Ever since I first opened the status window, message logs visible only to players had begun appearing before my eyes.
Which was why…
[You have acquired a skill.]
[Instinct Control Lv 1]
Even when the message suddenly popped up, I didn’t panic.
I had been waiting for this in the first place.
‘I finally got Instinct Control.’
A skill that, just as its name implied, allowed one to control instinct.
The evaluation of Do Gyeonu in the game could be divided into before and after he acquired Instinct Control.
If Do Gyeonu before acquiring the skill was a rabbit that only grazed on grass, then after acquiring it, he could be called a carnivorous rabbit that had tasted blood.
…No, maybe a lion.
I couldn’t think of the right comparison, but that was how indispensable Instinct Control was when discussing Do Gyeonu’s performance.
‘The suffering was worth it after all.’
Having reincarnated as Do Gyeonu, I could feel that for myself.
My body felt as light as a feather.
Even though I had only taken a single step, I was moving farther than that, as if someone were pushing me from behind.
My evasion instinct, having judged that the only answer to surviving was to kill the bastards in front of me, was drawing out every ounce of strength I possessed.
They said that when humans recognized danger, they could briefly exert monstrous strength they normally couldn’t.
It was the same principle.
Furthermore…
‘I know it instinctively.’
It informed me not only of the dangers I perceived, but even of the dangers I did not.
Whoosh!
I knew without looking back.
I immediately twisted my body and dodged the arrow that came in a surprise attack.
Right then.
Kieeek!
A group of goblins pounced.
They had been waiting for the moment I changed direction.
There were four charging in.
Three goblin swordsmen, one ordinary goblin.
And one goblin mage casting behind them.
Lastly, two goblin archers watching for an opening from the left and right.
In an instant, I took in their formation and drew my sword horizontally.
Lion Iron Whip
As if swinging an iron whip.
The mana gathered along the blade shone silver and bent like a whip.
Kiek…!
The goblin swordsman on the far right took the attack, and its side was crushed.
Soon, its waist burst apart, scattering armor and chunks of flesh in every direction.
The silver sword strike did not stop there, sweeping away the goblins that had leapt up beside it as well.
One died, then another.
The ordinary goblin took less damage only because the goblin swordsman, barely still alive, had become a cushion.
At that moment…
Fwoosh!
Fire fell from overhead.
Having sensed the danger through my evasion instinct, I abruptly grabbed the scruff of the ordinary goblin lying on the ground and used it to block the flames.
Then I threw it away without hesitation.
Kieeeeeek!
The goblin screamed as it burned.
I killed the bastard rolling on the ground, then glared at the one that had made the flames.
Far off, the goblin mage was chanting something.
‘I need to get rid of the mage first.’
That one was the most troublesome.
I immediately ran toward it.
Kiek! Kiek!
Then, having grasped my intent, the bastards blocked my path to protect the goblin mage.
Shwaak!
The goblin archers were also keeping me in check.
But such harassment no longer worked on me, now that I could control my evasion instinct.
I raised my sword to the side and knocked the arrows away.
Soon, I faced off against the goblins that had stepped forward to protect the mage.
Kireuk, kireuk.
If this continued, I would be counterattacked.
Even so, I did not hesitate and kept moving forward.
When there was very little distance left between me and the one at the very front…
“Hoo.”
I caught my breath and lowered my stance.
Taking a posture as though drawing my sword from its scabbard, I manifested the mana within my body.
Concentrating mana at the tip of the blade.
Activating the mana circuits in my two legs, which would kick off the ground, and in the joints that would swing the sword.
I charged.
Lion’s Fierce Assault (獅子 猛攻)
A technique that attacked using the force generated from kicking off the ground and advancing.
The form of the attack was not fixed, and depending on the caster’s ability, it could be used as a consecutive attack as many times as one wished.
I used it as…
‘A four-hit combo.’
The instant I swung my sword, I swiftly changed direction with my front foot, advanced again, and attacked, repeating the process to deliver four strikes.
Kiii… eeeek…?
Crack!
Slash!
Pshuk!
The more Lion’s Fierce Assault was unleashed as a chain without stopping, the more its attack power increased in proportion.
Having killed four goblins in one breath, I headed toward the goblin mage, whose ear had been cut off after getting caught in the path of my sword.
‘At this point, wasn’t there no reason to kill the mage first?’
* * *
What on earth was happening?
Do Sangjun felt as if what was unfolding before his eyes was not reality.
