Ackster was used to fighting with his fists, and he quite liked the feeling of smashing the goblins’ skulls with the reinforced gauntlet-like gloves Tommelier had given him. However, merely fighting with his fists wouldn’t be enough. It also wasn’t suitable in all situations. For example, when he fought against foes too sturdy for his fists to do any damage.

So, instead of dodging the next wooden club cleaving through the air toward his face, he grabbed it. He almost missed it.

‘That’s broken.’

Ackster didn’t know if he had broken or dislocated his thumb. But whatever it was, he couldn’t grip the club with anything but his four mostly intact fingers. Those weren’t broken, at least, but they had still taken a beating after his brawling.

He used his four fingers to yank the club out of the goblin’s grasp. He quickly delivered the club to his other hand before jabbing the goblin in the face and knocking it back. He then took a step forward and swung widely to finish off the goblin.

It was a movement he wasn’t used to, and it felt uncomfortable as his arm and shoulder spun and swung forward with enough accuracy to at least hit the same time zone as the goblin.

The club swung wide and hit the goblin’s shoulder instead of the head Ackster had aimed at, but it was better than nothing. Ackster backhanded the club into the goblin’s jaw with a diagonal upward swing, and the goblin’s head whipped back at the strike. The goblin sank to the ground, senseless or lifeless.

‘I’ll finish you later.’

Ackster spared the goblin a thought but no glance as he continued on to the next goblin, who definitely wouldn’t give him time to finish the one he had just downed, in case he hadn’t killed it.

The next goblin in line was already swinging its club.

Ackster’s eyes shone in confidence as he could already see the club’s trajectory before it had even gotten above the goblin’s elbow. He had seen the goblins and their clubs so many times now that it felt like he would see them even in his dreams. And with adrenaline pumping through his veins and boosting his senses, Ackster could even see the grain on the wooden club. He could even see the bloodshot eyes of the goblin gurgling bloody murder with monstrous cries.

Time slowed down again as Ackster’s senses sharpened beyond their limits, and the details of his surroundings faded away as he could see naught but the foes in his path and the path itself.

Ackster didn’t think. He saw the goblins, their movements, even before they started moving, and he could see the gaps and openings in their movements. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the string of gaps in the goblins’ attacks and defenses was his path forward.

But seeing it and following it were two completely different things.

Unlike his senses, especially his sight, which were firing on all cylinders, his body was on the verge of collapse. If he got even a moment to breathe, Ackster was sure his body would sack in on itself, and he would fall to the ground, burdened by his training equipment and fatigue lacing his muscles like lead.

But he didn’t give himself time to feel his exhaustion. If he didn’t feel it, it wasn’t there. And he urged his body forward. His body was his. It followed his orders, regardless of what it had to say about it. His body was subordinate to him, not the other way around.

Ackster weaved through the half-moon-shaped group of goblins. He smashed his club into the second of the seven goblins. Both the club and the goblin’s head shattered and turned into fragments that splattered over both Ackster and the nearby goblins.

Ackster didn’t even feel the goblin blood and brains dripping down his face and into his eyes and mouth. He had seen a flash of the goblins’ movements as well as their openings. That flash was etched in his mind, and with it, he could see what they would do next, assuming they could react before he turned them into corpses.

He had lost his club in that collision, but the goblins had a seemingly endless supply of clubs, and before the one he had just killed could drop to the ground, Ackster grabbed its club to replace his.

It was a short-lived trade since it shattered, just like the one before it, in a shower of brain and skull.

Ackster didn’t even try for a repeat since the third goblin’s club was too far away. Instead, he used his fingers to pierce the fourth goblin’s throat and grab its club while it clutched its throat and sank to the ground, bleeding out with its eyes ablaze in murderous rage.

Since not even a goblin would survive with that kind of wound, Ackster ignored it and moved on to the fifth goblin.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for the goblin, its arms and the raised club it held with both hands shielded its head from Ackster. So, instead, he tapped the goblin’s leg with his leg, cracking its knee in the wrong direction. The goblin lost its balance and kneeled. It would have imitated Ackster’s previous proposal if it weren’t for its leg being bent backward.

