Chapter 8
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Goblin Village (4)
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The four of them clustered together at the sudden appearance of the monsters, raising their weapons.
Kim Tae-woon, clutching his greatsword, turned to me and yelled.
“You crazy bastard! What the hell did you do?!”
“Monsters… in a situation like this.”
A troop of fifty goblins, summoned from the bridge, slowly advanced.
“What's this Tower of Trials, and what the hell is a 'challenger'?”
“What? How should I know?”
“Aaargh! I thought the status window was gone!”
“More importantly, you said they were goblins, right? How in the world are *those* goblins?”
The summoned goblins were nothing like the ones we'd seen in the dungeon.
While the dungeon goblins were emaciated and equipped with worn-out weapons and leather armor, these summoned ones were on a completely different level.
With their well-toned muscles, iron armor, and sharp weapons, they looked like a disciplined army.
‘This is more like it.’
Maybe not the armor, but these summoned goblins more closely resembled the ones I knew.
Whether that was a good thing or not, I couldn't say.
I glanced toward the tower, drew my daggers, and joined the others.
The four of them glanced at me, daggers in hand, but said nothing.
Against fifty well-trained goblins, treating me like an extra was pointless.
It wasn't a question of whether we could fight, but that we *had* to.
A goblin at the rear raised a spear. Larger than the others, he was different from the goblin chieftain we had seen in the dungeon.
A Goblin Lord. The king of goblins.
At their king's roar, the other goblins raised their weapons in unison and cheered.
In stark contrast to the jubilant goblin troop, our side was a funeral procession.
Under the Goblin Lord's command, ten goblins from the front line charged.
The fact that they didn't all charge at once meant they were underestimating us.
Kim Tae-woon and Choi Min-hyuk, wielding melee weapons, clashed with the goblins.
Choi Min-hyuk's greatsword managed to block the goblin's attack, but that was all he could do.
“Dammit, if only I could use my skills!”
These summoned goblins were a far cry from the ones in the dungeon; it was hard enough just to block their attacks, let alone counter.
While one goblin kept Choi Min-hyuk occupied, another closed in from behind.
Sensing the danger, Choi Min-hyuk squeezed his eyes shut.
I quickly leaped behind Choi Min-hyuk.
My two daggers clashed against the goblin's sword.
The goblin, as if not expecting my interference, began to press down with all its might.
‘Damn it, this is really dangerous.’
I grimaced as I blocked the goblin's sword.
“You…”
Choi Min-hyuk frowned, having been saved by me. But his expression didn't last long.
In a situation where death was an equal possibility for all, pride meant nothing.
Back-to-back with Choi Min-hyuk, I held off the sword with my daggers, locked in a struggle of strength with the goblin.
To be honest, I had been overestimating myself. Or more precisely, the body of Kang Han-gyeol that I now inhabited.
Since I had no memories of him, I had no idea what kind of person this 'Kang Han-gyeol' had been.
The important thing was that I possessed my own 'memories'.
Memories of cheating death on the continent of Arbelicia.
The problem lay elsewhere.
Though I had started working out in a hurry, Kang Han-gyeol's body was weaker than I'd expected.
I might have been able to handle the goblins from the dungeon, but I could tell that facing these trained ones was definitely beyond me.
But we weren't the ones in the most dire situation.
Even with the three of us each holding off a goblin, there were still plenty more.
“D-don't come here! I said stay back!”
“Hey! Do something!”
“I'm a mage! What do you want me to do when I can't use my skills?!”
“There's no way an arrow like this will kill that thing!”
By the book, monsters shouldn't have been able to break through the front line and reach the two in the back.
But this was far from a normal situation, and everyone was struggling just to protect themselves.
‘It's one thing for me to not have skills... but they're different.’
The very thought of being unable to use their skills seemed to be a major source of their anxiety.
Lee Ye-eun drew an emergency dagger and swung it wildly at the approaching goblins.
“Stay back. Stay…”
“Visualize it!”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“The status window is gone, not your skills! Just shut up and use them like you always do!”
The four of them flinched as I, who had been quiet for the entire dungeon expedition, raised my voice.
Nam Woon-ik, who had collapsed to the floor hiding behind Lee Ye-eun, stretched his arms upward.
Several spears of ice materialized above his head.
“Aaaaaaaaargh!”
Thrusting his arms forward in a desperate, last-ditch effort, the ice spears that had formed overhead shot out and pierced the goblins' armor.
It wasn't enough to kill them in one blow, but the startled goblins fell back.
A wave of intense heat washed over my back.
“Duck!”
I dropped low at Choi Min-hyuk's command. He swung his flaming greatsword in a wide arc.
The goblins, caught off guard, retreated once more.
“Hah, hah.”
Having overexerted his mana in his desperation to drive the goblins back, Choi Min-hyuk gasped for breath.
