Chapter 4: Named Ones

Neo stood before the door, one hand on the door while the other gripping the sword to protect himself from any surprise attack. If the goblins from before had been a little more intelligent and slowly but stealthily closed the distance on him, the result might have been different.

So, he learned his lesson. He couldn't be reckless and careless just because he was short on time. Neo opened the door and entered the boss' room, where he was greeted by the one.

The goblin boss stood before Neo, this time no throne was around, wielding a battle-axe that was a little too big for its size, with both hands. Its beady eyes glared at Neo with an intense hatred, and its muscles bulged beneath its green skin. Neo could see that this goblin was much more muscular than any of the others he had encountered so far.

"Inspect."

[Goblin Brute

Level 12

Health 2500/2500

Mana: Nil

Attack: 190~210

Defense: 190~200]

The goblin, like the one before, jumped in the air and brought the axe down, trying to split Neo in half, who dodged to the left.

Bam*

The Axe hit the ground, embedded itself into the ground. The brute snarled when it saw it missing Neo and its muscles bulged, trying to remove the axe from the ground, but its attack and gravity made sure the axe cut deep into the ground. Neo took advantage of this and kicked the goblin's abdomen.

The goblin, not intelligent enough, didn't let go of the axe and received his attack, but it still didn't let go of the axe. Neo, going through with the motion, hacked with the sword, but the Axe came out of the ground at this moment and the goblin swung it toward Neo in an arc,

Neo, with no choice but to cancel his attack to dodge, did so. He didn't want to know how his weapon would compete against that axe. He moved away from the attack path and again struck when the axe was out of his way. The brute was having problems swinging the axe, as its weight was clearly too much for the little guy.

He avoided the axe and attacked when he was in the clear but because of that the battle got dragged a little, and took over 5 minutes to finish the boss, who became exhausted after swinging the axe for a while.

Neo grabbed the axe handle and elbowed the goblin. Its grip on it finally loosened, and he successfully snatched the axe. Neo let go of his sword and then moved the Axe above his head before swinging it down with full force.

The goblin tried defending it with its arms, which it brought over its head. But the force and the sharpness of the axe cleanly cut through the arm and landed on its head, it didn't stop there as it still felt no resistance, and Neo cleaved the goblin from the middle into two halves as a sphere dropped from its body, along came a fountain of blood that soaked him and the ground in red.

The blood and gore could give anyone a chill, as Neo said to himself, "I'll need a bath after this."

『 Defeated level 12 Goblin Brute +1900 experience. 』

『 Collecting the soul of the Goblin Brute. 』

『 Collecting…』

『 Collection successful. 』

『 Strength +1, Stamina +2, Agility+2』

Neo picked up the sphere, the axe and moved toward the next floor, while looking at the axe stats.

『 Name: Grim Goblin Cleaver

Type: One-handed axe

Rank: Bronze

Weight: 10 Kg

Damage: 30-40

Attack speed: Medium

Durability: 70/150

Special aspect: "Goblin Slayer" +50% damage to goblin-type enemies. 』

The axe was quite heavy, despite it being one-handed. If Neo wasn't under the effect of the potion, would also have difficulty wielding it as well.

'Must be why a goblin has it.'

He swung the axe around and put the sword back in its sheath. He thought about using it for a moment. After checking whether he missed anything or not, he stepped on the stairs and the reward for clearing the floor appeared before him.

『 Name: Goblin Hide Armor

Description: The armour is made from goblin hide, and is decorated with crude, sharp spikes and bits of bone.

Defense: 25

Durability: 50

Weight: Light

Special Aspect: Goblins will be wary toward the wearer. 』

Neo's eyebrow raised a little when he saw this and even felt a little uncomfortable when the thought of wearing it crossed his mind, but right now he didn't have any piece of armour.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers."

He wore the armour and entered the next floor and started clearing the floors.

Floor 4

Floor 5

Floor 6

Floor 7

Floor 8

Floor 9

Floor 10

After over 2 hours of constant fighting, Neo stood before the what he considered to be the last boss' room. He had less than half an hour before the potion's effect run out. He even levelled up twice and was now level 11.

『 Level 11 (11,500/ 102,400) 』

He looked at the equipment that he received after he cleared the floors. Which now included a pair of boots, armour, pants, a ring, a bracelet, a helmet made of the skull of some monster, but it got cracked because of a hit he took directly by a brute, so he discarded that.

He also got a pair of gloves and a sword that was now on the on his waist next to the one that he brought with him. After checking his equipment once more, he took a deep breath as he looked at the door before him.

