Chapter 38

The goblin knocked the dagger away without any problem .

But, the action caused him to delay his attacks .

The other goblin thrust his spear at me .

I parried the spear with my shield .

The spear slid across the surface of the shield .

I closed the distance on the goblin by pushing through with my shield .

You shouldn’t make such an honest stab .

You're lacking compared to the goblin instructor .

As I quickly approach him, the goblin strengthened his grip on his spear and attempted to push me backwards with the shaft .

That was a mistake .

You should have ditched the spear by now .

You can't use the middle of the shaft in such stance to push me off .

Even if there was a difference in strength between us .

[Battle Focus]

As I approach the goblin, I stepped on his left foot, and drove the sword into his neck .

Immediately, I turned back .

The remaining goblin spearman had given up on his spear and opted for hand-to-hand combat .

Trying to face an opponent who had mingled with your companion in a trench with a spear would be difficult .

Thanks to the accelerated senses from the Battle Focus skill, the goblin’s punch seemed to move slowly .

I calmly dodged the punch and threw a counter towards the goblin's face .

While he was dazed from the counter punch, I kicked at the goblin's chest .

The goblin fell to the ground from the strike .

I quickly took a mounting stance and used the throwing dagger nearby to end it's life .

The two incapacitated archers were dealt with swiftly afterwards .

The power of the attack from the Wings of Talaria seemed quite significant .

Usually, the strength which moved the wings came from the muscles connected from the wings to the back .

But, these wings weren’t connected to my body in the first place .

The strength and speed of these wings were probably due to the increase in its level .

The level of Wings of Talaria was maxed out .

Plus the wings were not made of feathers, but crystals that were more dense than ordinary metals .

It was likely that just flapping the wings would have stronger impact than any attack using my own strength .

All skills gifted by the gods seemed very overpowering, no matter what they were .

That's how the trench was cleared .

None of the goblins dropped a birth stone .

As I thought back to how the fight went, I was once again impressed by how OP the gifted skills were .

I got out of the trench and continued to advance through the Tutorial

***

"Good . Very good . "

"What's so good, Boss Chang Suk . "

"It has nothing to do with you . "

With the constant replies flowing in, I closed the Community with a satisfied smile .

The Representatives were growing faster than I had expected .

Already, most of the 1st Floor Waiting Rooms had been overtaken and some of the 2nd Floor Waiting Rooms have been overtaken as well .

It was expected only 1 or 2 Waiting Rooms in Easy Difficulty Floor 1 had no relation with the Representatives .

Good . It was very good .

By the 3rd Round, most of the new comers had adapted quickly and many have shown positive responses to the Representatives .

Perhaps this was already quite common on the outside .

Hahahaha .

There were no words to describe this satisfaction .

Would there be any time like this throughout my entire life?

No .

This . Truly was the best .

I heard a scream from the corner .

It was nothing much .

My minions were showing an example to those slaves .

They can't even die that easy .

Since there was no chance they would become disabled, there was no need to show any mercy .

Ah, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t die .

Seems like it was actually possible .

Soon, the 24 hours I was allowed to spend in the Waiting Room would finish .

But it didn't matter, as I hadalready been through this 2 times .

I’ll progress until the Boss Room like before, and once the 3rd Round has finished, I’ll be back in the Waiting Room .

I would have to remain alone in the Tutorial for 29 days, but there was a sweet reward awaiting at the end .

I could wait all day .

The one consideration were the slaves .

We had already warned them what would happen if they were to progress through the Tutorial without our approval .

That example in the corner was part of it .

Of course, I'm sure they wouldn’t listen to my words so easily .

But, there were more of us in the 2nd Floor as well .

We've already told them that we would punish them dearly if we were to find any of them in the 2nd floor .

And it would happen .

Some of them might be sent to the Waiting Rooms without any of the Representatives .

But that didn’t matter either .

Those guys couldn’t come back to the 1st Floor .

Our greatest clients were the newbies just entering the Tutorial for the first time and the cowards who had no courage to progress through the Tutorial .

We had been put all our efforts into increasing the number of cowards .

We engraved fear into their bodies .

If those bastards stayed in the 1st Floor by the start of the 4th Round,

The Representatives would stabilise at that point .

