Chapter 41 - The king

I broke the window that was blocked by the wooden plates and then entered the building. What I saw as soon as I entered the building was…

There were goblins with shocked eyes staring at me.

Making a guess based on their get-up…

Bingo…

It seemed the runt over there was the king.

The king was wearing extravagant clothes woven from red silk. It had a small crown on its head. It was an old goblin.

There were a total of four goblins in the room.

Two warriors, one shaman, and the king.

It seemed the king was at a bit of distance from combat.

The king was the goal of the boss room. Considering that, I was thinking he would be the strongest of them all. However…

Instead, the king was standing behind the other three goblins.

Appearance wise alone, the two warrior goblins looked pretty powerful.

I thought they might be even more powerful than the instructor goblins.

I wondered if these runts had skills.

If this was any other day, I would have calculated all sorts of things and tried to handle their attacks. However, right now, I just wanted to finish this boss room and go back to the waiting room.

I decided to go with a sure-kill move from the start.

I opened the Talaria’s Wings and spread them wide horizontally, and then…

[Blink]

I reached just right in front of the king using Blink.

The warriors and shaman that was in my path were hit by Talaria’s Wings and got pushed and thrown off to the back.

With cracking sounds, it sounded like they even broke the furniture around the back and rolled to the wall.

After that, none of them were able to get back up.

The sudden movement from Blink had concussive power.

Also, from a common sense stand point, considering the hardness and weight of the Wings of Talaria, those goblins couldn’t possibly get up like nothing happened.

The combination of Blink and Talaria’s Wings was my one shot kill move for a reason.

Talaria’s Wings was not directly connected to my muscles or nerves. However, it was connected indirectly at about one hand length away from my back, fixated in mid-air.

To put it simply, if the wings were pushed, my body was going to get propelled as well.

Because of this, the method was something that should not be used against an opponent with ma.s.s that was able to withstand the impact from the collision.

If the attack were to get blocked then the knockback from it was going to hit me indirectly, immediately leaving me defenseless.

However, against opponents like goblins, which had similar ma.s.s as humans, this combination attack was sufficiently effective as a sure-kill move.

With his guards thrown off to the back at an instant, the goblin king showed an unexpected behavior.

I thought it would charge at me out of desperation or run away in fear. However, instead, the king unexpectedly came to me and faced me. It started to say kaek kaek, trying to talk to me.

“Kiiiaaak. Kire Kiruk Kiruk.”

‘I am sorry, but I don’t understand you.’

I quietly raised my sword as the response.

However, the goblin king’s behavior did not change.

Its eyes were calm. They did not shake. I could not find anxiety or fear in its eyes.

‘What is it thinking? What is it trying to tell me? As a reward for not making it bothersome by resisting… No. This is not it.’

To respect the king goblin for keeping its honor and not taking any shameful action, I decided to kill it in a clean, swift way.

I grabbed the king goblin’s shoulder, pressed the tip of my sword at its heart, and pushed it in.

By the sword being thrusted in with strength, the edge of the sword pierced to the heart without much resistance.

… The end.

The old goblin king slowly collapsed to the floor like a leaf falling in the air.

Right at the moment before its last breath, the goblin king’s eyes, which had been steadily staring at me straight, turned to somewhere else.

I wondered if he had a hidden triumph card up his sleeve, so I looked at the end of where its gaze was directed.

It was a highly decorated table.

A decorative table cloth was flowing below the table, and there were child goblins wearing ornate clothes.

He was hiding child goblins there.

Maybe the things that the goblin king was talking about before it died included something about those children.

Ah, my eyes met with one of them.

My eyes ended up meeting with one of the child goblins that were hiding under the table.

The child goblin was very surprised and twitched.

It seemed its body hit something on the table. There was a small noise.

Silence was flowing in the air for a moment. Of the children under the table, the one that appeared to be the biggest one walked out of the table by itself.

‘What the… It should stay in hiding. Why is it coming out? Ah, since it was found out, it must be thinking it is dead now. I don’t really have any intention of killing you too.’

The little goblin started to talk to me.

It seemed goblins had a tendency to say their last will to the opponent before dying.

However, there was a difference between this little goblin and the king goblin.

Unlike the king goblin, this little goblin was in tears with bloodshot eyes and screaming as if it was trying to make the room flood in its scream.

‘I don’t understand what you are saying, but I think I roughly get what you are saying.’

It was a foreign language I heard for the first time, but they said you could understand curses when you hear one. I realized it really was like that.

[You cleared tutorial, h.e.l.l difficulty, fourth floor]

[All of your status abnormalities and injuries will be recovered.]

[As a reward for clearing the floor, you obtained 1000 points.]

[As a reward for achieving the best clear, you obtained 1000 points.]

[There are many G.o.ds showing positive responses to you. You obtained 6300 points.]

[There are many G.o.ds showing negative responses to you. You obtained 1700 points.]

[Based on your play records, you are a.s.signed additional reward.]

[Many G.o.ds would like to give you a special skill instead of an additional reward.]

[Vote result: 12 yes, 7 no]

[Would you like to accept it?]

Instead of authority, it seemed they could gift skills as well.

‘They even took votes amongst themselves. How democratic.’

I accepted it.

[You acquired the knowledge of the time before Babel, Lv. 5]

Knowledge of the time before Babel…

I was able to tell the effect of this skill immediately.

I was starting to understand what the child goblin in front of me was screaming on top of its lung.

[The G.o.ds will definitely send punishment to you! You monster!]

To my ears, the goblin’s words still only sounded like beastly roar. However, despite that, its meaning was conveyed to me so clearly.

A portal magic circle appeared a few steps in front of me.

However, I couldn’t bring myself to walk.

The child goblin was still screaming at me. It said that I was violent and cruel, and that was the reason why I was born with hideous and pasty face.

To the little goblin, I wanted to say something back for myself. That was the reason.

I wanted to tell it that this was not my fault.

I wanted to tell it that I did not have any intention of killing them in the first place, and I was also a victim.

I wanted to tell it that I was dragged to the Tutorial, and I’m merely forcing myself to overcome this hardship.

I wanted to tell it that the message ordered me to kill them, and…

It is you guys that are ugly, not me.

However, I didn’t actually tell them.

I just listened to the little goblin shouting curses of anguish and reflected on the excuses that I thought about.

‘That’s just an illusion?’

I lifted my head as I thought about the suspicion I had since I entered the fourth floor’s boss room.

‘All that hatred, anger, and fury… Am I supposed to just believe that those are nothing but illusions?’

Now, the little goblin was strongly defending and saying how great and magnificent king its father was, and it told me what a disgusting monster I was for slaughtering its father and the subjects.

It was as if it was intending to die while screaming. If this little goblin, which was desperately screaming, was not fake…

‘If it is not fake? Then I…’

[G.o.d of Adventure is blinding your eyes.]

[G.o.d of Slowness is furious.]

I felt an invisible something covering my eyes.

At that instant, my vision was completely covered.

When my vision, which was painted black, was brightened again…

I was standing on a green field.

The field looked peaceful and beautiful as always. Along with the scenery, I could see Kiri Kiri.

‘How could this be…’

“Kiri Kiri”

I called her name and took a step forward.

When I did, Kiri Kiri took steps back with a stiff look on her face.

* * *

“Are you p.i.s.sed off?”

“No. I’m not p.i.s.sed off.”

“Hing… I’m sorry.”

“I said I’m not p.i.s.sed off.”

“You are p.i.s.sed off. I am sorry.”

Not p.i.s.sed off…

To begin with, it was fault of the one with the blood painted all over the body and wielding a sword with blood and flesh stuck on it. It was the fault of the one who decided to approach in that state.

I wasn’t going to be p.i.s.sed off for someone taking steps back in that situation.

Although, I was shocked a little at the moment.

“Howujaee is angry because of me. What should I do…”

‘It is more unpleasant for me to hear you call my name all stretched out like that.’

My head was feeling complicated with thoughts, but it was not because of Kiri Kiri.

[G.o.d of Adventure is blinding your eyes.]

After seeing that message, my sight turned black, and I was transported to this field.

To think a G.o.d was capable of demonstrating this kind of physical control…

Anyway…

I remembered how I complained and belittled the G.o.d of Adventure, and that made me a little anxious.

‘Let’s set aside the question of how for now. Instead, why? Why did G.o.d of Adventure do this? Also, why did the G.o.d of Slowness get infuriated? Um… It is not like I could possibly know…’

“Kiri Kiri, if I also count the questions I saved and did not ask you last time, I should be able to hear quite a lot of information this time, right?”

“Yep! You can.”

“In that case, can you explain to me… about the G.o.ds? Make it as much as possible about the G.o.ds that are related to me, or give me information that I need.”

It was a vague and none-specific question. Kiri Kiri agonized over what to tell him for a long time.

After a while, as if she organized the thoughts to some extent, she started to explain little by little.

“The G.o.ds are taking interests in you mostly because they are watching you to see if you have the qualification to be their apostle.”

‘Apostle, that’s a new concept that just popped up.’

“It is hard to earn G.o.ds’ interests. Becoming their apostle is even harder. You need to satisfy a condition that is not made known.”

Her sentence was getting shorter.

‘Could it be that more detailed the sentence, the allocation amount for the information becomes smaller faster?’

I kept my mouth shut for now and continued to listen.

“You are extraordinary. A decision needs to be made someday.”

It seemed a decision had to be made about something.

‘Is she talking about me becoming their apostle? Of the G.o.ds of vengeance that want me to be their apostle, do I need to choose one?’

Kiri Kiri suddenly crunched down and sat there. On the dirt, she started to draw long lines using her hand.

‘Is she counting something?’

“I’ll explain a little about the G.o.d of Slowness.”

“G.o.d of Slowness.”

“G.o.d of Slowness… Her t.i.tle does not mean simple slow movements of objects or living beings. She is the one who follows the infinitely continuing pa.s.sage of time for eternity without ever faltering.”

‘I think a bit about the G.o.d of Slowness’s front and back were omitted there. With just that explanation…’

“Like a seeker of truth…”

“Oh my… I should not have said those words.”

