Surviving as a Broken Hero

I actually felt a bit sorry for a goblin after the pathetic display it had shown.

“Your turn,” he said, a smirk evident on his face.

“Do you make such a mess every time?”

It was no wonder nobody wanted to party with him. Who would want monsters exploding all over them every time they fought? What was he anyway, an explosion mage?

He frowned. I had apparently hit some sort of tender spot with my remark.

We continued into the cave opening.

[[Clear the Cave of Goblins to Complete the Dungeon!

Goblins Cleared: 1/10]]

A System message popped up, indicating the quest.

It was almost insultingly easy, so it was no wonder that the dungeon wasn’t of any interest to Awakeners. The arena dungeon that I had done with Bernard and Velle shortly after Awakening had been much more difficult. If the Association were to rank it, I had no doubt that the dungeon would be F-Rank.

Lien had shown me some of what he could do, so it was naturally my turn to fight the next goblin.

The cave we had entered was really more of a short tunnel. A couple pitiful firepits with flickering flames burned, lighting the interior with shifting orange firelight and creating dry circles of dirt around them. The place reeked of excrement, piss, and unwashed bodies.

There were a few tattered mats of leather or cloth around each fire, strewn with dirt from the floor, and we stood on the packed, wet dirt of the rest of the ground outside of the dry circles of the fires.

The goblins all stared at us, weapons raised as they did their best to create a sort of half-circle around us with their makeshift spears and weapons.

Feeling bad again, I didn’t even waste the energy to summon the bits of stone from within my body.

It was as good an opportunity as any to try out the blade gauntlet that Krylla had made for me.

In fact, I judged that I probably wouldn’t even have to use any System skills. It would be ideal if I could take the group out without using any precious mana or stamina.

I stepped forward and to the side, my body guided by the images of countless cheesy martial arts films that I had seen over the years.

By stepping to the side and into the goblins there first, the goblins on the opposite side would have to close in to reach me, giving me time to face a few less goblins than if I had stepped into the center.

A few extra seconds would make the difference between fighting a 1v9 or a 1v4.

I brushed aside the first spear and pirouetted my body around to dodge the others as the goblins tried to stab forward. I wondered if their spears would have been able to pierce my body at that point anyway. Skin became tougher with higher Endurance, after all.

Reaching the first goblin, I could have simply crushed its skull with a punch or kick, but opted to send the blade of the gauntlet launching outward into its extended position. There was a heavy chnk sound as the blade slid forward down the length of the sheath along my forearm and stopped suddenly.

The enchanted blade sliced through the goblin’s head effortlessly, like a hot knife through butter as I swung my arm. It surprised me as it continued through the swing and decapitated the goblin next to it, cutting their weapons apart as well—even passing through the metal head of a spear as if it were nothing but paper.

I heard a faint popping sound and something wet splattered me as I turned. There was hardly enough time for me to register that four of the goblins had been ripped apart from the inside before I parried a stab from another goblin with the flat of my blade, kicking aside another stab. I grabbed and pulled the third goblin’s spear, sending the creature stumbling towards me.

From there, it was only a step forward until they were all in range, and a sliding pivot around my lead foot as I swung the blade extending from my arm bisected the remaining monsters.

[[+1 XP]]

[[+1 XP]]

[[+1 XP]]

[[+1 XP]]

[[+1 XP]]

[[Total XP: 15/8000]]

Five measly XP. It was better than nothing, at least.

I made the unfortunate mistake of taking a deep breath with my mouth, letting a few of the slimy, disgusting bits of goblin on my face drip into my open mouth.

“Ack!”

I coughed, trying to get the taste off my tongue.

Lien had blown apart four of the goblins from where he stood behind me in an instant, leaving us both with a kill count of five goblins apiece.

“First time tasting goblin? It’s an acquired taste, trust me.”

He grinned and tossed a water canteen at me that he had pulled from his item pouch.

I swished the water around my mouth and spit it out.

“Can’t you make them less… Explodey?”

He shrugged in reply.

“Sorry, ‘explodey’ is kinda what I do.”

