Naturally, I was the only person in the room who had their eye on the Dokkaebi Raceâ, or Goblins. The others all looked over the list and reacted in different ways.
âDragons can be considered the pinnacle race. So Iâm sure this Dragon Sub Race is the best on the list.â
âLook at the picture. They look just like Dragons. Would you be able to communicate with them?â
âThere are many intelligent racesâŠ.â
âAh, thatâs true. Hmm.â
The Count eagerly perused the list. It was almost as though she was looking for the freshest apple in an open air market, On the other hand, the Black Dragon Master furrowed her eyebrows slightly, and the Heretic Questionnerâs eyes twinkled.
âMy Lady! I have a question!â
âMm, I like students who are good at asking questions. It gives me a chance to show off. Heretic. Iâm happy that youâre willing to help me show off.â
âCan our Tower only pick one race?â
âGood question.â
The Lady smiled brightly and rubbed her face against her pillow.
âBut that is also your choice.â
âOh? What do you mean âour choiceâ?â
âIâll now give a little something to the top seven.â
Srrk.
A holographic window appeared in front of me.
[The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage sponsors you by giving a start-up subsidy.]
[Youâve received 700 race points!]
[You currently have 700 race points.]
This wasnât a reward that I had known about before I returned.
And as the Lady said, it was a privilege that was only granted to the top seven hunters. It was something that I wouldnât have even been able to dream of in the past, back when I didnât even have a title.
âNow, itâs time for Swordy, our number one, to choose!â
Of course, to be precise, it was a reward that we âmay receive,â not one that we had already received.
âThere are a total of ten disasters that will occur from the 31st to the 40th floors. Every single one of these disasters will be devastating! Your main goal is to survive those disasters and help your civilization prosper. Thatâs why youâll need to make a choice⊠Will you put it all in one place? Or will you distribute it?â
âPut it all in one place?â
The number one hunter, the Sword Saint, frowned slightly at the strange phrase.
âWhat do you mean?â
âItâs exactly as it sounds. You can choose to spend all 700 points on a single race. Or each of you from 1st to 7th can choose a race. In that case, you would use 100 points on each.â
The Lady chuckled slightly.
âNaturally, if you chose to put all 700 points into a single race, there would be much to gain. You would have a much better start. However, the risk also increases. If that race is destroyed, then you will all be destroyed with it. On the other hand-.â
âIf we each pick a race, the risk would be spread out among us. Even if one race perishes, the other six would still have a chance.â (TL: The author put âfiveâ here, which Iâll assume was just a brainfart)
âMhm! You caught on quickly.â
ââŠâŠâ
The Sword Saint tapped his chin. The old manâs eyes narrowed.
In the past, the Flame Emperor, who was ranked one, had probably chosen âall in oneâ without any hesitation. Then, he controlled the Elf Race as he pleased. The opinions of the other rankers and guild leaders were all completely ignored.
But the Sword Saint was different.
ââŠEvolution is the art of diversity and chance.â
The Sword Saint was a wise adult.
âThe changes that a race undergoes in the wild are limitless. In order to survive in a brutal world, diversity is one of the first things that must be achieved. I donât know how valuable 700 points are, but I donât think itâs worth more than 7 races.â
âHeh.â
âWeâll choose to âdistribute,â my Lady.â
The Lady looked like she was having a lot of fun at that moment.
âAre you sure? If you pick 7 different races, you will be able to fight among yourselves. Itâs possible that someone could stab someone else in the back.â
âIf you look at the big picture, fighting is just a part of the competition.â
The Sword Saint spoke calmly.
âThose without rivals will eventually fall.â
As he said that, the old man turned to look at me. No words were spoken, but I understood the message hidden in his eyes. The sword fight we just had. It was still vivid in our heads.
I nodded
âMm.â
The Sword Saint also nodded his head.
âIâll say it again. Our Tower chooses to distribute the points.â
âGood!â
[The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage welcomes your choice.]
âThen, each of you from 1st to 7th will be able to choose a race to rule! Ah. By the way, guys, you are not allowed to select one race multiple times. This means that if someone selects a race, no one else can choose it.â
The Lady then sat on one of the chairs in the cafe. Without any of us realising heâd disappeared, Hamustra returned with a coffee. As she took a sip of a smoothie that was filled with chocolate chips, the Lady winked at us.
âTake your time! Itâs fine even if you want to deliberate for 120 years. Thereâs no specific time limit for selecting a race.â
There wasnât a need to think that much about it.
The number one hunter, The Sword Saint, was the first to make his selection.
âI choose the Pure Race.â
âAhhhâŠâ
Sad sighs flowed from different parts of the room. The Pure Race. They were similar to humans like us. Although they didnât have any special traits, we would be more familiar with them than any other race. There must have been a lot of hunters who wanted them as well.
âWell, thatâs a good choice. What will you choose, Death King?â
The Lady turned to me.
The hunters in the room also turned to look at me.
Everyone was looking forward to what Iâd choose.
-ZombieeeâŠ.
Bae Huryeong pulled at his hair.
