"Guild Leader Gauss, are you sure you don't need our help?"
"It's just a wandering vining monster. No need to make a big fuss. Your team should focus on your own commission."
Facing her squad captain Toga's question, Gauss rely waved his hand casually.
According to the commission's intelligence, this vining monster should be challenge level six to seven. He had deliberately chosen a monster they hadn't killed before as their hunting target.
Vining monsters commonly inhabit swamps and rainforests, looking like huge masses of animated plants.
Although they are plants, their diet includes all organic life.
They tirelessly consu plants and animals they encounter along the way, but because their movent is relatively slow compared to other monsters, they are not highly threatening to humans.
They usually dwell in the wild and do not deliberately attack human villages.
Moreover, although they move slowly, their plant-like appearance allows them to hide excellently in forests or marshes, so they can thrive even within human territory without attracting much attention.
This one had been exposed because it wandered near the village and was spotted by a sharp-eyed hunter passing by.
Not knowing whether it would move toward the village, the villagers reported the vining monster's presence.
"Is that so..."
The female dwarf Toga couldn't help but wipe at a nonexistent bead of sweat on her forehead.
The monster Gauss described casually was actually a powerful enemy that even their dwarf squad might not beat despite giving everything.
And the way the guild leader described hunting it—like going for a stroll and deciding to try a different tavern at alti—sounded utterly nonchalant.
If she hadn't spent these days around him and beco familiar with his personality, she might have suspected he was silently showing off his strength.
"Let's go."
Gauss waved, and Aria and several other team mbers leapt onto the dragon's back.
With a flap of the red dragon's wings, they soon vanished into the sky.
"Has Hephaestus grown a bit?"
Aria lowered her head to look at the red drake beneath her and murmured.
"Maybe it's just your impression, Aria," Serlandul replied.
"Creatures like dragons have a fast growth phase after hatching, but after that, further growth takes years, even decades, to notice."
His implication was that Hephaestus had been with the team for less than a year. That ti span might be long for humans, but for long-lived species it was negligible.
"Is that so?"
Aria shook her head.
She wasn't sure either; she saw Hephaestus almost every day, so even if sothing had changed, she would have difficulty noticing it.
Gauss listened to their conversation and studied the drake himself.
From his observation, he also felt that the drake's body had grown.
Compared to when he first t it, its torso had thickened by a couple of notches.
Its load-bearing capacity had greatly improved; carrying people felt much easier now.
The wingspan seed to have increased from about seventeen ters to a bit over eighteen ters.
If he wasn't mistaken, that growth rate was remarkable for a red drake.
On its large head, the little bump had grown a pair of rounded small horns.
The scales on its body no longer looked as bright as before, shifting toward a deeper red-brown tone.
No wonder its appetite had increased recently.
Gauss hadn't noticed before, but upon sudden observation he realized how much his dragon child had changed.
Not only were his teammates and the adventuring guild rapidly growing, the mounts' growth was keeping pace.
The Rider talent had greatly improved Hephaestus's flight endurance.
That afternoon, Gauss arrived near the commission location.
He cast a glance at the village not far below.
The village was surrounded on all sides by forest and wilderness.
Unfortunately, he had never encountered a vining monster before.
So using Locate Creature to lock onto the target naturally failed.
But when he set the spell to search for Goblins and Slis, it quickly found several targets.
Of course, he hadn't co for goblins, so he ignored those scattered dots for the ti being.
He was here for Commander Points.
"Land first."
The thought had barely crossed his mind when Hephaestus, as if sensing it, slowly descended onto a clearing.
Gauss's squad then spread out their reconnaissance asures.
Eck's crow underlings flew in all directions, Shadow's two shadow clones silently rged into the ground, and Gauss released several clay spiders.
It was spring now; all life was vibrant.
There had probably been days of heavy rain in the recent days, and the washed rainwater had likely erased surface traces.
While waiting for the search, Gauss's squad set up camp and rested.
"Captain, how does it taste?"
Serlandul stared at Gauss and asked.
In Gauss's hands was a bowl of plain oatal porridge.
However, it wasn't cooked on the spot; he had used his newly learned Create Provisions.
Create Provisions consus mana to produce clean food and water.
"It's okay. Not much flavor, but it fills you up."
Gauss put the bowl down and offered his assessnt.
Compared to ordinary oatal porridge, food created by Create Provisions is blander, but it provides richer nutrition.
