Goblins Are Weak? (5)

Golden radiance seeped quietly into the corners of their eyes. It was a veritable feast of treasure — a sight that could only be called a mountain of gold. The space spread out before them shimmered with vivid, many-colored light.

"Whoa. How much is all of this worth?"

Regressor Arin, for once, went round-eyed and looked about the room.

"There's no way this much would ever show up on the 1st Tier, you know?"

'Really?'

"Nope. At least the 2nd Stratum ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— and only if you clear somewhere tied to a 'hidden' quest. Short of that, where else would you ever get this much treasure? Have you ever seen it?"

'Huh. Now that you mention it, fair point.'

The treasure before them outstripped every climber's stream he had ever watched — more, even, than those who had cleared the entire 1st Tier.

With such a hoard laid out at their feet, what should they choose?

'What do you think?'

"We can't take it all, can we?"

'Yeah. My mana sense is picking something up. Fakes are mixed in — illusions, maybe. No telling what happens if you touch one.'

"I see... I've got the gist now. This is the Floor 4 clear-reward room. Like the rewards you got when you brought down the slimes on Floor 2, or the cave wolves on Floor 3."

In her words, the Tower was meant to have its own proper 'order' — and what they had done amounted to shattering that order outright.

But how was that even possible?

A single message flickered across Eunho's eyes.

The achievement — Irregular.

Never once used since he had obtained it — no, unusable, its very ability a mystery — that achievement was now yawning away, loud and clear.

'What the hell is this thing?'

"Looks like that achievement did it. Wait, hold on. It's not even exerting real force. It just yawns — yawns — and the Tower's rules get trampled? Does that make any sense to you?"

Leaving Regressor Arin's astonishment behind, Eunho stared hard at the achievement.

'What are you, exactly?'

Naturally, no answer came.

An achievement was a single footprint of the path he had walked.

Who, upon leaving footprints in freshly fallen snow, ever struck up a conversation with them?

Any self-respecting evolved Homo sapiens ought to know full well that no reply would be forthcoming.

It was a matter of common sense.

'Whew. Forget it. Just keep doing what you've been doing, and stick with me.'

When he had opened this door and stepped inside, it was what had helped his mana breach the Tower's laws.

That had been the Irregular's move — and its intent.

Put another way: thanks to the thing, they had been able to enter this room at all.

That was the entirety of its reply.

Eunho pulled his attention away from the Irregular and surveyed the room. The sight was still dazzlingly resplendent, and he had no feel for what to pick.

"Hey, over there. Go check that side for a sec. See the tiara? What about that one?"

'Why this?'

"Feels like something we could use on the 2nd Stratum. Ever heard of favorability grinding?"

'I've heard of it. Is it really that important?'

"Hmm... with it, clearing things gets easy; without it, things get a bit of a hassle? Roughly that level."

'Then something else.'

"Gotcha."

Guided by Regressor Arin, Eunho roamed every corner of the room. Nothing quite won him over.

No — hold on. Looked at another way, didn't this mean he had nearly taken home trinkets like these as his rewards?

Swallowing the small flare of irritation rising within him, Eunho snooped around the room. And then he found something.

"What's that thing?"

At Regressor Arin's voice, Eunho turned his head. He saw a single rod.

Roughly two meters long.

Its surface was coarse, as though hewn from wood.

"What is this thing?"

Eunho crouched down and studied the rod intently. There was something strangely captivating about the black-grained wood; it quietly stole the eye.

"What is that? Even I've never seen anything like it."

'It's just a wooden stick, though?'

"No... something's different about it. It feels... ominous? How should I put it?"

'You were probing the item's information through mana, right? Want me to give spiritual power a try?'

"...Will that be okay?"

'What, is that supposed to be difficult?'

Eunho released his spiritual power without a second thought. And in less than a true instant, he came to regret the choice.

'What the...'

Black darkness dyed everything before his eyes pitch-dark.

The world around him vanished beneath a heavy curtain, and as though severed from all else, not a sound reached him.

