Chapter 131: 「Goblin Slayer」's Rumors

He had no doubt that, in front of this man, he wouldn’t last more than a few breaths. He might not even be able to retrieve his teleportation scroll or channel magic power to use it.

He wondered... just what level was this man?

After the President gave a brief opening speech, Shirley and the Secretary proceeded to explain the details and answer questions.

Gauss gained a clear understanding of the Winter Hunt operation.

Regarding the schedule—

The Winter Hunt was expected to commence in roughly a month, though the exact date had yet to be determined. Further reconnaissance on the monster movements at the outskirts of the Emerald Forest was necessary. The results would be announced to each small team one week in advance.

Thus, for the upcoming month, there was no need for everyone to remain in Graystone Town constantly. They just needed to ensure they could return to town within a week upon receiving notice and avoid straying too far.

The duration of the Winter Hunt itself generally lasted about a week.

Next, came the Benefits Policy related to the Winter Hunt.

Every day, participants could claim a fixed attendance subsidy. For example, a 1-star Bronze-rank Adventurer like Gauss would receive 50 silver coins per day. Of course, this required accompanying the main Winter Hunt force. Those who stayed holed up in town without venturing out would not receive this enticing subsidy.

Another important component was the monster bounty list.

In this Winter Hunt, monsters were categorized by species and combat strength into different bounty values.

Gauss paid particular attention to the targets that concerned him most. A regular Goblin’s bounty was 1 silver coin and 30 copper coins per head, which was 30 to 40 copper more than standard commissions.

Kobolds were slightly cheaper, at 1 silver coin and 15 copper coins.

Slime, 1 silver coin and 10 copper coins.

Juveniles were worth half.

Stronger elite monsters, however, offered significantly higher bounties. For example, a Mantisman with Challenge Rating of Tier 1 had a bounty of 3 gold coins.

A Large Goblin of Tier 1 also had a bounty of 2.5 gold coins.

Naturally, the risks of facing these elites were also higher.

This risk wasn’t limited to the combat itself but included dangers from other aspects.

For instance, elite monsters were more intelligent. This meant that upon encountering them, they were often accompanied by lesser underlings they commanded, increasing the difficulty of battle.

Moreover, these elites would also flee when the situation turned unfavorable.

Especially against monsters with greater mobility—even if the adventurers had the upper hand, without proper preparation, the monsters might escape into the forest, requiring team coordination to chase them down.

This year’s Winter Hunt would generally adopt a model of regional action by the main force, while small teams would operate flexibly.

It could be said that, as long as the teams cooperated well, the annual Winter Hunt was like a grand festival for Bronze-rank Professionals. Some even called it the Winter Hunt Festival.

Over a week, a typical Bronze-rank Adventurer could easily earn several or even around ten gold coins.

Those with a bit more strength and diligence, and good team configurations, might double that and rake in a dozen or twenty gold coins.

But Gauss wanted more.

He had to repay a debt of 20 gold coins and set aside funds to purchase spells and a mount. Though he hadn’t researched mount prices yet, they certainly weren’t cheap. The more expensive the mount, the more outstanding its capabilities.

Not only in terms of carrying capacity and endurance, but some mounts could even assist in battle, coordinating with their master to provide excellent mobility and evade enemy attacks.

All of these plans required money.

Gauss quietly calculated in his mind.

To achieve this goal, merely killing small monsters wouldn’t suffice.

He had to find a chance to hunt elite monsters!

In fact, that was also the core objective of the Winter Hunt—to eliminate these elite monsters.

Without these leaders, the lesser monsters would quickly fall apart. Forget raiding human villages or towns; different species of monsters might even start infighting.

It should be known that competition existed between different monsters within the forest; they weren’t exactly neighborly.

Recently, Gauss had increased his Intelligence stat, and his combat power had improved significantly. He felt that he was already very close to the level of a Tier 2 Professional.

With his current strength, taking down an elite monster head-on wasn’t a problem. The key was preventing it from escaping. Chasing through the forest would be difficult, but with Arya and the gray wolf Ulfen helping to restrain and control, it should be enough.

Each Tier 1 monster could yield around 2 to 4 gold coins, which meant even after splitting, each one would net him 1 to 2 gold coins.

If they could kill two per day, over a week, just the bounty for elite monsters alone would amount to about 20 gold coins!

And that was only the bounty.

The Guild would also assist in processing the bodies of various monsters. After deducting some service and labor fees, the remaining profits would be distributed to the respective Adventurer Teams.

Based on a rough 1:1 ratio between loot value and bounty, the earnings from loot sales could bring in nearly another twenty gold coins.

Not to mention the earnings from casually slaying lesser monsters, which could add up to a few more gold coins.

50 gold coins?

Gauss inhaled sharply.

He truly needed this money, which made it all the more necessary to seize this once-a-year Winter Hunt.

Such opportunities were rare. The Adventurer’s Guild and Town Hall would be investing considerable manpower and resources to make things as convenient as possible for the adventurers.

