Taking advantage of the fact that the Adventurers Guild hadn’t closed yet, Gauss rushed to the guild’s base first to inquire about the details of professional rank upgrades.
To advance from Bronze 1-Star to 2-Star, in addition to becoming a level 2 professional, one must also accumulate a sufficient amount of completed quests.
Gauss confirmed with the front desk that after finishing a Winter Hunt, he had met the quest volume requirement, then scheduled the rank evaluation for the next day.
After completing the rank evaluation, the adventurer badge before him would gain an additional six-pointed star.
He would then shed the identity of the lowest-tier professional adventurer.
Being a level 2 professional was not particularly special in itself; it was just somewhat stronger than a level 1 professional, but it did not represent a qualitative leap.
However, quickly leveling up to level 2 in a short time versus spending ten or even several decades to upgrade held entirely different meanings.
The former meant level 2 was just a resting point on their path to higher stages, while for the latter, their career endpoint might just be level 2.
There might be exceptional cases of late bloomers in this world, but they were extremely rare.
True powerhouses often showed their brilliance early in life.After having dinner by the roadside, night had already fallen deeply.
Gauss returned home to rest for the night.
The next day.
Adventurers Guild base.
Aria watched Gauss walk through the tightly closed test room door, her eyes filled with envy.
She had become a professional before Gauss, but he surpassed her by advancing to level 2 faster.
Although she was genuinely happy for Gauss, a faint sense of loss quietly crept into her heart.
Realizing this feeling, she quickly took a deep breath to adjust her mindset.
Actually, she could clearly feel her own rate of improvement accelerating recently. As long as she compared herself only to her past self, making progress every day meant she was on the path upward.
“Sigh—”
The door opened.
“How did it go?” Aria stepped forward.
“Passed smoothly.” Gauss smiled, solemnly hanging the badge back around his neck.
The indigo metal surface had two small, exquisite six-pointed stars embedded side by side, reflecting a ghostly green phosphorescent glow in the light.
“Congratulations!” Aria said sincerely.
Being a 2-Star professional meant he had already shed the rookie adventurer status and was beginning to advance toward higher stages.
Even if he joined other teams, the difficulty would be lower than that of 1-Star professionals. This was the most direct proof of strength.
Even for his current team, Gauss’s upgrade was meaningful. At least when encountering unfamiliar teams in the wild, others would think twice before acting maliciously when they saw Gauss’s 2-Star badge.
“You keep it up too.” Gauss encouraged her.
The two walked side by side toward the shopping district.
Besides the rank evaluation, there was shopping to do today.
First stop: the skill shop.
After mastering the Divine Berry Spell, Aria had some free time and planned to buy another cantrip. As for 1st circle spells, unless she advanced to level 2, she probably couldn’t learn any more for now.
Gauss’s goal was clear—he headed straight for the 1st circle spell section.
In front of the 1st circle spell shelf, there were neither too many nor too few spellbooks.
Several copies of each type were displayed.
His gaze lingered on them, noticing that compared to last time, some spells had been removed and new ones had been added.
Shadow Weaving could weave a semi-transparent shadow layer over the entire body and granted the following benefits.
Light around the body would bend and refract, making it harder for enemies to lock on with ranged attacks.
When in dim or dark environments, staying still or moving slowly allowed brief invisibility.
Tongue of Languages
After casting this spell, during its duration, you could understand and read the surface meaning of spoken or written words but could not decipher hidden messages or profound knowledge behind them.
Feather Fall
After casting, the selected target fell from a high place with a slowed descent and would not take fall damage. The spell ended upon landing.
Cloud Mist, Identify Spell, Grease, Prestidigitation, Witch Arrow, Ray of Death...
Each of these spells had unique value, and Gauss wanted to learn almost all of them.
For example, Tongue of Languages would allow him to read more books and understand the meaning conveyed by alien species’ speech when casting the spell.
Prestidigitation was also needed; although cleaning could be done by casting minor magical tricks multiple times, it was just a cantrip and not specialized, so its effect was less obvious than that of Cleaning.
Identify Spell would help him discern detailed information about unfamiliar plants, animals, minerals, or other items encountered in the wild, avoiding missing valuable materials.
And more...
In short, every 1st circle spell had its use.
Unfortunately, Gauss could not buy all of them yet.
More than forty gold coins seemed like a lot, but if he spent all on 1st circle spells, he could only buy about four.
Moreover, buying too many wouldn’t leave time for practice.
So, he decided to exclude non-urgent spells or those replaceable by cantrips for now.
Gauss looked at Identify Spell, thought it over, and chose this spell.
For now, his offensive spells were enough.
Many attack skills in his hands still awaited practice to improve proficiency.
For example, Burning Hands had just reached level 3. As an attack spell, it wasn’t enough to simply be usable; he wanted to raise its proficiency to be skillful in actual combat.
The Monstrous Strength skill also needed training. He had been busy with Winter Hunt recently, and after returning to accumulate experience for leveling up to professional level 2, he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
It was time to put this skill, which he had acquired a while ago but hardly practiced, back on the training schedule.
Thanks to the Adventurer’s Manual, Gauss’s attributes would definitely be higher than those of other professionals of the same rank. Wasting better physical fitness was just a loss.
Besides, maybe if the non-spellcaster skill Monstrous Strength reached a certain level, it could trigger a second profession?
Gauss had heard rumors about multiple professions.
Theoretically, everyone had the potential for multiple professions, but it was very difficult in practice.
The main difficulty was that once a main profession was established, training other profession skills became much harder.
Even if lots of time was invested and skills practiced to mastery, sometimes the rank induction to trigger the profession wouldn’t occur.
Even if those hurdles were overcome, splitting limited focus across different professions was problematic.
Therefore, very few people in this world had multiple professions; most professionals focused solely on their main profession.
Gauss considered the extra profession option only because, compared to ordinary people, he had the advantage of viewing his status panel, allowing faster skill improvement.
However, he did not fixate on this. Relying on his physical fitness and corresponding skills like Basic Swordsmanship, Monstrous Strength, and Enhanced Jump, his combat power was already quite good.
After weighing everything carefully, Gauss chose Identify Spell. At least for normal field commissions, he wouldn’t have to worry about missing materials.
Identify Spell cost 11 gold coins.
After paying at the counter, Gauss’s balance dropped to 32 gold coins.