I could then get an infinite supply of jerkies and water from the weak newbies .

The cowards who have stayed in the Tutorial for more than a Round would also need to get the water and jerkies from us .

Strength and food .

With both weapons at hand, we showed the power of the Representatives .

It was a perfect plan, no matter how I thought about it .

With few more Rounds, there wouldn’t be any Waiting Rooms in Floor 1 that weren't associated with the Representatives .

Then, I will expand upwards .

That was how my kingdom would be finished .

It was an unreliable kingdom, made by the loopholes in the system, but at the same time it was protected by it .

Unreliable, but it would never fall .

But I'm sure there was going to be a kink in the plan .

There's always a few arrogant bastards who would rebel against the powerful .

Some would dream of getting revenge by advancing to the boss room and returning back to the Waiting Room .

But they would number at best 2 .

They might not be able to post anything on the Community, but they would be able to request help for the higher floors using the 1:1 message .

That was when these messages would pay their worth .

The messages coming from the top floors or from what we called Rankers these days .

***

I wiped the blood off the knife by using a towel from the inventory .

All this time, I had just been dodging arrows for most part, but these annoyances were starting to pop up, along with fighting against monsters for the first time .

Now that I look at it, the shield wasn't in such a good state either .

The leather strap was mostly worn out, and the surface of the shield was quite damaged as well .

Of course it would all be repaired the moment I returned to the Waiting Room, but I couldn’t just return there every time there was something wrong with my equipment .

I should change my weapons once I cleared the 4th Floor .

I considered using a different weapon like a spear or a blunt weapon, but I decided to use something I was accustomed to .

I had continued with the hunt for goblins .

These goblins had dug not just trenches, but had built walls and formations as well .

Their weapons were more varied too, from the shamans with their staves to archers with their hooks and crossbows .

Of course they still weren't much of a threat .

I had become a master at dodging projectiles from a distance .

Plus there was no need to dodge, I could just block them with Wings of Talaria if need be .

There was no damage to the wings from blocking the projectiles .

As long as I was in the air, the gliding skill would continue to work so I can wrap my body in air , while closing in for an attack .

It had gotten so easy to fight against the goblins, I couldn’t believe I had so much trouble fighting against just 1 at the start .

The superior dexterity and skills may have taken a reason, but I think the skills from the gods were just too superior .

I was getting worried that using them too much would hamper my growth, but, thanks to my superior strength, I had gotten used to combat more easily .

[You have received Basic Swordsmanship Lv . 4]

[You have received Basic Shield skills Lv . 4]

[You have received Basic Hand-to-Hand skills Lv . 2]

[You have received Battle Focus Lv . 9]

[You have received Sneak Lv . 2]

[You have received Basic Throwing Skill Lv . 1]

These were my proof .

Despite my reliance on the God's skills, the continued battles had given me multiple new skills and improved others as well .

Among them, the Battle Focus which have been stagnant for a long time had grown exponentially .

Perhaps it was because I've begun to use it in a greater variety of situations instead of just using it to dodge arrows .

I think the most important part about skill growth was not repetition, but varied experience .

[Kuwaaa!]

I was getting a deja vu here .

I heard a goblin's warcry from a distance .

As I moved forward, I was a goblin wearing similar clothes to the Instructor I had met at the start of the 4th Floor .

His height was slightly smaller .

Around 190cm .

Plus he had no weapons and was narmed in both hands .

But he looked even more brutish .

And probably stronger .

Otherwise he wouldn't come after the Goblin Instructor .

This was the first one-on-one I had since the Goblin Instructor .

Plus, it was an unarmed opponent .

I stepped forward with a slight feeling of anticipation .

As I approached him, the goblin screamed as he charged in .

It was the same pattern as the Instructor wasn’t it?

As I made that thought, I focused on the goblin's arms and legs .

Once the distance had been somewhat closed, the goblin's fist suddenly turned red .

Then,

Bang!

I had taken a blow to the chest and rolled backwards .

What was this!

I lifted myself up only to see that the goblin had already gotten very close .

Once more, the goblin's right hand turned red .

[Battle Focus]

The goblin's red fist was projected forward .