All they had to do was kill, kill, kill—but the Guild’s workload was far heavier.

Reconnaissance spells, personnel assignments, coordinating with trading companies, mass loot selling, money disbursement...

It was precisely for this reason that Gauss believed he had a real chance of earning around 50 gold coins from this Winter Hunt—a potential windfall.

Gauss turned his head and exchanged a glance with Arya. They both understood each other’s thoughts.

After the briefing ended, the senior members left the meeting room, leaving time for the adventurers present.

People dispersed into groups, some forming temporary teams, others discussing their plans for the next month, the entire second floor abuzz with activity.

Gauss pulled Arya into a corner for a discussion.

A month wasn’t too long or too short. It was entirely possible the Hunt might start earlier.

This year’s cold wave had arrived earlier than usual, so an early start was very likely—it was just a matter of how early.

However, the Winter Hunt’s timing wasn’t decided by the adventurers, but rather by when the monsters outside the forest gathered.

Thus, during the earlier meeting, the Secretary had specifically issued a reminder:

Everyone should avoid long-distance trips for the time being.

Otherwise, it might be impossible to notify everyone in time.

Gauss felt that this Winter Hunt was a rare opportunity, and he needed to make specific preparations for it.

The few skills that were close to breakthrough needed to be trained as soon as possible.

【Insight Technique】also needed a bit more focused training.

Then there was the matter of preparing supplies. Although there would be caravans accompanying them to provide Basic Medicine and other necessities, they couldn’t rely entirely on outsiders for logistics.

Gauss then turned his gaze toward Arya.

In recent days, he had also been using his spare time to discuss the training of her Divine Berry Technique with her. Visibly, her learning progress had begun to advance steadily.

At this pace, it was possible for her to fully grasp it before the Winter Hunt began.

“Arya, you need to start preparing as well,” Gauss said.

“I understand. I can already sense that I’ll be able to master the Divine Berry Technique soon,” Arya nodded.

Perhaps it was the motivating effect Gauss had on her. Ever since formally forming a team with him, she felt her progress had mysteriously accelerated compared to before.

“See if you can contract another avian beast, like a falcon,” Gauss thought aloud.

He had considered this ever since Arya told him that she could still contract one more ordinary beast. This discussion was a perfect time to bring it up.

Even if such a bird couldn’t provide much help in direct combat, its value in reconnaissance far outweighed that. Through the meeting just now, he had learned more information about the Winter Hunt.

Intelligence was a crucial part.

Even though the monster activity would be relatively dense, their movements weren’t exactly bunched up in a single line.

It was just that their spread in the endless forest would be a bit more clustered than usual.

And the Winter Hunt teams would be similar—larger squads would act in specific regions.

But at the level of small teams, they still had to locate and identify suitable opponents in the forest on their own.

If they had a hawk circling high above, it would be like having a reconnaissance eye with hundreds of times the normal vision range, capable of detecting monster traces early in the vast forest, drastically improving their team’s hunting efficiency.

“All right, I’ll keep an eye out,” Arya nodded in agreement.

As the two were speaking quietly, Gauss’s keen hearing picked up a few nearby whispers.

“So young.”

“And kind of handsome too.”

“His nickname is Goblin Slayer? Pfft, that’s funny.”

“Yeah, I heard about him. Apparently most of the monsters he’s killed since becoming an adventurer were Goblins?”

“Should we invite them? Leon’s gone, we’re short a mage, even if he is just the ‘Goblin Slayer’—”

Gauss noticed their glances subtly shifting toward him, and a vein throbbed on his forehead.

Where exactly did they hear all this information about him? Clearly, it was nothing but rumors.

The truth was, the proportion of Goblins he’d slain had only just reached half of his total monster kills. How had that become “most” in someone else’s words?

Who was spreading these rumors about me?

Still... forget it.

Gauss thought people's mouths weren’t something he could control.

He couldn’t stop others from saying whatever they wanted.

Anyway, it was just a few people spreading some hearsay from who knows where.

Soon, the small team Gauss suspected of whispering about him approached.

Their leader, Pat, wore a friendly smile and invited Gauss and Arya to join, hoping to fill the mage vacancy left by their teammate’s departure.

Naturally, Gauss didn’t agree. Even without hearing them talking about him beforehand, he still wouldn’t have accepted.

The more members in a team, the more the bounty needed to be divided. That meant the eventual earnings would likely be less than what he could get now.

At this stage, he only needed Arya and the gray wolf Ulfen to support him.

Joining an unfamiliar new team on a whim—especially one that likely had preconceived, awkward impressions of him—sounded like an unpleasant experience.

As the group walked away still chatting about Goblins, Gauss shook his head.

He wouldn’t change his path because of how others viewed him. Even if Goblins were considered “insignificant” small monsters by other Professionals, even if they were labeled as creatures that only bullied the weak—if they could make him stronger, that was enough.

He would continue unwaveringly.

Bronze, Black Iron, Silver, Gold, and beyond—he would never give up on hunting Goblins.

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