-Krrrrk
-Krerrrk Krrrrk-
As the disgusting, phlegm-boiling sound from the darkness began to grow louder, Rosaria and her companions could see who it was.
Elongated ears, green skin, jagged teeth, and a face that was truly unnatural.
Four goblins in total appeared before them, drooling, each holding a toothless sword and a crude spear.
“It’s out.”
“Are those golems?”
Rosaria and Rachel muttered, immediately preparing their battle tesserae.
Then.
Chuck-.
“I’ve got this.”
Gren stepped forward, gesturing to Rosaria and Rachel with his staff and fists.
“What, you mean without fighting them?”
“The demons here are nothing to worry about, I’ve got enough to fight on my own, and the kids are watching.”
“Well, this is my chance to finally show them how great I am.
Artificial beasts, golems to be exact.
They were one of the things that made the artificial dungeon feel so real.
However, the limitations were clear.
No matter how similar they looked, they weren’t as intimidating because they were artificially created golems, not real goblins.
Gren had fought a number of artificial creatures in his last trial and decided that his skills were sufficient.
He also wanted to punch the arrogant junior in the nose.
“In that case…”
“Well…I’ve fought once, and it wasn’t a big deal.
Rosaria was quickly convinced by Gren’s words without saying anything else.
She had fought several artificial beasts as a test before the test, so she knew what to expect.
“Stay back.”
Sigh.
Gren, who had decided to fight the goblins alone, finally drew the sword from her belt and held it in her hand.
It was a well-maintained scimitar-type sword that was easier to wield with one hand than a standard longsword, and the blade glowed with a faint light.
-Crack!!!
-Crack! Kreek!!!
And with that, the goblins began to pound the ground as Gren drew his blade.
The first goblin in the line of fire lunges at them with his toothless sword raised.
“The pattern is obvious.
Gren thrust his blade forward with a familiar ease.
-What?!
The goblin suddenly stopped charging and stood in front of him for a moment, looking flustered.
“Now!”
-Kreeek!?
Gren, not missing a beat, lunges forward and plunges his sword into the goblin’s chest.
“That’s it!”
The goblin’s entire body shuddered as the sword pierced its sternum, and then it sagged.
The goblin’s pattern was simple.
If you extend your weapon toward them, they become flustered. And in that moment, you strike.
The academy students had completely analyzed the artificial golems’ patterns, and this was the conclusion they reached regarding goblins.
Clang
The limp goblin collapsed and disintegrated like burned firewood reduced to ashes, scattering into the air. Something dropped to the ground where it once stood—a mana stone, the core component in creating artificial monsters.
“Next!”
Having swiftly dealt with one goblin, Gren, clearly energized by the success, set his sights on the next opponent.
-Krrrrrk!!!
“Not so fast!”
This time, a goblin holding a spear charged forward. Once again, Gren extended his sword in the same manner as before.
“This will make two!”
Confidently preparing to pierce the panicked goblin’s chest, Gren poised his blade.
However—
-Krrreeeek!!?
Clang!
“…What?!”
This goblin was different.
Even though Gren followed the pattern exactly, the goblin didn’t flinch or hesitate. Instead, it crouched lower, angling its spear directly at him, and continued its charge.
Caught off guard by the unexpected behavior, Gren barely managed to parry the incoming spear.
-Kreeeeak!
“What?! Huh?! Tch… damn it!”
But the surprises didn’t end there.
While Gren was dealing with the spear-wielding goblin, another goblin crept up behind him, clutching the broken blade of a dagger and lunging for an attack.
Although the goblins’ strength was unimpressive, Gren now found himself destabilized, his stance compromised by the unexpected moves. Evading and countering attacks coming from two directions at once was proving far more difficult than he had anticipated.
“Huh…? What the…?!”
“Why is he struggling so much?”
“Big talk for someone who can’t even handle a couple of goblins.”
Rosaria and Rachel, watching from the sidelines, stared at the scene with mixed expressions of shock and disbelief. Rachel, who was taking this trial for the first time, couldn’t fully grasp what was happening. But Rosaria and Rasel, having encountered artificial monsters before, quickly pieced things together.
Their judgment had always been the same:
‘Crude golems that merely mimic real creatures.’
Artificial monsters were simple constructs that repeated fixed patterns. As long as you knew those patterns and had the stamina, you could take down dozens of them without much trouble.
This was especially true for goblins, the weakest among them.
However, the goblins Gren was fighting now seemed completely different—almost as if they had taken wild goblins straight from the wilderness and planted them into the labyrinth.
