The Monster Learns Defeat
In the cave where the light was fading, the monster cloaked in black charged at its enemy.
“Kieeeek!!”
What it felt from its foe was powerlessness.
“Kraaaak!!”
Meaninglessness.
“Kueeeaaak!!!”
Yet why? The human before it looked so frail, as if it would snap under the slightest pressure. With its sword wrapped in resentment, the monster was certain it could fell even two stronger humans in an instant. If it could land even a single blow, victory would be assured.
“You’re strong.”
“Kieeeek!!”
“Hmm.”
The attack missed. The monster knew nothing of technique or the principles of swordsmanship. It had clearly sensed its blade make contact, yet the moment it pressed down with force, the sword grew heavy and the human had already slipped away to another spot.
Harmlessness. What was happening? Why wasn’t this human attacking? What exactly was it facing?
The doubts weren’t the monster’s alone.
“What… absurd thing is this….”
Those watching the battle in a near-death state felt the same. Alto analyzed the scene before him, struggling to keep his fading consciousness from slipping away. It was more productive than trying to regain sensation in his lost arms.
“Lord Alto!”
“Arte… you’re safe….”
“Please wait a moment. Do you have a potion?”
“You came to feed me one…? What about Fria first…!”
“I’m sorry. I thought Lady Fria would be better off with her crystal armor. Also, Eres has a request for you, Lord Alto.”
“Eres… has a request for me…?”
If there was a plan for victory, so be it. But could he really help by joining now? These weren’t wounds a potion could heal.
“Eres is incredible… I can barely see, yet she’s dodging everything.”
“…Yeah. It’s ridiculous.”
After drinking the potion with Arte’s help, the fog in his head cleared. Yet the clearer his mind became, the more sharply he perceived the scene—and the fog returned.
“Sometimes… I feel a wall when facing Eres. Not in skill, but as a person.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Eres is pressing her sword against that monster’s blade… and running.”
Alto refused to call it mere evasion.
“She’s using the enemy’s attack as a fulcrum to push her own body away. Speed matters, but the opponent’s strength doesn’t—because the direction is different.”
“Is that… what you mean by deflecting the attack?”
“The opposite. She’s not deflecting the attack—she’s deflecting herself.”
He understood the reason, yet it remained absurd. The monster’s reach was short and its speed fast; Eres, slower than Alto, couldn’t properly react. Just as she had once been sent flying after taking a hit, she pretended to hold her guard until the very last moment, then pushed herself away the instant the attack connected. That alone was already ridiculous, but the true wall Alto felt lay elsewhere.
“She’s using the space behind the attack as her fulcrum after it passes. Since the force direction differs, she can reduce damage to her sword, but she has to allow that level of power to graze the inside of her own blade….”
“Even with a skill, how could anyone….”
A single moment of delay would force her to block the black sword with her bare body. The sight of Eres repeating such choices without hesitation went far beyond simple courage.
Whoosh—! Thud—!
The only contact between them was Eres pressing against the goblin’s sword, so the cave echoed not with the clash of steel, but with the sound of blades slicing through air.
“Kieeeek!!”
The goblin grew increasingly displeased. No matter how many times it attacked, nothing landed—this same powerlessness it had felt against that other human before. Once again, the goblin could think of only one solution.
Harder. Faster.
“Kueeeaaak!!!”
Slash—!
Once more, fueled by resentment and grudge, it drew a little deeper from its boundless potential and accelerated another tempo.
“…!”
It hadn’t struck cleanly, but blood flowed from the graze, and for the first time, Eres furrowed her brow.
“Kuhk?”
The human who had remained indifferent until now showed pain. Last time, that other human hadn’t reacted at all. To resolve this question, the goblin attacked again.
Slash—! Hiss—!
Perhaps because its speed was increasing, Eres’s reactions grew slightly slower. She was cut, cut again, and cut once more. She kept failing to dodge and taking hits, yet if she tried to block with her sword, it would break under the strain.
“Ugh…!”
“Kiheeek…!!”
It landed. It hit. As wounds multiplied and blood poured, Eres’s expression grew increasingly unnatural. The more the goblin targeted her body instead of her sword, the more effective it became—the sword was small and hard to strike, and attacks against it hadn’t caused her pain. Targeting something larger and slower than the sword proved more effective than honest attacks.
“That monster… did it learn…?!”
It was the rational choice.
[Goblin Avenger’s level has increased]
Slash—!!
Now that it understood what was correct, its past self felt foolish. The thought that these humans had been looking down on it built stress.
Don’t make me laugh. Why should I be ignored by you humans?
Slash! Slash—!
