Chapter 6
Early-bird wake-up!
“Is it today?”
The long-awaited day of the Floor 5 climb.
I solemnly tidied up my bedding.
I usually just leave it, but today I felt like I had to.
All right, now.
After a nice, clean bath,
and putting on shorts cinched tight with a bunch of elastic and an oversized hoodie...
My climbing outfit was complete!
“Riiight—”
Next, all that remained of my entry routine was posting my declaration in the Archmage Gallery.
└Hikki : I'm off nowww
└BearDoorBearDoorBear : Goblin hunting again today?
└Hikki : Yep, yep. Five with swords, three archers. And I think there was one goblin shaman, too.
The final tutorial floor's lineup included a shaman.
‘How does a goblin shaman even fight?’
I had no idea.
I didn't have every strategy memorized, after all.
└Hikki : By the way, has anyone fought a goblin shaman before?
└Nyeomnyong : Goblins...? I believe the last time I faced one myself was two thousand years ago.
└HorsesAreForRiding : With the experience we have here, we don't exactly run into goblins. Maybe we fought them when we were first learning magic.
Come to think of it, would a Great Wizard really fight goblins?
They'd send their underlings to do it.
I didn't think there were any goblins in this gallery, either.
└Hikki : Um.... Wasn't there a troll shaman here? Does that guy know anything?
└DrGatTroll : Me? Goblins can't be all that special, can they?
└Hikki : ???
└DrGatTroll : I'm a troll, not a goblin. Hehe.
Were they really that different?
└Hikki : But aren't trolls and goblins kind of similar?
└DrGatTroll : .......
└DrGatTroll : That's a little offensive. We're completely different species.
└Hikki : Ah, sry;; Seriously, sorry.
I could feel it even through the gallery.
That offended reaction.
I knew it well.
It was like when someone overseas mistook a Korean for Japanese or Chinese.
└DrGatTroll : Well, I do know a thing or two about shamanism....
└DrGatTroll : Usually, it involves a lot of debuffs or mental attacks.
└DrGatTroll : But since you said it's an early stage, it probably won't be that serious, right?
└DrGatTroll : They should be able to use basic elemental magic, though.
Elemental magic?
Then they were pretty much like me.
So it was going to be a mage-versus-mage fight, after all.
Fighting a mage sounded like a new experience.
└Ice Bat : Come to think of it, have you ever fought a mage before?
└Hikki : It'll be my first time.
└Hikki : Since we're on the subject, any tips for a mage mirror match?;;
└Ice Bat : Took you long enough to ask.
└AngryArtist : Just beat them up.
How was “just beat them up” a tip?
‘Seriously.’
Fortunately, that was as far as the jokes went.
My teachers gave me serious advice on how to fight.
└AngryArtist : There are tons of ways to do it.
└Ice Bat : You could focus on dispelling to disrupt your opponent,
└AngryArtist : or strike first, or snipe from a distance,
└Ice Bat : or hide your mana, sneak up on them, and assassinate them.
What?
Why are Fire and Water magic working so well together?
└AngryArtist : Don't butt in, fish-head.
└Ice Bat : You can leave once your turn's over. What nerve, after nearly getting the newbie killed.
Oh, never mind.
They didn't work that well together.
└Ice Bat : Anyway, there are plenty of options, so you should prepare a strategy that suits your strengths.
└Ice Bat : Which approach sounds best to you?
Hmm.
I had to choose carefully.
This choice might determine my fighting style from now on.
‘Dispel first.’
It was a spell I'd never learned before.
It sounded pretty complicated....
Even if I learned it in a hurry, would I be any good at it?
It was hard to say.
‘Then, striking first or sniping?’
Those seemed too dependent on the circumstances.
I wouldn't always get the chance to ambush someone.
‘Assassination isn't my style.’
Even when I play assassin games, I'm the type to charge straight into the enemy camp.
└Hikki : Anything else?
└AngryArtist : Sure. Overwhelm them with firepower.
└AngryArtist : Fight fire with more fire,
└AngryArtist : water with more water,
└AngryArtist : water against fire, fire against water.
└AngryArtist : Swallow them up and devour them. That's how you win.
Oh....
It sounded like a brute-force approach, but.
‘It sounds kind of cool.’
└Hikki : How do I overwhelm them with more firepower?
└AngryArtist : What do you mean, how? Get good lol
└AngryArtist : All right, contestant, you're up~ Here comes our fighter~
Huh?
Was that really it?
└Hikki : No, explain a little more. Let me hear you out first.
└DisqualifiedElf : Scared?
└Hikki : I'm not scared. I said I want to hear the rest first.
