Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Goblin Forest Ablaze
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Shin Yu-hyun gazed at the messages floating before his eyes and broke into a satisfied smile.
'Huh?'
But his brow furrowed almost immediately.
Dark Soul Eater let him taste the souls.
And the goblins' flavor was...
'Ah, damn. This is mint chocolate?'
It was exactly like chocolate smeared with toothpaste—pure mint chocolate.
'To farm Soul Points from goblins, do I have to keep tasting mint chocolate?'
Shin Yu-hyun shook his head inwardly.
Regardless, the key point was that killing goblins yielded Soul Points.
That would let him grow faster than other superhumans.
"Shin Yu-hyun, when exactly did you awaken your vital energy?"
Once Shin Yu-hyun finished off the goblins, Choi Hyun-seong fired off the question.
The man who had been mocked and shunned as a disgrace to the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan for failing to awaken his vital energy by age twenty.
So when the hell had he done it?
"Five days ago."
Shin Yu-hyun answered Choi Hyun-seong's question without hesitation.
He had no intention of hiding the fact that he had awakened his vital energy. He had already told his youngest brother, Shin Cheol-ho, and used mana to take him down.
Word would spread through the clan in a matter of days.
And the real issue right now wasn't even that.
"Five days ago?"
Choi Hyun-seong let out an involuntary laugh at Shin Yu-hyun's reply.
"You manifested an aura attribute, and you're saying you awakened your vital energy just five days ago? That doesn't add up."
Reaching 3-star in a mere five days after hitting 2-star was hard to believe.
But Shin Yu-hyun smiled casually, as if it were no big deal.
"Manifesting an aura attribute doesn't automatically mean you're at 3-star, does it?"
"What?"
For a moment, Choi Hyun-seong felt like he'd been clubbed in the back of the head.
If he could wield an aura attribute even at 2-star...
"Instructor Choi Hyun-seong, have you forgotten? I'm a direct descendant of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan."
"...!"
A direct descendant of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
That single phrase had Choi Hyun-seong nodding in understanding. The direct descendants were all freakishly talented.
Their father, Clan Leader Shin Sung-il of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan—known as the Iron-Blooded Sword King—was one of Korea's mightiest superhumans.
"Did you really think I had no talent?"
Shin Yu-hyun said with a smile.
But contrary to his bold words, he truly had no talent when it came to awakening vital energy.
And like with Shin Ji-ah, he had hidden it from Choi Hyun-seong and Lee Jung-hoon's crew. The black flames rising from his sword weren't an aura attribute at all.
He had simply staged it to look like one.
He had no desire to talk about the Immortal King, so he stuck to claiming it was an aura attribute.
Unaware of the truth, chills raced up Choi Hyun-seong's spine.
'Was he hiding his talent all along?'
Using an aura attribute from 2-star onward.
What kind of insane talent was that?
And on top of that...
'I had no clue until now.'
Choi Hyun-seong hadn't even realized Shin Yu-hyun had awakened his vital energy until he revealed the black flame aura.
That was the real problem.
"Then how did you hide your mana?"
Choi Hyun-seong eyed him curiously.
Shin Yu-hyun gave a small laugh at the question.
Not even Shin Ji-ah had noticed his vital energy awakening.
Someone below her level like Choi Hyun-seong naturally wouldn't either.
"Do I have to answer that?"
Choi Hyun-seong was a promising talent worth recruiting, but Shin Yu-hyun had no plans to reveal the secrets of his power.
"No, that was out of line."
Choi Hyun-seong backed off immediately.
It was common for superhumans to conceal their strength.
Especially a direct descendant of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan.
Digging into their secrets was dangerous.
"So, what are your plans now?"
Choi Hyun-seong's complicated gaze was asking what he intended to do in the clan.
He probably didn't buy the story about awakening five days ago and assumed Shin Yu-hyun had been hiding his power and biding his time.
"We conquer this place first. Failure means getting booted from the clan."
Shin Yu-hyun shrugged as he replied.
"So the rumors were true."
"Yes."
Shin Yu-hyun nodded at Choi Hyun-seong's words.
Lee Jung-hoon then interjected with a shocked expression.
"Wait, you really have to leave the clan if you can't solo a 2-star boss alone?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
The bet with his second brother, Shin Cheol-jin, was irreversible now. Losing meant expulsion from the clan.
'But I'm not leaving that easily.'
In his previous life, there were those who had scorned and belittled him and his mother.
In this life, he would look down on them from above.
To make that happen, he first needed to seize control of the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan from within.
Asking his uncle, Shin Sung-hyun, to have his back was a foundational step toward that goal.
And once he controlled the clan, it would be a huge boon for his revenge against the Getia bastards.
Shin Yu-hyun flashed a grin at Lee Jung-hoon and his crew.
