The Second Tutorial (5): The Goblin's Core
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"If it was going to be like this, fuck. I shouldn't have sold the sledgehammer... Ha..."
Watching the man lament as he relentlessly hammered the wall with his sword, Luniel gently shook her head.
"You found it in the end, Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo."
Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo. Even during the first tutorial, this was the man who had tried to smash the goddess statue in his search for hidden things. And now he had finally found something. If he broke through that wall he was striking so diligently, he would obtain the hidden object—the thing the Hero Candidates called a hidden piece.
"Whether that would be a satisfying reward for the Hero Candidates, I'm not entirely sure."
Luniel had observed countless Hero Candidates by now. Naturally, some among them had discovered hidden pieces. Their reactions were all over the map. Korean candidates in particular were usually disappointed when they found one.
There were even some who argued that this wasn't the hidden piece they had imagined.
She later learned that these situations frequently appeared in those subversive books known as web novels. Most people who went searching for hidden pieces had read a great deal of them and based their expectations on the information found inside.
The hidden pieces in those novels were almost always ridiculously overpowered. So for those who expected such performance, the ones hidden in the tutorial were understandably underwhelming—even in Luniel's eyes.
But.
"There's no way they would hide something like that in the tutorial, is there?"
It was beyond Luniel's common sense. The tutorial was exactly what the name implied—a tutorial. It was merely a place to help newly arrived Hero Candidates adapt to Aeteria. It wasn't a forge for producing powerful heroes. Those truly impressive hidden pieces were reserved for candidates who had been more thoroughly vetted and showed real potential, not beginners like these. There was simply no reason to place them in the hands of tutorial-level candidates.
That was also why they were placed so obviously—easy enough to find by knocking on a wall a few times. Since they weren't hiding anything extraordinary, there was no need to make it difficult.
That didn't mean the hidden pieces in the tutorial were completely worthless. If obtained, they were meaningful enough at this stage, and became proof that the candidate was classified as promising once they crossed over to Aeteria. Most of those who earned them went on to leave their mark on Aeteria's history. For better or worse.
Luniel watched Yoon Iseo hammering away at the wall with interest.
I wonder what you'll make of it.
Kwaaaang!
"Fuck, it's finally broken!"
What a piece of shit.
I glanced at the shattered wall, then at my sword. The 100-point blade I'd bought only recently was now completely blunt, reduced to nothing but scrap metal.
Let's see how good this thing is. It had better be worth the 100-point sword. After all the time, effort, and points I'd poured in, it damn well better be. Otherwise I was going to be seriously pissed.
Having sweated buckets from smashing through the wall, I took a moment to rest and cool down before moving again.
The space behind the broken wall wasn't very wide. It was barely enough for one person to squeeze through. If I tried to stand straight, my head would hit the ceiling, so I had no choice but to hunch over and shuffle inside.
By the time my neck and back were screaming from the awkward posture, I reached the end. There, a single goblin lay collapsed against the wall, completely motionless.
I had no idea why it was lying here, but since corpses disappeared upon death in this place, I stayed suspicious and checked to see if it was truly dead.
Thud. Thud.
I poked it a few times with my ruined sword. No reaction. It really did seem dead...
So this was the hidden piece?
A sudden headache hit me. I rubbed my face roughly with a dry hand.
After all that suffering, the thing I found was just a goblin corpse that was slightly larger than the others. Even I couldn't stop my mentality from cracking.
"Fuck, there has to be something."
If this really was just a goblin corpse, there had to be a reason it was left behind. Just in case, I squatted down and sliced open its belly.
Since the sword had no edge left, it didn't cut cleanly—it tore. The guts spilled out in a disgusting mess. But other than that, there was nothing.
Still unable to believe it, I kept cutting like a madman, slicing through the intestines to check if the bastard had swallowed anything. When nothing turned up, I slammed my sword down on its head in rage.
Thud.
Roll.
Something popped out of its mouth.
At first I thought a tooth had come loose, but when I looked closer, it was a bead. I scrambled over to examine it.
"Ugh. The saliva is fucking real."
The moment I picked up the green bead, the sticky, unpleasant mucus made me grimace. I immediately pulled out some water and washed both the bead and my hands.
Did they really need to implement something like this? They made corpses disappear instantly and threw realism out the window, but they chose to be realistic about this?
Anyway.
I held up the cleanly washed green bead and studied it carefully. A mysterious green light swirled inside like a vortex. I knew its purpose immediately.
An inner core? An elixir? Something like that, I bet.