The water is just clean drinking water, nothing special in taste.
Of course, the point of Create Provisions is not to produce gourt food but to temporarily supply large quantities of basic survival resources for adventuring teams in the field.
So magic is the sort you might not use often, but as an adventuring group it's best to have it in reserve.
Otherwise, in unexpected monts you might face fate's punishnt.
"Good to know."
Serlandul relaxed.
Ti passed slowly.
Night fell quickly.
Gauss and the others moved into the Fold House.
As for the scouts—Shadow, the ravens, and the clay constructs—they continued their work in the pitch-black night, only returning occasionally to the house area to replenish energy.
The next morning.
At dawn's first light, Gauss prepared a pot of breakfast for his teammates.
After breakfast, an unusual commotion seed to co from the horizon.
Several crows flapped their wings and rapidly flew toward the group.
Did they find sothing?
Eck and his smaller ravens cawed and communicated. After a short exchange, Eck tilted his head back and showed a look of anthropomorphic pride.
"Enemy found! Enemy found!"
"Prepare to move out."
With a clue in hand, Gauss and the others didn't delay and quickly broke camp.
Following the ravens' directions, they rushed toward the disturbance,
cutting through the eerie forest at speed.
Gauss noticed Aria seed unusually eager and asked her about it.
"Vining monsters are terrible creatures. Don't be fooled by their plant form; their destruction of nature is far worse than most monsters. Well, I read this in books."
Aria blinked.
"Also, haven't I been studying new varieties of guardian magical plants lately? Maybe this vining monster will give so inspiration."
As they advanced, the surrounding air grew more humid.
Miasma cloaked the forest and visibility dropped below ten ters.
This is one reason many monsters still inhabit human territories—harsh, savage natural environnts deter many adventurers, and over ti monsters breed and flourish there.
Gauss shot down a bat the size of a washbasin with a spell
and travelled a bit further.
Then Gauss suddenly sensed the atmosphere change.
The cold, bustling forest abruptly seed to fall into a deathly silence.
No birdsong, no insect chirps, no sound of animals moving—only a frozen stillness.
Gauss signaled the others with a glance.
The other teammates understood his aning.
Where things are abnormal, there must be a monster.
In the fog ahead, it was highly probable their target—the vining monster—was hiding.
Although confident in his strength, Gauss still sent the clay spiders ahead to scout.
Aside from the muffled footsteps of the group, there was no other sound.
Gauss scanned the surroundings.
Like the surrounding forest, ancient verdant trees densely populated the area and the ground was covered with thick fallen leaves.
His gaze drifted, searching for anything that might be the target creature,
but after several hundred ters there was no discovery.
To be honest, the vining monster's concealnt ability was indeed excellent; few monsters could hide under Gauss's eyes.
Unlike ordinary monsters, vining monsters can blend seamlessly into nature, making them seem like part of the landscape.
Because of this trait, their hunts are exceptionally successful.
Prey often cos to them.
"Are they watching us?"
Gauss raised an eyebrow.
If it continued to remain hidden, he would have to check tree by tree.
As he pondered, a sound suddenly ca from the environnt.
The previously dead forest soil burst open.
A clay spider failed to escape in ti and was tightly coiled by a thick vine.
With a snap, the clay spider couldn't withstand the constricting, python-like pressure and burst apart.
"It's appeared! The vining monster!"
Gauss and the others quickly scattered.
A quadrupedal giant ford of vines dropped from around an ancient tree.
It swallowed the clay spider but soon spat it out.
Although the clay spider looked and acted like a large spider, it wasn't a living organism but a mass of mana-driven clay, so it didn't match the vining monster's palate.
It seed to realize it had been deceived, slapping at the ground and gathering information from its surroundings.
Soon it locked onto Gauss and the others' positions.
Gauss fixed his gaze on the target, his mind racing.
He had no intention of using Fireball.
Although a plant, the vining monster had extrely strong resistances to many elental damages, such as freezing and flas.
Yes, as a plant it was not afraid of fire and had very high resistance.
It could even be completely immune to lightning damage.
If one tried to attack it with lightning, not only would it fail to harm it, but it might actually restore so of its life.
It slamd its body into the ground.
The earth instantly cracked, and a surrounding area began to collapse.
Nearby plants were visibly drained of life and rapidly withered.
What strength.
