Chapter 4: Frail Attention-Seeking Face Genius (4)

You recognize what that creature is.

An [Environment] check automatically succeeded, and the ‘Voice’ was heard.

A small build, a hideous face, a large, pointed nose and ears.

It is a Goblin.

‘I know, you bastard…!’

Not only the obvious fact that those things were Goblins, but I also knew what this place was… to be precise, what kind of dungeon it was.

(Goblin Labyrinth).

A dungeon that first-time players often end up in after escaping the slavers' camp in the prologue and wandering without a map.

It could be called a tutorial dungeon, in effect.

Serving the role of giving a taste of what dungeons are like in this game.

As befits a tutorial dungeon, the difficulty is not particularly high… but the problem, no matter what, was the fact that it was a dungeon.

‘I’m going to lose my mind.’

The strangely familiar-feeling room from before was, as expected, a ‘Rest Area’.

The mercenary bastard probably didn't know that when he brought me here.

He probably didn't even know this was a dungeon in the first place.

No matter how desperate, what kind of crazy person would enter a dungeon to get some ‘rest’?

He was probably just looking for a secluded spot, saw something like a cave, took a look, decided it was a good place to rest, and just barged in.

That’s pretty much the lore for rest areas in dungeons, anyway.

There are a total of two rest areas in the (Goblin Labyrinth).

One at the entrance of the dungeon, and one near the so-called boss room.

There’s no way the guy would have brought me all the way to the front of the boss room, so this must be the former.

In other words, if my memory is correct, it meant that the entrance of the dungeon… in this case, the exit, was not far away.

“Kereuk? Kereureuk!”

The problem was that those Goblins were completely blocking the path to that only exit.

As the name (Goblin Labyrinth) suggests, the monsters that appear in this dungeon are all low-level Goblins.

The boss is just a slightly stronger Goblin.

Goblins are one of the weakest monsters in the game.

So honestly, one on one, there was no reason for me to be afraid.

Even the boss Goblin would probably be easy for me to handle right now.

However, Goblins are famous for moving in groups.

Naturally, they never came out one by one.

You have heard this saying before.

If you see one Goblin, there are ten Goblins there.

It was true.

This was a Goblin den, and those two were just part of a group of twenty.

On top of that, it was unlikely that they were there by chance.

“Kereuk!”

Even if I couldn't understand the Goblins' words, just from their gestures, I could tell at a glance that they were looking for someone.

I had a rough idea of the reason, too.

It seems our paths crossed while I was in the rest area, but they were definitely looking for the one who triggered the ‘trap’ at the entrance── that is, the mercenary bastard who was already a corpse in the rest area.

The entrances of dungeons like this are usually equipped with traps, whether artificial or natural, that serve as an ‘alarm’ for intruders.

If you get caught in one, it becomes one of those places where monsters come pouring out, like you’d imagine from a dungeon in a game.

And that damn mercenary had to go and step on it thoughtlessly.

In short, it meant that dozens of Goblins, like those two, were in an ‘Alert’ state and were scouring the inside of the dungeon.

No matter how weak Goblins were, fighting against many was a different story.

Especially for me right now.

Therefore, turning back now and waiting for them to disappear was the worst choice.

Rather than running into ten or twenty while trying to avoid two, it was better to deal with them before it was too late and get out of here.

My (Vicious Mockery) did indeed work well, as proven by that stupid mercenary.

However… this build wasn't designed for solo play in the first place, let alone for roaming a dungeon alone.

It was true that it dished out enough damage to take down the mercenary, who was probably two or three times tougher than a Goblin, in one shot, but because I had sacrificed Strength and Dexterity, I couldn't allow myself to be directly exposed to an enemy's attack in the first place.

(Vicious Mockery) was a single-target skill.

It could only be spewed at one target at a time to deal damage.

At least at level 1, that was the case.

And it wasn't just about spouting insults; it was a kind of magic manifested through that mockery.

That's why it worked on monsters like Goblins who don't know human languages, but in other words, it meant that it required some time before it could be used again.

In game terms, one turn, in reality… I wasn't sure exactly, but maybe a few seconds.

Therefore, if even one of those Goblins closed the distance and attacked me… I honestly wasn't confident that I could dodge or withstand it.

Excluding (Vicious Mockery), the only real weapon I had now was the dagger I picked up earlier, the one now in my hand.

And I wasn't even sure I could use it properly.

‘…Damn it.’

But there didn't seem to be any time to leisurely contemplate.

The Goblins had started to come this way.

Although I was hidden by the corner for now, it was a single path, so if I didn't run away, I would have to face them eventually.

First, I take out one, then I take out the other before it closes the distance on me.

This was my best and only option right now.

And to increase that possibility even a little, I first had to put as much distance as possible between myself and them.

Therefore, ‘This is the only way…!’

I just threw the dagger, which I probably couldn't use properly anyway.

“Kereuk!?”

Not towards the Goblin, but beyond it.

