The Status Window That Shouldn't Exist

After confirming the messages, I closed my eyes.

Outside, it was the dark hours before dawn, but inside the Gate, the sun hung high overhead.

I got the achievement. Now all that's left is the hidden piece.

The hidden piece lay at the northernmost point of the Gate.

Once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I picked my direction and set my footwork in motion.

Basic Footwork.

Sok (Speed).

Pak!

The instant I moved, the spot where I'd been standing caved inward.

I have three hours left in this Gate. I need to get the hidden piece before it runs out.

I'd entered the Gate around one o'clock.

The guards changed every four hours.

In other words, I had to claim the hidden piece and clear out before the next shift arrived.

No telling what could happen, so better hurry.

Moving quickly, I recalled the interview with the F-Rank awakener who'd obtained the hidden piece before my regression.

Kim Jinseok. That was his name.

His registered rank with the Association was F.

But when re-measured, he'd come out as B.

The shock from that day is still vivid.

Just as the world's attention was soaring thanks to my public revelation of mana, Kim Jinseok's appearance flipped every headline back to him.

Standing before the assembled press, Kim Jinseok publicly revealed the information about the hidden piece he possessed.

A stone supposedly made by a god.

The description alone was enough to send shockwaves through the world.

At this point in time, the gods were still barely known.

But what Kim Jinseok said next stunned the public even more. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ The stone hadn't been crafted yet.

Metal is born anew as a weapon through a blacksmith's hammering.

Items classified as gems or stones, when worked by a professional craftsman, could produce effects many times their original power.

A stone with effects this staggering, still untouched by a craftsman? That was more than enough to set the world on fire.

Afterward, Kim Jinseok explained how he'd come to acquire it, and it came to light that a hidden piece existed within the Goblin Village Gate.

I'm here.

By the time I finished thinking it through, I had arrived at the cave where the hidden piece was located.

The Goblin Village Gate's hidden piece was inside this cave.

As I drew near, a system message appeared.

I hadn't even set foot inside yet, and the system had already announced it for me.

And that's why an F-Rank managed to get the hidden piece.

I couldn't fathom why a system that was so unfriendly in every other respect chose to be so helpful here of all places.

Let's go in.

I stepped into the cave.

Inside, the only sound was my own footsteps.

If my memory serves, one should pop out around here.

I picked up a stone from the ground and rolled it forward.

Bang!

The moment the stone came to a stop, a spear erupted from the floor.

Then, as if nothing had happened, it sank back down.

If I'd just walked through, there wouldn't have been enough of me left to bury.

With my current stats, that trap alone — never mind the goblins' attacks — could put me in real danger.

I drew my left foot slightly back and gathered mana into my legs.

Basic Footwork.

Sok (Speed).

Bang!

I stepped through with Sok and crossed the trap in an instant.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Only after I'd cleared all of them did the spears burst up from the ground, belated and useless.

So the next one's arrows, huh?

Hardly had the thought formed before arrows came flying at me.

Left.

I twisted my body to the right.

Thud!

The arrow buried itself in the ground, and the next volley came flying in rapid succession.

Right, left, right, high, low.

I wove my body through them all, dodging every arrow.

Fwub-buk!

The arrows struck the ground in a row, and no more came.

If Kim Jinseok hadn't been a tank, there's no way he could've gotten this, right?

No — this hidden piece seemed built for a tank to claim in the first place.

Just looking at its effects, it was clearly designed with a tank in mind.

I'd trained with this kind of thing constantly, so I dodged with room to spare, but an F-Rank walking in here would have died on the spot.

Then the arrows embedded in the floor caught my eye.

Huh... I could actually use these.

I pulled them out and checked their information.

Common-grade arrows, but better than nothing.

The next stage is the hunt, after all.

If the interview was accurate, this hidden piece had three stages in total.

The first was the arrow-dodging I'd just survived.

The second was hunting ten goblins simultaneously.

Kim Jinseok had said in his interview that he'd nearly died on the second stage.

The spears at the entrance didn't even count as part of the trial.

Not that I'd die either way — I just have no means of killing anything.

With my footwork, death wasn't on the table.

But without a way to attack, victory was equally impossible.

Pa (Break) still lacked the proficiency to kill anything outright.

Which made these arrows, for the moment, the most suitable weapons I could ask for.