Literally!

He didn't even move his legs, waist or shoulders to make that punch .

It had just came out towards me like a bullet in front of his fist aiming for my face .

I had planned on using Battle Focus to dodge the fist and aim for a counterattack, but there had been no time .

I just raised my shield to try to block the blow .

Thud!

With a blunt echo, I could feel my body flying backwards once more .

[Blink]

I removed all the momentum on my body and landed in front of the Goblin .

And against the goblin who couldn't react immediately, I smacked his face with my hand, sword still in my grips .

The goblin's face turned from the strike, but his eyes were still aimed at me .

It slowly retreated backwards .

I took another step forwards and tried to make a high-kick at the retreating goblin .

Of course, it wouldn't get hit by such an obvious attack .

My kick cut through the air,

and my back was left exposed .

Heng, you thought I had made a mistake right?

[Wings of Talaria]

With a swoosh sound the large wings spread outward .

I thought that it would get pierced by the wings, but the goblin leapt backwards and dodged the attack .

I was more surprised that he was able to dodge this than his bullet-like fists .

It felt like this thing knew all my skills, just like the instructor had before .

I could finally take a breathe with the distance the goblin had made .

I spat the blood that had pooled in my mouth .

Damn, my tooth was broken as well .

No matter how I saw it, I was sure that red bullet fist thing was a skill .

How could you use a skill without any restrictions and in succession like that .

Wasn't that too OP?

I guess I couldn't say much, with my Blink and wings and all .

The goblin slowly closed in once again .

I also joined in and threw my sword as I stepped forward .

Despite having added a throwing skill as well, the goblin parried the attack easily .

I took out my dagger from my waist and gained speed .

Before going into the goblin's strike range, I threw my dagger once again .

It's range was most definitely smaller compared to the instructor .

He didn’t have an axe and he was shorter as well .

But whether it didn't think that I'd throw my only weapon or that it just couldn't react at such a close distance, the goblin hesitated .

It had only managed to block the attack, but that had been effective enough .

I was of course superior in speed .

If I could make an opening just before I got into my striking range,

I could use that opportunity in an infinite number of ways .

The goblin raised its guard and tried to defend .

Since it had metal armour, I had to attack it in the face or its arms and legs in order to make a proper hit .

The goblin knew that as well .

So, I pushed the goblin's stomach with my kick .

Both of us had similar strength compared to their height and weight .

In this situation, the one with lower centre of gravity would always have an advantage .

I learnt that from the instructor .

My kick didn't make much of an impact due to the armour, but it had managed to push it backwards .

[Blink]

I blinked a small distance of a step and kicked at the thigh of the goblin that was ever so slightly in the air .

I made a strike that shook a leg horizontally .

It was going to be difficult to land properly .

The goblin attempted to regain its stance after landing on one of his legs, but there was no way I would allow that to happen .

I tackled the goblin with my shield raised in front of me and landed a solid punch in the goblin's face

Bang!

At the same time, the red fist from the goblin struck at my face .

Damn, how would you still have so much power in that position .

What an OP skill .

I took a clean counter without any defence .

I was launched into the air, then rolled several times on the ground .

Damn, I was feeling dizzy .

When I raised my head, it seems the goblin took a hard hit as well and couldn't stand up as a result .

I was feeling another deja vu here .

I pushed on my knees to stand and shouted .

"This is the power of pain and stun resistance! You bastard . "

We took blows from each other, but in the end I was the one standing and he wasn’t .

It means that I had won .

I kicked at the head of the goblin who still lying on the ground to make it unconscious and used the dagger on the floor to finish the job .

[Goros's Birthstone]

Description: A birthstone given by the tribe's great shaman when the Red Eye Tribe’s most Finicky Instructor Goros was born .

Huah, I had managed to win .

This was the first opponent I had faced who used a skill .

That too, it was an OP skill without any cost or delay between consecutive attacks .

. . . Weren't the goblins just too strong?

[Level up!]

[Your strength went up by 1 . Your dexterity went up by 1 . Your mana went up by 1 . Wind Spirit's blessings leveled up by 1 . Your sneak level went up by 1 . Your stun resistance leveled up by 1]

I have no problems with that . No sir .