I'm Kind of a Big Deal (4)

I couldn't make the battle one-sided. That was just natural.

Just because I'd cleared the 1st Floor, it didn't mean that anything had changed dramatically.

It was an unmistakable fact that I'd almost died even holding a dagger. Fortunately, I'd retrieved a useful weapon now, which was a relief.

'First of all, I'll beat up just one of them.'

As soon as I ducked, a huge axe went flying over the top of my head. The goblin that had failed to hit me staggered forward while holding on to his axe. 

I couldn't miss this chance, so I lightly thrust my sword in the direction of the goblin's shoulder. 

The blade scratched his shoulder and left a mark. Another goblin swung his sword around. I dodged his attack and instead approached the goblin that I'd already hit.

The goblin holding an axe had small and large wounds all over his body. He must've noticed that I was only aiming for him, because his eyes flashed with madness. Holding his axe with two hands, he jumped to attack me. 

The axe fell with enough force to easily cleave my entire body in half. I had only been blocking so far and continued to do so with my sword.

Ignoring the confused goblin, I calmly dropped my sword. The axe that the goblin was holding fell to the ground. If I was lacking in strength, I could cover for it with my tricks.

I swung my sword towards the goblin's green chest.

I didn't think he'd die in one hit. I plunged the sword deep into his chest and in the direction of his heart. An incredible amount of blood spilled out as I pulled the sword back out.

[The god Soter has blessed you with his divine energy.]

[Level 1 Protection has been activated.]

[All stats have been greatly increased.]

Ignoring the relentless notifications of the status window, I swung my sword again in the direction of the goblins that were approaching with weapons to break the magic core. Compared to the now dead goblin with the axe, I had no trouble dealing with the other goblins.

My abilities were based on destruction, so things like murder and rage were naturally taken into account. The more beings I killed, and the more destruction I caused, the stronger I became. What I'd previously only felt through my body was now being expressed through the system.

'Even so, that doesn't mean I'm some sort of psychopath who likes to kill people.'

It was purely a kind of tactic that I used in order to survive.

And in a world where you had to kill a lot of monsters in dungeons, this ability wasn't bad at all.

The corpses of the goblins started to pile up one by one around the magic core. The weeds underneath my feet were stained red, and blood was pooling in the grooves of the pitted soil.

The goblins started to back away and retreat, wary after witnessing the ceaseless deaths of their comrades. At the sight of them reorganizing their approach, I also took advantage of the interlude to catch my breath.

[0:51:41]

The remaining time had fallen to less than an hour. I needed to hold out for 3 hours, so it looked like I'd made it about 2/3 of the way.

The goblin troops started to appear again. Behind them, I could see sorcerer goblins holding staves. Following the signal of the Goblin Lord, the goblins holding weapons lunged forward while the sorcerer goblins readied their magic.

'So this is the big one, huh.'

It was highly likely that the goblins rushing towards me now were disposable pieces. They seem to be planning to blow me up along with the magic core. 

'Sorry, but I have no intention of being taken down like that.'

I cut the throat of the first goblin that attacked me.

[Level 2 Protection has been activated.]

[You have activated Level 2 Protection for the first time.]

[All stats have been permanently increased.]

[All stats have been increased.]

After countering a goblin's sword, I looked towards the back.

A giant magic circle created by the sorcerer goblins was floating above their heads. After slightly pulling my sword backwards, I looked at the goblins that were approaching with the magic circle.

Dozens of flame whips spilled out all at once out of the bright-red magic circle.

I swung my sword in a diagonal slash with all of my strength. The bodies of the remaining goblins were cut in half in a single blow. Aiming to blow me up along with the magic core, the flame whips fell right over my head.

'Stay calm.'

The moment that the flames whips fell, I swung my sword once again. The black energy that flowed from the tip of my sword engulfed the flames.

The hand that was holding the sword trembled. The divine blessing grew stronger the more it was stacked, but at the same time, I couldn't do anything about the increasing side effects. 

Great power came at a price.

It was an obvious principle that I didn't need to elaborate on.

* * *

With the current body of Kang Han-kyul, I could only stack the effect about twice before I reached the limit. My body ached with pain, and I felt like I was going to collapse at any moment, but I could withstand this level of pain and exhaustion. I had to.

A pillar of flame burst above the field.

Of course, the sorcerer goblins that used magic were rear troops that had been strained with anticipation.

As the smoke cleared, I saw the magic core reappear within my sight.

"Wow, that could've been dangerous."

Straightening my staggering body, I placed my hand on top of the magic core. It looked like a gigantic crystal, and there were cracks etched across it here and there.

[Power Remaining 55%]

If the attack had hit its mark properly, it could've burst into pieces from just one shot.

"Goddamn it, I don't think this level is meant to be beat alone."

As I was muttering to myself, I swung my sword in the direction of the sorcerer goblins. I used a basic skill that used magic to launch an attack.

In my case, rather than an attack, it was more akin to 'drawing a line'.

