Thunk-!

"Good Job, Han-Gyeol!"

Daeshim praised Han-Gyeol after he took down a goblin.

'The communication and teamwork Daeshim established in so few hours are very impressive.'

Sung-jin praised the team that Daeshim created. But there was one thing that Sung-jin noticed about the team.

'There were ten players before, right?'

Sung-jin looked around and could only count nine players; there was one missing from the team.

"That flimsy-looking guy isn't here?"

He walked to Daeshim's side and asked him. The mention of him made Daeshim freeze in place.

"You mean Ji-Hoon?"

He said with a bit of sadness in his voice. Sung-jin didn't have to hear anymore. He could already tell from Daeshim's reaction that something unfortunate had happened.

"I see…"

Sung-jin got the whole grasp of the situation and didn't dig deeper into it.

"He didn't die in vain. So, regret nothing and don't think about what you could have done differently."

He tried to cheer up Daeshim, while hiding his true feelings.

'This world is unforgiving, and only the strong survive.'

Sung-jin wasn't sorrowful by Ji-Hoon's death. He just thought that it was inevitable, and they couldn’t have done anything about it. But he couldn't make himself say that to Daeshim; he was still human after all.

"Let us just get this tutorial over with."

He quickly changed the topic and went forward to fight with the others.

"Your right! Let's stop this unnecessary killing and get home!"

Daeshim's mood changed, and he got motivated to fight again. But what he said made Sung-jin stop in his tracks.

'Home… You wish this were the end.'

Sung-jin leaped forward into a pack of five goblins, furiously swinging his sword at them.

…

Swash-!

"This is the last of the goblins!"

Daeshim exclaimed, exchanging blows with a goblin. He was close to hitting its neck, but the goblin was a little too fast for him.

"Someone help?!"

Piiing-!

An arrow flew right past his face, hitting the goblin in the forehead right after his call for help. The goblin fell to the ground with nasty blood spewing out of the hole the arrow made.

Daeshim looked at the dead goblin. His face was as white as a ghost. The arrow was only a few inches away from cutting his cheek, and he looked like he thought he was dead.

"What the heck!"

He yelled towards the player who shot the arrow.

"You wanted help, so I helped you."

Dallia said, smiling delinquently and shrugging her shoulders.

"You!"

He looked a little pissed, but he decided that having a tantrum wasn't of any help at the moment.

"Let's just finish off this big ugly goblin!"

He said, looking furiously at the last goblin standing.

The Goblin General hadn't moved out of the place he spawned from; he had only commanded the goblins so far. But now that all of his armies were gone, the visual expression of the Goblin General changed.

The Goblin General was about three meters in height and had a shoulder span of one meter. It looked intimidating at first.

'The Goblin General indeed looks really strong, but no matter how much you train your body, if that brain of yours never evolves, you will only be a pathetic, overgrown goblin.'

Sung-jin looked down on the Goblin General. He wore his usual cocky smile, and he was ready to just finish off the Goblin General in one fell swoop. But he had realized something crucial when Aera confronted him earlier.

'It was good that Daeshim and his team wanted to fight with me. If I just have gone and cleared every goblin alone, all these people standing here watching would have seen it. And when the tutorial is over, the different guilds would probably ask questions.'

Sung-jin sighed in relief.

'That was definitely the reason I succumbed to her… Definitely!'

He thought about what would have happened and all the attention he would have gotten. Getting the attention from the top guilds right after the tutorial was usually very great, but in Sung-jin's case, he planned on playing solo.

'I can't risk the other guilds knowing of my skills. So, I can’t go all out… Even though going all out is unnecessary since this Goblin General will die rather quickly.'

He scouted around, looking at all the players readying their weapons to fight the last boss. Sung-jin visually looked like his calm and uninterested self, but he was actually quite happy inside.

'Since Daeshim's team began to fight the goblins, the crowd around us began to join in too, and we got rid of all the goblin mobs fast. This is very different than my last tutorial… But I kind a like it.'

Sung-jin smiled, satisfied. He took back what he said earlier about all the people dying after the tutorial ends, and this time, he thought these players might become rather strong.

"What are you smiling for?"

A soft voice interrupted Sung-jin's contemplation. He hastily looked to his left side where the voice came from, but he already knew who the person was just by their voice alone.

"Nothing much."