A deep azure light flashed beneath Gauss.
Then his body vanished and reappeared behind the vining monster.
Of course, "behind" was a temporary notion, since the vining monster lacked an animalistic front or back.
The instant he appeared, the monster seed to sense his presence.
But teleportation was so fast it couldn't react in ti.
Gauss produced the Ink-Style Sword and sliced off its faceless head.
Dark green sap sprayed out like blood from a severed major artery.
"Looks like it's not dead?"
Gauss did not see the Monster Encyclopedia notification pop up.
He slashed several more tis in quick succession.
But he hadn't expected to kill the target so quickly.
Aria appeared to want to study the plant monster further.
She released life energy into the soil, attempting to counteract the vining monster's force.
"Moonlight Radiance!"
Her wooden staff emitted silver bands of moonlight that shone onto the monster; wisps of greenish smoke soon drifted from its surface.
Shadow and Albenia also leapt in.
Soon the vines around its body were rapidly cut away.
It seed to grow increasingly frenzied, and the severed vines sprouted back quickly.
Each whip of the vines could easily tear the ground.
Even the much larger surrounding ancient trees were fragile like paper under its frenzied lashes.
This was the terrifying nature of Commander-level monsters.
At this grade, whatever the monster type, the destructive power becos horrifying;
in re tens of seconds they can obliterate a village, and without Master-level professionals defending, even towns could be razed in minutes to tens of minutes by such a creature.
Gauss sensed the vining monster's aura and realized attacking its body would not deal significant damage.
After all, it wasn't an animal.
He regretted that he didn't know the Wither spell from fourth-circle magic—if he had, he could have instantly killed this vining monster.
Now he would have to take extra steps.
Gauss's gaze shifted to the ground beneath the creature.
"!!!"
Albenia seized the mont, raised her great axe, and cleaved the vining monster in half at the waist.
With an invisible shriek,
the vining monster collapsed and, within seconds, its entire body rapidly withered and blackened, lying utterly motionless.
"Dead?"
Albenia frowned, a bit incredulous.
"No, still alive."
Gauss and Aria said in unison.
"Step back a little."
Seeing everyone pull back a short distance, Gauss silently cast magic.
"Control Water."
A blue-golden water lance condensed in his hand, and he simultaneously activated Second-Stage Ghostification.
Ghostly qi coiled around the water spear.
With a flash of blue light, his body suddenly rose dozens of ters into the air.
"Monstrous Strength!"
"Outfit-changing Magic."
As Outfit-changing Magic undid his clothing, he also cast Enlarge Person.
Instantly, his body swelled several sizes, ghostified armor covering him,
and he grew from roughly one point eight ters tall to three ters.
Albenia, watching from afar, blinked and saw the scene with mixed surprise and delight.
He was now even larger than her.
The sculpted massive muscles wrapped in black armor looked like a perfect work of art—strength aesthetics on full display.
High in the air, Gauss gripped a spear that suddenly seed small against his giant form, and the power he had been gathering exploded.
Boom!
Like thunder falling from the sky,
the water lance tore through the air.
Its speed caused a violent sonic crack through the atmosphere.
The razor-sharp water spear plunged deep into the ground, its force extending tens of ters underground, then surged and erupted.
The earth trembled as if in an earthquake.
"Eh!"
A mournful soul wave sounded in the air.
The vining monster—pretending death and hiding deep underground—didn't have ti to move and was struck dead in the soil by Gauss's te-like ghostified spear.
"Commander-level monster vining monster killed*1"
"Commander Points gained*20"
When Gauss saw the pop-up, a satisfied smile finally appeared on his face.
The vining monster had thought its feigned death had tricked them, unaware Gauss had been using his teammates' attack to keep it numb.
He quickly dispelled Enlarge Person, Second-Stage Ghostification, and, using Outfit-changing Magic, switched into his mage robes in one seamless motion.
Gauss used Dinsion Door to teleport to his companions and share the information.
"The commission target is dead."
He suddenly noticed Albenia staring at him without blinking.
"Is sothing wrong?"
He glanced down at his clothes to confirm he wasn't naked, then asked.
"Lord Gauss, could you do that again?"
"Huh? Do what again?"
"The giant transformation you just did? Lord Gauss, do you have giant bloodline too?"
Seeing Albenia's excited face, Gauss scratched his head—she seed to have misunderstood sothing.
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