Gauss had always been clear-eyed about himself.
He did work hard—when he wasn't out on commissions, he still carved out time to drill his magic in private, as steady and relentless as anyone could be. But he would never credit everything he'd achieved to "effort."
Without the Adventurer's Manual's absurd talent boosts, he could practice magic nonstop and still never reach this level.
And "effort" itself was a kind of hidden talent.
His recovery speed, total mana pool, and mana regeneration meant that in the same amount of time, he could endure training volumes and intensity far beyond other people.
In other words, his body's natural gifts meant he could be more hardworking than anyone else.
…
After finishing a class, Gauss headed for the academy library.
It was a three-story building.
Alia kept looking around, wide-eyed.
Like Gauss, she'd never really "gone to school," so the magic academy still felt novel.
"Thank you, Instructor Evelyn. You can get back to your work—Alia and I will just browse on our own."
After parting with Evelyn, the two of them entered the library.
The first and second floors were open to students, while the third floor was reserved for teachers and professors.
Since she was an outsider, Alia couldn't check out books—but the staff seemed to recognize Gauss's status and didn't stop her at the door.
"You browse down here first. I'll go upstairs and find the books you need."
"Okay."
The library atmosphere was wonderful.
Quiet, spacious reading areas; potted greenery everywhere; sunlight filtering through tall glass windows and trailing vines into the hall—calm and pleasant.
Most of the students reading there were upperclassmen. Before graduation they had to complete capstone work, so they came to borrow reference books.
Before climbing the stairs, Gauss lingered for a moment.
He liked this kind of silence. It reminded him of school in his previous life.
Once he cleared the third-floor check, he got to work.
One book, two books, three…
The stack in his arms kept growing.
But the books were marked by a tracking enchantment—if you tried to stash them inside a storage item, it would trigger an alarm.
You still had to register them before leaving.
He borrowed around thirty books—covering metallurgy, mineralogy, magical botany, extraction techniques—then finally headed back down, satisfied.
Meanwhile, Alia had picked out a few books of her own. Together, the two of them were carrying nearly forty.
"I'll help you carry some."
Alia tiptoed up and took about half from his arms.
Of course, the weight was nothing to either of them.
At the front desk on the first floor—
"Hi. I'm here to check out books."
Gauss showed his professor credential.
"Alright."
The clerk nodded—then stared at the book pile like he'd seen a small mountain grow legs.
Truthfully, he'd been a library attendant for two years, and he'd rarely seen a professor "bulk buy" books like this.
And per policy, you could only check out thirty at a time—so no one hoarded books they wouldn't read, blocking others.
Thirty was already a lot. Almost nobody hit the limit.
Out of habit, he glanced over the stack and could tell Gauss had exceeded it.
His expression turned hesitant.
He knew who Gauss was.
At the staff meeting a while back, even though Gauss hadn't attended, the vice principal had introduced the academy's new "super-genius."
"Professor Gauss's borrowing limit is unrestricted."
A familiar, steady voice cut in at his ear.
The vice principal?
The clerk froze—then quickly forced a smile back onto his face.
With the vice principal's word, he wasn't about to make trouble.
He processed the checkout at top speed and politely returned the books to Gauss.
"Is there a due date?" Gauss asked, sliding the registered books into his storage pouch.
"There isn't. Keep them as long as you like."
Technically there was—just not for him.
Books secured, Gauss and Alia returned to Red Dragon Company's grounds.
…
"Boss, these are the cantrips and Level 1 spellbooks we've collected over the past few days."
"Good work. Leave them here."
Gauss nodded at the stack of spellbooks on the table.
Honestly, he already knew far more spells than a normal master-tier caster—cantrips up through Level 4.
If most master mages tried to learn "without restraint" like he did, their brains would get packed to bursting.
But he still felt comfortable.
"Illusory Colors, Dancing Quill, Calm Livestock, Taste the Air…"
He skimmed the cantrips and nodded, satisfied.
He knew these—like many spells he'd already learned—might be nearly useless, and might only ever be cast a handful of times outside of practice.
But magic itself mattered.
Learning more magic built his foundations and deepened his experience as a true mage.
Other people were limited by mental capacity. Even if they wanted this path, they couldn't take it.
He could win by volume.
And at the same time, his core spells had absurdly high proficiency.
That combination was why he'd reached Level 7 in just two years.
"Let's learn them."
For Gauss, cantrips and Level 1 spells were easy now—especially cantrips. With the book in hand, it took minutes to grasp the basics; one or two passes and it was essentially done.
The butler brought in red tea and pastries.
He studied while sipping tea and snacking.
After just a few cups, he'd already picked up two cantrips.
He also checked his most practiced spell:
Gauss Omni-Armor — lv5 (155/200)
Still forty or fifty points short of lv6.
"It's getting slower and slower…"
He could feel it—once a skill hit the latter half of lv5, gains slowed dramatically.
If he relied only on daily "grinding," it would take time. A lot of it.
Thankfully, he had Witching Hour.
