I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 84: Section Clear, Reward

"Bang!"

The Mature Fungoid's body scattered across the ground.

After the Small Team finished killing all the Mature Fungoids, the fence behind them retracted again with a series of "kaka" sounds.

At the same time, the carpet-like mushroom mycelium growing on the six walls suddenly began to wither and decay in large swathes.

As if their life force had been stripped away along with the death of the Mature Fungoids, they shriveled up rapidly and turned into tiny gray shriveled fungus mats in no time.

"It's over!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

When the fence fell earlier, everyone had felt a bit panicked, as if they had become trapped prisoners.

Fortunately, after smoothly defeating the Fungoids, everything returned to normal.

"Why does this place feel like some sort of training ground?" Gauss shook his head.

This Micro Dungeon hadn’t deliberately trapped them—once the battle ended, the blockade was lifted.

The purpose was clearly to make them fight the Fungoids.

"Yes." Lawrence agreed with Gauss's opinion. "Many people say these dungeons are training camps used by the Forgotten Realm to cultivate their own warriors."

"Kill monsters, clear sections, obtain loot, rest, then move on."

"But I’m not entirely sure myself; I only heard others say that."

Gauss nodded.

As Low-level Adventurers like them, they didn’t need to worry about too much irrelevant information. Just knowing that loot could be earned here and their skills could be honed was enough.

"Rumble rumble!"

After all the mushrooms had withered, a stone pillar slowly rose from the smooth center of the room with a loud rumbling sound.

In the groove at the center of the stone pillar, several special little items had been placed.

Gauss and the others stepped closer.

They discovered that resting atop the stone platform were three amber-colored gel spheres. Inside the spheres, purple fungal vein patterns floated, and deeper inside, densely packed compressed spores resembling fish eggs filled the core.

"Spore Bombs!"

For some unknown reason, the moment they saw the spheres, a voice echoed simultaneously in everyone’s minds.

The group exchanged glances quickly.

They immediately understood the function of these three Spore Bombs as loot.

After being thrown, the high-pressure spores released could create massive impact force, damaging both enemies and terrain.

Of course, it was worth noting that users also needed to maintain distance—these weren’t smart enough to be immune to “friendly fire.”

In short, they were highly powerful one-time-use items.

"Let’s store them first." Lawrence signaled the Rogue Apprentice Edith to act. "Be careful. My small body can’t take their explosion."

"Don’t worry."

Edith nodded and took out a small cloth pouch with cushioning inside, carefully placing the three Spore Bombs inside.

"We might still need them in our later dungeon explorations."

"If we don’t use them, we’ll figure out how to split the value later."

The rest had no objections.

At this moment, Gauss was still immersed in a peculiar sensation.

Right after collecting the Spore Bombs—

He felt a special change in both his surroundings and his body, an indescribable and strange feeling.

Some kind of invisible energy in the air was slowly seeping into the Spell Models engraved deep within his will.

He opened the Adventurer’s Handbook.

Sure enough.

It had changed.

"You have entered the special map: Forgotten Realm, Micro Dungeon."

"Skill Mage Armor proficiency +1."

"Mage Armor Lv3 (27/50)"

"Skill Magic Missile proficiency +1."

"Magic Missile lv2 (19/20)"

"!!"

Two skills had increased by 1 proficiency point.

Was it because they had just cleared this Fungoid Monster Room?

Gauss’s gaze quietly swept across the other people’s faces.

He noticed they showed no signs of abnormality.

So this skill proficiency reward only appeared on me? Was it because I have the Attribute Panel to solidify it? Or was there another reason?

He judged that the others likely didn’t experience what he had. Although the others didn’t have artifact-like panels that could quantify skills—

He had first noticed something was off through his own awareness, sensing that the spells engraved in his will had become more proficient, and only then had he checked the panel for confirmation.

If the others had such a sudden skill increase, they would likely notice something strange too.

Gauss swallowed hard.

Looking at the dungeon room that continued ahead of him.

1 proficiency point might not seem like much, but the sheer number of rooms here—

This dungeon really was the right place to be.

He hadn’t expected that exploring here would yield additional gains.

Could this really be some kind of ancient civilization’s training ground? But why was he the only one improving? Was it really just the Attribute Panel?

If others could also increase skill proficiency by clearing rooms, people would be fighting to get in here.

Gauss’s heart was far from calm.

"Let’s take a break."

Hearing his companions calling for rest—

He settled his excited yet slightly confused mood.

After clearing the mushroom room, the group didn’t rush into further exploration.

The air had already returned to freshness.

The group removed their Gas Masks and used the time to recover their strength.

Who knew what would be waiting in the next room?

Although Edith had explored part of the dungeon’s earlier rooms beforehand, that was done before the dungeon had been fully activated.

Now, the internal situation of the dungeon was somewhat different from what she had encountered during her scouting, so they had to adjust their condition quickly to deal with any potential danger.

Gauss gulped down fresh water from his water pouch, growing more eager about this dungeon expedition.

