“Hyaaah!”
Kirk roared.
When the goblin warriors charged, he had activated ‘Steel Body,’ with its twenty-four-hour cooldown, and held them off from the front.
His contribution had been enormous.
But right now, more importantly,
“Ability Stone! Mana Stones!”
I moved the spirits and quickly collected the Ability Stone dropped by the Hobgoblin and the three Mana Stones dropped by the goblin warriors.
The fist-sized Ability Stone and the fingernail-sized Mana Stones all glittered bright red.
The instant I checked their basic information, my eyes widened.
“Kirk! We hit the jackpot!”
First, the three Mana Stones.
Mana Stones dropped directly by dead monsters generally had consistent quality.
Each one was easily worth more than 10 gold.
But above all, the Ability Stone was the real prize.
[Ruler’s Majesty]
[Strength +3, Agility +4, Vitality +5, Mana +3, Magic Resistance +6]
It was considered the best Ability Stone a Hobgoblin, an elite monster, could drop.
“Don’t tell me that’s Ruler’s Majesty?!”
“Yeah!”
“Wow!”
Strangely enough, no one particularly cared about the Stats attached to this Ability Stone.
That was because the people who wanted it were not adventurers.
They were ‘nobles’ who had Ability Slots but did not want to do dangerous work like adventurers.
No.
They simply had no need to.
[An Ability Stone containing the authority of a Hobgoblin. Grants the authority to dominate others of the same kind.
However, it becomes less effective the higher the target’s intelligence.]
‘As expected.’
“The higher the target’s intelligence” did not mean intelligent people specifically.
Once the target had intelligence around the level of an ordinary human, reproducing anything close to a Hobgoblin’s absolute domination was impossible.
Even so, there was only one reason this Ability Stone sold for so much.
“Does it really make sense to pay hundreds of gold for something like this just to look dignified? Nobles are something else.”
“Well, I guess some people value things like that.”
It was literally a fashion Ability Stone.
But what mattered was that it sold for a fortune.
“That’s good for us, though. Right?”
“Right.”
“We can sell it and upgrade our equipment so I don’t get wounded as ba...... Huh?”
Only then did I notice my shredded leather armor and the wounds covering me.
My head spun.
“Urgh.”
“Char?!”
Kirk caught me as I staggered.
“Yeah. Hey, medicine.”
“Hold on!”
Kirk pulled wound medicine from the bundle he had brought and began slathering it all over my body.
‘Damn. At least I’m lucky.’
I had so many wounds that if I had not raised my Vitality through training and Ability Stones, I might already have bled to death.
‘I’m selling Ruler’s Majesty and buying decent armor first thing. Especially boots. Fuck......’
No wonder the soles of my feet had hurt so badly.
The soles of my leather shoes had already torn away, and the bottoms of my feet, which I thought had become thoroughly callused, were practically soaked in blood.
The wounds on my feet looked worse than the cuts the goblins had given me.
“Still, I realized a few things about spear techniques thanks to that fight. It was a good battle.”
“You got even stronger from that?”
This guy had effectively been stuck at Level 10 only because he had not obtained a Class yet.
“Come on. I’m still inexperienced. More importantly, Char, you’re a Summoner. Didn’t your Level go up a lot?”
Only then did I remember to check my Status.
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 8]
[Stats]
Strength: 14(+0.6)
Vitality: 15(+0.6)
Agility: 9(+0.6)
Mana: 12
Physical Resistance: 3
Magic Resistance: 4
[Mana Skills]
Thrust (Common-Lv.10), Bartus Body Hardening Art (Common-Lv.5), Advance-Retreat Step (Common-Lv.10)
[Level-Up Points: 7]
[Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Command.
[Trait]
-Additional Information Check.
My Level had risen by a staggering seven, all the way to 8.
But even more surprising was that two of my Skills had reached Level 10.
Their maximum Level.
“Wow!”
On top of that, Bartus Body Hardening Art (Common) had risen to Level 5, giving Strength, Vitality, and Agility a modifier equal to 5% of my Mana.
The numbers were still small, but even that had helped when I was on the verge of death.
