Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 4

Whoosh!

The three meter tall monster swung its warhammer, but Kang?Yoon-Soo?easily evaded it with light steps. His movements were not particularly fast, but the warhammer was unable to even touch the ends of his clothes.

Baaam!

The warhammer smashed the ground intensely. However, Kang Yoon-Soo turned his back and started to run away. The minotaur let out a bellowing howl and started to chase after him.

Boom. Boom.

A loud sound reverberated across the land for every step the minotaur took.

Kang Yoon-Soo went around the smithy, heading toward its forge. The distance between the two shortened in an instant because of the difference in their strides, and the minotaur would catch up to him in a matter of seconds.

The moment the minotaur was about to take the final step to reach Kang Yoon-Soo…

Kwachik!

The land underneath the minotaur started to sink and collapse. It helplessly fell into a trap, and embedded in the hole it had fallen into were several pieces of steel.

“Karka! Konol!”

It didn’t end with the minotaur falling down; as it fell, it destroyed a part of the smithy. When its sturdy, muscular body easily destroyed the wooden wall of the smithy, it exposed a red-hot furnace, upon which its bull head landed.

Pssshhh!

“Krrr… uuuuuuuwaaaaa!”

The sound of flesh being burned filled the place. The minotaur immediately tried to raise its head away from the furnace, but its surface was too hot, and a portion of the minotaur’s head sustained heavy damage.

At that moment, Kang Yoon-Soo jumped up and landed on the neck of the minotaur. The minotaur was unable to raise its head because his full weight was pressing down down on its neck. He simultaneously swung his longsword and spear, cutting open the back of the minotaur’s head.

The minotaur’s bones and muscles were thick and strong, and it was difficult to deal any damage with the longsword and spear, but Kang Yoon-Soo precisely struck in between its muscles. Dual-wielded weapons were difficult to handle even for seasoned veteran mercenaries, but Kang Yoon-Soo handled both weapons with ease.

“Kimalk! Marugot!” the minotaur raged.

Every time the minotaur tried to raise its head, Kang Yoon-Soo would hit it with critical strike after critical strike. The head of the minotaur was heavily burned, and its white skull could now be seen through its leathery hide. The minotaur tried to resist by writhing with every inch of its body, but it couldn’t even raise its warhammer, as its feet were stuck in the ground because of the trap.

Kang Yoon-Soo didn’t even flinch at the gruesome sight. He thrust his spear deeply into the head of the minotaur.

Pukeok!

The minotaur’s skull was penetrated, and blood started to spurt everywhere like a fountain. Immediately afterward, it stopped resisting and fell over dead.

[You have killed the ruthless minotaur (Level 47).]

[Additional experience points have been obtained for soloing such a powerful foe.]

[You may collect a reward from the feudal lord who set a bounty for the minotaur.]

[Your level has increased by 8.]

Kang Yoon-Soo invested all the points into strength just like the last time, and the weight of the spear and longsword felt lighter than before. Normally, people would harvest the meat and leather of the minotaur, and melt the warhammer down to gain valuable materials; but Kang Yoon-Soo did not bother to do that.

.

He slowly walked toward the corpses crushed by the minotaur and took out a handkerchief from one of the corpses’ pockets, then started to wipe the blood off himself. The stench of blood covered his whole body, but he did not seem to have been made uncomfortable by it at all.

He sheathed his longsword and slung the spear onto his back, then started to walk. He did not bother to look at the map on his wrist device, and instead just started walking, leaving behind only a pool of blood in the moonlight.

***

People from Earth had been suddenly transported to this world. The official name of this place was the ‘Sylphia Continent’, but it was normally shortened to just ‘Continent’. It spanned an area that was even greater than Asia, but due to a lack of advancement in naval technology, nobody had been able to sail past the wide straits. The Sylphia Continent had been inhabited by people from the beginning of time, just as it was back on Earth.

Those who originally lived on the continent were known as ‘Continentals’, while people like Kang Yoon-Soo who had crossed over from Earth were called ‘Travelers’. The way to differentiate a Continental?from a Traveler was whether there was a device attached to their wrist. The Travelers fully depended on their wrist devices to level up and increase their abilities, unlike the Continentals, who could innately level up their stats.

A strange law ruled over this world; anyone could level up and choose to advance to any class. It would be easier to understand as a mix of a fantasy game and reality, but there was a distinct difference between it and a game: It wasn’t only humans who could level up. Not all monsters could level up, but monsters that were ‘named’ could level up as much as they desired.

However, the biggest difference between this world and a game was—those who died would not respawn. Even the Ultimate Necromancer, Nakron, could only revive someone who had died as an undead; there were some puppeteers who would create puppets out of the dead, but that practice was strictly taboo. That was why one’s own life was the most important thing in this world—just as it was on Earth.

“Do you understand? It’s over once you die. Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you,” Choi Chang-Seok warned Kang Yoon-Soo. However, the latter gave no reply and just stayed silent. Choi Chang-Seok and his group looked at him with disgust.

“Kyaraak! Kyaruruuk!”?

