The Meaning of Extreme

Estel Live. Estel Live. Looking up at it from up close, the Magic Tower was dizzyingly tall. Its outer walls were made of a colossal ancient tree, yet an iron gate was randomly wedged into the entrance, giving it a bizarre, discordant appearance. Honestly, I wondered who in their right mind would call this a tower. But whatever its design was, it wasn't my concern. Clearing it was my top priority right now, so I stepped inside without hesitation.

Upon entering, a vacant statue of a goddess welcomed me, and not a single soul was in sight. Silence. Only a chilly breeze brushed past my ears. Where did all the beast-kin who had gathered to conquer the Magic Tower go? I had my doubts, but having no annoying obstacles around was much better for me. I stood before the stone statue with a light heart.

To enter... If it was the same as the original game, Estel Origin, it should react just by me standing still. As if to prove my guess right, blue letters floated up like a hologram over my retinas.

Of course I was entering. I pressed the 'Yes' button without delay. Then:

What? Extreme? Just as I tried to pull back in panic, my vision warped violently, and I was sucked into an unfamiliar space. In an instant, my surroundings completely inverted. What lay before my eyes was a musty stone room with torches flickering along the walls. Wooden training dummies lined the area, resembling a knight order's training ground.

"..." I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't even laugh. The 1st floor of the Magic Tower was supposed to be a tutorial floor for newbies. But Extreme difficulty? This was a malicious gimmick that even a veteran like me, who had sunk hundreds of hours into Estel Origin, had never seen before.

Ding. As if mocking my bewilderment, a golden system window floated ominously in the center of my vision.

"The Blessing of Asteria? What kind of unheard-of..." I didn't even have time to demand answers from the system about when I had ever received such a grandiose blessing.

Creak, creeeak. The torches hanging on the walls simultaneously flared with an eerie blue light. At the same time, dozens of pairs of blood-red eyes flashed in the deep darkness behind the quietly standing wooden training dummies.

—Grrr...! Kraaaaargh! A hair-raising shriek. Confirming the appearance of the creatures stepping out of the darkness, I clicked my tongue and adjusted my grip on the worn wooden sword in my hand.

Those bastards are goblins...? They were qualitatively different from the pathetic tutorial monsters the forum users had been talking about. Normally, they should have been small, green-skinned creatures.

—Kiaaaaaaaaah!! The roar that erupted from them was unmistakably that of an orc. They had massive bodies that reached up to my chest, with muscles and veins bulging as if they were about to burst. They even held sharp iron swords and crude maces in their hands. Monsters like these were going to respawn infinitely? If they had been ordinary beast-kin freshmen, they wouldn't have even been able to fight back—they would have suffocated and been turned into minced meat on the spot.

"...Whew." Still, I had to do what needed to be done. If I didn't clear this, only death awaited me. Even if I tried to run, I would be executed by the system's rules. I forced the corners of my mouth up. I had no choice but to believe in myself. After all, I was the one who had sliced through that solid steel dummy at the academy like a watermelon. If the forum bastards were right, even if they were buffed by the Extreme difficulty, their durability would be at most equivalent to Iron Body or lower.

Whew... Vertical slash, horizontal slash, vertical slash, horizontal slash. It was time to awaken the sensation I had repeated so stubbornly, over and over again.

Whoosh! Perhaps under the influence of a frenzy, the goblins, their eyes bloodshot and red, began to charge with wild shrieks. The distance between us closed in an instant. Ten meters, five meters, three meters.

"Kieeeek!" The massive goblin leading the pack ruthlessly swung a dark iron mace down toward my head. A chilling sound of tearing wind. It was a vicious blow that felt like it would crush my bones and turn me into paste if it so much as grazed me.

But why? My sixth sense remained ice-cold and absolutely certain. I will win. A tingling heaviness welled up from my dantian to my fingertips. My gaze didn't waver in the slightest. The ten thousand swings I had practiced alone in the forest to enter the academy. It was a foolish training regimen that others would have laughed at, but my bones and muscles remembered the exact timing.

I lightly tensed my wrist holding the wooden sword and cleanly sliced upward through the air. A manifestation of pure physical force, entirely devoid of any unnecessary tricks.

