Footwork and a Mother's Wrath
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every time the Goblin King swung its fist, the ground shattered apart.
I kept dodging the blows by the narrowest of margins.
My stack isn't going up at all.
The acquisition condition for the skill I wanted was evade 10 attacks from a stronger opponent by a hair's breadth.
That was the sixth.
The Goblin King's fist whipped fiercely through the air.
Bang!
The fist that had been aimed at me slammed into the floor instead. The floor cracked, and shards of debris whipped past my cheek. A thin trickle of blood ran down from it. The Goblin King's fist had grazed my arm. It was only a graze, but I couldn't move the arm at all.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue, but my feet never stopped moving.
Seven, eight, nine.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the Goblin King kept swinging its fists, I kept my footwork alive.
"Kiehekhek!"
Apparently irritated by my endless dodging, the Goblin King let out a roar. Then it started swinging its fists wildly, without rhyme or reason.
I slipped past them one after another.
And at some point, a system message unfolded before my eyes.
You held your ground and fought back in a life-threatening situation instead of retreating.
You have fulfilled the prerequisite for skill acquisition.
You have met all conditions for skill acquisition.
You have acquired the skill Fighting Spirit.
Achievement unlocked: Skill Creation.
The skill Fighting Spirit. It was the skill I had been struggling so hard to obtain.
Description: Can only be obtained by one who refuses to retreat in the crucible of battle and fights to the very end.
Effects: Focus +100% upon entering combat; stats rise in proportion to combat duration (up to 50%); EXP gained +50%
* Effects are doubled when fighting an opponent stronger than yourself.
The moment I confirmed the skill information, Fighting Spirit activated.
Everything looks slow.
The speed of the Goblin King's fists now seemed on par with a sloth's. But the instant its fist swiped through empty air, the sluggish pace snapped back to normal.
Bang!
The Goblin King's fist buried itself in the ground.
I seized the opening without hesitation and stepped into my footwork.
Basic Footwork: Alter.
Fighting Spirit.
The moment I moved, the world around me slowed down, just as I had felt before. On top of that, my own speed surged. A staggering mass of mana began to coalesce around my feet.
And I took a step forward.
Bang!
With an enormous cloud of dust, a sound that shook the entire cavern roared through it.
When the dust settled, the Goblin King lay dead, its body and head separated.
You have slain the Goblin King.
You have obtained loot.
With the Goblin King's death, the loot flowed straight into my inventory. I opened it and checked the details.
◈ Type: Necklace
◈ Description: The necklace of a siren that lured sailors to their doom at sea. Crafted from the essence of a siren.
◈ Effect: Mental attack resistance +50%
The drop was the necklace the Goblin King had worn around its neck.
The Siren's Necklace. Though only Rare grade, it was one of the most expensive items on the market.
The most recent sale was 10 billion won, wasn't it?
At 10 billion, you could buy an item a full tier above — a Unique. That was how expensive this necklace was.
I gave up on buying it, and now it just lands in my lap.
The Siren's Necklace was one of the mandatory items you had to prepare before entering certain gates. And if you enhanced it, you could gain complete immunity to mental attacks.
I hung the necklace around my neck.
Now, shall I go get the rest?
I slipped into the passage hidden behind the throne. After about five minutes of walking, I saw the hidden piece I'd been looking for, resting atop what appeared to be an altar.
An altar, huh...
Altars were usually meant for offering tribute to a god. A hidden piece placed on one like this felt ominous.
Don't tell me there's still something hidden here?
No matter how many times I turned it over in my head, my gut told me the stone sitting on that altar was not something to be touched. It was a kind of instinct — and that same instinct had saved me when I fought Pride.
There has to be more here... Ah!
As I looked around a little more carefully, I discovered a painting painted across the ceiling.
"The Great War of Gods, Humans, and Demons..."
The painting on the ceiling depicted the outbreak of the Great War of Gods, Humans, and Demons.
The Great War of Gods, Humans, and Demons. An arrogant god looking down on the world. A demon who regarded the other two races as playthings. And humanity, struggling tooth and nail simply to survive against those two. Divided into these three factions, the war had raged for nearly a thousand years.
The war ended in a draw. Unable to bear the mounting losses, the representatives of the three sides signed an accord.
...That's what I was told, anyway.
I'd learned about the war from Rage. As he fought me, he'd rambled on and on about it. His descriptions had been so vivid that the moment I saw this painting, the war came to mind.