Neo hesitated before the boss's room. He could sense a palpable sense of foreboding. He somehow felt that this one would differ from the ones he had been tackling so far.

'I still need to meet up with Bella.'

The thought ran through his mind and when that appeared; he felt a little relaxed. Bella's face appeared in his mind and a smile unconsciously creeped up on his face. Upon thinking about that, he took a deep breath, adjusted his grip on the axe, and stepped forward into the room. Which, when opened, flashed, making him close his eyes.

When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw the goblin shaman standing in the centre of the room, surrounded by some sort of red energy.

The shaman waved his staff around trying to say something, but Neo didn't speak "Goblin language", so he couldn't understand what it was saying. Still, he could discern the hatred it had toward him from the way it looked at him.

After waving its staff around aimlessly, or that was what Neo thought it to be doing, it suddenly waved it toward Neo and a flame ball shot toward him.

Neo's expression that was relaxed a moment ago hardened, and he hurriedly jumped to the side. The flameball struck the spot where he was standing and engulfed the area along with a small blast.

"What the--"

This attack made him sweat he didn't have any magical defense, and he didn't expect to come across a mage class enemy in this low-class dungeon.

'Wait.'

It wasn't a low-class dungeon, and then, remembering the difficulty level he had seen before; it was definitely not an ordinary dungeon; he used [Inspect]

[Name: Goblin Shaman

Level 15

Health 2,400/2,400

Mana: 1,200/1,200

Attack: 150~170

Defense: 170~200

Magic Defense: 140~160]

'Is it me or is the Inspect becoming more and more detailed?'

He wanted to contemplate over that, but right now wasn't the time; he saw its attributes and knew that the shaman would be a tough opponent, despite it having low health, then the ones he fought before. If it landed one or two attacks on him, he would be a goner. The shaman became an adversary that he had to take more seriously than anyone he did in the run. He kept his eyes on him as he closed the distance between them.

But the shaman was not letting it be this easy as it screeched. Neo paused as he felt the vibration, someone approaching the room. He looked back and saw the boss' room open and half a dozen armoured goblins coming in.

They charged directly toward Neo, who now, other than Shaman, had to deal with them.

'Damn it.'

Neo also sped toward them, wanted to finish them as quickly as possible, the shaman was still a bigger threat in his mind and him being tangled here was not what he wanted, the oppressive feeling from before was still not going away.

Neo dodged their attacks and one-shot them as the axe moved through their body like a hot knife, the size of an axe, through the butter. The blood splashed; goblins were getting massacred.

Neo at this moment felt danger closing in on him and moved to the left, but wasn't fast enough and the fireball came in contact with him.

Boom*

"Argh!"

Neo grunted in pain as he slid back, crashing directly into the goblin in behind him. He grimaced as he lost a lot of health and got burned, literally.

[Hp -340]

"Damn it!"

This was why he wasn't believing the attack stat he saw before, plus the feeling of being burned was not pleasant. Neo cursed as he stood up and chopped the goblin's head off before turning toward the goblin shaman, who had an ugly grin on its face.

"You---" Neo felt rage building inside him, his eyes flashed for a moment as he zoomed toward the shaman, but the shaman maintained its distance and again opened its mouth to screech.

Neo, now knowing that it was calling for reinforcement, wouldn't let it. He threw the axe toward it with full strength in an arc like a boomerang.

The shaman who was about to screech had its head tilted up, looking toward the ceiling. It saw something closing in on it from its periphery and turned its gaze toward the incoming axe. That much time was enough for the axe to greet it because the axe's speed was a little scary. It hit the shaman in its stomach, dragged the shaman with it and blasted it into the wall.

-700

Graaa*

The shaman screeched in pain as it tried to remove the axe that was lodged in its stomach, along with trying to cast a spell. Just then, a hand appeared and grabbed it from its neck. The goblin, who was trying desperately to remove the axe, was stunned and looked toward the owner of the hand. Neo was standing before him with an angry look on his face, and he blasted the goblin into the wall again.

"Try laughing now."

Bam*

-20

"Try It!!"

Bam*

For a moment, it looked like Neo was possessed, as he became a completely different person. He let go of its neck and started punching the shaman and each of the strikes landed on its chest as [-20] damage kept appearing.

After doing that for a while, he took the sword out of its sheath and inserted it slowly into the goblin's chest. The shaman screamed in pain and tried to cast a spell. It waved its staff around, but the next moment, it felt light. It looked toward its staff wielding hand in confusion, mixed with pain, and saw it was missing.

Neo took the other sword out, slashed at its arm with it while piercing its chest with the first one.

