ACS 06

Episode 6

Tap tap tap—

The creature’s body was slowly growing larger.

‘I have to kill it before it finishes the ritual completely!’

If it completed its evolution into a Great Chieftain, I would be dead for sure. And then this entire area would be laid to waste.

It’s known that while goblins usually move in separate groups, the situation is different when a Goblin Great Chieftain appears.

‘When a Great Chieftain appears, all individual goblins obey its words like a hive mind.’

That’s why it must be stopped at all costs. After all, on the very first day the Gate opened to this world, a Goblin Great Chieftain emerged and demonstrated terrifying power.

“Tch—.”

A mana barrier was erected, so my gun was useless. However, as it was in the middle of its final ritual to become the Great Chieftain, it couldn’t use any other magic.

‘I’ll go inside the mana barrier!’

A mana barrier can’t stop people from coming and going. It only blocks attacks.

So, while effective against long-range attacks, it’s weak against close-range combat.

“Keu-reu-reuk!”

But the creature was laughing at me. As if asking what difference it would make if I came inside.

“?”

Taaang—!!!

Ting—!

“Oh, come on.”

It deflects bullets?

‘Think, think, think…….’

[Analysis Lv.2 → Lv.3]

“I remember now!”

Coinciding perfectly with my [Analysis] skill leveling up, a hazy memory from the past surfaced and connected with the current situation.

—The Goblin Great Chieftain possesses skin that hardens upon strong impact.

‘It’s a non-Newtonian fluid!’

The reason dealing with a Goblin Great Chieftain was so difficult was because of its skin, which grew tougher with stronger physical impacts.

Just like a non-Newtonian fluid that hardens under strong force. So, the solution is?

“You just have to stab it slowly. Right?”

Sreung—.

I drew the Goblin Poison Dagger from my waist and slowly pushed it into the creature.

‘Please work……!’

“Ke, Keu-reuk?”

Schluck—

“Got it.”

It slid in smoothly, without any resistance. Shtuck.

In a normal combat situation, you would never slowly and gently stab a knife in like this.

That’s precisely why the Goblin Great Chieftain evolved that way. To withstand strong impacts.

‘It hasn’t fully evolved into a Great Chieftain yet, but….’

Its skin already exhibited the Great Chieftain’s characteristics.

“Keu-reu-reuk…….”

It must be quite painful with the poisoned dagger. Now it’s time to aim the knife at the vital spots I can see.

“Drop dead.”

Keeruk!”

Swish―.

Push-!

Swish―.

“Keeek―!!!”

Attacking during a transformation might be cheating, but I don’t care about that. Who told it to transform so defenselessly?

[Beginner Dagger Proficiency Lv.2 → Lv.3]

“Nice.”

While stabbing the dagger into its vital points, my [Beginner Dagger Proficiency] skill had reached level 3.

“Kururururuk……!”

The creature, on the verge of becoming a Goblin Great Chieftain, fell with blood foaming at its mouth.

Thud—.

“It’s, it’s done…… hahaha!”

I was the only one left standing here. All that remained were the corpses of goblins.

“Let’s loot… and then complete the request.”

Everything here is money and experience points.

[Collection Lv.1 → Lv.3]
[Butchery Lv.1 → Lv.3]
[Beginner Dagger Proficiency Lv.3 → Lv.4]

I finished looting. What I obtained were 48 Low-Grade Magic Stones, 1 High-Grade Magic Stone, 30 Goblin Poison Daggers, and 1 Flame Shaman’s Staff.

[You have removed 1 Seed of Destruction.]
[4th Seed of Destruction ‘Advent of the Goblin Great Chieftain’ removed]
[Seeds of Destruction removed: 1/?]

[The unique ability ‘Harbinger of Destruction’ is granted as a reward!]
[Harbinger of Destruction: You can recognize beings that will become Seeds of Destruction.]
[Due to the influence of the unique ability ‘Harbinger of Destruction,’ you have acquired the ‘Observation’ skill!]
[Observation Lv.1: You can observe a desired target in detail.]

“???”

[‘Observation’ reacts with ‘Analysis’!]
[‘Observation’ and ‘Analysis’ merge into the higher-tier skill ‘Analytical Eye’!]
[Analytical Eye Lv.1: Provides detailed analytical information about observed targets.]

“Wait, but two unique abilities…?”

[Unique Abilities]
[Primate of All Things]
[Harbinger of Destruction]

“????”

To date, there has never been an Awakened who awakened two unique abilities.

‘What in the world….’

Was the birth of the Goblin Great Chieftain here the beginning of destruction?

The creature I killed died before becoming the Great Chieftain, and the system judged that a ‘Seed of Destruction’ had been removed.

“Haha……!”

The system’s rewards are absurdly generous.

“First, let me organize the loot.”

I put the items spread on the ground into the expensive spatial pouch I had bought.

“The Flame Shaman’s Staff and the High-Grade Magic Stone…”

The rest were items I’d seen before, but these two were new.

“These two must have belonged to the Goblin Chieftain.”

They definitely had a different aura.

‘What should I do with this staff?’

Sell it? Or use it myself? But I don’t know any magic to use it with right now?

“I’ll take it apart slowly at home. As for the High-Grade Magic Stone…”

A High-Grade Magic Stone holds immense value. But I had already decided. I wouldn’t sell it; I would absorb it all.

Crunch—.

I crushed the High-Grade Magic Stone in my hand with force. And then…

[You can raise one stat.]

“Nice.”

[Stats]
[Strength: 2]
[Agility: 4]
[Wisdom: 9]
[Spirit: 8]
[Mana: 1]

“Should I max one out first?”

