The early morning sunlight slanted across the somewhat aged yet clean counter of the inn, where Sophia and Gauss were chatting casually.

Suddenly, the light at the door flickered as a figure walked in gracefully.

“Welcome.” Sophia greeted out of habit.

The newcomer’s gaze passed right over her, settling with a faint smile on Gauss.

“Oh, morning, Gauss.”

“Good morning,” Gauss replied.

“This is my partner, Aria. She’s the one I was waiting for earlier.”

Gauss introduced the two.

“Sophia, the innkeeper and a friend who has always taken good care of me.”

Aria shook hands with Sophia confidently. Behind the counter, Winnie watched silently.

Gauss’s partner?

Sophia’s eyes carefully appraised this guest.

She wasn’t stunningly beautiful at first glance, but she possessed a unique aura—clear and fresh like morning dew in the forest, combined with a wild resilience.

Her long, pale blue hair flowed loosely over her shoulders;

her face was smooth and firm, with well-defined and gentle features.

Her figure was balanced and strong, her gait agile. The smooth muscle lines on her calves showed she was no fragile beauty but someone hardened by long periods of outdoor travel and close communion with nature.

Even she could sense that this blue-haired woman was powerful.

Thinking this, Sophia relaxed a bit.

Having a partner working with Gauss was much safer than him going solo.

“Come have a meal with us next time.”

“Okay, Sister Sophia.”

After some simple pleasantries, under the watchful eyes of Sophia and Winnie, Gauss and Aria left the inn side by side.

“Boss, are you okay?” After they left, Winnie cautiously looked at Sophia, who had been silent.

But all she got was a confused look.

“What’s wrong with me?” Sophia scratched her head at Winnie’s sympathetic gaze.

On the street.

“How did you sleep last night?”

“Very well, very well.” Aria replied instinctively.

Then her gaze fell on Gauss’s face, catching the faint but noticeable weariness in his eyes, and she suddenly asked,

“You didn’t rest well?”

“A bit,” Gauss was more frank with Aria than with Sophia this time. He did not hide the details of the nightmare he had the night before.

This was not favoritism;

he knew telling Sophia wouldn’t help and would only cause unnecessary worry.

But as a professional, Aria might understand the underlying implications.

“A nightmare?” Aria nodded, her expression serious.

Nightmares themselves were not unusual;

everyone had them. But since the two had just finished a special mission, it was worth being cautious.

“How about I use natural energy to check your body? See if there’s any contamination?” Aria suggested.

Besides the simpler cantrip Animal Communication, she also knew Entangling Roots. The third level 1 spell she was currently learning was Divine Berry Spell, but she hadn’t mastered it yet.

None of these spells, however, could help with a body check.

Fortunately, natural energy had an innate sensitivity to corruption, pollution, and abnormal spiritual invasions.

Gauss nodded in agreement, and the two found a clean bench by the street to sit.

Aria gestured for Gauss to slightly turn sideways, then raised her hand, gently placing her warm palm on the back of his neck.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if drawing in the surrounding natural aura.

Then she activated her druidic innate keen perception of life energy and natural balance, like a precise detector, carefully “scanning” the invisible aura and energy fluctuations radiating from Gauss’s body, trying to catch any trace of disharmony or foreign intrusion.

Aria focused intently, her perception extending further.

She did sense Gauss’s fatigue aura caused by lack of sleep.

Although his energy field had some chaotic “noise,” overall it was normal. She found no clear sign of foreign evil, pollution, or negative energy corruption.

It seemed he simply suffered from insomnia.

She slowly opened her eyes.

“I don’t sense anything unusual. Of course, it might be because I’m still inexperienced,” she honestly added. “But I do think you’re a bit tired. I noticed you take missions quite frequently.”

“Keep an eye on it over the next few days. If the nightmare recurs or you feel something’s off, we can go to the church in Barry City for a more thorough examination.”

“Got it, thank you,” Gauss sincerely said.

He wasn’t feeling particularly unwell, so asking Aria for help was mostly for peace of mind.