└AngryArtist : Delay the fight? Are you in your right mind?
└DisqualifiedElf : So you really are scared, damn human.
└BearDoorBearDoorBear : We didn't teach you to be like that.
└MentalStimulation : Coward! Get out of our gallery!
Oh, come on.
Fine, I'm going.
**
Pouting, I entered the Tower.
A familiar place.
Familiar temperature and humidity.
I was starting to get used to this place, too.
‘Let's move quickly.’
The moment the barrier disappeared, I took cover.
My small body made it easier to hide.
I surveyed the area from behind a rock.
I'd used more or less the same strategy on the previous floors.
First, I'd snipe the archers with Ice Balls.
Then I'd deal with the approaching goblins with area attacks.
‘That had worked well so far, but.’
This time might be different.
The goblin shaman's presence.
Even a change in the goblins' formation would make my usual tactics useless.
“The starting position is definitely different, at least...”
Unlike the previous floors, where goblins were in view right from the start,
I couldn't sense them anywhere.
‘Do I have to find them?’
I carefully moved forward.
A narrow path wound through the forest.
I stepped off it slightly and walked between the bushes.
‘Ugh, this is uncomfortable.’
Scratches appeared on my skin, one by one.
I got scraped by branches and brushed by leaves....
How many minutes had passed?
“Kerrr....”
I heard the goblins' distinctive grunting.
They weren't far away.
If I followed the sound, I should be able to find them quickly.
‘Carefully, carefully....’
I approached, hiding my presence as much as possible.
Maybe because my body was light, it felt easier to keep my footsteps quiet.
After a while, I reached a small settlement.
Calling it a settlement was a bit much. It was only a few huts.
And there, the goblins were—
“Kerrk! Kerrk! Kerrrr!”
“““Kerrk! Kerrk! Kerrrr!”””
Performing some bizarre shamanic ritual.
One of them stood out, dressed in flashy clothes and holding a staff.
That had to be the shaman, right?
The shaman led the ritual, hopping up and down,
while the others surrounded it, bowing over and over.
Hmm.
‘Maybe Floor 5 won't be as hard as I thought?’
I hadn't expected them to be clustered together like this.
How thoughtful of them.
I began casting a Fireball.
‘I'll take first place on Floor 5, too!’
Just as I was about to send the Fireball flying—
Stop—
The goblins all froze at once.
‘W-what's going on?!’
Whoosh!
The shaman turned its head.
Toward me!
The other goblins began turning their eyes toward me, one after another.
Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!!!
Is this a horror movie?!
“Grrrr.... Kerrk!”
At the shaman's signal, the goblins sprang into action.
The warriors chased after me, while the archers rapidly put distance between us and drew their bows.
A one-shot kill was out of the question now.
I had to get out of there, too.
‘But first, I'll make them eat the Fireball I prepared!’
Whoooosh-!
Boom-boom!
A huge explosion erupted along the path the goblin soldiers were charging down.
I used the opening to move.
Pat-pat-!
Rat-a-tat-tat-!
I heard arrows striking the ground behind me.
“Gasp....”
That was terrifying...!
If I'd stayed there, I would've ended up looking like a pincushion, right?
That was the closest I'd come to death.
Now I understood what it meant to have my knees turn to jelly.
“Hah.... Hah....”
I barely managed to hide behind a large tree.
The arrows shouldn't be able to hit me here.
Peek—
I cautiously poked my head out from beside the tree.
The ones with spears and swords were nowhere to be seen. Had I taken them all out?
Instead, the archers were looking around with their bows half-drawn.
Had the shaman not followed me?
The only enemies in sight were the three archers.
‘I can take them out.’
I'd gotten the hang of sniping archers, after all...!
The range was good, and there were no obstacles.
Then the spell for this one was Ice Ball.
I'd split my mana into three streams to match the number of archers.
The body I'd heated up gradually cooled.
After cooling down enough, three Ice Balls appeared.
‘Take this!’
I fired the Ice Balls one at a time.
“Keng!”
“Kek!”
“Grrrk....”
Every shot hit!
The goblin archers toppled over, each letting out a dying groan.
“Phew.... That was close.”
Of all the times to get spotted by the shaman....
Speaking of which, how had the shaman found me?
‘I thought it was completely absorbed in the ritual.’
Could it have sensed my mana?
I didn't know.
It wasn't something I'd learned, so there was no point guessing at the answer.
I'd ask my teachers later.
‘Then, shall I go finish this?’
I'd caught my breath.
And my shock had worn off.
Let's go.
Now all I had to do was take out the last one.
‘Since I never saw it leave, it must still be there.’
I should be able to find it if I go back to the settlement from earlier.