‘What… am I looking at right now?’
It felt like he was dreaming.
That was how sudden and out of nowhere it was.
Because Do Gyeonu, who had been fleeing from the goblins in terror only moments ago, was now fighting them without the slightest hint of fear.
And he was overwhelming more than ten of them all by himself.
“…”
He wasn’t seeing things.
Right now, Do Gyeonu had entered the middle of the group, disrupting their coordination, and in turn using their numerical superiority to throw their attacks into confusion.
From where Do Sangjun watched at a distance, it looked like nothing but Gyeonu toying with them.
‘Did he smile?’
It was probably not his imagination.
As Do Gyeonu moved with footwork in the midst of the goblin horde, dodging attacks as if dancing, the corners of his mouth had risen ever so slightly.
He was enjoying this situation.
It was clearly a different face from the one he had shown just moments ago.
Then Bae Hongcheol spoke as if his soul had left his body.
“Branch Chief, what on earth is that kid?”
“What else…? He’s my son.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I mean, how does a kid fight that well? Are all people from prestigious clans like that?”
“…There’s no way.”
Even he himself was astonished right now.
Bae Hongcheol, who had seen Do Gyeonu for the first time today, must have been even more shocked.
At Bae Hongcheol’s almost accusatory question, Do Sangjun fell briefly into thought before soon shaking his head.
There was no need to think about it.
How could that possibly be common?
Even among people from prestigious clans, very few would be able to display that level of skill at Gyeonu’s age.
Moreover…
‘He’s dodging every single attack. He knows instinctively where the attacks will come from.’
The tactics Do Gyeonu was currently employing were extremely reckless and dangerous.
One wrong move, and he could be surrounded by goblins and attacked from every direction.
On top of that, the goblin archers and mage, capable of ranged attacks, were constantly watching for openings.
But Do Gyeonu was avoiding all of those dangers as if they were nothing.
It was as though he had eyes on his back.
‘Even if he sensed them with a detection net, he couldn’t dodge that reflexively. Just what did that kid realize?’
Unable to take his eyes off the scene.
Do Sangjun tried to understand the change that had occurred in him.
One plausible guess came to mind.
‘A Gift?’
A Gift, a characteristic possessed by the soul.
Perhaps, in a desperate situation, he had awakened to a Gift he had never been aware of until now.
Otherwise, there was no explaining the change he had shown.
‘Are you saying you pushed yourself this far in order to awaken your Gift?’
It was truly absurd.
Do Sangjun wondered whether his son had always been such a fearless child.
The more he thought about it, the more dumbfounded he became.
At the same time…
‘That must be how badly you wanted to change.’
Do Sangjun could feel just how serious Do Gyeonu’s resolve had been.
It was right then.
“B-Branch Chief, that’s…!”
“…”
Even without Bae Hongcheol pointing it out, he could see the phenomenon Do Gyeonu had caused.
Do Sangjun’s eyes widened.
The goblins had moved forward and solidified their defense in order to cover the goblin mage.
Do Gyeonu was about to kick off the ground, poised to charge at them.
Immediately after, the mana flowing out from his body made a sound as though rubbing against the atmosphere, scattering electric currents.
Crackle!
He had not seen wrong.
Faint blue currents were sparking around Do Gyeonu.
And then.
Lion’s Fierce Assault
When Do Gyeonu unleashed the Beast King Style.
The faintly visible current swelled in force as if exploding, emitting light.
That light moved along with Do Gyeonu, creating blue flashes.
“…”
Four in succession.
Paths flashing blue came into being.
Doubting his own eyes, Do Sangjun parted the lips he had kept tightly shut.
“Azure Lightning (碧雷)….”
There was no mistaking it. It was Azure Lightning.
A phenomenon in which mana, in the process of unleashing the Beast King Style, created friction with the atmosphere and the mana circuits and sublimated into blue electricity.
It was a phenomenon produced by the harmony of many elements, including not only precise posture and speed, but the degree of force put into the sword and the extent to which the mana circuits were activated.
“Wow… The swordsmanship of the Divine Sword Do Clan really is amazing. Good grief, can even a kid that young generate Azure Lightning?”
“…No.”
Denying Bae Hongcheol’s question, Do Sangjun could not maintain his composure.
As far as he knew, not a single person had ever produced Azure Lightning at Do Gyeonu’s age.
Even those called geniuses had not produced Azure Lightning at that age.