The figure at the center of the painting is the god.
Which meant this altar was connected to the god as well.
The moment I take that stone, I'd probably become the god's pawn.
I let out a sigh of relief and decided to poke around the area a little longer. The Siren's Necklace was a nice haul, but leaving with just that felt like a waste. And if I didn't take it, Kim Jinseok would discover this place and claim the stone.
That much, I have to prevent.
The demon Envy was unaffected by the god's influence — she had already made her contract with a demon. Because of that, in my last life the stone had fallen into her hands and become her ultimate weapon.
That stone was exactly why capturing Envy had been such a nightmare.
So this time, at the very least, I would keep it out of her grasp.
Should I just take it from Kim Jinseok after he gets it?
Impossible. The moment Kim Jinseok reported the hidden piece to the Association, he'd be placed under personal protection. Maybe later, but the me of right now couldn't punch through the Association's security.
Huh?
As I continued to search the surroundings, I noticed something glowing strangely.
It was one of the humans painted on the ceiling. In the painted figure's hand was a flag, and embedded in the tip of that flag was a glinting stone.
No way...
Half in disbelief, I leapt up from where I stood and reached for the stone embedded in the flag. The instant my fingertip touched it, the stone erupted with blinding light.
At the same moment, a system message appeared before my eyes.
Hidden piece Stone of Earth acquired.
Quest Will of Humans has been created.
"Huh?"
The moment my feet touched the ground, I whipped my head toward the altar. The stone that had been glowing upon it had lost its light.
I hurriedly opened my inventory. In the upper left corner sat a stone radiating a golden glow. I drew it out and checked its information.
The moment I finished reading, I rubbed my eyes.
Same name as the other stone — but its effects were on an entirely different level.
And the Primordial Humans, you say...
According to the description, this stone had been crafted by one of the Primordial Humans who commanded the power of the earth. Which meant there were probably other stones tied to the other Primordial Humans as well.
I closed the item information and opened the quest window.
Description: Humanity fought against gods and demons for the sake of its freedom. But the gods and demons broke their accord and reached their hands toward mankind.
Clear Condition: Collect the legacies of the Primordial Humans (1/?)
On Failure: The extinction of mankind.
I covered my face with both hands and sighed.
The extinction of mankind...
If I failed to kill the demon Pride, humanity was doomed regardless. The legacies of the Primordial Humans would become the weapons to stand against him.
The problem is, the demons aren't the only enemy.
Before my regression, I had crossed paths with the gods' servants a few times. They hadn't seemed interested in opposing me, so I'd never thought of them as enemies — but piecing together the quest's contents and Rage's stories, only one conclusion emerged.
The gods are enemies too.
All that had changed was that the gods now stood beside the demons on the list of enemies — but the implications were enormous.
First things first — I need to get out of this gate.
Twenty minutes had already passed since my fight with the Goblin King. Factor in the time to reach the exit, and I'd be cutting it dangerously close to four o'clock.
Basic Footwork: Velocity.
Running my footwork at full tilt, I sprinted for the gate's exit.
She can't still be up, right?
Carefully, I opened the door and glanced around. That was when a voice drifted in from the living room.
"And where have you been coming back from at this hour?"
My breath caught in my throat as I shuffled slowly into the living room. There sat my mother — no, a dokkaebi — radiating a black aura of pure menace in every direction.
"Sit."
At her word, I knelt down on the floor. I felt like I had no choice. If I didn't, I was going to die.
"So? Where exactly did you go?"
"I, uh... went to the convenience store..."
"Pardon? A convenience store run takes you four hours now?"
Cold sweat broke out across my back. The fact that she'd named four hours so precisely meant she knew I'd left the house at twelve thirty.
"Actually, I went for a walk..."
"......"
"......"
Under my mother's gaze, I shut my mouth.
Just as the crushing silence was stretching into its third minute, I heard the front door unlock.
"Honey, I'm home."
Dad said it breezily and strolled naturally into the living room, taking a seat beside Mom. Judging by the way he'd walked straight into this scene, Dad knew I'd snuck out too.
The moment Dad sat down, the atmosphere grew somehow even heavier.
What do I do about this?
My mind raced. As far as my cover story went, I was a student retaking the college entrance exams. And said student slipped out late at night and came home at four in the morning? Suspicious didn't begin to cover it.
I think I'm screwed.