After five respawns...
[You've hunted a Berserk Hobgoblin! Exp +100%, Gold +300]
[You have slain the Zone Boss! Exp +100%, Gold +500]
[You have found Hobgoblin's Cache Key!]
[You have leveled up to lvl 19!]
[Successfully hunted an intermediate boss monster! +25 Respawn points.]
[Current Respawn points: 989/1000]
I'm stupid, aren't I?
YuWon sighed as he got the key again. Initially, he thought by respawning and killing the hobgoblin repeatedly, he could gain all seven keys and get all the rewards. But his stupid brain forgot one important detail.
Every time he respawned everything apart from his gold, Exp, and attributes got reset when he died. In other words, he couldn't have more than one cache key at any time.
As frustrating as it was, YuWon didn't dwell on it. After all, he leveled up quite a bit. That was enough of a reward for him. On top of that, he got to upgrade his skills and now respawning only costs 7 points while his checkpoint skill now had a 7-hour cooldown, unlike 8 before.
Killing goblins gives me 5 points now, hobgoblin gives 25. Not bad.
With the counter nearly filled up, YuWon didn't think he needed to do another run. Slaying the hobgoblin was fun, but after six times, it got too easy for him.
YuWon wanted a challenge and took the battle to the next level. How? By fighting the hobgoblin in its [invincible] state. It was unlike any fight before.
The entire floor had turned into a pile of rubble from the berserk hobgoblin's attacks. Soo-Ah almost got killed trying to run interference on her own, but thankfully, Min-Joon saved her.
And after all that, YuWon was standing victorious over the corpse of the fallen monster.
Unfortunately, he couldn't say the same about his clothes. They were in tatters and soaked in blood. Before doing anything, he needed new clothes and possibly a shower.
As much as I would like to sleep, now is not the time for that.
With that thought, he jumped off the monster's corpse, only to be greeted by another notification.
[You have earned a new achievement!]
[Title: You call that Invincible?]
[Description: Defeat the Berserk Hobgoblin during the tutorial.]
[Effect: The awakener's stats will increase by 20% when fighting an intermediate or above-ranked monster.]
YuWon smiled, knowing that the trouble he went through didn't go to waste. Now when facing elite monsters, he could get up to a 40% increase in his stats from all his achievements.
As Soo-Ah and Min-Joon approached him, YuWon took a quick look at his stats and used the unallocated attribute points.
+++
Name: Kang YuWon
Class: Revenant
Sub-class: None
Allegiance: None
Level: 19
Experience: 17.2%
Primary Attributes:
— Health Points (HP): 465 / 465
— Mana Points (MP): 135 / 135
— Stamina: 30 / 30
Core Stats: [+0 unallocated points]
— Strength: 25
— Agility: 30
— Intelligence: 4
— Defense: 20
— Endurance: 17
— Wisdom: 6
— Luck: 20
— Respawn Points: 989/1000
Secondary Attributes:
— Attack Power: Nil
— Magic Power: Nil
— Magical defense: 9%
— Critical Hit Rate: 40%
Abilities:
— Passive Abilities:
1. Respawn (Lvl 5):
— Active Abilities:
1. Checkpoint (Lvl 2):
Achievements:
— [Survivor of Death]
— [You killed a monster with that!?]
— [Level 10, already!?]
— [You call that Invincible?]
Awakener's Stats:
Play Time: 4 hours 16 minutes 22 seconds
— Monsters Defeated: 621
— Quests Completed: 0
— Gold Earned: 9080
+++
"You did it!" Soo-Ah exclaimed. "And I leveled up to 10!"
"I didn't hit level ten, but level seven isn't bad," Min-Joon chimed in. "What about you, boss?"
"You're not gonna believe it, so there's no point telling you," YuWon shrugged before grabbing one of the hobgoblin's clubs as his new weapon.
A moment later, YuWon lifted the club and aimed for Min-Joon's head. Since the zone boss was dead, the penalty of killing other awakeners should also have been lifted.
However, when YuWon was about to swing the club, the familiar warning prompt appeared before him.
[Awakeners cannot kill other Awakeners during the first tutorial round, and any attempts to do so will result in strict measures being taken against the individual in question.]
YuWon shook his head before sighing deeply. It seemed killing the zone boss didn't end the tutorial. However, it made him wonder what he would have to do to end the tutorial.
Judging from the fights so far, it will not be easy.
"Come on, let's go before something else shows up here," YuWon said.
"Wait a second! I'm almost done." Soo-Ah replied.
The boys turned to see her standing next to the hobgoblin's corpse with her hands raised over it.
"What's she doing?" Min-Joon whispered.
"She's a necromancer. Take a guess what she'd be doing?" YuWon rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile, Soo-Ah moved her life, silently chanting a spell. The next moment, a swirling vortex appeared out of her hand and began swirling around the hobgoblin's corpse.
Slowly, the hobgoblin's massive body twitched. Its skin began to shrivel and crack, peeling away from the muscle and bone beneath. The once powerful form seemed to deflate before collapsing into a heap of unrecognizable flesh.
Eventually, the hobgoblin's skeleton rose out of the fleshy remains. The fragments of its broken bones slowly reassembled itself. The next moment, the creature kneeled before Soo-Ah, and its empty eye sockets locked onto her as if awaiting her command.
"I did it!"
Soo-Ah jumped, overjoyed by her achievement, and ran to hug YuWon, unable to contain her excitement.
For a moment, YuWon was surprised. It was the first time someone had touched him and not hit him the next second. It had only been a year since someone hugged him, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since anyone treated him like a human.
But before he could respond, Soo-Ah quickly pulled back, her face flushed with embarrassment.
"I-I'm sorry about that!" she said, scratching her neck.
"I'm happy you got a stronger pal now," YuWon said emotionlessly, before turning around to leave. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to... clean up."
"Let's go together!" Soo-Ah replied without thinking.
"...what?"