The Second Family Head, said to have produced Azure Lightning at the youngest age, had been fourteen.
‘Gyeonu is two years ahead of that record right now?’
Do Sangjun could not believe it.
But even now, blue currents were still surging before his eyes.
Lion’s Rending Slash
Though it was more incomplete than before, Do Gyeonu was swinging his sword with blue currents wrapped around his body.
In the end, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
“What on earth did you realize…?”
Amazed by his son’s growth, Do Sangjun was left speechless.
“Branch Chief, were we even needed?”
“That’s what I’m wondering.”
In the end, Do Sangjun forgot his sense of reality and simply watched Do Gyeonu’s battle.
The goblin mage’s head flew off, and the tide of battle tilted completely toward him.
Before long…
Every goblin had breathed its last.
[You have cleared the Gate.]
* * *
I really swung my sword in a daze.
I blocked incoming attacks, dodged them, and responded to the bastards according to the situation at each moment.
Because of that, I didn’t even have time to remember how I had fought.
[You have cleared the Gate.]
After fighting as if I might die at any moment, by the time I came to my senses, that message had appeared.
Evasion Instinct also stopped activating from that point onward.
“Hah, hah…”
At that moment, having been rampaging as if the reins had come loose, I could not withstand the recoil and sprawled out on the ground.
Strength would not enter my body properly.
I simply stared up at the blue ceiling, panting again and again.
Then another message appeared.
[Your body has broken through its limits.]
[Stamina has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Agility has increased by 1.]
‘If you were going to rise, you should’ve risen during the fight. Why only now…?’
I sighed.
The game Brave Hearts.
This game had no levels, so unlike other games, it did not grant points to invest in physical abilities when you leveled up.
Instead, you could raise your physical abilities through experiences such as training, combat, or academy classes.
That was why raising physical abilities was not easy.
‘Though that was part of the charm.’
At the same time, since Brave Hearts was geared toward playthroughs, it allowed existing data to be carried over into the next run.
As a result, the more playthroughs you completed, the more the stats of the protagonist and companion characters continued to rise.
‘And the difficulty of clearing the story dropped drastically by that much too…’
So in this world, which was not a game and where I couldn’t do additional playthroughs, I had to focus even more on growing stronger.
I had to become as strong as possible.
I dismissed the message that had appeared.
Around then, particles of light gathered in the air above me as I looked up.
Fwoosh!
The Gate Key fell onto my stomach.
I confirmed it with my eyes, then laid my body back down on the ground.
I didn’t want to get up.
It was then that Father approached.
“Hey, son. You alive?”
“I don’t think I am. I can barely put any strength into my body right now.”
“It’s only natural after moving like that.”
Father smiled bitterly.
I found myself smiling for no reason as well.
Soon, I blinked blankly at what Father said next.
“By the way, I was really surprised when you manifested Azure Lightning. You might be the youngest person ever to have done it now.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“You manifested Azure Lightning.”
“…I did?”
“Yeah, you brat. You didn’t know? You were moving around while shooting out all those flashing bolts of electricity.”
“…”
I manifested Azure Lightning?
I immediately went back over the battle from just moments ago.
‘Maybe I did….’
They were only fragmented scenes, but I did seem to recall blue-glowing currents of electricity crackling around me.
I’d been so focused on the goblins that I thought it was simply mana fluttering around me. I had no idea it was Azure Lightning.
“…I don’t know if I can do it again. I don’t really remember.”
“Don’t worry. You’ve already experienced it once, so your body will remember. If you train hard, you’ll be able to do it again. You did well. Truly.”
Father stroked my head.
Still feeling dazed because my memory was hazy, I gave a small nod.
‘I’m sure it’ll work out if I do what Dad says.’
Was it because I activated Evasion Instinct?
I didn’t know.
As soon as I recovered my stamina, I decided I would pick up my sword and practice.
Then something suddenly occurred to me.
“By the way, Dad, where’s Uncle Hongcheol?”
“Hongcheol? He’s over there working.”
“Working?”
“We entered an artificial Gate, so we have to collect whatever we can take outside.”
“Ah.”
Father pointed with his chin.
When I turned my head in that direction, I soon spotted Bae Hongcheol crouching with his back to us.
Bae Hongcheol was searching diligently through the goblins’ corpses.
Before long, he pulled a blue jewel from a goblin’s heart.
