Chapter 6
The goblin toppled to the floor with half its head blown away.
"Kiek..."
The remaining two goblins seemed frightened by the sight and hesitated.
Even I was startled by the destructive power.
The sensation of the war hammer driving in, crushing flesh and bone, was vivid at my fingertips.
"This... feels a little satisfying..."
The fear was gone, and a strange, unpleasant feeling welled up instead.
Still, I was sure of it.
I could fight goblins.
I readjusted my grip on the blunt weapon and set my stance toward the remaining ones.
"Nextㅡ"
"Ki, kiik!"
They turned to run, but my ring-boosted foot was faster.
Fwoosh!
I closed the distance in an instant and swung the blunt weapon wide to the side.
Pak! Ppeok-!
With two impacts, the goblins fell like bowling pins.
This time, I squeezed my eyes shut at the moment of impact.
I didn't want to watch a head explode up close.
My hand trembled faintly as I picked up the mana stones that had fallen to the floor.
There was a slight jolt transmitted through the blunt weapon.
"Good. Let's go deeper."
I flexed my grip on the blunt weapon and headed deeper into the cave.
The farther I went into the cave, the heavier and damper the air became.
The feel of the slimy moss under my feet was unpleasant, and somewhere, water droplets were falling
plink, plink
sounds broke the silence and made my nerves stand on end.
I could see why games always bother to include this sound.
That clear, regular dripping only heightened the tension.
After moving forward for over ten minutes, the view ahead suddenly opened up, and a huge space appeared.
"...What is that."
I swallowed hard.
At the center of the vast chamber, something was sitting atop a rock that jutted up like an altar.
It was a treasure chest, the kind I'd only ever seen in games.
It was made of a black material like ebony, trimmed with gold, and a mysterious blue glow softly leaked through the gap in the lid.
It practically advertised that it was holding an incredible item.
Gulp.
I swallowed unconsciously.
What was inside? An item? A mana stone?
As if bewitched, I stepped toward the chest.
But before I could even take three steps, I froze.
"Kruung... kruung..."
From the thick darkness behind the chest, thunderous snores reached me.
I hurriedly crouched behind a cave rock and peered into the darkness.
And as my eyes adjusted, the true form of the enormous shadow was revealed.
"...Crazy."
It was a goblin.
But it was different from the goblins I'd beaten up earlier.
It was well over two meters tall, draped with bits and pieces of leather armor and dangling trinkets that looked like accessories made of all sorts of colorful wood.
Its skin was a dark blue-green, and saliva was dripping from between the yellow fangs jutting out from its mouth.
[Boss monster detected.]
[Hobgoblin Leader]
"Hobgoblin...?"
The system's red warning message blocked my view.
Beside the thing was an absurdly large axe about as tall as an adult man.
Just grazing me with that thing would surely split my body in two.
'Should I run?'
Instinct sounded the alarm.
As regrettable as it was, turning back and quietly leaving right now was the safe choice.
No matter how tempting the treasure chest was, it couldn't matter more than my life.
I braced myself to back away.
But I kept hesitating.
My gaze kept getting stuck on that treasure chest, which was shining brilliantly.
'...It's an opportunity, though.'
Just then, the thing was snoring away, fast asleep.
In an apocalypse world filled with monsters like this, when would I ever get another chance like this?
I had just found a dungeon that looked relatively weak, only spewing out the lowest-grade mana stones, and I'd come straight to the boss room without a single scratch.
And the boss was asleep, too.
On top of that, I had something I could rely on.
The vicious war hammer in my hand, and the ring on my finger.
The self in me that wanted to flee and the greedy self in me were locked in a fierce tug-of-war.
My mouth was parched from the tension, my heart pounding as if it might burst.
Then it happened.
Crack.
I was so tense that I accidentally tightened my grip on the blunt weapon, and a small sound came out. In the cave's silence, it rang out especially loud.
Thud.
The snoring stopped.
"...Dammit."
Two eerie yellow eyes flashed open in the darkness.
I met its eyes.
"Kruur?"
With a puzzled growl, it slowly rose to its feet.
An overwhelming pressure came surging at me like a storm.
The thing casually picked up a massive stone axe in one hand, then used it as a support to stand itself up.
It still seemed a little groggy, stumbling slightly.
The time for choosing was over.
I clenched my teeth.
"Fine, let's do this!"
I kicked off the ground and launched myself forward.
"Kwoooar!"
As it swung its upper body wide, it threw the axe at me as I approached.
Maybe it hadn't expected the speed boosted by the ring, because the axe missed, grazing past my side.
Kwaaaang—!
The rock I had just been hiding behind was smashed to pieces by the goblin's thrown stone axe, sending fragments flying in all directions.
A shard skimmed past my cheek.
A stinging pain spread there.
'Fast!'
I had almost been hit by that axe.
This time, the thing raised its fist, and my body reacted on instinct.
I slid across the ground and slipped into the gap beneath its legs, into its blind spot.
Even my smaller frame had its advantages.
