"Huh?"

The pixie Thistle scratched its head, a puzzled expression on its face.

"Strange, I clearly remember it being right here."

As if afraid Gauss would think it had lied, it led its kin in a sweep around the camp, trying to find any trace of goblins.

But no matter how wide the pixies opened their eyes and scanned, they couldn't spot a single goblin.

Gauss twitched his nostrils.

The goblin scent in the air was already faint.

It looked like there had once been a goblin group living here, but they had left some time ago at the very least.

"Were they wiped out ahead of time or killed by other monsters?" Aria walked up to Gauss and stood on her toes to peer at the clearing beyond the brush.

"Probably not." Gauss shook his head. "There are no traces of blood left behind."

His sharp blue eyes scanned the surroundings.

Within his sight, the forest floor looked normal;

there were no pits or ravines from large-scale fighting, nor were there dark compacted patches of soil stained by blood seeping in.

"Looks like they migrated away, or maybe they were conscripted."

Gauss studied the area and felt increasingly certain that he was getting closer to the commission's target.

Normally, a goblin settlement of this scale—or even a bit larger—would be hard to absorb peacefully.

If it had been taken without bloodshed, it only meant one side was overwhelmingly stronger than the other.

"Sorry about that." The pixies flew back, tugging at their heads. "Sorry to make you run around for nothing."

"It's fine." Gauss waved it off with a smile. "This is important information in itself."

Compared to killing another ten or twenty goblins, gaining intel from their evacuation could be more valuable.

"Let's head to the next spot."

No one in the team seemed tired of the work for now.

.......

Late at night.

A campfire drove back the darkness among the trees.

The dancing flames cast warm, flickering light over everyone’s faces.

Dry branches glowing red in the fire crackled and popped, sparks occasionally leapt up, then quickly died in the cool night air.

After a day of rushing and fighting, the night’s peacefulness felt especially precious.

Gauss also allowed himself to relax and set about making a steaming stew for the team.

The method was simple—just like any ordinary traveler: take a small iron pot, set it over the fire,

fry chopped onions in a little fat until fragrant, add wind-dried jerky and other spices, then pour in water collected from a stream and add hardy potatoes and edible root vegetables.

That made the soup base.

From then on, whenever someone wanted to eat, they could add the pre-prepared ingredients from the basket into the pot as needed.

This idea came from Gauss’s culinary habits in his previous life.

Aria, Serlandul, and Shadow were stunned when they saw this novel way of eating.

Cooking in this world was mostly about roasting, pan-frying, or slow-simmered stews.

Even stews usually meant tossing everything into a pot to boil together—not an instant-dip style like a hotpot.

"Hold this ladle, put the meat in, swish it up and down a few times, and it's ready."

"I'll try."

Aria took the specially made perforated iron ladle from Gauss and placed the thinly sliced, pre-prepared meat into it.

She swished it a few times just as Gauss instructed, watching the meat deepen in color.

Then they handed out the food.

"These are the condiments."

Although Gauss had tried to replicate everything, perfection was hard to achieve.

Soy sauce was substituted with a salty savory sauce fermented from fish.

Sesame paste was replaced by a nut butter.

There were other seasonings—salt, black pepper, garlic, onion, vinegar, lemon juice, and wasabi for heat...

But he couldn't quickly find an appropriate short-term substitute for his favorite satay sauce from his previous life.

They had to make do.

The others followed his lead and made dipping sauces of their own.

They then ate the meat with them.

"Mmm~ not bad." Aria was pleasantly surprised;

she hadn't expected Gauss to invent such a novel dining style. "Why haven't I seen you do this before?"

She asked with genuine curiosity.

"I've been gathering these condiments." Gauss smiled wryly and shook his head.

It had taken him quite a bit of effort to find so many seasonings.

Only after his current status lifted him out of the pauper class could he access such ingredients.

Many seasonings were expensive for ordinary people—without some financial backing, even a brilliant idea couldn't be realized.

Serlandul and Shadow said nothing but clearly looked very satisfied.

Of course, Gauss hadn't forgotten the rest of the party.

He had prepared a lot of food, and with the meat they hunted during the day, there was more than enough for everyone.

Ulfen and Eck both got generous portions of meat.

The pixies received vegetable dishes and were delighted.

Gauss looked at his companions and thought that maybe once he retired someday, he could open a restaurant.

After they had eaten their fill, everyone helped clean the cookware and tableware.

They lay down to rest at the camp.

Gauss sat by the fire, watching the jumping flames, his gaze slightly distant as his mind sank inward.

"Total monsters killed: 3,940."

Although they had encountered a few vanished goblin settlements during the day, their kill efficiency remained high.

The next reward threshold of 4,000 kills was within reach.

He should be able to meet the number by tomorrow.

Gauss stared blankly at the numbers.

Once he reached the quota and claimed the reward and processed it, he would officially head toward the mining goblins’ location mentioned by the pixies.

According to the pixies, that place was not nearby.

It was getting close to the mountain range.

Suddenly, an alarm rang in his ear.

The moment he heard it, he grabbed his wand and warned his teammates.

"Be careful, something's happening!"

"My Alarm was triggered!"

In fact, even before he spoke, Shadow had already stood up from the ground.

Her senses had picked up the anomaly even earlier than Gauss’s Alarm.

"Whoosh!!"

An arrow shot from her bow.

A spray of blood splattered out from the distant bushes, followed by a heavy thud as something hit the ground.

Only then did Gauss smell a trace of goblin stench.

Gauss and Serlandul exchanged a look and both realized something was off.

Especially Serlandul—his sense of smell was so sharp that he should've detected them earlier;

instead, it was Gauss’s Alarm that alerted them.

There was no time to ponder that now.

Shadow’s arrow seemed to have been the curtain-raiser.

