31
“Telling me to die and struggle to my heart's content...”
Unable to withstand the sudden wave of sleepiness and falling asleep, Baek Woo-jin regained consciousness and sat up, muttering the words Schlordin had spoken right before he lost consciousness.
Crackle, crackle.
Listening to the sound that inexplicably put his mind at ease, he waited for his blurry vision—caused by having just woken up—to return.
“Where is this.”
As his vision recovered, the first thing that caught his eye was a spacious area made of gray bricks.
If there was a slightly peculiar point, it was that all sorts of weapons were mounted on the gray brick walls, centered around a torch placed on each of the four sides.
“A bed, a book?”
A single bed placed abruptly in the center of the weapon-filled space. And himself lying on it, with an old book resting at the head of the bed.
Without thinking too deeply, he first opened the first page of the book.
[You must have many questions, but is that really so important?
Still, to make it easier to understand, think of it as being inside a dream.
Of course, it is excessively vivid for a dream, so please be careful of that.
There are two ways to escape from that place.
One is when it is judged that your will has been completely broken.
The other is that if you choose a weapon mounted in that space, you will naturally find out.
Well then, do your best.]
Putting the book back in its original place, he got off the bed.
“Seems there's no time limit.”
If there were, it would have been mentioned in the book.
Even if not, at least an hourglass or something like that mentioned during their conversation would have been placed there.
“There really is all sorts of stuff.”
Just as not all swords are the same.
From daggers to greatswords that easily exceeded a child's height.
Literally, a truly diverse array of weapons was mounted on the walls.
“Ranged weapons are out for now.”
Excluding ranged weapons like crossbows or bows that he had used at the association, he carefully examined the weapons hanging on the wall. Just because there was no restriction on starting didn't mean he would just pick one without thought.
‘He wouldn't have mentioned the will being broken for no reason.’
Plus, those words right before he fell asleep.
The moment he grabbed a weapon mounted on the wall, a combat situation would definitely unfold in some way.
If meeting Schlordin was something he could do whenever he wanted, it would be a different story, but for that, he needed at least 3 more years.
By then, whether through stocks or whatever, he would be financially free.
“Still, starting with a sword is probably better.”
As mentioned just a moment ago, there are many kinds of swords.
Among them, Baek Woo-jin grabbed the hilt of a sword about two palms longer than the one he usually used and lifted it from its rack.
“As expected.”
The moment the sword was lifted from the rack, the weapons filling the wall vanished like a mirage. And a single door appeared.
Whoosh!!
Before opening the door, he swung the sword in his hand a few times to get a feel for it.
“I like that it has more weight than the one I used before, but...”
Even though it was in the shape of a sword, perhaps because the length and weight were different, having been accustomed to a normal sword, he felt his body's balance slightly misalign every time he swung it.
“Still, this isn't too bad.”
Saying he didn't like swords, yet choosing a sword as his first pick was a bit funny even to himself.
However, since there were many differences from what he originally used, keeping that in mind, he opened the newly appeared door and entered.
Grrrrr....
Made of the same gray bricks but twice as large as the weapon-filled space, a massive green muscle mass stood alone.
Unlike a goblin with a body two heads larger than an adult male and a potbelly, this guy's entire body was composed of solid muscle.
It was the Goblin Warrior, the original boss of the dungeon where he had killed the variant Silence Monkey.
‘Crazy.’
His body instinctively stiffened at the vicious red glow glaring at him.
He had expected to engage in combat, but the opponent was way too much.
Smack!!
Convinced of defeat before even clashing, thinking it was a level difference he couldn't overcome even if he died and came back to life, Baek Woo-jin suddenly slapped his own cheek hard.
“Pathetic bastard.”
Even if that green mass in front of him wasn't a Goblin Warrior but a Champion, it wouldn't be a problem. Because standing in front of it meant Schlordin had concluded it was worth trying.
‘Whether I'm in perfect condition or whatever, I must be standing there because it's a level I can win against.’
First, he steadied his breathing.
He shook his body lightly to loosen the muscles stiffened by the aura the Goblin Warrior exuded.
The magical power, which normally wouldn't react at all until called upon, seemed to sense the crisis; as soon as he willed it, it spread throughout his body as if it had been waiting.
“Huu.”
Exhaling the excessive tension in a single breath, he gripped his sword and focused his strength into both legs.
The target was the red line below the right chest.
The moment the muscles in both legs bulged significantly, he leaped past the blue line drawn at his toes in a single bound and charged toward the Goblin Warrior.
Kyaahahaak──!!
The creature, which had been letting a massive greatsword close to a blunt weapon hang down, burst with red light from its eyes and roared.
“Ugh!!”
As the price for his carelessness of not thinking to protect his hearing, the charging Baek Woo-jin lost his balance along with a ringing in his ears.
Aiming for that very moment, the giant sword in the shape of a blunt weapon flew in.
‘Crazy!!’
With his hearing impaired, even his eyes disobeyed him; Baek Woo-jin barely raised his longsword and blocked the incoming greatsword, which had intended to cleave him in half.
Kwaaang──!!