After this preliminary check, he put the matter aside for now.

The two then began their main task for the day, heading to the commercial street to deal with their loot.

To Gauss’s surprise, Aria turned out to be a hidden expert at bargaining.

This made Gauss, who usually just compared prices from three shops and picked the highest, feel a bit embarrassed.

So during the negotiations, Gauss simply kept silent and let Aria handle everything.

“This piece of leather may be a bit worn on the edges, but look at the grain and toughness in the core area—it’s definitely top quality! Peeling off these intact scales would make excellent material for bracers or knee pads lining.”

“Rusted and needs melting down? Boss, this steel beneath is solid. With some rust remover, it’ll look brand new. No need to remake it.”

...

Thanks to Aria’s bargaining, what was expected to take the whole morning to sell was all sold before noon.

Moreover, the final price far exceeded Gauss’s expectations.

A full 1 gold and 10 silver!

Gauss reckoned that by his usual method, the best he could get was about 90 silver.

The two split the money evenly on the spot.

Feeling the heavy weight of the coin pouch, Gauss smiled contentedly, his spirits lifted.

10 gold 40 silver.

His cash assets on hand had once again broken the double-digit gold mark.

They found a tavern and had a simple lunch. Aria put down her utensils early, quietly watching Gauss continue eating heartily. Strangely, the longer she stared, the more her appetite returned.

After he finished eating, Aria invited Gauss to visit her house.

Since Gauss was interested in buying a house, he didn’t refuse.

Aria’s small home wasn’t far from the inn. Walking down a side alley and around two quiet corners, they arrived.

A small, exquisite two-story detached house appeared before Gauss, surrounded by a low fence enclosing a lively little courtyard.

Aria’s gray wolf, Ulfen, lay lazily on the soft grass in the yard, basking in the sun. Hearing familiar footsteps, it barely lifted its eyelids and let out a soft “ma” as a greeting before closing its eyes again comfortably.

Aria then took Gauss on a thorough tour inside and outside the house.

Although the location was not busy, the interior was warm and comfortable, with bright, clean windows, showing the owner’s care everywhere.

Sunlight poured through the windows onto the natural wood furniture, and the air was filled with a faint aroma of herbs and dried flowers.

“Tea or coffee?”

“Tea.”

After Aria prepared the tea, Gauss took the cup and looked around the house with some desire, unable to help but ask the price.

“The house with this small yard, plus various taxes, cost about 1 gold 20 silver at the time—slightly pricier than nearby places, but I like the quiet here.”

“The renovations and these simple furnishings cost about another 1 gold in total.”

She pushed open a window facing the yard.

“When I first came to Grayrock Town, I also lived at an inn. Later, when I had more money, I planned to settle here for a while, so I had an agent help me find this house.”

“If it’s convenient, please ask that agent to keep an eye out for a similar one for me—quiet location, preferably with a small yard,” Gauss thought for a moment and spoke up.

He agreed with Aria’s reasoning.

He needed a stable place to settle.

Otherwise, when entertaining teammates and guests on free days, it wouldn’t always be possible to stay at the inn or go out to taverns.

“Okay, leave it to me,” Aria agreed cheerfully. “I’ll contact him later.”

Gauss lingered a while longer at Aria’s house.

Watching her roll up her sleeves and carefully tend to the various herbs and ornamental plants in the yard, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was what a professional druid’s leisure looked like.

During the plant care, a small flower cat, clearly wounded and fresh from a fierce battle, timidly sneaked into the yard, meowing at Aria.

Aria had to pause her work and used Animal Communication to talk with it in meows and purrs. Then she began cleaning and carefully dressing its wounds.

“If I knew Healing, it wouldn’t be so troublesome,” Aria said without looking up as Gauss approached, focusing on bandaging the cat.

Healing was also a druidic spell in her sequence.

But as mentioned before, the third spell she was currently learning was Divine Berry Spell, so she wouldn’t be able to learn Healing anytime soon.

“But Divine Berry Spell will probably be very useful with your partner,” she said with a smile.