-Iâd rather you picked something else, Zombie. Huh. Even actual zombies would be better. What about Elves? They have good potential. They look good, have a long lifespan, and have fairly high magic power too. Letâs go with Elves. Yeah? Elf.
I spoke in a solemn tone.
âI choose the Dokkaebi Race.â
-Aaaagh! You psycho! Nutcase! Crazy bastard!!
Bae Huryeong cried out as he rolled around in the air.
Below him, all of the hunters in the room made a â?â expression in unison.
âDokkaebi Race?â
The Black Dragon Master decided to be the groupâs representative.
âWhatâs that?â
âIf you look at the list, it is entry number 103.â
âHuh? 103? 103âŠâ
My companions all began to look through the list. And after scrolling for a whileâŠ
ââŠâŠâ
Everyone became quiet.
âHuhâŠ?â
The Black Dragon Master rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
Did she think that sheâd read something incorrectly?
But she was fine. We were all the same. She saw what I saw, and I saw what she saw.
+
[Dokkaebi Race]
Extinction Grade: A (Very Dangerous)
Proverb: âKeruk! Goruk!â
Description: A race with every ability spanning across the lower ranks. In a word, they could be said to have low rank compatibility. They have less intelligence than the Pure Race, less combat power than the Noble Race, and less magic power than the Bloodsucking Race! Itâs amazing! No matter what field you choose, you will find that the Dokkaebi Race is extremely compatible.
From the perspective of most races, the Dokkaebi Race is not pretty. It is a race that completely lacks beauty. That is the best way to describe the Dokkaebi Race. All races, from the Pure Race to the Dokkaebi Race themselves, consider Dokkaebis as âugly.â
Ugly!
A little too ugly!
Traits: [Victims of racial discrimination], [Tribal consciousness], [Greed]
+
A group of images floated beside the description.
And no matter how they looked at it, they couldnât see these creatures as anything but goblins.
âUh, uhâŠâ
The Black Dragon Master gave a rare stutter.
âDeath King?â
âYeah.â
âArenât these goblins? It even says so in the aliases.â
âRight. Theyâre goblins.â
ââŠare you insane?â
âHuhu.â
I chuckled slightly at those words. The Black Dragon Master was looking at me like I was crazy. In fact, it wasnât just the Black Dragon Master. The other hunters were looking at me in the same way. How could these little crow-tits understand the greatness of a roc? (1)
âEveryone.â
I solemnly put my palms together like a lonely saint.
âThe goblins, the Dokkaebi Race, is the greatest race in the world.â
The Black Dragon Masterâs expression darkened a bit.
âDeath King⊠you poor thing⊠Iâm so sorry. Did I give you too much work to do lately? Iâll be more considerate in the future. How about we cancel all the interviews for this month?â
âListen closely. Everyone.â
I began to preach about the greatness of goblins.
âLetâs take a look at the description first. It says [No matter what field you choose, you will find that the Dokkaebi Race is extremely compatible]. Doesnât it?â
âMhm.â
âIn other words, their low rank compatibility can be demonstrated in any field. Whether itâs intelligence or a case where the use of magic power is necessary, even if they might not be the best, they would be able to respond to any crisis.â
âUhâŠâ
The expressions of my fellow hunters became a bit strange.
It was as though they wanted to ask, âIs it really okay to look at it like that?â.
âMore importantly, they are so pathetic. See? Every race thinks goblins are ugly. Even the description belittled them for being ugly. I⊠feel like no one else like these childrenâŠ.â
I smiled sadly.
âChildren who are persecuted and ignored by everyone. Who are unwanted. Doesnât that feel like the people here in our Tower?â
ââŠâŠ.â
âThatâs right. The goblins are basically our self portraits. Itâs not that the goblins are really ugly but that our hearts instinctively ignore the goblins⊠Ah, everyone. Iâm sad. We all have the hearts of goblins. In other words, there is an ugly goblin inside every one of usâŠ.â
The expressions of the hunters became even stranger.
Their faces seemed to be asking, âHas this guy finally gone mad?â.
Without being swept into their atmosphere of disbelief, I spoke firmly.
âThe Goblins will soar.â
ââŠâŠâ
âTheyâll definitely soar.â
ââŠâŠâŠâŠâ
âDonât you think theyâll soar? Iâm a prophet, okay? Do you not believe me?â
âAh. Fine. Fine. Do what you want.â
My extraordinary momentum made the Black Dragon Master retreat. For some reason, I felt like she was trying to make as much distance between us as possible, but it might have just been my imagination. After all, my friendship with the Black Dragon Master was strong. Of course.
âAhahahaha!â
[The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage] laughed heartily.
âR-, right. Fine. So you will be choosing the goblins, Death King?â
âYes. My heart is pure without even a sliver of doubt.â
âAhh. As I expected. You are so⊠No. Nevermind. Letâs move on.â
The race selection continued up to the 7th-place ranker.
The list of our choices was as follows.
+
1st. Sword Saint: Pure Race
â Representative Title â Human
2nd. Death King: Dokkaebi Race.
â Representative Title â Goblin.