[[Dungeon Cleared!

Reward, Party of 2: +10 XP per party member!

Total XP: 25/8000]]

The goblins didn’t even have any items worth looting, leaving me with a total reward of 15 Experience for my efforts and for getting splattered in goblin remains.

‘I really need a shower after this.’

The side of the mountain exploded outwards, sending an avalanche of snow, dirt, rock, and various other debris cascading down the slope towards the city below.

Then, the figure of a man came leaping out of the gaping wound in the mountain’s surface, rapid-firing a hail of silver streaks of light from the bow gripped in his hand as he turned in mid-air and fell from the opening.

Koise.

A myriad of snake-like monsters fell after him through the gap, screeching in agony and raining blood upon the snow as the arrows rapidly pierced through their bodies.

Koise spun around through the air again just before he hit the avalanche of snow.

[[«Overdraw»]]

His bow bent backward and he grimaced as it gave out creaks of protest.

‘Just hang in there a little longer…’

[[«Release»]]

The arrow exploded from the bow. It wasn’t aimed anywhere in particular—rather, the arrow was shot from the bow at an angle so that the recoil from the shot would launch Koise farther out.

The monsters tumbled past him through the air into the avalanche and Koise shot out even further over the snow, past the cascading avalanche and over the snowy plain below that led to the city.

He dimly registered the city and the seemingly never-ending fall it stood next to amidst the chaos of his escape from the pursuing monsters.

Falling through the sky, the chilly wind bit at the exposed skin of his face and tore at the loose fabric of his clothes.

Koise looked down at his cracking bow again and briefly calculated what its durability should be at in his mind.

The bow was already on the edge of ruin, splintering around where he held it and bending at a slightly odd angle.

Quickly coming to a conclusion, Koise’s heart rose into his throat and he clenched the bow.

‘Farewell, old friend.’

[[«Overdraw»]]

He drew back on the bow one last time, reveling in the feel of its draw, the wood that was splintering and piercing into his hand, the final screech of protest it gave as one final arrow was drawn back…

He held it, watching the ground rapidly approaching from below.

[[«Release»]]

An explosion of wood dug into his clothes and armor, the concussive force slowing his fall and ripping apart the skin on his hands.

A massive plume of snow shot into the air and drifted over the plains as it was cleared from the explosion created by the exploding bow and the «Overdraw» skill, leaving Koise catching his breath within a crater of cleared snow on the exposed, icy dirt.

Laying prone, he forced himself onto his elbows, hands burning and the flesh torn as if a cheese grater had been run over them.

A flare of anger lit his eyes and he forced himself forward with sheer will, no longer being driven by the thrill of the hunt but by a burning desire for vengeance.

***

Something caused a sudden itch in my nose and I let out a sneeze.

We had left the cave behind and were trekking the rest of the way to the end of the canyon.

After some discussion, we had both come to the conclusion that wasting our energy before even getting to the primary dungeon waiting at the end of the canyon was an exercise in futility.

After all, if Bernard and Velle were around clearing one of the dungeons along the way, we would run into them when we went back to the city anyway.

Also, what if they had gone to the end of the canyon and decided to look for trapped Awakeners within the one dungeon that had yet to be cleared? It made sense that it would have the highest chance for trapped Awakeners.

A brief hope flashed underneath my desire to find Rhil, Bernard, and Velle. A hope that, maybe, in the act of finding them, I would be led to the rest of my family as well.

I hadn’t seen my brother, my father, my little sister, none of them in six long years. I had searched and done the best I could with my crippled leg, but in the end, there had been no news. It was likely that they were also trapped within a dungeon somewhere, just waiting for the day an Awakener would come along and rescue them.

What’s more, I couldn’t deny that I held some curiosity towards the City on the Edge and what ‘restoring’ it really meant. What kind of power or artifact might have been waiting for us at the end of the dungeon on the edge of the world?

Despite Lein’s previously jovial attitude, we both continued together in heavy silence, each lost in our own thoughts as we approached the dungeon that might hold the answers I was looking for.