A few days later.

"Roar!!"

"Group them together, my Dancing Light seems to suppress them." Gauss shouted to his teammate who was luring a horde of Zombies around.

Seeing his teammate run over, Gauss immediately released a surge of magical energy from the Bone Wand in his hand.

"Dancing Light!"

Brilliant white light burst forth along the Bone Wand!

Gauss had now realized—

His Dancing Light was not ordinary.

Especially when cast using the Bone Wand, it seemed to carry a powerful holy attribute.

Certain dark creatures would be restrained by this intense radiance.

Indeed, the dozen Zombies that had been pulled over by his teammates halted in unison under the dazzling light of the Dancing Light.

The glow in their hollow, sunken eye sockets continuously contracted.

Their cracked lips tore backward, exposing black rotten teeth, and from the depths of their throats came a hoarse, agonized wail.

The searing pain made their movements—which were already fairly nimble—instantly falter, and their joints emitted snapping sounds like rotten wood breaking during movement.

"Let's go!"

Originally worried that the Zombies’ bites or claws could lead to viral infection, the group, seeing them weakened, mustered their courage.

"Sever the heads!"

These dark creatures within the dungeon possessed regenerative abilities. Most could only be killed completely by decapitation.

"Got it!"

Gauss moved no slower.

With one hand gripping the Bone Wand to maintain the Dancing Light effect, the other hand swung a sword at a Zombie’s rotting neck, covered in grime and dried blood.

He indeed restrained Zombies effectively.

Since the Bone Wand was in his hand, the suppression effect around him was the strongest.

As soon as they approached, the Zombies would be scorched by the close-range Dancing Light and slowed down—enough for Gauss to deliver a clean and decisive decapitation.

"Zombie killed *1"

"Title acquired: [Zombie Hunter]. This title upgrades with number of kills."

"Current effect: Sharpened. In battles against Zombies and related evolved species, attack penetration is increased by 10%."

Gauss quickly skimmed the Attribute Panel without wasting time.

He lunged toward the next Zombie.

"Slash!"

The sword flashed—this strike was even fiercer and more violent!

The sword light precisely landed on the Zombie’s swollen, decayed neck.

The dark green neck tore open with a ripping sound under his blade, leaving a gaping bowl-sized wound, and turbid blood spurted out.

A few minutes later.

The final Zombie was also slain by the Small Team.

"Rumble rumble!"

On the stone platform that rose in the center of the room, a few red and blue Potions were placed. Having grown familiar with the dungeon procedure after several days, Edith stepped forward and collected them.

After the battle, the group sat down, panting heavily.

Even though they had exited the dungeon to rest and camp on the surface during the past days, the ongoing dungeon exploration still left them mentally and physically exhausted.

Every day when they opened their eyes, they faced the dark, oppressive dungeon space, and those foul-smelling monsters.

Their minds had become completely numb.

"Let’s rest a bit longer. There shouldn’t be many rooms left in this dungeon." Lawrence spoke, seeing fatigue written on everyone’s faces.

Gauss nodded and found a clean patch of ground to sit and rest.

He took the opportunity to check the personal panel in the Adventurer’s Handbook.

There weren’t any changes to his attributes on the panel, but his skill proficiencies had changed quite a bit.

Skills:

Tier 0 Cantrip Dancing Light lv2 (5/20)

Tier 0 Cantrip Mage Hand Lv3 (25/50)

Tier 1 Spell Magic Missile Lv3 (13/50)

Tier 1 Spell Mage Armor Lv3 (45/50)

Swordsmanship Basics lv2 (10/20)

Talents: Rapid Digestion, Magic Resistance

The recent days of dungeon exploration had leveled up Dancing Light and Swordsmanship Basics to Lv2.

Meanwhile, Magic Missile had also advanced from lv2 to lv3. Upon reaching lv3, Magic Missile unlocked the Rapid-fire effect, allowing him to cast two missiles in quick succession with nearly no delay, and the missile speed had also increased.

Mage Armor had gained a whopping 18 proficiency points, reaching the threshold for its next upgrade.

Thanks to this rapid rise in proficiency, his understanding of Magical Resonance within his body had deepened significantly.

At this moment, he was certain that Mage Armor at Lv4 was the key to unlocking his Professional Path.

Besides these changes—

There was also...

"Monster kill count: 178"

Only 22 kills remained to reach the 200 milestone.

Gauss looked at the map in his mind.

They had already cleared both the left and right routes of the main hall.

The only one remaining was the central path.

Judging by the number of rooms in the previous two routes, it seemed this central route didn’t have many rooms left either.

While he was deep in thought, Lawrence was reminding everyone.

"Everyone still needs to be careful."

"According to my intel, dungeons like this might contain special rooms. Even though we haven’t encountered one yet, we must stay alert."

Lawrence took the hand-drawn map from Edith and marked an X over the square representing this room.

His gaze turned to the passage leading to the next room.