Commander Points were used to evolve Blue-rank Racial Traits into Purple-rank ones.
And Gauss had a lot of Racial Traits by now:
[Special Stomach] [Ironscale Bloodline] [Ghoul Form] [Proto Hive-Mind Awareness] [Intermediate Draconic] [Flight Instinct] [Duskfall Hour]
They covered multiple rarity tiers.
Among them, [Duskfall Hour] was already purple-rank. It had played a decisive role in the battle where he killed the ogre chieftain, and it was currently his strongest talent—so it was unlikely to be upgraded any further anytime soon.
As for his blue-rank talents, the ones he used most often were [Special Stomach] and [Ironscale Bloodline]—with [Ghoul Form] barely making the cut.
Strictly speaking, he didn't use Ghoul Form often… but every time he did, it was pivotal. It flipped the board. So it still had to be on the table.
Sixty-five Commander Points.
Somewhere deep down, he could feel it: that wasn't a lot.
So he had to spend them carefully.
His attention hovered between three options.
Special Stomach
Special Stomach boosted his endurance and resupply. Last night, it was the reason he could keep swallowing magic stones and keep the energy flowing.
But right now, he could only safely rely on low-grade magic stones. He had tried eating pieces of mid-grade stones too, but his body rejected them—he got sick and threw up.
And even low-grade stones, if he ate too many in a short time, still put strain on his body.
That said…
Under normal circumstances, unless he was in a massive battle like last night, he didn't actually need to stuff himself with stones until it hurt. His mana pool was freakishly large.
So in terms of urgency…
Gauss's eyes slid away from Special Stomach.
It wasn't that upgrading it would be useless—it just wasn't the most pressing priority right now.
Ironscale Bloodline vs. Ghoul Form
These two were both "transformation-style" talents, and in some ways they overlapped.
One leaned toward dragon, the other toward ghoul.
In raw amplification, Ironscale Bloodline was weaker than Ghoul Form, but it was stable and sustainable, emphasizing strength and stamina.
Ghoul Form, on the other hand, emphasized speed and burst—max mobility, max spike.
One was reliable, built for steady, heavy-handed fighting.
The other was explosive—hit-and-run perfection.
It was a brutal choice.
Gauss sank deeper into the hot bathwater, thinking in silence.
He loved moments like this—like the whole world had gone quiet.
(Do not try this at home. After Lake Goddess Moterra's blessing, he could breathe underwater.)
After a long time, he finally decided:
He would invest in Ghoul Form first, and later—once he had more Commander Points—he'd try to evolve Ironscale Bloodline too.
That wouldn't actually be hard. Not every commander-class monster was as terrifying as that wraith-touched ogre chieftain. With the right matchups, killing commanders was honestly pretty easy for him now.
And there was another reason he chose Ghoul Form:
When he killed that wraith-touched ogre chieftain, he'd absorbed part of its bloodline.
Even if it hadn't immediately turned Ghoul Form purple, it had probably pushed his progress forward a lot.
So spending his limited Commander Points on Ghoul Form first would maximize the odds that this investment guaranteed at least one successful upgrade.
If he dumped 65 points and still couldn't evolve Ghoul Form, then the other talents would have even less hope.
He focused on [Ghoul Form], then slowly began feeding points into it.
5… 10… 20…
When he reached 45 points, a prompt appeared:
[Upgrade requirement met. Evolve blue-rank Racial Trait "Ghoul Form"?]
"Yes."
…
The "cold" energy inside Gauss began to swell.
In the blink of an eye, it multiplied severalfold, becoming denser—more refined.
Without warning, he slipped into that ghoul-state again.
Small curved horns pushed out from his forehead. Power flooded his body.
"Gauss, are you okay?"
In the kitchen, Alia and Shadow heard the sudden surge next door and knocked on the bathroom door.
"I'm fine."
Hearing his steady voice from inside, they relaxed. They didn't know why that intense pressure had suddenly flared up, but at least he wasn't in trouble.
Gauss felt freezing—not physical cold, but something deeper. And strangely, it felt good. Like something inside him was finally waking up.
Crack—crack—crack—
The white current-like aura wrapped around his skin compressed tighter and tighter, and a deep black tint began to seep through it.
He could feel it: this strengthening energy was more stable now, like a huge beast with a collar—dangerous, but controlled.
…
[Blue-rank Racial Trait "Ghoul Form" successfully evolved!]
[Evolved into purple-rank Racial Trait "Second-Tier Ghoul Form"]
…
Once everything settled, Gauss sat up in the bath. He was still in the ghoul-state.
He clenched his fist, feeling the surging strength and mana—and he immediately understood what had changed.
Before, Ghoul Form had felt like an incomplete transformation—unstable, with a brutal energy cost that drained him constantly.
Now, Second-Tier Ghoul Form had further optimized his body for the form, pushing it much closer to stability.
In other words: the energy drain wasn't nearly as severe anymore.
He was no longer a "three-second man." He could hold the state much longer.
And the black-and-white ghoul aura around him was far stronger now—strong enough to infuse his spells and amplify magical effects.
Beyond that, his strength, agility, and speed were all noticeably higher.
His base stats were already ridiculous. With this form stacked on top, he felt terrifyingly strong—strong enough that he didn't dare move carelessly.
Because he wasn't fully used to the power yet. One wrong motion and he might accidentally tear his house apart.
He had a hunch Second-Tier Ghoul Form had more abilities buried inside it, but this wasn't the place to test them.
So he dismissed the form.
The ghoul aura folded back into his body. The horns and other signs vanished. He returned to looking human.
