Echoes of the Swarm
Thud.
Meyrin sank to the ground, muttering.
“Count Reinach and the Third Knight Order were wiped out.”
The goblin swarm was a calamity unlike anything they had ever faced.
It left countless casualties in its wake.
They had gathered expecting nothing more than a routine goblin village subjugation.
None of them could have imagined goblins could change like this.
“A goblin swarm, huh. We’ve seen all kinds of things now.”
Tou grumbled as he changed his blood-soaked bandages.
Meyrin asked,
“Isabel…?”
“She left in the end.”
Tou averted his gaze as he delivered the grim news.
“……I see.”
The hero party had suffered its first casualty.
Yet there was no time to mourn.
The battlefield held as many dead humans as dead goblins.
They couldn’t even retrieve the bodies.
They had to abandon everyone here and flee.
Goblin swarms were contagious.
It was a kind of pheromone stimulation phenomenon. If those stained with the blood or saliva of swarmed goblins moved, it would agitate the goblins in that direction as well.
They simply had to end the expedition for today and return to the village.
Grateful just to be alive.
“If it weren’t for you, we would’ve been wiped out too, Meyrin. Thank you.”
Tou offered his thanks and turned away.
Meyrin spoke to his back.
“No. My magic…… that wasn’t my magic.”
“What?”
Meyrin’s flame magic had amplified several times beyond normal, reducing a significant number of the swarm goblins to ash.
Yet she claimed it wasn’t her magic?
“What do you mean, Meyrin?”
Tou found it hard to believe, but the caster herself knew the truth.
She didn’t possess that level of power yet.
This was……
“Julian.”
His power.
“Julian?”
“Julian’s mana was mixed in.”
She could sense it.
A considerable amount of Julian’s mana had blended into her spell.
“Is that even possible? That guy was barely managing to protect himself.”
Even if he was the chosen hero, he had only just awakened his mana sense and begun channeling a little mana into his weapon.
“Adding mana to a mage’s spell? That’s only possible for high-ranking mages who have mastered mana control. How could he do that?”
“I don’t know how he did it either. But……”
Meyrin gazed at Julian’s back as he sat dazed on a rock and spoke.
“He’s the hero, isn’t he?”
“!”
“Someone whose very existence threatens the Demon King. Maybe…… just Julian’s presence helped my casting.”
Tou’s eyes wavered for a moment.
‘Is that it?’
He had felt something similar today.
Though weak, Julian had never retreated even an inch while fighting the goblins.
‘So that’s what it means to be a hero.’
That Julian was truly the hero.
Crackle!
The sudden flood of memories ended like a revolving lantern.
‘Memories…… but not quite.’
Come to think of it, these weren’t Moon Junil’s memories.
‘That’s not my point of view.’
After all, the figure sitting dazed on a rock in the distance was Julian, wasn’t it?
If these were Julian’s memories, his back wouldn’t be visible.
Besides, he had no recollection of this conversation at all.
There was no way he could have heard this exchange from that distance.
This was a conversation between comrades held at a distance Julian couldn’t hear.
This belonged to someone else’s memories.
‘Whose memories could these possibly be……?’
His thoughts didn’t last long.
Ding!
Mana Shout
A rather half-hearted name compared to the beautiful memory.
Mana Shout
Achievement: ★
Potential: B
Description: Releases a shout infused with mana that bolsters courage. Allies within range gain resistance to mental attacks and improved focus. Additionally, your normal voice gains increased persuasiveness.
‘Oh. Grade B?’
This time the potential was a solid B-grade.
Of course, with Julian’s power being inherited, the potential ratings given by Ram’s system were hard to trust completely.
Still, the Constellations liked it.
‘Higher is better.’
Moon Junil felt good too.
Wasn’t that enough?
‘Alright. Now that I’ve got another skill, let’s go level up.’
If he could find and kill the Champion Goblin he had seen in the photo, he should be able to level up.
‘Kang Hae-il might be there too.’
He might even run into Kang Hae-il there.
‘I won’t interfere directly, but I need to level up.’
He couldn’t let Kang Hae-il take the Champion Goblin.
‘I’d better hurry.’
He was about to rush off when—
“Um…… Sagosul-nim?”
Someone approached and spoke to him.
“Thank you so much……! Thanks to you, I survived!”
“Thank you!”
Other Awakened also came forward to express their gratitude.
Moon Junil stared blankly at them for a moment.
Because another scene overlapped with this one.
“Aigoo…… Thank you, Hero-nim.”
“You’re the savior of our village……!”
The villagers who had thanked him during his hero days.
‘That’s right……’
Being a hero—mostly terrible, but there were good moments too.
“It’s nothing. I’m busy, so I’ll be going.”
Moon Junil gave a similar reply to back then and turned to leave.
But there was one difference this time.
“W-wait!”
“?”
“C-could you take a photo with me? Hehe.”
A request for a photo.
“Ah.”
Well, he couldn’t refuse that.
Moon Junil, despite having said he was busy, walked over to them and struck a pose.
Click.
Click.
When Moon Junil struck the pose, everyone marveled.
“Whoa…… Perfect angle.”
“He perfectly recreated that bizarre angle.”
“As expected of Sagosul……”
Click! Click!
Moon Junil stood like a statue while everyone took turns posing beside him for commemorative photos.
The Awakened laughed and took pictures in front of the countless swarm goblin corpses.
Without exception, everyone approached Sagosul for a photo.
“This’ll blow up on Insta.”
“Insane. Wearing that mask is seriously cool.”
“M-me too!”
In the midst of the cheerful atmosphere, one person stood behind a large tree.