‘No wonder I felt like some stamina came back in the middle of the fight.’
It seemed my Mana had gone up too.
-You should be able to master Common Skills without spending Points. So save them.
Jerik’s words came back to me.
Even he probably had not expected me to max out two Skills in a single trip into the Labyrinth.
Am I the type who thrives in real combat?
“Char, it went up a lot, right?”
“......Yeah.”
Even as I marveled at myself, temptation struck me.
I wanted to spend my Level-Up Points immediately.
Using Level-Up Points to raise Stats was practically idiotic, since upgrading or evolving Skills produced a far greater increase in combat ability.
So what I was considering was Skills.
‘I think I can evolve Skills that have reached max Level.’
Investing one Level-Up Point could raise a Skill Level.
Investing two could evolve a Skill that had reached its limit.
I considered it for a moment.
-Level-Up Points become more valuable the longer you save them. Especially at low Grades.
Remembering Jerik’s words again, I forced myself to resist.
“Here. I’ll give you two Mana Stones.”
“No. Let’s split everything exactly in half.”
“Then should we sell them together with the Ability Stone and split the money?”
“Yes. That would probably be better.”
Once we settled how to divide the spoils, we decided what to do next.
“And while we’re walking around looking for more exits, let’s retrace where we fought and see if any Mana Stones dropped. Normal goblins almost never drop them, but we killed so many.”
“Sure. That makes sense....... But why are we looking for more exits? We already found six.”
I hesitated slightly.
But just like the Goblin Basket,
the fact that my Trait could reveal the conditions for a Perfect Clear seemed far too dangerous to share.
‘In this savage world.’
If the Goblin Basket increased the chances of me being found dead in a back alley someday,
this increased the chances of me ending up chained as a slave to some massive guild or the Royal Palace.
‘I can just insist I heard somewhere that slaughtering goblins might help.’
It was similar enough to the vaguely known requirement of making ‘heroic achievements’ to obtain a Special Class.
But even to me, searching for exits sounded far too random.
So I changed the subject.
“You. Do you remember where those exits were?”
“......Ah.”
For now, I would say that and somehow find four more exits.
From then on, we retraced the traces of our battles and repeatedly searched for any Mana Stones we might have missed.
Of course.
“Char. I don’t think it was this way.”
“No. We were running, so it could’ve been.”
“Was it?”
I deliberately headed in a direction we had never visited, doing my best to find another exit.
Normal goblins had almost no chance of dropping Mana Stones anyway.
Like that, we found three more exits.
“This time, let’s go that way!”
“Char, that really isn’t where we came from......”
“No. It is.”
“Char. Are you bad with directions? What happened to that maze-solving method you were talking about?”
“Just come on!”
“No, I think we’ve searched more than enough by now......”
“Let’s goooo!”
“You’re hopeless with directions and stubborn as hell too. Wow......”
I had somehow become hopeless with directions while forcibly steering Kirk in another direction.
‘Just one more. One more!’
And then.
“Kyaak!”
“Ah, damn it. More goblins!”
“I told you this wasn’t the way!”
Only after several more battles did we finally find the last exit.
“Whew. Should we head out soon?”
“You’re only thinking of leaving now? We lost our way ages ago.”
“Come on. We got plenty of experience instead. After slaughtering this many goblins, it probably counted toward our Class conditions. Maybe?”
“Maybe? You were guessing about that too?!”
I was not guessing.
But that explanation would do.
And then,
[The Perfect Clear Conditions for Floor 1 of the Labyrinth have been fulfilled.]
[On the first attempt, monsters killed: (1,130/1,000) & exits discovered: (10/10).]
[1 Level-Up Point awarded!]
[An Achievement has been created. An additional bonus will be applied when obtaining a Class.]
‘What?!’
The System notification for the Perfect Clear startled me.
Especially the Level-Up Point.
Kirk tilted his head.
“What is it? Something wrong?”
Apparently, he had not heard that notification.
“Ah, no.”
Obtaining a Level-Up Point without leveling up was surprising enough.
But the Achievement mattered even more.
‘A bonus when obtaining a Class?’
