Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Damn Goblins (1)

Small stature and poor equipment.

Their only threats were poison and traps.

There was quite a solid cliché for goblins like this.

‘What kind of goblins are those?’

However, the two monsters standing before him were completely different.

Creatures with a height of about 170cm and large builds.

Their equipment was shabby and their protruding bellies didn’t make them look particularly trained, but the same could be said for Kang Hyeon.

‘Are those really goblins?!’

Faced with an appearance so different from what he expected, Kang Hyeon rubbed his eyes and looked again, but they were indeed goblins.

[Goblin Militia Member]

The letters clearly written above the goblins’ heads.

‘Hah, if I could ambush them quietly, I might be able to handle one of them somehow...’

Even so, one would still remain.

Kang Hyeon’s eyes fixed on the rusty longsword over 1m long held in the goblin’s hand.

‘If I get hit by that, it surely won’t end with just tetanus.’

Kang Hyeon quietly exhaled and tried to calm his chest.

“Phew...”

He had never won a fight in his entire life.

A natural weakling, he had never even been to a taekwondo gym that everyone else seemed to have attended.

Now Kang Hyeon had to kill two ‘monsters‘ with the build of strong adult men.

Moreover, these monsters were even carrying terrible weapons.

‘I’ve got nothing to lose. It’s not like I’ll be trapped here forever.‘

Kang Hyeon steeled himself and moved cautiously.

***

Ippotranslation

***

“Keurk, keurk”

“Keureureurawut! Kelkel.”

The two goblin militia members were laughing and joking as usual.

If one were to translate, they were discussing whose face was more handsome.

“Keureureur, kelkel, keheuk!”

At that moment, the back of one goblin’s head burst open, spraying blood.

“Uwaaa!”

Before the other goblin could realize what was happening, Kang Hyeon smashed the fallen one’s head with the mace again.

In an instant, the head cracked open and its contents flowed out along with blood.

“Keeeek!”

Only then did the other one realize the situation and let out a terrible scream.

Kang Hyeon quickly distanced himself and prepared for the next attack.

“Huk, huu...”

His breathing became rough with tension.

The tingling sensation at his fingertips made his arms tremble.

‘I, I killed it.’

No matter what anyone says, Kang Hyeon is an ordinary Korean living in the 21st century.

In this era where it’s common for people to be unable to kill even a single bug.

Kang Hyeon, who had been an utterly ordinary citizen, had just brought a weapon down on the head of an animal(?) similar to a human.

The visceral reality of brutal violence, far different from watching through a screen, struck Kang Hyeon’s mind.

Seeing the blood and chunks spilling from the fallen one’s head, he felt nauseous.

‘I have to endure. There’s still one left.‘

Kang Hyeon glared at the goblin with trembling eyes.

“Kieeee!”

Just then, as if realizing what it had to do, the remaining goblin let out a terrible scream and swung its sword.

Kang Hyeon, without even thinking of blocking, rolled on the ground to avoid the attack.

-Clang!

Sparks flew as the sword hit the ground.

That wasn’t the end of the attack.

The goblin continued swinging its sword without stopping.

In the face of this onslaught, Kang Hyeon could do nothing but retreat, let alone approach.

‘What on earth am I supposed to do!?‘

In a fight, the length of a weapon is an extremely important factor.

This is even more true if you’re a complete novice who knows nothing.

Kang Hyeon, holding a 70cm long mace, was at a loss as the sword over 1m long kept swinging at him.

-Scratch

Finally, as Kang Hyeon kept retreating and dodging, a deep wound appeared on his arm.

“Aaargh!”

Kang Hyeon screamed at the pain he had never felt in his life.

His arm felt as if it was on fire.

The even hotter blood flowing down that arm.

Words like ‘not life-threatening‘ were of no help in the current situation and pain.

“Ughh...”

Gradually, fear began to dominate Kang Hyeon’s mind.

“Ugh! Shit! Save me!”

Finally panicking, Kang Hyeon threw away the mace and started running.

‘Why the hell! Why do I have to go through this crap!?’

Kang Hyeon screamed as he ran for quite a while.

The more he did, the lighter his head became.

‘Is it gone...?’

Kang Hyeon slightly turned his head to look behind.

Instead, he saw that the number had increased to four goblins chasing him.

At that moment.

-Thud!

Kang Hyeon’s foot caught on a rock he hadn’t noticed while looking back.

‘No!’

Kang Hyeon rolled ungracefully on the ground and crashed into a pillar.

“Keurk, keurk!”

“Kelkel!”

The goblins who saw this scene held their bellies and laughed.

Clearly a mocking laughter.

“...”

His whole body was covered in dust from rolling on the ground like a fool.

His skin was scraped in various places and stung.

Moreover, ugly monsters were laughing at him.

It was literally a total disaster.