To throw it far away and turn the Goblins' attention to the opposite side.

“──?!”

However, in my haste to act, I had momentarily forgotten.

If I were 'the me I remember,' the action I intended would have been quite possible, but the current me was a frail Bard with a Strength of 2.

“──Ah.”

Clatter and it was only after seeing the dagger, which had left my hand and flown 'powerlessly,' fail to go over the Goblin's head and instead fall at its feet, that I belatedly realized that fact.

And with that, the Goblins naturally looked in the direction the dagger came from, which is to say, at me.

“…….”

I had drawn their attention, but in the worst way possible.

By throwing away the only real weapon I had right in front of the enemy.

“…Kereuk?”

So even the Goblins, who had almost no intelligence to speak of, ended up staring blankly at me for a moment, as if trying to gauge the true intention behind my action, which seemed less intelligent than their own.

So, well,

“…Shit.”

It was a situation where I couldn't help but swear.

“Kereuk!!”

As expected, the Goblins, who seemed to be contemplating for a moment, soon stopped thinking and started running towards me.

(Y-your momma Goblin!)

Flustered, I threw out the first (Vicious Mockery) that came to mind.

At that moment.

--

The ‘Goblin Soldier’’s spirit has collapsed!

--

“Kereuk!”

The targeted Goblin's eyes rolled back, just like the mercenary's, and it collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

“Ke-kereuk!?”

Perhaps because its comrade, who was running alongside it, had suddenly died like that without any proper attack or magic being launched, the remaining Goblin flinched in surprise and stopped in its tracks for a moment.

I didn't miss that opening and immediately kicked off the ground and ran.

Naturally, in the opposite direction.

“Ke-kereureuk! Kereuk──!”

Seeing me start to run away, whether it realized that I had nothing else besides that mysterious attack or was just angry that its comrade died, the thing eventually let out a (Rage Roar) and started charging at me again.

The reason Goblins get more annoying the more they clump together is precisely for that reason.

Individually they're weak, but when a comrade is attacked or dies, they get angry and receive a buff.

“Ah, seriously…!”

Seeing it rapidly closing the distance, I hurriedly picked up my pace.

And that became the root of the problem.

“…Ah.”

Thump, and my legs, trying to move awkwardly fast, I ended up tripping myself.

Thud!

The result, of course, was falling flat on my face.

My whole body, especially my face, burned not with embarrassment but with pure pain.

It was a pain that made me belatedly realize that not only was my Strength 2, but my Dexterity was also 3.

The damn clumsy athlete setting had literally tripped me up here.

“Th-this shit…!”

If I had known this would happen, I would have just made a normal build…!

What’s with the clumsy athlete…!

But it was too late for regrets.

While I was on the ground, barely able to move.

“Kereureuk──!”

The enraged Goblin had already run up to me.

Holding a blunt sword high, which would, without any exaggeration, split my head open.

At that moment.

“……!”

Suddenly, the moving sword stopped in place.

Not just that, but everything around me did as well.

The open mouth of the screaming Goblin.

The flickering torch on the wall.

The small pebbles that had bounced up from the floor.

As if time had stopped.

In that frozen frame, dice had appeared before me at some point.

At that surreal sight, I knew instinctively.

That my ‘moment of destiny’ had arrived.

To decide whether I could dodge that blunt sword about to strike me.

It was a moment where my future would be decided by the dice that were now rolling.

In other words, if I failed to dodge, that blunt blade would split my head open as expected.

And the value needed to ‘evade’ that fate was.

--

Attempting Evasion Roll

Difficulty 10

--

And my Dexterity value that affects that evasion was-–

--

DEX Modifier +3

--

In other words, no matter what I did, I could not dodge that sword.

Unless I got a 6, the dice value that means a ‘Great Success,’ which was the only possibility.

--

Fallen

--

On top of that, I was currently in a ‘Fallen’ state, so I would definitely be hit by a ‘critical hit’.

So…

‘…I’m going to die?’

It meant there was a 100% chance of being instantly killed by that sword.

‘Like this? To a Goblin?’

That was my fate.

‘……No.’

Until I overturned it.

‘You think I’ll die so pathetically like this!?’

I had nothing to lose anyway.

Rather than just dying to a Goblin's sword without being able to do anything, I would at least struggle and try to grab onto something.

And what I'm grabbing this time isn't something like a straw──

──Alea, It was my soul.

The Soul Stone.

‘The die is cast’.

What I just recited was not just a famous quote.

It was an ‘incantation’.

──(Moment of the Star).

To seize the fateful moment that comes very rarely in a person's life, when a crucial decision that changes the future must be made.

The power to turn chance into certainty.

This skill of the Champion of the Malevolent Star── the soul that now resides in my body, which seizes the opportunity called the (Moment of the Star), for some reason I didn't know, was the will to decide my own destiny, to seize it with my own hands rather than leaving it to luck.

The dice, responding to that will, gradually slowed down and soon came to a stop.

You have realized that power.