Almost at the instant it left the bowstring, a dozen or so small, swift figures wearing red hoods burst from the darkness around the camp from all directions!

These night-raid goblins had smeared a specially concocted dark plant juice over their bodies, painting strange patterns on their skin that masked their scent.

Redcap Goblins?

Gauss raised an eyebrow.

When he first reached level 1, he had taken a commission to clear a Redcap Goblin tribe, but back then there had only been a single Redcap leader.

Now there were a dozen of them attacking as vanguard.

They came on aggressively.

These goblins weren’t quite at level 1 challenge rating, but not far off—advanced combatants among low-tier monsters.

A typical adventuring party of four level-1 professionals would likely suffer heavy losses—or even be wiped out—during such a sudden night assault.

But Gauss remained calm.

The White Wand in his hand glowed.

A Clay King Goblin crawled up nearby, followed by a Clay King Gnoll and four Clay Spiders.

After completing the "summon," the tip of the White Wand glowed blue.

In the blink of an eye, it coalesced.

The Magic Missiles shone in the night, streaking like beautiful yet deadly comets and struck the charging Redcap Goblins.

Gauss deliberately dialed the Magic Missiles down to the lowest consumption—the minimum output.

No need to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

To put it melodramatically, ordinary goblins were nothing to Gauss;

either they were not elite and merely "ants," or even if they were elite monsters, with his various buff advantages, he could instantly delete level-1 to level-2 goblins. Starting from level-3 upward, he’d need to be more careful.

The others reacted quickly too.

Shadow’s bow fired volley after volley like a string of beads.

Her hands were scarily steady.

Each arrow hit the throats of the fast-moving goblins with pinpoint accuracy.

The campfire’s light was limited.

Gauss used Light Cantrip from his wand to illuminate nearby objects, then lit several stones.

When the Clay Goblins threw the "lighting stones" Gauss made, the meteor-like stones scattered across the darkness and lit the forest scene.

Only then could he see the number of monsters closing in.

Those dozen red-cloaked goblins were only the scouts.

Even more goblins swarmed around them—dense, countless in the short term.

"Damn, have these goblins gone mad?" Gauss thought.

That black, rushing mass did not intimidate him.

On the contrary, he felt like laughing.

This was the absolute confidence bred from long-term goblin slaying.

Like a person doing the same job for a long time naturally becoming proficient, for Gauss, killing goblins had become an instinct etched into his bones.

He had assumed he’d have to wait until tomorrow, but it looked like he could secure the reward tonight.

His White Wand glowed again.

Six Magic Missiles formed in front of him in a hexagonal pattern.

"Whoosh!!!"

Another wave of Magic Missiles, and Gauss’s monster kill count increased by six.

More goblins from other directions couldn’t reach them all at once,

and every member of the team was capable.

Even the smallest-looking four pixies displayed combat power disproportionate to their size.

They fluttered their wings and flew nimbly;

their weapons—thin as toothpicks or like large fine needles—glinted white and easily sliced through goblin flesh like cutting tofu.

Gauss glanced sideways;

by his rough estimate, the four pixies likely had combat strength greater than ordinary level-1 professionals.

Add Ulfen, Eck, the Scale Powder Butterfly,

his Clay King Goblin, Clay King Gnoll, and four Clay Spiders.

What looked like a four-person team on the surface actually amounted to the fighting power of at least seventeen!!

Maybe even eighteen.

That number was terrifying.

"Total monsters killed: 3,952."

"Total monsters killed: 3,960."

"3,965."*

The numbers in front of Gauss updated rapidly.

As he killed goblins, the clay king creatures helped him finish them off.

"Something’s wrong."

Gauss gathered Magic Missiles in his hand and thought at the same time.

These goblins clearly attacked with trembling terror in their bodies but still launched near-suicidal strikes toward them.

That was abnormal—contrary to the most basic instinct to survive.

So where are the other elite goblins?

Suddenly Gauss heard a sharp tearing boom as air was ripped apart.

"Careful."

The shadows underfoot suddenly came alive.

They wrapped around him from his feet up.

Feeling the familiar force, Gauss didn’t resist.

His vision went pitch black, and the next moment his body was transferred to beside Shadow, some ten meters away.

"CRASH!!!"

At the spot where he had been standing, accompanied by an ear-splitting explosion, a huge crater appeared!

Dirt, grass, and the embers of the fire were violently blasted skyward. The powerful shockwave even hit some nearby Clay Goblins, blowing them to pieces.

In the center of the crater stuck a crude but enormous, blood-red bone spear.

The grass and debris in the pit were burning.

"Thanks, that helped a lot."

Gauss looked at Shadow and spoke sincerely.

"No need to thank me." Shadow spoke little and averted her gaze.

She had been watching Gauss’s side and had activated her shadow ability the moment she noticed something wrong.

She could connect to another’s shadow and, if the target did not resist, transfer them to her side.

This was the first time she used the ability, and it had gone smoothly.

She then looked up toward the sky;

the earlier attack had come from above.

Gauss followed her gaze.

In the faint moonlight he could just make out a figure riding some giant bat-like creature.

A Goblin Bat Rider?

Gauss raised his brows.

With the appearance of goblin bat riders, more elite goblins emerged from the forest.

Hobgoblins, Goblin Shamans, two-headed goblins, goblin wolf cavalry...

More than a dozen elite individuals radiating strength far beyond ordinary goblins revealed themselves around the perimeter.

"This time, we’re truly surrounded."

He knew only the Blackfang Tribe could pull off such a feat.

He hadn't expected to be targeted before he could find them.

This place was still far from their mountain stronghold.

So why?

He had come because he accepted an adventurer commission to find the Blackfang Tribe goblins.

How did these monsters know his information?

Could it be that he was already wanted in the goblin camps?