In this situation, Kang Hyeon’s choice was to plead while shedding tears.

“Save me! Please, I beg you!”

“Keurk, keurk.”

“Kirek!”

“Keurk, keurk!”

The goblins, enraged by the ear injury, charged at him like a mad man.

Kang Hyeon threw away the crossbow.

And he ran towards them with the spear in both hands.

The shield was of no concern to him.

“I don’t know either! Die!”

Kang Hyeon stabbed the belly of the goblin in front of him as he ran.

“Die! Just die!”

“Ke, keur... keruk...”

The spear pierced through the goblin’s skin and embedded itself deeply in one go.

The one with a hole in its belly spat blood.

“Huff, huff... Haha! Hahaha!”

Kang Hyeon, having taken down one goblin, trembled with the thrill that came over him.

“Ah...?”

But an unexpected problem arose.

“Eek, why won’t this come out!”

Perhaps because it was embedded too deeply, the spear wouldn’t come out.

The flustered Kang Hyeon exerted himself until the veins in his neck stood out.

“Aaaah!”

The spear gradually started to come out.

-Pop!

“Got it!”

Kang Hyeon smiled brightly at the spear that had finally come out.

And as he raised his head, he saw a rusty longsword that had already approached right in front of his nose.

-Slash!

***

Ippotranslation

***

“Aaaargh!”

Kang Hyeon woke up as if having a seizure and took a rough breath.

“Huff, huff. At least today I died right away.”

Fortunately, he died in one strike without time to feel pain.

At that moment, the door opened and Kang A-Hyun entered.

“Why are you screaming and going crazy? What, did you have a nightmare?”

Kang A-Hyun asked worriedly, seeing Kang Hyeon covered in cold sweat.

“The tutorial, I went there again.”

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you die yesterday too? Nothing happened to me today.”

“I don’t know. It seems like it’s because of some damn ability, saying there’s some error, shit...”

By now, resurrection had changed from a ‘ridiculously overpowered ability‘ to a ‘damn ability’.

Kang Hyeon rubbed his forehead with a tired expression.

“First, I need to get information from the internet.”

The siblings closed their mouths for a while and looked intently at their smartphones.

“There’s much less information than yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

Just on the day the first stage ended, there was an enormous amount of experiences and information pouring out.

However, after the second stage ended, the information decreased by more than half.

And today.

After the third stage ended, there were really sparse reviews.

“Most of it just says they died in the second stage. There’s no case of re-entering like you. There’s a little information about the third stage.”

After searching the internet a bit more, it seemed the theme of the third stage was patience and perseverance.

However, unlike stages 1 and 2, there seemed to be very few people who said they cleared it.

“In the end, it’s all useless stuff.”

“Sigh... I have to go to work for now, so let’s talk again in the evening.”

“Okay.”

Even after Kang A-Hyun left the house, Kang Hyeon continued to check his smartphone.

People were still debating about the tutorial, but nothing was certain.

It was all just so-called brain speculation.

Besides that, they talked about their unique abilities and there was a lot of talk about what the Haken dimension was.

“There’s this too...”

-Sharp increase in psychiatric hospital visits in two days

It was the headline of an article on the main page of a portal site.

“Makes sense...”

Reading the article, the goblins came to mind again.

Their ugly faces.

The rusty longsword.

And the torture.

“In the end, I have no choice but to clear it. That’s the only way I can live normally.”

It was depressing to think that the tutorial had 8 stages right away.

Still, he couldn’t spend the rest of his life fighting bloody goblins every night.

-How to use weapons

-How to actually use a sword

-Learning swordsmanship

-How to shoot a bow well

Kang Hyeon searched for things related to weapons on various sites like YouTube, Google, etc.

-How to use new weapons in Hunting Ground

-Using new firearms

-The best swordsmanship in movies

Most of the above research were useless, but Kang Hyeon wandered around looking for anything that could be even a little helpful to him.

Thus, Kang Hyeon’s study continued until night.

***

Ippotranslation

***

“Will you be able to sleep?”

“I have to.”

“Will you be okay?”

“Yeah... I can’t live like this for the rest of my life.”

For the first time in a while, the siblings had a serious conversation.

“I studied martial arts while searching the internet today, so I won’t just get beaten up.”

“Idiot, if you could learn martial arts well with that kind of thing, everyone in the world would be a martial arts master.”

“Don’t mock me, you brat.”

Kang Hyeon sighed and spoke with a stern expression.

“Phew... I’m going now. Cheer for me.”

“Okay. Good luck.”

Kang Hyeon went into his room and immediately lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.

“Can I do it...”

As the disgusting faces of the goblins appeared in his mind, he couldn’t sleep at all.

“I must succeed...”

As time passed and it became dawn, Kang Hyeon, unable to overcome fatigue, gradually fell into a deep sleep.