Chapter 14
Episode 14.
"Why do you always fight in reckless situations? Are you a fighting chicken? A fighting chicken is fine even as a kkukku."
It was something Bora Ajae said one day after clearing a dungeon.
You could just give up on the dungeon and leave, so why insist on taking on the risk?
If you die, you'd just drop items for nothing, wouldn't that be a loss?
He asked why someone with the worst luck had such audacity, and Dohyeon had answered.
"? Reckless? About what?"
"……? Then you have little HP, and suddenly a mid-boss appears like some raid boss, and you charge at it like a madman—is that not reckless?"
"Hmm. I caught it, didn't I?"
"……That's true, but it's dangerous."
At that time, Dohyeon couldn't understand those words.
No need to take on risk and fight?
Dohyeon knew that too.
However…….
'What's reckless about it?'
The problem was that Dohyeon had never fought recklessly.
Unless there was an incredible reward waiting, or he'd found a Hidden Piece.
Since he had worse luck than anyone, Dohyeon had no intention whatsoever of taking on unnecessary risks.
He had simply caught them because they were catchable.
"Pff! Right. You catch them because they're catchable. Everything you say is right."
"……Actually, when Kaiser says he'll catch something, he always does catch it."
"And…… honestly, I don't know about other times, but this time Kaiser seems to be right? Why wouldn't we be able to catch that?"
"I agree."
Hearing those words from Kkukku-dak-kkukku and the Sword Emperor, Bora Ajae would shake his head saying, 'Sigh, this is why talentless tryhards…….'
Of course, after seeing Dohyeon succeed every time thereafter, Bora Ajae no longer harbored any doubts.
'Sigh, right. If you can do it, then you can do it.' He would just grumble and follow along.
And Dohyeon always repaid that trust.
Taht!
Even now, it was the same.
"What just……!?"
"It's dangerous! We need to run away quickly!"
The party members shouted urgently at Dohyeon who suddenly charged in right as they were about to flee, but Dohyeon felt no threat at all.
'Twelve goblins. Seven daggers, four blunt weapons, two poison needles…….'
He simply calmly assessed the enemy and quickly finished his simulation.
The first thing Dohyeon targeted after making his judgment were the goblins holding poison needles.
'This is more comfortable.'
When fighting multiple opponents, neutralizing ranged attacks was the basic condition.
If he were alone, he could just use other goblins as shields, but with party members present, there was no need to create unnecessary variables.
Kwajik!
After swiftly striking away the hand of a goblin about to shoot a poison needle right in front of him and snapping its neck, another goblin charged at him belatedly.
When Dohyeon pushed the neck-snapped goblin forward, the charging goblin tripped over it and fell.
Seogeok!
In the meantime, Dohyeon slashed another poison needle wielder who was staring blankly.
[You have used the skill 'Smash'.]
[Critical Hit!]
[You have defeated a Green Goblin.]
[Through merit distribution, 'Kaiser' has obtained Green Goblin Leather.]
After slashing its neck and piercing its heart, the goblin fell.
And the moment it fell, Dohyeon stabbed the back of the fallen goblin.
Puk! Puuk!
Kieek! Keok!
Goblins that had surrounded him in the meantime stabbed with daggers to interfere, but Dohyeon didn't stop stabbing.
Being slashed a few times was completely bearable.
With that obsessive madness, the poison needle wielder finally let out a death scream.
[Critical Hit!]
[You have defeated a Green Goblin.]
The ranged attackers were wiped out in an instant.
Now there was no one to interfere. From here on, it was a melee.
At the same time, Dohyeon's movements changed.
As if he had never been focused on just one, Dohyeon moved unpredictably and disrupted their encirclement.
Seogeok- Puk!
Hwik- Kwajik! Taht!
The attacks of the one stabbing with a dagger from the vanguard were dodged with minimal movement, and he immediately responded with joint locks.
The one swinging a blunt weapon—he grabbed a goblin with broken joints and used it as a shield or threw it to knock them down, and while they were in disarray, attacked the ones nearby.
Hwik-.
Keeek!
Even when they launched surprise attacks, he detected them like a ghost and deflected them.
The goblins shrieked at the combat that seemed like he had eyes on his back, but those shrieks soon turned into death screams.
And during that process, Dohyeon discovered something amazing.
[The effect of Weapon Master removes equipment restrictions.]
[The effect of Adventurer allows use of the dagger's basic skill 'Thrust Weak Point'.]
[The effect of Weapon Master removes equipment restrictions.]
[The effect of Adventurer allows use of the blunt weapon's basic skill 'Swing'.]
'So this works too.'
When he utilized Weapon Master to pick up the goblins' weapons, basic skills from the weapons were generated thanks to Adventurer.
He thought that ignoring class restrictions and using skills alone was amazing…… but it was even more amazing than expected.
'For the early stage, there's nothing better than this.'
Compared to others who still only had one basic skill, it meant he could spam as many skills as he had weapons.
A cheat ability that could theoretically use 10 skills.
Tyr's Duel or whatever—at low levels, the person with more skills was always the boss.
Of course, this was only possible because he had the Weapon Master trait.
'An unexpected synergy effect.'
Dohyeon smiled and moved his hands quickly.
He wanted to test this cheat-like ability as soon as possible.
Coincidentally, goblins were attacking while Dohyeon had paused at the unexpected ability.