And so the die was overturned.

--

⚅ / ⚅ (6 / 6)

--

And fate was overturned.

--

Great Success

--

I flipped my body.

The world began to move again.

Whoosh!

The blade that came down with it cut through empty air instead of my head.

And at the same time, I felt the magic power that had been consumed by the previous (Vicious Mockery) refilling within me.

The so-called cooldown was over.

──Your daddy Goblin!!

To spew (Vicious Mockery).

“──Kereuk?!”

I honestly don't know how severe a humiliation the secret of its birth(?), which I hastily came up with in my head, is among Goblins, but what's important is that it worked on the Goblin in front of me.

At least enough for it to freeze in its sword-raising posture and collapse foaming at the mouth.

A brief silence fell.

“……Phew.”

Until I finally let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the Goblin lying powerlessly at my feet, not showing any movement.

As I did, the tension left me and my body went limp, and I ended up collapsing on the floor just like it.

But I couldn't help it.

It was a situation where I had really, without exaggeration, just escaped death by a hair's breadth.

“Barely surviveddddd…….”

The skill I had used to evade its sword, (Moment of the Star), was a skill that fixed the value of the thrown die to a ‘Great Success,’ a 6.

As a skill with such overwhelming performance, it was originally an ability that could only be used much later in the story, at least around the mid-point.

As a trump card for the Champion of the Malevolent Star── that is, the players, to twist fate when they meet an opponent they can't help but lose to ‘fatedly’.

But it wasn't a case of a new ability being created out of thin air, but rather, closer to awakening an ability that was already there.

The identity of the ‘???’ written in the [Unique Skill] section, which I saw when I first checked the status window, was that very skill.

So I predicted that if I just knew the incantation to use the ability, it would be possible to use it right now, and thankfully, that prediction was correct.

“…Very thankfully, that is.”

Although it was highly regrettable that I was in a situation where I would have been hit by a sword if it hadn't worked.

But what's fortunate is fortunate, and anyway, I couldn't just lie here like this.

The Goblins nearby must have heard all the noise from the fight here.

If I stayed here, it was obvious that more of them would flock here.

Goblins are inherently that kind of monster.

You have used the power of fate.

It seems you need sufficient rest to use it again.

And I could no longer use (Moment of the Star).

At least not until a day had passed.

According to the lore, it was a concept of using up all of the ‘Fate Power’… in short, the luck, for that day.

That's why I struggled to get my body back up.

I had to get out of this dungeon as soon as possible.

This was not a situation where I could roam the dungeon.

Even if it were a situation where I could roam, there was no particular reason to explore this (Goblin Labyrinth).

When I hurried my steps, the exit appeared quickly, as expected.

At that, I ran towards the light without looking back and escaped the dungeon.

***

After escaping the dungeon, I had to walk through the forest for a while, feeling the gradually chilling air.

Until now, I had been so busy escaping from immediate crises that I had to set aside my thoughts, but now I was finally given time to carefully sort them out again.

And the conclusion I reached at the end of that time of contemplation was.

“……I’m so screwed, for real.”

It wasn't because I was in a ‘Depressed’ state with no one around to pay attention to me, causing negative thoughts to creep up, but I was just really, truly screwed.

Of course, it wasn't just because this ‘Frail Attention-Seeking Face Genius’ body had many restrictions on its use, as was proven when I was on the verge of being sold as a slave or when I went through that ordeal in the dungeon.

It was just that this body itself was the problem.

To be precise, the fact that I myself was the game's protagonist, the ‘Champion of the Malevolent Star’.

Why?

Because I was the one who had to save this world.

If I failed, this world would be screwed together.

That was the story of this game.

And the specific thing I had to do to save that world was, first, to go to the Demon King's Castle at the northernmost tip of the continent and subjugate the ‘Demon King’.

A classic hero story.

If I left him alone, he would, without exaggeration, 100 percent take actions that would hasten the destruction of this world, and unfortunately, the only one who could stop him was me, the Champion of the Malevolent Star.

Of course, if it were just a matter of strength, I might have been able to find the powerful people of this world, help them grow, and lead them to subjugate the Demon King… a so-called bus-riding method, but it wasn't like that.

I just had to do it.

That was the lore.

This… body.

To put it bluntly, the ‘soul’ residing in this body.

Because I literally held the only key to stopping the Demon King, I had to be carried and dragged to the front of the Demon King, like a ring that must be destroyed.

In short, far from being a passenger riding the bus, I couldn't even be the driver of that bus.

I was the bus.

One that had to roll on silently without complaint.

But to give it all up and just ignore it until the end of the world, before my guilt over ruining this world I had come to love, I myself would explode before the world did.

If I couldn't somehow ‘deal with’ the soul residing within me along with the damn Demon King.

So there was no other way.

To save the world, and just purely to survive.

Just like the many adventures I had undertaken so far, I had to save this world once more.

This time, as a ‘Frail Attention-Seeking Face Genius’.