chapter 21

30 minutes had passed since the goblins arrived. I was gasping for breath. Then I could hear the voices of the women behind me.

“Amazing. He really killed all of them.”

“That grandfather’s identity…”

“Kyak! Too cool. Grandfather!”

I gasped feebly without the strength to reply to them. Then I started to strike my dagger with all my strength at the lock on the prison door.

Chaeng! Chaeeng! Clang?

[The durability of Chen’s Rusty Dagger has fallen to zero and it has broken.]

“……”

There was a moment of silence.

I was going crazy. I suddenly had goosebumps. Yesterday’s nightmare seemed to be starting again.

“Damn.”

I became heated up. Why did Chen give me something rusty? He was insulting me.

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ feels pity.]

Then I heard a voice. “Over here! There are intruders over here!”

I turned my head and saw more goblins running. Oh, the lid opened after a long time…

“Father, did you come alone? Where are the other reinforcements?”

I turned my head and saw Kim Sujeong looking at me anxiously. It was the same for everyone else. They all seemed to think I couldn’t face these goblins. However, I would make them know this was a mistake.

“Solar.”

[The sun elemental is answering its master’s call.]

[The primordial flame has descended to the ground.]

The primordial flames started to spark in my hands. A hot wind swelled and flames burst out, soon coming together to create a familiar shape. “Solar has appeared!”

It was always noisy whenever it appeared. By the way, I had never used Solar in combat before but now wasn’t the time to care if it was hot rice or cold rice.

“What is this? A fire is talking?”

“Isn’t it miraculous? Is he a summoner?”

“No, can a summoner fight that well? It is ridiculous!”

I threw myself toward the goblins while ignoring the various speculations I could hear behind me. In fact, my specialty wasn’t the dagger…

“It’s kicking.”

I jumped through the air, stepped on the screaming goblins, and started to kick their stomachs. It was at a tremendous speed! It was a speed that didn’t belong to a level 12 user no matter who looked at it. I stepped on their shoulders and ran on their heads. Surprisingly, Solar also played an active role? Once it entered combat mode, Solar grew from the size of an apple to the size of a watermelon. It kept growing larger as it burned the goblins.

“Kuaaack!”

“What the hell is that fire? Kiik!”

“It’s very hot!”

“It’s painful!”

…Wasn’t it pretty good?

Solar poured out the flames of the hot sun from its mouth, keeping to my pace while assisting me. There was an even more shocking fact…

[50 sun damage has been dealt.]

[50 sun damage has been dealt.]

[50 sun damage has been dealt.]

…

…

There were a huge number of messages that constantly popped up every three seconds. The messages weren’t appearing due to Sun Ball. It was…

“Take my curse! Hehehe!”

It was due to the passive skill, Sun’s Curse. It was a skill that dealt damage every 3 seconds to the enemies in the vicinity. My mouth curved slightly as I saw it for the first time and realized its power.

“I can’t lose. Go! These guys!”

I started kicking them one by one as I moved between them. A back kick, turn kick, side kick, front kick, 360 degree spinning kick, etc. I showed off a tremendous dance and instilled fear in them. The goblins turned to ash every time they were hit due to my synergy with Solar! It was the scene of a massacre.

Cheers could be heard from inside the prison.

“Kyaack♡ Grandfather, fighting!”

“Defeat all the goblins!”

“Grandfather is amazing~!”

“Oh my, I think I’m falling in love!”

“Play! Play! Grandfather!”

Kim Sujeong watching from the side was also cheering. She shouted in a roaring voice, “Father! You can’t lose to those type of people-! Come on!”

I felt more empowered as I annihilated the goblins while listening to them. There was one problem. It was the fact that this was a goblin village.

“Shadow Play.”

“…?”

I heard a dismal, terrifying, and cold voice and something emerged from behind me.

[You have suffered catastrophic damage!]

“Kkuack!”

“Father!”

“Grandfather!”

I screamed at the burning pain in my neck and the women in the prison were also stunned. Damn! What was this? I instinctively swung the dagger but the figure that had attacked me had already disappeared. I could hear the goblins shouting.

