Although the goblins weren't the strongest of enemies, their camaraderie amongst their ranks was commendable. For every goblin that died, the rest grew erratic and acted in an almost berserk fashion.
Fortunately, these monsters weren't BOSS-level characters, so they had no "Berserk" feature to truly employ.
Tang!
Kieran parried the sword of one of the nearby Goblin Leaders as his eyes darted about. Instead of attacking in a distinguished pattern, the Goblin Leaders present charged Kieran from all directions. This battle style was problematic for a single person to defend against because the attacks came from all angles simultaneously.
In this scenario, it wasn't a matter of attack or movement speed; surviving this type of onslaught depended on one's combat experience. Only extraordinary movements held a chance of successfully evading numerous attacks aimed at one body.
Kieran performed something not many people would do upon noticing how the Goblin Leaders targeted him. He stood still!
Most players would panic if upwards of twenty monsters charged them at once, which would then cause them to run in a particular direction. The only issue with this reaction was that no matter what direction one ran in, they'd be greeted by at least four enemies at any given location.
More importantly, this action also vastly shortened the distance between the player and their foe, which shouldn't be done unless the player held control of the battle's momentum.
On the other hand, if one stood still, it provided the maximum amount of time to judge the ongoing situation.
As a result, Kieran's eyes gained a piercing presence as they darted about, gaining information at an alarming rate.
'Four of them have Haste and will reach me quicker than the others, while some also have bizarre traits I have no recollection of. Not ideal, but not as bad as I previously thought,' Kieran inwardly noted. Once he sifted through the information he quickly accumulated, he took a single step forth but placed most of his weight on the center of his rear foot.
'It was something like this,' Kieran thought before using his foot as an anchor that provided ample power to his hips, the power generator of the human body!
An instant later, he turned and continued doing so as if he was a spinning top unleashed by powerful fingers. His blade was held in such a position that it protruded from his body with a slight tilt. Moreover, his right arm provided support to keep the affixed at a static angle.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind only faintly weaker than when he unleashed Force Slash appeared, and because of this, the four Goblin Leaders with the Haste trait were blown back. Afterward, the other monsters continued to be knocked back by what could only be described as a human whirlwind.
While spinning, Kieran gained an uncontrollable rhythm due to occasionally tightening up his body. The smaller his axis became, the quicker the rotations. Typically, such rapid spinning would induce dizziness, but Kieran was accustomed to unusual G-Force due to his past training.
Aside from some incredibly mild visual distortion, to the point it wasn't even worth mentioning, Kieran was unaffected. Finally, to finish off his display of skillfulness, Kieran ended with a Force Slash!
Because of this, a chime sounded in Kieran's ear!
〈System: Congratulations, «Force Slash» has reached Lv.11!〉
「Force Slash (Lv.11)
Skill Rank: E Rank Active
Mastery (00.01%)
Skill Description: Deals 458% of the user's Attack Power by focusing their strength into their arm and unleashing a strike powerful enough to produce a wave of force accompanied by a strong gale which causes the [Knockback] effect. The strong gale deals 50% of the slash's damage to all enemies in a 6-meter radius.
Consumption: 5 Mana Points
Prerequisites: Warrior Class, «Warrior's Aura»
Cooldown: 6 seconds 」
Compared to when he first acquired the skill, Force Slash was, without a doubt, countless times more powerful! Its residual damage was on par with many low-level skills since it dealt roughly 200% of Kieran's Attack Power.
Additionally, its cooldown now allowed Kieran to unleash it ten times within one minute! It might seem minor, but this truthfully increased his damage per second graph by a large margin. This was more or less an additional 458% damage dished out every minute!
At this level, Kieran couldn't ask for a finer physical skill.
Furthermore, when a skill leveled up in battle, its cooldown was forcibly reset. It operated on the same principle a character level up did, where it replenished both Health and Mana alike. Since there was no resource to replenish in this case, it substituted this with the skill's cooldown.
Therefore, Kieran didn't waste any time unleashing another Force Slash on the downed Goblin Leaders as well as the ones approaching them.
Bang!
When Kieran slashed his weapon, many of the fire and ice projectiles were knocked back by the strong gust, which made Kieran's eyebrows jump. "Oh ho? A Lv.11 Force Slash suffices to knockback projectile attacks now? It'll serve as a Weapon Master's Parry, I suppose."