-20

-20

-20

-20

The damage kept appearing over its head before the sword finally pierced its heart. Extensive damage appeared as Neo dragged his sword up, cutting the monster into two from above its chest.

-1000

The shaman stopped screaming.

Fuuuu*

Neo let out a breath as his anger and adrenalin vanished, and he collapsed on the ground, he felt his back still burning because of the fireball. He wanted to hack the goblin into pieces, but stopped, that was futile and a waste of time.

He sat up as a bluish energy separated from the goblin and formed itself into a ball before merging with his body.

Neo closed his eyes and looked at his core, which now had a dozen lines, compared to the thousands of them that fully covered the core. It was good.

The problematic thing was that his mana was getting filled in 12 different spaces. It was like he suddenly got 12 pockets instead of one and this was not a good thing; the mana was having problems moving around because of this. Otherwise, who wouldn't prefer more spaces?

He looked at the glow settling down and saw that now the 12 lines had become 6 now.

"So, I need to gather 3 more, or is it 4 more? But where will the last line go then?"

He had a lot of questions and no answers.

"I'm getting easily triggered lately. This can be a problem."

Neo thought about this for a moment, meditating to calm his mind was a solution, but he couldn't do that here, now can he? Finally, he put this aside and looked at the notifications.

『Defeated level 15 Goblin Shaman. 』

『 Collecting the soul of the Goblin Shaman. 』

『 Collecting...』

『 Collection successful. 』

『 Stamina +2, Intelligence+4』

Neo looked at them for a while, then took the sphere from the boss monster before moving toward the door.

"Finally, it's over."

Neo heaved a sigh of relief, but something was unusual.

'What is this feeling?'

The feeling from before was not going away. He looked at himself, covered in blood, and felt like he really needed a bath. Constant fighting had made him sweat a lot, plus the blood that was splashed on him made it compulsory.

'I still need to attend the party in the evening. I have to do at least this much for her.'

Still lost in thoughts, he arrived before the door and pushed it outward, but when it opened Neo was stunned.

"H-how can this be?" He said, his voice breaking a little because of what he saw in front of him and a notification appeared before him.

『 Congratulation on clearing the second phase of the Goblin King's Keep. 』

『 Reward: Whirlwind』

『 Third phase starting in 2 minutes. Please prepare yourself. 』

Neo found himself in a hall, not in the mood to look at the skill as he stood there, stunned, his face a little pale as he looked around. The hall was more like a massive chamber with stone walls stretching high into the darkness. Ground, covered in dirt and rocks, with patches of moss growing in damp crevices. The ceiling was so high that it was difficult to make out any features in the darkness above.

At one end of the hall, there was a large door made of thick, heavy wood, its surface etched with strange runes and symbols. The door was closed, and there seemed to be no obvious way to open it.

He didn't even have time to question reality as he heard a faint sound and the ground trembling a little as though something or a lot of things were closing in on him.

『 00:00:04』

『 00:00:03』

『 00:00:02』

『 00:00:01』

『 00:00:00』

『 Third against, fight survive against the horde. 』

.......

The door on the other side of the dungeon opened, and goblins started pouring into the hall. Neo's expression changed along with the number that kept increasing and in less than a minute, over fifty goblins were in the hall.

After this, a goblin was sitting on a throne, that goblins carried, made its appearance, barking orders at the group of goblins, seemed like a commander. The goblin commander stood at the back, giving orders and directing the goblins with precision.

He kept yelling/snarling as the goblin stood in a neat row. Its sharp eyes scanned the "battlefield", looking for any weaknesses in Neo's defense. Despite its small stature, it exuded an aura of authority that made even the largest goblins obey its commands without question.

Neo knew that he was in trouble the moment that goblin entered the hall. He used [inspect]

[Name: Grimgor, the Cunning

Type: Goblin Commander

Level: 15

Health: 8,400/8,400

Mana: 1,400/1,400

Attack: 210~280

Defense: 200~240

Magic Defense: 150~180

Skills: Battle Cry, Goblin Tactics, Goblin Summon.]

"A named monster?" Upon seeing the name of the goblin, Neo knew he was in more trouble than he first thought. Named monsters were much stronger than boss monsters of the same level. Which was definitely clear from the health the goblin commander had.

Neo looked at the horde as he thought of a way to deal with the boss monster, he felt his newly earned skill must be the way forward; he hadn't checked the reward of clearing the last floor, so using the time Grimgor was arranging the goblins, he pulled up the log and found out what he got.

[Skill: Whirlwind

Description: Spin rapidly with weapons outstretched, delivering a series of quick slashes that hit all enemies within range of 2 meters, forming a small whirlwind. Consumes stamina and mana.]