Gauss felt a bit embarrassed hearing that.

Of course, he understood the implication in Aria’s words.

The level 1 Divine Berry Spell was a versatile divine magic that produced berries infused with natural magic.

Eating the berries provided slight basic healing, nutritional supplementation, and energy to relieve hunger.

So Aria’s subtle subtext was that he was a big eater.

Once she mastered Divine Berry Spell, even if they were on missions in the wilderness without supplies, she could produce magic berries to keep Gauss from starving.

Gauss did not refute the content in Aria’s words.

Food supply was indeed very important to him.

When Aria mastered Divine Berry Spell, these high-energy berries combined with his Energy Storage Gland talent and basic Rapid Digestion talent would greatly improve his combat endurance!

Not to mention the berries themselves offered basic healing effects.

Although the combination of a spellcaster and a druid might sound odd, Gauss truly thought their partnership worked well.

They had tanking, healing, melee, ranged, control, and logistical support.

That was the meaning of a team—everyone had their own role.

“Then hurry up and practice. I’m looking forward to your Divine Berry Spell.”

“Okay, I’ll master it as soon as possible.” Aria nodded. “But this kind of natural divine magic can’t be rushed. You need to truly understand the life force of plants and sense their rhythms. It can’t be learned by rote memorization indoors.”

“Besides, I’m slow at learning these kinds of spells. Maybe because I’m not very smart;

I can’t compare to you.” She seemed to think of something, then sighed in frustration.

She could sense Gauss was probably a genius spellcaster, learning magic very quickly.

She could tell just by how many cantrips and spells he had mastered at such a young age.

Fearing Gauss would think she wasn’t serious, she explained she had been fiddling with plants during their downtime deliberately.

“Cough, no worries, just take it at your own pace.” Gauss felt a bit embarrassed at her solemn expression, as if he was rushing her.

“And my magic learning speed... well, it’s just average.”

Aria said nothing, just quietly watched him.

“You say so, what else can I say?”

“Okay, compared to other spellcasters, maybe my progress is a bit faster.” Gauss tried to be modest but felt it sounded like humble bragging, so he admitted it outright.

Aria sighed enviously and kept bandaging the cat.

Taking advantage of the time, Gauss checked the skill panel.

Level 0 cantrips:

Magician Cantrip lv2 (6→15/20)

Message lv2 (3→7/20)

Mending lv2 (1→5/20)

Fire Bolt lv2 (0→14/20)

He had not been practicing cantrips for long recently, but progress was fast.

Especially the most practiced and used ones—Magician Cantrip and Fire Bolt—were improving rapidly, boosted by the Spell Mastery talent.

In his feeling, once cantrip proficiency reached lv3, combat use would be very smooth.

He planned to raise Magician Cantrip and Fire Bolt to lv3 in the next few days, then choose two more cantrips to learn.

Besides completing missions, his time invested in spell practice had brought considerable gains.

He could clearly feel the invisible “cup-shaped container” representing the professional rank in his body solidifying and filling with every spell proficiency increase and deeper understanding of spell models.

Though he couldn’t quantify his true physical growth, this tangible sense of progress strongly told him that learning new spells and improving control over existing ones could push him from lv1 to lv2.

So he needed to master more cantrips within his mental capacity.

Also, his nightly ritual of studying the Meditation Method was about to reach a milestone;

the difficult book was near completion, meaning he could soon begin formal meditation practice.

He believed meditation itself could also accumulate experience points for professional rank.

At this moment, two clear paths to becoming stronger lay before Gauss.

One was fulfilling his duties as a magician: taking adventure missions, learning and researching magic, meditating, striving toward lv2 rank to gain attribute points and, more importantly, improve mana purity, which would enhance his spell power.

The other was hunting monsters, completing the Monster Encyclopedia collection, gaining attribute points and various other rewards, comprehensively strengthening himself.

Currently, he was advancing in both directions simultaneously.

Compared to peers groping in the dark, he felt truly fortunate to have a clear growth path in sight.