Cold blood seeped into the scorched earth beneath his feet.

Gauss stood steadily on one foot atop the motionless giant rodent’s back. His rapier flashed coldly as it once again pierced precisely through its chest.

He drew his sword out, flicking away the filthy blood.

His gaze swept across the chaotic battlefield.

Although the Adventurer’s Manual would give kill notifications, he inevitably missed some during battle—some monsters might not be fully dead.

So he had developed the habit of finishing off enemies after fights.

Occasionally, a kill notification would pop up, a small surprise while cleaning up the battlefield.

Aria and her giant wolf silently watched as Gauss calmly delivered the finishing blows.

She pulled out a towel, wiping the sticky blood off her cheek.

Recalling the brief but intense battle just now, she glanced at the faint glow around Gauss with a hint of disbelief.

This close combat performance was even more swordsman-like than a swordsman.

If Gauss hadn’t used magic earlier, she would have thought her partner was originally a warrior.

“But... this protective spell really works well.”

She instinctively reached out and gently pressed the tough leather armor at her waist.

Just now, a ratfolk’s spear had pierced here.

Even without the resilient protective field Gauss had cast earlier, her own armor could have withstood the damage, but it was impossible to finish a fight without a single scratch or bruise on her body like now.

“Actually, partnering with him feels pretty comfortable...” This thought quietly surfaced in Aria’s heart.

Although their team only had two members, it felt lighter than those four- or five-person teams she had joined before.

She just needed to cast control spells, occasionally intercepting stragglers rushing close, while Gauss handled everything else.

Whether it was firing magic missiles to precisely kill distant archers or swinging his sword to charge bloodily through enemy ranks, his efficiency was astonishing.

This didn’t feel like an adventurer who had just leveled up to the Bronze rank at all.

Sometimes, when she had a moment to help kill some monsters, Gauss reminded her not to rush forward and just focus on using entangling spells for control.

That calm and subtle consideration left her feeling somewhat unaccustomed.

What mage would charge forward like he did?

She didn’t know if it was deliberate to impress on their first partnership or just his nature.

But regardless, Aria was truly touched by Gauss’s “gentlemanly” demeanor.

He seemed like a reliable teammate she could trust with her back.

“Are those ratfolk too afraid to come out now?”

Gauss finished off all the ratfolk and giant rodents on the ground.

His gaze turned toward the abandoned church.

From beginning to end, except for the cavalry team that had been wiped out and the archers on the church roof who fled after being blasted by magic missiles, no other ratfolk had come out of the church cellar to reinforce.

It was like an ostrich burying its head in the sand—if they didn’t come out, Gauss wouldn’t detect their presence.

In truth,

he just wanted to rest a bit longer.

But he couldn’t rest too long, as there might still be other secret escape routes under the church.

“Aria, how are you feeling now?”

“No problem, ready to continue anytime.” Aria gathered her focus, her tone firm.

Gauss felt the protective field around her was still filled with more than half of its energy, and he nodded slightly.

He was actually fine too.

Although the battle had been fierce just now, none of the reserve hidden energy in his Energy Storage Glands had been activated.

After all, these were just well-equipped ratfolk cavalry;

besides consuming some time and stamina, they posed no real threat.

After a short rest, replenishing water and food, he felt his stamina and mana slowly flowing back like a gentle stream.

Only then did Gauss signal Aria, cautiously approaching the decayed, bone-like abandoned church.

“Why are you going so far ahead?”

Looking at Aria, who was a few steps in front, Gauss couldn’t help but ask.

“I can’t let you do everything.”

Aria felt a subtle pang of guilt, as if she had been slacking off during the fight just now.

“Besides, druids are better suited to be in front than you spellcasters, right?”

“...”

Gauss was momentarily speechless.

Logically, she was right.

Although neither druids nor mages were pure frontline tanks, most druids generally had stronger perception and physique than mages and were indeed more suitable as temporary vanguards.

But... that was for ordinary mages.

At least in this team, his “tankiness” was probably on a whole different level than Aria’s.

As for Aria’s claim that he did all the work just now, that was nonsense.

If it weren’t for her precise entangling spells repeatedly tripping up the charging giant rodents and restricting the ratfolk cavalry’s mobility, he would never have ended the battle so easily.

Forget it. Gauss shook his head silently. Let her have her way.

