Chapter 35

[I thought I was going to die! I was really about to die!]

[Didn't I tell you not to fall off? So why did you go and do the exact opposite?]

[How can you not fall off!]

[I didn't fall off!]

[faipfebsdbs;bsd]

[Enough . The results from the 4th floor will tell us exactly . ]

[Tell us what?]

[How far up you can climb in this place]

***

[Round 2, Day 29 . 8:30]

It was ideal for me to focus these last few days on my growth and training .

Thanks to that, I've become accustomed to using Blink .

It was still difficult to use as an attack, but adequate for the purpose of closing a gap closing or escaping .

Using the Talaria's Wings skill freely however was still troublesome .

At least I was able to fly in the sky by using the Glide skill instead of having to flap those wings constantly to fly .

One more thing to note was that none of my resistance skills have improved .

It seems their levels have become too high for the grinding in the Waiting Room to have an effect .

And, with only a short amount of time left for the 2nd Round to finish, I thought of challenging the 4th Floor to test out the newly skills – Blink and Talaria's Wings .

Clearing the floor would be difficult considering the time, so it would mainly be reconnaissance of the beginning area .

[Will you enter the 4th Floor?]

Yeap .

A bright light surrounded my body, with a familiar echoing of the portal .

[Welcome to Tutorial Stage, Hell Difficulty Floor 4]

I quickly scanned the area as I entered the floor .

It had the usual polished stone corridor .

The only difference was that, the corridor had gotten much wider .

It was about 10m wide .

As for the height . . . forget it .

It was too dark, and there was not a single object I could use to estimate the height .

Just looking up wasn’t enough to give an accurate measure .

I guessed it was probably about the same as the ceiling of Inchon airport .

Anyway, the fact that the corridor had become larger was lucky for me .

Good luck for Ho Jae . Hahaha

(TL note: original is pronounced Ho Jae (which means good luck) for Ho Jae . It's a bad pun)

I begin to take out the equipments from the Inventory that I had bought with Kirikiri's advice .

I wore a new leather chest armour instead of the old one that I'd been using .

It was a shiny, black leather armour; I had no clue as to where that leather had came from .

Afterwards I wore a pair of leather pants, boots, gloves and a belt .

They were all dyed in black making a set .

It had been quite costly to buy all the equipments in black leather as they were uncommon .

If it hadn’t been for the Gods and their extra points, making a set would have been difficult .

Of course, there was no bonus for buying them in the same colour .

It just looked cool .

On the belt was a throwing dagger as advised by Kirikiri .

Its effectiveness would drop in midrange, but it would be useful to create an opening . .

I could still use it as a sidearm in case I lost my sword .

I could somewhat guess what the theme of 4th Floor was based on Kirikiri’s advice to bring a throwing weapon .

It meant that there was probably a target that I must hit out of range .

This time, I may need to fight monsters in combat instead of using the usual machinated traps .

Based on the info from the Community,

On Easy Difficulty mode, the first monster was a walking mushroom man .

In the Normal mode, a goblin .

Information about the type of monster in the Hard mode had yet to come .

[Kuwaaaaaaa]

I heard a sharp warcry from further ahead .

I guess a monster was coming out .

As the tension was building up, I firmly held onto my sword and shield and checked my equipment again .

With everything in place, I marched towards where the warcry had come from .

It was a typical green skinned monster that you’d see in cartoons or novels .

His skin was an unusual green .

His body jam packed with muscle, comparable to that of an Olympic wrestling gold medalist .

Giant fangs .

Red eyes .

Height of 2m .

Why was this guy my first opponent?

Damn, I could actually tell how different Hell was from other modes of difficulty just by looking at the monster instead of the traps .

The goblin from Normal Difficulty was short – around 100cm in height .

He was also unarmed .

The tip was to use the long reach of the weapon and fight from a distance .

But the monster in front of me was fully equipped .

In steel .

He looked less like a monster and more like a medieval knight .

His helmet, chest armour and boots were all made out of solid steel .