I carefully moved forward.
I could see goblin corpses here and there.
“Ugh....”
They'd tried to kill me, but I still didn't like seeing them like this.
‘And I don't want to visit a goblin settlement twice.’
That weird cultish ritual from earlier was still on my mind.
Ugh, let's hurry up and finish this.
I quickened my pace toward my destination.
As expected, the goblin shaman was still there.
It sat cross-legged on the ground, holding a staff in one hand.
Was it trying to imitate a sage?
I prepared a spell from a distance.
An Ice Ball for sniping.
I'd take it out before it could stand up.
“Kerr....”
Contrary to my expectations,
the shaman seemed to have sensed my presence again.
It slowly rose to its feet.
It waved its staff, preparing something.
What kind of magic would it use?
Please, anything but a Fireball.
Fwoosh-
Oh, why?!
The goblin shaman conjured a Fireball.
A perfect elemental disadvantage.
‘My luck really is terrible.’
There wasn't time to prepare another Fireball now.
I had no choice but to overpower it.
I recalled my teacher's words.
─ └AngryArtist : Fire against water, water against fire.
─ └AngryArtist : Swallow them up and devour them. That's how you win.
Thinking about it now, that sounded ridiculous.
It's not as easy as you make it sound!
Grumbling, I gathered my mana.
I'd bet everything on one shot.
I kept drawing mana from my solar plexus.
The flow of mana ran from my solar plexus, through my kidneys, and to my fingertips.
Cracklezzzz-!
The Ice Ball grew denser and denser.
An Ice Ball radiating a pale, white chill.
Just as I started to feel a little dizzy,
“Kerrrk!”
The goblin seemed to be ready, too.
“Die!”
“Kekel!”
We both fired our spells at the same time.
Boom—!
The two magic balls collided in midair.
Sssssss—
The ice melted.
But.
Fwoosh—
The flames went out even faster.
‘I did it...!’
“Kerrrk?!”
The Ice Ball extinguished the flames and continued straight ahead.
Wham—!
It smashed the shaman's head.
“Phew....”
I approached it.
“Ugh.”
What a gruesome sight.
When I looked away, I saw the staff it had dropped.
I picked it up, and a status window appeared.
[Goblin Staff]
[Rank: F]
[Magic Power +1]
[Will this even be useful?]
[Usage requirement: Magic Power 20 or higher]
An F-rank item with a Magic Power requirement?
Even after clearing this stage, my Magic Power would only be 19.
So I couldn't use it until I cleared Floor 6.
And on top of that, the snarky message.
It annoyed me, but I'd take it anyway.
It was better than having nothing.
“No, wait.”
Goblin, do you have more than 20 Magic Power?
This guy had an elemental advantage and more Magic Power than me.
How did I even win...?
Looking back, I was dumbfounded.
Pop—
Just as I was blankly thinking back on the battle,
another status window appeared.
[Floor 5 cleared.]
[SSS Rank]
[First SSS-rank clear of Floor 5!]
[Bonus rewards will be issued.]
[1 additional Piece of Growth has been awarded.]
SSS rank again.
That made every floor of the tutorial an SSS-rank clear.
Clap, clap, clap, clap—
Good job. I'm proud of you.
Next, a system message announced that the tutorial was complete.
[Measuring your performance.]
[Average rank: SSS]
[Number of hits taken: 0]
[Hits per kill: 1]
[Average clear time: 03:31]
[Average—]
My performance stats appeared one after another below.
Were these the criteria for determining my rank?
I should remember them.
Next, they'd determine my difficulty, right?
[You meet the entry requirements for Easy difficulty.]
[You meet the entry requirements for Normal difficulty.]
[You meet the entry requirements for Hard difficulty.]
[You vastly exceed the entry requirements for Hard difficulty.]
[You meet the entry requirements for Hell difficulty.]
[The Awakened person's designated difficulty has been confirmed as ‘Hell’.]
“No way...!”
Hell difficulty?!
For a moment, I remembered what Teacher AngryArtist had said.
Don't come back until you've beaten Hellfire difficulty.
‘You jinxed it.’
No wonder I'd had a bad feeling while listening to them.
What was I supposed to do now...?
I was just waiting to return when—
Pop-!
Yet another status window appeared.
“Oh, give it a rest already!”
Despite my cry, the notification appeared promptly.
[You are the first to meet the entry requirements for Hell difficulty.]
[Hell Difficulty Bonus]
[A Weapon Selection Ticket has been awarded.]
Oh.
Ahem. So this time it was good news.
A Weapon Selection Ticket, huh....
I glanced down at the goblin staff, then—
Whoosh—
I tossed it onto the ground.
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