The few steps’ distance was still manageable.

Aria left the giant wolf outside the church to guard against enemy flanking.

The two then pushed open the heavy wooden door that was already rotten and full of holes.

As they opened the door, a disgusting stench immediately hit their faces.

Beneath the strong, pungent smell of fermented rodent feces was the waxy scent of old candle drippings, the cold, damp mildew of stone, and the sour odor of decayed food.

The air was thick and heavy, and even through their gas masks, they could feel the outside air’s foul currents.

The stone benches on both sides were already broken and crumbling. The flaking stones, like the floor, were covered with a layer of dried grime that emitted a faint “puff” when stepped on.

The interior of the church was dimly lit, barely illuminated by a few beams of light struggling through the tall, narrow window holes on both sides.

The once-colorful stained glass windows depicting holy scenes were all shattered, leaving only hollow gaps.

Cold wind blew in, stirring floating dust and rodent fur, even tainting the once-clear light beams with filth.

In this ratfolk nest, even sunlight was dirty.

Gauss stepped on the sticky, hard-shelled ground beneath his feet, feeling a bit nauseous inside.

But he showed no sign of it.

This was part of an adventurer’s life.

Exploring monster dens—be it abandoned buildings, deep caves, or other dark corners—was never about cleanliness.

So anyone with severe germophobia was destined never to be an adventurer.

His eyes quickly scanned the filthy hall and soon locked onto a stone staircase on one side, suspected to lead deep underground.

“Pee-ew!”

Only a few startled little mice scurried away in panic at the entrance.

The two approached the heavy wooden door.

The door was tightly locked now, pushing it yielded no response.

If this were a well-equipped normal adventurer team, it would be time for an experienced rogue to step forward and unlock it.

But neither of them was a rogue.

So, they had to...

“Please step aside.”

Gauss signaled Aria.

“Okay.”

Aria stepped back a few paces, watching Gauss take out a heavy metal mace from his Storage Bag.

Was he going to use magic?

She wondered.

Gauss took a deep breath, and under Aria’s increasingly wide-eyed gaze, he gathered all his strength and swung the metal mace hard against the center of the door panel.

“Boom!!!”

The deafening explosion echoed throughout the empty church.

Wood chips flew everywhere!

The already dilapidated doorframe groaned painfully where it connected.

The entire door shook violently, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

Gauss kicked the door edge again.

“Thud!”

The overloaded wooden door crashed inward with a rumble, kicking up choking dust.

“Done.” Gauss gestured to Aria to come closer from a distance.

“No way, dude...”

Aria was stunned, speechless for a long moment before finally saying,

“You... really have a lot of strength?”

“Not bad, I usually train,” Gauss replied casually.

Aria looked at the twisted, deformed, completely ruined door panel, then glanced at the mace in Gauss’s hand that obviously looked like a casting focus. She was momentarily at a loss for words.

So this is power gained just from training?

The longer she spent with Gauss, the more she felt he was not really a mage.

Gauss was unaware of Aria’s thoughts.

He looked down the corridor, then thought for a moment and kicked a panicked little mouse into the depths of the dark staircase.

He listened carefully, confirming that besides the sound of fleeing mice, there was no other movement below.

Only then did he and Aria step into the deeper darkness one after the other.

“Light Cantrip!”

A soft white glow instantly lit up from the tip of the mace, dispelling the ink-black darkness before them.

The cold, solid stone walls revealed their contours under the light.

Gauss and Aria advanced cautiously.

To avoid triggering any traps, he also activated Insight Technique and Mage Hand, carefully checking as they went.

But they never encountered an attack.

Only the air seemed to grow thicker and a bloody smell crept into their nostrils.

“Be careful.”

At the bottom step, the cellar appeared before Gauss’s eyes.

This underground space was larger than expected, clearly capable of housing many ratfolk, but...

the cellar was unusually empty.

Apart from dead mice on the floor, no living creatures were present.

Were they hiding? Or had they fled?

Gauss stepped on the corpses of rats, producing an unpleasant “squelch” sound, continuing carefully forward.

Suddenly, alarm bells rang in his mind.

He raised his head sharply on instinct.

Several relatively small ratfolk, their claws glowing with eerie green light, clung to a huge, long-abandoned metal chandelier overhead like bats.

The green glow in their claws had already taken shape.

“Shoot!”