It would kill them. It would slaughter them in this manner and humiliate them. Humans were too slow and too large—there was no difficulty at all. Wounds kept increasing, gaps kept widening. And then—
‘There it is…… Kihek!’
An opening far too obvious. Eres, too focused on blocking, had completely exposed her abdomen.
“Kiyaaaak!!”
“Eres! No!”
The black sword, darker than before, thrust toward Eres’s stomach at the fastest speed in the goblin’s life.
“Got you.”
“Kuek…?”
Thud—
And Eres stomped the ground hard. For the first time against that black sword aura, she met the blade head-on and attempted to deflect it.
“That’s…!”
Alto knew exactly what she was doing—baiting the monster’s blade, which far exceeded Eres’s speed, into a precise counter.
“It wasn’t learning…… It was being taught?”
She had trained the monster for this single move. She let it target openings, gave it the satisfaction of landing attacks, and made it obsess over that feeling—until it had no choice but to charge at the obvious, massive gap. An absurd, reckless, and utterly unreasonable strategy. A gamble only Eres, who could accumulate wounds while maintaining her condition, could attempt.
Clang—!
Due to the overwhelming difference in strength, Eres’s sword couldn’t fully divert the goblin’s attack. Instead, the goblin’s blade embedded itself halfway through, rendering it unusable. But that was fine.
“Sword!”
When Eres released her now-useless sword, it became a dangling weight on the goblin’s blade. And in Eres’s hand, just as Arte had delivered—
“Hmm. A fine sword.”
She gripped the sharp, sturdy crystal sword Alto had forged.
“Gwe—!”
A diagonal slash from behind the leg. An upward cut from the left elbow to the shoulder.
“Eeeaaak…!!”
The goblin tried to turn and counter, but the dangling sword hindered its right arm, leaving its torso wide open for a brief moment.
“You were too strong.”
Another downward strike from the shoulder. Fria’s crystal greatsword, now overlaid on Alto’s blade, came crashing down.
“Kiek…… Kieeeek!!!”
Crunch—!
The greatsword, slammed down as if falling, shattered bone and stopped just above the heart. Eres lacked the strength to drive it deeper, but—
“Kieaaak! Kueeeaaak!!!”
The thoroughly manipulated goblin’s rage reignited. Resentment. Just like last time with that other human—hiding strength while making it believe it could win, then crushing that hope the moment it saw possibility.
“In……caaaaan!!!”
The aura wrapping its sword grew stronger and darker. Burning resentment, injustice, and—
“You were…… terrifying.”
The desperate fear of death revived. It didn’t want to die. It didn’t want to stand alone before an unstoppable monster and die meaninglessly. This cave was too quiet. It should have stayed hidden inside. If these intruders had come to kill it after all…!
“I’ll…… get ouuut!!!”
It had to escape. Kill them all, flee to the bright world outside the cave, and hide while slaughtering every human who tried to kill it.
“Kiaaaak!!!!”
Once more, the black sword aura spread in a circle. When it used this before, the cave had darkened. It didn’t know the reason was damage to the light-emitting magic on the walls, but the result was what it desired.
“Kihek…… Kaaa…!”
The cave plunged into darkness. But this goblin was a monster that had always lived in dark caves. This level of darkness was the perfect environment for it to display its true worth. The monster charged to strike Eres, who could no longer see.
Killing this human took priority over Alto and Fria.
Narrow vision, perhaps.
“Alto.”
Eres once again held the crystal sword Alto had made. This was both the final and the first plan. She drew power beyond her limits with enough force to tear her muscles apart. She would strike the neck. And behind Eres—
“Blaze.”
Arte unleashed the fireball she had practiced so diligently with Eres—hotter and stronger than before. A sudden, intense light source shattered the goblin’s vision.
“Resent me if you want. That’s why I came.”
It couldn’t understand. Why had it ultimately been forced to offer its neck to this much weaker woman? If only it had more experience. If only it had known more humans, perhaps it could have noticed this sense of wrongness. The reason its resentment could never reach Eres.
[Masterpiece Subjugation Successful]
[You have defeated the pinnacle of this species. Greatly increased damage against the same race. Reduced damage taken. Intimidation granted.]
[Dignity greatly increased— [This effect is overridden and nullified by ‘☐☐ Skill: Quite Heartless’]]
[This effect is overridden and nullified by ‘☐☐ Skill: From the Self’]
[This effect is overridden and nullified by ‘☐☐ Skill: From the Self’]
**
“Mel. Let’s go to the library.”
“What could you possibly need to ask? Do as you please—I’m just being dragged along anyway.”
“I’m going to study.”
