Sung-jin sprinted toward the Goblin General, slashing at his left arm. With all his points spent in Agility, he had no problems running over the earthquake; it was like running on completely normal terrain.

Skreee-!

The Goblin General exclaimed a blood-curdling scream again, but this time it wasn't to call his army. He looked in the direction where the pain came from and saw a sword lodged into his forearm, and right beside it, a man with black hair and blue eyes stood.

"Get away!"

Sung-jin yelled to the players nearest the Goblin General, getting all their attention. The heavy vibrations in the ground suddenly stopped, and the players could now stand up again.

"What are you waiting for?!"

He yelled again at the disoriented players. No one knew exactly what has been going on for the last twenty seconds, but they knew that staying close to the Goblin General would be a bad idea. The players all stood up to get away from the boss. But their reactions to the situation might have been too slow.

Crackle-!

'Damn!'

Sung-jin looked at the big boulder beside him with dismay.

'These people are too slow! I managed to disrupt his skill, but even though I did it, the boulder still needs to go somewhere…'

His happiness about disrupting the Earth Boulder skill quickly took a turn, and he lost hope in saving everyone.

'The remains of the Earth Boulder skill will land in front of him. There's no way I can save the people closest to him!'

He clicked his tongue and visually turned somber. Sung-jin could no longer uphold his self-made promise, and it made him mad and sad at the same time. He hadn't felt this way for a long time, so it was strange to him. When he had played solo, the only thing he had to care for was himself. But now…

'This is why I play solo!'

His heart beat faster, and the strange sensations grew stronger as he realized nothing could be done in this situation. Sung-jin could only watch as the people were crushed by a big boulder. He looked at the people scrambling on the ground, and he saw the familiar face of an acquaintance.

"Come on! Let's go fast."

Daeshim helped a man from his team stand; he tried to help everyone who still hadn't gotten away yet.

'You're a good man.'

Sung-jin thought as regret filled his mind. He looked around at the people who were out of the range from the Goblin General skill just a moment ago. And he couldn't shake the thought that he caused this.

'If I didn't interfere, the people here would have been fine, and only the ones targeted by the Goblin General would be dead. In other words, I chose these people to take an unnecessary hit and die.'

He thought that his actions were wrong, and he shouldn't have been the one to choose who died and who lived. It wasn't something he contemplated before, but now guilt washed over him when he saw what was happening.

'Ha, I should have evaluated the situation a bit more. I got too cocky thinking it would be easy as pie. I'm sorry…'

Ding-!

-System: New skill acquired – Night Slash

"What?"

Sung-jin exclaimed, and he looked surprised at the notification in front of him. He was baffled at the sudden pop-up that said he had acquired a new skill. Normally skills are only acquired when either reaching a specific level or doing some special training. So getting a skill in the middle of a fight was mind-boggling to him and he couldn't explain it.

'What's this?'

He quickly skimmed the information about the skill, not wasting any time. Since at this point, time was a luxury for him.

-Skills

Night Slash:

With dark mist coated around his weapons, the first Demon King used this skill to eradicate the humans that dared to approach him under the first Great Demon War. After the war and the Demon King's disappearance, this skill was lost. Only to be found in history books.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Effect:

Dark Type

50% damage gain to all monsters and humans.

Ten mana consumptions every second the skill is applied.

Bonus: 50% damage gain if the opponent is humanoid.

'What! This skill is f*cking op!'

Sung-jin looked ecstatic at the information about the Night Slash skill.

'With my Dark Apostle title, this skill can boost my damage by 60 percent to every opponent! And the bonus…'

He glanced again at the information, not sure if he had read it correctly.

'50 percent damage gain if the opponent is humanoid! That means… This skill has now saved everyone here!'

Sung-jin thought as he readied the only weapon he had left. He looked at the Goblin General, now with his regained confidence. His sword was still lodged in the Goblin General's arm, so the only weapon he had now was the Goblin's Knife.

'I need to make it work with this. And even though the base damage on this knife is only ten, the increase of 110 percent means I can deal twenty-one damage. So, if I can attack the Goblin General ten times in a second, it begins to add up.'

He thought of his plan, and now he just had to execute it. He was already close to him, and his Agility was very high, so continuous attacks would be fast. Sung-jin just had to attack the Goblin General in its torso area, where the base damage is calculated.

'I could go for a critical hit if I aim at his vital spots, but right now, I can probably kill him in a few seconds just by spamming his torso.'