Ackster raised his arms and smashed his club straight down on the goblin. The force behind his blow was enough to break through the club and the arms in the way, and he now only had two goblins left to kill.

However, he had been too slow. He had been unable to keep up with the vision his senses had gathered and projected into his brain. The goblins had moved out of the way and distorted it.

But it didn’t matter. Ackster didn’t even think about trying to enhance his sight or anything to get another such flash where he could see the goblins’ movements and the trajectories of their weapons in advance.

He didn’t need it.

Ackster discarded the broken handle that remained of the club, which was now lodged in the split skull of the fifth goblin, by throwing it at the sixth. He raised his arm to defend against the seventh goblin’s strike. He tried to grab the club but missed.

The blood in his eyes, fatigue, and the sequelae of forcefully breaking through his limits and doing more than he should be capable of were becoming too much and was already turning his previously glass-clear sight blurry. The world was already starting to spin from how overtaxed his mind was.

Ackster only had moments until he collapsed from over-exerting himself.

His pearly white teeth shone through the red blood staining his mouth as he grinned and took a lunging step forward, plunging an extended, dagger-like hand into the seventh goblin’s chest and tearing into its ribcage, crushing its heart.

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With how many goblins he had eaten by now, their anatomy was like the back of his hand.

Ackster looked at the sixth goblin, who was only two steps away.

“Uff!”

Ackster jerked his head forward to threaten the goblin, which he could barely see due to his swimming vision. He also bit down on his own teeth hard enough to make a clacking noise loud enough for the goblin to hear for good measure.

It was a desperate attempt since Ackster could feel his consciousness slipping away like a lubed-up ice cube.

Fortunately, the last thing he saw before his vision went black and his thoughts stopped moving was the goblin’s shrinking silhouette.

Ackster fainted while standing, and even when he eventually woke up again, he was still in the same position since his muscles were so stiff. His body ached all over. Even his eyes and head throbbed in pain. He almost considered going back to sleep and wait until he recovered enough to move without his body creaking and letting out crackling noises like a chain of fireworks.

But he wasn’t in a safe place.

‘It worked?’

After finishing six of the seven remaining goblins, Ackster realized that he wouldn’t be able to move much further. He had already reached and broken through his limits several times by then, and no matter how much he tried to move his body, it was futile. He was going to faint before he could kill the remaining goblin.

So, in desperation, he tried to scare it away.

Usually, goblins were mindlessly bloodthirsty and didn’t feel fear unless they were standing face to face with a foe strong enough to overpower the goblins’ instinct to kill. Ackster clearly wasn’t strong enough to subdue even weak monsters such as goblins with his gaze alone.

But he had just torn apart the rest of the group in a murderous frenzy while taking almost no hits. His last dash through the group of seven had been especially ferocious. Combined with the goblin gore caking his body, Ackster hoped the last goblin would feel threatened enough to reconsider attacking.

And since he was alive and the last goblin was nowhere to be seen, Ackster’s desperate attempt had worked.

Yet, he wasn’t happy.

He had been forced to scare away a foe because he was too weak to kill them. It was a decent outcome since he had survived, and he could feel that he had grown tremendously, even if he would need to recover to find out just how much.

But it wasn’t perfect.

He wouldn’t be able to scare The Hero into not destroying the world. And while intimidation tactics could be useful, and he would most likely employ them in the future as well, letting an enemy run away like that was suicidal.

Thankfully, it was just an ordinary goblin this time, even if it was smart enough to feel fear. But if it had been a human, Ackster could have eventually ended up in trouble, depending on the circumstances.

Even now, he wasn’t completely safe since the goblin could be coming back after gathering its courage or other comrades.

So, as soon as he could move, despite his body’s protests, he started munching away on the goblins he had killed.

Since his body had been so stiff, he thought he had been out for a while, but the blood leaking into the ground had yet to dry, so the corpses were still pretty fresh. The fact that muscle stiffness and ache were already setting in meant that his body was already well on the way to recovering.

While he ate, Ackster managed to slip a hand into his clothes and retrieve his Nomi. Although he could feel how much he had grown, nothing was as good at telling him how much as the Nomi. He read his status with bated breath.