“Let’s rest just a little longer and then go help him. If we make him act as the porter all by himself, he’ll get pretty sulky.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Unlike in games, in this world, mana stones or other items did not automatically drop when monsters were subjugated.
They had to be collected by hand.
So even though we had cleared the Gate, it wasn’t completely over yet.
Father and I rested for a while before deciding to get up.
“Can’t we take that crystal?”
“If you touch it and a message appears, you can take it outside. But I doubt a message will appear. I’ve never heard of anyone getting that crystal from this Gate.”
“Then we just need to search the corpses.”
“Sometimes among the goblins, there are ones wearing pouches. Those guys are a real gold mine. Tell me if you find one.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t see any goblins wearing pouches.
When I pulled a mana stone out of a goblin, the goblin turned to ash and disappeared.
The goblin blood that had been on my hand also turned to ash and fell to the floor.
That was because the mana stone was the foundation that allowed the goblin to exist.
Meanwhile—
‘Huh?’
Near the pile of ash, I caught sight of a flash of light for an instant.
There was something besides the mana stone.
So I rummaged through the ashes and found what my hand closed around.
When I brushed the ash off its surface, the pebble shone.
“Dad! A Law Stone here!”
Unlike the mana stone, which held a blue light, this jewel held a yellow light and was slightly smaller than the mana stone I had just obtained.
It was a Law Stone.
In the game, they would drop at a certain probability when you killed monsters.
‘In the game, mana stones could be exchanged for money or used as materials to make things like artifacts.’
And Law Stones contained providence, allowing a character compatible with the Law Stone to absorb it and convert it into an ability stat.
Otherwise, they could be used as materials like mana stones.
It was the same in this world.
Holding the Law Stone in my hand, I raised it to show Father and Bae Hongcheol.
“You found a good one. Compared to mana stones, Law Stones don’t appear often.”
“What could it be if it came from a goblin archer? Hmm…”
Father and Bae Hongcheol came over to me and examined the Law Stone carefully.
Then they kindly explained what Law Stones usually came from goblin archers.
“Well, even so, there’s no way to know for certain unless it’s appraised.”
“We’ll have to check that gradually after we leave.”
But until a Law Stone was appraised, there was no way to know what kind of providence it contained.
One could only guess.
‘In the game, the player could freely check item information.’
Of course, I could identify the Law Stone even without having it appraised.
When I focused my eyes on the Law Stone, a message appeared in my vision.
[Lowest-Grade Law Stone of Agility]
◆ Consumable Classification
—Law Stone
◆ Detailed Description
—Contains a power that contributes to the target’s agility.
◆ Detailed Effect
—For targets with an Agility stat below 60, absorption increases Agility by 1.
It was a Law Stone that raised physical ability.
It would have been fine if it had been a skill, but this wasn’t bad either.
Soon, I fell into thought while holding the Law Stone.
‘Somehow, is there a way I can take it?’
Strictly speaking, it was a trophy I had obtained by killing the goblin.
The mana stones would be handed over to the Regulus Clan, but I wanted to keep the Law Stone.
So I started thinking of a way to persuade Father and obtain the Law Stone.
But there was no need for that anymore.
At that moment, Bae Hongcheol spoke.
“If the Law Stone resonates with him, why don’t we just give it to Gyeonu? He’s the one who caught them all by himself anyway, so we should let him keep something as a memento.”
“Hongcheol, you bastard… You’re pretty good at social life, huh? Thanks.”
“Then are you going to promote me?”
“No, not that. I’ll buy you a meal later.”
“I’ll have to get something expensive out of you, then.”
Bae Hongcheol, whom Father had brought along, was a very quick-witted person.
Thanks to him, I was able to obtain the Law Stone without having to step in myself.
“Thank you!”
“Hey now, it’s still too early to thank us, isn’t it? We have to check whether the Law Stone resonates with you. Try infusing mana into it.”
I quickly decided to infuse mana into the Law Stone and check whether it resonated with me.
Though, in truth, I already knew the result.
‘It’ll resonate with me, of course.’
Unlike Law Stones that contained skills, Law Stones that raised physical ability resonated with anyone.
So, having already confirmed the Law Stone’s identity, I pretended not to know and quietly waited for the result.
Before long…
“Oh, it resonates. This Law Stone is yours now, Gyeonu. Absorb it well.”
The Law Stone resonated and flickered with light.
Father patted my shoulder, and I gripped the Law Stone tightly.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss