A Bloody Reunion
Around two hundred of them, maybe?
Red goblins with murderous light in their eyes came surging toward Yujin.
For the sake of their kin’s revenge.
It was safe to say that no player currently on the first floor could stop a red-goblin rampage. Even among the NPCs, no one short of the Five Lords stood a chance.
Yet Yujin watched the frothing beasts charge and smiled. To his eyes they were nothing more than walking experience points. A hundred or a thousand—it made no difference. Red goblins were never going to be his match.
The black blade of Black Wing [A] flashed free like a streak of light and carved the air.
Chwaaak—!
The goblin at the front of the charge split cleanly in two. Through the severed halves, the startled faces of the ones behind came into view. A heartbeat of hesitation—no longer. Yujin did not waste it. He kicked off the ground and drove his body straight through the corpses.
The curtain of blood parted and the world turned red. He was painted from head to toe. He did not care. If anything, he looked refreshed; the smile on his lips only deepened as he reached toward the panicked goblins.
Pabababababababat—!
Outer-Inner Unity [E]
His body moved at a terrifying speed that matched the acceleration of his thoughts. Before the first goblin’s corpse even finished falling, Black Wing [A] carved the air dozens of times.
They were diced. Five red goblins came apart into scores of pieces as though someone had taken a cleaver to them for stew. A rain of blood fell. Yujin made no effort to dodge. He stepped forward into the shower of flesh and gore as if he had been waiting for it.
Ecstasy. The look on his face was pure rapture—excitement and madness braided together.
It’s pouring in. Pouring in!
Every goblin that fell to the edge of Black Wing [A] made the experience points climb exponentially.
This is the real fun of herd hunting!
One goblin was nothing special. Red goblins had never been generous with experience. But ten, a hundred—then everything changed. On the first floor, the only way to farm this much experience in so short a time was a proper herd hunt, and red goblins were built for it.
Yujin bared bloodstained teeth and swung like a man possessed. Predator and prey. No analysis was required to see who was eating whom.
“Kieeeeeek!”
When nearly half their number had been torn to ribbons in the space of a breath, the remaining goblins finally understood that something was wrong. To them Yujin should have been the one screaming and fleeing—the one who deserved to be carved into pieces for daring to touch their kin. The reality unfolding before their eyes was nothing like that. Even a monster could recognize how unreal the slaughter looked. Watching their brothers and sisters fall so easily, they stopped dead on instinct.
“Thinking of running?”
Yujin’s eyes flashed as he read their intent.
“We’re just getting started. Where do you think you’re going?”
Mana billowed out. It was not overwhelming—his level was still a mere ten. The Grace [C] on his arm had bumped it a little higher, yet next to Taylon or Cupiditas it was still a handful. Nowhere near enough, on paper, to frighten the eighty-odd goblins still standing.
Yet the will inside that mana was pure terror. Quantity meant nothing; the intent did. The goblins spun on their heels. This was no ordinary human. They had to run—now. Every instinct screamed it.
“You can’t run.”
He released the gathered mana.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwagwagwa—!
A storm of blades tore through the clearing. The red goblins were pulped like tomatoes dropped into a blender. There were no screams; it was simply too fast. In a single flash of pain their existence was erased from the world.
You have won the battle against normal monsters: Red Goblins.
“That’s what I’m talking about!”
Yujin, painted head-to-toe in red, threw his head back and cheered. One herd hunt, three levels. Simple math said ten more runs would net thirty. Of course the experience curve rose exponentially, so in reality even half that—fifteen levels—would be a stretch.
Still plenty.
That much would give him a fighting chance even against Taylon or Cupiditas. In other words, there was no longer anyone on the first floor he could not face.
“Perfect.”
Once he broke level twenty, only one piece of business would remain in Terra. After that he intended to head straight for the second floor.
“Now then… where else are the red goblins hiding?”
Standing in the middle of the hellscape he had just created, Yujin stretched out his senses and swept the surrounding grass. Besides the tribe he had just erased, there had to be another—
“Huh?”
Something registered. Too weak for a monster, yet it carried mana, so it was no ordinary beast. That left only NPCs or players. Yujin’s gaze swung toward the source. He wanted to see with his own eyes.