3rd. Black Dragon Master: Bloodsucking Race
â Representative Title â Vampire.
4th. Heretic Questionner: Snail Race.
â Representative Title â Slug
5th. Count: Fairy Race.
â Representative Title â Elf.
6th. Venomous Snake: Noble Race.
â Representative Title â Sprite.
7th. Crusader: Ocean Race.
â Representative Title â Mermaid.
+
Crusader, who had been 9th for a while, had risen quickly in the past two months and managed to get to 7th place. Because of this, she had suffered a lot during the reorganization of the African soldiers. But it was also because of this that she was able to participate in this stage.
âMm. Thatâs it. Now, each of you will get 100 pointsâŠ.â
[The Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage has distributed the subsidy.]
[You have received 100 race points!]
[You currently have 100 race points.]
The Lady put her glass down on the table.
âShall we get started on the 31st floor?â
Paaht!
Just as the Ladyâs glass tapped against the table, we were all surrounded by a bright light. A short moment passed.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself above a primeval forest.
âThis isâŠ.â
âItâs a world where your chosen races live in peace. Look down there.â
When I looked down, I saw a bunch of small creatures moving around in the forest. Each race lived in their own separate tribe, and they were all at a primitive level.
âOhh. The Snails live in swamps!â
âHow interesting⊠The Vampires live in caves.â
We all looked around at the different settlements like people visiting a museum.
Was this what an omniscient third-person perspective was like?
We could zoom in and out as we pleased. We even went down and wandered among the primitive members of our races, but they never noticed us.
-KerukâŠ.
-Kerk, ker.
The Dokkaebi people grunted and chirped as they butchered a large centipede with a stone knife. When they took off the centipedeâs legs and roasted them over the fire, I realised that it smelled strangely like chicken.
-Kerr!
The young goblins devoured the centipede meat as though it was the most delicious thing in the world.
âCentipede chicken?â
Was the giant centipede this worldâs chicken? If so, then all of the centipedeâs legs would taste like chicken legs. Just by catching one centipede, you could get dozens of chicken legs.
âThe Goblins look so cute like this.â
-Are you crazy? Well, you were always crazyâŠ.
Bae Huryeong clicked his tongue.
But I fell in love with the sight of these little primitive people living together.
Krrrrr-
Unfortunately, the times of peace were brief.
The towering mountain that stood proudly in the center of the large primeval forest began to shake heavily. It was a volcano. The primitive races might not have been able to see it since they lived under the mountain, but for us, who could see in third person, the lava bubbling within was clearly visible.
âMm?â
âOh, no.â
My companions were a bit apprehensive.
âThis⊠Isnât this a bit dangerous?â
After a short while, this volcano would erupt. For some reason, we were all able to âinstinctivelyâ realise this fact. The lava would rip through the primeval forest in a savage way, and naturally, the primitive races living within it would be annihilated
At this rate, all seven of the races under our rule would go extinct.
âIâll now give you your quest for the 31st floor!â
The Lady spoke.
âThis is the Great Forest of Origin, where many races live in harmony. But as you can see, in a short while, the volcano will erupt and destroy everything!â (TL: Everything changed when the fire nation attacked)
A holographic window appeared in front of our eyes.
[You have received the quest for the 31st floor.]
The text appeared in an instant.
+
[The End of the Golden Era]
Difficulty: E
Mission objective: The end of the golden era has arrived for every race. A volcano is about to erupt in a land where many races and tribes live in harmony. There is no time. You must lead your race to a suitable safe zone!
â»However, if you fail to do so, your race will go extinct.
+
Boom!
Almost at the same time as when we received the quest, the first explosion sounded. Lava splashed, and the rocks on the mountain shook. It seemed that these huge boulders could roll over and fall at any moment.
âUh.â
The Black Dragon Master spoke hurriedly.
âWait a minute. They canât see us or hear our voices. How are we supposed to lead them to the safe zone? Communication in itself is impossible!â
âYouâre right.â
The Lady smiled brightly.
Behind her, boom! Rocks flew into the air. They flew through the sky before landing in the forest below.
-Kirrrr?!
-Keek! Kek!
Even the primitive races were able to detect the abnormality. Some races quickly climbed to the tops of trees and looked at the volcano. The volcano continued to shake, and lava was slowly rising from its crater.
âBut you are the guardian constellations of these children. From now on, you will have to take care of them yourself!â
The 31st floor had been opened.
The goblins were panicked and confused.
But I gave them a smile they couldnât see.
âDonât worry. Guys.â
From now on, I will carry you.
(Note:
1. This is a bit of a wordplay that I tried my best to salvage, albeit poorly.
Crow-tit(ë±ì-Baepsae) is the Korean nickname for a small fluffy bird(usually the vinous-throated parrotbill), but it is also a metaphor for someone who is trying too hard to fit in.
Roc(ë¶ì-Bungsae) is a legendary bird which was well known for its great size and strength. The legend states that it was once a fish that leapt up into the sky and sprouted wings.
(TL: I can safely say that this is the strangest chapter Iâve ever translate)