That also made it dangerous information to reveal carelessly.
“I’m just tired. Thought I saw something.”
“Oh....... Then let’s go. I’m exhausted.”
“Back when we killed the Hobgoblin, didn’t you hear some kind of System notification?”
“The one saying the battle was over?”
“......Yeah.”
So he really had not heard the latest one.
“Why?”
“......No reason. Now that we’re heading back, all sorts of thoughts are popping into my head.”
“Let’s hurry. Aren’t you tired too, Char?”
Level-Up Points were unique to Summoners, so I could understand that.
But apparently natives could not hear notifications about ‘Achievements’ that affected Classes either.
‘Well......’
Thinking about it, that made sense.
If natives could hear Achievement notifications too, then even if Perfect Clears remained unknown, far more information about Special Classes should already have spread.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Only after sorting out my thoughts did I place my hand on the exit, a blue portal.
[Return to the surface?]
[Proceed to Floor 2 of the Labyrinth?]
Of the two choices,
I selected return.
FLASH.
And just like that,
our first Labyrinth expedition ended with far more gains than expected.
[You have cleared Floor 1 of the Labyrinth (Novice Bracket). Agility increased by 1.]
A random Stat increase of 1.
As the message announcing the reward every adventurer received for clearing a floor appeared, the lingering light faded from my vision.
I found myself standing before the enormous black-hole-like circle again.
Among the countless people milling around between the Labyrinth Stele and the outer wall,
I spotted Jerik.
“You are back!”
“Yes, Master.”
“Yes, Master.”
“I told you to clear only the first floor. Why did you take so long? I have been waiting more than half a day. And what happened to you? Why do you look like beggars?”
Jerik grabbed Kirk in a fierce hug and made a huge fuss.
Then he immediately began inspecting both Kirk and me from head to toe, frowning at everything he saw.
Jerik’s voice was so loud that I could feel people nearby glancing at us.
Then I even heard disparaging mutters like, “First floor, right?” and “How weak are they?”
“Well......”
“Let’s head back first and talk there.”
I calmed Jerik down.
After we returned to the martial arts hall, we explained what had happened.
“What?! A goblin wave and a Hobgoblin?!”
“Yes. We got carried away slaughtering them and......”
“Why would you do something so dangerous?! I know you are confident in your abilities, but still!”
“Well, Char told me it might be a condition for getting a Special Class.”
The coward Kirk ratted me out.
“What, you brat?!”
“No, I, uh...... I’d heard a rumor like that......”
“The accepted theory is that Special Classes take into account outstanding achievements when fighting elite monsters or Boss Monsters. Where did you even......!”
Uh.
That is not it, though.
I thought that, but lowered my head and apologized anyway.
“I’m sorry.”
I had already decided not to tell anyone about this information.
Still, I could at least brag about the results.
“We got a Ruler’s Majesty Ability Stone because of it.”
“......What?”
“We also got three Mana Stones.”
“......Huh?”
“Kirk said his Skills improved while overcoming the fight, and I reached Level 8 too. You said Summoners normally cap out at Level 5 on the first floor.”
“......Uh, what?”
Only then did the anger gradually begin disappearing from Jerik’s face.
“Do not tell me you panicked because it was dangerous and spent all your Skill Points......?”
“I didn’t spend a single one.”
“......What?”
Truthfully, I simply had not had the presence of mind to spend them.
Jerik examined the situation from every angle.
But when nothing remained except undeniable results, he finally gave a hollow laugh and raised both hands.
“Fine. I admit that you achieved far more than I expected. But never do anything that reckless again. Understood?”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“Especially you, Char. Do not ever hear some strange rumor and pull another ridiculous stunt!”
“Yes!”
Next time, I will only do ridiculous things based on reliable information.
Only after giving a different answer inside my head did I relax.
“Good. Now rest. And Char, I am telling you again. Do not even think about using Skill Points to evolve your Skills. Not yet.”
“Yes. I was planning to save them anyway......”
“There is more than that. I have something to tell you.”
“......What?”
“Rest for today first. You must have spent the entire day fighting without a moment to think.”
And with that, our long day finally came to an end.