A few lights flashed, and Kieran's Experience Pool increased once more as his attacks claimed the lives of a few Goblin Leaders and Minions.
'Too bad the creation aspect isn't active yet. I could've remade the Berserker's Whirlwind Slash just now,' Kieran thought. His spinning wasn't a thoughtless action; it was a rough recreation of one of the Berserker's staple skills. Due to his innumerable usages in the past, Kieran could execute the skill as effortlessly as one could breathe.
However, his current parameters didn't allow him to perfectly replicate the skill. Otherwise, his movement would have fabricated an authentic whirlwind. It wasn't a feat impossible for stronger existences.
A Tier 1 Class was not to be judged by the standards of ordinary humans.
Once Kieran established a rhythm, the stress acquired from the battle lessened significantly. In fact, he even used the situation to his advantage, positioning himself so that some of the fire and ice projectiles traveled upon a trajectory that attacked their own brethren! Many Flame Goblins were hit by the ice projectiles and vice versa.
Although more than 270 goblins initially filled the spacious room, they were killed in just over 8 hours. Kieran's actions were a prime example of the aptitude that separated the good from the great—the willingness to create a favorable outcome despite whatever limiting circumstances that may be present.
No matter how inimical the situation seemed, as long as one operated with the mindset that they would prevail, thereby manifesting the probability and bringing it to realization, they had the makings to become a world-class expert.
The preconditions to succeed were already present inside this room, one only needed a mind astute enough to piece the hints together.
Kieran browsed the loot once he confirmed the goblins wouldn't respawn and was excited by what he discovered!
'So that's how it is… this quest prefers that I aim higher than the level listed in the objective. These results are nothing like what I obtained outside.'
Unlike the one in four odds established within the Barren Mountain Range, Kieran obtained an acceptable Blood Essence for every 1 in 2 Elites. Additionally, all of the Special Elites presented adequate Blood Essence.
Simply put, a higher monster level increased the chances of higher purity Blood Essence. Hence, why Kieran suspected the quest wanted him to combat Lv.23 monsters at the very least.
In fact, when Kieran revisited the source of the Blood Essence from the outside, he came across a detail he had overlooked previously. 90% of the Blood Essence came from the rare Lv.23 Goblin Minions!
'Damn, a truly sadistic quest. This might be accomplishable regarding Elite and Special Elite, but I'm not sure how I'll fare against Champions of the same level. Though… it should be fine if I find more Special Elites,' Kieran noted while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Though it was correct that Force Slash gained 0.1% mastery per usage, it was slightly higher when used against Special Elites since it scaled differently. The more challenging the opponent, the quicker a Skill could level.
After tallying up his gains, Kieran netted 114 Elite Blood Essence and 51 Special Elite Blood Essence. Despite killing far less than his prior numbers, the reward was virtually identical! The only slight difference was that the Special Elite drop rate increased exponentially, nearly reaching a 100% drop rate.
"Perhaps I should've come here earlier, but then again, that's hindsight since I only triumphed because of my higher skills, and who knows if there are even enough monsters here," Kieran noted.
Lastly, he paid attention to another notification that held some importance.
〈System: Your title «Goblin Hunter I» has increased to «Goblin Hunter II»!〉
While Goblin Hunter I increased damage done to Goblin-type monsters by 15%, Goblin Hunter II increased damage by 20%. Despite Kieran's frozen level, he could still discern multiple avenues to increase his combat power, one such option being these types of unique titles.
Titles within Zenith Online were notable.
Theoretically, there was no cap to the number of titles one could have equipped. However, there was a large stipulation present that stopped players from exploiting unlimited title usage, which was the titles' categorization.
There were two types—Specified and General.
Specified Titles referred to titles like Goblin Hunter with effects specified to a single type of monster, location, or race. These were usually the reward of direct action, like killing countless monsters of a particular archetype.
On the other hand, General Titles typically possessed effects that applied directly to a character and were gained as special rewards or rewards for exclusive content. Titles with duplicated general effects couldn't be equipped since one title would simply be neutralized.
To maximize their title usage, most people focused on acquiring General Titles that covered every basic combat faculty while collecting some Specified Titles that would hold relevance even once they were Awakened.
Meanwhile, after reading through the notification, Kieran recovered his Stamina before patting his face. "Progress thus far has been excellent, but we move forward!"