The cry of a goblin emerged from the space in between the rocks. The Yatmakhan Caves were well known to be a goblin’s nest, and the group had gathered to hunt for goblins.

Those who had been summoned to this world had all arrived at different times from one another. Some had suddenly been summoned as a group, while some had been summoned alone to strange places. In fact, one high schooler had been summoned to a dragon’s lair and managed to obtain a powerful skill from the start.

Choi Chang-Seok had been summoned to the Sylphia Continent two months before. He and his college friends had all been summoned to a village’s outskirts, and they were considered to be fortunate compared to others that had been summoned to deserted places or unexplored ruins.

Choi Chang-Seok’s class was ‘Mercenary’. It was not difficult for a Mercenary to get used to any weapon as long as they invested the time to train, and it was easier for them to receive combat-related quests compared to other classes. It was also possible for a Mercenary to create their own mercenary group if they had enough experience and money.

Additionally, although Choi Chang-Seok was unaware of it, the Mercenary class had the easiest time advancing to its second class. Choi Chang-Seok had been a student representative back on Earth, and he had received the quest [Goblin Subjugation] as the leader of the group.

The quest asked for a hundred goblins to be subjugated regardless of type. The number of goblins subjugated would be recorded in the device, and a reward could be received from the quest giver if they returned upon completing the quest.

Goblins were the lowest-ranked monster, just as they were in most fantasy games. They were barely Level 20 and they had low intellect; there were some special goblin species that leveled up faster than others, but those species were extremely rare.

However, it was necessary to remain vigilant, as goblins were typically difficult to deal with because of the poison daggers and arrows they used. There were quite a few people who had underestimated the goblins and ended up being killed.

“As agreed, Mr. Kang Yoon-Soo will be staying at the forefront.”

Kang Yoon-Soo had been the last to join the group among the members. He had met with Choi Chang-Seok’s group at the goblin cave, to be exact. The individual levels of Choi Chang-Seok and the four other members of his group were not that low, and it was not really necessary for them to recruit another member into their group.

However, the goblins loved to use traps and tricks, and getting caught in a thorn trap or a snake trap would be fatal even for high-level individuals. Kang Yoon-Soo had been recruited to stay at the forefront to check for traps, and Choi Chang-Seok’s group would follow behind him.

Kang Yoon-Soo entered the goblin’s nest alone, and Choi Chang-Seok and his group hid behind the rocks and watched him as he slowly disappeared into the cave. Lee Yu-Ri, who was a year younger than the others, started to follow after Kang Yoon-Soo, but Choi Chang-Seok held her back and said, “Just wait a minute, Yu-Ri.”

“Why, oppa?” Lee Yu-Ri asked.

“Let’s just leave that person be,” Choi Chang-Seok answered.

Lee Yu-Ri looked surprised, but Choi Chang-Seok just shrugged. The other two members had the same expression as Choi Chang-Seok, and Lee Yu-Ri tilted her head in confusion. However, she then stepped back and sat down as if she understood what they meant.

Kang Yoon-Soo had just joined them, and to put it bluntly, he was a complete stranger with no relation to them whatsoever. There was no reason for them to share the rewards with him; in addition, Kang Yoon-Soo had a sword and spear with him. It was impossible for anyone to simultaneously use a sword and a spear unless they were an advanced expert.

They could tell right away that Kang Yoon-Soo was a newbie just by his choice of equipment. That was the reason why they had let Kang Yoon-Soo go first and allowed him to be killed by the goblins. This world was similar to a game, but it was still reality nevertheless; there was no reason for them to risk fighting with a newbie.

“Hey, the sword that bastard was using a while ago looked decent. Can I use it if he dies?” Lee Min-Soo, a Swordsman, asked.

“Yeah, but the spear belongs to me,” said Choi Chang-Seok.

However, Hong Ga-Ram, who was also a Mercenary, looked at him and said, “What? I already called dibs when I first saw it!”

“You already have a good iron?axe! Look at my sword; it’s already dull. It would be embarrassing if we created a mercenary group with my weapon looking like this,” Choi Chang-Seok retorted.

As the group was leisurely chatting away, Lee Yu-Ri suddenly tilted her head and asked, “Isn’t it too quiet?”

It was indeed too quiet. It had been more than twenty minutes since Kang Yoon-Soo had entered the cave. Hong Ga-Ram, who had the most defensive equipment, stood up and said, “I’ll go take a look.” Soon after he walked toward the cave, he suddenly called out to the others, “Hey, guys! Come here quickly!”

Choi Chang-Seok and his group confusedly went to see what was going on. There were thorns scattered on the ground and a noose dangling from the ceiling, and dozens of goblin corpses lay on the ground. Strangely, the red skin of the goblins was a different color than that of ordinary goblins. They saw Kang Yoon-Soo sitting down leisurely atop the sea of goblin corpses while holding his sword and spear. No sign of any wounds could be seen on him.

Choi Chang-Seok stuttered and asked, “It… It’s barely been twenty minutes, but you took care of all of them…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly nodded instead of giving him a reply.