Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer - Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Both of them exchanged sharp gazes.

A gentle breeze started blowing, which soon turned into a gust, making the fur and clothes rustle.

That was the signal to begin.

“Groooar!”

Black Keroberos accelerated in a straight line and rushed towards him. However, at almost the same time, Tenji kicked off the ground and ran at full speed in a direction perpendicular to the enemy, moving away from him.

Black Keroberos, having lost its jaw, was vulnerable to long-range attacks and pursued the young man with all its might.

“I see… So, that’s it.”

Tenji, who was watching the battlefield closely, blinked and deduced the situation.

The distance between the two was gradually decreasing, and Black Keroberos’s murderous intent was getting closer to his back.

“I’m slightly slower than him… This is troublesome, I borrowed a ring item from Chigo-san for nothing.”

Tenji looked confused as he was being pushed into a tighter spot.

However, over the past six months, he had honed his skills as an explorer, working hand in hand with Chigo, a rare genius in the world, and had built up his own style through trial and error.

He was about to demonstrate the culmination of his efforts.

“Come on! First Goblin squad!”

Tenji suddenly shifted his body to one side and thrust his hand back while flowing backward. At an intermediate distance from Black Keroberos, he summoned an obstacle with incredible accuracy called the Hell Beast Squad. The precision was so high it was impressive.

In order to attack Tenji’s back, Black Keroberos showed an even greater acceleration, but at that precise moment, Tenji had already summoned a Hell Gate at the landing point of its next step without any deviation.

In other words, Black Keroberos had lost its sense of footing in the swamp of the Hell Gate.

The mysterious space of the Hell Gate was filled with a layer of oil that clung to the skin.

Suddenly, the ground that was hard and solid changed to slippery and Black Keroberos lost its balance.

And then…

When Black Keroberos realized it, it was already too late.

It was flipped upside down 180 degrees, gazing at the elegant and peaceful blue sky.

“Grrrooh?”

Black Keroberos, who had fallen, let out a crazy voice without thinking.

Right beside the monster, the just-summoned First Goblin Squad was waiting.

“Heavenly Star release!”

“Ooni!”

Without waiting for Tenji’s command, the goblins activated their heavenly skill, “Rock Crusher,” which imbued their bodies with superhuman strength.

All twenty fists attacked the defenseless Black Keroberos from all directions.

“Gokk.”

“Gokirr.”

“Bokk.”

“Bokku.”

Strange sounds came from all over Black Keroberos’ body.

It was not an attack from one direction but a simultaneous attack from many directions that caused the complex vectors to pierce his entire body and increase the effect several times.

Because Tenji knew the power of the simultaneous attack by number, he had made a snap decision and struck with this hand.

Thanks to the refined space-grasping ability that allowed for precise summons and the trust built up over half a year with the goblins, they were able to deal a powerful blow to the deeply-entrenched Black Keroberos.

“G…Gruoooh!?”

Black Keroberos let out a sorrowful roar in response to the first-ever scream that echoed throughout his body.

Every inch of his body was in pain, bleeding, internal bleeding, muscle damage, muscle rupture, shattered bones, dislocated bones, and multiple fractures. In that instant, Black Keroberos sustained various excessive injuries, and the white bone was slightly visible through the skin around his stomach.

To prevent the Goblins from being crushed again in a moment as before, Tenji promptly instructed them to keep their distance. There was no infinite supply of points, and it was only natural for his rationality to apply the brakes.

The distance between the monster and Tenji was about 40 meters. Black Keroberos had been reduced to a pitiful state. Around it, about twenty members of the First Goblin Squad are waiting in a state of readiness for battle.

Then, Tenji summoned twenty more, a second Goblin squad.

“It seems… we have the advantage in both numbers and attack power.”

Its vermilion eyes, which had started to blur about half from the pain, caught the eerie young man standing in a safe area, surrounded by the Goblins.

Black Keroberos thought it was eerie. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be winning, it had been under a one-sided attack since earlier, and something was strange about that.

However, the answer was not going to come to it no matter how much he thought about it, not with the mind of a newborn baby. If it had been born a little earlier, the future might have been different.

“For some reason… I’m starting to feel a little relaxed.”

Tenji muttered that, still wearing his innocent smile. At this point, everything was working for him.

Tenji had simulated the Goblin’s useful utilization styles countless times over the past six months, and all of them were working against that monster.