“The chief has come!”

“Zigma is here! We’re saved!”

Chief? Zigma?

I turned in the direction of the voices. There was a tall, slender, and arrogant goblin standing there.

[Lv. 25 Goblin Tribe Chief, Assassin Zigma]

…This guy.

The words that Mido once said crossed my mind. ‘Grandfather, there are those with names among the monsters.’

‘Names…?’

‘They are named monsters. They are many times stronger than normal monsters and have a lot of health, so they must be avoided.’

‘They are stronger?’

‘Yes, it’s easy to say they’re a boss. If you meet one, never try to catch them by yourself. Understood?’

‘Yes, I understand. Kekeke.’

Now a named monster had appeared. It was just like I heard. I felt a bit of cold sweat on my forehead.

“What a ridiculous fellow. A human dares to attack this place alone. Kiik.”

“Bah, all of you are so smelly that I came to do laundry training.”

“Laundry…? I see. The armor you’re wearing now are the clothes of that guy who was bullied by the tribe because of his smell.”

Bullied?

“I was puzzled because I didn’t see him but isn’t this his armor? Traitor.”

A goblin passed through my mind for a moment.

‘Kiruk, I have no friends. I live alone. My house is also separate.’

‘Kiik. Goodbye, human. I’m leaving here now.’

No way… these were his clothes? Somehow, the smell was familiar. Yet the chief called him a traitor. I understood why that fellow thought about leaving here. He smelled a bit but he was definitely a good guy. I told the chief, “I wouldn’t have been able to find his armor if you were even a bit interested in him.”

“Bah, I have no interest in such a guy.”

“I don’t think you deserve to be a chief.”

“Keuk… a human is talking nonsense. Attack!”

Damn. He was coming.

“Solar.”

“What is it, Master?”

“Can you deal with those guys alone?”

“I think I can do it. Hehe!”

It might be possible if it was Solar.

“Please. I think I’ll have to focus on the chief over there.”

“I understand! Master! Have strength! Hehe!”

Solar rushed toward the group of goblins at a glowing speed! The goblins near Solar were being mercilessly burned.

Ttiring~

[Sun Elemental – Solar has 10 minutes of summoning time left.]

…I couldn’t waste a lot of time. I was confronted by the Zigma guy who was running toward me at a high speed. Zigma’s weapon was a dark-colored dagger that glowed like a black pearl. It would be difficult to fight against a fairly skilled dagger user. In the course of the exchange of blows, I was surprised.

“What?”

The object I thought was Zigma was disappearing.

…A clone? I didn’t expect to see a clone that I had only heard about. I looked around but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

Where was he? Where…? A voice was heard from below me. “Here.”

“Crazy!”

I quickly kicked at the guy who emerged from the shadows. However, Zigma was much faster. His dagger moved and cut my left arm.

“Kuock!”

Zigma was moving around again, seeping into the shadows. I frowned at the sight. “Lousy bastard!”

There are always these guys. Those who thought they would win no matter how they fought. I’ve seen many of them in the life and death fights I had experienced. Perhaps Zigma was the same type of person.

“Kikikikikik. It is better not to resist uselessly.”

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is watching this person’s scumbag style of fighting.]

Yes, I was also angry. Nevertheless, there was no way. What should I do?

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ says to use Keen Insight.]

Keen Insight? Oh, that skill. Could I really use it to beat this guy? Keen Insight was a good skill but there were clear limits. It had a time limit of one minute. It was a useless skill if I couldn’t deal a lot of damage to the enemy. However…

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ says to use it together with the explosives.]

Hmm, the explosives…

I drew the operation in my mind and had an ominous feeling. Then I suffered damage again. “Dammit.”

Suddenly, only half my health remained. It was only for a moment but I thought about running away. Still, I couldn’t give up when I heard the shouts from behind me.

“Father! Fighting!”

“Don’t give up!”

“Grandfather! Work hard!”

“Blow away the chief!”

