In the corner of the hall, next to the gigantic sword and blade statue, a group of adventurers gathered in small clusters.
"We're ready to team up and head to the underground caverns to hunt slime monsters and collect slime cores. Anyone interested in joining us?"
Slime monsters are low-level creatures from the well-known mud monster family.
They are also the most common type of monster that novice adventurers encounter.
They rely on their bog-like bodies to engulf organisms, preventing escape, and use a writhing embrace to torture enemies to death painfully.
Like goblins, their individual combat strength is comparatively weak, and most adventurers can handle them easily one-on-one.
The only thing to be cautious about is not to let them stick to your weapons or armor, or else the mild corrosiveness of their bodies might damage lower-quality equipment.
"Hey, you with the black hair, want to join our team?" Perhaps because Gauss was looking over, the red-haired youth, who was recruiting teammates to hunt slime monsters in the cavern, extended an invitation.
Gauss was tempted, but quickly dismissed the idea in his mind.
The underground caverns outside were too treacherous for novice adventurers. Who knew if there would be extremely dangerous monsters lurking inside? If encountered, escaping from the depths would be difficult.
"Sorry." Gauss shook his head, declining the invitation.
"Young man, are you a swordsman? Want to join our squad? We're just short of a warrior for the frontline charge." Another adventurer quickly approached to chat, perhaps seeing the rapier hanging from Gauss's waist, concluding he was a swordsman, hence the invitation.
"I'm not a swordsman; I'm an apprentice mage."
A so-called apprentice mage is someone striving toward the profession of being a mage.
Yet, even if Gauss called himself a mage, others wouldn't consider him a formal professional.
Professional-level adventurers are usually on the second floor; scarcely do they linger on the first, let alone come to such recruitment locations without reason.
Moreover, many bottom-level adventurers in the apprentice stage like to call themselves warriors, rangers, wanderers, and so forth.
Even though Gauss added the word "apprentice," the more crucial word "mage" at the start still drew the attention of many adventurers.
One by one, they collectively cast their gaze toward him.
Many apprentice mages usually have their fixed adventurer squad.
Even if they are freelancers, they are quickly absorbed by relatively elite teams.
Among bottom adventurers, professions like mages, priests, and warlocks are quite rare, whereas among formal professionals, the ratio of each profession is more balanced.
This is quite easy to understand.
Compared to warriors, rangers, and wanderers, mages, priests, and warlocks have higher entry barriers. Ordinary people without family backgrounds often find it hard to access related skills, hence their numbers are relatively small.
"Mage guy, join our team!" A tall, brawny young man rushed ahead of many others, making a gesture of placing his arm across Gauss's shoulder. "Unlike these makeshift groups, our Night Owl Squad is an elite team that's just missing a mage. Do you want to give it a try?"
"Big guy! Who are you calling riffraff?"
"Forget it, forget it, he's... let's just avoid provoking him!"
Amidst the young man's hearty voice, various sounds erupted in the crowd instantly.
But the young man ignored the protests of others, merely focusing his gaze on Gauss, waiting for his response.
"Sorry, I currently have no intention of joining a team long-term. This time, I just want to temporarily join a group to hone myself." Gauss spoke truthfully while controlling the Mage's Hand to raise his rapier, as a testament to his identity.
He just wanted to join a temporary squad where other team members could preferably assist him in taking down some small monsters, and also practice the effect of his Magic Missile.
Earn some money, and when he has saved up enough, inquire about the price of magic wands, use a Life Magic Stone to see if he can buy one.
Once he buys a wand, he'll focus on advancing to the professional stage.
He'll only consider joining an adventurer squad after formally advancing to a profession, and the most likely scenario is that he'll form his own team.
Recruit trustworthy front-line and support roles to create opportunities to take out small monsters, even if that means offering part of the quest rewards.
Alternatively, he could also act solo; the lone adventurer mode offers more freedom.
But regardless, he doesn't want to stay long-term in a team led by others. That would be detrimental to his personal development, as he wouldn't be able to decide the team's actions, which quest to accept, or effectively conduct the collection of Monster Atlas entries.
If he currently had the ability to carry out tasks alone, he wouldn't be at a place like this seeking temporary teammates.
"No problem. Temporary is fine; let's use this as an opportunity to get to know each other," the young man laughed heartily, seeming unconcerned as he added, as though compensating for it. "Even if you wanted to officially join our team now, without assessing your skills and personality, my teammates wouldn't necessarily agree."
"By the way, I'm Levin, a Shield Master. Among my companions are an archer, an assassin, a swordsman, and a priest." Seeing Gauss still unresponsive, he continued to introduce his squad's lineup, also with a slight intent to showcase their strength.
Gauss followed his pointed direction and saw four male and female adventurers.
Unlike other adventurers, this squad indeed exuded an aura of an "elite" squad that deterred idle individuals from approaching.
The archer held a dark longbow, remaining unphased under his gaze; the assassin wore a hood, with a careful look revealing a small crossbow at their waist beneath their cloak, and the swordsman had the appearance matching Gauss's stereotyped impression; the priestess held a wooden staff and was huddling against the wall, observing Gauss curiously with her gaze as well.
Gauss felt somewhat tempted.
The team members were indeed quite complete, with a long-range support archer, a flank-attacking assassin, a frontline tanking Shield Master, a direct damage swordsman, and even a logistics healing priest.
In fact, even without him, they were sufficient to execute most of the ordinary tasks for bottom adventurers.
"What task did you accept?" Even though his interest was piqued, the cautious Gauss did not immediately agree.
He planned to first listen to the content of their accepted quest.
If the task wasn't right or too risky, he wouldn't join.
He just feared that they might opt for unusually difficult tasks given their "strong capabilities."
"Rest assured, it's merely dealing with about 15 goblins," the man named Levin patted his chest. "Our team consists of quasi-professionals working towards professional goals and wouldn't rashly take on tasks beyond our capabilities."
"In reality, tasks like these are just our routine trainings for honing skills. We've done similar tasks more than a dozen times. Rest assured."
Levin apparently noticed Gauss's inclination to join, hence his words flowed more freely.
Fifteen goblins didn't seem too bad either.
Last time in Birch Village, they dealt with twenty goblins, including an atypical individual, and eventually managed to prevail.
Although he didn't want to downplay someone else behind their back, this current squad was evidently a notch stronger than Haylir's trio, and also had more members.
Moreover, with his own increased capabilities, barring any incidents, they should be able to complete it safely.
Weighing the options quickly in his mind, Gauss then extended his hand proactively.
"Then, pleased to work with you, Captain Levin. I'm Gauss."
"Welcome, Gauss." Levin also shook his hand, beaming with a bright smile.
Gauss reciprocated with a smile.
Joining a rookie elite adventurer squad first and developing quietly for a period may not be a bad choice either.
Gauss needed to improve his skill proficiency, earn money, practice sword skills, and accumulate monster atlas kill numbers.
But he couldn't just charge into the Jade Forest blindly hunting monsters – that would be courting death.
A well-equipped team, one with even a Medical Priest, could indeed provide him a safe environment to grow and level up temporarily.
Moreover, he sensed that the others were sensible enough not to aim for high-difficulty tasks, despite their apparent strength.
For adventurers aspiring to reach professional levels, ensuring one's safety while accepting practice-worthy but not overreaching quest tasks is the most suitable path.
He and the others were largely in sync ideologically.
That is, to develop steadily, no reckless moves!