The Goblin Stronghold
“What’s that?” Choi Yoo-ra asked me.
“I don’t know either.”
“You’re the one who did it, so why don’t you know?”
“I’m telling you, I don’t know.”
This time Captain Im spoke up.
“Eun-seong-nim, that just now……”
“I don’t know either. If I had to put it into words…… the Goddess of Fortune? Something like that, I guess.”
“Pardon……?”
“It says it’s raising our luck? About 120% for five minutes.”
“Haha……” Captain Im wore an awkward expression. He probably couldn’t quite grasp what it meant to raise luck by 120%. I was the same. Did it actually increase the probability of an abstract concept like luck? Even I, the person involved, couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Ah.”
Just then, I spotted a jar. After a moment’s thought, I found a good way to test the effect of the Luck card.
“Everyone, please step back.”
After warning the group, I kicked and shattered the trap jar that would drop something from above if touched.
Crash!
The moment the trap activated, a rectangular boulder fell from the ceiling straight toward my head.
Whoosh!
The boulder stopped dead, as if lying, just thirty centimeters above my head. Normally it would have turned me into jerky, but seeing it halt like that made it clear the luck effect had definitely triggered.
“What did you just do?”
“You saw it. I was testing it.”
“Testing???”
“To see if my luck really improved or not.”
“Wow.” Choi Yoo-ra looked at me again, genuinely surprised. “You’re actually insane, aren’t you?”
“Why are you cursing all of a sudden?”
“Do you have ten lives or something?”
“Two seems about right. Not sure about ten.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“There’s something like that.”
“Anyway, you’re crazy.” Choi Yoo-ra shook her head in disbelief.
“U-uh, Eun-seong-nim? Even so, I’d appreciate it if you refrained from testing abilities with your life on the line. It’s far too dangerous.”
“I’m sorry if I startled you. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Thank you.”
“Let’s keep looting. There’s still a lot left to pick up.”
The Lexers’ ether swords were also loot targets. We approached the dead Lexers’ corpses. Swords, axes, daggers—every ether weapon whose owners had perished was absorbed into cards.
“C-Captain.”
“Shh. I’m watching too.”
Captain Im calmed his startled subordinate. Yeah, they must be shocked. Absorbing another Awakener’s ether sword was something they’d never even imagined.
‘What am I supposed to do with all of these?’
Already nearly twenty ether swords sat inside the Infinite Deck. Combined with the ones I’d obtained at my first awakening, that was roughly the count. I still wasn’t sure whether I was meant to use them all or if this was simply collection.
People usually said ether swords were the manifestation of an Awakener’s ether…… but I didn’t know. I still had no idea what the Guide or the Mad Collector truly were as a class.
‘I’ll find out once my rank goes up.’
The higher an Awakener’s rank, the stronger they became, and their abilities grew as well.
‘How much left?’
I focused my mind and checked my current status.
Thanks to Choi Yoo-ra and Captain Im’s party pouring ether into me, I was close to ranking up. The fact that the Cursed Fortress was a high-rank dungeon probably helped too—the quality and density of the absorbed ether were high.
“Let’s get moving. If we see any jars on the way, we’ll smash them.”
We finished looting and headed toward the first floor.
* * *
Creak.
I carefully opened the door leading to the first floor.
“Grind, grind!”
“Chomp, chomp, chomp!”
Nearly a hundred monsters were greedily tearing into what looked like the corpses of the Lexers’ comrades. I quietly closed the door.
“Why’d you close it?”
“They seem to be having a meal. Didn’t want to interrupt.”
“……”
Choi Yoo-ra understood what I meant and shut her mouth.
“Let’s take another route.”
The first floor of the Cursed Fortress was basically a massive lobby. One wrong move and we’d be surrounded and wiped out. No wonder the Lexers had fled down to the basement and ended up dying to us.
“This way.”
I showed them the Search card and led the group down a detour. I’d cleared this dungeon so many times in my previous life that I could navigate the Cursed Fortress with my eyes closed even without the card.
“Is this the right path?”
“It is.”
“We’ve already been walking for an hour.”
“The layout’s complicated. We’re doing fine, so don’t worry.”
The basement floor was a maze. Even when heading in the correct direction, it was easy to feel like you were lost because the structures forced you to loop around.
“Here.”
Creak!
When we reached an iron door, I opened it without hesitation. A narrow spiral staircase appeared.
“This staircase goes straight up to the seventh floor. Let’s go without worry.”
“There was a secret passage like this?”
“How would I know? The card told me.”
It was an obvious lie, but everyone seemed to believe it.
“I’ll take the lead.”
Captain Im’s party went up the stairs first.
