Fuck, fuck, fuck..! Where did the goblins suddenly go?!

  I sprinted across the city, checking every street and every alley. Just

  moments ago, they were sprawling across the city but the goblins were

  suddenly nowhere to be found. I have ten

  minutes left to kill 17 more of them. It wouldn’t have been a problem

  if they were bunched up like earlier... so why the hell are they

  suddenly gone?

  If that earlier goblin had actually run to tell the boss about the

  current situation, that the “dome was offline” or whatever the hell that

  female goblin said... Then the goblins' sudden disappearance made

  sense. I stopped running to gather my thoughts. While gasping for air, I

  speculated. It's not like they suddenly disappeared. They were hiding from me.

  The goblins were too simple-minded to organize something like that, let

  alone at such a scale that practically comprised of every goblin within

  this dome. Unless—of course—if their boss ordered them to do so. It

  also reinforced the fact that I was the only one inside this dome.

  As for the reason why, I could only come up with one conclusion. The

  boss was aware that this entire scenario was nothing more than an EVENT.

  He knew I had a kill quota, and if I couldn’t reach it in time, I’d be

  the one turning into a corpse instead. What I still couldn’t figure out

  was what the pack leader meant by the dome being offline. I had no idea

  how the hell it benefited me.

  I shook my head. Running pointlessly like this won't help. Left with

  no other choice, I immediately made my way to the city center—the only

  place I’d look if I wanted to meet the “boss” of this wave.

  As I arrived, the black portal was still swirling, producing a weak

  vortex that sucked nothing but wind near it. Sitting in front of that

  vortex was a green-skinned humanoid with a build unlike the goblins I've

  seen before. His back alone told what he was—broad, scarred, muscles

  bulging, and slick with sweat.

  I didn’t need to confirm anything. I knew for a fact that this creature with a monster of a build was him. The goblins’ boss.

  “I'm impressed.” His voice was deep and rasping, with the same coarse

  timbre all goblins seemed afflicted with. “You managed to kill that

  pink-haired whore and her lackeys. Alone, no less. She may have been a

  bitch, but she was still a pack leader with the skills to prove her

  capability.”

  I could hear a faint clanking of metal from a short distance, as if

  someone stumbled upon a stack of pans. Across the intersection, I saw a

  silhouette from an alleyway. A figure revealed by a shadow, only barely

  visible because of the purplish light across the dome.

  There were goblins there.

  There was no time to humor him. I tried to run around the goblin

  boss, but before I could even take a step, he turned his head to me. I

  immediately stopped. That sharp look in his eyes told me he wasn't going

  to let me out his sight any soon.

  He growled, "Forgive me. I cannot stand being disrespected."

  When he stood up, he had a frame about seven feet tall, possessing a

  build that was comparable to that of a bodybuilder. His rough skin were

  decorated with healed scars. He wasn't wearing anything other than a

  leather groin cover strapped across his hip. Gripped in his hand was a

  weathered longsword that looked like it was on the verge of breaking, as

  evident from the blade's dull and cracked edges.

  “I am Baekhel, The Fifth General of the Goblin Army.” he declared

  with a rumbling voice. “You are the only human in this dome, so forget

  about asking for help. It’s not uncommon for arrogant fools like you to

  wander into my domain without a party.”

  Baekhel put his longsword down—no, it would’ve been more accurate to say that he slammed into the pavement, effectively burying half the blade into the cement, Excalibur-style.

  “Contrary to the world you came from, us goblins are not ferocious

  creatures. The little ones are a bit wild, sure, but we possess a mind

  equitable to a human’s.” With a prideful grin on his face revealing his

  spiky yellowing teeth, he proposed. “Let us resolve this through

  dialogue, my friend.”

  I asked, “Why are you here?”

  He answered me knowledgably, “Just like you, we must partake in this

  EVENTS if we do not wish our kind to perish. But why do you ask, friend?

  Are you curious about this world and what lies beyond the bounds of

  this city?”

  I knew he was wasting my time with his questions, but if he was

  telling the truth, then Baekhel—too, was also a player in this EVENT.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  And yet, even after knowing that, part of me wanted to believe that

  everything could be resolved peacefully—that something as needless as

  violence wasn’t necessary at all. His stance and build alone already

  told me he had gone through countless battles. I nearly killed myself

  fighting that pack leader and my chances were even slimmer if I ever

  fought him.

  My hand trembled as I gripped the hilt of my sword, but I bit through my fear.

  Baekhel was still waiting for my answer. “What do you think, dear friend?” he said calmly. “Would you like to—”

  “[Goblin Mania].” I moved before he could finish. As my body glowed

  an aura of red for a moment, I kicked the ground with all my strength as

  I dashed forward, our swords colliding in a violent clash that sparked

  through impact. Jagged fragments of metal burst into the air. I could

  not tell whose blade had chipped, only that the force of it nearly tore

  my weapon from my hands.

  “You talk too much,” I spat.

