‘...There is no way I can get used to this.’
After weathering the battle with the first Goblin that stretched over a dozen deaths, Damian thought that the next time would be easier, but he was sorely mistaken.
There were many ways to die, and unlike the repeated deaths that Damian overcame, this time was especially far more brutal.
Although one could adapt to a certain type of situation, perhaps even death, it had to be the exact same kind of death. Receiving the shock without knowing how you died was even worse.
‘But first…’
Damian was still shaken both physically and mentally. Nonetheless, he still forced his shivering body to move. If he wanted to keep doing this, he needed to make things even more perfect.
Now that he knew exactly where the broken sword was, Damian headed directly to get it and put it in his inventory. He then picked up the Goblin’s knife and ration pouch and did the same thing with them.
Finally, he quenched his thirst before…
‘Save.’
[ Save Point has been created. Main Save Point has been replaced. ]
The first start to a perfect clear was a perfect start. Since he needed to focus on the main task of clearing the Goblin Den, Damian had to remove all distracting elements.
In fact, this was the main point of the Inventory’s existence. You couldn’t take things back with you through it after your death. However, you could use it to collect all the things you needed at the start of the run!
The Goblin’s body was now back to being almost fully intact, but Damian didn’t bother with it. Fate’s Guide wasn’t the kind of RNG game where looting a corpse in different runs would give different results.
Obviously, that was even less likely to happen in reality.
“Huff… Huff…”
Once all the room’s benefits had been harvested again, Damian’s countenance went all dark as all the emotions that he had been suppressing flooded out all at once.
‘Hold it.’
His esophagus wanted to let go and throw up, but Damian couldn’t let go of whatever food Iris had left in her stomach.
He wasn’t overcome with hunger, so Damian didn’t dare try the rations that the Goblin had, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to do that any time soon.
‘I definitely felt the impact on my head.’
It happened even faster this time, but the pain and sensations were fully transmitted upon his return as usual. Damian felt a big headache, he imagined even getting hit by a car wouldn’t feel as bad…
{I- I’m sorry. It’s my fault, I should have warned you earlier. Hah…}
Suddenly hearing her voice, Damian only now realized why Iris had been silent. It looked like her eyes would explode with tears. Looking back, what she saw was likely very horrifying.
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“Nevermind that. I wouldn’t have been able to dodge it either way. Just tell me what it was.”
Considering how slow his muscles were reacting at the very end, thoughts like ‘If I did that, I could have…’ never occurred to Damian. His doom was already decided after the poison had seeped in.
{It was a green monster just like the other ones, but it was twice as big. It held a huge club and blew my- your head off.}
While Iris’ world had monsters, they were vastly different from the ones inhabiting the Labyrinth were even related to them. To her, they were mysterious otherworldly species. To Damian, however…
‘There was a Hobgoblin as well?’
Whether it was Fate’s Guide or even general games, the Goblins’ family tree was almost known to all.
In this case, the Hobgoblin, usually the leader of a group, had just given Damian the experience of having his head squashed like a watermelon.
‘So, six Goblins and one Hobgoblin.’
Undeniably, this was too advanced an encounter for his first battle, but Damian knew that it was unlikely that he could get past the cave without being noticed.
Most importantly, considering the standard system of a Labyrinth in Fate’s Guide, the monsters only became harder as one went deeper.
If Damian couldn’t beat this small den and obtain some resources from them, then learning their sleeping pattern to get past them wouldn’t get him anywhere.
‘Speaking of which…’
Once Damian started immersing his head in his retry preparation, the trauma of his most recent death started slowly fading as he called out.
‘Status Window.’
[ Mission Subject Status Window(Possessed):
Name: Iris Platina (Damian Tray)
Age: 21 (24)
Level: 1 (FP: 1)
Class: Beginner Aura Knight
Title: Failure of The Renowned Knight Family
Strength: 12 [31%]
Constitution: 11 [25%]
Agility: 13 [89%]
Wisdom: 10 (33)
Aura: 6
Skills: Swordsmanship… ]
‘As expected.’
Looking at his Fate Points’ accumulation, Damian was only slightly disappointed at heart. No matter how much of a cheat he was supposed to be as Plot Armor itself, he couldn’t possibly abuse the respawn to repeatedly obtain FPs.
The only thing he could bring back with him was his experience, and while that in itself could be abused if Damian was to seriously consider it, it wasn’t time to focus on that just yet.
“Iris. Have you memorized the layout of the area?”
{I tried to, but I can’t remember everything.}
Seeing how quickly Damian had picked himself up, Iris felt ashamed of herself. Aside from the end scene which was easily engraved in her brain, the rest of the details were starting to get blurry.
“That’s okay, just tell me what you can remember.”
Even Damian who had scouting as his main objective wasn’t able to completely take everything in amid the chaos. Naturally, he couldn’t expect Iris to do better. At least not from the first time.
{Understood, I will do my best. There were two of the small monsters on the right of the bonfire, three on the left…}
Thankfully, when it came to the time before the battle started, Iris almost told the details in full. With what he personally witnessed, Damian was able to form a crude but practical map in his head.
“Great, let’s go again.”
{Already?!}
“Of course.”
While Damian might have been discouraged as soon as he returned, now that he had an actual plan in his head, he felt like he couldn’t rest before he implemented it!
“Did you forget that you were an Aura Knight?”
Incompetent or not, Iris possessed the ability to tear those puny Goblins to shreds. Now that Damian had managed to save his Aura by ignoring the useless corpse, he couldn’t help looking forward to this run’s result…