A world of utter, hollow nothingness.

Such was the nature of the rod, as seen through spiritual power.

A world brimming with deep void, its desolation spread bleak with the loneliness of one left utterly alone.

As he felt it, Eunho's spine — resonating with that loneliness unbidden — prickled with a cold shiver.

'...Hah—'

Eunho drew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a sharp breath and forcibly severed the flow of spiritual power. Only then did the frantic voice around him come through.

"Eunho! Snap out of it! Can you hear me?!"

Regressor Arin was staring at him, eyes bulging, hands clutching her own cheeks.

'...Uh, yeah. I'm fine.'

"What happened... no, forget it — we've got a problem!"

'What is it?'

"Look behind you!"

At her words, Eunho looked back. A faint golden curtain hung dimly spread, and against it, some heavy weapon drummed again and again.

"Looks like this floor's boss-class monster. It came bursting out of the passage on the far side and charged. The past me is holding it off as we speak."

'...Wait. Hold on. It charged out of the passage? When?'

"An hour ago!"

An hour?

Eunho couldn't grasp the meaning of the words.

'I was out of it for an hour?'

"To be exact, about an hour and fourteen minutes."

A fresh chill blossomed up Eunho's spine.

What he had experienced was no more than an instant.

The time it took a passing breeze to brush ticklingly across the skin.

The time it took drifting sound to strike the ear and scatter into motes.

Just that much of an instant.

Yet in reality, more than an hour had flowed past.

'And I never even sensed the thing's presence.'

Even now, that held true.

Until Regressor Arin pointed, Eunho hadn't registered the boss-tier goblin's arrival at all.

As if something in his senses had broken down.

'...No. It's a little different. This is...'

A feeling he had known before.

Feeling it out, Eunho clenched his fist tight. At the same time, belatedly, he set his body in motion.

As he rose from where he sat, the wooden rod from moments before was in his hand.

"Eunho? Why are you holding that...?"

'It's fine. I can't feel it anymore.'

He lifted the rod. A piece of information rippled before his eyes.

An item that displayed neither grade nor name.

A piece of equipment so baffling that even Regressor Arin's eyes trembled at the readout.

Looking at it, Eunho opened his inventory. A single spearhead gleamed there.

Grudge Tooth.

A piece of equipment obtained on the previous floor.

When he pressed the rod against it, teeth surged up at the point of contact. Yet mere wood though it was, the thing could not bore in — it snapped and fell away.

Before long, the wooden rod put out something resembling roots and began, in turn, to surge upward.

Scritch. Scritch.

The Grudge Tooth, eroded by the rod, little by little lost its own native color.

What remained was a single black spearhead.

Eunho gazed at the equipment a moment, then spoke to the present-day Arin.

"Sorry. You've been through a lot. And... thank you."

His heart brimmed with gratitude for the girl who must have stood guard over him without pause while he was unconscious.

How was he ever to repay her?

In truth, the answer was only one: bring this floor to a swift end.

Gripping the spear, Eunho set off. He gave Arin's shoulder a gentle pat and carried his steps beyond the golden curtain.

"...Eunho?"

The present-day Arin's voice rang at his ear. Eunho looked back at her and offered a faint smile.

The moment he stepped beyond the golden curtain, the goblin staring him down came into view.

A frame a full head larger than any goblin he had faced so far. A greatsword held in one hand.

And last of all — armor, sloppily donned but donned all the same.

'Almost looks the part of a knight.'

If he had to name it, Goblin Knight would fit best.

That was the sort of monster this was.

"You've had a rough time of it because of me, and I'd like to let her rest — so would you kindly show yourself out?"

"Kriik. KRRAAAAGH—!!"

"Yeah. Figured words wouldn't do it."

The moment the creature laid eyes on the spear in his hand, its eyes rolled back and it hoisted its sword. To be precise, it was reacting to the rod transformed into a spear haft.

Beyond its white-knuckled grip, he sensed the mana pouring into the greatsword. The instant the blade swung, the lingering resonance of mana brushed the tip of his nose.