Neo felt he got this reward just for this floor.

'Is it one of those?'

He shook his head as now was not the time and this skill would help him get out of this sticky situation, but he didn't know how this would fare against a horde also it didn't tell him how large the stamina and mana it was going to consume.

The goblin commander couldn't sit still anymore as it roared, and the goblins charged toward Neo, looking at the number of enemies coming toward his way. Neo took a deep breath as he equipped both swords.

He also charged toward them and jumped into the air, and said loudly, "Whirlwind!"

Neo started twisting like a spinning top as he performed the whirlwind skill. His dual swords sliced through the air, creating a whirlwind that ripped through the enemies. Goblins were getting dismembered as they got cut by Neo's swords when they came into the attack range; their bodies littered the ground.

But that was not all as the whirlwind slowly started spreading as the small blades of airs started forming around him when his speed increased and this just became his chance of getting the victory.

The goblins, although less intelligent, when saw that their brethren were getting butchered like grass, started running away, not daring to come close to him. Upon seeing that from his dizzying view, Neo cancelled the skill.

Huff* Huff*

He was panting hard, drenched in sweat and, of course, blood.

He looked at the mess that the skill created, but the stamina it consumed was too much. He was already panting after executing the skill only once. It consumed more than half of his stamina but was worth it, according to him. However, there was a weakness that he found. It also leaves him vulnerable to attacks on his back as it was left exposed during the execution, so he needs to be careful when using it.

Still, it was a pretty powerful skill, and he felt that its power would increase as his strength and agility increase, also when he secures a new and powerful weapon, but now was not the time to think about all of that.

There were still a lot of goblins left, as he could only kill over 20 goblins before the goblin commander ordered the rest to retreat. He looked at how much more experience he required to level up, found that the experience bar was barely half filled.

'Really, a pain in the neck.'

The goblin commander, though shocked by the devastation caused by the whirlwind skill, did not flee. Instead, it waited for the skill to subside and then rallied its remaining forces. Seemed to be orders for them to attack again.

"This dungeon is definitely a bizarre one. I want my money back"

Neo didn't or couldn't stop and charged toward the goblins and attacked them once again. He wanted to use the whirlwind again, but with its demand for stamina; he felt left a little helpless, along with the intelligence the goblin commander showed. He might not get to see the setting sun if he used up all of his stamina.

He used simple moves and dodged, but couldn't dodge all when he was being ganged up on, the wounds accumulated. Grimaced in pain, Neo's anger soar. He attacked more fiercely, almost started trading injury for injury and fortunately before he received any fatal wound, he finished all the goblins.

It took him over some time to settle the goblins and looked toward the goblin commander, but was stunned when he found 10 more goblins surrounding it. His mind went into overdrive as he counted the number of goblins and found that he dealt with all of them. Then he remembered one of the commander's skills.

[Goblin Summon]

"He can summon more goblins." Neo said to himself and charged toward the newly summoned goblins. He dealt with them quickly and charged toward the commander. He didn't want it to summon more goblins, his stamina was already rock bottom.

Now that the commander was without his troops, although it had higher stats, Neo made a quick work of it.

『 Defeated level 15 Grimgor, the Cunning. 』

『 Collecting the soul of the Grimgor, the Cunning 』

『 Collecting…』

『 Collection successful. 』

『 Strength+2, Intelligence+2, Stamina+3』

Neo felt exhilarated as the lines over his core merged and only three of them were left now also that it was finally over, he was lying down on the ground, panting hard.

『 Successfully defended against the goblin horde. Calculating the reward. 』

『Received: Blademaster's Amulet. 』

"Inspect"

[Name: Blademaster's Amulet

Rank: Silver

Description: This necklace is made of fine silver chains and adorned with a small green gemstone. It has been enchanted with magic to enhance the wearer's agility. Absorb a portion of the damage taken and convert it into mana. The amount of damage absorbed and converted into mana depends on the strength of the attack.

Effect: Increases the wearer's agility and movement speed by 10%

Requirements: None]

"Those are some good stats." Neo said, holding the amulet high as he looked at the description of this piece of jewellery and its effect. He wore it around his neck and wanted to move around to see the effect, but then assumed that he would definitely be faster than before.

Neo calculated the time again and found that he was left with less than 20 minutes before the potion effect ran out, and he didn't know if this dungeon was done with him or not. Well, he didn't need to think more, as a notification blared before him.