[You have used the skill 'Thrust Weak Point'.]
[You struck the enemy's weak point. Critical Hit is applied.]
[You have used the skill 'Swing'.]
[You knock back the enemy.]
The one stabbing with a dagger—he used a skill with the same dagger.
The one swinging a blunt weapon—he snatched the blunt weapon, threw it backward, and smashed its head.
In close combat where bodies were nearly touching, he thrust the dagger at vital points like the neck, heart, or eyes; when distance opened, he slashed with his sword; and when surrounded, he used Swing to forcibly secure position.
A battle utilizing every weapon as if it were his own.
[Blunt weapon proficiency has increased.]
[Blunt weapon proficiency has reached LV2.]
[Dagger proficiency has increased.]
[Dagger proficiency has reached LV2.]
[Sword proficiency has increased.]
[Sword proficiency has reached LV3.]
As a result, he was able to raise not only his sword but also the proficiency of two other weapons.
Thanks to this, his accuracy became more precise and his power increased further.
Even using the same Swing, enemies were knocked back farther, and using Smash, he could bring them down more easily.
'This is fun?'
With every weapon he handled producing results, he got more into it.
Once Dohyeon got the feel and started fighting more aggressively, the goblins almost looked pitiful.
"Wow……."
"……What am I looking at right now?"
"Crazy……."
At that breathtaking sight, the party members couldn't keep their mouths shut.
No, what was this situation?
When he suddenly jumped in, they thought he had gone crazy for a moment, but he immediately snapped the poison needle wielder's neck and started going solo undefeated.
He had only taken down four so far, but somehow they couldn't imagine that man losing.
If left like this, wouldn't those goblins eventually be the ones to fall?
When his thoughts reached that point, ShieldBest shouted.
"……We can't just watch either. Let's go help him quickly!"
"A-ah, ri…… right."
"Eung! I was planning to!"
ShieldBest raised his lowered shield again, and the two who were about to flee started providing support fire.
The battle that had seemed hopeless became feasible.
Puksuk! Pywing!
Peeoong!
Keeek! Keok!
No, rather it became advantageous.
The goblins who were already overwhelmed by Dohyeon alone lost their composure completely when ShieldBest joined, and Miganddikdae and Yubinkkywing dealt free damage like hitting a sandbag.
This was the change brought about by a single person.
'……Is this even possible?'
ShieldBest couldn't understand this situation.
Since when could a level 1 go on a rampage against thirteen goblins?
This was impossible even for veteran rankers.
Normally, a level 1 four-person party would hunt a group of five goblins.
A skilled party could hunt more, and a veteran party would have to push themselves to hunt ten.
'But he's facing thirteen alone?'
Of course, the number that man had taken down alone was only five…… but somehow, if left alone, he would have eventually taken them all down.
That was because it truly happened in an instant.
At that moment, that man's nickname caught his eye.
'Kaiser.'
At first, he thought it was just a fan and didn't think much of it…….
Could it be that it wasn't just that? Was it just his imagination that made him think so?
If it were that Kaiser, who was ranked higher than even the Annihilator during the Demlok era, this absurd situation would make sense.
Those movements like an incarnation of battle…….
'Nah.'
However, ShieldBest soon shook his head.
Kaiser, who had no news even when receiving public attention, suddenly started again after 1 year and 6 months?
And of all days, starting today and being in his party?
'That's too unrealistic.'
Humans inherently have a tendency to perceive truths they cannot handle as mere misconceptions.
His case right now was exactly that.
It was more natural to think he was overthinking it than to believe he had pierced through such absurd odds and accompanied Kaiser's very first start.
To put it bluntly, he didn't actually take down all thirteen, did he? It just looked that impressive.
'I heard real Kaiser fans are mostly skilled…… so is that the quality of that fan?'
Because of that, ShieldBest let out admiration and focused on the hunt. Thinking that his party luck from the very start was really good.
Without even dreaming that it might really be that Kaiser.
* * *
[You have defeated a Green Goblin.]
[Through merit reward, 'Kaiser' obtains Green Goblin Leather.]
[Level has increased.]
At the message that floated up upon defeating the last goblin, Dohyeon lowered his sword.
Then, the moment he lowered his sword, exclamations burst out.
"Wah…… you really caught them all."
"This is my first time experiencing something like this."
"This is crazy for real. It was so fun."
"Honestly, I was a bit worried because the combat felt too realistic, but it was so fun. I'm really looking forward to the boss."
The party members' voices were full of trembling, as if the excitement of battle hadn't faded yet.
Like people exchanging thoughts about a movie after getting excited watching a masterpiece, they were talking about the battle just moments ago.
And naturally, that arrow reached Dohyeon as well.
"Seriously…… wow, Kaiser-nim is amazing. No, how can a person move like that?"
"Are you perhaps a veteran? I've really never seen anything like that before. Do you learn martial arts or something?"
"Where would you find martial arts like that? Are you perhaps ex-special forces? Even as a man, I almost fell for you, hyung-nim."
Seeing Miganddikdae and Yubinkkywing's exaggerated praise, somehow Charlie came to mind—was that just his imagination?
Especially in Miganddikdae's case, his title had changed to hyung-nim.
Dohyeon was listening with one ear and letting it slide, but what followed made him wince.
"You really live up to your nickname. At this level, aren't you really Kaiser?"
He couldn't help but be taken aback by those words.