Shall we, then?

After gathering up every arrow, I pressed deeper into the cave.

As I ventured inward, goblins appeared.

"Kyiak! Kyiak!"

They'd spotted me too, and raised their weapons.

Three with daggers, two with longswords, five with bows.

At this level, I could finish this fast.

I curled the arrows into my fist and set my footwork in motion.

Basic Footwork.

Sok (Speed).

Flowing around behind the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goblins, I drove the arrow in my hand straight into one's heart.

Thuck!

The arrow pierced the heart cleanly, and the goblin dropped dead on the spot.

One.

When the bow-wielding goblin fell, three of its nearby companions rushed at me.

I hurled the three arrows I'd set aside.

Thuck! Kang! Kang!

One arrow punched straight through a goblin's skull. The other two blocked theirs and fell back.

Two.

I grabbed more arrows and threw one at a goblin still loading its bow.

"Kyiak!"

This one struck the goblin in the arm.

"Tch."

I clicked my tongue and picked up the last remaining arrow.

"Kyeeeak!"

Two sword-wielding goblins charged.

Basic Footwork.

Pa (Break).

The ground around me shattered as I stepped.

The goblins rushing at me lost their footing and crashed to the floor.

"Hah."

I threw the last arrow at the bow-wielding goblin.

Thuck!

It died in the same breath it loosed an arrow of its own at me.

Swish!

Its arrow grazed my arm as it flew past.

Three.Pat!

The other goblins began firing at me too. The tips of the incoming arrows gleamed with a coating of transparent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠liquid.

Poison?

Basic Footwork.

Sok (Speed).

I used my footwork to slip through the incoming volleys.

The goblins, firing from elevated positions, were stupid enough to kill each other on the arrows I dodged.

"Kieeeeak!"

Five.

I picked up a dagger lying on the ground.

Would it kill you to take care of your blade?

Five goblins remained.

Two with daggers, two with swords, one with a bow.

Since the archer couldn't use its arm, I really only needed to kill four.

And with a dagger in my hand, that was a very easy task indeed.

Basic Footwork.

Sok (Speed).

Fwub-bububuk!

By the time my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feet came to a stop, the goblins had all met their end.

Ten goblins down, and three levels gained.

Oh? The level went up right away?

Normally, levels came from the experience settled after clearing a Gate.

I shook the blood from my dagger.

Hm. Guess that's what a month of neglect does — it's not holding an edge.

Before my regression, I'd used daggers as a secondary weapon.

Longswords, bows, anything else simply couldn't survive my footwork.

But a short-bladed dagger held together even at my speed.

The edge is completely gone.

It had been in rough shape from the start, but that last exchange had finished it off entirely.

I tossed the ruined dagger aside and picked up a fresh one, then collected the arrows scattered across the ground.

"Just as I thought."

The arrowheads were coated in poison.

The paralytic toxin goblins commonly used.

Without any poison resistance at my current state, a single hit would have spread through me in moments and left me paralyzed on the spot.

Maybe I'll spend some stat points before the next stage.

Leveling up meant stat points, of course.

But the world was never fair.

Depending on talent, the number of stat points varied from person to person.

Three for me, presumably.

F-Rank: 1 point.

E-Rank: 2 points.

D-Rank: 3 points.

C-Rank: 4 points.

B-Rank: 5 points.

A-Rank: 10 points.

S-Rank: 15 points.

This was why people said heaven and earth separated talent.

The gap only widened with every level.

An industry where talent was everything.

That was the profession called awakener.

Before my regression, I'd received three stat points.

In other words, I'd had talent on the level of D-Rank.

The only reason I'd managed to survive five years in that industry was probably the fact that I possessed mana.

Without it, I'd have been buried under the names of Jin Pung-rim and Yu Jina, just another forgettable bottom-tier awakener.

Talent doesn't change.

Even when I created my footwork and underwent my third body reconstruction, I'd received a measly five points.

They said my starting point was D-Rank and my ceiling was B-Rank.

Kind of a stingy system, isn't it?

If my talent had been S-Rank, would the outcome have been different?

An ordinary person who couldn't even reach the realm of the untalented.

That was who I was.

Three levels gained.

"Status window."

Without much expectation, I opened my status window.

"Huh?"