And because he'd only activated it briefly—without fighting—he felt almost no fatigue at all.
"Nice."
Gauss smiled, genuinely satisfied.
But that also meant Ironscale Bloodline was getting benched for now.
Even though the two forms emphasized different strengths, the sheer rarity gap meant Second-Tier Ghoul Form would dominate his "transformation slot" for a while.
Ironscale would only reclaim its place once it also evolved to purple.
Because Ironscale did have advantages—more rounded overall, and it exerted bloodline suppression against common monsters like goblins, kobolds, and gnolls.
Gauss used his remaining 20 Commander Points on Ironscale Bloodline, but as expected, it still wasn't enough to trigger an evolution.
…
After the war, no one came to bother Gauss for the whole day.
He and the team finally got real rest.
And it wasn't just Gauss who gained.
Serandur could already feel himself approaching a level-up from 4 to 5.
Albena was nearing a breakthrough too.
The others didn't level, but if progress could be measured, they'd clearly advanced a huge chunk.
That was what a real battle did.
The next day
Gauss received an invitation from Eberhard, so he went to the Adventurers' Guild with his teammates.
Grayrock Town was gradually returning to order.
The roads still had craters, but the boulders had been cleared. Street-facing shops were already repairing broken windows and doors—hammering echoed everywhere.
As Gauss and his group walked through town, people saluted or bowed, paying respect to the heroes of the defense.
Over a full day of rumors fermenting, the town government had published an official report about the battle.
Most residents had heard that Gauss killed the monster leader that launched the war on Grayrock.
That single fact lifted the town's mood overnight, and calmed the panic.
Right now, Gauss was basically Grayrock's anchor.
That was exactly why Eberhard wanted him to be seen in public today.
"Looks like Gauss still isn't married…"
"Don't even think about it."
"If you don't try, how will you know?"
A few girls with baskets lingered shyly on the street.
Gauss and his party deliberately took a long route on foot, circling around, before finally reaching the guild.
Today the guild was packed.
Any adventurer who fought last night could claim a service stipend. If someone had died, the guild would send the money to the beneficiary listed in their registry.
On the first floor, the moment Gauss entered, the noise dropped fast.
At a nudge from their companions, the entire crowd turned to look at him.
All kinds of emotions converged on Gauss at once.
Some were fired up, seeing him as an idol—dreaming that one day they too could save a town, turn a battle.
Others admired him, but knew they could never reach that level—charging into ten thousand monsters with only a handful of people was unimaginable to them. For them, even fighting behind a wall had been terrifyingly hard.
On the second floor, Gauss saw the Night Owl team.
They'd fought on the wall last night too, and thankfully none of them had died.
But—
His gaze stopped on the archer, Oliver.
Where Oliver's right hand should've been, there was only an empty stump at the upper arm.
Noticing Gauss's gaze, Oliver stayed calm.
"An ogre ate my right arm. At least I kept my life."
He explained it flatly.
If an arm was cut off cleanly, sometimes you could rush to a priest and have it reattached. But if it was bitten off and eaten, that was that.
Gauss was silent for a while, then asked, "What are you going to do now?"
Oliver had clearly already discussed it with the others.
"With the war stipend and what I've saved, I have enough to retire and live decently."
As an archer, losing his dominant arm was fatal. A swordsman could sometimes adapt, but archery didn't forgive that.
"I'll probably leave Grayrock. Find a quiet inland town. Get married. Have kids. Start a small business."
"That's not a bad life," Gauss said, nodding.
Many adventurers stepped onto this road knowing sacrifice was part of the deal. Being able to retire alive was already luckier than most.
Still, it made Gauss reflect: the adventurer life was brutal and random.
His first teammates, Bell and Mia, had retired due to injuries.
The second team's swordsman Doyle vanished somewhere; Daphne transitioned into medical work.
Now Oliver had lost an arm and was forced to quit.
And yet people still pushed into this life nonstop.
Some left. More came.
"Go handle your stuff," Gauss said. "If there's time, we'll drink together."
With a complicated mood, he parted ways with the Night Owl team.
Eberhard, Vice Guildmaster Shirley, and several staff members were working on the third floor.
The guild would be slammed for days.
"Gauss, you're here—sit wherever."
"I'll wait."
After a short while, Eberhard finally freed up enough time to meet them.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"You run the guild and you're this busy?" Gauss couldn't help asking.
He'd thought a guild had enough staff that the chairman wouldn't be drowning in paperwork.
Eberhard just sighed and gave him a look full of shared misery.
"Wait until you're managing a whole guild. Then you'll understand."
He rubbed his temples. Compared to fighting, paperwork exhausted him in a different way—one that scraped the soul.
Eberhard glanced at Gauss.
With his level, once he'd reached master tier he could technically qualify to run a town-level branch—especially since his real combat power was far beyond what his level suggested.
If he wanted the position, he'd be qualified.
"Maybe someday," Gauss said, seeing Eberhard's expression and hardening his own resolve.
He wasn't ready to leave the front lines.
He needed to kill monsters.
Eberhard seemed to know that, and didn't push the topic.
"Right. About your spoils," Eberhard said, returning to business. "When you have time, go to the back warehouse and claim them."
He meant the monster loot Gauss had earned in the defense.
Fireballs had destroyed a lot of materials, but the most valuable trophies were still usable:
the corpses of the two wyverns, and the ogre chieftain.
"Also," Eberhard continued, "because your team's contribution was outstanding, we've prepared a reward list. Take a look—see if there's anything your team wants."