Only his arms and thighs were exposed .

In his hand was a giant axe .

I couldn’t even imagine how much it would weigh .

It was a vicious axe, one I probably could lift even with two hands, let alone swing .

And he was holding it with one hand .

At least the handle of the axe was short .

It would have been a dire situation if he had a long weapon along with long arms .

Haah, what to do?

The monster stood in the same spot, staring, as if he was taunting me to attack .

Was I supposed to charge into him?

I glimpsed at the gladius in my right hand .

It was too short .

This sword had done its role sufficiently well until now .

Mainly for self harm .

But, at this moment, I wished that I had chosen a long weapon like a spear instead of such a short one .

Even a longsword would have be much better .

What the hell do I do now?

Let's think positively .

Kirikiri had not advised me to switch my weapon .

Instead what she had recommended was to wear armour and have a side-arm .

That meant this weapon was enough for me to beat this monster .

A wooden round shield and a gladius .

To deal with the difference in reach, I would have to jump towards the monster to get in close range like an infighter .

Me?

Against that?

Closing the distance wasn't hard thanks to Blink .

The problem was afterwards .

Hm, let's try blocking his attack for now .

My main weapon was the shield, not the sword .

I blocked and parried the attacks, and I stabbed whenever there was an opening, slowly wounding him to victory .

A perfect game plan, in theory .

I slowly walked forward, encouraging myself with each step .

Then suddenly, the monster charged forward as it shouted .

[Battle Focus]

Instead of retreating, I lunged towards and stabbed at the monster's neck .

Before the sword was able to reach its target, the monster swung its left arm .

[Blink]

I used the Blink skill to move backwards and create distance .

I had previously lunged so aggressively because I have Blink .

The monster didn't even act surprised by my Blink and began closing the distance without any hesitation .

The monster swung its axe, making a menacing sound .

With the momentum it had, a poor block could result in the loss of my arm let alone the shield .

Clash

I had somehow managed to parry the strike .

It sounded as if the shield was going to break, but it still held on quite well .

An ache spread from my wrist to the shoulder .

I held my sword in reverse grip and stabbed into the monster's neck .

Although it was aimed at the neck,

whether it was because of the height or because I had just missed, the strike instead landed between the neck and the shoulder .

And,

The sword wouldn't come out .

Bang!

I managed to block the fist from the monster's left arm, but the shield struck me in the face .

I gave up on the sword and used the Blink skill to go backwards and make a gap again .

Damn, was it possible for a sword to get stuck in pure muscle like that?

The monster didn't seem to be bothered by the sword in his shoulder and continued attacking .

I succeed again on parrying his axe with my shield .

The monster stepped forward and began to swing his axe the same way as he had before .

Then suddenly he changed his motion, lowering his stance and tackling with his shoulder .

Even though I was watching him do so, I wasn’t able to respond to his movement .

As I was forming my stance to parry the strike coming above me, someone tackled me from below, flinging me into the air, despite having managed to block it .

I used my Blink skill to move backwards once more .

For someone who had such a reach and height advantage to lunge into the fight like that…

Heavy pain surged up from my stomach, along with its contents and blood .

As I tried to recover, I stared back at the monster,

he snorted and glanced at me with an arrogant look, then he made a gesture with his hand, asking me to attack first .

Ah, is that so .

He had been playing with me the whole time .

I didn't think there would be so much gap in our skill .

Let's think about this .

I was above him in terms of speed .

Even excluding the Blink skill, I was still much faster .

But for it to have ended up like this, it was definitely due to the difference in skill .

Even in terms of strength, there wasn't so much difference .

I could say that with certainty, since I've experienced it myself during the self harm sessions .

It was just the difference in weapons and my lack of proficiency with my weapon .

It seemed he was not actively trying to kill me by making the first move .

He was acting as if he was playing, no, teaching a new recruit as an experienced instructor .

However, he was a guardian who had the role to stop me from going past him .

Should I run?

My left arm which had been blocking until now wasn't normal .