Tenji had not spent the past six months in a mere experience point game. He had been thinking about the possibilities of summoning, the potential of Goblins, and the best ways to utilize them to the maximum. He had been working hand in hand with Chigo, a monster of battle, to think and think and think.

He had spent such a dense half-year that it felt like it had passed in the blink of an eye.

Even in battles against stronger opponents, Chigo had repeatedly knocked Tenji off a cliff and thrown impossible tasks at him.

For what purpose?

It was simple. It was too easy, so it was only natural for Tenji.

“I’ve been…always, always…remembering those black three heads. Have you ever forgotten the day you ate my flesh and I became conscious of death? How many times do you think I’ve experienced death, how many nightmares have I had?”

From that day on, Tenji had been afraid. He had been hiding his fear deep in his heart and pretending to be calm until today.

“Not just in reality. In sleepless nights, I have been killed, eaten, and died repeatedly in my dreams by the three-headed monster.”

“Glooohhh!”

“That’s why I will face that nightmare today.”

Tenji’s feelings, the heavy and cold emotions that were buried deep in his heart, overflowed uncontrollably. He wanted to say it. He wanted to say more. How scared he was at that time, how much he had seen hell, how much…

Black Keroberos’s consciousness was already hazy. It knew what Tenji was saying. It hated and feared the kind that was the same as him and tried to defeat it. That was the kind of eyes it had. It understood that, so Black Keroberos decided to use its best and final technique as a kind.

Staggering forward with its crumbling limbs, it firmly planted its feet on the ground. The concentrated black laser was a long-range cannon with a death effect generated by the skill “Death-Roar Companion.” Black Keroberos decided to make it its last blow.

A black sphere began to swirl around its jawless mouth.

“Goblins.”

“On!”

“On!”

Not missing the preparatory movement, Tenji called two Goblins to his side. Goblin-kun held a Red Demon Sword specialized in sharpness that emitted a sinister aura, while Globlin-chan held a Red Demon GreatSword specialized in instantaneous firepower that emitted a dreadful aura.

And the battle of destiny came to an end.

“Grrrooohhh!!!”

The concentrated jet-black laser, which was infused with all of Black Keroberos’s vitality, was aimed at Tenji’s forehead and fired. It was the fastest, most powerful, and most brilliant of them all.

“On!”

“On!”

Two demons, Goblin-kun and Goblin-chan, stood in front of their master to protect him from the Black Keroberos’s most powerful laser attack. They held their hellish weapons in front of them, ready to deflect the attack with their two weapons acting as shields. The Black Keroberos’s last attack was easily deflected by the two Goblins.

At that moment, the remaining 18 Goblins who were waiting nearby released their skills once again and charged towards the Black Keroberos for the final assault.

Despite being weakened, the Black Keroberos summoned all the power it had left and unleashed a black heat haze that enveloped its body and everything around. The power was immense and instantly evaporated all the surrounding vegetation, ground, insects, and living creatures.

The devil’s body, with nothing left but a small black flame, burned out and disappeared. The three heads of the monster simultaneously floated in the air, and the young man prepared to attack.

“This is goodbye to the nightmare,”

The three heads of the monster simultaneously soared through the air.

The two probability skills, “Explosion” and “Penetration”, of the passive skill were triggered simultaneously on the Red Demon Dagger that Tenji had swung.

With two probability skills overlapping, the Dagger, charged with the probability of success, was swung with all his might. In one swift motion, he cut off all three heads from the monster’s body, and the heads’ eyes lost their life. The monster’s body quickly turned into magic ore.

The young man stood still beside the monster’s corpse, and with a sigh of relief, he lowered his hands, listening to the sound of the autumn wind. Drops of blood fell from the Red Demon Dagger. He looked up to the sky, which was now a clear blue.

Half a year ago, he had faced fear head-on, and now he realized that all his efforts were not in vain. He had defeated the Black Keroberos, the symbol of his fear, with his own hands. He had finally overcome the wall of fear today.

[Your race’s experience points have been fulfilled. Tenji’s level has increased.]

[Your calling’s experience points have been fulfilled. The level of your special calling, Hell Beast Summoning”, has increased.]

[You have reached level 5. A new door has opened to a new summoning beast.]

Level 5 has been reached. The door to new summons has been opened.