[Name: –]

[Profession: (Adventurer)]

[Stats:

[Strength: C]

[Agility: D]

[Fortitude: C]

[Mana: –]

[Spirit: D]

[Stamina: D]

[Skills:

[Strong Body]

[Pain Tolerance: C]

[Poison Resistance: E]

[Keen Senses: C]

[Iron Stomach: D]

[Sprint: E]

[Strike: C]

[Soft Footsteps: E]

[Leather Skin: D]

[Survivalist: F]

[Stone Fists: E]

[Iron Will: D]

[Clear Mind: F]

[Battlesight: F]

[Limit Breaker: G]

[Resilience: F]

[Monster Muncher: G]

“Holy….”

Ackster’s stats and skills hadn’t leveled up that much. But, considering he was reaching ranks that people took weeks, months, or even years to surpass, it would have been weirder if he ranked up more. However, he couldn’t be any further from dissatisfied with what he saw.

He had unlocked the Stamina stat, which would let him expedite its growth with the Nominus Card’s power. But that wasn’t what made him ecstatic. Stamina was one of the hidden stats that were the easiest to grow, even without the Nomi. Just training regularly and strenuously would eventually rank it up, even if he couldn’t see it. It would just be faster now.

What made Ackster really satisfied with his efforts, what gave him the feeling that all his near-deaths, all the pain, and everything he had endured so far wasn’t for nothing, were the skills he had acquired.

Resilience wasn’t super easy to acquire, but it was mostly a passive body-strengthening boost that basically increased the effects of Fortitude.

But the other three were treasure troves, especially Limit Breaker and Monster Muncher, at least if Monster Muncher was the skill Ackster thought it was.

Battlesight is a lesser version of Foresight that only activates in the middle of a heated battle, hence the name. It isn’t as reliable as Foresight or other skills that can peer through time and space and look into the future since it’s based on the user and their capabilities. It can also be difficult to use and get used to. Without enough skill, Battlesight can end up being more of a hindrance than an aid since the user will focus on what will happen instead of what is happening.

But, based on how well it had gone for him, Ackster didn’t worry. If he could learn and get used to activating it on his own, it would be an incredibly useful skill, regardless of the situation, as long as he was in battle. If he got good enough at it, he might even be able to evolve it into a better skill, hopefully, something that could compete with The Hero’s Sage Eyes.

However, compared to the other two, Battlesight was just decent. It would be useful, but it still depended on Ackster’s own capabilities and if he could react to what he saw. Although he had activated it when he fought against the seven remaining goblins, possibly a little before that as well, he had been unable to make full use of the sight he had seen since he had been too weak, tired, and burdened.

Limit Breaker, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. But, just like Battlesight, its name was self-explanatory. It broke and helped Ackster break through his limits. It wasn’t without a cost. But all double-edged blades were sharp. And, to Ackster, the cost was more than worth it since he had Strong Body and was beginning to build up a repertoire of reinforcement skills.

The more skills he had, the stronger his body got, and the more powerful he became, the tougher it would be to break through his limits. It would also incur a greater cost, proportional to the effect of the skill.

However, with Strong Body, and any other regenerative skill he could get his hands on, Ackster would quickly recover from the damage Limit Breaker caused. And, best of all, as he recovered, his body would grow stronger.

That was most likely part of the reason why his body was aching like he had been stung by a hundred bees. He had acquired and activated Limit Breaker during the fight with the goblins. And now, he was suffering the consequences.

Since he had broken through his limits by forcing his body to move, even when it was already on the verge of breaking down, his body was the one to take the brunt of the cost. Limit Breaker probably hadn’t had time to do that much, which was why he could still move. That, and Pain Resistance.

However, when The Hero and other characters in the original story who had the skill, used it, really used it, and let it show its worth, they would often end up bedridden for at least a day, even with expensive potions and healing magic. Even the Saintess could only do so much against the aftereffects of Limit Breaker. It was mostly up to the user to recover on their own.

It was perfect for Ackster, whose greatest strength so far was his ability to endure and recover.