He responded to Aera with a quiet voice. Though Sung-jin didn't look at Aera for long before he looked in the direction where the players began to commence in combat with the Goblin General.

-System: You engage in combat with the Goblin General.

The system notified all the players that the boss fight will begin, and only a second later—

Crackle-!

"What!"

Some players yelled as an unexplained rumble disrupted the high spirits of the players. The ground beneath everyone began to shake heavily, and in some places, the ground cracked. The trees and bushes around the Goblin General began to collapse because of the sudden earthquake. Everyone fell to the ground, and it was hard for the players to stand up.

"Ahhh!"

The players were caught off guard; they didn't expect an earthquake to happen when they marched toward the final boss. So, now everyone panicked.

The players nearest to the Goblin General tried to get further back, but they couldn't gather enough strength or balance to maneuver around the falling trees and bushes.

"What do we do?!"

Aera exclaimed hastily hoping Sung-jin knew what to do.

Both Sung-jin and Aera were out of the earthquake’s range, and they only had a little struggle with balancing.

"Don't worry too much."

Sung-jin answered Aera's worries. But Aera couldn't help but look at Sung-jin dumbfounded. To her, this situation seemed very dire, and something should definitely be done quickly.

"What do you mean? We should do something, or they will die!"

She stated the obvious to Sung-jin, but he didn't care to listen, and he just stood still and waited.

'This earthquake is what we call an AOE skill (AOE=Area of Effect). Or, more specifically, this skill is called Earth Boulder. It's not much of an earthquake; the earthquake is caused because the skill is gathering the surrounding ground and trees to form into a big boulder. And when the boulder is finished, the Goblin General will throw it.'

Sung-jin had perfectly remembered the Goblin General's attack pattern, so he wasn't worried about the people closest to the boss. But then he threw the giant boulder, which was ten times the size of himself when he's done making it. The damage would be enormous if the boss completed his skill.

'Last time, it took out at least 25 percent of the remaining players, so I have to stop him from throwing that big rock of his!'

Sung-jin tried to think of a way to cancel the Goblin General’s Earth Boulder skill, but without having any skills himself, he couldn't find any.

'This is not looking good.'

His cockiness from earlier was all gone. Sung-jin's calculations was based on him soloing the boss, but now with this many participants. It was very unlikely that he could keep everyone alive. He had to break his promise from before to save as many as possible, but as Sung-jin cursed himself for making such a grave error; he suddenly remembered something.

"Ahhh!"

He said out loud, making the anxious Aera even more confused.

"I have a plan, so just stay right here and don't do anything."

He said to Aera, leaving her behind and slowly walking towards the Goblin General. Sung-jin only walked with small steps, waiting for the Earth Boulder skill to nearly end.

'I may have found a way to stop his skill, but the risk is very high. With my increase in Agility I can probably reach the Goblin General without being hindered by the extreme shaking.'

Sung-jin thought of his plan as he walked slowly towards the Goblin General. He could begin to feel the shaking more and more the closer he got to the Goblin General. And even Sung-jin couldn’t stand up straight in the Earth Boulder skill radius.

'When I reach the Goblin General, I have to slice at his arm with my sword and hope it’s enough to cancel out his skill. But reaching there…'

He tried to keep balance, but it was getting very hard for him. And the only way he could get to the Goblin General was if he could run faster than the vibration the Earth Boulder skill made.

'I don’t think my Agility is high enough to outrun the vibrations, so…'

Name: Sung-jin | Level: 9 | Age: 20 | Title: Dark Apostle | First Generation

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Agility: 50

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Stat Points: 0

Skills: None

Titles:

Dark Apostle: Lvl 1 [Exp: 0%]

[Effect: 5% exp gain]

[Effect: 10% damage gain. Dark Type skills only]

'…'

'I think I can do it now!'

He mentally prepared to run towards the Goblin General after spending all his remaining points in Agility.

'I need to do it now. In a few seconds, his skill will be completed, and he will throw the rock.

Sung-jin looked at the ever-growing pile of forest junk the Goblin General had before his feet. He sank heavily, this was the first time he had been nervous since his rebirth. And the risk of f*cking up could mean the death of many people or even himself.

'I just need to run and hit his arm!'

He repeated this sentence a couple of times in his head before dashing towards the Goblin General.

Thunk-!