Supernova

The kobold's head came off in a single stroke.

It cuts even better than I expected.

The feel of the blade was far beyond what anyone would call Rare grade. And since the edge was made of pure mana, I didn't have to worry about it dulling.

How much did that cost me?

A single swing had burned through 100 mana.

Not exactly cost-efficient, is it?

Then again, if a blade like this were also perfectly efficient, it would be straight-up broken. And the system doesn't permit broken items.

So the cold, unhelpful thing does care about balance after all.

Feeling a little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cheated, I dismissed the blade and pumped mana back into the hilt. Once the refill was done, I approached the corpse of the kobold I'd just killed.

Condition's good.

The big guilds had dedicated loot-collection teams. But a solo player like me had to haul the bodies out one by one myself. I stuffed the kobold's corpse into my inventory and rose to my feet.

Alright, let's move.

I began walking slowly forward. The kobold cavern was so labyrinthine that people avoided this gate entirely.

Come to think of it, a gate break happened in this region, didn't it?

The gate break would come in roughly two years. If nobody cleared this place before then and everyone kept putting it off, kobolds armed with the strength of dwarves would come pouring out.

"Might as well clear it now."

After walking a while, a fork in the path appeared. This gate was riddled with countless forks like this one, which was why anyone who didn't know the clear route got hopelessly lost here.

Not that I don't know the route myself.

Though the strategy guide I remembered wouldn't be published until five years from now — the period after I'd retreated into the mountains. Torch brackets hung along both branching paths. These torches, mounted on the walls at the mouth of each fork, were the key to the whole strategy.

I drew close to both torches and inhaled.

Right.

Kobolds resembled a cross between dogs and felines, which made them extraordinarily sensitive to scent. Someone had exploited that — they'd dusted the torches with a powder carrying a scent so faint humans couldn't detect it, turning the smell itself into a guide.

Left, right, straight ahead...

As I worked my way deeper, I finally reached a fork where both torches carried the scent.

The weaker scent marks the mining camp, and the stronger one leads to the kobold camp — that was how it went.

Rerunning the strategy through my mind, I took another careful sniff. Right side is stronger. Which meant the path I needed was the left.

Just then, a system message appeared.

"Ha."

Reading the message, I let out a hollow laugh. All I'd done was copy down a strategy written five years in the future, and the system had handed me an achievement for it.

Sorry to whoever earned this first last time — free meal for me.

I offered a silent apology to the player who'd originally discovered this achievement, then took the left path.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The deeper I went into the passage, the louder the sound of pickaxes ringing against stone grew.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

And beneath the metal, the unmistakable snap of whips rose with it. The status window labeled them "workers," but the truth was that every dwarf down here was a slave to the kobolds.

"Krek!"

Pushing further in, the kobolds and dwarves finally came into view. Kobolds with bristling gray fur cracking their whips, and dwarves silently enduring the lashes as they swung their picks.

"Kekekek!"

Besides the gray-furred leader, there were about five more kobolds in the chamber. One elite monster and five regulars.

Elites — or named monsters. When you split monster classes apart, they fell into three tiers: regular, elite, and king. Boss monsters stood in an entirely different category altogether — weaker than a king, but leagues beyond the common rabble.

Shff!

The dagger I'd conjured sent the kobold's head tumbling to the ground.

"Kregh! Krk!"

The moment one kobold died, the remaining four clustered around the elite. "Doesn't matter if you group up."

"Kregh!"

At the elite's command, all four kobolds lashed their whips in unison.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Every whip cracked uselessly against the floor. The essence of Phantom was destabilizing an enemy's mind. A whip — not even a true close-combat weapon — had no chance whatsoever of touching me.

Shff! Shff! Shff!

A single attack cut down three kobolds at once.

And right on cue, my stats ticked upward. I stretched the dagger's blade longer and swept it through another kobold.

Shff!

Once again, the kobold died without managing a single response.

"Oh."