Several large patches of dark green, thick, foul-smelling sticky liquid were poured down on them!

“Pipi!”

Gauss reacted extremely quickly, dodging to the side in an instant. Aria retreated simultaneously.

However, the cramped cellar space meant that corrosive acid still splattered onto their bodies.

The corrosive acid touched Gauss’s protective Gauss Field, producing wisps of pungent white smoke.

Fortunately, protected by the Gauss Field, neither was injured.

“Magic Missile!” Gauss pointed his mace tip.

One missile struck precisely at the fragile, rusted connection between the chandelier and the stone wall.

The metal chandelier, along with the ratfolk spellcasters hanging on it, crashed heavily to the ground.

Several ratfolk were thrown into a daze.

Before they recovered, Gauss took out his rapier and killed the ratfolk on the ground one by one.

“Total monsters killed: 411”

Apprentice-level ratfolk spellcasters?

Gauss was somewhat surprised.

A small ratfolk clan with cavalry and apprentice-level spellcasters—so well-established?

And how did these ratfolk master cantrips?

Did they learn through spellbooks on their own? Or was it instinct awakened deep in their bloodline?

The cellar corridor’s sides were lined with rows of dark, silent chambers.

Gauss’s Light Cantrip shone inside, finally revealing the tiny ordinary ratfolk whose crimson glow densely lit the darkness.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Dense arrows fired like a sudden rainstorm from the shadows in the rooms, clanging against Gauss and Aria.

“You fall back first and use entangling spells as needed.”

Gauss instructed Aria.

Then he took out a large bag of oil from his Storage Bag.

He suddenly swung his arm, accurately throwing it into the ratfolk-filled room.

“Fire Bolt!”

A flame arrow trailing orange light shot inside, igniting the oil with a roar.

“Boom boom boom!”

Flames erupted instantly.

Orange-red tongues of fire surged upward, turning the entire room into a raging inferno.

Many ratfolk twisted and writhed in the flames, screaming.

Several rats engulfed in fire tried to escape but were kicked back by Gauss.

At the same time, his magic wand glowed again.

“Magic Missile!”

Several missiles screamed into the fire, causing even bigger explosions.

“Kill ratfolk *1”

“Kill ratfolk *1”

“Kill ratfolk *1”

Kill notifications flashed constantly before Gauss’s eyes.

These spells were some of the most efficient kill spells Gauss had ever used.

When the dust settled,

“Total monsters killed: 432”

Only 21 more? Gauss quickly calculated.

Although one simple strike had killed 21 ratfolk, he was very satisfied with the result.

But 15 ratfolk cavalry, 4 apprentice spellcasters, and 21 ordinary ratfolk totaled only 40.

Where were the other ratfolk in the cellar nest?

He continued deeper down the corridor, checking every empty or charred room on both sides, still finding nothing.

Only silence and an increasingly heavy stench of blood and acid.

Finally, he reached the end of the corridor.

Gauss’s gaze swept over the last particularly huge room, which appeared to be a sunken, long-abandoned sacred altar area.

When he clearly saw the scene inside, a wave of physiological discomfort surged in his heart.

There lay bloated corpses of true ratfolk, giant rodents, and other indescribable human or animal forms, broken organs, rotting plant roots, and other debris soaked like desecrated offerings in a bubbling, foul-smelling, dark green viscous pus.

The pus emitted an aura of death and ill omen.

At the edge of this filthy altar stood an exceptionally aged ratfolk elder, quietly watching.

His murky rat eyes pierced through the darkness, emotionlessly staring at Gauss.

The next moment, the ratfolk elder’s dry lips moved, unexpectedly uttering clear common tongue words.

“Lord Vespertilia... watches over you.”

As soon as the words fell, without hesitation, with an almost fanatical reverence, he leaned backward, his entire body sinking into the bubbling dark green pus.

Immediately after, the filthy pool of pus and all the debris inside seemed to be swallowed by an invisible giant mouth, vanishing into thin air before their eyes.

In the center of the dried pool remained only a palm-sized scale, rapidly fading to pale white.

Gauss and Aria looked at each other.

Staring at the cellar now completely silent, only scorched marks and stench left behind, unease stirred in their hearts.

What had happened here?

Who was that Vesper-something guy?

And for adventurers like them, more important than any other questions was...

Was this quest considered complete? Could they get paid now?