“Choi Hunter-nim and Eun-seong-nim will stay in the middle. We’ll handle the front and rear.”
“Sounds good.”
Choi Yoo-ra looked a little offended, but she didn’t argue. Captain Im’s suggestion was reasonable and wise. In a narrow spiral staircase, a hunter like Choi Yoo-ra who used a long weapon wouldn’t be able to fight at full strength. A spear could at least be thrust in close quarters, but a whip that needed swinging room to build momentum was useless in tight spaces.
The same principle applied underwater—resistance made it hard to exert full power. That was why tactics mattered. A hunter had to clearly understand their own strengths and weaknesses and adapt accordingly.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
“Just in case.”
“Tch.”
Choi Yoo-ra pouted as she accepted the Bren 2 carbine I handed her.
We formed a tactical line and climbed the spiral staircase in single file, reaching the seventh floor.
“Kyaaak!”
“Kyaa!”
The moment we exited the secret passage, monsters rushed us, but the narrow corridor inside the building made them easy to suppress.
Whoosh!
Once the battle ended, ether wrapped around me.
Along with the notification, my rank increased.
Just like that, I went from a 1-star Awakener to a 2-star Awakener.
“Congratulations, Eun-seong-nim.”
“Congratulations.”
“Congrats. Our rookie’s a 2-star now, huh?”
Choi Yoo-ra and Captain Im’s party congratulated me.
Alchemy ★★ — Perform etherium smelting, processing, and synthesis. Higher card rank improves results.
Hero’s Pack ★★ — A backpack with enormous capacity. Fixed weight: 7 kg. At higher ranks, it can hold up to 70 tons.
Alchemy?
‘What’s this now?’
I examined the cards closely. Alchemy showed a burly old man holding a hammer in a forge, while Hero’s Pack depicted a leather backpack.
I roughly understood what they meant. Of course, I wouldn’t know for sure until I tested them.
“Let’s keep going.”
Seventh floor. 777, 777. When we reached the coordinates, a lone closet stood there.
“This is the entrance to the hidden dungeon?”
“Yeah.”
I opened the closet with a flourish, revealing a portal leading elsewhere.
“I-It’s real……”
“There’s a place like this inside a dungeon……”
Choi Yoo-ra and Captain Im were astonished.
“Nothing to be too careful about. Let’s loot quickly and head straight to the boss room.”
Without hesitation, I stepped through the portal toward the rift.
* * *
Once through the portal, a dense forest unfolded. A light drizzle fell, making it feel like an entirely different space from the Cursed Fortress we’d just left.
“Goblin Stronghold?”
“Sounds like a bandit hideout or something.”
“Maybe.”
Choi Yoo-ra nodded at my words.
“There it is.”
After walking through the forest a bit, we spotted a bandit stronghold surrounded by wooden palisades in the distance, with goblins prowling around it.
“They’re just goblins. Let’s wipe them all out.”
“We’ll go first.”
Captain Im’s party took the lead and opened fire on the goblins.
“Kek!”
“Kyaaak!”
The goblins dropped one after another. Since they were monsters that died easily even to bullets, dealing with them wasn’t difficult.
“Kyaaak, kek kek, kheheeeet!”
The large goblin that seemed to be the bandit leader tried to show off something, but Choi Yoo-ra’s chain turned him into minced meat in the blink of an eye.
Tsk. He would’ve been better off just dying to a bullet.
“What? That was nothing. Did we come here just to hunt some goblins?”
“We still need to check if there’s anything here.”
I pretended not to know anything and began searching the stronghold.
“Here! Over here!”
One of Captain Im’s subordinates shouted.
‘Found it.’
It was a wooden hut-like building. Inside were piles upon piles of etherium and various items.
“W-What is all this?”
“Looks like treasure the goblin bandits have collected so far?”
“Incredible.”
Choi Yoo-ra clicked her tongue in amazement. There were nearly five hundred pieces of etherium stacked in the treasury. Most were 1-star grade so their value wasn’t high, but there were quite a few higher-grade ones mixed in. Rough estimate: around ten billion won.
Yeah. This was the charm of rifts. Depending on the dungeon, you could strike it rich overnight. In my previous life, it was common for high-rank Awakeners to grind low-rank dungeons endlessly chasing rifts.
Of course, that was after I posted the rift information on Hunter Link.
“Let’s split it right here. It’ll get complicated if we do it outside.”
“Good idea.”
“I agree.”
We decided to divide the etherium and items from the goblin bandits’ treasury in a 5:3:2 ratio. Naturally, I got the 5. After all, I was the one who provided the rift information.
Now then, let’s see how much wealth our goblin bandits managed to hoard. Hopefully there’s something good.
I scanned the goblins’ treasure with the eyes of a hawk.