The creature lost sight of me for a moment and had to lean around, searching for meㅡ
"Eat this!"
I poured all my strength into swinging the toothed war hammer.
My target was the goblin's knee joint.
Thwack—
Crunch!
After the dull impact, a chilling sound followed.
The saw teeth set into the end of the blunt weapon tore into the hobgoblin's thick hide and muscle as they drove in.
"Kwooooh!"
The thing staggered, screaming in pain.
Its stance broke. This was my chance.
I didn't stop.
I raised the blunt weapon again and brought it crashing down toward the creature's abdomen as it thrashed in pain.
Thud! Kreeeek!
This time too, it landed cleanly.
The hammerhead punched through the thing's belly skin, and without hesitation I twisted my wrist and tore at the wound.
"Kraaaagh!"
"Ahh!"
The horrifying sensation of the saw teeth grinding through its insides raced up the handle and into my hand.
I was the one feeling the pain.
My scream and the creature's overlapped, and the metallic smell of blood hit me in the face.
I grimaced at the awful sound, but if I stopped now, the one who died would be me.
"Sorry! Sorry!"
Even as I apologized, I swung the war hammer one last time.
One blow to the head—perfect finishing strike.
Kuuung-!
The massive hobgoblin leader crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.
The roar that had echoed through the cave died out, and all that remained was my ragged breathing.
"Haa... haa... Did I finish it?"
Since the thing had lost half its head, even my words wouldn't become a death flag.
I sat down, my hand gripping the blunt weapon and trembling violently.
Every muscle in my body was aching.
Especially my palm, which was stinging from the recoil of the attack.
"Still, I survived."
I had dodged thanks to the ring's power, but those attacks would have killed me if even one had grazed me.
"Hoo."
Wiping the sweat from my face, I crawled over to the creature's corpse.
The corpse of the creature turned to smoke and left behind a mana stone and an item.
The first thing that caught my eye was the ornate necklace around the thing's neck, like a dreamcatcher.
It was a rough-looking object decorated with feathers, wood, and string, but it gave off a mysterious aura.
And the mana stone—maybe low-grade or mid-grade? Unlike the usual lowest-grade purple mana stones I saw, this one was blue.
"Mana stones are always welcome."
Lastly, I headed for the treasure chest that had been tempting me all along.
When I opened the chest with trembling hands, a dazzling light burst out once, and after that, there was a single book with a worn leather cover lying inside.
"This is..."
There were wormlike characters written on the cover.
It was clearly a script I'd never seen before, but strangely, its meaning was automatically translated in my head.
[Skill Book: Leap]
"Leap? A jumping skill?"
The moment I said that and picked up the bookㅡ
Ding!
[Dungeon cleared!]
[All rewards acquired. Returning to the entrance in 10 seconds.]
[You cleared the dungeon for the first time. A reward is being granted.]
[One of your acquired skills will be enhanced.]
"Huh? Waitㅡ!"
Flaaash-!
My vision flashed white.
When I opened my eyes, I was at the dungeon entrance.
"...Well, I picked up everything I could."
I stood there blankly, then let out a sigh of relief.
I turned around and decided to go back to my safe home, the train.
Chiiik-
As soon as I opened the train door and stepped inside, I locked it tight.
Warm air, soft lighting. It hadn't been that long, but now this place felt more like home than anywhere else.
I definitely wasn't going out for a while.
"I'm back, Donggeul."
I wanted to throw myself onto the sofa, but I held back.
Lazy as it was, checking the loot came first.
First, the mana stones seemed to be low-grade mana stones, so I converted them straight into fuel, and that gave me a fairly generous two months' worth. I also added the lowest-grade mana stones I'd gotten from the goblins.
The rest was more importantㅡ
First, unlike the ring, the necklace didn't show any major change just from equipping it.
So I looked through the modification list, wondering how I could figure out its effect.
Just then, it said that if I upgraded the armory one more time, a function for appraising items would be unlocked, so I invested two weeks' worth of fuel and upgraded it.
[Hobgoblin Leader's Necklace]
Effect: It wins the favor of nearby goblin-type monsters.
"...I invested two weeks' worth of fuel just to appraise this kind of item."
I casually hung the necklace on the wall and turned my attention to the next skill book.
I decided to appraise this one too.
[Skill Book: Leap]
Effect: Using the skill book grants the Leap skill, which lets you leap high and fast.
"This looks pretty good."
It seemed like it could be used in a variety of ways, such as escape, evasion, and more.
Even in games, movement skills or evasion skills were usually highly important.
I used the skill book without hesitation.
[You have learned the skill Leap!]
[By focusing your strength in your legs, you can leap up to three times the height of an ordinary human.]
[Cooldown: 10 seconds.]
"Nice..."
If the ring's effect was added to this Leap skill too,
it would be hugely useful not only for evasion but also for attack.
Of course, for a while I didn't want to go out.
Since I'd worked up a sweat, I decided to prepare fresh clothes once again and take a shower, feeling guilty.