The headless bodies of two goblins slumped to the side.
That was Kim Tae-woon's work. He must have used his skills right after hearing me shout.
“Thanks.”
“More importantly, how did an unaffiliated guy like you know that?”
“A logical guess. I had no idea if it would actually work.”
“Weirdo.”
The sound of an explosion erupted behind me.
Lee Ye-eun used a physical enhancement skill to send a goblin reeling with a kick, then fired an arrow straight into its head.
With a few of their own dead, the remaining goblins took a step back and reformed their ranks.
And it wasn't just the goblins right in front of us.
There were still scores of armed goblins at the rear.
Even knowing we could use our skills again, we still had a mountain to climb.
Choi Min-hyuk tightened his grip on his greatsword, keeping the goblins at bay.
“Think we can do this?”
“I have no idea.”
“Hah, to think something like this would happen before I even got to make my debut as a Hunter.”
“Is that a death flag?”
“Don't jinx us. I have no intention of going down easy.”
Nam Woon-ik and Lee Ye-eun, having regained their composure, rejoined the group.
‘Can I do this? I'm not so sure.’
I try not to dwell on anxious thoughts, but the situation was just too grim.
As if on cue from the Goblin Lord, the remaining goblins roared and charged all at once.
‘I'll do everything I can!’
Like the others, I had absolutely no intention of going down without a fight.
Not after everything I've been through to survive.
I dodged the goblin's attack with minimal movement and got behind it.
‘I can't use any special skills, but the basics should still work.’
From my perspective, having a status window in the first place was the weirder part.
Imbuing my dagger with mana, I stabbed hard into the back of the goblin's neck.
The goblin shrieked bizarrely and thrashed about. The blow wasn't powerful enough to kill it instantly.
Practically clinging to the goblin's back, I plunged my second dagger in right beside the first.
I yanked both daggers from the nape of its neck simultaneously.
Blood spurted from the gaping wound as both the goblin and I tumbled to the ground.
There were still too many goblins left.
The goblin's blood ran down the dagger onto my wrist.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Gah! Aaargh!”
Screams rang out. The rear guard had started firing arrows.
I deflected an incoming arrow with my dagger on pure instinct.
I managed to block the arrow, but my wrist throbbed as if it were about to shatter.
‘Right now, Kang Han-gyeol's body is barely at the level of an average adult male.’
Considering my body right after I'd transmigrated was that of a third-year high school student, out of shape from studying, I should have been grateful for an average twenty-year-old's physique.
The problem was, the situation now was completely different.
To the current me, the body of an average twenty-year-old was no different from my body back in my senior year of high school.
Lee Ye-eun took an arrow to the eye, Nam Woon-ik to the leg, and other goblins seized the opening to charge.
“Son of a…”
A massive fireball shot toward Choi Min-hyuk as he moved to help them.
Choi Min-hyuk spun around, wreathed his sword in flames, and blocked the fireball.
Just as Choi Min-hyuk, having barely blocked the flames, was about to rush forward, Kim Tae-woon grabbed him.
Five goblins swung their weapons down at the two on the ground.
A sickening amount of blood splattered at the goblins' feet.
An axe-wielding goblin turned. A severed hand lay on the ground.
“This is insane.”
Realizing this was no joke, Choi Min-hyuk gripped his greatsword. A second volley of arrows flew.
There was no more time for talk.
The remaining goblins charged, and I fought back, desperate to survive.
It happened just as I had somehow managed to kill a second, and then a third goblin.
A vortex of fire erupted upwards. It was Choi Min-hyuk's doing.
As the goblins recoiled from the flames, Choi Min-hyuk stood, sword in hand, staring at something.
Choi Min-hyuk's shoulder was soaked in blood from a deep gash, and an arrow was lodged in his left thigh.
“Even if I die, I'm taking that bastard boss's head with me!”
Deciding it was hopeless, Choi Min-hyuk made a desperate, all-or-nothing charge toward the Goblin Lord.
A goblin's spear pierced through Choi Min-hyuk's chest and stomach.
He never even reached the Goblin Lord, impaled on the spear of a nearby goblin.
When the goblin pulled its spear free, blood and entrails spilled from the gaping hole in his abdomen.
Kim Tae-woon and I exchanged a look.
The Goblin Lord raised its weapon and roared in triumph again.
Several more goblins stepped forward.
His back to mine, Kim Tae-woon gasped for breath.
He wasn't as grievously injured as Choi Min-hyuk, but Kim Tae-woon was far from unscathed.
‘I think one of my arms is pretty much useless now, too.’
My arm was completely wrecked from fighting two goblins after that botched attempt to deflect an arrow.
Judging by the swelling, the bone was definitely broken.
“I'll be honest. I don't have much mana left either.”
“Well, that's one hell of a confession.”
Tossing aside my dulled dagger, I picked up a goblin's sword from the ground.