“Hah…. Hah…”

Barely holding himself back from collapsing, Damian pushed the shortsword into the Goblin’s neck before letting go.

[ You have defeated a Goblin. ]

‘I really underestimated it.’

Glancing at the Goblin corpses lying next to him, Damian once again realized how great 'Combat Instincts' was.

He was unconsciously starting to forget as his combat ability climbed up, but once he evened the playing field again, his memory quickly came back.

Damian thought he would have to die at least once before he could get in the correct rhythm, but his first try was a success.

Having undergone the battle himself, Damian knew that many underlying factors allowed this, but 'Combat Instincts' was still the most prominent one out of them.

He wasn’t just learning how to use the shortsword, he was also slowly starting to grasp how to fight in general.

Reacting to an attack, and making use of an opening were all things that sounded easy to say but hard to apply. However, with the help of Iris’ passive, Damian was doing it instinctively, thereby getting familiar with how to do it intentionally!

‘I would be an idiot not to exploit this.’

Death or not, Damian believed that he had just found his lifeline, and he wasn’t going to let go of it. If he wanted to make the most of it, he had to keep upping the ante the more he learned, he couldn’t afford to cower away.

‘But first…’

“I will need to time this properly. Sorry, Iris, you are on watch duty again.”

{Leave it to me, nothing I can’t handle!}

Although Damian wanted to share Iris’ enthusiasm, he felt like had completely run out of fuel.

He was already tired from all the morning training and the running that followed, but having to wrestle with the nimble Goblins for over twenty minutes was what truly took everything from him.

‘I’m glad I met the Golden Goblin this early.’

While a great weapon that could be used to the end of the Labyrinth sounded more desirable, Damian saw the reward that he received for what it was worth.

If not for the combination made from the remains of Iris’s plate armor with the addition of the Strong Leather Armor that covered everything other than his face, his body would have been riddled with cuts just now.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Combat Instincts was a cheat, but Damian was a combat noob, the most he could do without the help of Aura was avoid half of the attacks and receive the rest.

Since he needed a lot more time to finish each Goblin relying only on his worn-down shortsword, the number of attacks that he had to endure could only increase even if the avoiding percentage remained the same.

In this Labyrinth where Damian had to live like a primitive man, wounds that could lead to blood loss and infection were no better than a death sentence. Finding another Goblin to finish him off would be much better than continuing with a losing round.

From Damian’s perspective, the Strong Leather Armor was the most efficient training tool that he could get his hands on. With it on, combat was no different than a simulation!

He basically had a few dozen lives to spare without actually dying!

‘A Hobgoblin would be different, but that’s beyond the point.’

As long as he kept using Goblins as his training subjects, then a more reasonable training schedule could be made.

‘Now… How should I divide things up?’

After a successful test run, Damian now had a more thorough understanding of how unrealistic his original thoughts were.

Regardless of how strong he had become or the supernatural Aura that he could muster, he was still human. His stamina had increased, but it still had a limit. Every battery needed a recharge, and his only method of recovery didn’t come with a quick charge option!

Physical training, battle training, Labyrinth exploration, Life Stone Collection… If he wanted to keep doing everything effectively, he had to put everything into proper order and find the right balance between rest and work.

‘Well…’

Since he was resting anyway, Damian took his time considering over and over. More than a few ideas popped up as usual, but in the end, there was only one conclusion that he could come up with.

“Sigh. I guess I will just have to make it as I go.”

Despite making so many plans until now, most of them ended up distorted once they were adapted to reality. So, instead of planning everything only to scrap it later every single time, planning the next two to three steps was enough.

At least until Damian tested a comfortable daily schedule that could really work.

“At least there is a reward.”

After resting for close to an hour and coming to a decision, Damian found a Life Stone after using the aid of Aura to quickly open his loot boxes.

‘I will have to slow down a little bit.’

Damian was still going to run through the half-empty Labyrinth, but judging from his experience just now, he decided to decrease his tempo.

After all, superimposing two tiring tasks such as running and combat only made the recoil worse. The more tired he was, the more time he had to rest in between speed runs.

If he could keep his stamina at a manageable level, Damian could increase the efficiency of his Labyrinth exploration.

‘Just because I will be using it less doesn’t mean that I can forget about it.’

Training aside, Damian still had one development path that was readily accessible. He could no longer farm levels, but he could still farm Life Stones!

The more distance he covered, the more likely it was to encounter Goblins. The more loot boxes he had, the faster he could advance to the next tier!

‘I have to keep everything going at the same time.’

It wasn’t an easy task, but some could do it better than others. For someone who had to keep himself aware of every aspect of his character’s life, Damian was slightly less overwhelmed.

‘Only that way can I be ready for what might come.’