Chapter 5: First Floor, Tutorial (2)

“

Ugh

..."

Regaining consciousness, I opened my eyes to a dark stone wall. Shadows flickered on the ceiling, illuminated by the faint light of a torch.

Huh?

Ah, right. I had entered the Tower of Ordeal. Still lying on the ground, I tried to recall the events before I lost consciousness. After killing the goblin assassin...

Ugh

.

Just the thought of the goblin's corpse made me feel nauseous.

Anyway, after the battle, I found the cut from the poisoned dagger. Luckily, the poison seemed to be non-lethal, considering I woke up unharmed.

My stomach growled as my senses returned. Perhaps because I had vomited on an empty stomach, I felt a gnawing hunger rip through me.

I let out a hollow laugh. I couldn’t believe I could still get hungry in this situation.

Well, hunger is a basic human instinct.

Human instinct or not, I had to endure since there was nothing to eat. I couldn't stomach the idea of eating goblin flesh.

I’m not desperate enough to eat that disgusting thing.

Lost in my foolish thoughts, I suddenly remembered the cut I had sustained during the fight. I quickly raised my left arm to inspect the wound, finding only a thin, red line that ran across the back of it. The skin had returned to normal, no longer blackened from the poison.

Phew...

The wound wasn't as deep as I'd feared, and moving my arm wasn't a problem. It was reassuring to see it functioning properly.

Nevertheless, I was struck with the realization that. When I read the dagger was poisoned and saw the blackened wound, I thought that was the end for me.

I need to be more careful.

I wasn’t aware of the poison on the dagger until I read its description. This would not be the last time I would find out more information after the fact. Avoiding injuries completely was impossible, but there was plenty I could do going forward to avoid danger.

It occurred to me that I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious. I hurriedly checked the time.

[Eliminate all enemies. Time remaining: 11 hours 57 minutes.]

Fortunately, there was still plenty of time left. It would have been a tragedy if it had run out while I was unconscious. Last I checked, there were seventeen hours left. Doing some quick math, I lost about five hours while unconscious.

11 hours and 57 minutes, now 56...

I only had about half a day left, which seemed like plenty of time at first. However, without any clue what lay ahead, I couldn't be certain if it was enough.

I stood up. A wave of anxiety washed over me, but I pushed past it and forced myself to remember what I had risked my life to learn.

Don’t rush, always be cautious, and never let your guard down.

The close encounters with the goblin assassin and the countless traps had reinforced those ideas enough.

I sheathed the dagger and picked up the crossbow. Since it wouldn’t be smart to use it in combat without knowing how to fire it, I decided to practice with it.

How exactly was I supposed to fire this thing, though? Should I just nock an arrow in the thin, long groove in the middle and pull?

I didn’t know what else to do, so I laid an arrow in the groove and hooked it onto the bowstring. Afterward, I pulled the bowstring back, noting that it didn’t have much elasticity. With a pull of the trigger, the arrow shot forward.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Thump—

The arrow flew swiftly and embedded itself firmly in the wall.

This can be quite useful

.

Now that I had learned how to use the crossbow, it was time to keep moving. After loading the crossbow and placing it on the belt’s crossbow holder, I walked a few steps and picked up my sword. I had dropped it on the ground when I fainted.

Huh?

It was strange. The sword felt lighter somehow. In an attempt to figure out why, I swung it a couple of times.

Swish!

The sword certainly felt lighter now, and my swings had also gotten faster. Had my physical abilities improved after defeating the goblin assassin? Probably. It was far more likely than the sword losing weight spontaneously. However, I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t check if my abilities had increased through a status window.

[Eliminate all enemies. Time remaining: 11 hours 45 minutes.]

I had secured both the dagger and the crossbow. The sword was in my hands again, and my steps felt light as a feather. I was growing stronger.

Time to move.

I cautiously took a step toward the darkness ahead. Using the Chipped Longsword, I then poked the ground ahead of me.