That purple-grade talent sometimes dropped rewards when he killed monsters.
Besides the rare chance at an actual skill, it occasionally dropped raw proficiency points for existing skills.
That was why Gauss Omni-Armor was still growing at a decent pace even after reaching lv5.
He also had eight points of free proficiency from Witching Hour—rare stuff.
From the moment he gained Witching Hour to now, he'd only accumulated eight points total.
He hadn't spent a single one.
For one thing, dumping all eight into Gauss Omni-Armor still wouldn't push it from lv5 to lv6.
Even if it could, he wouldn't.
He wanted to use those points at a critical threshold—when the skill was one or two points from breaking through.
Or when a skill hit a plateau and refused to budge.
You used the best steel on the blade's edge.
One important detail: free proficiency couldn't be used to unlock a skill from nothing.
Before a skill existed on his panel, it was effectively "nonexistent," so there was nowhere to apply it.
Otherwise those eight points would be even more valuable—like eight tickets into spells that were notoriously hard to learn.
…
Time passed.
Gauss practiced his new magic—especially the spells his company staff had collected—and kept drilling Any Door and Huntmark as well.
Both were easy to train near the estate.
As for Huntmark targets, Ulfen and the raven Echo were perfect practice partners.
He also took occasional nearby commissions as live-fire training.
After killing nearly twelve hundred more monsters, his total climbed to:
Total Monster Kills: 27,888
And it wasn't just him.
Red Dragon Company's name kept growing.
After settling in Falrim, they'd cleared multiple thousand-monster nests—and their habit of vacuuming up lots of small local requests became a frequent topic of conversation.
In South District, low-tier adventurers felt it most.
Some were shocked to find that in places they used to farm commissions, the request board had thinned out—some areas even had rare "quest droughts."
At first they didn't understand why, until they asked guild staff and learned the culprit was Red Dragon Company.
A normal commission—plus travel time—might take three to five days for an average team.
Gauss could accept a whole chain of them at once.
With Hephaestus, he could reach the site fast, resolve it quickly, then move on—hitting double-digit commissions in a day.
At full throttle, one man and one dragon could replace dozens—maybe hundreds—of ordinary teams.
And more importantly, Gauss had a personality that couldn't sit still.
Whenever he had free time, he'd have his people pull a string of nearby commissions and sweep them in one run.
Earn money, practice magic, and—oddly enough—relieve stress.
Because he knew those ordinary monsters could never threaten him, so the "battle" carried almost no mental pressure.
And with Witching Hour, kills sometimes popped little proficiency bumps:
"Magic Missile proficiency +1"
"Body Enlargement proficiency +1"
"Firebolt proficiency +1" …
It was… relaxing.
He had all the motivation in the world.
"Boss, today's papers."
"Thanks."
Gauss glanced at his 27,888 kill total and was already planning the next large purge.
Small commissions were safe, but compared to clearing a big nest, their efficiency was worse.
"Let's read the paper first."
Falrim had plenty of newspapers; today's stack included several.
Some focused on city life, others on nearby regions—or even distant kingdoms.
"Midnight serial killer: eight victims slain in the same manner…"
"All victims had their skulls opened…"
Gauss narrowed his eyes. Looks like when he practiced Any Door at night, he should pay more attention.
…
"Barry's sealed dungeon entrance has recently produced tremor-like disturbances… possible reopening…"
That one caught his eye too.
Reopening?
He thought of the universal key in his possession—and that locked Green Pavilion gate he'd seen on dungeon floor two.
If the dungeon reopened, he could test the key.
Last time he'd entered, he'd only been Level 2 and had nearly died.
Now he was Level 7, and his real combat power was absurd.
If it opened, he'd be far more at ease.
"But not yet…"
He knew Falrim would hear first when the dungeon opened.
Plenty of Falrim adventurers would rush out immediately.
He just had to wait for notice—then ride Hephaestus to Barry.
"Grimm Town in the Forefathers Province struck by a Medusa curse—80% petrified…"
Gauss's brow tightened.
Forefathers Province lay east of Coldemerald Province, another borderland facing the monster kingdom.
Unlike Coldemerald's relative prosperity, that region had been unstable for ages.
He'd seen bad news about it often.
But this was especially brutal: eighty percent of a town turned to stone.
Petrification was one of the most dangerous monster magics.
If treated quickly, you could sometimes undo it. But if time dragged on, many victims wouldn't recover cleanly—organs might suffer permanent damage.
And towns rarely had enough casters.
Even if the monster retreated… would rescue arrive in time?
"This damned world…"
A knot of irritation rose in his chest.
He exhaled slowly, like he could breathe the bitterness out.
Shadow happened to return at that moment—her form coalescing like drifting particles into a body in front of him.
"What's wrong?"
Shadow asked.
"Just reading the papers."
He folded the pages.
"Come with me to the guild."
"Let's see if there's a good large commission."
"I've been resting too long."
He was only a little over two thousand kills away from thirty thousand.
With luck, that could be a single commission.
Gauss wanted to kill something to vent the pressure building in his chest.