I found myself quite pleased with reshaping the blade. Just because the hilt is a dagger doesn't mean the blade has to be one. The blade was made of mana — and since mana wasn't a solid, I could mold it however I pleased.

"Well then. You're the only one left, aren't you?"

I said it while facing the elite kobold. It stared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back at me — the man who had butchered four of its kin in a matter of breaths — with unmistakable fear in its eyes.

"Kregh!"

Whether it had conquered its fear or simply panicked, the elite kobold threw down its whip and charged. It had judged that the whip was useless against me.

"No. That doesn't work either."

BOOM!

My first step shattered the ground around it, and the strike tore into the elite kobold.

CRASH!

With a thunderous roar, the elite kobold went flying backward and slammed into the cave wall. I walked over to its crumpled corpse.

"Hm. I should seal Otherworld away for a while."

An F-rank gate simply couldn't withstand that technique's power. If I kept using it like I just had, the whole gate would collapse.

"Y-you... what are you?"

"Ah."

One of the dwarves, who had been watching the battle from the side, approached and spoke to me. Only then did I remember why I'd come here in the first place.

"I came to rescue you."

"R-really!?"

Joy flooded the dwarf's voice.

"Whoa!"

"We can finally get out of here!"

"I can hold a hammer again!"

At the lead dwarf's words, the rest erupted into cheers. After spending what must have been an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠agonizingly long stretch as slaves, the reaction was only natural.

"Let's go, then."

"Uoooh!"

I had entered this cavern through the gate, but the dwarves had not. Which meant we needed to find the exit.

"Does anyone happen to know where the exit is?"

None of the dwarves answered my question. Going by appearances, they'd been down here for years — it was hard to blame them for not knowing. Then one dwarf at the back of the group raised his hand.

"It's a bit fuzzy, but I've got the way mostly memorized, I do."

"Then I'll leave the guiding to you."

I had the dwarf with the odd, dialect-laced speech fall in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠step right behind me, and we left the mining camp behind. After that, with the dwarf leading the way, we found the exit without incident.

"Go on through."

The moment daylight appeared at the mouth of the cave, the dwarves bolted for it, not one of them lingering a second longer than they had to.

The message appeared, and a blue portal opened behind me. The moment I stepped through it, this gate would be closed for good.

"Our savior. Thank you."

"Thank you!"

Just as I was about to exit the gate, the dwarves who'd made it out ahead were waving and calling their goodbyes through the entrance.

Pfft.

Smiling, I waved back at them and stepped out of the gate.

The instant I emerged from the gate, system messages scrolled past in a cascade. I skimmed through them once, then opened my status window.

I'd jumped five levels in one go, and a whole 100 stat points had landed in my account. More important than that, though, was the fact that I'd hit five achievements.

Additional effect?

A bonus for being the first to acquire it. This was exactly what had elevated Choi Myunghoon to S-rank.

The list of possible bonuses unfolded before me, followed by the prompt.

I could claim two of them. And the moment I read the list, I knew exactly which two Choi Myunghoon had taken in his first life.

Ether Blade, and the bonus stat points on level-up.

Those two, almost certainly.

Ether Blade had been thoroughly explained by that attention-hogging loudmouth on the forums.

If my memory served, those were Ether Blade's effects. As for the bonus stat points — Myunghoon had once drunkenly bragged that he got extra points every time he leveled up.

This is a tough call.

Every option was tempting.

The experience buff is out, first of all.

Since Fighting Spirit already came with a bonus experience effect, I had no real need for the +50% buff. That left four options, from which I'd pick two.

Should I take Ether Blade?

Knowing its effects made it that much more enticing. And when I imagined it layered on top of the mana hilt I was carrying right now... my mind went somewhere very promising.

"Hmm..."

I turned the choice over in my head for a while. Whichever two I picked, it was a net gain for me — so the real question was which ones I'd need most in my fight against Pride.

This is the best answer.

A few minutes later, I finally made my selections.