NOVEL WEB Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Status window.”
[ Ahn Suho ]
– Lv: 8
– Class: Healer
– Strength: 12
– Stamina: 12
– Mana: 12
– Perception: 8
– Bonus Stat: 0
Suho checked his status window.
He had been inside the Gate for quite a while.
His level had already reached 8.
‘It’s about time to face that creature.’
Suho knew everything about this Gate.
However, he had purposely delayed meeting the Gate’s master and boss monster.
After all, absolute strength came from leveling up, and opportunities to monopolize unpredicted Gates were rare, so it was best to maximize his leveling here.
But now, hobgoblins were becoming scarce.
Suho had practically wiped them out.
After scouting around, Suho finally found a group of hobgoblins.
Good.
He’d finish off these last ones and then summon the boss.
This should be enough to gain all the experience he needed here.
With that thought, Suho picked up a sword from among the ones the hobgoblins had been carrying and aimed it at them.
Then he threw it.
[ You have a high understanding of throwing. ]
[ The system is now assessing your talent. ]
[ Congratulations! You have mastered Throwing (B). ]
He gained the Throwing skill simultaneously.
It wasn’t surprising anymore.
Thud!
The sword flew and embedded itself right between the eyes of one hobgoblin.
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
The creature died instantly.
This was the start of the fight.
Four hobgoblins remained.
They pinpointed the direction from which the sword came and charged at Suho.
‘Come on, then!’
Suho didn’t evade.
He was already level 8 and had almost all the necessary movement skills.
As the distance between him and the hobgoblins shrank to just a few steps, Suho’s figure vanished.
“Kirik?”
The hobgoblins looked around in confusion when the person who’d been right in front of them disappeared.
But Suho hadn’t used any kind of stealth skill.
*Slash!*
A sharp slicing sound.
The hobgoblins turned their heads in shock, but it was already too late.
Using superior footwork to get behind them, Suho swung his sword wide, slaughtering them in an instant.
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
His sword cut through their necks cleanly, killing three of the four.
The last one, who had only been partially struck, clutched its neck, trembling on the ground.
Suho kicked away the sword the creature had dropped.
Then he jerked his chin, indicating the creature could leave.
“Go.”
He hadn’t misspoken.
Suho was truly letting it go.
There was only one reason for this.
It would bring its boss straight to him.
That way, he wouldn’t need to go to the trouble of hunting the boss down. Handling Gates without special conditions in this way was an old trick.
The hobgoblin hesitated at Suho’s signal, then began slowly backing away, quickly turning to run.
‘The boss should appear soon.’
After letting it go, he casually collected magic stones from the fallen creatures. After a short while…
Rumble-rumble!
An earthquake.
Or rather, it was the sound of countless footsteps.
These were definitely the monsters Suho was waiting for.
‘How many will there be?’
The boss monster, the “Hobgoblin Leader,” true to the goblin species, liked to move around with a pack.
In other words, it usually commanded at least twenty underlings.
A little later, the bushes parted, and the monsters emerged.
One, two, three, four…
Counting them quickly, there seemed to be around thirty.
Among them was the hobgoblin he had sent as a messenger, grinning smugly as it hid among its companions, its wound apparently having stopped bleeding.
Cute little pest.
It wasn’t infuriating.
Even a cunning insect is still just an insect.
So Suho’s focus was elsewhere—specifically, on the Hobgoblin Leader, who stood at the back with a smug expression.
The leader was about 1.5 times the size of the others.
It also had the highest level among them.
Of course, it was the leader.
But he wasn’t afraid.
Even if it was a boss monster, it was just a creature acting as king among insects.
Even if the bug was big, it was still just a big bug.
On the contrary, Suho was pleased to see it.
Once, Suho had almost died because of this Gate.
‘I nearly died due to the monsters around this Gate.’
Back then, Suho hadn’t awakened yet.
So he’d nearly lost his life to the goblins that emerged outside the Gate.
In a way, this moment was an opportunity for payback.
Suho and the hobgoblins squared off for a while.
Then—
“Kirik!”
At the leader’s cry, the hobgoblins scattered and charged at Suho.
‘Good, that’s what I wanted.’
He hadn’t expected a one-on-one duel.
It would have been absurd to expect chivalry from monsters.
So Suho charged in as well.
When facing multiple opponents in a terrain that didn’t allow for tactical positioning, it was better to close the distance quickly and seize the initiative.
As he closed in on the frontmost creature, Suho drove his running momentum into his blade, piercing the creature’s forehead.
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
Since it had been pierced through the head, it died instantly.
Suho immediately retrieved his sword, using the pulling motion to slash out in all directions.
The faces of three hobgoblins who rushed in were instantly slashed.
“Kyaaa!”
“Krrik!”
