The goblin commander scanned its surroundings carefully, but found nothing.
It turned back to its kin—only to see they'd already scattered again, leaping and scrambling around, chasing sparrows resting in the branches or wrestling in pairs.
Its mood darkened further, irritation rising like bile.
Just as it was about to head for the storeroom to fill its belly, the air suddenly fell unnaturally silent.
And then—the temperature, which had been cool and pleasant, began to spike upward at a terrifying rate.
It jerked its head up.
Ahead, a tiny speck had begun to glow—blindingly bright—and by the time it registered what it was seeing, that point of light was swelling rapidly.
"ROOOOAR!!!"
It bellowed, every hair on its body standing on end.
It twisted, legs exploding with force, and hurled itself away—while the expanding wave of scorching heat chased right behind it.
Boom!
One foot smashed through a wooden platform, splinters spraying. It sprang, landed on the bark of a distant dead giant tree—
and immediately plunged its rock-nail claws deep into the trunk. Using the friction, the ape-like goblin commander sprinted along the massive bark at breakneck speed.
BOOOOM!!!
The fireball detonated in the center of the goblin tree-city.
Flames and shockwave expanded in a perfect ring, ripping apart wooden platforms, rope nets, and sheets of bark—along with shrieking, tumbling bodies that fell from above like leaves scattered by a gale.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Before it could get far, the commander peeked out from behind cover to check the damage—
and two more explosions thundered through the nest.
Hovering in midair, Gauss didn't spare the goblin commander another glance.
His eyes swept the blazing tree-city below.
Those three fireballs had shattered several major transit hubs—key platforms that connected the structure. That was the whole point of using fireball here.
With the goblins now dispersed at lower density, continuing to throw fireballs would be wasteful.
He drew his white staff in his right hand.
"Ice Storm!"
As he chanted in intermediate Dragon Tongue, a terrifying, bone-deep chill erupted outward from his body as the origin point.
Dark clouds gathered rapidly overhead.
While he prepared the spell, goblins inside the giant trees popped their heads out from firing slits and loosed arrows at him.
Swish—swish—swish!
Arrows came from every direction.
But most couldn't hit him—either the range fell short or their aim was terrible. The few that did manage to connect simply bounced off his mithril light armor.
His gaze flicked to a far branch where several goblins were drawing bows.
The moment his focus locked onto them, a dreadful pressure descended.
It was as if an invisible hand had clamped their throats.
Their bodies went limp, swayed twice—
then their footing slipped. With a few sharp, miserable screams, they plunged down into the inferno below.
As for the goblin commander—once it realized Gauss was casting a spell powerful enough to change the very sky, it finally sprang from its cover.
Its back still bore scorch marks where fur had been singed black.
But it had no time to care.
From Gauss, it felt something utterly horrifying.
For reasons it couldn't explain, its own body seemed heavier, stiff, sluggish.
"Grr…"
It growled low, forcing courage into itself—and then launched into a series of powerful leaps toward Gauss.
Something in its instincts screamed that if it didn't attack now, that human—radiating a devil's aura—would destroy their entire nest.
Thump.
It hadn't even gotten close.
Two shadows shot toward it like spears, flying directly into its path.
It had to halt, eyes narrowing, staring at two dark forms that had condensed into bodies.
Shadow appeared with them, emerging from the darkness.
"Don't even think about getting past."
Three figures surged at it from different angles.
Up in the sky—
Gauss finished the spell.
The storm clouds fully formed, and hailstones—packed with biting cold—rained down.
Thud-thud-thud!
Green bodies were smashed by hail, or flash-frozen by the burst of cold it released. They dropped, hit the ground with a bang, and shattered—chunks scattered in every direction, life snuffed out.
Frost descended. Early spring became deep winter in an instant.
Outside the nest, Alia, Serandur, and Albena's three-person squad carved their way inward from the perimeter.
Gauss watched the exposed goblins die in droves, then shifted his gaze to the goblin commander.
"I'll take it," he said calmly. "You go clean up the rest."
"Alright."
Gauss flew to Shadow as he spoke.
Shadow didn't insist on staying—she retreated in a few rapid flickers, giving Gauss the big target.
She couldn't take it down quickly. The commander was stronger than her in a straight fight—especially once you accounted for how much it was being weakened by Gauss's presence.
Her job had been to stall it long enough to stop it from interrupting Gauss's spell.
Now the handoff was complete.
She vanished again, a few blinks later already slicing into the goblins retreating deeper into the tree-city.
These days, it wasn't just Gauss—his teammates had quietly become expert "trash-mob" killers too.
Gauss hovered in the air, studying the goblin commander on its branch.
Up close, it really did resemble a giant ape: upper body massively overbuilt, arms knotted with muscle, pure destructive power.
Only its face gave it away.
Whatever else changed, goblins always had that unmistakable ugliness—somehow consistently hideous across every variation.
While Gauss observed it, the commander didn't move an inch—like it had been hit by a paralysis spell.
Look closely: fat beads of sweat were seeping from its brow, running along deep creases, and dripping off to splash against the trunk.
The closer Gauss came, the heavier the pressure became.
Die.
You'll die.
A voice in its skull screamed warnings.
That human looked so slim—so fragile—
yet in its vision, he grew larger and larger with every breath.
And the commander's own three-meter frame felt pathetically small by comparison.
It exhaled shakily, then took two involuntary steps back.
This was the most terrifying human it had ever met.