The impact from the tackle was still there as well .

If I used my Blink skill, no, even without it, I would be able to reach the Waiting Room .

I could improve my skill by repeatedly challenging him again and again .

I might have gotten wrecked by him now, but this situation won't last forever . I'm sure .

If I survived and healed in the Waiting Room, I would always try again at another time .

My thoughts were clear, but my legs wouldn't move .

It hurt my pride too much to retreat from this .

No, I'm just angry at this point .

I controlled my breathing and lowered my stance .

I stuck my weakened left arm close to my body and formed a guard .

The monster looked at me with interest at first, before making a stance himself with the axe on the front, realising that I was up to something .

That was not the stance you need .

Weren't you overestimating your long arms there .

I tensed up my body and used Blink .

Forward .

Not in front of the monster, but beyond where he was standing .

This was my special attack – Tackle .

Bang!

With a noise similar to a cannonball hitting a wall, I lost my consciousness .

Auaah .

I think I hit my head again .

Damn, where is this .

I couldn’t see at all .

It felt like I was having a hangover .

The world spun around me .

I tried to force my arms and legs to move, but they wouldn't move as I had wished .

Soon, I realised I was on the floor .

Despite my effort, it hadn't easy to even sit up .

Some time had passed until my sights slowly came back to me .

Among the still shaky vision, I could see the monster .

He was also lying on the floor, unable to move his arms and legs .

But, his red eyes were looking directly at me .

It was as if both sides got hit by the KO punch in a match .

Whoever stood first would win .

I clenched my teeth, trying to get myself together, but ended up falling instead .

[Battle Focus]

With the accelerated thought process, I checked the state of my muscles one by one .

None of them seemed okay .

My left arm, which was the centre of the impact, was beyond salvageable .

Let's not rush here .

That monster can't stand too .

If I fell because of rushing, it would take that much longer to stand again .

Let's be calm and slow .

I pulled my hips back, making the cat stance from yoga .

I supported the weight with my right arm and my knees .

Could I stand from here?

Trying to endure the dizziness while forcing my limbs to move was difficult .

It wasn't so much the pain, but a problem with concentration .

UUh, Uaaaah!

I was standing now . Bastard .

I almost fell over again, but managed to at least get on my feet in a stagger using my right arm .

My head was still spinning, and my vision was shaking .

The body was in a constant seizure .

I could feel an uncomfortable feeling knocking at the roof of my mouth .

Did you know?

I was used to this situation .

I was very experienced with this situation .

"This was the power of pain and stun resistance . You son of a bitch!!"

Shouting needlessly had caused my eyes to roll over again .

Shit .

You are fucked,

the moment my balance recovered so the I can walk .

I put my hand on my knees and stared at the monster who still twitching his arms and legs with the sword stuck in his shoulder .

****

I ended up puking over the body of the monster .

Forcing myself to move and trying to swing a sword to kill the monster had made the situation much worse .

Since the skin and muscle of that monster was much thicker than I had thought, I had to stab repeatedly for a long time before I was able to kill him .

There was blood all over the surroundings and on my body .

Normally it would have been my blood, but this time it was someone else's .

Whether I could call a monster someone could wait until later .

I couldn't even kill a rat or an insect back in the day,

but now I was able to kill a living being, even if it was a monster – by stabbing multiple times like a deranged killer .

But, I didn't feel anything .

Was it because my mind had changed as my body became more and more inhuman?

Or had I lost something inside me?

Had I just become used to death and blood?

I would never find out the reason .

I collapsed onto the floor, just barely sitting .

Using a potion at this stage seemed unnecessary, so I decided to rest and move later .

As I was about to rest, the monster's body became see-through, then eventually disappeared .

In place of the corpse was a stone .

What's this?

A drop?

[Goblin Graktus's birthstone]

Description: A stone gifted to the Blood Eye Tribe's meanest instructor Graktus by the tribe's shaman at birth . You can sell this in the shop .

I'm sorry .

That huge monster just now was a goblin?