black fangs. From deep within their throats came agonizing, hoarse howls of pain.
The burning agony made their previously swift movements slow as if delayed by half a beat, with joints cracking like rotting wood.
“Let’s attack!”
Originally worried about zombie bites spreading infection, the team grew braver seeing the zombies weakened.
“Cut off their heads!”
Those dark creatures inside the dungeon all had some regeneration ability; only by decapitating a few could they be truly killed.
“Understood!”
Gauss moved swiftly.
One hand gripped the Bone Staff, maintaining the Light Cantrip’s effect, while his other hand swung the sword, slicing the rotten, dirt-covered, dried-blood-stained neck of a zombie.
He was indeed very effective against zombies.
Because the Bone Staff was in his hand, the suppression effect on zombies around him was the strongest.
Whenever zombies approached him, they would be slowed by the close-range Light Cantrip’s burn, and that brief moment was enough for Gauss to cleanly decapitate them.
“Zombie kill *1”
“Title obtained: Zombie Hunter. This title upgrades as the number of kills increases.”
“Current effect: Sharpness. In battles against zombies and related advanced races, attack penetration is increased by an additional 10%.”
Gauss quickly skimmed the panel without wasting time.
He took a long step toward the next zombie.
“!”
The sword light flashed, this strike faster and fiercer than before!
The sword precisely struck the zombie’s swollen, rotten neck.
The dark green neck tore under his blade, leaving a bowl-sized gap, and murky blood gushed out.
Several minutes later.
The last zombie was also killed by the team.
“Boom boom!”
On the stone platform rising from the center of the room, several red and blue potion bottles were placed. Edith, now very familiar with the dungeon exploration routine, stepped forward to collect them.
After the battle, everyone sat down panting heavily.
Although they had occasionally left the dungeon during these days to camp and rest on the surface, the continuous dungeon exploration still exhausted them physically and mentally.
Every morning upon waking, they faced the dark, oppressive dungeon space and those foul-smelling monsters.
Their minds had become completely numb.
“Let’s rest a bit longer. There shouldn’t be many rooms left in this dungeon.” Lawrence looked at everyone’s exhausted faces and said.
Gauss nodded, found a clean spot, and sat down to rest.
He took the opportunity to check his personal panel on the Adventurer’s Manual.
His attributes hadn’t changed much, but skill proficiency had increased considerably.
Skills:
0-Ring Cantrip Light Cantrip lv2 (5/20)
0-Ring Cantrip Mage Hand lv3 (25/50)
1-Ring Spell Magic Missile lv3 (13/50)
1-Ring Spell Mage Armor lv3 (45/50)
Basic Swordsmanship lv2 (10/20)
Talents: Rapid Digestion, Magic Resistance.
These days of dungeon exploration had upgraded Light Cantrip and Basic Swordsmanship to lv2.
At the same time, Magic Missile had increased from lv2 to lv3. After leveling to lv3, Magic Missile unlocked a rapid-fire effect, allowing him to release two missiles consecutively in an extremely short time with almost no interval, and the missile’s speed also became faster.
Mage Armor had increased proficiency by a full 18 points, bringing it close to an upgrade threshold.
Thanks to the rapid proficiency rise, his understanding of the resonance of magical energy within his body had deepened significantly.
At this moment, he was very sure that Mage Armor lv4 was the key to unlocking his professional path as an adventurer.
Besides these changes, there was also...
“Monster kills: 178”
The target of 200 was only 22 away.
Gauss glanced at the map in his mind.
They had completely cleared the two routes on the left and right sides of the hall.
The only remaining path was the central route.
Judging by the number of rooms in the first two routes, it seemed this central route had only a few rooms left.
As he pondered, Lawrence was reminding everyone:
“Everyone needs to be extra careful.”
“According to my intel, this kind of dungeon might have special rooms. Although we haven’t encountered any yet, we must stay vigilant.”
Lawrence glanced at the hand-drawn map Edith made and marked an X on the square representing this room.
Gauss looked toward the passage leading to the next room.
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