‘That perverted attention-seeker with the mask is the reason Junil oppa……’
It was Suyeon.
She had arrived at the scene only now, still dazed after Junil had abandoned her and fled.
And now that fake cat-masked Sagosul was being cheered on by people?
‘Just who the hell is that guy?’
She wanted to know the identity of the cat mask.
She turned on her phone and searched SNS.
#Sagosul
A few verified photos came up.
Posts from thug-looking guys calling him “hyung,” posts from a woman in a tracksuit, and so on.
The early photos had one difference from now.
‘The weird pose is the same, but he wasn’t wearing the mask back then.’
Though the lighting was dark and his face was lowered, there was clearly no mask.
Ding.
[New post containing the search term has been uploaded!]
A real-time notification arrived.
#Sagosul
#NorthSeoulGoblinSlayer
#GoblinMassacre
#Level10
Someone had taken a photo just now and immediately uploaded it to SNS without being able to hold back.
Well, these days, posting a verified photo with Sagosul guaranteed massive attention, so it was hard to resist.
Especially with comments flooding in like this.
“Ha?”
Suyeon let out a hollow laugh.
“And he’s just a fake.”
After taking a few photos, Moon Junil left the area.
He had to find the Champion Goblin.
He had considered asking if anyone wanted to come along, but—
“Ugh. I-I’m done for today……”
“I almost died earlier too. There’s no point if you don’t survive.”
Everyone refused to hunt any further.
‘Makes sense.’
Moon Junil understood.
When first-life Julian had faced the goblin swarm, even the veteran knights present had looked reluctant and all dispersed.
It was that dangerous a phenomenon.
‘Once it happens once, it’s easy for it to happen again.’
Above all, once this swarm phenomenon ignited, other goblins would be affected as well.
A kind of pheromone spread through the air, stimulating the goblins and starting hell all over again.
Sniff. Sniff.
Moon Junil smelled the air.
Amid the scent of earth, there was a strange odor mixed in.
‘Damn it. It’s already spread.’
Even though they had suppressed it relatively quickly, the pheromone had already dispersed into the air.
To make matters worse—
Ding!
There is a dungeon nearby.
The Constellations reacted as well, meaning they could see the notification too.
‘A dungeon……’
If it was being called a dungeon, it must be quite large in scale.
Moon Junil followed the traces left by the goblins a little further.
‘Here it is.’
Among the tunnels the goblins had dug, the largest one came into view.
At this size, it wasn’t a tunnel anymore—it was a tunnel city.
Even among goblin burrows, this was A-rank.
‘How did they manage this in such a short time?’
Even Moon Junil, who had dealt with many goblins, found this level suspicious.
‘Ram must have intervened.’
This seemed to be a setup prepared from the moment the story board was created.
Step. Step.
After walking about three more minutes into the tunnel—
A translucent blue wall suddenly blocked his path.
‘Huh?’
Ding!
Would you like to enter the dungeon?
It seemed there was a dungeon entry system.
‘Took long enough to show up.’
Usually these appeared right at the entrance, but here the barrier only appeared midway in.
Moon Junil examined the information that appeared.
Restrictions: None
Capacity: 4/5
Difficulty: Lv.15
The difficulty was level 15.
‘What does that even mean?’
Did having an A-grade potential make it easy to clear?
That couldn’t be right.
Potential was just potential.
Current combat power would be evaluated by level.
Did that mean there were level 15 monsters?
‘I’ll find out when I go in.’
Only one spot remained.
Moon Junil stepped inside without much thought.
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
Ding!
Explorer List
Kang Hae-il S
Jeon Insu B+
Kim Chaeyoung C+
Kim Seongwu C+
Moon Junil F
Everyone except Moon Junil had a potential of D or higher.
Considering the dungeon level, that was only natural.
The Constellations reacted with exaggerated comments, whether to tease or not.
Ding!
Another notification rang out.
Would you like to join your teammates immediately?
[Yes / No]
Joining immediately would obviously be better, but Moon Junil proceeded with caution.
‘Does this mean my name and rank are all exposed now?’
Since Moon Junil could see their real names and ranks, the reverse was likely true as well.
Would Sagosul’s rank and real name be revealed?
That would make future activities extremely difficult.
Attention should come from the Constellations, not from humans—otherwise only troublesome things would happen.
‘Especially since Kang Hae-il holds a grudge against Sagosul. Whatever the reason.’
When he revealed himself as Sagosul, Kang Hae-il had charged at him like he wanted to kill him for real.
Was killing the black mage really that wrong?
No—looking at the community comments, it seemed like people had disliked him from the start.
‘What is it. Seriously…… this is dangerous.’
If Kang Hae-il found out Sagosul’s real name and rank?
Even if Moon Junil was confident he could handle him, that would be problematic.
His daily life itself would be threatened.
Like it or not, Kang Hae-il was the protagonist of this world.
The entire world revolved around him, and all information was edited around him.
Then should he not enter?
‘That’s not an option. This is definitely the main stream.’
Where Kang Hae-il was, that was the land of opportunity.
Countless Constellations would be watching this place.
Above all, Moon Junil desperately needed to level up.
If he didn’t reach level 10, he would be stripped of his Awakened qualifications.
He couldn’t waste this opportunity.
“Hoo.”
Moon Junil took a deep breath.
And made his decision.
‘I’m going in.’
Swish.
He removed his mask and put it in his inventory.
‘As Moon Junil.’
Even if his real name was exposed, as long as he wasn’t Sagosul, it would be fine.
The identity of F-rank Moon Junil couldn’t be connected to Sagosul.
He pressed the button floating in the air.
[Yes]
Whoosh!