Sprawled among the grass were several figures trembling so hard they could not even think of running, crude equipment clutched in white-knuckled hands.
“Players?”
People were already out on the field at this stage? Surprise flickered across Yujin’s face. As he remembered it, ninety-nine percent of all players should still be cowering inside Terra. Only those with truly exceptional talent—or those who had completely lost their sense of fear—would be out here.
“Ah!”
A familiar woman’s face entered his field of vision. Every question vanished at once.
A youthful girl with a black bob, large round eyes, and a handful of shabby reddish gear.
The Sword Empress.
He had never expected to run into her this soon.
Well, no one short of the Sword Empress would even think of leaving Terra this early.
Judging by the sulfur-deer carcasses scattered around, she had already been hunting.
Talk about perfect timing!
He had been wondering how to arrange a natural encounter and then reel her in. Instead, luck had dropped the Sword Empress right into his lap at the best possible moment.
She must have seen what I can do.
Red goblins were monsters far beyond those no-name hangers-on—and far beyond the current Sword Empress as well. Yujin had just torn apart more than a hundred of them without breaking a sweat.
Looks like she came out to hunt.
What was the fastest, safest way to level? Party with someone strong and ride their coattails. In that department, Yujin was the most attractive, most capable companion anyone could ask for.
Time to recruit her properly.
He had proven his strength. Now he only needed to make a good impression. He would not repeat the fiasco of their first meeting.
With that vow, Yujin put on the kindest smile he had ever worn. Across both the first and second timelines, he had never once made this face. That alone showed how highly he valued the Sword Empress’s talent.
Still smiling, he raised the arm that held Black Wing [A] high and called out a greeting.
“Meeting again in a place like this… we must be fated, right?”
Perfect. There could not be a kinder, more harmless greeting in the world. Yujin was certain of it.
But—
“Run! That guy’s a crazy psycho bastard!”
The Sword Empress chose flight over greetings—complete with a colorful curse. She and the hangers-on bolted in pure panic, putting every scrap of strength into putting distance between themselves and Yujin.
“…Why?”
Lee Sia trembled with fear. So did everyone else.
Hunting? No—this was slaughter. Even the hundred-plus monsters had been desperately trying to escape that madman. Not a single one made it. Every last goblin had been diced into chunks of meat.
Then her eyes met the madman’s dead-on.
Flinch—!
She had never imagined he would notice her. Her body shrank on its own.
What do I do?
Any second now he would swing that sword and come charging. Yet she could not move. The sheer terror and brutality of what she had just witnessed had locked every muscle solid. Her mind screamed; her legs refused to answer. It felt exactly like sleep paralysis.
Move. Move, damn it!
She wriggled her fingers and toes, fighting to thaw the frozen body. Was the effort working?
It’s moving!
Little by little, life returned to her stiff limbs.
Just a little more!
Luckily the psychopath still showed no sign of approaching. Once her body fully loosened she could bolt.
That was when the madman suddenly thrust the sword-hand high and shouted something.
“Meeting again in a place like this… we must be fated, right?”
Shudder—!
He was smiling while covered head-to-toe in blood. Even his teeth—supposed to be white—were stained crimson with monster gore. Terrifying. Far too terrifying. It looked like he was about to swing that blade and butcher them all.
Crisis instinct flared; mana surged on pure reflex and shattered the last of the freeze. The moment she felt it, Lee Sia spun and ran.
“Run! That guy’s a crazy psycho bastard!”
She did not forget the warning for her companions. They felt exactly the same terror; they took off after her without a second’s delay.
If he catches us, we die!
He was not an opponent she could handle. Sulfur deer? Ordinary monsters? Didascalia? The most dangerous thing in this entire Tower was not any of those—it was that man right there!
Fear at its absolute peak, she fled toward the city.
We had distance. We’ll be fine!
They had been close enough to read each other’s faces, but if they ran for their lives he would never catch them.
Just get inside the city!
Plenty of players were there, and more importantly the gate guards. They would stop that monster. Or at least keep him from doing anything reckless. Lee Sia prayed that was true.
Then she realized she no longer felt pursuit. Cautiously she glanced back—and instantly regretted it.
Eyes as blood-red as the rest of him, the madman was tearing after her with murderous intensity.
“Hiiiiiik—!”