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.
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 b.a.s.t.a.r.ds 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 a.s.sociated 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.d’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 repet.i.tion, 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 antic.i.p.ation.
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.
d.a.m.n, 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.
d.a.m.n, 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.
d.a.m.n, 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
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.