*Kabaaaaang!* The moment the wooden sword and the iron mace collided, an explosion shook the training ground, making it utterly unbelievable that wood and iron had clashed.

"...K-Kwek?!" The reinforced goblin's bloodshot eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out. It wasn't my thin piece of wood that broke. The thick iron mace it held shattered into dozens of pieces, scattering like thin glass.

*Clatter!* The wooden sword that shattered the mace didn't stop. Putting my weight into the accelerated path of the blade, I pushed straight through, and the wooden sword ruthlessly split the creature's thick torso vertically.

*Riiiiiip!*

Dark red blood ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠splattered into the air. A single, clean vertical slash. At that overwhelming power, the horde of goblins that had been charging like madmen froze in unison, as if doused with cold water.

"...Disappointing." The impact transmitted through the wooden sword felt disappointingly light. They were much weaker than what the forum bastards had described. Their defense was far too soft to be that of a monster with inflated difficulty. Comparing them to the steel training dummy was an insult to the dummy. They were nothing more than water balloons that had grown stupidly large.

In that case, there was no need to hold back. Next was the Horizontal Slash. My body sprang forward like a coiled wire, rushing straight into the center of the terrified monsters. The moment my toes kicked off the ground, the air in the training ground grew taut.

*Whoosh!* An explosive leap, as if I had rockets strapped to my back. Before bewilderment could even register in the goblins' blood-red eyes, my hips twisted, and the wooden sword whipped out horizontally with ferocious speed.

*Thud-thud-thud!* Along with the illusion of a sword wind rippling through the air, a series of gruesome rupturing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sounds exploded along the trajectory.

—*Kiaaaaak!* —*Kyaraaaak!* It was a one-sided slaughter that didn't even allow for resistance. Dark iron swords and iron shields crumpled like paper and flew through the air, while their tough hides and skulls were helplessly crushed. Halved corpses fell to the ground like harvested straw, unable to even scream.

Once the small fry were cleared in an instant, a massive altar situated at the edge of the blood-soaked training ground came into view.

Along with the red system warning, the stone-carved altar began to vibrate violently. *Thud! Thud!* Descending onto the altar through the darkness was a monster so colossal that the goblins I had just sliced through looked like mere children. With bizarre tattoos etched all over its body and holding twin axes the size of a human torso, it exuded a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠suffocating bloodlust. It was the target boss monster, the Reinforced Goblin Great Chieftain.

"Kroaaaaaaargh!!" Just as the creature inhaled deeply, bending its waist back to unleash a roar that felt like it would tear the entire training ground apart—

*Who say's I'd quietly wait for the boss's entrance cutscene?* By the time its maw was only half-open, my body had already closed the distance right up to the altar. A flash of panic crossed the Great Chieftain's bloodshot eyes. However, displaying beastly reflexes befitting a boss, it crossed its raised twin axes and swung them down toward the crown of my head.

A mindless downward pressure that seemed to crush even the air. But the wooden sword in my hand was already preparing for the next stage, transcending the horizontal and vertical trajectories. A strike that gathered all my weight and rotational force into a single point, exploding at the tip of the blade.

*Kabaaaaaang!!!!* The moment the tip of the wooden sword struck the intersection of the twin axes head-on, the steel crumpled like taffy, and a massive explosion erupted. But my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thrust didn't stop at merely shattering some axes. Piercing through the destroyed iron fragments, the wooden sword drove straight through the Great Chieftain's thick breastplate, exiting out its back, and plunged deep into the very heart of the massive altar that had summoned it.

"...Cough, ack..." Instead of a roar, a dark red clump of blood poured from the Great Chieftain's mouth. I lightly twisted my wrist holding the wooden sword and pulled the weapon out. *Crack, crack—crash!* As the Great Chieftain's massive body collapsed, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the solid stone altar, which then shattered into pieces and caved in completely.

Thick dust settled over the training ground. Looking at the blue clear window floating in the air, I snorted. *I got worked up over nothing.*

Oh, a special reward. Obviously, it had to be the Skill Book. I pressed number 1 without hesitation and left the chamber of trials.