This was because if I swung my sword in the desired direction, I could cut through as if I were simply drawing a line.

[The skill 'Moonlight Slash' has been acquired.]

"So it happened again."

I was wondering how I could acquire skills, and it looked like this was the way to do it. As long as this body followed, there was a considerable amount of skills that I could obtain because of my knowledge.

The remaining goblins scattered out into the field. I'd seen around a hundred at the beginning, but I could tell right now that this was the last of them.

"Free-for-alls are my speciality."

At the call of the Goblin Lord, the remaining goblins attacked all at once. As the goblins jumped towards me with horrible screams, I slashed at their arms, heads, and bodies. I essentially cut anything I could reach.

"What?"

A goblin's corpse went flying through the air next to me. Yes, it was flying. The Goblin Lord, who was at least twice the size of all the other goblins, had picked up a nearby corpse and hurled it in my direction as if throwing a baseball. He was so strong that the corpse's arm twisted grotesquely before breaking.

Having almost gotten hit, I slightly twisted my body in the direction of the Goblin Lord. Holding onto my sword with one hand, I beckoned him with a flick of my fingers.

A clear act of provocation.

No matter how much of a monster he was, there was no way he could ignore a taunt like that.

The Goblin Lord ran towards me, holding a gigantic greatsword.

Despite his size, it didn't take more than 3 seconds until he was right in front of me. My sword collided with his greatsword. Compared to the Goblin Lord, who had only been giving out orders from the back, I had used up quite a bit of my strength.

Not to mention, I had many injuries as well. It was almost too much for me just to block the greatsword. After spitting out the blood that had been welling up in my mouth, I put some distance between me and the Goblin Lord.

'Seriously, this can't be a one man job.'

I decided I would check after I cleared the level and left.

The battlefield was dripping with blood, and scattered all around it were disfigured lumps of flesh, twitching in their final spasms of life. Countless goblin corpses were piled up all around me. Even at a quick glance, you could tell that there were over a hundred corpses.

This was the kind of world that I'd experienced.

'Seems like I'll never be able to leave this kind of life behind.'

[Level 3 Protection has been activated.]

[You have activated Level 3 Protection for the first time.]

[Level 1 Protection can now be activated constantly.]

[All stats have been permanently increased.]

[All stats have been increased.]

'30 seconds.'

That was the amount of time I could keep Level 3 activated while I was in this body.

I had to achieve victory within 30 seconds or else it'd be game over.

Just starting to become aware of the corpses littered on the ground around him, the eyes of the Goblin Lord became more and more tinged with madness.

Beneath the plates of iron armor that he was wearing, I could see bulging muscles lined with thick, dark veins. I didn't turn away when the Goblin Lord lunged at me. After blocking the attack, I poured out all of the magic power I had left into my sword. It was to the point where I could see the flickering of the black aura with my naked eyes.

'Now!'

At the second that I thought I'd reached the limits of my magic, I swung my sword with all the strength I had inside of me.

The dark aura of my magic attack grazed past his neck. The Goblin Lord's body fell to the ground.

At the sight of their boss's death, the rest of the goblins withdrew from the battlefield. I didn't chase after the escaping goblins.

'After all, I just have to endure for the full 3 hours.'

I wasn't so stupid that I'd risk ruining what I'd worked for just for the sake of being thorough. The amount of time remaining was a little over 5 minutes.

"Haa, hah…"

[The effects of Soter's Divine Blessing will now disappear.]

At the same time that the effects of the blessing disappeared, I felt a surge of incredible pain. The buzzer to signal that 3 hours had passed rang out inside of my head.

[You have cleared the 2nd Floor of the Tower of Trials.]

[You have acquired administrative privileges to the 2nd Floor as a reward.]

After verifying what I saw on the status window in front of my eyes, I immediately lost consciousness.

* * *

It was a long time after that before I opened my eyes again.

Covered from head to toe in blood, caked in mud, and unconscious on the ground, my condition was unspeakably wretched.

I stood up with trembling limbs and picked up my sword that had fallen on the ground and put it back in its sheath.

"I was lucky."

There was nothing more that I could say here except that my luck had been good. If the remaining goblins had decided to attack me instead of running away, then it would've been really dicey.

I opened my inventory and took out a small healing potion and drank it. It tasted like strawberry milk.

Why did it taste like strawberry milk? Because the bottle was red? I'd set this myself, but there wasn't any specific reason for it.

"Damn, wish I could bring potions into the dungeons too."

I muttered to myself while drinking the healing potion. Unfortunately, I couldn't access the items in my inventory while I was challenging the tower. The only reason I could take the potion out of my inventory now was because I'd cleared the 2nd floor.

After checking that all the wounds on my body had disappeared, I started to fiddle with the status window so that I could leave the 2nd floor.

[Leaving the 2nd Floor.]

[Teleporting in between the 2nd and 3rd Floor.]

"Wait, where am I going?"

This wasn't right.