  Baekhel laughed as he pushed back. “Heh. Not as stupid as you look.”

  The skill [Goblin Mania] increases the STR and CON stat of my sword

  twofold, and while there aren’t any hardcoded numerical stats for each

  weapon, that stat increase already powered my weapon to such a degree

  that I could fight head-to-head against his longsword. But this power-up

  wouldn’t last.

  Thirty seconds. That was all I had. My window to defeat Baekhel.

  I pressed the attack immediately, slashing again and again, refusing

  to give him room to breathe. Each strike forced Baekhel onto the

  defensive, his footing shifting as he parried and blocked. My blade

  scraped against his gauntlets, cutting shallow wounds into his hands and

  forearms but not quite injuring him yet.

  He screamed in irritation and shoved my sword aside with brute force,

  kicking backward to create space. I stumbled from the push but

  recovered quickly, charging again before he could reset his stance. I

  used my empowered crude sword to deflect it away, and once I had a clear

  opening right at Baekhel’s chest…

  I aimed for the kill. I slashed right at his chest. The blade connected, and yet… the damage I did was minimal.

  A split second before my blade made contact, a panel appeared in my peripheral vision.

  [(C-Tier Skill) Goblin Mania has ended. Current cooldown: 00:14:59]

  “I have overestimated your strength, human.” Baekhel could only grin,

  as if he knew it was going to happen. “So naive. Did you really think

  using a goblin’s skill against a goblin would give you an edge?”

  I jumped back, trying to open distance, but he did not let me. He

  advanced at me with a single step, swinging his longsword in wide

  horizontal arcs. Its reach was overwhelming. Every attempt to retreat

  was cut off by steel slicing through the air inches from my body.

  Ahhhh fuck…! I have to think—! I

  tried to look at my status menu. My inventory, skills… Anything that

  can help me get out of this situation, but he wasn’t letting me breathe.

  I kept dodging as my life literally depended on it. I expended my

  strength doing so and the exhaustion and fatigue from running and

  fighting in the past half hour was now taking a toll on me. Although I

  still had the faster reaction time that made use of his slow attacks, it

  was only a matter of time before I slipped up.

  I raised my now-normal sword and started deflecting instead. Each

  impact sent shocks up my arms. The blade sparked with every block, metal

  warping under stress. This was goblin craftsmanship, forged for their

  kind, and yet it was failing me now.

  Then, Baekhel stepped in and thrust. Preoccupied with my thoughts, I

  did not see that attack coming. My sword shattered as I blocked it from

  lethally injuring me. The sound of the blade flying was sharp,

  indicating the loss of my only weapon. The broken blade flew from my

  hands as Baekhel’s kick slammed into my chest, sending me crashing to

  the ground. The air was knocked out of me, my vision swimming as I

  struggled to breathe.

  Still, I tried to stand. I pushed myself onto my knees, hands shaking—

  “Do not think of fighting anymore, human,” Baekhel said coldly. “You have lost.”

  Two of my meaningful skills were in cooldown.

  (B-Tier Skill) Goblin Mania ← Cooldown: 00:14:30

  (C-Tier Skill) Overpower <- Cooldown: 00:23:11

  And I didn’t have anything in my inventory that could potentially help me.

  I heaved, gasping for air as my mind still ran all possibilities to

  survive. I looked at the bangle attached to my right wrist— and while I

  initially viewed it as a last resort, it might not be enough to kill

  Baekhel himself. The description for my [Angelic Halo Bracelet] showed

  that any lethal attack will simply bounce back to the attacker, and a

  single slash from his own longsword was something even Baekhel could

  react and survive to.

  It wasn’t a surefire way of killing him. And even if it did kill him…

  [EVENT: Wave Tutorial (1/5)]

  00:03:19 Remaining

  8/25 Monsters Killed

  I only had three minutes left before this wave ends. I didn’t know if

  killing the boss means automatically clearing the wave, or if it added

  just a single kill count to my progress like any other monster.

  There was only one way to find out, and that was by not dying.

  With my knees on the ground and my head faced down, “Did I do good,

  Baekhel?” I asked in a resigned tone. “Was I a better fighter than most

  of your pack leaders?”

  “If you were ever trained in the art of sword, you would have had put

  up a much stronger fight,” The goblin general sneered. He pointed the

  tip of his longsword at the back of my head. “Do not fret of your

  weakness. What is your name, human?”

  I answered, “Devon Crocus.”

  “You fought well, Crocus.” To Baekhel, it looked like I had already lost all hope.

  But that’s exactly what I wanted him to think.

  I already knew that this extra-life bangle isn’t a one and sure way

  of killing Baekhel. I wanted to save it for more dire moments in future

  waves, so it wasn’t part of my plan to strike back using that artifact.

  After all, I still had one more trick up my sleeve.

  Author's note:

  This is the end of the chapter dump! From now on, uploads will continue

  regularly during weekdays, 01:00 PM (UTC) or 08:00 AM (EST).