Still, they weren’t real goblins.
The first goblin had clearly behaved according to the typical pattern, falling to Gren’s sword and leaving behind a mana stone.
The problem was what happened next.
The remaining goblins saw how the first goblin fell, and decided to attack in a completely different way.
It was like…
“They seem to be learning…?”
The artificial golems seemed to be learning.
“Oh…shit…!”
Meanwhile, Gren’s teeth were grinding as he struggled to dodge the goblins’ weapons and barely managed to swing his sword.
The sudden change in pattern and the unpreparedness of the surprise literally sent Gren rolling across the floor.
As annoying as it was to see him so ugly, it was even more frustrating to realize that he wouldn’t have gotten this far if he’d gone into the fight thinking he was dealing with a monster.
After all, a goblin is a goblin, and a goblin that loses when a group of peasants get together and fight with chains and scythes is no match for a group of Academy students learning to fight.
But the disadvantage was too great.
Swinging a sword requires a certain stance to give it the full force and power it deserves, and Gren had never been able to do it while
Gren hadn’t gotten to the point where he could swing the sword while lying on the ground.
He couldn’t yell for help to his companions, who were watching from behind.
His pride wouldn’t allow him to tell them to stay out of the way, that he’d deal with them, and then tail them for help.
He even began to think, “If my party members watching this mess would just step in and help, I could at least act smug later and ask why they interfered.”
Pfft-
-Quueue!?
“…!?”
The goblin who was about to thrust his spear at Gren let out an inarticulate shriek as a suddenly flying rock struck him.
“Hit.”
Glancing quickly to where the rock had come from, Rosaria was poised to throw something.
She wouldn’t be able to lunge at him, not with Gren’s assurances, but she could at least try to help.
Given the sudden change in the goblin’s behavior, and the fact that Gren could really handle it on his own if he could just get the flow going somehow.
“Hmph!!!”
Taken aback by Rosaria’s outburst, Gren immediately swung his sword wildly at the goblin next to him, forcing him to back away.
He lunges at the stumbling goblin and delivers a full force kick to the goblin’s neck.
Woodduck.
The boy-sized goblin’s cervical vertebrae snapped at the same time, and the goblin’s neck snapped at a grotesque angle.
At the same time, the goblin’s neck snapped at a bizarre angle.
“Hmph… these things are making people angry.”
-Keh, Keruk..?!
Gren muttered to himself as he looked at the goblin that was now facing him, perfectly prepared.
As he’d said before, the difference in strength between the Academy student and the goblin was extreme.
“Tear them limb from limb.”
Gren tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, remembering how those things had rolled across the floor.
“The goblins’ patterns seemed strange.”
After the first battle in the artificial dungeon ended, the group took a short break to recover. During this time, Rosaria spoke up, her tone laced with unease.
The fight with the goblins had revealed one key point he artificial golems had become significantly more advanced.
Compared to the stationary, easy-to-hit targets they’d faced during their experiments with Felix, these golems felt much more like the dangerous monsters one might encounter in a real dungeon.
“Y-yeah…! This doesn’t feel right,” Rasel chimed in, uncharacteristically expressing his thoughts in support of Rosaria.
“Is it really that strange? They’re just goblins, after all.”
However, Rachel, who had never taken this test before, didn’t see the seriousness of the situation. To her, they were just goblins.
Besides, hadn’t Gren managed to defeat them, despite some initial stumbles?
“There’s no risk of dying, and this test is meant to simulate real dungeon experiences anyway. So what’s the problem if the goblins feel a bit more… real?”
“Or are you saying you’re scared—”
“What?! Scared? Ha! Don’t make me laugh!”
Gren, who had been silent until now, snapped at Rachel’s provocation. Already stung by his earlier blunders, he was further agitated by a junior like Rachel daring to taunt him.
“Listen here, goblins are goblins. Monsters, sure, but nothing we can’t handle. We stick to the plan and move forward as scheduled.”
“B-but… this dungeon doesn’t only have goblins…”
“Shut it. Just focus on doing your job”
Amidst the tension, Rosaria spoke up again.
“By the way, that one goblin… was it really okay to let it escape?”
She had been uneasy since the battle, recalling how one of the goblins fled after the others were killed.
“Something about it… doesn’t feel right.”
It didn’t seem like the goblin had fled simply out of fear after its companions died. There was something more ominous about its behavior.
“Worrying about some coward who ran off? Please. Focus on getting ready—we’re moving now.”
“…I hope it’s nothing.”
She packed her things and prepared to continue their exploration of the dungeon.
That night, they tasted hell.