“How fortunate. I’ll stand behind you in silence and watch.”
I still didn’t understand why she was angry. I had only told her to stop giving unnecessary massages. No, wasn’t getting angry a good thing?
“Your clumsy massage technique is making training impossible. You’re going to all sorts of lengths to interfere with me.”
“I’m sorry for doing something unnecessary. From now on, I won’t even touch your shoulders, so please don’t worry, Master.”
“Is that so?”
The dislike meter should be working properly, right? Things have been going strangely lately, so I haven’t been checking. But things not going according to plan ends now. I’ve found the biggest headache—the magic sword!
Episode 2 is essentially over. Next is 3. If I go find the library demon in advance and coordinate the next content—
“Th-that’s dangerous! I’ll loosen your shoulders for you!”
“?”
“Mel, a maid can’t loosen her master’s body without causing pain? Master, I’ll bring you a more excellent and beautiful maid—”
“Do you want to die?”
This guy was still here. Foelta wasn’t staying in the dungeon, but he seemed to come every day to spend time. I didn’t know what he was doing. I wasn’t interested.
“M-Master…?”
“You fool. Don’t casually call Mel by name.”
Don’t call our Melina’s name so recklessly, you crazy bastard!! Being called by a weird name damages self-esteem—
“Vermin.”
“I’m sorry! I was worried about your body, Master—”
“You think someone like you can worry about my body?”
“No, I don’t!”
Even Melina glared at him more fiercely than when she looked at me whenever he spoke. The dislike meter was important, but it absolutely couldn’t break completely.
“Do you think my maid is your servant? She has a far more important role than a vermin like you.”
“That maid…?”
“Let me ask the opposite. What are you doing here? You come every day, but are you actually doing anything?”
“I! Am I not coming every day waiting for you to train me, Master?”
“Train you?”
Why would I? Originally, the correct flow was for you to get beaten by Eres’s group. There’s no reason to make you stronger when you’re already lacking even one broken bone. In the first place—
“If you want to get stronger, do something yourself. Don’t wait for me to step in.”
“What…? There’s no such thing! I only believed in you—”
“You believe in me? You’re spouting increasingly stupid nonsense. If you wanted to get stronger, you should have believed in yourself from the start. Are you planning to be satisfied only if I spoon-feed you from beginning to end?”
I was training as usual every day. Eres, Alto, and Fria were sparring against each other daily. Even Arte was practicing magic, and Pih was cooking meals for five or six people, including visitors, all by himself.
“……”
“Why are you suddenly looking at me?”
“No reason.”
Melina had been staring blankly, then flinched and glared with her usual rotten expression. So she had been slacking off lately. There was a reason she suddenly gave a massage.
“If you had trained alone instead of lazing around and watching me during the time you were supposed to be working, I might have looked at you differently. But what have you done?”
“B-but……”
“Cut the crap. I already gave up hope the moment you ran out saying you wanted to show off your strength.”
“Why?! I overwhelmed Alto back then!”
I knew he would say that. He had almost beaten Alto. Once.
“Listen carefully, fool. You didn’t win because you were stronger than Alto. You benefited from the strategy I taught you, and that advantage let you put up a fight.”
“What? Then……”
“I can’t believe you really didn’t know. If you fought again, you’d definitely lose to Alto—forget about Fria, who you didn’t even face. Do you think he’d fall for the same trick twice?”
Foelta’s current level was exactly that. And judging by his mental state, this was probably his peak.
“If you don’t want to die, get out of my sight. I’m going to study.”
“Why……?”
“What?”
“……If you were going to throw me away like this, why did you teach me in the first place! Wasn’t it because I was better than those guys?!”
Foelta glared at me with wide eyes. But his arms hung limply, and his back was hunched.
“I! Came this far believing only in you! I even skipped attendance, and my appearance is completely ruined! What am I supposed to do if you throw me away like this?!”
“……Don’t talk nonsense.”
“What…!”
“You did all that, yet you’re blaming me because you turned out to be trash with no answer. Or what, did training make you weaker?”
“That’s……”
“I made a vermin like you stronger up to this point, so I should receive gratitude. You’re venting resentment? That’s exactly why you’re worthless. Everything is always someone else’s fault.”
Foelta glared at me even more fiercely. But so what?
“If you’re going to stare like that, at least clench your fist.”
“……!”
I didn’t even need to weaken him myself. If I left him as is and attached him to the Ripelreus siblings, that would suffice.
‘By now, they should have taken down an elite monster in the dungeon. I hope Alto and Fria didn’t hog all the experience points.’
Do your best, Eres! While Foelta stagnates, accumulate real combat experience and come back stronger!