“Kaaaa!”
They didn’t die immediately, but he managed to render them unable to fight.
But there were still plenty of goblins.
They attacked Suho without hesitation, like bloodthirsty berserkers.
However, their weapons only sliced through empty air.
“Kik?!”
He had been right in front of them.
But he was gone.
At that moment—
“Here.”
A voice came from behind them.
Before they could even realize they’d been flanked, their bodies crumbled.
A creature belatedly thrust its spear toward where Suho had been, but it ended up stabbing a fellow hobgoblin who had accidentally crossed its path.
The goblin froze, momentarily stunned by its own mistake, but quickly withdrew its weapon to strike again.
Or it would have—if not for another hobgoblin’s blind swing that came from another direction.
“Kyack!”
“Krik!”
“Kiaaack!”
Chaos.
It was pure pandemonium.
Suho didn’t move broadly.
Instead, he maneuvered within a confined space, carefully finding openings among the monsters.
He used their attacks against each other, directing their strikes to cause friendly fire.
Before long, a new notification popped up alongside the usual alerts that a hobgoblin had been defeated.
[ You have a high understanding of evasive movement. ]
[ The system is now assessing your talent. ]
[ Congratulations! You have mastered Sidestep (B). ]
Sidestep.
Finally, he’d obtained a skill he’d been aiming for.
Then—
[ You have a high overall understanding of footwork. ]
[ Dodge and Sidestep have been integrated into “Footwork.” ]
[ Congratulations! You have mastered Basic Footwork (B). ]
As per the system’s rules, Dodge and Sidestep had merged to form “Basic Footwork.”
‘With this, I’ve got the basics down.’
Swordsmanship, footwork, and parry.
The foundation of Suho’s original swordsmanship—”Suho Sword”—was complete.
Now he simply had to keep training hard to gain further recognition from the system.
Suho closed the notification window, shifted his stance, and began attacking more aggressively.
Creatures that had seemed unfazed a moment ago started to fall like leaves in autumn.
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
[ You have defeated a hobgoblin. ]
…
The remaining hobgoblins had been so busy stabbing each other that finishing them off was easy.
He quickly aimed for their vital spots to speed up their deaths.
Soon, most of the hobgoblins had been taken care of, and only the Hobgoblin Leader, still watching the scene with a grim expression, remained.
The moment the last underling fell—
[ Your level has increased. ]
[ All stats have increased by 1. ]
[ You have received 1 bonus stat point. ]
His level had risen again.
Now he is level 9.
Suho allocated his bonus stat to Mana once more and then raised his sword toward the hobgoblin.
As a taunt, he tilted his blade in a beckoning gesture.
“Kerrrk!”
Did the taunt work?
For the first time, anger flashed across the leader’s previously stern face.
Suho checked its level.
– Hobgoblin Leader Lv.20
Its level was more than twice his.
But so what?
Levels might represent strength, but it all depended on the opponent.
What did levels matter against bugs?
The creature raised its enormous axe—its prized weapon—and charged at Suho.
“Graaaaah!!”
[ The hobgoblin uses Fear. ]
[ You are afflicted with a fear status effect. ]
[ Your body is paralyzed. ]
The Hobgoblin Leader’s Fear skill.
As monsters leveled up, Fear became a common skill, but in this low-level zone, only bosses or named monsters could use it.
The Fear effect caused muscle stiffness, a status effect based on level and stats that Suho couldn’t avoid.
But he didn’t panic; instead, he calmly lifted his sword and stabbed his palm.
Stab!
The blade pierced through his palm, spreading searing pain throughout his body.
[ You break free from the fear status. ]
Something astonishing happened.
As soon as he inflicted pain on himself, the debuff effect vanished.
But Suho simply sheathed his sword without much reaction.
The best way to escape debuff skills based on mental attacks was to inflict physical pain on yourself.
‘That much is common sense.’
Of course, mental protection skills or items with such effects would be even better, but he was in a “bare-bones” state, having only just returned to the past.
He didn’t have anything like that.
Suho quickly shook off the fear effect and smoothly dodged the hobgoblin’s swinging axe.
At the same time, he activated Light of Healing.
[ Using Light of Healing. ]
[ The designated area is beginning to heal. ]
Since the injury was on his left hand, he activated the skill with his left hand.
Mana started to drain, and the wound began to heal.
It was a penetrating wound, so it would take a bit longer to heal completely.
But that didn’t matter.
This was why he’d allocated extra stats to Mana.
Suho held Light of Healing in one hand and took his sword in the other.
Then, using his footwork, he closed the distance to the monster in an instant.
Stab!
The tip of his blade sank into the hobgoblin’s thigh.
“Kyaaaaack!”
The creature’s deep scream echoed all around.