[ A Specialized Skill has passed a certain threshold, surpassing its Origin Skill. A new Skill will be created. ]

[ Shortsword Mastery Lv.3 has been obtained. ]

The crystallization of all of Damian’s effort had just been manifested, but he was far too concentrated on the battle to pay it any mind.

Although the Throne Goblin’s body was now full of wounds, that barely decreased its speed, only sealing a few possible maneuvers that it previously used.

However, reality was far more different than it appeared on the surface. The Throne Goblin might have been capable of resisting poison, and enduring pain, but it still retained one feature that made it beatable. Limited stamina.

As magical as all its abilities were, the Throne Goblin wasn’t immortal! Its wounds weren’t healing and the blood loss couldn’t be stopped!

‘No more.’

Seeing his opponent finally being as short on its breath as he had been so far, Damian faced his own heart.

After dying so many times, his everything had been fighting every battle while looking forward to the next. Now that his victory was in his grasp, this had to stop.

Defeating such a monstrous foe was impossible to achieve with such a half-baked resolution. Regardless of his ability to come back each time, Damian had to properly fight like someone who had his life on the line!

‘No more retries!’

Although his breath was just as short, Damian was completely unscathed. Unlike himself who interchanged between vital and shallow attacks, the Throne Goblin always went for the kill, and learning to avoid that was exactly why Damian had to die so many times.

‘Its attacks sync too well with Combat Instincts.’

Thanks to the talent that almost predicted the future like a supernatural ability, no severe injuries that would deem this round as a failure were sustained, all that Damian had to do was end it once and for all!

“Green. Green!”

The Throne Goblin’s mumbles seemed more like actual talking compared to the rest of its kind, but just like the system’s notifications, they didn’t reach Damian’s ears.

Swish!

The only thing he listened to was the shortsword’s cry. The winds that it brought as it went straight for his neck passed by as he avoided it by less than a centimeter.

Even with the green energy assistance, the shortsword couldn’t leave as much as a nick. Just like that, the tables were quickly turned.

While Damian was still unable to dominate battle as the Throne Goblin did at the start, he replaced its title as the unreachable target!

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish…

“Green!”

The previously calm Goblin appeared to be losing its marbles as Damian’s body moved like clockwork. One slash after the other hit nothing but air. Damian’s current evasion had no wasted movement!

Thanks to these extra parts of a second, his chance to counterattack continuously occurred.

Swish!

Attack after attack, Damian no longer held back on his Aura. he had been using it very sparingly since the start of the battle, but now, as if he was absolutely confident, Aura was imbued to the very next attack once its cooldown was over.

“Grrrreeenn!”

The Throne Goblins’ words turned into gibberish as it ended up completely drenched in its own blood. Its speed now only allowed it to save its heart and neck, but in return, every strike of Damian’s constantly managed to make a deep cut into its flesh.

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‘Reach it.’

However, that was exactly what Damian was missing, the true strike that could end everything.

‘Reach it!’

With only 1 Aura charge that had just recovered and no chance to stall for another, Damian was basically holding his last bullet. The battle could be said to have reached its climax.

In such an extreme situation, Damian could only put an end to this with this last shot or…

‘There is no or!’

Seeing another perfect opening, Damian silenced his hesitation. It was now or never!

At this moment, Damian didn’t even bother storing the second shortsword in his Inventory, he just dropped it as everything was poured into his main hand.

Damian was completely ready to give his other arm for this. However…

“G-G-G-”

The Throne Goblin’s face trembled as its connection with the rest of its body was almost fully gone. Thanks to its timely evasion, Damian’s shortsword didn’t send its head flying, but it was almost all the way through.

[ You have defeated a Goblin King. ]

‘Huh? It was a King?’

Despite the room setup that confirmed the System’s information, Damian was still surprised by the Throne Goblin’s identity.

He had met many King Variants in the game, but he had never met a Goblin King before. This wasn’t just restricted to Goblins either, that was just what the general rules of Fate’s Guide dictated.

Races at the bottom of the pyramid like Goblins, and even Hobgoblins, in certain extreme worlds, almost had no chance to give birth to a King!

‘This Labyrinth is really a newbie killer.’

The sequence of events leading to this point was too extreme. Most importantly, the emergence of a Goblin King was such a miracle that it seemed like the Labyrinth was bent on killing Iris.

‘And it actually makes more sense.’

All this time, Damian felt like the Labyrinth was a product of the Plot Armor System just as the challenges and hardships were all part of the game’s software.

However, looking at it from a flipped perspective, the Labyrinth was more likely to be a dimensional trap targeting chosen ones without giving them a chance, while the Plot Armor System was merely reversing the odds…

If Damian wasn't here to exploit Respawn and Combat Instincts in preparation. Iris would definitely die mentally even if Respawn could have kept her body alive.

That being said, this wasn’t the end of Damian’s surprises.

[ You have defeated a Goblin King. Extinction Threat Status elevated. ]

‘There was a third tier to this achievement?!’

For the first time since he fell into this Labyrinth, Damian discovered something that he had yet to find in Fate’s Guide!

‘These requirements… No wonder I never got it.’

King Variants were already so rare to begin with, but what made this achievement almost impossible was the fact that they came from rare or ancient races.

Those races were either hunted to the point of extinction or hidden far beyond the character’s eyes. Even encountering a few of them was a lucky event, killing a thousand of them as well as a total of five whole variants was more of a dream.

[ Plot Achievement recorded: FP +25 ]

Thankfully, as harsh as the requirement was, reaching the Third Tier of the achievement directly rewarded 10 Fate Points, bringing Damian ever so close to a level up that he thought was very far away.

‘But… Now what?’

Damian had been waiting for something dramatic to happen once the Goblin King was defeated, but there was no such fanfare. There was no opening leading beyond this point either.

‘Must be another one of those.’

As exhausted as Damian was, the excitement in his blood allowed him to push forward and perform his innate gamer skill. Search for hidden elements!

Left, right, under the rocks… Damian looked everywhere to no avail. However, once he approached the supposedly stationary throne as a last attempt, he realized the slight lack of balance.

‘It can be moved.’

shhh…

Without wasting any more time, Damian put all his weight into pushing the stone throne as it soon started moving.

‘Woa…’

Before long, the whole cave was painted red as a mystical entrance filled with spirals appeared in front of Damian, giving the promise of a new future.

‘Now then.’

Damian’s heart beat faster and faster, urging him to jump into whatever that was. However, closing his eyes for a second, Damian breathed out before turning to look back at the Goblin King’s corpse.

‘Shall I clean things up quickly so we can go in?’

The surprise that this special lootbox hid was definitely worth the delay!