The continued screams of support were empowering me. How could I run away? I had to stand up again. Yes, let’s think about it. Think about it! Should I light it and explode it at the timing of his next attack? No, it was too dangerous. We might die together.

I clutched the broken dagger in my hand and thought desperately. Should I swing this around? I wanted to do something. I had to somehow create a gap in Zigma.

Then Zigma’s attack came again. “Die!”

I swung the hand holding the dagger and managed to insert the broken dagger into his body.

“Kuock!”

[You have been struck by a serious attack!]

[You can’t use your left arm.]

Shit.

Damage was exchanged at the same time but the blow to me was bigger. My health was worn out by more than half yet his health had barely decreased at all. Zigma snorted and hid in the shadow again. At this moment, my eyes shone.

This? It seemed to only be a moment. Zigma disappeared into the shadow with the dagger I stabbed in him.

At the same time, my mind started to spin rapidly. Prometheus had the same idea as me and made a contribution.

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is shouting at you to throw the explosives into the shadows.]

“Yes. I was already planning on it.”

I quickly pulled out two explosives with one hand.

Zigma laughed at me from the shadows. “Huhuhu. It is better to stop your foolish struggle now.”

“Crazy bastard.”

At the same time, I ignited the explosives with Blowing Fire. The wick started to burn.

“Keuk, you’re choosing to die. Well, I didn’t intend to leave you alive anyway.”

At the same time, Zigma jumped. I thought of a familiar skill in my head.

[The apostle skill: Keen Insight has been activated.]

[You can preview your opponent’s attack path for one minute.]

At this moment, the world seemed to stop. I could see it—the moving images pointed to the path of Zigma’s attack.

“No…?!”

Zigma looked perplexed because he hadn’t thought I would be able to avoid it. Then I…

“Eat this, you son of a bitch.”

I kicked him in the jaw as he jumped.

“Keeok!” Zigma fled back into the shadows at my blow.

I threw the explosives in my right hand toward the tribe chief’s shadow.

“Kuaaaack!”

A pillar of flames soared from the shadow, revealing Zigma’s figure. It was quite a sight to see him blackened and bleeding.

[The first apostle, ‘Prometheus,’ is watching the struggle with happiness.]

“Taste the explosives, you jerk.”

Zigma lost half his health at this time and stumbled to one knee.

“Kuek, this human dares…! You dare! You actually made me bleed!!!”

Then I saw Zigma pulling out a small bead fragment. A tremendous amount of energy started to spill out from it. The dark energy started to wrap around Zigma and his eyes were filled with a black aura. Zigma turned his head toward me. I couldn’t help panicking when I saw Zigma rushing at an unprecedented speed.

“Um?!”

Fortunately, Keen Insight was still active. Zigma continued swinging the dagger but he looked furious when he couldn’t hit me. “Ohh! Why?! Why aren’t you being hit? Kuaaah!”

I was glad I had Keen Insight.

“Grrrr. Then I’ll tear apart the hostages.”

“What…?”

Unfortunately, at this moment, the duration of Keen Insight was over.

[The duration of the apostle skill: Keen Insight is over.]

“Kukukuk, feel the pain…!”

I couldn’t stop Zigma from running past me to the prison.

* * *

On the other hand, in the prison…

“Oh my, that crazy guy is running toward us!”

“Kyak, no! I don’t want to die! My experience will decrease!”

“I thought he had won. How annoying!”

Kim Sujeong closed her eyes. She had naturally cheered when she saw Father detonate an explosive he obtained from an unknown place. She thought maybe he could win but it was too much for him. She sighed deeply as she watched him rushing.

“Hah, it is a shame that Father couldn’t beat the named monster…”

“Flying Weather Dance.”

“…?”

Sujeong turned her head at the sudden voice.

‘Father?’

It looked like…

Suddenly, he was dancing in the air with his kicks.

“What are you doing…?”

Her eyes widened as she continued to watch. Hot energy started to rise from his feet and he moved in a flowing motion.

“…?”

Disappeared? The place he appeared was below the tribe chief. Chuntaek’s feet were burning. It was like the hot sun. “Rising Sun.”