Gauss watched the gnoll camp fall into total disarray and couldn't help but marvel—monsters really did bully the weak and fear the strong.
Hephaestus only had to breathe once, and the gnoll force was already in chaos—stumbling over each other, fleeing in every direction, with not a shred of will left to fight.
It was a good thing he hadn't ridden Hephaestus straight over the camp from the start. If the gnolls scattered, it would've been hard to net them all at once.
But now, he had people positioned on all sides.
Even if the gnolls wanted to run, there was nowhere to go.
His clay constructs were weaker than when he kept them fewer in number—splitting them up reduced their strength—but they still held around Level 2 combat power.
And for Level 2 clay constructs, killing ordinary gnolls was child's play.
The gnolls that tried to flee quickly slammed into "monsters" waiting for them.
At first, they just stared, confused, at the figures blocking their path.
But the moment those "goblins" burst forward, snatched their weapons away—
—and swung them like farmers harvesting crops, cutting down gnolls one after another—
the gnolls finally snapped out of it. Terror and panic flooded their faces.
These… were enemies too?!
Why were goblins fighting alongside human adventurers?
It was the first time in their lives they'd ever seen anything like this.
"WOOO—!!!"
Gnolls died screaming.
Rusty, crude weapons became lethal in the hands of "goblins."
Most gnolls couldn't survive even a single exchange. Only a handful of elite leaders could contend with them—some could even win.
A gnoll warrior hefted a massive axe and dropped like a whirlwind from above.
With a crack like thunder, it cleanly "killed" a goblin—splitting it in two.
The surrounding gnolls almost relaxed—
—and then they saw something that made their blood run cold.
The halved body spilled no blood at all. It was… soft. Like writhing mud.
This wasn't a goblin?
The sludge slid off the axe, pooled, and—under the gnoll warrior's horrified stare—rapidly pulled itself together.
In moments, a goblin soldier identical to the first stood back up.
An immortal monster?!
And that scene was only a tiny slice of what was happening across the forest.
Clay spiders were weaker than the clay goblins, but they were stealthier—and in a forest, they moved like ghosts. That made them even deadlier hunters.
Plenty of gnolls sprinted for their lives, but before they could even realize what was happening, something dropped onto them from above. Multiple legs wrapped their heads, tightened at the neck, pierced through fur, injected poison—
and those gnolls, alive and scrambling just seconds before, quickly stopped breathing.
As for Gauss's teammates, killing gnolls was even easier.
Alia seemed determined to drill the two Level 3 spells she'd only recently gained—Moonlight Vines and Bloomward—in real combat.
Her figure flickered through the thick forest. And if you looked closely, you'd see five moonlit vine "tentacles" unfurling from her lower back.
They lifted and propelled her body, letting her slip through the trees like an assassin.
Any gnoll she passed was casually pinned—those silver-white vines stabbed into the ground and through a heart in the same motion.
With Moonlight Vines, Alia's combat ability clearly jumped up another notch.
High above, Gauss sat on Hephaestus's back, raining down Magic Missiles like a storm. He glanced at Alia's fighting style and couldn't help shaking his head.
Does Alia still have any druid left in her?
You're a druid—not a rogue, and definitely not a warrior.
But since nothing around her looked capable of threatening her life, Gauss let her have her fun.
It was normal to get excited after gaining a brand-new offensive tool.
[Gnoll Slayer]
Current Effect 1: Bane. In combat against gnolls and their advanced kin, your damage is increased by 26%.
Effect 2: Curse. Gnolls near you have a chance to suffer a random negative status.
Gnolls were common enough that their title had already reached "Slayer" rank.
Still, compared to what goblins gave him, the gnoll title looked a bit stingy—though it was good enough.
…
The gnoll cleanup went smoothly.
Aside from the single gnoll commander who lasted a few extra exchanges, the rest barely caused any trouble.
Total Monster Kills: 23,988
After adding over fourteen hundred to the total, Gauss's team successfully wiped the camp out.
Gauss controlled flowing water to extinguish the flames still burning on the ground.
Alia's cheeks were flushed—she looked energized, still riding the high.
She'd killed plenty of gnolls herself.
Out of those fourteen hundred kills, she'd contributed at least two hundred.
Hephaestus probably killed around four hundred. Shadow killed close to two hundred too. The clay army took maybe three to four hundred.
And Gauss himself? He'd probably only personally finished two to three hundred.
With teammates working, he could afford to fight loosely—he just picked off the targets with a bit of bite.
That was the advantage of having a team.
Alone, he wasn't afraid of these cowardly routed gnolls—but killing this many would've been a pain.
The terrain was open, and gnolls weren't wooden stakes stuck in the ground.
When they can't win, they run.
And no matter how strong Gauss was, he was still one person. With hundreds of escape routes, he couldn't block them all.
"How do you feel?" he turned and smiled at Torga.
"Way easier than I expected."
This was Torga's first time fighting side-by-side with Gauss's core team.
She'd believed in Gauss going in, but she hadn't expected it to feel this effortless.
She barely killed anything before the others "stole" all the enemies.
Even though her visible level was higher than some of Gauss's teammates, once the fighting started, she realized the gap in efficiency was real.
Especially Alia and Shadow—those two moved like wind through the trees.
And Gauss… was on an entirely different level.
She glanced at her own dwarven companions, who were bent over, panting and clutching their waists, and rubbed her forehead in irritation.
They clearly hadn't gotten enough real combat reps.