"Careful. That one can work mana into its movements — into its techniques, even."

'Yeah. I can see that.'

Eunho bent backward and slipped past the sword. The moment he did, the trajectory bent naturally through empty air, and the blade came chasing after him. It was like a living creature.

A movement that could never have been made without mana.

Even if one reinforced one's movements by circulating mana through the body, without deploying techniques at precisely the right junctures, such agility could never be shown.

'When the blade curves, mana packs tight around the elbow and wrist. On the opening thrust, it runs from the back, over the shoulder and biceps, down into the forearm.'

Every single movement, it seemed, put mana to use in an entirely different way.

To put it in perspective — it was like the swordplay of a martial arts novel.

Just as each sect wielded its own sword method, and each method its own circulation of true qi to bring those movements forth, so too did Eunho's techniques — a matter of simply hardening the body with mana — differ from true techniques with mana woven into their very fabric.

Eunho's senses seized hold of it. In the same breath, he felt everything.

'Why I only realized the thing's presence so late. I think I get it now.'

He had been through this once before. Back when he had yet to even enter Floor 1 — much like the time he had taken Regressor Arin's power into his body and wiped the fairy's presence away entirely.

Ding—!

A clear tone rang bright in his ear.

A rise in spiritual power.

There was nothing strange about it.

'That experience just now must have counted for a great deal.'

Might it be called a stroke of serendipity?

Feeling it out, Eunho spoke to Arin.

"Arin. Think you could give me a buff?"

"Okay. What kind...?"

"While you're at it, a mana-related one. Triple-stacked."

"...Triple-stacked?"

Arin's eyes went round.

Triple-stacking was the utmost limit of what she could manage.

And though it was possible, she had had no intention of casting it on Eunho just yet.

'He won't be able to withstand it.'

Her talent let her read Eunho's condition at a glance. His body was not yet ready to endure a triple-stacked buff.

And yet — why was it?

"......"

One meeting with those eyes kept shaking her resolve.

"...All right."

At length, she nodded.

Holy power stirred within her body. At the same time, the flow of sensation through his own transformed yet again, dramatically.

Thump—!

His heart pounded as though set alight, and the amount of mana entering his body changed.

"Eunho! This is far too dangerous..."

'It's fine. I think I can manage.'

With half-lidded eyes, Eunho faced the world head-on.

The dimly visible shape of the Goblin Knight.

And beyond it, the currents of mana in their natural state.

Feeling them enter his body with each inhalation, Eunho breathed them straight back out, granting them no moment to be refined.

Ripples of mana spread outward from his body.

Fwoooosh—.

With a sound like a surging tide, a vast movement fell under his orchestration.

"Thanks for the lesson."

Eunho flashed a grin and altered the currents of mana scattered around him. Like a whirlpool spinning up, the mana of the whole area rotated around him, whipping itself into a ferocious motion.

Even the ripples rebounding off the walls seemed to lie beneath his will, compelled to move as Eunho willed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them.

Feeling it all, Eunho gripped the spear.

The flow of mana — rotating, twisting ever tighter, flaunting its raging ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠presence — converged into that spear.

And that was the end of it.

A single movement. The spear's thrust. And the body of the Goblin Knight, its throat pierced through.

The current of mana whirled into a vortex and tore savagely at the creature's throat. KRA-CHUNK! Before long, its body had been shredded beyond all recognition.

"What should we name it?"

Eunho stowed the spear into his inventory and looked back. The dazed eyes staring at him burned vividly into his retinas.

"No, what... what did you just do?"

'I braided the mana and set it spinning. There was no need to obsess over any one movement, was there? You never know what you'll need to lean on in the moment.'

So rather than pinning everything on the flow within his body, he had simply conducted, directly, the mana he breathed out.

The current shaped that way had simply become a great calamity, and crashed down upon his opponent.

As Eunho replayed the exchange in his mind, his trait stirred in response.

'Oh, come on. You damn status window.'

Why in the world would that be the name?