Are Goblins Supposed to Be Weak? (1)

Eunho had two main reasons for rejecting the trial.

It's useless to me.

The Path of the Assassin.

As established, it was a trial whose value had already been proven by Salwang, one of the reigning top rankers.

It looks good at a glance. The problem is that it's entirely replaceable.

Take the trait, 'Assassin's Mindset'. It bolstered the user's mental fortitude and kept them composed in any crisis. Fine on paper. In fact, it sounded downright exceptional. The catch was that the trait gradually froze the bearer's emotions solid.

That's why Salwang is famous for never showing a single shred of expression.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skill, 'Way of the Assassin', suffered from the same flaw.

It was a composite skill, wasn't it?

Shadowless Steps, which smothered the sound of one's footsteps. Pursuing Fragrance, which ensured a marked target never escaped. And Abyssal Slaughter, which turned any weapon into an instrument of assassination. Yet not one of those abilities stirred a speck of envy in Eunho.

Silence. It worked something like this, didn't it?

Eunho recalled the sensation he had felt while wearing the Silence Boots—the subtle flow rising from the soles of his feet, spreading like a contagion to swallow even the faint whistle of a thrown dagger slicing through the air.

Move.

He circulated the mana within his body. Though his pathways remained a half-finished circuit, they obeyed his will, branching into every limb and fiber of his flesh to orchestrate that same peculiar resonance. The noise produced by his shifting posture began to dwindle.

I can't achieve absolute silence yet. But erasing my presence? That's well within reach.

See? He could simply craft the skill himself. Way of the Assassin was certainly powerful, but it was hardly essential.

The swordsmanship proficiency is the same story.

A massive leap in swordsmanship mastery had seemed like the most attractive offer on the table. His proficiency currently hovered just past eighty percent. Another thirty percent would have bumped his rank cleanly from C- to a full C.

Don't need it.

Eunho had no intention of taking shortcuts. He already knew what was required to reach the next tier: refining his half-baked mana circuits. He needed to forge pathways tailored to wielding a blade, pathways versatile enough to support any physical martial action. If he failed to lay that foundation first, advancing his rank would leave his swordsmanship just as fractured as his incomplete circuits.

Besides, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this.

Eunho closed his eyes.

He recalled the skills his trait had hammered out during the recent battle: Dagger Arts, Throwing Arts, and Whip Arts. He focused on the sensory memory of executing each one.

A dagger lacks reach compared to a sword, requiring wider, deeper footwork. Its movements prioritize thrusting over slashing.

Throwing demands precise coordination across the wrist, shoulder, and upper trapezius. Without proper alignment, the strain will ruin the body over time.

Whip Arts—the mechanics of lashing. Flexibility in the wrist is paramount here as well. It requires a circuit flowing straight from the back.

Projecting the fundamentals of swordsmanship across the other weapons revealed the common threads running through them all.

Here. From this point... to here. If I connect these...

Spiritual power bloomed at his fingertips. An anatomical blueprint unfurled inside his mind, tracing lines across his flesh with every stroke of his intent. Eunho's consciousness sank into the deepest recesses of his awareness, sparking a chain reaction he hadn't anticipated.

The underlying principles resonate. A dagger is just a shorter blade, but even beyond that... the lightness of throwing carries into the whip, the whip's fluid freedom enhances the sword, and the dagger's sharp precision feeds back into the throw. Each discipline patches the deficiencies of the others.

Eunho hadn't opened his eyes to see it, but Regressor Arin caught every beat of the cascading notifications filling the air before him.

—What in the world...?

The system wasn't finished.

His third milestone. The achievement, All Streams Converge, had manifested.

When Eunho finally opened his eyes, a barrage of stimuli greeted him: a wall of translucent notifications cluttering half his vision, an onslaught of chat messages demanding to know why he had passed on the trial, and Regressor Arin staring at him with her jaw practically unhinged.

He checked the notifications first.

Huh. I wasn't aiming for it, but I snagged another achievement.

All Streams Converge. A quick glance through his status window revealed that, unlike Unprecedented Rookie or Irregular, this one wasn't a total mystery. It actually had an explanatory tooltip!

Eunho and Regressor Arin had the exact same thought the instant they finished reading.

Isn't this absurdly broken?

—What kind of cheat is this...?

Practicing a single weapon granted bonus mastery to every other weapon in his arsenal? For someone like Eunho, who fought with whatever sharp or blunt object he could get his hands on, this was an unimaginable windfall.

—Wait, Eunho-ya. Weren't you supposed to have talent with the sword? Did you lie to me?

Huh? No. I told you my talent was ambiguous.

—Isn't that the same thing?!

Most weapons felt identical when I picked them up. They just felt... comfortable in my grip.