Small—yet crushingly oppressive.
Gauss met its eyes and read the fear plainly. He was slightly surprised.
The commander wasn't like ordinary goblins that could be "stared to death" or collapse instantly under his intimidation… but mentally, it was still being crushed.
Because it's weaker than me? Gauss guessed.
The weaker the goblin, the stronger the "Intimidation" effect from his title—and the stronger the goblin, the more that effect diminished.
Against someone stronger than him, the influence might be minimal.
After a short assessment—
Gauss moved.
Krrk-krrk…
His body stretched subtly in midair. Black-and-white currents wrapped around him. His hair turned snow-white, and two small horns pushed cleanly through the empty horn slots in his helmet.
He tilted his head left, then right.
This mithril armor had excellent elasticity; the size change from Second-Stage Wraithform stayed within its designed allowance.
Albena had clearly taken measurements—no wonder she'd made him activate the form a few times during fitting.
"Now," Gauss said softly, "let's fight."
He flickered—appearing beside the commander.
"Monster Strength!"
He snapped a kick into its body.
The commander reacted fast, throwing both arms up to guard—
but the force that exploded from Gauss's leg still launched the huge creature flying.
BOOM!
It slammed into a giant tree trunk.
Bark cascaded down like an avalanche.
A deep crater was punched into the trunk where it hit.
The commander coughed up blood, as if the blow had "woken" it from the haze of pressure.
It twisted its neck to stare at Gauss.
Fear drained away, replaced by a slow-growing hatred.
"So if I pull aggro," Gauss muttered midair, "the mental suppression weakens a bit?"
He was testing both the mithril armor and the title Goblin Expert in real combat.
The commander sat right around Level 6–7—perfect as a test subject. Too weak and the data would be useless; too strong and there was a risk of things going sideways.
Intimidation was a mental-layer effect.
If the target was in an extreme emotional state, the results would shift.
If anger could fuel resistance, then what about fear or anxiety? Would the intimidation spike dramatically?
That seemed like a path worth exploring.
Maybe he should collect a few bluffs, feint skills, or fear-inducing illusions—use intimidation to crush enemies before the fight even began.
"ROAR!"
The commander lunged, teeth and claws flying.
Gauss blinked again—appearing beside it—then drove his armored boot into its abdomen and detonated the force.
THUD!
It went flying again, smashing into another massive trunk.
This commander was still around 6–7.
But compared to the one from the rescue operation, it was weaker—less burst, less lethality. Maybe because that previous one had been "blessed."
And Gauss was stronger now, too.
At this point, an enemy at his level—and a goblin on top of that—was practically doomed.
After being cleanly kicked away twice, the commander lay in its crater, eyes clearer now.
That human was too fast.
He could fly, and his reactions were absurd.
Trying to attack him by bouncing between trees was clumsy; in the air, it couldn't adjust direction well at all.
It coughed up more blood. The tearing pain in its abdomen reminded it: this was not a fight it could win.
And once the thought of running surfaced, it became unstoppable.
It realized that if it didn't flee, it would die.
It clawed its way out, refused to look at Gauss, and kicked off—leaping away in the opposite direction.
"Running?" Gauss watched the panic retreat and shook his head.
This was probably another downside of intimidation.
Once goblins were broken, their urge to flee became overwhelming.
"Control Water!"
Countless thin streams gathered around his gauntlet, forming a spear that shimmered blue-gold—its surface threaded with eerie black-and-white energy.
Holy and unholy forces, fused together under his control.
He drew his arm back and locked onto the fleeing "ape."
Then he hurled the spear.
A blue-gold streak tore through the air in a straight line.
It caught the commander mid-leap, striking squarely in the back.
The goblin's fur bristled wildly—its instincts screamed—
but the attack was too fast. There was no time to move.
SHRRK!
The spear punched through its thick hide and drilled clean through its body.
THUNK!
The impact pinned it to a tree like a bug on a board.
Even worse, the two hostile energies flooded into the wound and began ripping it apart from the inside.
Its vitality drained rapidly.
It twitched once, twice—
then its limbs sagged.
"Warlord-class Goblin (Arboreal Variant) Slain x1."
In moments, a would-be goblin "king" died in Gauss's hands.
He reclaimed the holy water, then dropped into the tree-city.
"Vampiric Touch!"
Like a wolf in a flock, Gauss plunged into the canopy and turned it into a slaughterhouse.
Just as he'd predicted, after his title advanced from Goblin Slaughterer to Goblin Expert, he could practically kill ordinary goblins with zero net cost. Cutting them down was effortless.
Even elite goblins only required a bit more force.
And that advantage wasn't only from the title.
More than anything, he was simply too practiced.
Do something ten thousand times, and it becomes instinct.
The craft of killing goblins had been written into his muscles and blood.
The instant he saw one, he knew exactly how much power to use—no more, no less.
One ounce short and it lives; one ounce extra and it's waste.
He'd reached that clean, precise, almost artistic threshold.
Was there anyone alive who understood killing goblins better than him?
Even people with higher body counts probably relied on mass AoE magic. That didn't mean they had his intimate familiarity.
That precision even made the Bloodthirst recovery effect feel almost excessive—sometimes he was restoring more stamina than he was spending.
In the span of moments—
"Total Monster Kills: 20000."
The counter crossed the 20,000 milestone.
"Total Monster Kills: 20011/20000 — 20,000-kill milestone achieved."
Gauss flickered away again, landing on a high, empty branch.