If the captain saw this, he might think dwarves were weak.
But she was misunderstanding him.
Gauss wasn't thinking that at all. Dwarves' big, heavy, straightforward fighting style simply wasn't ideal in complicated forest terrain.
And "stealing kills" wasn't something just anyone could do around Gauss's team.
Against small fry, raw strength mattered less than speed, reactions, and the ability to spot enemies first—areas where dwarf warriors were naturally at a disadvantage.
Still, they'd formed a containment net and prevented the gnolls from dispersing, so their job was done.
"Start collecting loot."
This mission was far from the city, so Gauss hadn't brought the Red Dragon Company's logistics caravan along.
But even with just the two combat squads—and the clay units—they still had plenty of labor.
Gauss's core five, two shadow clones, Torga's five, and forty to fifty clay constructs—nearly sixty "hands" total.
"Let's get to work."
…
Looting took more than ten times longer than the fight.
While directing the clay constructs to gather and sort, Gauss also glanced at his interface.
[Witching Hour] had dropped a new skill:
[Huntmark]: Mark one enemy target. While marked, your movement speed toward the target increases slightly, you sense the target more easily, your attacks are more likely to land, and the target is less likely to escape your pursuit.
"Oh?"
Gauss raised an eyebrow.
A solid drop—was that the pity timer kicking in?
Unlike things like Bite or Swim, this one looked genuinely useful.
Mark a target, move faster toward it, sense it better, hit more reliably.
Not great for mowing down trash—but for equal-strength opponents with speed advantages, it could matter a lot.
He'd need to practice and raise its proficiency.
…
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Gauss organized several more outings.
Total Monster Kills: 26,655
Since he couldn't find many perfect large-scale nests, he focused on commissions with commander-level monsters—farming more commander points.
Commander Points: 70
After draining them all to evolve Ironscale Bloodline earlier, he'd built his stockpile back up again.
His eyes settled on the blue-grade talent: Special Stomach.
He'd already decided—once Ironscale Bloodline was handled, this would be his next upgrade.
"Not sure if it's enough…"
If he remembered right, evolving Ironscale Bloodline into Dragonseed had cost him 90 commander points.
But he suspected the cost wasn't fixed.
When he focused on Special Stomach—
Conditions met. Evolve blue-grade racial talent [Special Stomach]?
Looks like it was enough.
Gauss let out a breath of relief.
After informing the others, he headed down into the private basement training chamber.
This underground room had been built in the last two weeks. It wasn't as good as the Adventurer's Guild's training rooms, but it was far safer than an ordinary house.
Materials, runes, construction—around three hundred gold in total.
Once the door shut, the chamber sealed off from the outside, like stepping into another world.
He checked the shelves—food, water, supplies.
Then he began.
Commander Points: 70 → 10
After spending sixty points, the Special Stomach entry began to change. The blue deepened, and from within it, a purple glow slowly emerged—brighter and brighter.
Gauss felt his body shift.
His stomach and digestive organs began writhing inside him.
For a normal person, this kind of "organ anomaly" would be agony—fatal within seconds.
Gauss's face stayed calm.
His stats were already nonhuman, and Dragonseed had reinforced his body further. His tolerance was absurd.
"A mere fatal injury…"
He exhaled as the organs churned like they'd developed their own will.
So evolution was risky—just not for someone like him.
Tissue tore, then instantly regenerated.
"Kh—"
Gauss spat out a bit of blood.
Even for him, internal organs were still a vulnerable point. Evolution naturally caused damage—his regeneration just sealed it the moment it appeared.
As time passed, the evolution intensified.
Muscle layers of the stomach swelled, compressed, and swelled again—like metal being hammered and forged.
Each "strike" made it tighter, tougher.
From the outside, the stomach's musculature looked almost like dense scale armor—something refined, almost artful.
His throat, esophagus, liver, intestines—all of it was changing too.
The whole digestion-and-absorption system was upgrading.
Digestive fluids thickened and concentrated…
He didn't know how long it took.
But eventually, it stopped.
"...Enough."
Gauss opened his eyes and let out a tight breath.
A new talent entry stabilized in his mind—deep, steady purple.
Blue-grade [Special Stomach] evolved into Purple-grade [Feast].
[Feast] retains the original effects while massively enhancing your "extraction" of food.
From the same meal, your unusual organs can digest more completely, yielding several times more energy—while greatly reducing waste.
Your normal-state energy reserves are significantly increased.
You can also convert excess food into [Feast Power], storing up to 2 charges. Each charge can restore your mana from empty to full.
Your "strange diet" becomes safer: your reinforced stomach and throat greatly reduce the harm from special foods.
"...Hah."
Gauss smiled.
Feast was a huge upgrade.
Better digestion, better absorption, more energy from the same food.
At minimum, it meant he'd never have to worry about being "starved to death" again—or becoming like certain monsters, constantly driven to eat.
The old "blue bar" storage effect had matured into Feast Power.
Before, he could restore mana by chewing mana stones—but that took time and attention. In intense combat, you didn't always have that luxury.
Feast Power was instant, clean, and reliable.
Now he had four purple-grade talents:
Witching Hour, Second-Stage Ghoul Form, Dragonseed, Feast.
Even Gauss had to admit it.
He looked… ridiculously strong.
But—
"So hungry!"
The evolution had burned through a ton of energy. He felt completely drained.
He didn't waste time thinking further—he immediately used Mage Hand to drag the stored food toward him.