Sung-jin looked at the amount of mana he had left, and since he hadn't spent any points on Intelligence, he only had a hundred mana to use, meaning he had to kill the Goblin General in ten seconds.

'Ten seconds is too long… Give me two.'

His smug smile showed that his confidence was back.

"Night Slash!"

He said aloud, making the knife in his right hand darker with black mist surrounding it. He could feel the power in the knife going up, and the skill was instantly ready.

'Let's kill it quickly!'

He jumped towards the Goblin General and began slashing at his torso as soon as Night Slash was ready to use. Marks on the Goblin General torso appeared fast, and the knife cut at speed no one could perceive. Sung-jin moved from side to side to attack it from more than one angle, making the Goblin General unable to hit him.

'This amount should be enough.'

His cutting speed fell as the Goblin General fell backward with the big boulder in his hands.

Ding-!

-System: Congrats Player. You leveled up!

-System: Monster wave 5:5 cleared.

-System: Tutorial Completed.

'It's finally done!'

Sung-jin heard a reliving sound and looked at all the notifications with a smile. After only two seconds of hitting the Goblin General around thirty times, he killed it without losing any lives.

"We won!"

A unified celebration echoed throughout the forest quickly after the Goblin General fell, and people stood up with their hands held high. But the players were generally confused. The ones underneath the Goblin General thought it was all over and didn't notice what happened. And the ones further away couldn't perceive the situation fast enough. So, no one knew how the Goblin General was defeated. But they didn't care, the Goblin General was dead, and that was all that mattered.

"What?"

Aera rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Only a few seconds ago, Sung-jin stood beside her and told her he had a plan. And though she already knew that he was strong, she didn't expect him to be this strong.

'If he were this strong, why didn't he solo it?'

She asked herself, knowing that she was the reason why he teamed up with everyone. Her eyes locked shortly after with Sung-jin's, and the look he gave her was somewhat terrifying.

"Uh!"

She gasped as his figure stood before her.

"Shhh."

He had his index finger at his mouth, signaling she had to keep quiet. He gave her a little wink before going back to the Goblin General's corpse, leaving a flustered Aera behind. Their interaction was so fast that no one noticed it.

"Oh…oh…"

Aera couldn't speak properly, and her face was beet red. The interaction with him had made her feel things she couldn't quite explain.

'I think I like him.'

She thought as her face got more red.

…

'I think no one noticed but Aera.'

Sung-jin slowly walked back to the Goblin General's corpse. He was scouting around to see if anyone looked at his directions since the next part was something no one should know about now.

'The gate should open soon, and the tutorial would be over.'

He thought as a big, blue, ominous portal opened behind him. The other players looked a bit terrified at the startling blue thing that suddenly stood in front of them.

Ding-!

-System: Dungeon portal opened. Proceed to the next area.

The well-known system notification assured the people that the portal wasn't harmful.

'They already trust the system completely…'

Sung-jin sighed. He looked at the people who blindly trusted the system and went through the portal one by one.

…

"Let's go."

Daeshim ordered his team to go through the portal, but as the last member was about to go—

"What exactly happened during the last fight?"

He stopped Aera and asked her.

"I don't know…"

She responded without batting him an eye. She quickly went through the portal, leaving Daeshim dumbfounded.

"I guess it has something to do with him."

He looked back and noticed Sung-jin out of the corner of his eye. The look he received from Sung-jin told him everything he needed and he shouldn't interfere.

'There's nothing to worry about here.'

He thought and went through the portal as the last man.

…

"Finally, I'm alone."

Sung-jin breathed a sigh of relief. All this human contact has given him a slight headache, something he hadn't had to deal with in a long time.

"Let's get this over with."

He looked at the Goblin General's corpse.

'I don't know what the Goblin General drops since no one had ever checked. When people complete the tutorial, they usually go straight through the portal without checking the corpse. But since I already know the mechanics of this game, the Goblin General should drop something.'

He reached down to the corpse, and with a slight touch with his hand, the corpse slowly began to fade away in a white fog, revealing a mysterious chest.

"It's not an item?"

Sung-jin surprisingly exclaimed.

'I thought it might drop a weapon, but a chest… This is only the second time I have seen a chest before. Last time being when I took down an S-ranked boss.'

He looked confused at the chest, not knowing if what he saw was true.

"Let's just open it!"

Sung-jin didn't want to overthink it and immediately reached down and opened the chest.

"What?!"