Since my main weapon is a gun, I don’t need great strength.

“[Wisdom] selected.”

[Wisdom: 9 → 10]
[The ‘Wisdom’ stat has reached its limit!]
[To break the limit, specific conditions must be met.]

“Max level.”

Breaking the limit removes the level cap concept, but that’s an ability only a minority of Awakened possess. And ultimately, skills are far more important than stats, and unique abilities are even more important than skills.

‘Anyway, I’m in a situation where I need to get everything I can, so I’m in no position to be picky.’

To prevent destruction, everything must be prepared to its optimal state. Only then might we have a chance to stop it?

I just barely managed to defeat a mere Chieftain, not even a Great Chieftain, by figuring out its weakness. If I hadn’t found that weakness, the Seed of Destruction would have sprouted right then.

“Request completion.”

After taking photos of the scene and filing the completion report, I approached the security guard who had been guarding the construction site.

“Huh, w-what?”
“Why are you surprised?”
“Y-you’re alive… Honestly, I thought you were dead…”
“Never mind. The goblins inside are all dealt with, so report it to headquarters. Also, report that I demanded additional payment. There were way too many details I wasn’t briefed on beforehand.”
“Huh, what?”
“If you say that, the higher-ups will know what to do. Good work.”
“Yes… Please get home safely!”

I finished everything and headed back.

“The appearance of a Goblin Chieftain…”

The Untied operations staff held an emergency online meeting over the unexpected situation.

“And it was on the verge of evolving into a Great Chieftain? Is that credible?”
“Maybe that new Awakened guy just exaggerated to show off?”
“No, there’s evidence. The entire operation process was recorded on his body cam, they say.”
“How did he even think to wear a body cam? He’s not even a veteran-level Awakened.”
“You never know. Maybe someone from the public side does requests as a hobby.”
“This Cassandra guy… he’s something else.”

A new member using the nickname Cassandra.

He was an extremely rare case of someone using a gun as his main weapon. Although he had only completed two requests so far, the last one—the resort construction site request—caused a huge stir.

“Wow… watching the video, it’s really different from a typical Goblin Chieftain, isn’t it?”
“That’s what I’m saying. There’s no chieftain with casting speed that fast.”
“Definitely… It was clearly in the middle of evolving.”
“Has there ever been a case like this before?”
“No. Not in the public sphere, nor in the underworld.”
“…….”

That means, this is…

“Shouldn’t we inform everyone?”
“Hanak Gong contacted us not long ago. They asked us to participate as mercenaries in the government-led operation to recapture the Gaemag Plateau.”
“We have a direct line to them.”
“Contact them and inform them. This is…”

An unprecedented event.

Moreover, it was nearly the emergence of a ‘Goblin Great Chieftain.’

“We should inform them.”

“Hey, hey! Did you hear about the new phenomenon observed on the public side?”

When I returned to work after the weekend, Senior Gijun excitedly told me.

“What new phenomenon?”
“Untied reported it… They said a Goblin Chieftain was evolving into a Great Chieftain?”
‘???’

They reported that to Hanak Gong?

‘Huh. So they do share information like this promptly?’

“Really?”
“Yeah! But the amazing thing is that the Awakened who killed it uses a gun as their main weapon. Isn’t that incredible? Who could it be? Is it the Magic Gunner, Kwon Hyuk-jun?”?”

Ouch.

That’s me. Of course, I’m not a Magic Gunner. I don’t imbue my gun with mana.

And I finished it off with a dagger. Though I did take care of the rest of the mobs with the gun.

‘I realized another reason not to rely solely on the gun.’

Ammunition consumption is high, so maintenance costs are significant. Even before worrying about imbuing mana or not, the supply of bullets was an issue.

‘But I also realized something from hunting the Orc Warrior yesterday.’

The day after dealing with the Goblin Chieftain, I completed the Orc Warrior hunting request. It was common knowledge that their tough skin and hard bones made it difficult to inflict fatal wounds even if bullets penetrated, but…

‘With [Beginner Firearms Proficiency] at level 4, I could pierce the skin and shred the insides in a single shot.’

[Beginner Firearms Proficiency], which directly affects shooting damage, reached level 4. I was able to handle the Orc Warrior more easily than expected.

‘I killed one Orc Warrior with just four bullets.’

“Hey, what are you thinking about again?”
“Ah… Maybe I exercised too hard over the weekend, I’m tired.”
“Exercise? You exercised…?”
“You have to if you want to live long.”
‘Now I don’t have to go to the shooting range anymore….’

Should I go to an archery dojo after work? Or a swordsmanship dojo for close combat?

After the Gates appeared, dojos for learning weapon skills like swordsmanship and archery proliferated like mushrooms.

And most of those dojos are run by guilds for profit. If it’s revealed that I’m a Re-Awakened and my abilities become known to the world… it’ll be troublesome, so for now, I should pretend not to be Re-Awakened.

‘I should only reveal my abilities after I’ve become sufficiently strong.’

“By the way, is there anything different today?”
“I was just about to mention that. The ambient mana concentration in the public side has dropped severely. It seems…”
“…….”
“It must be related to the Goblin Great Chieftain evolution incident. I have a feeling something ominous is about to happen…”
“Hopefully, no unfortunate incidents occur before the Gaema Plateau recapture operation.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”

Sure enough, an alarm suddenly began to blare.

Aaaa—!!!

“……This is bad.”
“E-emergency! Emergency! Unregistered monsters have appeared near Yeongdeungpo Times Square!!!”

The signs of destruction were gradually beginning to appear.