—......

The problem was that I couldn't channel mana back then, so none of it was useful.

—Eunho, you... you always manage to blow past my wildest imagination.

Come on, it's not that big of a deal.

Shrugging off Arin's astonishment, Eunho turned his focus back to reality. There were matters that needed tending to right away.

"Ah. Looks like the 3rd Floor is cleared."

"The Path of the Assassin?" Eunho replied coolly. "That's exactly why I refused it."

Watching the question ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠marks flood the chat, Eunho finally understood what people meant by baiting the room. Streaming was turning out to be surprisingly fun.

"The Path of the Assassin is certainly an enticing offer," Eunho explained smoothly. "But if you get blinded by shiny rewards, you lose sight of the essence, don't you?"

He remembered how the prompt had been framed. The system hadn't called it an 'offer' or a 'class advancement'. It had labeled it a Trial. Why would the Tower slap the word 'Trial' on an option overflowing with lavish benefits?

Because there is no such thing as free generosity.

Accepting the path would have bound him to severe hidden strings. His instincts had screamed as much. Besides, Eunho had no intention of complicating his trajectory right now. Climbing the Tower was hard enough without burdening himself with external baggage, especially when his destiny had shifted the moment a regressor's soul took up residence in his mind.

Even if those rewards were tempting, you're going to find me far better things anyway. Right?

Eunho glanced sideways at Regressor Arin. Her earlier shock had melted away, replaced by an affectionate, beaming grin.

—Mhm! Obviously!

Eunho returned his gaze to the chat to wrap up his explanation.

"I deeply respect Senior Salwang, who climbed the Tower walking that very path. But precisely because I respect him, my goal isn't to become the second Salwang. My goal is to become the first Baek Eunho."

The viewers' reaction settled quickly enough. With their doubts put to rest, Eunho took a step forward, his heart racing with anticipation. Present-day Arin quietly fell in beside him, marking the official completion of the 3rd Floor.

Thump-thump.

His pulse drummed like an eager beat. What would drop this time? As Eunho waited, the carcass of the twin-headed wolf dissolved into gray vapor, swirling into a dense vortex above the cavern floor. It didn't stop there. Wisps of smoke from the other cave wolves slain near the entrance ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠came drifting through the air, fusing into the central mass.

The vapor clustered and churned like gathering storm clouds. Once it had condensed into a thick, kneading mass, it dropped an item with a hollow thud.

It was a bare blade.

"Wait... what? Why did it only give me the blade?"

Eunho had good reason to complain. A weapon—or any practical implement—naturally included a hilt or handle for a person to grip and swing. That was universal common sense. Yet this item lacked anything resembling a grip. Measuring roughly eighty centimeters long and forty centimeters wide, it was simply an oversized wedge of sharpened metal.

—Hmm. Eunho-ya, that looks like a spearhead.

A spearhead? Now that you mention it, the shape does look like one.

—Right? And it doesn't have a shaft. Its final grade will probably scale depending on what material you use to craft the haft. I've seen items like this before.

Really?

Listening to Regressor Arin's counsel, Eunho examined the item window.

—A debuff weapon? Those are exceptionally rare in the 1st Tier.

With Regressor Arin vouching for its quality, Eunho confirmed it was a solid reward and looked straight ahead.

He checked on the present Arin. Climbing wasn't a solo venture anymore. His teammate's stamina, wounds, and general condition all required careful consideration. She shook her head with a resolute look, signaling that she was ready to push on.

"Yes," Eunho answered.

A familiar fork in the road. As always, Eunho unhesitatingly picked the harder route. In an instant, the world dissolved around them. The dank, humid cavern melted away, replaced by the lush green canopy of a vibrant forest. Watching the environment transform without taking a single step was a spectacle that never quite lost its novelty.

Goblins. The quintessential starter mob of any fantasy setting. Trashed by greenhorn adventurers, cut down in droves by passing knights—the tragic poster children of weakness.

"True," Eunho chuckled. "Goblins are the undisputed fantasy standard."

The stream's mood was festive. Not a single soul doubted Eunho's ability to cruise through the floor. Yet it took less than five minutes for the first bewildered murmurs to surface.

Eunho stared in stunned silence at the goblin blocking the forest trail.

Standing over 180 centimeters tall, Eunho was a well-built, athletic adult male. Yet this creature stood a full head taller than him. Its arms and legs were thicker than those of a professional bodybuilder, and its flared lats and muscular shoulder blades stretched wide enough to block out the sun.

Faced with that hulking wall of green flesh, Eunho couldn't help but ask the obvious question.

"Are goblins supposed to be weak?"

The era of gym-bro goblins had officially arrived.