Along with a roar that made it impossible to think swords had simply clashed, Baek Woo-jin, who had blocked the Warrior's greatsword, couldn't withstand the monstrous strength and rolled across the floor for a long time before crashing into the wall.
“Da...mn...”
With the image of the greatsword flying at him in an instant, Baek Woo-jin lost consciousness.
**
“Gasp?!”
As if waking from a terrible nightmare, Baek Woo-jin, upon regaining consciousness, shot up from the bed.
“Haa, haa.”
Fingers moving properly.
Thumping heartbeat.
“Being vivid is one thing, but this is too much...”
The sensation of the greatsword splitting his skull was so vivid that just recalling that moment made his hands tremble involuntarily.
“Damn it.”
Clenching his fists to stop the trembling, Baek Woo-jin got out of bed and once again chose the longsword he had held a moment ago.
‘You deserve to die.’
Just recklessly reinforcing only your limbs and charging in.
Cursing his own carelessness from his recent death, Baek Woo-jin stood before the Goblin Warrior once again.
He reinforced his body with magical power and used the extra magical power to protect his hearing.
‘There's no chance of winning in a head-on clash.’
It was only one strike.
Even though his balance was broken, failing to block even a single strike and rolling across the floor to crash into the wall... This meant that a contest of strength with that guy was impossible.
‘Thinking that was even possible in the first place is crazy.’
The opponent was a boss monster beyond D-rank.
No matter that his magical power was right before the wall of C-rank, the fact that he, with all his overall stats at E-rank, tried to clash head-on with that guy made him realize how arrogant he had been.
‘It's not about whether I can or can't, but that I must.’
The best thing was to dodge the guy's attack, and if that was impossible, he had to somehow deflect the force loaded in the guy's greatsword.
No other options came to mind right away.
So all that was left was to put it into practice.
“I'll reach it at least once.”
**
“Fuck.”
Opening his eyes on the bed, Baek Woo-jin unhesitatingly spat out the swear word that naturally popped out and sat up.
He couldn't even remember how many times this was.
However, what was certain was that he clearly remembered the number of times he opened his eyes on the bed had long surpassed three digits. Because he had given up counting after it passed a hundred.
It wasn't that he doubted the old man, Schlordin.
He was someone who had no reason to do such a thing in the first place.
However, as the number of times repeated, his heart wavering was an unavoidable part of being human.
“Damn bastard.”
Getting off the bed, Baek Woo-jin stood in front of the wall densely packed with weapons once again.
First, the sword.
Daggers weren't even worth mentioning, and with any other sword of some length and weight, no matter what kind he held, his posture would inevitably collapse when clashing with the guy's greatsword due to his lack of physical strength.
So the second choice was an axe.
He had some fun with a hand axe for a while, and its weight and shape were similar to a pickaxe, making it quite familiar regardless of usage frequency.
But being familiar didn't mean the results were good. Rather, looking solely at the results, it was more disastrous than the sword.
Since deflecting was difficult, he also tried combining a one-handed weapon and a shield.
The result was only a future of getting struck by the guy's swung greatsword due to a lack of skill, flying and getting embedded in the wall or crashing to the floor.
Still, with the meager experience accumulated from dying multiple times, he somehow grew to the level of deflecting an attack once. The problem was that even if he succeeded in deflecting, his posture was unstable, so he couldn't immediately link it into an attack.
If he accumulated experience by dying as many more times as he had died so far, he might be able to aim for an opportunity once.
But after much deliberation, he eventually gave up on this combination.
Not only did it not suit his temperament, but he also judged that these two combinations couldn't properly utilize his own strengths.
After that, a chain scythe, a mace. Even spiked gloves.
He really challenged it with various weapons, but the result was only the vivid sensation of being pierced by the greatsword and the added experience of opening his eyes anew on the bed.
One wall remained.
Give up? That doesn't exist.
Pain? As someone who had experienced dying with a fist-sized hole in his chest, this was nothing. Rather, he wanted it to beat him even more.
Where else in the world could he have such an experience?
Moreover, there was no time limit.
If enduring a little pain meant taking one step closer to his family's safety, he would willingly endure it.
If he couldn't defeat the guy even with the weapon mounted on the last wall, he thought of taking up a sword and shield again as a last resort, and lifted his head—
“Urk?!”
The moment he looked up, something with an unusual heaviness came down and smashed right into his face.
Rubbing his numb face and bowing his head to check the identity of the object that had fallen on his face, what entered Baek Woo-jin's eyes was a partisan, or halberd, shining with a brilliant color.
‘Was something like this here?’
When he first opened his eyes in this space, he had scanned all four walls once. Unless his brain had developed a problem from dying countless times to that damn green mass, the thing that had fallen right in front of his nose now was not mounted on any of the walls back then.
“I did die quite a lot.”
Even fun things get old after a while.
If a similar scene repeats over a hundred times, anyone is bound to get sick of it.
“I'm never giving up until I smash that bastard's head in, so you better know that.”
Muttering a resolve close to a warning to Schlordin, who would be watching him from the outside, Baek Woo-jin reached out his hand toward the halberd that had fallen on the floor.