‘It seems like she at least got the main point right. G.o.d of Slowness… No, just G.o.ds in general… I don’t know what kind of being they are or what they are up to, but I think I get a little bit about the concept of the G.o.d of Slowness.’

Her t.i.tle did not mean slowness of movement.

‘Now that I think about it, if the meaning of her t.i.tle was limited to just the speed of the movement, she could not have the authority over Blink, which is a cheat-like movement skill.’

“In that case, what about the G.o.d of Adventure?”

“Can’t do. You used up all of information allowance.”

‘I used all of the allowances, which are two floors worth? Information about G.o.ds are scary expensive.’

“It’s fine. Well then, just help me switch my weapon.”

“Ok!”

* * *

[Punisher’s Handgun] [*TL: This has nothing to do with Frank Castle, the Punisher in Marvel Universe.]

Attack power: 4~41

Description: It is a handgun that generates powerful explosion by combining gunpowder with magic. It gets destroyed after being used five times.

It was a weapon that looked like a handgun.

One thing different about it was that, instead of firing bullets, it caused explosion nearby.

Kiri Kiri said it will be needed in beating the fifth floor, so I purchased without giving it much thought.

Sadly, it had the limit of five shots, so it looked like I was not going to be able to try it out for a test.

[Gladius that was blessed by a nameless G.o.d]

Attack power: 11

Description: It is a very st.u.r.dy short sword that was blessed by a nameless G.o.d who is being forgotten by the people.

Additional attribute: As a part of the effect of the G.o.d’s blessing, unless the user wants it, the handle will not slip from the user’s hand.

I have never seen such a small, specific yet practical blessing by a G.o.d before. Actually, with increase in strength stat, because my grip got stronger, I probably did not need to worry about the sword shaking from the handle slipping.

Still, additional stability in the grip was definitely a plus.

The fact that it said it won’t stay in effect unless the user wants it was also great.

I did not need to worry about the blessing hindering the movement unnecessarily when I want to reverse the grip.

It was a short, double-edged sword that was about two feet in length. It looked just like the one I had been using. I purchased this one because I was used to this kind of weapon from having used it until now.

[A blood-soaked backsword of a savage warrior]

Attack power: 14

Description: The samshir that Warg Rider, the greatest in the history, used to use in his life.

Additional attribute: Magic or shamanic sorcery type reinforcement effect cannot be applied.

I had no idea what a samshir was, but judging from the description, it seemed it was a single-edge sword for use while riding on a horse.

I wondered if a weapon used while riding on a warg counted as such, but I decided not to ask such a question for now.

At the moment, I didn’t even know what a warg rider meant.

One noticeable characteristic of this sword was that it was over three times longer than Gladius.

The sword was thick, and it even felt heavy.

Despite that, looking at the handle, it was definitely a one-handed sword.

Usually, a one-handed sword for horseback riding had the special characteristic of being light. However, this one was so heavy that an ordinary person would have struggled to hold even with two hands.

I knew something was up just from the mention of warg or whatever, but it seemed this sword was not meant to be used by a human being.

Of course, with my muscular strength, I could use it without straining myself.

‘I have the speed that is superior to my opponents, and I have a cheat-like movement technique called Blink. I’m carrying out my battles with those, so I think a horseback riding type sword, which is mainly for cutting, could be useful.’

Moreover, ever since I entered the fourth floor, I had been disappointed about lack of heavy weaponry all along.

My hands were not yet used to this one, but since this one had special characteristics that were different from Gladius, I figured it would be helpful during the battles.

Also, I had a need for handling different types of swords for the sake of growing my swordsmanship skill.

As for the additional attributes, it seemed it was talking about blessing or enchant effects common in video games.

I didn’t know how to use any blessing or enchantment anyway, so it was irrelevant.

[St.u.r.dy round iron shield]

Defensive power: 10

Description: It is st.u.r.dy. It has a rich, cla.s.sy decoration engraved on it. It is an used item.

… I did not have enough points.

I had so much points, but I used it all purchasing two swords and a handgun.

They were worth the expensive price, but…

Compulsive shopping was scary like this.

I ended up just handing over my wallet whenever Kiri Kiri stood next to me and said “That’s right! This one is incredibly good! It is a perfect weapon for you!”

‘As for the shield, I’ll collect points and replace it next time…’

“Well then, thank you for your good work, Kiri Kiri. Let’s see each other again next time.”

Now that I purchased new equipment, it was time for me to move again.

I was heading to the portal, and Kiri Kiri waved her hand.

“Um! Cheer up! Good bye! Don’t worry too much!”

‘Is she worrying for me after all?’

I was certain she was going to wave her hand and ask me to buy a cake for her, but to my surprise, she gave me words of encouragement.

“You have to buy me a cake next time!”

‘Haha. I was wondering why she didn’t say that.’

This time, because I used all of my points while purchasing equipment, I was not able to buy a cake for her.

I thought to myself that I would definitely buy a cake for her next time. I waved my hand toward Kiri Kiri back at her.