"That's why I've got a great idea for you guys."
Lee Jung-hoon's group flinched at the eerie edge in Shin Yu-hyun's smile, but they couldn't refuse.
The being before them was a monstrous direct descendant who wielded aura at 2-star.
"W-what is it?"
Shin Yu-hyun beamed at the hesitant Lee Jung-hoon.
"I'm going to burn this whole place down."
Whoosh!
As he spoke, fierce black flames erupted from his magic sword.
Shin Yu-hyun raised the blazing sword and added one more line.
"And there's something I want you to do."
In the dark forest under a blood-red moon, black flames surged skyward.
The black fire devoured the woods, spreading in all directions.
Amid the acrid smoke and rising black inferno, the goblins couldn't get their bearings.
Kieeeek!
The goblins fled the forest in droves, escaping the smoke and flames.
A man wielding a magic sword with a crimson blade stood in their path.
Whoosh.
Black flames began to rise from the red magic sword.
Kiik? Kiruk?
The goblins stared at it with eyes full of terror.
Flash!
In an instant, a streak of red sword light wove black flames through the air, severing goblin heads.
System messages filled Shin Yu-hyun's vision, announcing the kills.
"Right on plan."
Shin Yu-hyun smiled in satisfaction.
He had ignited the forest with Dark Soul Blaze and lured the survivors to his position.
He fine-tuned the black flames for that purpose, while Lee Jung-hoon's crew herded goblins from nearby.
The goblins, panicked from the forest fire and fixated on escape, were easy pickings.
And that wasn't all.
A flood of system messages scrolled across Shin Yu-hyun's view.
The goblins hiding in the forest had burned to death in the black flames.
Most hadn't escaped in time and perished in the blaze.
Maybe that's why.
'Mint chocolate with a burnt aftertaste.'
As he absorbed Soul Points from the flame-roasted goblins, the mint chocolate carried a charred edge.
It was an indescribable flavor.
"What the hell is this...?"
"Catching goblins like this?"
"Is this for real?"
Moments later, Choi Hyun-seong and Lee Jung-hoon's crew arrived at Shin Yu-hyun's spot, staring blankly at the forest burning with black flames under the red moon.
Goblin screams still echoed from within.
"Thanks to you guys doing your part."
Overhearing them, Shin Yu-hyun smirked.
The Goblin Forest was vast.
Simply setting it ablaze wouldn't wipe out every goblin.
That's why he used Lee Jung-hoon's crew—as bait tossed into the woods.
Thanks to their frantic efforts, a huge number of goblins had been funneled into the black flames.
For the tougher ones, they lured them here to Shin Yu-hyun or handled them directly.
The end result: Shin Yu-hyun had massacred over a hundred Fallen Goblins.
"Never doing that again."
Lee Jung-hoon groaned, and Kim Do-jin with Jeong Min-seok nodded vigorously in agreement.
They had suffered every hardship imaginable while fleeing goblin pursuits. But it had cleared the dungeon's goblins.
"Still, we got lucky. Who knew there were this many...?"
"Yeah. Taking them one by one would've taken forever."
"Time aside, a horde like that? We'd have run for it."
Lee Jung-hoon's crew gawked at the inferno, clicking their tongues.
The goblin count had exceeded expectations.
Dungeons usually spawned 20 or 30 magic beasts at most—50 if it was a lot.
A hundred was rare.
"What's left..."
Shin Yu-hyun eyed the raging forest fire.
At that moment.
Roooooooar!
A colossal roar exploded from beyond the trees, shaking the air and reverberating through the entire forest.
"Urk!"
Lee Jung-hoon's crew grimaced and staggered.
"..."
Shin Yu-hyun clenched his teeth and held his ground rigidly.
Only the 4-star swordsman Choi Hyun-seong remained unaffected.
He watched Shin Yu-hyun with keen interest.
'Definitely 2-star.'
Choi Hyun-seong confirmed it from how Shin barely withstood the roar. A 3-star would have handled it more comfortably.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Soon, something enormous began charging through the forest, toppling trees in its path.
"Here it comes."
Seeing it, Shin Yu-hyun grinned.
He instinctively knew this was the dungeon boss hurtling toward them.
Less than a minute until arrival.
Shin Yu-hyun quickly summoned his status window.
His stats were higher than at the same point in his regression.
Thanks to a week of grueling training bolstered by his mental strength.
Plus, the training methods he used—refined future techniques superior to modern ones—had helped.
He had achieved meaningful gains.
'Though my rank is still low.'
Low ranks allowed quick stat growth, but higher ones took far more time.
However.
'I've got Soul Points.'
At the bottom of the status window sat the Soul Points he had grudgingly absorbed amid that mint chocolate ordeal.
Shin Yu-hyun swiftly allocated them to Chakra.