『 Fourth Phase of the Goblin King's Keep will start when ready. 』

Neo looked at the notification intently, he wanted to tear it apart as the frustration along with nervousness was building in his heart because if this was not the last phase of the dungeon or that if it took longer than the potion stats boost time; he was dead meat.

He took a deep breath and removed the sphere from the goblin before saying, "I'm ready."

『 Fourth Phase is starting. 』

Neo was teleported from this hall to another one, which was identical to the one he was in before. This puzzled him, but his hair stood up on their end, and he jumped back.

Bang*

A huge mace struck the place where he stood, and the earth trembled a little because of the power behind that strike. Neo felt a chill when that mace hit the ground, looked at the culprit behind that.

A freak, well over seven feet tall, its muscular body was covered in coarse, dark fur, and its face was an abomination of human and animal features. Its eyes glowed with an eerie red light, and its broad mouth was filled with sharp, yellow teeth.

This green monstrosity was a hobgoblin, an evolved, or some might say, that it was a devolved version of a goblin. The hobgoblin wore a suit of spiked armour, and in one massive hand, it held a heavy mace. Its beady, red eyes glared down at Neo.

Neo gulped as he looked at the monster and used [Inspect]

[Name: Grimor the Hobgoblin

Type: Hobgoblin

Level: 17

Health: 9,600/9,600

Mana: Nil

Attack 340~390

Defense: 350~300

Magic Defense: 200~290.

Skills: Crushing Blow, Ground Pound, Iron Will, Tough Hide.]

Neo sweated when he saw the health and its other stats. He wanted to shout that it was totally an unfair fight but couldn't as he hurriedly dodge the mace that was swung at him. He tried attacking as well, but when his sword landed on the skin of the monster, it only gave it a superficial wound and a number appeared.

-30

Neo looked at the number in a daze, again hurriedly got out of it as he saw the mace arriving toward him from his peripheral vision. He even checked whether the effect of the potion faded without him knowing, but that wasn't the case. The damn skin of the monster was too tough.

Neo jumped around as he came up with a plan and kept on striking only one place, but that was difficult, he had to dodge the mace.

Suddenly, Hobgoblin moved the mace above its head and brought it down on the ground. His action surprised Neo, but then remembered one of its skills.

[Ground Pound].

'Let's hope this works.'

Neo jumped up the moment the mace came in contact with the ground. This might be the only way to not be affected by the skill. And his luck was great as what he guessed was right, and the shockwave that was generated by the [Ground Pound] only influenced the targets whose feet touch the ground. But he couldn't keep himself forever in the sky and was descending.

Neo gritted his teeth and hoped for the best. The moment he landed on the ground, he was hit by the shockwave and got swept away by it as damage appeared.

Hp -190

The good thing was that he wasn't hit by the first wave and was only impacted by the secondary waves, so the effect was smaller, larger, but still small.

He hurriedly stabilized himself and moved toward the panting monster, looked like the skill had its backlash. Pounding the ground with that hulking mace was difficult.

Neo closed in on it and the monster swept toward him with its mace, horizontally. Neo took advantage of his agility and used the mace as a foothold, jumped toward the monster with his sword, targeting its left eye.

'Let's see if this part is as thick as the others.'

Puchi*

The monster wasn't able to dodge the strike, and the sword lodged itself into its eye.

Rawrr*

The monster roared in pain. It swung its hand toward Neo, who hurriedly jumped back, leaving the sword stuck in its eye. After getting rid of the pest, the monster grabbed the sword, got it out of its eye, threw it toward Neo in anger.

"Thanks for returning it to me."

Neo stepped to the side and grabbed the sword by its hilt before moving toward the monster from its blind spot. The hobgoblin felt Neo vanish, and it looked around in confusion, but then roared in pain because Neo targeted the left side of its neck.

It turned toward its left, but Neo was again missing as he kept himself in the monster's blind spot, attacked the same part of the neck again.

The monster roared in pain and swung the mace to the left, circling in an arc, but it wasn't able to beat Neo's swiftness, now he had the amulet that just added to his speed, its low or no intelligence wasn't helping it at all.

Neo kept attacking the same spot again and again while dodging the mace that the monster was now flailing around helplessly.

Just as Neo felt that the victory was in sight, the monster's skin turned a little bronze the moment his sword came in contact with it.

Clang*

A clanging sound resounded, and Neo hurriedly moved back. He looked at his hand, trembling in pain.

"What was that?" He uttered and looked at the monster again, used his inspection skill to see what he had missed.

"Iron will or tough hide. Must be one of them."

Neo clenched the sword tightly, shaking the trembling off.

Rawr*

"I really need a shower after this."

Another round with the monster started.

[00:07:00]