Taking the Aura Utilization talent was already proving useful. The knowledge unlocked when I opened my talents, along with the ability to sense derived energies, told me this bead was some kind of medicinal elixir.
Of course, it might not be. This was just an educated guess based on what I'd learned. I couldn't confirm its exact identity.
"Still... I should eat it, right?"
It felt a little gross, but eating it was the correct move. There was no one to ask, and even if something went wrong, I would just respawn. This was the perfect time to test it without major risk.
Still, no matter how much I washed it, the thought of putting something that had been inside a goblin's mouth into my own triggered a strong physiological rejection. It wasn't easy to force it down.
"Ah, fuck it."
I closed my eyes tight and tossed the inner core into my mouth.
"Ugh!"
The stench of goblin saliva—probably from a creature that had never brushed its teeth—assaulted my nose like a chemical weapon. It was so vile I nearly vomited, but I forced it back down.
After suffering through that disgusting sensation two more times, the smell finally subsided somewhat. The hard inner core began to melt slowly in my mouth, dissolving into liquid that spread throughout my body and started circulating wildly.
I treated the rampaging energy like aura, carefully taking control and guiding it toward where my own aura was gathered. It was my first time doing this, but the unlocked memories and techniques helped. I managed to melt the energy into my aura more easily than expected.
"Ha. Yeah, this is more like it."
The amount of aura had increased nearly fivefold. I rubbed my stomach in satisfaction. The base amount still wasn't huge in absolute terms, but it was now enough that I wouldn't run dry after using it a few times while running like before.
After stabilizing everything, I checked the goblin one last time in case I'd missed anything, but nothing else appeared. Leaving the ragged corpse behind, I exited the hidden room.
It was about time to start the tutorial properly.
I wondered how many would survive.
I hope as many as possible make it.
It'd be nice if they could clear the tutorial too.
Honestly, it was pretty disappointing compared to the hidden piece I'd imagined. I'd been hoping for an overpowered skill or weapon. A single elixir felt lacking.
I didn't know if there were more hidden pieces. Even if there were, I'd have to keep progressing through the tutorial to find them.
After leaving the cave, I moved quickly toward the village. The trip here had taken a long time because I'd been searching everywhere, but the way back was much faster.
"Kerek! Kerek!"
"They're fucking everywhere, seriously."
Crunch.
The moment I reached the village, I cut down the first visible goblin. The sword had lost its edge and no longer had its former sharpness, but it still worked well enough as a weapon.
One. Two.
I advanced slowly, killing the charging goblins as I went. It didn't seem like the others were completely avoiding combat.
"Block that side!"
"Don't get pushed back! If we get pushed, it's over!"
I'd thought they weren't fighting because the goblin numbers didn't seem to be decreasing, but the voices mixed in with the cries suggested everyone was doing their best.
To repay them, I decided to get serious. I raised my aura and focused it onto my sword.
Vwoong.
A faint aura rose around the blade, resonating with power. A smile came to my face without thinking.
It finally worked.
I'd known the technique ever since opening my talent, but my aura reserves had been too low to use it. Now I finally could.
With the excitement of wanting to test my new toy in an already heated battle, the goblins—with their perfect perception—saw me and charged fearlessly. I answered with my sword.
Slash!
With a sharp cutting sound, three goblins that had charged together were sliced clean in half.
"Kek?"
The ones following behind froze in confusion as their comrades were bisected in one strike.
I wasn't about to just stand there and watch.
I poured my remaining aura into body reinforcement and dashed forward at a speed that must have looked like teleportation to the goblins. Before the bewildered creatures could react, I swung my sword again. They fell helplessly.
"Haa. The adrenaline is insane."
Turning to look at the dissolving goblin corpses made my blood burn even hotter.
Fuck, they're all dead.
There was no reason to hold back this heated body. Excited by my new toy's performance, I immediately began hunting down every goblin I could find, killing them to keep this feeling alive. I went completely wild.
Slash.
The goblins couldn't slow my advance at all. They died and vanished one after another.
"Yoon Iseo, you crazy bastard! Why are you only showing up now!"
Someone interrupted my heated frenzy, but when I turned my bloodthirsty eyes on him, he whimpered and shut up.
After rampaging like a madman for a while, nearly all the goblins were dead. The few that remained had to be searched for, and my aura was almost depleted. I leaned against a wall to rest.
About ten minutes later, I pushed off the wall, ready to move again.
"Senior..."
Song Dayeong emerged from inside one of the houses, her face haggard and her body trembling.