Click—

I felt the trap’s release clearer than ever.

Ting!

Hearing a sound from the ceiling behind me, I dodged sharply to the left. The arrow pierced the spot where I had been standing.

“..."

With my faster reaction speed, dodging the trap proved easy. It was ridiculous how clear the trap clicking and the arrow firing sounded.

I paused to think about my enhanced physical abilities. I had lost a lot of time while unconscious, and checking for traps with the sword made progress too slow.

Should I just walk through the traps?

I could probably dodge them now even if I were to step on them directly... no, I shouldn’t throw caution to the wind. I needed to verify my abilities more. If I could avoid the next two traps, only then would I allow myself to proceed a bit more freely.

I started walking again, poking the floor with the sword.

***

After perfectly dodging three traps, I stopped checking the floor with my sword. Not even the ones that shot multiple arrows at once gave me much of a problem.

I was now making quicker progress.

[Eliminate all enemies. Time remaining: 10 hours 32 minutes.]

For nearly an hour, I was met with nothing but traps. The more I encountered and overcame, the easier it was to dodge the next one. It seemed that evading traps in itself slightly enhanced my physical abilities.

Passing torches didn’t make me nervous anymore. However, as I evaded traps instinctively, I saw something that finally made me stop.

There they are.

Two goblins stood near the next torch. They looked my way but didn’t seem to notice me, perhaps due to poor eyesight. As quietly as possible, I took out my crossbow and held it in my right hand. Afterward, I carefully walked toward the goblins.

I just need to take out one first.

Eliminating a goblin under the cover of darkness would make this fight easier. Given the distance, I could probably even take out the other goblin with my crossbow before it could reach me. I entered the darkness cautiously.

Gotta watch out for traps.

Although most of the dark areas had traps, some didn’t have any. I hoped this area was one of them. While I could dodge arrows, activating a trap could alert the goblins to my presence.

Walking through the darkness, As I walked through the darkness, I felt a chill creep up my neck. I reflexively twisted my upper body to the left.

Thump—

I heard a noise even though no trap was triggered. I fired the arrow toward it.

“

Kriieee!

"

That had to be a goblin shriek. Fuck, the goblins in the open were decoys.

Somewhere in the darkness, I heard a goblin begin to sprint. A sudden chill prompted me to roll backward quickly.

Thump—

Something crossed the air where I had just been standing. I swung my sword reflexively, but I only slashed empty air. To make things worse, I couldn’t even see anything.

Light, torch!

I quickly retreated to an area where I could see. Before long, the goblins by the other torch had also entered the darkness. There were three in front of me.

Are you fucking serious?

Could I handle three? No, I couldn’t worry about that now—I had to do it no matter how many were trying to kill me.

The goblin in the darkness used a crossbow. I had to keep that in mind and concentrate.

Amidst heightened tension, I focused as much as I could and gripped my sword tightly. Two goblins burst from the darkness, and a flash of silver gleamed between them.

I swung my sword diagonally upward.

Chang!

Heavy vibrations coursed through my fingertips.

“

Krieeee!

Human, die!"

“

Krieee!

Die, die, die!"

While blocking the arrow, two goblins closed in on me.

[Goblin Warrior]

- A goblin, yet a warrior.

- They act in pairs.

Ignoring the translucent message, I concentrated and used my heightened senses to observe the movements of the goblin warriors. One of them swung its sword diagonally, but it looked so slow that I could easily see its attack’s trajectory.

I parried with my longsword, forcefully rebounding the goblin's sword back up and sending its arm flying into the air. With its chest now exposed, I quickly slashed the goblin horizontally across the torso. The heavy sensation at my fingertips indicated that the sword had penetrated deeply.

“

Krieeee!

"

Green blood sprayed into the air. One down, two to go.

I immediately sidestepped to the left, dodging the downward swing of the other goblin.

Launching yet another attack, it let out an eerie scream right in front of me. “

Kriieeee!

Human! You killed my friend! Die!"

While preparing to block, I heard a crossbow string release. I quickly took a step backward.

An arrow cut through the air between me and the goblin warrior. Watching the arrow pass by, I charged at the goblin again. I then used my height advantage to stab it from above.

Perhaps startled by the arrow, the goblin was slow to react. Before it could raise its sword, my longsword had pierced its neck.

“

Gurgle

..."

The goblin coughed up a disgusting mix of phlegm and blood, causing green fluid to gush out of its mouth. Now, only one goblin remained.

Thump—

Right after the release of a bowstring, a silver streak entered my vision. I moved to the left, dodging the arrow.

“

Krieee! Krieee!

"

The goblin shrieked in the darkness, seemingly furious that I kept evading its attacks. I couldn't just let myself get hit out of consideration for its feelings, though.

Come out, you little brat.

With my sword in hand, I stared into the darkness.

However, the goblin refused to come out of hiding. Instead, I just kept hearing it reloading its crossbow.

Thump—

I twisted my head to avoid an arrow flying toward my face.

Well, if you don’t want to come to me, I have no choice but to find you.

I paused just as I was about to charge into the darkness.

Do I really need to rush in?

I could dodge the goblin's arrows anytime. Since it didn’t have infinite arrows, it was bound to run out of ammo eventually. There was no need to engage in close combat in the darkness where I couldn't see anything.

Who knew what other weapons—all potentially poisonous—the goblin had that could give me disastrous injuries and cost me in the long run? Once the goblin had run out of arrows, it would have no choice but to show itself anyway.

I stood silently and waited for the goblin to shoot.

Thump

—

Dodge.

Thump

—

Dodge.

I monotonously dodged the projectiles six more times. Finally, the goblin stopped reloading. Instead, I heard sobs from the darkness.

What, was it crying? This completely unexpected behavior was disconcerting. I thought it would burst out in anger...

If I hadn’t known it was a goblin, I might have offered some comfort. The goblin had been trying to kill me, though, so helping it was off the table.

“

Sniff... sniff...

"

“Stop whining and come out!" I shouted, but instead of listening to me, it just cried louder.

Why is it not coming out?

It had probably realized that it couldn’t win against me. I certainly wouldn't willingly offer my neck even if it was the only choice.

But I wasn't the one facing imminent death, and I couldn’t spare the goblin. “Hey, come out already. You’re out of arrows, right? You’re going to die anyway, so you’re just wasting time by hiding at this point."

Instead of responding, it just kept crying.

Ah, screw it. I couldn’t spend all day waiting for it to step into the light. Although I was still a decent distance from the goblin, I started swinging my sword toward the sobbing noises just in case it started attacking me. I had a longer reach, after all.

Just as I was about to take another step, I heard the goblin speak in a tear-soaked voice from the darkness. “

Kriee

. Please, human, spare me.

Sniff.

"

Since I couldn’t see its grotesque appearance, its voice made me feel slightly sympathetic.

No, I shouldn’t feel this way.

The first floor’s task was to eliminate all enemies. I had to kill it. Better that it stayed in the dark since killing it there would make me feel less emotional.

“

Sniff.

Please, human, spare me..." the goblin begged again in desperation.

Damn it.

“Alright, fine. Come out then."

“

Krieee?

"

“I’ll spare you, so come out already. If you don't, I

will

find you. Then... you know what will happen, right?"

“

Kriee, krieee.

Okay, I understand."

A tense, nervous, and notably small goblin walked slowly out of the darkness.

[Young Goblin]

- Small and frail.

- Too young for combat.

- Does not come out of the darkness when threatened.

***

「Invisible message: Young Goblin spared. The hidden mission 'The Hidden Sorrow of the Goblin Tribe' of the Challenger's Tutorial on the first floor will now start.」